ZERO @ Travel lodge, Grants, NM
Didn't sleep too well even though the beds were comfy and warm. I rose as soon as the continental breakfast was being served in the lobby. I joked that they might as well call it the Continental Divide Trail breakfast since the only guests munching, at the tables were all hikers at 7am.
The zero day was spent mostly going through pictures, writing, and drinking chocolate milk. The 4 others in the room came and went making phone calls to home, friends and loved ones. Fainting Goat left to make a trip to a nearby Walgreens at some point, and somewhat calmly came back to announce that she tripped and fell on the sidewalk walking back to the motel. She held her wrist as she explained. We all became worried that she either sprained or even broke her wrist. After checking to see if the hiker/nurse named Lisa in the room nearby she came back to the room with hiker Sherpa and a bag of ice. She seemed much more worried this time. We suspected she broke her wrist, so we all logistically thought about where we could get her to a hospital in town without having to walk out in the intense gusts of wind outside. The two left shortly after on the local shuttle bus, the Carrot Express, to the ER after putting our heads together.
Walking to the Walmart I came across a Latino man who struck conversation by asking how to get to Albuquerque from Grants, after saying I wasn't from around here the conversation quickly shifted to asking for money for gas for his truck that his family had been sleeping in the Walmart parking lot for the last 2 nights. I slipped him $10 and continued on to attempt to buy exactly as much food I needed for the 115 mile section ahead of me to Cuba, NM.
Fainting Goat arrived later that day with her right wrist all wrapped and announced that the wrist was indeed broken, and she needed to leave in the next couple days for Albuquerque to have it casted... The trail seems like the only safe place sometimes on these long walks, especially after moments like these.
