Miles hiked 0

After 400 miles its time for new shoes

We woke early apparently all those early mornings on the trail have all is awake by 5 am.  We lied in bed playing on our phones and catching up on the outside world.  The 5 of us enjoyed a large and healthy breakfast in the lobby and then it was time to get to work.

I spent a few hours online updating the blog, responding to emails and getting in touch with home.  Then it was a trip to Walmart to get provisions and also a Verizon phone, AT&T has abysmal coverage here in NM so I am biting the bullet and carrying an extra phone so I can stay in touch with Suzy.

We all scrambled to get our bounce boxes back in order for the PO as we had a shuttle picking us up at1 pm to take us back to McDonald’s so that we could walk the CDT section through town and preserve our continuous footsteps from the border.
As we strolled down the road Big John called and said, “hey man you just walked by the Mexican resturant I am eating in”. We agreed to meet at the hotel but first me and the boys had a muesum to visit.

We all dropped $5 to go to the mining muesum in Grants.  It was here that we would watch a movie of the history of uranium mining in the region.  The movie was great images from the 1960’s of workers mining uranium wearing no safety gear, not even respirators.  We then took the elevator down to the “mine” where we learned all about how a line operated and how the ore was extracted.

Buttercup is all ready to have some mining time

After our tour we rolled down the rest of the way and then caught the shuttle for $0.50 back to the hotel.  We spent the afternoon swimming in the pool, soaking in the hot tub, and visiting with the Bubby Backpacker Team.  It was great to see buddy enjoying the pool and swimming around.  It brought back so many memories of going to a hotel as a kid and enjoying the pool.

One of the old signs along route 66

Afterwards Big John, Freefall and I went to the Chinese buffet by the hotel.  It was a straight up east coast style buffet.  After 3 heaping plates of dumplings, spring rolls, spare ribs and what not we rolled back to the hotel to sort out gear and get ready for tomorrow.

My good friend Dirt Monger and I connected for a bit on the phone.  He is currently hiking the PCT for the third time and it was great to catch up and hear how his trip was going.  DM was one of the most encouraging people beige my hike and he was so happy to hear how much fun I am having.

Now it’s time for bed town always has me staying up too late and leaving exhausted from all my twin chores.  With so many behind us we are motivated to get back on trail and avoid the herd, but we all agree we need a double zero soon and Ghost Ranch is sounding like the spot.