My first Restful Zero in more than 2 months

I was up ridiculously late last night. But what else is new! This morning I slept in like I wanted and felt wonderful. Still, I got up pretty early, maybe around 8-8:30am. I decided to get up and head to the continental breakfast. I remember it being so good in 2022. Sometimes even a simple continental breakfast can be really solid.

I made a bowl of yogurt and a muffin with cream cheese. And they had hot chocolate packets so I could make a delicious hot mocha. The coffee in the hotel was also very good. I sat down, ate, and worked on my phone for a bit. Then I went back to the room to start editing. The only thing I have scheduled today is a massage around 4 pm Other than that, I just want to spend as much time editing as possible.

I stayed in bed for a while and wrote some blogs. I also did some passive editing when I wasn’t really feeling motivated. There are always so many different things I can do. Write, edit videos, write subtitles, create thumbnails for videos and many other things. That’s the great thing about using many different social networks. Of course it’s more work, but it’s a diverse type of work. So I can usually find something I’m in the mood to start working on.

Coffee tastes better in a cup like this one in a hotel.

It was really nice to have nothing but time. I lay in bed and edited for hours. I ended up talking on the phone with some family members. And after a while, I ordered some lunch and sent it to the hotel. I even did some of my editing from the hot tub, which was really nice. The jacuzzi here is so hot! It’s absolutely perfect. I basically edited all day until 3:30 pm Then I started getting ready because Stephanie/Big Mama was coming to pick me up to take me to get my massage.

Work remotely. What a life!

The woman who gives me the massage is named Michelle and she is Stephanie’s friend. So I’m getting hooked! Talk about some magic on the trails. When Big Mama arrived, I went out to meet her and then we went to her friend’s studio. It was really nice to meet Michelle and her daughter. And her daughter has an adorable service dog who was very sweet.

Michelle and her daughter. I am very grateful for such a wonderful massage.

Then I had the most amazing hour of my life getting an amazing massage. I haven’t had a massage since my birthday on May 15 in Tehachapi. That was on the PCT. And ironically, I was injured about a week after receiving that massage. Obviously things weren’t necessarily related. But it’s been a long time and I’ve walked about 5000 miles since then! So I think it’s about time I did it.

In heaven.

The massage was absolutely perfect and very relaxing. I never really notice how every part of my body hurts so much when I walk. My arms, my neck, my back. Literally everything. It’s been a really long year. After we finished, I hung out for a bit with Michelle, her daughter, and Big Mama. Then we returned home to Ashland.

Grateful to Big Mama for being so good at taking photos. I wish I was better.

When we got back to the Stratford Inn, Big Mama and I stayed in her car talking for a while. She is so sweet. It’s been great to reconnect now that I’m back in Ashland. And she really made the last few days super special. I will always be very grateful to him for that. And it looks like it’ll probably end up taking Slide and me to the Medford airport in a couple of days, too. So it’s good, even if we don’t have to say goodbye yet.

Big Mama dropped us off at the hotel.

After a while, I walked in and got situated. It was already quite late and Slide said he would arrive around 8 pm Today he finished hiking near the Mount Shasta/Dunsmuir area. Then a Trail Angel picked him up and took him here to Ashland. Which works out great because otherwise I would have had to take the bus tomorrow. He’s done a lot of miles over the last few days to line this up perfectly, so I’m very grateful for that too.

The rest of the night ended up being really perfect. Slide arrived around 8 pm and was exhausted. I don’t blame him after doing some 40’s and then I think maybe a 36 mile day today. And then having to make a very long drive to Ashland’s tonight. It will be really nice to have all day tomorrow to hang out. Tonight we ended up ordering food and caught up on all the recent events. We’ve been talking since the first meeting in Snoqualmie, Washington, so we didn’t need to catch up over the past few months. But it’s been a wild couple of weeks. It’s always so nice to be able to talk to someone who completely understands what you’re going through. There are literally four humans on Earth who have ever attempted the frontier-to-frontier calendar year triple crown. And we are two of them.

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