Silver City, NM

Tuesday, 11 December

Chilly start to the day and overcast as forecast.  We decided to treat ourselves to breakfast on the way to Silver City.

After breakfast, we went to Walmart to get RV antifreeze.  We decided to winterize so low temperatures were no longer a worry.  Interestingly, Walmart was completely out of RV antifreeze.  And the O’Reilly’s Auto Parts next door only had three gallons on stock at double the Walmart price - at least until we arrived as we bought all three gallons.

We then went back to the Visitor Center to park Sprinty while we explored Silver City on foot.  By footbridge, we crossed the “big ditch” that used to be the Main Street in the early days.  Timber cutting and other land practices made the flooding of downtown more and more devastating, so the Main Street became the flood canal when it rained.  We visited the Silver City Museum, which is housed in a mansion from the 1880s.  

We got a chuckle from one of the stores in Silver City:

After the museum, we stopped at a local coffee place for a latte, then made our way to the Silver City Golf Course.  While warming up on the range, another snowbird on the range told us that the golf course had been the subject of some political infighting in Silver City, which resulted in the overall condition of the course to decline.  Reviews on Google had already prepared us, and we were bound and determined to have fun.  But as the only golf course within 50 miles, we could not be picky.

When we arrived, there was a large group of men going out.  By the time we teed off, they were a couple holes along.  They played fast for four-somes.  It took us 8 holes to catch them, and we still finished in under 3 hours.  On the first hole, a par 5, Kris started with a birdie, while Darrell had to settle for a par.  Then it was score for score, for several holes, and after nine holes, Darrell had a one stroke lead.  On the back nine, it was back and forth.  We both played the back nine better, which we thought was the harder nine holes as the fairways were narrower.  We tied on the back nine, so Darrell had honors on the day by one stroke.

Our original plan was to spend the night in Silver City.  Finishing golf by 2pm, and with high winds forecast for tomorrow, we decided to travel SW to lower elevation.  We made a cursory check on the two RV parks in Lordsburg, NM, as we got there and both were dumps.  It you are ever traveling I-10, just skip Lordsburg altogether.  

We then headed west on I-10 for Bowie, AZ to stay at Mountain View RV Park behind Dwayne’s Jerky Store.  When we checked in, she quoted us the discounted price of $15 plus tax for full hookups without us having to show any of our RV club affiliations.  We wanted full hookups for the night so we could perform the winterizing of Sprinty.  Winterizing took a little longer than planned, but we finished it before dinner.

With our night in Bowie, Sprinty has now traveled to 35 states, and camped in 34 states since February 2017.