Said goodbye for now to Bryan and Linda Shumaker, with
promises of getting together back home sometime this summer. Sure enjoyed the time spent with them! Now we’re back to just hanging out with each
other.
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Looked at the KOA map and decided to head to
Silver City, NM. It’s about 200 miles
from Tucson so it’s an easy drive and since it’s on the western side of the
state, it seemed like a good place to start exploring. It’s just outside the Gila National Forest
area and in the southern foothills of Pinos Altos Range of the Mogollan
Mountains. Silver City is 3 miles east
of the Continental Divide. I’ve looked
this up before but needed a refresher, so I looked up the basics: A continental divide is a drainage divide on a continent such that the drainage basin on one side of the divide feeds into
one ocean or sea, and the basin on
the other side either feeds into a different ocean or sea, or else is endorheic, not connected to the open sea.
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| The sun was bright!! 🌞 |
Then my research got a little more specific: The Continental Divide of the Americas, also
called the Great Divide, separates
the watersheds of the Pacific Ocean from
those of the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans. It
runs from the Seward Peninsula in Alaska, through western Canada along the crest of the Rocky Mountains,
including through Glacier National Park, Yellowstone National Park,
and Rocky Mountain National Park, to New
Mexico. From there, it follows the crest
of Mexico's Sierra Madre Occidental and extends to the tip
of South America. It is crossed by the Panama Canal and
by the two outlets of Isa Lake in
Yellowstone National Park.
We stopped to get a picture by the sign and I’ll keep my eyes open
to see if I can tell which direction the water drains.
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We watched the temperature fall from a high of 86o near Benson, AZ, to the mid-70s in Silver City. And the air continued to cool as the sun
set. The temps tonight are expected to
be in the high 40s, according to the app on my phone. We’ll be snug as a bug in a rug sandwiched
between the sleeping bags…oh, plus we have the heater. Cooler nighttime temps? No worries!!
The daytime temps are expected back up in the mid to high 70s…might have
to wear a jacket or fleece when riding but it beats wearing snowpants. J
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The campground appears to be home to a couple pair of geese…there’s
a pond not far to the right of our campsite with a fence around it. Earlier I saw the campground owner over there
with a bucket and the geese were making a beeline for him, honking all the way. He didn’t seem afraid of being attacked so
I’m thinking these are the camp geese. It’ll be interesting to find out the story
behind their presence. They made a fair amount of racket as night fell….I hope
they serve as a wakeup call in the morning.
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Both Arizona and New Mexico are in Mountain Time Zone, which
is two hours behind Eastern Standard Time (Michigan). New Mexico observes
Daylight Savings Time, Arizona does not. Didn’t change time zones today, yet we
changed our clocks one hour forward. I
suppose that didn’t really impact our day much…just the time we ate lunch. Stopped to eat in Lordsburg, NM, about 2:30
p.m., which would have been 1:30 p.m. in Arizona and more in line with when we
ate breakfast. So we ate a big lunch and
just might split that last sleeve of Thin Mints as a supper snack. J One nice thing is that it’s currently 7:15
p.m. and the sun is still out….it was dark by 7 o’clock in Arizona.
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| Wonder if Norm knows about this? |
In Benson, we met Norm, the Nomad, who was an eccentric fellow and in the course of our discussion,
he told us about Silver City, NM…described the area, said it had great riding
roads…then said that “I don’t tell very many people about Silver City, you
know”. Well, the billboards out on the
highway sure do, but I didn’t tell him the secret is out. J
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I took care of setting up the interior of the trailer for
living and Kim took care of setting up the exterior….leveling it, putting the
jacks under it for stability, hooking up the electricity and the battery for
our lights. As soon as our humble abode
was ready, he got to setting up his ‘eye scope’ paraphernalia during the
remaining daylight in anticipation of a clear night. Of course the light from the moon might still
be a factor and he might call it off early, but he at least wants to give it a
try. He’s setting up within our campsite
area and became concerned that a tree up by the cabins might prevent him from
seeing the north star for alignment…he didn’t think my suggestion to cut it
down was viable. But he’ll know if it’s
in the way as soon as it gets dark and the stars come out to play.
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We were still making our way through Tucson to I-10 today,
when we both smelled something hot while sitting at a stop light. Kim pegged it right away…a stuck brake
caliper. While in Kentucky at the beginning
of our trip, Kim replace the calipers on the front passenger side brake. Now it was the back passenger side caliper
getting sticky. Kim wanted to see if it
would release by itself so we made several stops in the next 20 miles or so to
check on it. By the time we stopped in
Benson by a NAPA parts store with a decent size parking lot so he could buy the
parts and do the work, it had released.
So replacing the caliper has been averted for now but the back truck
tires are going to need to be replaced.
Tread is getting thin, so tomorrow Kim will see about that before we
jump on the bikes for a ride. The office
had a brochure of scenic motorcycle tours of the area….looks like a good plan
to follow. First, the tires, though.
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There are already people in the campground curious as to what
Kim’s doing out there. Gives him an
opportunity to share his passion for looking at the heavens through the
scope….and explain how the imaging works, too.
I’m in the trailer, appreciating the heater. J
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No miles ridden today as the bikes were in the trailer.
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