A meeting of border-to-border hikers and Day Zero

This morning I ended up doing what I always do when I’m trying to sleep in. I end up waking up earlier in the morning and then go back to bed. And then wake up again and then go back to bed. Which is a luxury and in its own way, but I always wish I could sleep in. It was a very quiet start to the day, but Slide and I finally got up to go have continental breakfast.

Yesterday I had an exact repeat of my breakfast. Except this morning I ate even more bread! I’ve been trying to make some raisin and cinnamon toast for quite some time. I love cinnamon toast and I don’t like raisins. But every breakfast place always has cinnamon raisin toast, never just cinnamon toast. So I constantly try to eat it in the hopes that I like it. Sometimes, when there are very few raisins left on the toast, I like it. And sometimes the raisins are too big and it makes me sick.

It was very nice to be able to have breakfast and then just go back to the room. With another cup of coffee and no intention of doing anything productive. We ended up slacking off for a while and I could have done a quick thing or two on social media. I really had no intention of doing much more than maybe passively uploading one or two things today. I don’t want to spend all my time writing and stuff like that.

One of the only things I really wanted to do that day was go to the post office. Big Mama made me the cutest sign the other night and I want to mail it home. I also have other things that I’ve been dying to send home for quite some time. And I wanted to go to Mountain Provisions, the gear store in town, and change my damn heavy duty socks. Plus, I really wanted to watch Pinball again! It was great to go to the equipment store when I was here in Ashland before. And I definitely wanted to go back.

Finally, Slide and I left the hotel and went to do those few things. In fact, he had a box that arrived in Ashland months ago that he was never able to get his hands on. And somehow today he remembered it because my shoes hadn’t arrived. So he was able to go to a hotel to look for a new pair of shoes that he had completely forgotten. It looks like my shoes, on the other hand, aren’t going to survive! So we’ll have to see what I do about that.

Sit by the river in this small park near the Indian buffet.

I sent a lot of stuff home in the mail, which was nice. There are just some things I’ve carried for a long time and know I won’t need them anymore. And while it can get pretty cold in New Mexico, I don’t expect the same type of weather conditions as up north.

We then headed to mountain supplies, which was great. Everyone who works there is very friendly! It was nice to talk to the whole team and pet the adorable little dog that is usually in the store. I had completely forgotten about the dog and she is so sweet. It was great to chat with all of them and also walk in with Slide. Because we were both there at separate times this year and met these people before. So it was a cool and unique situation to be here again and to be here together. It’s crazy to think about being able to organize things like this during a year like this. You have to love the way the universe works things out.

The only little piece of nature we experience today.

After wandering around the equipment store for a bit, we decided to go have lunch. And we actually walked to the Taj, the Indian buffet down the street. I ate here the last time I was in town and it was delicious. Honestly, I didn’t expect to go back there, but I was glad that’s what ended up happening. We arrived just in time before the lunch buffet closed. And everything was really good.

After that we headed back to the Stratford Inn and the rest of the day was really nice and peaceful. We just slept for a while. I’m not a big sleeper, so I did a bit of editing during that time. Then, finally, I went to the supermarket and bought some ice cream. At first I felt quite tired quite early in the evening. However, Slide was absolutely exhausted. And I’m not surprised because he has had a very good last few days. On the other hand, I’m in my second zero, so I feel very energetic. After about a day off, I start to go crazy. My body just isn’t using the energy it has.

I ended up feeling jittery late at night even though I hadn’t had any caffeine. I stayed awake and couldn’t fall asleep. Around 10 pm I finally decided to order pizza because I was hungry and planned to edit some more. I got a lot done, which was really nice. And Side woke up only to eat pizza before going back to bed. Which was truly iconic. Finally, after eating the rest of the pizza and working some more, I was finally able to relax. It’s crazy how fast this happens to me.

When I get off the road this is exactly what happens. I have a lot of trouble sleeping and usually stay up until 2 or 4 in the morning every night. Or at least that’s what happened when I went off track the last two times. Now I’m barely in my second zero and I’m already having trouble falling asleep. It’s amazing how your body can get so used to performing at such a high level. That when you finally give him a break, you’d expect him to just want to rest. Instead, you’re simply wondering what you’re going to do to burn off all the extra energy you’ve been producing for yourself.

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