Pie Quest

Every year on the second Saturday in September, Pie Town, New Mexico, (population 200) 

holds its annual pie festival. The settlement got its name in the early 1920s; 

cowboys who drove cattle through the area stopped at the local mercantile 

for its delicious pies, and they came to refer to the wide spot in the trail as Pie Town.

Piemakers from the surrounding area bring their confections to the festival 

each year to be judged, and festival-goers can buy pieces of the pies 

once the judges have completed the very difficult task of deciding the winners.

Some friends of mine have been pie-festival-goers for many years, and 

Smooch and I met them and their dogs at yesterday's event to eat pie and go hiking afterwards.

There were about 100 pies of all flavors in the competition.

Pies are grouped and judged by categories – fruit, non-fruit, youth division.
This year's grand champion was a green tomato pie.

Choosing which pie to sample was nearly impossible, and I could not narrow it down to just one, so I bought two slices – one for me and one for Smooch. That was my story, anyway, and I'm sticking to it. We sat down under a tree to enjoy our Strawberry Pecan and Wild Blueberry.

Smooch had a little trouble using her fork...

...so I had to help her when it got down to the crust.

Yesterday ranks right up at the top of the best-day-of-Smooch's-life list. 

She got to watch 300-some miles of beautiful New Mexico scenery go by 

from the front seat of the truck; she met more dogs and more people in a few hours 

than she has in all her five years; and she got to go hiking with her pals.

I've promised her we would go back again for next year's pie festival.
She has her heart set on some more of that Wild Blueberry.