Leaving Silver City 4/29/2011

Yesterday, 4/28, was our last day in Silver City. Maybe for a while, since it was always the race that drew us back. We are still in a eating out mode so we have lunch at Big Time Burgers. We had a recommendation to this place on another visit. I wondered how it could still be operational with new chain burger places virtually surrounding it, McDonalds, Blakes, and Sonic. But it is a Mexican burger place. Besides us all the customers were Hispanic. Do you want hot or mild chilies on your burger? They also offer fried zuchinni rounds. Very tasty.

Dinner out is a recommendation from the Markely's. The Wrangler. Certainly a place that mainly draws the horse lover locals. Lots of TV's tuned to various sports events. I enjoyed my crispy chicken BLT salad. William had catfish and onion rings. We watched a basketball game.

Today we were on the road by 9 AM. Not much wind as we retrace our steps toward Mogollon (mugeeyon). We continue on toward Springerville, AZ with the thought of eating in our old favorite Blue Bird Cafe. But it is now the Blue Bird Antique Shop. We get a recommendation to Java Blues. I really like the décor and layout of the place. The upstairs has a deli sandwich counter with coffee and baked goods. Downstairs has a full bar and clever New Orleans décor. The girls at the faux windows are nicely done. William goes for a signature Border Burger with guacamole and beer battered french fries, which he said was great. I am still in a salad mood so I choose one of their special salads, Blues Salad and a cup of the soup of the day. I was concerned about the soup as broccoli cheddar is not my favorite, but it was well done, thin rather than thick. The salad looked fine with pecans, blueberries, and blue cheese bits on assorted lettuce. The dressing was a blueberry, blue cheese vinaigrette. But the blueberries were not fresh. They were soggy soft and the dressing tasted of old berries also. I ate some. I should have sent it back. William mentioned the problem to the waitress and the cook sent his apology.

The wind is worse now. We press on in the howling wind toward Homolovi Ruins State Park. There is a lot of dust blowing and tumbleweeds have stuck in the fences to make furry tan fences. In the lees of some of the road cuts tumble weeds have piled in drifts. We spot some nice lenticular clouds.
At Homolovi the wind is still fierce, shaking the RV.

4/30/2011 Not much to say about driving on highway 40. We left early to avoid some of the wind. We took 93 to go past Hoover Dam. Really a zoo there. At least we had toured the dam years ago with the kids. So we just looked a bit at the new highway and how they handle the crowds now. The first thing you notice about Lake Mead is the huge drought driven bath tub ring. I found an interesting dynamic graph of the water levels.

We picked a nice looking RV park in Boulder City out of the AAA Camp book. But they don't take class B RV's. You can almost hear the nose in the air. I am sure they do not take pop up's either. Just the big rigs. We are recommended to a park down the road. Just fine place with very fast internet.