<– Day 7 – Mar. 26th: Darth Vader and Tractor Bob | OVERVIEW | Day 9 – Mar. 28th: Charging Futility and FC Roundup Day 1 –>

From left to right Alan, Me and Joe and Joe’s jeeps. Alan also owns a few jeeps, including a Surrey he’s been restoring. He too can blame his father for his Willys sickness.

On Thursday morning we woke up to silence. The room at the Murray was amazingly peaceful. There’s no constant hum of a nearby highway, no air condition churning noisily, just relaxing quiet. For that reason alone we liked our stay in Silver City. But, as all good things must end, we said goodbye and hit the road for a ‘blue highways’ journey through New Mexico and Phoenix.

Before we left Silver City, we wanted to take a couple photos of the former Main Street. You can see the enormity of the damage from a storm that happened in the 1880s. There has been some discussion of filling in the area, but the importance of the event in the town’s history seems to win over any discussions of change.

Former Main Street of Silver City. Now a giant gully that still fills with water during the rainy season.

An example of the tall side walks that help direct the water down the street during heavy rains.

Leaving Silver city, we took Highway 180 north, quickly finding ourselves in remote areas with no cell service. Tall mountains loomed in every direction, Homes were sparse, but we did spot the occasional jeep. However, as we had plenty of driving ahead of us we didn’t stop to photograph any. At Highway 70, we turned east. Homesteads became rarer. Highway 70 was beautiful.

A short siding off highway 70. That just looks like a Jeep commercial, doesn’t it?

At the New Mexico/Arizona border we stopped to celebrate our return to Arizona. No other cars passed us. We stood in the middle of the road and took some photos and a selfie or two.

One the way down the mountain from the border toward Safford, Arizona, we had another great view. 

As we wound down the mountain, we were enjoying the view. We were all alone. No cars, nice weather, beautiful scenery. It was great. I was so relaxed I didn’t notice that on our side of the road was a large stick. We were going pretty fast and approached the stick quickly. I just didn’t think much of it until I noticed the stick had the coloring of a snake. Apparently, the snake was enjoying it’s day, too, sunning itself on the warm road. It seemed to ignore our presence until I mistakenly ran over it.

From my perspective, I wasn’t about to make a dangerous swerve to avoid it. And, it was so long there was no way I was going to avoid it with at least one set of tires. As we went over it Ann shouted, “That was a big rattler!” Meanwhile, I glanced into my rear view mirror to see it writhing on the pavement. I would have liked to have had a gun to put it out of its misery, but there was no way I was going to get close to it!

After several hours of driving we made it to the mining town of Globe and hometown to Ann’s grandmother and grandfather. We toured the town a bit and then discovered a wonderful antique and gift shop called Pickle Barrel.  They had some fun stuff in there, good books, leather (and buckskin of all kinds), interesting copper and beading pieces, jewelry and more.

From Globe we drove west through one more set of rocky mountains.

Our next stop was Joe, who we met last year. His project has come along ways since we visited him and Joel in Mesa last year.

Now he’s got a running MB play jeep that still has a few quirks, but is designed for fun. And, he has his GPW with plenty of F-stamps that came with a unique passenger side door that we both agree adds character to the vehicle.

And one photo of us that is NOT a selfie (thanks Joe!).

I like how Ann knows where the camera is, while I’m oblivious.

Joe’s also got a few parts he’d like to sell, but hasn’t had time to post anywhere. If you see anything on the trailer of interest, let me know and I’ll get you in contact with him. Joe also is selling real estate in the area, so if you are buying and selling I’ll forward your contact info to him as well. As you can see based on his jeep progress, he’s a hard worker.

After Joe’s, we headed for our hotel in Phoenix. We quickly discovered we were no longer on remote highways anymore. Rush hour meant sitting a long time 🙁

<– Day 7 – Mar. 26th: Darth Vader and Tractor Bob | OVERVIEW | Day 9 – Mar. 28th: Charging Futility and FC Roundup Day 1 –>