Met The Mayor Of Idyllwild...Oh, And He's A Dog

 By Jonathan Bilski

And you can meet him too.

 

Have I got your tail wagging? First, let me tell you the tale of just trying to meet Mayor Max, the mayor of Idyllwild, California. 

 

Idyllwild is a drive out from LA into the desert and then into the mountains. It's about an hour and some minutes from Palm Springs if you're visiting. Like many during Covid times, trips out of town have been a way to escape the daily monotony in LA. So, if you want to visit surrounding cities for a little something different, go now. You can take a very hot wheels-esque highway, the 74, up to the town that's basically a nice tourist trap surrounded by a forest and frequently has brush fires on the way to it. When you get there you can start looking for the Mayor. 

(Heads up the 74 is all kinds of fast turns and narrow, look online before taking it.)

Mayor Max is legend.

Some cohorts and I thought we might spot this legend in town. He frequents downtown...or so we thought. We spotted a fake Mayor Max outside of Coyote Reds. What a strange facsimile of the town's beloved mayor. We want in for signs or clues to meet him. As we perused the wall to wall jerky, the shop keep showed off the Mayor Max magnets. They were free to take with info on said canine mayor. And, to or dismay, the shop keep informed us the Mayor has been out of town as the pandemic had struck. However, with the magnets we could call the Mayor's Chief of Staff, Phyllis Mueller and possibly set up an appointment to see him and possibly pet him.

 

A call at brunch left us hungry for meeting the mayor as I'll I got was voicemail. Maybe, we'd meet the mayor another day, another visit.

We spotted the mayor on some stickers and inside local guides, but we weren't likely to see him in town.

Then, we got the call. It was the voice of a sweet little old lady informing us that we could come visit the Mayor...AT HIS HOUSE?

Whose a good Mayor?

Overjoyed, we said yes, of course, we would love too. The Mayor might not be roaming the streets or more commonly staying in his campaign truck, but you could visit him. After the call, the Chief of Staff sent the Mayor's address via text. She also asked that we give her a heads up on when we would arrive to make sure we could meet this adorable looking doggo politician.

After, vising Idyllwilld a little more, we headed to the Mayor's home, 20-22 minutes out of downtown. We passed through the forest and found ourselves at a gate. We pressed a button, told them who we were and the gate opened. We waited by the garage as told. And then, Chief of Staff Phyllis came out with the mayor.

The Mayor was so damn cute.

Only made more adorable by the tie he was wearing. Before, getting into one of his campaign vehicles, he has two, he sniffed us and got some head pats. The friendly Fido then lets us take pictures with him. The Chief of Staff then took photos of us with our phones while feeding the mayor treats.

We would see the mayor later for more photo ops, but the The Chief of Staff took us to see the Deputy Mayors, Mikey and Mitzi. Of course, they were both wearing ties. These cute pups were a little younger than the mayor, but just as a adorable. Once again, we were allowed to pet them as The Chief of Staff took our photos. She told us stories about them and how they were ruining her wooden deck, which we could see was very true.

To our surprise, we were let into the Mayor's Manor of a home. Past a giant check given to the Mayor by Ryan Reynolds in a commercial, we headed to the The Chief of Staff's office, where we saw something normally not found in someones home.

A tie closet for dogs.

We found a walk-in closet the housed small, different style ties for dogs. No, I've never been in one before and it's ridiculous, but makes perfect sense for a dog whose a mayor. I'm unsure if it's common practice to even go inside, but The Chief of Staff let us choose three dog ties of our own. We could put them on any dogs we seem fit. She said, she ordered a thousand more, so, we didn't feel like we were taking too much. Handed 2020 Mayor Max calendars, wonder why they didn't all get handed out, we headed back outside to see the mayor again.

This time he would wear a backwards cap, because he was a cool mayor. The mayor got more treats, we got more photos. We petted him, possibly did a rap album cover photo and we waved good-bye. It was the best part of visiting Idyllwild that day. Not the jerky, not the big brunch, but meeting the Mayor...who is a dog.

 

 

 

Yes, you can meet him too. You just have to call or email Chief of Staff Phyllis Mueller and set up a time with the info below.

 

MAYOR MAX

aka: Maximus Mighty-Dog Mueller
Office of the Mayor of Idyllwild
P.O. Box 1848
Idyllwild, California 92549
(951) 659-0283 Mayor Headquarters Office
(949) 525-0100 Phyllis Mueller, Chief of Staff
[email protected]
www.mayormax.com

Now she does this out of the kindest of her heart and didn't charge us a dime. So, just be respectful on when she can set up an audience with the Mayor. She just does it all because she wants to.

And on some good news about just seeing the Mayor in town. He's coming back July 3rd for the town's July 4th parade. (Yes, we know the dates, but the town is just celebrating a day early) After that, it looks like the Mayor will visit the town again when he can find shady spots. So keep up by following him on social media.

 

There is Mayor Max merch avaible, but not anywhere in town that we could see, if you're asking about shirts and eventually caps. You've got to get them online. It's too much for Phyllis to deal with so don't bother asking, their only online.

Once again, would like to thank Phyllis Mueller for letting us visit and being such a great host.