5/17/13, Friday, The Best-Ever Chili: Up at 6 AM again, loaded the van, and headed for New Mexico. This was the wrong time of year for desert wildflowers, and, if anything, western New Mexico was flatter and browner than eastern Arizona. Rolled into Deming, NM, around noon today, checked in at the Little Vineyard RV Park, and interrogated the ladies at the front desk as to where a good place in town was for chili. "Just the facts, ma'am." One of the two women volunteered "El Mirador" without asking for a lawyer.
   (Boy, that's something I noticed in those old "Dragnet" episodes besides everyone smoking: No Miranda statement, and no stopping questioning when the suspect asks for a lawyer. How times have changed!)
   And what an excellent recommendation! The El Mirador is a tiny restaurant, very plain and simple, and had the BEST chili I have ever tasted in my life! I hated to finish the bowl because I wanted to savor the chili longer. I ate a sopapilla for the first time, too, but didn't know I needed to put honey on it. Just as well: honey and I get along very -- blurp blurp blurp -- badly.
   The Little Vineyard RV Park is quiet now that the snowbirds have migrated north, and its facilities are nice and clean.
   So: Guadalupe Mountains National Park, TX, tomorrow!