Aug 26, Day 62

Layover day in Silver City, NM

Downtown Silver City really feels like a fun place. We ponder on the differences between Silver City and Grants. Silver City is full of cafes and restaurants and is visually pleasing. Grants is, well, to put it kindly, a dump. Both have the same population and were founded in the same decade. Both have Walmarts. Grants is on an interstate intersection, Silver City is not – is that the difference? Or is it that the people in Silver City love their town and have worked hard to restore and preserve it?

In any case, we intend to fully benefit from the array of fine dining opportunities, starting with the Javalina café for breakfast and The Curious Kumquat for lunch, where we have 2 bottles of French rose. But first we hit the laundry, which we vote the best we have been to during the entire trip, much to the laundry lady’s delight. She tries to give us a bag of free peaches which sadly we must decline as we don’t have space on our bikes to carry them.

Whilst waiting, we have a call from Poptart Bill. Bill is now in Tucson, but his flight home doesn’t leave until August 31st so he is sitting in his airport motel feeling bored. So bored, he offers to rent a car and come and pick us up from the border on Sunday – how cool is that! It will be great to have a fun celebration at the border with someone who has been through the same journey and we are really looking forward to meeting Bill again as we have not seen him since Salida.

During lunch, we have an email from Jim saying he is 20 miles away from Silver City. He is riding alone as Vicky, Ann and Harry decided to stick with the dirt trail. Hopefully we will get to meet Jim later on for a few beers. In the meantime, it is time to pack up and get ready for our last couple of nights camping.

Tomorrow night will be spent in the desert, then Saturday night we are camping in Sam Hughes’ backyard in Hachita. Blog will be updated either Sunday or Monday on our return! Wish us luck on the final push to the border!