Days 7-8: Zeroing in Lordsburg

April 27: There's not really a whole lot to report. I took the day off. I did walk to the post office to pick up a package, then walked out to the Interstate 10 rest area a mile or two west of town to look for a letterbox. (Found it!)

Evenstar scheduled an appointment to see a doctor about her blisters, but he didn't have any suggestions except to say that he felt she shouldn't be walking. Ha! What a quack. Has he never treated a thru-hiker before? Unless there's a loss of a limb involved, most hikers aren't going to stop walking because of blisters, even if they are enormous and ugly. 

Evenstar's feet were particularly sensitive since she had had foot surgery several months earlier and had done pretty much no walking or training before hitting the trail. And she complained that her shoes didn't seem to fit properly, but as there were no shoe stores nearby, she'd deal with that problem another day.

Evenstar and I planned to meet for lunch after she finished her doctor's visit.

When I entered the motel lobby to check out the hiker box, I found Addie checking into the motel. Addie! She looked more sunburned and weathered since I last saw her several days before, but definitely still recognizable. =)

I invited her to join Evenstar and I for lunch. She was just checking in, though, and I said it was fine if she wanted to shower or clean up first. That, she told me, could wait, but she did go to her room to settle in and drop off her stuff. And maybe she did take a shower. I'm not entirely sure, but I think she skipped it for now.

We headed to Kranberry's since it was right across the street. Evenstar didn't want to go far because of her blisters. I couldn't blame her--she had some of the worst blisters I've ever seen any anyone. I was amazed at her strength and perseverance to keep pushing herself despite the pain, but today was a zero day for her as well and she certainly wasn't going to spend any effort walking that wasn't absolutely necessary.

Addie had her own foot trouble with blisters, but they didn't look anything near as bad as Evenstar's blisters. Still, I took photos of both because, well, that's what I do. =)

Addie had her own blister trouble. Her big toe was definitely a lot bigger than it should have been!

 

We asked Addie about Pez and she said he was planning to get into town today as well and thought he was ahead of her and already made it into town. Really? Well, we should get him to join us as well. Addie called the motel to ask for his room, but Pez was in the lobby and we asked that they tell him to come join us at the restaurant across the street.

So Pez walked in about 10 minutes later and the four of us were together again! It was wonderful. We shared our stories and laughed and laughed. Pez's knee was still hurting him so he was going slow as well. So far, at least, I was the only one left in the group that was uninjured and not limping.

Our trail family, finally reunited again!

We ended up spending the next six hours sitting at the table and chatting! Originally, I had planned to continue my hike the next morning, but we were out so late, I never finished the work I wanted to get done online. Pez and Addie had only arrived in town today and both of them wanted a zero day, while Evenstar thought two zero days might be good for her feet. I didn't want to leave my whole trail family behind the next day....

So....

April 28: ...I took another zero day. A double zero. I did manage to get some work done in the morning, and Pez, Addie, Evenstar and I decided to go out for lunch again.

And it was today that Pez actually got his trailname. He was standing outside the motel lobby talking with a few other hikers and--I wasn't here for this and only heard the story second-hand--might have been talking with his mouth full of candy and wound up accidentally spitting some of it out like a real-life PEZ dispenser. Presto! A new trailname was formed!

We joked that his full name was Pez D. Spencer, which I thought was an absolutely awesome trailname, but we'd call him Pez for short. We felt like we were on a first name basis by now anyhow. And we were all glad that he finally got a trailname because all of had trouble saying his real name. =)

This time, we headed out to Denny's for lunch, which required a little bit of a walk, but all of my injured companions seemed up for the challenge.

I joked that we'll spend another six hours chatting there, and the others said that that was not going to happen this time. And they were right. This time, we only spent about five hours at the restaurant laughing and chatting.

I imagined the wait staff there was probably ready to see us go as we read out the descriptions of the dessert menu out loud like it was hiker porn!

Pez checks out his dessert at Denny's.

Anyway.... while we were there, a huge rainstorm swept through, and we watched the buckets of rain falling outside the window while we were dry and warm inside--and feeling a little sorry for the hikers out in the desert actually having to hike in it. It only lasted a half hour or so before stopping.

But all good things must come to an end, and we eventually left and headed back to our motel for the night.

All-in-all, a really good time! =)

A lot of the buildings in Lordsburg were abandoned and falling apart. It seems like the heyday of Lordsburg was in the rear-view mirror.

One hiker made his own camp shoes from shoe inserts and string. Those were definitely lightweight! I'm kind of inclined to try making my own someday.... (I didn't think to write down the hiker's name and I long forgot whose feet these are, though. Sorry!)