Cross Country Flight Qualifications/ Orginal point of departure

Hello

I got into a discussion with two of my CFI's at my flight school about what qualifies to the FAA as cross country time and what does not. Now I have looked up and read the rule "cross country time is acquired during a flight .... that is at least a straight-line distance of more than 50nm from the original point of departure and that involves ..." and read the FAA letters Mr Sisk Nov 13 2007, Mr Zanen Dec 1 2009, Mr Glenn Dec 1 2009. Now what my instructors told me is that any time the wheels touch down that now becomes the new "original point of departure" so from their interpretation, if some flew 30 nm from airport A to airport B landed then 51 nm from airport B to airport C landed then 30 nm from C to A and landed, only the flight B to C would count as a cross country. Now it seems to me that all these flights A-B-C-A would count at cross country. So my question is what is the original point of departure, and what is a leg of a flight? If there is any FAA letter I missed that might provide an answer to my question I would much appreciate that because "the internet says so" is not a credible answer. Thank you for the help

Skyler

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