SUMMARY:  It was a cloudy but warm morning at 6:30 am–we were walking to the Greyhound station with jets rumbling overhead, when for just a minute, a bit of rainbow appeared ahead of us–the Bible signal for “God keeps His promises.”  We cheered and hurried on.  The Greyhound ride to Lordsburg was like riding through the sea, where the “water” was sagebrush and the mountains were” islands.”  Now we’re at the EconoLodge, and we’ve already met 2 hikers who will be with us on the shuttle tomorrow!

DETAILS: Fixit’s watch alarm worked this morning, though it wasn’t really needed–we were already awake.  We stepped out into a cloudy but warm day at 6:30 am, and we were walking to the Greyhound station with jets rumbling overhead, when for just a minute, a bit of rainbow appeared ahead of us—the Bible signal for “God keeps His promises.” We cheered and hurried on.

At the Greyhound station, we discovered that 1) Greyhound considers our trek poles to be potential “dangerous weapons” and 2) We cannot bring our packs aboard–they have to go underneath with the other luggage.  We were not prepared for this!  But Fixit lived up to his name–he battled with my ancient, stiff trek poles till he got them apart and I could tuck them into my pack.  Then we had a very good breakfast at the “Cactus Café” in the Greyhound station, and were intrigued to watch some people paying for breakfast with bags full of nickels, dimes & pennies.

The Greyhound ride to Lordsburg was like riding through the sea, where the “water” was sagebrush and the mountains like islands.  There was a progressive change in the other plants as the miles rolled by–different kinds of cacti, even some wildflowers, and interesting grasses.  The mountains mostly look like they were originally lava pushing up through waterlaid sediment, and each mountain has clouds gathered over it, just like real islands in a real sea.

  We arrived in Lordsburg in time for lunch at McDonald’s and walked to the Econo Lodge in windy and cool weather. We got some stuff to eat on the trail at the  at the gas station next door to the Lodge,  but at the same time we were mourning the fact that the Kranberry’s restaurant across the street was closed.  Kranberry’s has been feeding CDT hikers for a long time, but turns out they had a fire and will not reopen for some time.  Bummer.

Fixit spent quite some time this afternoon trying to figure out Guthook’s CDT app. He also put my trek poles back together—it was a wrestling match, but he did it! No device breakdown can stop Fixit. And we got to meet Masshole and Stummy, a young couple who will be on the shuttle to Crazy Cook tomorrow with us.  They are really excited about starting the CDT, and so are we!

At dinnertime, we wandered up and down Lordsburg looking for someplace to eat, but almost everything was closed and boarded up.  There was a place on the other side of the railroad tracks, but a freight train was sitting there blocking the way–it finally moved on and we scrambled across to the El Charro restaurant for a good meal.  Walking back to the EconoLodge, we could hear the sound of a youth baseball game.  If we weren’t having to start hiking tomorrow, I would have gone to watch.