March 7, 2007

Silver City, New Mexico

Today’s excitement was an all-day trip to Gila Cliff Dwellings, about 40 miles north of Silver City.
This is a national monument that features abandoned (700 years ago) cliffside structures once used/inhabited by early Native Americans.
The visit was inspired by my winter reading of 1491, which looks at the Americas, pre-Columbus. The lingering mystery about this and other structures in North, Central and South America is what happened to these thriving civilizations? No answers today.


Our tour guide, George, admitted that he was either “psychic” or “psychotic,” and spent the better part of an hour and a half speculating about the use of the various artifacts at the site. This included one visionary experience wherein he was visited by a mystical shaman. He loved having a captive audience. He continually swigged from a half-gallon water jug, slowly and excruciatingly removing and then reinstalling the cap, delaying us all in the process. He could not talk or walk while "doing the jug." In all "probablity" there was a psychedelic potion in there.

Unlike the Kartchner Caves visited yesterday, this site had been pillaged by looters dating back to the 1800s. Relics which might explain more about life at the site were long-gone, allowing George’s “probable” theories to be as plausible as they were entertaining.


Returning to Silver City in the afternoon, we passed by a gigantic copper mining pit. One mile across and 1800 feet deep. That's a lot of pennies.

Weather-wise, a beautiful day.

Janice is doing some minor clean-up on her book manuscript after revisiting it. This will be completed tonight and e-mailed to her publisher in the morning—or I won’t allow her into Mexico.

Word from Las Vegas is that the dry-docked road-dog Carly is doing well, although her late night panting caused Julie to resort to earplugs. To respond to an inquiry, the reason Carly isn't going to Mexico is because 5 days of the trip will be spent with our rig on a railroad flatcar. The bed of the flatcar is 5 feet off the ground. Not even in Carly's most youthful exuberance could she make that jump, and at 70 pounds, she is too heavy to lift to that height when returning from nature's calls. (I suppose I could lift her, spin a few times and fling her....) In addition, her Spanish is limited and she wanted to spend some time with Julie.

Finally, a plug for the Rose Valley RV Ranch, our home for the last two nights. They were nice enough to give us a couple of nice coffee mugs.

We will be making our first contact in Las Cruces with our traveling companions for the next six weeks. Should be very interesting. It will be like a slow moving cruise ship, albeit a very small one.