Biking around Silver, New Mexico - Sept 30, 2009

We stayed in Silver City for the day. Randy walked over to Daylight Doughnuts to get our breakfast, and then we went bike riding. We biked to the Information center where Randy learned about a good local museum that we could bike to. It is in a Victorian-style house with a 3rd-story cupola. Through the years this building has been a private residence, a fire station, and is now a museum. The museum is quite good. It includes information, pictures, and artifacts from all stages of the city’s past, including the Mimbres Indians (famous for their black and white pottery and for disappearing without a trace), cowboys and cattle drives into town, silver and copper mines, and mining towns such as Tyrone. Billy the Kid spent a couple of his childhood years here, so there is a replica of a cabin similar to what he lived in, but he wasn’t here long, so that’s about it.

I suggested we do one of the “walking tours” on our bikes. It turns out that that particular walking tour (to see old, original adobe homes in the area) is in an area that makes San Francisco look like a flat plain! I simply couldn’t bike up the last hill so I had to walk it. I wasn’t impressed with the one or two adobe houses I saw, but I couldn’t read the map and bike at the same time so I probably didn’t give it a fair chance. Walking would have been better.

Then we biked over to the Western college to look at their museum. The main museum section was about the Mimbres Indians with lots of their pottery (they didn’t leave much else behind). Upstairs was a historical look (via photographs and comments) of the college history and a room with artifacts about Silver City’s participation in the Korean War.

When we came out of the museum, my bike’s front tire was completely flat. Randy put some air in it so we could get to a nearby bike shop, a few blocks away. We found out that they have things here they call “goat heads”. Yep – goat heads. They are a lot like sand burrs, but they are a tiny bit bigger and a whole lot tougher. They can – and do – puncture bike tires. Easily. A guy at the bike shop put some sealant called Tru Goo in the tire and aired it up, and that was enough to get me back home. If that doesn’t work, we’ll have to get a new tube. Randy bought a new bike computer to replace the one that was ruined in the rain during the Tour De Donut, and while they were putting it on Randy’s bike, we walked next door to have lunch at the Curious Kumquat. Randy and the owner/chef talked shop for quite awhile. The owner is interested in new culinary techniques such as molecular gastronomy.

Back at the Silver City RV Park, we met with Julie, who owns the park, and talked about the possibility of Work-camping here next winter. The Work-camping responsibility includes the storage area next door. The park is small, tree-shaded and well kept. We could spend a nice winter here.