The Rambler

This will be a brief post, mostly pictures with some descriptions. We spent 2 weeks in Silver City, New Mexico, and a week at Kartchner Caverns in Arizona, and a lot of that time was spent just hanging out and relaxing. It was no help that I somehow managed to crank my knee the day after we arrived in Silver City, causing it to swell up painfully and significantly hobbling me. I've still not fully recovered from this, but it is better and continuing to improve.

Silver City

Downtown Silver City is fun to walk around, as it is a very artsy town with lots of little shops and galleries - the a)sp."A"(c)e Studio Art Gallery was one fun stop for us. To the north of Silver City is the Gila Wilderness and National Forest, through which the Continental Divide Hiking Trail passes. I had hoped to do an overnight backpacking trip, but my knee made that a no-go.

Hands Off! Protest

While in Silver City we participated in the April 5th Hands Off! protest. It was incredibly inspiring and uplifting to be part of such a strong show of support for Democracy and opposition to the tyrannical actions of our Moron in Chief.

Gila Cliff Dwellings

We packed up our tent and gear to do an overnight camping trip at the Gila Cliff Dwelling National Monument. The drive there was an very scenic nearly 2 hour 40-mile trek through the Gila Mountains, up and down and around tight switchbacks. The campground is set in a lovely valley just a short walk to the entrance to the cliff dwelling trail. Words can't express the awe we felt in seeing the 750-year old remains of native dwellings, stone mortars, pictographs and even handprints; we couldn't help but imagine what life might have been like for the people who lived here. Simply amazing!

Friday Dinner in Silver City

We spent two Fridays in Silver City, and as we do, we went out both times. The first was at the Little Toad Creek restaurant, and the second (the picture below) was at the Adobe Springs Cafe. Both offer very good food and a nice community vibe, which we always enjoy.

Finished Solar Conversion

While in Silver City, I finished our solar power upgrade by adding a charge controller to go with the two new 190W solar panels we bought. There is a little bit of detail work remaining, but this job is otherwise complete. With the panel we have on the roof, we now have 750 watts of solar, which will serve us well for boondocking. Next step is to get a generator so that we have backup power when solar isn't sufficient.

Kartchner Caverns State Park

We left New Mexico for Arizona and landed at Kartchner Caverns State Park. This park sports two large caves that were discovered early in the 1970's. We toured one of the caves and opted to skip the other. It was super cool - but I have no pictures to share as phones aren't allowed.

There are also about 10 miles of hiking trails, all of which I hiked. There are lots of little lizards around too, which fascinated and excited Archie quite a bit. And as elsewhere in the southwest, the beauty of the desert plants didn't disappoint.

Tombstone

Tombstone, Arizona is about 30 miles from Kartchner. Though we fully expected to find it to be a tourist trap (it is) and that it wouldn't necessarily be "our thing" (it isn't), we decided to visit it anyway, because it would be tragic to be so close and NOT go. Our expectations were fully met. We spent a couple hours there wandering around and lunching on some really great sandwiches from Mom and Pops Sandwiches. It was as interesting as one might expect, and after those two hours, we'd had enough.