Today at El Salto: “Carnitas Express”. That’s carnitas with beans and rice and guac’ and chopped tomatoes and sour cream, plus bonus flour tortillas. El Salto is known for their carnitas and they were particularly good this morning –nice and crispy.
(post and photo from my iPod touch.)
This just in: here is a supplemental photo illustrating the exciting tale of aviation history that is unfolding in the comments to this post. Elinor Smith
Carnitas… and here I was, expecting an illo of Maria “Express” Carnitas, holder of the title for fastest cross-country mail delivery by biplane. Her first attempt, in her trusty surplus Tiger Moth, did not go smoothly, and she braved many searing days, freezing nights, and rattlesnakes before hiking back to civilization. Her second try put her in the record books, and the map with her route from Yucatan to Baja, plus her plane, are the centerpieces of the Carnitas Air Museum. Open every day except Monday and national holidays, ten to five. Sponsored by El Salto.
Wolfang, did you know that in her later hears Maria ran an aviation school? In direct competition with Pancho Barnes and located just 20 or so miles to the south, she was thaaaaat close to being the Right Stuff gal instead of Pancho. Part of the problem was that, being an immigrant, she had trouble getting a liquor license for her cantina, where everyone hung out after their flying lessons.
I heard stories as a young man, from an elderly pilot with whom I was acquainted, that her students and the folks that flew out of Pancho’s strip used to have wild mock dogfights, land at their respective aerodromes, and meet up for nights of boozing and desert driving.
Indeed, it ‘s rumored that at one time Chuck Yeager had both women on the string, while simultaneously dating his eventual wife.
Alas, eventually a really bad sandstorm came through, tore up her facilities, trashed all her planes. Her students moved on to other instructors, and she let the whole thing go back to the desert. That part of her story barely gets a mention at the Carnitas Air Museum, I suspect that El Salto had a hand in it, wanting just the upbeat story for their displays.
I’m not certain where life took her after that, she seems to have vanished into the mists of history circa 1960 or 1961.
After her triumphant biplane mail delvery and her brushes with history I hope she lived an exciting and fulfilling life in her later years.
Rumored to be a photo of Maria and her fellow aviatrix Elinor Smith
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ONE MORE TRY
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1) I will post the photograph in the main body of the post, since I can’t figure out how to put it in a reply.
2) I don’t know why I bother writing this blog when you guys are doing such an awesome job.
3) I was always planning to set a story, or a scene, in the dusty little desert town of Carnitas, Mexico. It could also just as easily be Carnitas, Texas.
Why not both? Carnitas and NORTH Carnitas.
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(Rick, determined to post a damned picture, continues to gum up Pam’s blog)
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Yep, that’s it, I’ve exhausted my pic info, LOL
Please use linky in the main post…