Silver City, New Mexico

Silver City is a very cool place. It is a very artsy and colorful town. There is a bike shop, several motels and restaurants, grocery store, and gas stations. The KOA is outside of town and is by far the nicest KOA we've ever seen, anywhere!!! William Bonney (Billy the Kid) hails from Silver City. He sure gained a lot of fame for the short 4 years he lived as a criminal in the 1800's! There are a couple of small museums here, too.
BETH writes - Today was a new day and that is how you have to look at things after a day like yesterday. I proved to myself today that I could fix my bike better than I thought. After somewhat rinsing my bike off in the nearby stream, I was able to fix my deraileur (of course the hanger was bent so I had to replace that too) and my bike was rideable, but still would not shift. It is definitely the cable and housing clogged with mud, but on the trail with a dirty bike is not the place to change them. My biking buddies have been trying to convince me to try to ride a single speed bike, but after 54 miles with two gears and tons of hills I will keep my shifting 27 geared bike. Thankfully, the sun came out today and the roads were drier because I spent the day climbing and descending steeply. I spent most of the day in the Ponderosa Forest and then dropped to a semi arid country where there were many cool cacti and huge Yucca plants. I still can not believe how diverse New Mexico is. I enjoyed my last day in the forest because tomorrow, and the last three days to Mexico, will be spent in the desert. At the end of the day I passed a huge pit mine called the Santa Rose Mine. This is the longest continually mined area in the world. People have been mining for copper here since late B.C. and this mine was started as a pit mine in 1842. This mine is three or four times the size of the one in Butte, MT. I rode along it for over 8 miles. It is mind boggling and disturbing the amount of earth we are capable of moving. Tonight we are staying in the Silver City KOA and have showers and are able to do laundry, which is a treat at this point in this adventure.
JAN writes - Luckily Beth was able to get her bike going in the morning. She washed it off in the stream below our tent. She only had two gears out of 27 that worked, but at least she could ride. The road was absolutely terrible - so slippery I couldn't go over 10MPH and the mud was over 1 inch thick sticking to my tires. I had no traction at all. About noon we came to a paved road. Fran and I decided to go to the Gila Cliff Dwellers National Monument and Beth set off toward Silver City. We'd had enough of slippery mud roads! Fran and I stopped for lunch Grey Feathers Cafe and were treated to at least 100 hummingbirds - 7 different species- at over a dozen hummingbird feeders. We'd never seen anything so amazing before! I was able to get lots of pics through the window. We met Beth at the Silver City KOA where she'd gotten a cabin. Of course with a roof over our heads, it didn't rain a drop!!!