Silver City | Tombstone

Friday - 2 January 2004 - Tombstone, Arizona:  If you look on a map, it really isn't too far from Las Cruces, New Mexico to Tombstone, Arizona. But we took "the long way" and left I-10 and drove up to Silver City, New Mexico for a loaf of bread and a bowl of soup. It was really worth it and we had a good, though long, day. We had a late start. I left the motor home at 9 a.m. to drive back to Old Mesilla to visit the Nambe shop.

When I arrived back to the camper, DT was not yet quite ready to go - a crowd had gathered to ask about the satellite dish - so we had a late start out of town. Plus, it was SO WARM we hated to leave! We were driving west on I-10 when I saw a sign advertising Silver City. I looked it up in the guide book and it sounded interesting, so we exited to Highway 180 and went up there. This is exactly why we love traveling in the motor home!

Silver City is very historical - as is everything in this area and Billy the Kid lived here for several years during his childhood. Actually, Billy the Kid only lived for 21 years and he seems to have worked or dined at every restaurant/hotel/inn/saloon, slept in every bed, lived in every house and killed every man. He probably wasn't shot - he probably died of exhaustion!

DT, with bread, knocks on Billy the Kid's door

The cabin in the above photo is not actually Billy the Kid's actual house. Billy's house was actually at this site, but he moved on and died and then his house was washed away in a flood. This house is a replica built by Ron Howard for use in the new movie, The Missing, and donated to the Visitor Center in Silver City!  (Did you get all that???) DT would have to duck his head to go inside the cabin. Billy lived in Silver City with his Mom, brother and new step dad. He was first arrested, by the sheriff of Silver City, after vandalizing a Chinese laundry. Billy the Kid was so slender - 75 lbs - he escaped up and out the chimney! One little-known fact about Billy the Kid - he went to school and was an avid reader. He was constantly reading - anything he could get his hands on! 

We walked the streets of Silver City. There are many, many, many art galleries in this town - but most were closed, probably due to the long-weekend. We had a lovely lunch at the Old World Cafe and Bakery. The owner bakes all the bread hisownself and makes everything from scratch. We really enjoyed his Mexican Corn Soup and bought a loaf of his Italian Bread. I can tell you - it is really very difficult to bake a nice loaf at altitude and with low humidity - yet the Old World Cafe serves a lovely crumb! (NOTE: This restaurant is now closed.)

There were no campgrounds in Silver City we cared to stay in, so we decided to leave town and head down to Douglas, Arizona on the Mexican border. The drive was very uneventful. The road (90) back to I-10 passes through the Gila National Forest. I always find it amusing that it is called a "forest". Though it is covered with trees, there isn't a tree over 10 feet tall! We basically crossed I-10 and continued south to Arizona on Highway 80 - though miles and miles of cactus, yucca and the occasional cow. We did see a small group of wild boar - and that was very exciting. But there was no room at the only campground in Douglas... so we decided to head on, 11 additional miles to Bisbee. No room in Bisbee! So, 25 more miles to Tombstone where we arrived at dark and pulled into the "highest rated" campground in Tombstone. I am sure when we see the place in the morning light, we may not agree with the high rating, but for now we were so happy to find an available campsite - we didn't care! The Tombstone RV Park has the cutest site markers I have ever seen! We are in site #4.

We arrived in time to set up the satellite to watch the Ducks beat USC in basketball. We dined on a big salad and will call it an early night. We brought Lisa to Tombstone when she was 10 years old and we haven't been this way since. I promise we will explore again tomorrow and post more interesting Tombstone photos than the one above... but I am sorry, I found our site marker very clever.

RV Park: The Tombstone RV Park