Carl Henning

Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument is a remote park with seven caves in the cliff face, six of them were occupied. When I say remote, I mean an hour and a quarter of twisting, narrow road north of Silver City. The Park Service says to allow two hours, but that must be for eastern flat landers. The road was too narrow to allow painted lines, but it was paved. The reason this place was on our itinerary is that you can enter the ruins; that’s rare.

Silver City, NM is not a city; it’s a town. Still operating under its original town charter which apparently regulates prostitution. No further inquiries on the topic were made! Silver City was the childhood home of Billy the Kid, leading to Marty Robbins singing about him: “,,,in old Silver City he went to the bad…”

Sometimes small museums in small towns can surprise you with the content. There were two today: Eastern Arizona Museum and Historical Society and Lordsburg-Hidalgo County Museum. The former in downtown Pima, AZ (west of Safford) and the latter in Lordsburg, NM. Yes, we’re on the road again, going places that we’ve never been.

Our epic 2018 Summer journey is over. We’re back home after 54 days away from Phoenix’ heat. Some milestones are presented.

Roadtrippers app also showed us the Negro League Baseball Museum in Kansas City, KS. A must-stop for a baseball fan. I’ve had a long fascination with the Negro Leagues and especially its premier pitcher, Satchel Paige. He finally made it to the majors late in life, becoming the leagues oldest rookie. Bill Veeck, the Cleveland owner signed him and provided a rocking chair for him in the bullpen.

On February 3, 1959 an airplane crashed in a snow-covered Iowa cornfield. The pilot and three singers perished in the crash. Today, a gravel road north of Clear Lake has a place to pull over at an oversized pair of black-rim glasses. A quarter mile path through the cornfield ends at the spot where the plane crashed. A small memorial reminds us the Buddy Holley, Rickie Valens, and the Big Bopper died here with pilot Roger Peterson.

There’s a SPAM Museum in Austin, Minnesota. Who knew? The lady at the Minnesota Welcome Center knew. And said it’s the second most visited site in Minnesota (after The Mall). We were in Minnesota because we took a detour on the way home so Kay could claim her 50th state. I already had mine and had been to Minnesota for work (and Twins’ games) a couple times.

Next time you’re passing through Elkhart, IN, visit the National New York Central Railroad Museum; we did. I’ve never visited a train museum with this much rolling stock and I’ve visited more than a few. Don’t miss the video.

Rutherford B. Hayes was, of course, the 19th president of the US, serving from 1877 to 1881. He had promised to only serve only one term. He had been an officer in the Union army and was wounded five times. He was finally confirmed three days before the inauguration in The Compromise of 1877.

We had time to visit another waterfall before visiting the railroad museum in Saluda, NC at the “top of the grade.”.