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Friday, October 19, 2001 - Day Off in Silver City
Today was a
day relaxing, reading, and taking of some housekeeping chores. We did our
laundry and stocked up on food for the next several days. I also cleaned
up the bikes. We are now in New Mexico and are on Mountain Time,
which reminds me of the following exchange from several days ago. Joan,
"We're not going to be in New Mexico that long." Replied I, "That's right, a week or less."
Such is
the First Dimension of Cyclo-Touring.
There is also another colossal open pit copper mine
east of Silver City. It is the major economic force in the area.
There seems to be some debate over whether the Morenci, AZ or the Sana
Rita, NM mine is larger than the other. Both are huge. At the barber
shop today they told me there is a larger copper mine in Peru, and Brazil has a
giant iron mine. The mines
must be huge because the ore contains 1% or less copper.
The ore is dynamited, loaded into BIG trucks by
immensely larger steam shovels, crushed, concentrated in an acid bath, sent as a
slurry to the smelter, which is fired by natural gas, and the copper ingots
shipped out by truck or train to nationwide customers.
Tomorrow we hit the trail again and climb via the Pinos
Altos Road (High Pines) into the vast Ponderosa Pine Forests of the Gila
National Forest northeast of Silver City.
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