Figure 8 On A Bike

 * Day 0: Zero day in Silverton . Already finished groceries and laundry yesterday so hoping the day feels relaxed. Breakfast and coffee at the Coffee Bear. Silverton is pricey but the food is all really good. Spent almost $200 on groceries yesterday for just a 3 day section - Susan is worried I'm going to eat our savings. I eat like all the time while we're hiking and still need more calories. Susan has lost noticeable weight; I've lost some, but also seem to have new muscles in my legs. After breakfast I dunk my air mattress in the tub and think I spy the leak as little bubbles stream up from near the nozzle. Fixing gear, packing groceries, playing NY Times games, going back to the grocery store; the time goes more quickly than I want. Manage to find daytime Simpsons for most of the afternoon. Spend a solid hour sewing our shoes back together - they're in rough shape. Yesterday I looked down in dismay and found that the entire inside forefoot of my left shoe had blow...

* Day 0: Zero day in Pagosa Springs . Breakfast followed by errands followed by chores all permeated with slight fretting over the next section of trail. How will the snow be? What kind of mileage can we make? Weather? Elevation? Our next resupply spot is Silverton - will we really be able to hitch a ride on a 4x4 road late on a Tuesday? Turns out there's actually a "wilderness access" train stop we can use to board the Durango-Silverton line... But will we really be able to get there in time for an 11:15 AM train? Challenge accepted. We mostly eat in the hotel room, watching the budget and surprisingly inconveniently located for any compelling restaurants. Pagosa is a bit of a strange town, east and west parts separated by 4 miles of highway with a sparse assortment of businesses in between, including our hotel. There are no sidewalks on any of the streets and you're constantly a tradfic hazard as a pedestrian. The local bus helps and every ride is honestly enjoyabl...

* Day 0: Zero day in Chama . Breakfast at Fina's Diner with ASAP - chicken fried steak  with an egg and hash browns. ASAP is heading home tomorrow, with a pretty battered body and proud of completing the entire New Mexico section. Apparently he's been pulling 20 mile days so more power to him. We talk about family and coffee and how he's donated over 200 pints of blood. Laundry, groceries, lunch, watching daytime TV; I think every other ad is for some new pharmaceutical and every other one of those has group dance numbers. Somehow all the chores are getting done and it's not even getting too late. Sew the small hole in my pants. C4 Farms burger truck for dinner - Susan's green chile cheese steak sandwich disappears in a blink. More popcorn and cereal. We like zero days.   Six more days of food!  

* Day 1: Woke up in Chama feeling pretty lousy. Nauseous with a headache. Apparently Susan was feeling nauseous too but she complained a lot less than me. Over a little breakfast we chatted with a friendly lady from Texas who informed us that, unlike now, "back in her day people had to work". I was really slow getting my bag back together because I kept taking breaks to hunch over the toilet in case I threw up. By the wee hour of 9 AM we finally checked out of the hotel and walked down the road to the supermarket parking lot to throw out our thumbs. One driver took us a little ways to Tierra Amarilla and pointed out the Sleeping Giant, and then an old man with a poodle in a yellow 2-door pickup let us hop in his bed and dropped us at the gravel road for Ghost Ranch . We failed to get a lift down the road to the ranch and plodded along in the already-hot 11 AM sun. At Ghost Ranch we bought a couple overpriced snacks, learned a bit about Georgia O'Keefe, fantasized about...

* Day 0:  Get to Albuquerque . Despite the airports' best efforts, sitting on the tarmac 30 extra minutes in Omaha and an hour in Denver. I guess in Denver they had to tape the plane back together. And then we spent 20 extra turbulent minutes circling Albuquerque. I don't think I can take another plane this year. After the motion sickness wore off we enjoyed a birria quesadilla down the street from the Super 8 in Bernalillo . Excited to hike tomorrow... Less so for the last bus ride. Sandia Peak is pretty and there's even an aerial tram to the top. Albuquerque has a light rail all the way to Santa Fe. Are we actually in Europe? * Day 1: 5:30 alarm to catch our Lyft to the bus stop and then catch our bus to Cuba . I'm grateful I tried the hydroxyzine because I managed to catch a little more sleep on the bus and didn't even get motion sick. It's raining lightly, and is supposed to rain most of the day. Walk to the Cuban Cafe for French toast, eggs, bacon, and COF...

The long story short is that I had some medical things I thought were being managed okay, or maybe I was just in a little bit of denial, but hiking 80-ish miles through the desert made me feel like I really ought to see a doctor before spending days at a time in any more wilderness. So a quick bus from Lordsburg brought us to Phoenix , and then a direct flight put us in Omaha that night, where Susan's dad scooped us up and took us home. I enjoyed a great amount of care and support from a great number of family and friends while paying a few visits to the doctor. And... Everything pretty much checked out. Some of my symptoms persisted, but otherwise all the tests cleared without abnormalities. Equipped with some adjustments to medication, a meditation & stress reduction program, and a fancy spreadsheet to help with planning, we decided to get back on the trail in Cuba, NM. 9 days of hiking in the New Mexico mountains will bring us across the Colorado border to Chama. Omaha sky...