Through February 25th

Since arriving at Silver City we had some interesting developments.  The woman from KOA Jackie Blurton, decided to give Jeanne and I a story on her Facebook and make a donation to the Phoenix Society. We also ran into a woman from Canada named Bev, in a Safeway Store, who questioned why I was in my biking outfit. I told her of the ride across America for the burn society and right on the spot she gave us a donation.

While my bike was being checked out we began a 45 mile trek to the Gila Cliff dwellings. We found the snaking road dangerous especially when, after 20 miles, the narrow virtual one lane road had icy spots, so we found a spot to turn the truck around and came back to Silver City.  It was a ride at your own risk kind of thing.

Talk about hairpin curves.

We did get one nice shot at the outset of this ride.

This looks like something from Easter Island.

I had my bike checked out at the Silver City bike shop and their mechanic, Bill (originally from Connecticut) found my chain had stretched. He considered it dangerous to ride and replaced it. This just before my ride up the highest peak on our trip.  PTL.

Bill in Silver City after fixing my bike.

The next morning we were on our way up to Emory Pass and we came across one of the oldest and arguably largest open pit copper mines in the country.

Santa Rita Mine, Silver City, NM.

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Here is another wider shot.

These are the shots I took on my ride up Emory Pass.

These are "praying hands" or "praying feet". I liked the posture since I needed all the help I could get.

 This is what the road looked like. As they say in sculling: "Stroke, Stroke, Stroke".

This struck me as an interesting formation.

Here's Jeanne 3/4ths of the way up waiting to have lunch.

Then, this other formation caught my eye.

Signs that I was close to the top.

View from the top of Emory Pass, NM. 

Another shot from the top of Emory Pass, NM.

A shot of Jeanne who made it all possible.

I got my chance to mug for the camera.

Then we started down. It now became increasingly cold due to the lack of exertion on my part (coasting down the 7% "S" curves) and the declining power of the sun after 2:00 P.M. at 8,000 feet. My hands began to feel like rocks so I had to stop several times not to lose my grip.

This is the long shot. I actually took this because I could see Jeanne in the truck and camper rolling down the road at slow speed.

The face in the rock near Kingston, NM.

At about 3:30 P.M. we got to Hillsboro, NM.

They have a mine museum there.

We were allowed to camp across the street . . .

 With another home made camper from Ontario, Canada . . .

Where the deer . . .

And the antelope play.

 The next morning we set out for Las Cruces. This was the name of a famous TV program.

Here's a biker going the opposite way.

Here's another biker going my way.

I also came across what looks like a 1952 Chevy similar to the one my Dad had in the '50's.

Then the biker, named Travis, had broken down and needed a new derailleur.  Fortunately, we came by and we were near Las Cruces so we helped him over to the bike shop where they could get him up and going again. This was the second time it happened to him but he had the foresight to buy a spare when it happened the first time so he could fix it quickly.

We got to Las Cruces early enough to get to Saturday night Mass at, get this, St. Albino's Church. It is a very Spanish church but this time the liturgy was in English.