Silver City, New Mexico

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

My knee hurts. I’m afraid that the multiple flights and scrambling through airports didn’t do it any favors.

Silver City, NM, is far from any other city and we have to drive a long ways no matter where we fly in to, to get there. The first time we visited, we flew to El Paso, TX; our second visit was from Tucson, AZ, so we decided on Albuquerque this time just for a change of scenery. We got up at 4am Friday and flew to SLC where we missed the first flight to Albuquerque and stressed about making the next. We walked quickly from the B gates to the E gates trying to make that darned flight, but despite our efforts and my swelling knee, it wasn’t meant to be. We did luck out and made the next one and arrived in ABQ to the beautiful sun and desert hills.

We rented a car and set course south towards Las Cruces, NM, with the cruise set at 85 and enjoyed the next couple of hours rocking out to Three Dog Night and singing our hearts out in the bright sun. After many miles we turned west just past Truth or Consequences, NM, (don’t blink) and drove 75 miles over the ’Black Range’ Trail of Mountain Spirits Scenic Byway mountain pass; it was one of the most winding, slow roads I’ve ever been on-- 20 miles per hour was the max speed for many of those miles. Funny, I commented about Joshua getting car sick when we crossed a similar pass from Colorado Springs to Aspen 2 years ago....(more to come about that) Anyway, we arrived at 5:30pm and had a nice visit and meal with my in-laws. Joshua didn’t remember our last visit there as he was such a little guy then. (Check out my April 2006 blog for pictures of the Mimbres area and ancient ruins)

By Saturday, my knee was very swollen and equally sore but we enjoyed our day together and went up to a near by lake that evening. Sunday morning we attended the little church and were greeted warmly; we spent the rest of the day having an Easter egg hunt and some of us ate way too much candy. (Josh had been worried about the Easter Bunny not finding him in NM, so I guess the Bunny made up for it) That evening, after a wonderful dinner, we drove to Pinos Altos of Judge Roy Bean fame. I’ve mentioned before how much I love exploring and old west towns and this is espcially cool because it is so remote and used to be Mexico. It was also so nice to wear shorts again and get out of the Wyoming snow for a few!

Many of the old places down there are made of adobe--it amazes me how long those bricks can last! We had to keep passing the Santa Rita mine to get to my In-Laws house (now owned by Phelps Dodge company) which has been continuously mined since 1805. A History of the Santa Rita Mine It has an interesting history and employs many local residents.

Here's some info about the big town of Pinos Altos, Old Mexico. Pinos Altos~ Then and Now

Judge Roy Bean had a shop here and Geronimo and Billy the Kid were from this area. (Is that a ghost on the right? The spot wasn’t in any of the other photos....) About Billy The Kid

The Hearst Church in Pinos Altos, New Mexico

The Buckhorn Saloon in Pinos Altos, New Mexico

Joshua’s grandpa made this little sail boat!

This was supposed to be his "Demon Boy" look but he smiled instead.
We got up at 5am on Monday and headed for home. Remember the winding road I mentioned on the way over? Well, we had to stop several times for a car sick boy this time. We nearly ran out of cloths to change him in to; you can imagine how it must have been. Blech. Anyway, we were running late and sweating making the 1225 flight, but despite it all, we did and connected with minutes to spare in SLC. My knee is holding up but man, I was beat last night and crashed by 9pm.