Silver City to Kingston, NM: After reporting on the nice scenery the past 10 days, I know my credibility might run low if I claim that today was the most scenic, but trust me: today truly was the most exquisitely beautiful ride of the tour. As a few of the New York Cycle Club riders said "This was a Colorado riders day": a small winding, no traffic road climbing slowly along a quiet stream in the Gila National Forest with pinyon-juniper hills giving way to ponderosa pine. We climbed east of Silver City to the top of Emory Pass at 8,228 ft -- the highest elevation we'll reach all the way across the country. From Emory Pass we could look across the dusty horizon to the see toward the mighty Rio Grande River. (see photos)
After lunch, we buckled our seat belts and leaned into 8 miles of downhill turns to end our day at the historic silver camp of Kingston, NM. Though a bustling silver camp 100 years ago, today Kingston is a tiny one-street rural neighborhood known primarily for its " Spit and Whittling Club" which claims continuous activity since the late 1800s. Exactly what the "Spit and Whittling Club" does, well, hard to tell but one way or the other, I think it must be a guy thing.
In Kingston, we filled our bellies and hearts with a superlative dinner and evening at the Black Range Lodge which is a funky old timber frame lodge with comfy little bedrooms within bedrooms and bathrooms whose windows open into a greenhouse full of banana and other tropical plants. The lodge owners cooked turkey and homemade minestrone soup followed by homemade ice cream. It was one of those meals that fills your heart and soul and, in this case, prepares you for Carol's gambling game played 'round the pool table after supper.
This game that Sag Queen Carol Nies calls "Left-Right-Center" is really a way for all the dollars you had in your pocket to migrate to the center of the table, where winner then takes all - which in this case meant that Carol took all (and then carried her loot around in a plastic grocery sack the next couple of days).
Including everyone losing a few bucks to the Texas Tornado, it was a great day. (see attached pics)
