I am staying in a cabin rented through Riudoso Lodge Cabins. I looked through all of the available cabins on their website and chose the one with the amenities that I wanted. I am in cabin 25 which is called the Romantic Riverside Cabin/ Cozy Retreat on the website but is labeled Bear Cubs cabin on the outside and on the e-mail receipt.
When I came in the cabin was stuffy and warm. Other cabins had window unit A/Cs but this one doesn't. I didn't see the hotel style wall unit until I was looking for an outlet for the laptop.
Riudoso River. We would call this a decent sized creek back home.
barelfly Yeah, I wondered what it would be like during a flood. That stone bridge might be trouble and back the water up and redirect it a bit causing more damage.
HawkerXP that is a pump house for a small pond next to the cabin. The pond is empty and it looks like they are replacing the pump or doing some other servicing
I just love a covered porch in the woods. Could sit there for a couple hours and just enjoy a coffee in the morning or a nice pour as barelfly mentioned in the afternoon.
Today I decided to go to the Mescalero Appache Reservation and tour the Cultural Center and Museum. It was closed. So, based on WI Bubba's previous post I made my way to Cloudcroft and ate some Central Texas style BBQ at Mad Jack's Mountaintop BBQ.
So, I left the reservation and used Google maps to get there. Google took me onto a two lane blacktop not unlike most of the ones around here. These mountain roads are kind of narrow all through this area. After 5 or 6 miles the pavement abruptly stopped (no warning) and turned into gravel and dirt. I kept going and saw signs saying there was logging in this area but there were still signs like the highway department puts on a road indicating curves and such so I kept going. The road twisted and turned up the mountain and sometimes it was only one car wide. There were no straight sections. Based on my experience driving through lumber country in East Texas I knew that if a truck came from the opposite direction it was over. About 15 miles into the trip I saw another car with Texas plates pulled over. I stopped and asked him if Google was steering me in the right direction and he confirmed that the paved highway was just a few miles further along. The road I was on was simply a Reservation Road.
I arrived at Mad Jack's at 10am, they open at 11. When Jack told his family and friends that he was going to open a Texas BBQ joint in New Mexico they said he was mad, hence the name. I believe it is more like "Field of Dreams" - If you smoke it, they will come. He has long lines and sells out most days. Here he is holding his crippled pet chicken Retha:
Jack is from Lockhart and every 6 weeks or so drives 630 miles to stock up on post oak. He is opening a second location in Johnson City, Texas.
Pit room
My plate. This is some legit CenTex BBQ! The sausage is Hatch green chile of course.
I’ve driven through Cloudcroft once. This makes it to where I need to visit! Your face!! Hahaha that’s classic! And glad that it was great food! The sausage, that’s how to role with GC!!!
My wife and I ate at Mad Jacks in the spring of ‘24. Enjoyed it very much and ordered enough to make sure we had lunch the next day. The brisket was good but he was low on fat brisket so we had more lean. I liked his sausage very much.
Next, I drove to Lincoln, site of the Lincoln County War. It was raining so I didn't walk the entire tour. I started at the visitor's center (no pics, plain building) which gives the entire history of the area, not just concentrating on the Lincoln County War. Next I went to the Murphy-Dolan store followed by John Tunstall's store.
From the visitor's center parking lot looking at the mountains as the rain is passing by. More came.
The Murphy-Dolan store which later became the courthouse. Billy the Kid famously escaped the courthouse, killing two deputies in the process.
The Tunstall store
The oldest structure in town, built in the 1850s and used as a fort to fend off the Apaches. The Murphy-Dolan faction used it during the battle at the McSween house.
Oak SmokeWI Bubba has his own post showcasing his drive from Wisconsin to New Mexico. barelfly did post above. Hopefully more posts will be forthcoming this weekend.
Smokin-It 3D
Weber Kettle with an SNS
Masterbuilt kettle that I call the $30 wonder grill
Bullet by Bull Grills gasser
Anova WiFi sous vide machine
Thermoworks Thermapen and Chef Alarm
Hope you both enjoy your afternoon and evening in Las Cruces! 58limitedWI Bubba - temps are down a bit which is nice, and some fun to be had in town! Old Mesilla is a fun place to check out and I think David is planning a visit to NMSU Chile Institute. And some yummy food!!!!!
Then tomorrow for the big day!!!!!! Hatch Chile Festival 2026!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm in Hatch right now at Sparky's. The place is crowded today, I can't imagine what it would be like tomorrow.
My timing was impeccable, there are only five people ahead of me to order, but by the time I finished ordering, there were ten behind me. Now it looks like there is twenty five or thirty people. In line.
Last edited by 58limited; September 4, 2026, 11:56 AM.
Me and Will ate at La Posta de Mesilla this evening. This restaurant is an adobe hacienda that was called the La Posta Compoundand was built around 1840. It has been combined into one large multi-roomed building. It was also a stage stop for the Butterfield Stage Line on the Butterfield Overland Trail from 1857 until they were bought out by Wells Fargo in 1861.
The restaurant opened in 1939. There is a large bird cage inside the entrance. We had green chile con queso which was really good. I ordered the red stacked enchilada plate with pork and an egg on top. It was good but of the three main meals I've had on this trip (dinner at The Shed and lunch at Rancho de Chimayo being the other two) This one scores no. 3. It was good but not as good as the other two.
Entry:
Bird Cage
Green Chile Queso
My stacked enchiladas with fried egg - its a New Mexico thing
Last edited by 58limited; September 4, 2026, 08:42 PM.
That looks great minus the egg. What is with an egg on almost everything nowadays? I know they do it in Hawai'i with their Loco Moco but now it's stateside on everything?
Michael_in_TX Oh heck yeah, stacked enchiladas are great. Though around here I tend to refer the by the derogatory term, “ghetto enchiladas.” Which roughly translates to, “Ain’t nobody got time for that. You want ‘em rolled ya better get on it…because I’m stacking this things.” LOL
Next to the restaurant is this gift shop. This used to be the capitol of the Arizona and New Mexico territories and was the courthouse at which Billy the Kid was sentenced to hang for the murder of Sheriff Brady.
Dinner was good in a very nice setting. I had one of the combo plates that had a tamale which was a little dry for my tastes, but still tasted good. What they called a "rolled taco" which where I come from is a taquito. A green chili enchilada, and chili con carne. Everything was good, but also had something that was off about it. We both agreed that the green chili queso was delicious, and probably the best thing on the table. Make no mistake, I rolled out of there fat and happy.
Me and Will WI Bubba met Jeremy barelfly and his family at the Hatch fest this morning. The Fest kicked off with a parade and then we walked the main street of the town looking at the various shops and chile roasting places.
We then went to the vendor area under the trees by the high school (I didn't take any pics there, it was a bunch of tents set up selling things like sauces, knick knacks, and such plus food. I ate a green chile corn dog that was pretty good. We pretty much saw everything that this small town festival had to offer which for a town of this size was quite a lot - population is about 1550.
The temperature was in the low to mid 90s which in this climate shouldn't have been too bad BUT it has rained here the last few days so it was humid (~45%+) which began to take a toll on us, we all left about 1pm.
We had fun but we saw it all today so we probably will find other places to explore tomorrow. I purchased some crushed green chile, green chile powder, a new cowboy hat for sun shade, a festival t-shirt, some really good biscochos (a traditional Mexican wedding cookie from El Paso and New Mexico, flavored with cinnamon, anise, and white wine), and a festival cookbook.
Parade
The Model A club was in the parade and then parked their cars for all to see.
Comment