Silver City, circa 2018

  The town of Silver City is an old one, dating back to the 1870's when silver was found in the area.  There are many artists and art galleries in and around the downtown area and the old buildings have a lot of character.    Doris and Wyatt stopped in front of the visitor center to look at the map.

 And inside, Micah posed beside a life size photo of Billy the Kid.  He had lived in Silver City with his mother and step father in the 1870's and is rumored to have killed 8 men before he himself was shot and killed at the young age of 21.

 Right outside is a replica of the cabin he lived in from 1873-1875.  It was a gift from Ron Howard and was part of the set for the movie  "The missing".

A few days before we had walked to the town cemetery, which is beside Rose Valley RV Park and located the grave of Billy the Kid's mother.

 One side of the Visitor center displays a new mural created by art students from the local university.

Looks like the group is ready to go across the bridge from the visitor center over to the downtown area.

 Don and Micah stopped to look down below, the area known as the Big Ditch.  During most of the 20th century it was used as a sewer and a dump (yuck) before they cleaned it up.

Guess who is sitting behind the sign, talking on the phone?  If he was trying to hide from me, it didn't work!

Loved the sign in one of the windows on the main street!  Either they are lazy and don't care whether or not they sell anything, or they are rich and this is just a hobby for them!

 As we moseyed along the sidewalk, a group of football players from Western New Mexico University stopped us and offered us free tickets to the game on Saturday.  Their mascot, Rawhide, must have been a bit warm in his suit.  This is the first time that I saw a purple horse when I went downtown shopping!

 He was quite impressive with all of his muscles!

Time to head back to our trucks, which meant crossing over a different bridge.

But before we all got in the truck, the kids all wanted to take a walk along the path under the bridge by the Big Ditch.  Doris and Jerry went along for two reasons: to make sure they found their way back and to be sure the kids were safe.

This is what the part of the path below looked like.  I would imagine it is frequently used by homeless people and vagrants.  Not a place for young children alone.

Mission accomplished!  All made it safely back to the parking lot.  After all, it was lunch time and all of us were hungry.