Internet is available at this campground and I can get it
while sitting in our camp…however, it is slow.
Last night I sat in the bathroom, which conveniently has a chair in it,
to post the blog. Didn’t get pictures
posted but will keep trying.
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Slept in until almost 9 a.m….what’s up with that? Then Kim got about the business of getting
the back tires replaced. The wallet is a
little bit slimmer but the back tires are sportin’ some pretty deep
treads. One less thing to worry about on
the way home. Haven’t had the
intermittent engine chugging issue checked out yet, because it’s still
intermittent. The truck ran fine on
trips around Picacho and Tucson without the trailer attached, so at this point
it’s still on the ‘wait until we get home’ list. J
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| At the peak of the twisty road |
It cooled down last night but warmed up quickly this
morning. We got a late ride start today
because of the tires but still had a good ride. We chose to ride a ‘loop’ up into the
mountains and back down…a road designated as the Trail of the Mountain Spirits
Scenic Byway. At first, the winding curves of Hwy 152 took us past a huge
mining operation before getting to the other side of that mountain. Before we
headed traveled too far on Hwy 35, we stopped for lunch at the Restaurant De
Sol in Mimbres. Then it was winding
curves up another mountain, this time through a couple of small towns, forests
of Ponderosa Pines, and past Lake Roberts. Then some more winding curves on Hwy 15 as we
continued up the mountain before coming back down to Silver City. Passed another Continental Divide sign,
too. Water in these parts might be a bit
confused about which way to drain. J
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Danny, a man from a couple of sites down, stopped by last
night to check out what Kim was doing and he stopped by today as Kim was
spiffing up the bikes…removing Arizona bugs and dust from the farings and
windshields. Danny was saying that there
were some great bikes roads around here…mentioned the ride up to the Gila Cliff
Dwellings. I grabbed the map detailing
“Three Motorcycling Tours for Your Riding Pleasure!” and he pointed out the
route he was talking about. I read this
part to him “To complete the loop on the
return trip, stay on NM15 all the way back to Silver City. South of the junction with NM35, NM15 becomes
too narrow for lane markings. The first
three miles are steep and have several blind hairpin curves as the road ascends
to the plateau. There are no guardrails
or lane markings and traffic is two-way.” Then I asked if he had taken that route…Yes, we did. What did he think of it?...Well, it had tight curves and was kind of
steep and narrow. In fact, my son puked in the back seat of the truck. We’re going back up and I told my wife we’re
not taking 15 because I am not cleaning up that mess again! Hmmmm…..gut wrenching twisties…need to
think about this. We discussed it and
decided that we’d take that route anyway…just take our time. Turns out we were too late to do the cliff
dwellings so we just turned left at the intersection of Hwy35 and Hwy 15. As we were sitting at the intersection, I
radioed Kim that while I didn’t think I’d puke, I couldn’t guarantee I wouldn’t
shout obscenities if the going got rough.
It didn’t come to that, although I think I had a sharp intake of breath
a time or two. Yes, it was a twisty
uphill narrow road and while we did meet some oncoming traffic, thankfully no
one came up behind us. I don’t ride this
type of road fast and feel a bit self-conscious when traffic backs up behind
me. But not today, no traffic backups,
no puking and no shouting obscenities.
It was a good ride, although that oncoming man who was pulling a travel
trailer behind his truck might not have thought so….and he might need to
replace his brakes in the near future.
As he was heading down that hill, there was the smell of smoking brake shoes…wonder if he was shouting any bad words as that trailer was trying to
push him down the mountain. J
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| Map on the brochure |
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| Map on Rapunzel |
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Today’s route was fairly easy to remember but I brought the
map with me for reference, if needed.
Then at lunch I decided to check out the route with Rapunzel, just to
see how twisty the roads might get up there in the mountains. The brochure map is a little wavy to indicate
curves….Rapunzel gave more definition to those curves, but, even then, didn’t come close to
the reality of the road.
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Last night Kim was out imaging until a thin layer of clouds
moved in. He was wading into uncharted territory for him…he was trying to get
images of the Horsehead Nebula. At one
point, he wasn’t too sure if it wasn’t too big of a leap for him, but nothing
ventured, nothing gained, right? Well,
the clouds rolled in before he could get enough images to do anything with, but
he managed to get 4 images and even I could see the horsehead outline. So he’s out there again tonight, hoping the
clouds stay away as he focuses on the Horsehead Nebula. He has company also…I can hear them
talking.
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The word Mimbres intrigued me. Not only was it the name of a little town on
Hwy 35 but it seemed to be used in a variety of ways according to signs I
noticed. So I looked it up back…Mimbres, which means
“willows” in Spanish, is the name given to a cottonwood- and willow-lined river
in southwestern New Mexico. The very spectacular pottery found in and around the Mimbres Valley also came to be called Mimbres, and the name was soon
applied to the people who made the pottery. Pottery, people, a valley, river and town all
called Mimbres…no wonder I was confused.
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When talking with the owners of the camp (who are from
Muskegon, MI), I found out that the word Mogollan,
which is the name of a range of mountains and a town (now a ghost town) in the
area, is pronounced “Mug-e-own”. And Gila,
as in the Gila Cliff Dwellings, is pronounced ‘He-la’. Mimbres is pronounced pretty much as it’s written except those with
the correct accent usually say a more lyrical ‘meem-brace’. I make these notes for myself so I can remember
the local pronunciation…my Midwestern attempt is quite often wrong out in this
region of the country.
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Discovered the camp has a game room up by the office where the
internet is much faster. It closes at 10
p.m., so I sat up there until closing time. Didn’t get the blog posted before
closing time but did some other internet stuff accomplished. Other than my legs sticking to the vinyl
chair, it was a very comfortable setting.
Much better than sitting in the bathroom. J
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Rode 83 miles today
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