ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Samantha Villa—your friendship started this ride, and I am eternally grateful! For my family, Jerry, Michael, Sherrie, Justin and Amanda Birchell, without whose love and unending support I could not continue to follow my passion. Thank you all from the bottom of my humble heart. My cup overflows with much love and gratitude for each of you, since you all mean the entire world to me. Also, a huge thank-you to Robert and Missy Garriott for being such a great captive audience; so very glad we’re family.

Many thanks to Jhett and Callie Sioux Schiavone of the Ruidoso folk rock band Gleewood (www.gleewoodmusic.com), whose CDs sang me through the many miles of this beautiful New Mexico countryside. Thank you for sharing your immense talents; you are both New Mexico treasures.

To my dear longtime friends Richard and Carol Estes, who are genuinely enthusiastic about these books and give me tons of encouragement. Carol, our road trip adventures to the hotels are something we will talk about for many years to come. Not to mention the exceptional wine. Many, many thanks! Love you!

To my work family at Mosaic Potash—Ashley Casey, Andrea Stanley Coley, Stacy Delgado, Jordyn Eaton, Nick Flores, Ricardo Hernandez, Anthony Ingram, Jillian Jaure, Susie Manquero, Peter Pavlik, Sandy Boyd, Ame Shirley, Marylou Gutierrez and Bill Dunn—who were constantly barraged with ghost stories. Thank you for your patience and pretending to be interested!

A huge shout-out to the tremendous efforts of my commissioning editor, Candice Lawrence, who threw up some obstacles during the planning of this book but always gave me a solution as well. I appreciate your kindness and patience. Also, to my new editor, John Rodrigue, who came in on the project midstream. To all of the staff of The History Press, for your outstanding help and expertise. Thank you for seeing it through to the end. You are amazing!

This book would not have been possible without the kindness of all the hotel/bed-and-breakfast owners, managers and staff who were more than willing to take time out of their busy days to humor a pesky author. Thank you for your enthusiasm, which encouraged me to forge on through adversity.

And thank you to you, the reader, without whom I would be nowhere. Please accept my deepest gratitude for your continued support and kindness.

All images are courtesy of the author unless otherwise indicated.