The First Zero!

A zero day is where you hike no trail miles and this is our first entire day off trail! We had already showered and washed our clothes yesterday and resupplied our food so today was about other chores. I still had a broken phone and a guy we had originally messaged about fixing it wasn’t responding g to our texts. We weren’t sure what to do but in the meantime we had sent messages to other hikers to see where they were. Tuna and Kanga said they were in Grants but were hitching to REI in Albuquerque. And that’s when we got the idea to hitch there too and get the phone fixed. After a call to a fix it shop we had someone willing to stay late if we were on our way! After making two signs one that said “Hikers to Albuquerque” and one that said “Hikers to Grants” we were on our way. We hadn’t even walked three blocks before a nice man gave us a ride across town to the ramp of the interstate and then at the ramp the third vehicle stopped and gave us a ride right to the door of the fix it shop over an hour away! Thank you!  While my phone was being fixed we went for lunch. After lunch we headed back to the fix it store and it only cost $40 to fix and the guy even put a new glass screen protector on it! 

We walked back to the ramp to the interstate and I had just stayed to put my thumb out when TBD got a message from someone on the trail Angel page where she had left a message earlier. Someone was willing to help us and when she updated him on where we were he offered to come pick us up! It was perfect! And we could see a fruit smoothie place and a Starbucks from where we were standing! We ended up at Starbucks and they accepted TBD’s Canadian star points. Free drinks! You wouldn’t think the day could get any more perfect but when our trail Angel arrived I recognized him as the same guy who had given us water and Oreos on our highway walk. He offered to take us to REI and Costco so we had a great little adventure before returning to the hostel for the night! Thanks Jason for going out of your way for us! We hung out in the cottage  making pizza for dinner and working on our journals. There was a British couple staying at the hostel who is riding the divide. They are planning on cycling all the way up to Jasper and doing it all in two months! By 10pm we realized no one had booked to stay in the cottage and since there was someone else in the bunkhouse we decided to just stay in the cottage for the night. It was the perfect zero day for us!

Day 24. 0 miles

Trouble 

“Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it." Charles R. Swindoll