SUMMARY:  Seems that in Anaconda, everything shuts down on Sunday. The “Coffee Corral” across the street, which we planned on for breakfast, was closed. We were standing in front of it, quite dismayed, when along came 3 CDT hikers, walking briskly.

“Hey!” we yelled. “Anyplace in this town where we can get breakfast?”

“Yeah, the Early Bird Special—down the street, $3.95.”

So off we went for a few more blocks, and yahoo, the “Classic Cafe” was open and we all ordered the Early Bird. Lots to talk about with the trail ahead and Canada closer. But when we mentioned we were headed for church, up came the excellent question. “Why? What’s the deal with all the different churches?”

Very good discussion with 3 of the hikers—but one guy pretty much blew it off. We did go to church at an Assemblies of God—really enjoyed it. So good to be with believers.

DETAILS:  Wow, a sleep-in day!  And my feet have finally stopped hurting.  We didn’t get up till 7:30 am, and we feel like we are just turning into jello.  But breakfast was calling, and we NEED it!  Both Fixit and I are horribly thin.  Even on the PCT toward the end of the hike, I was never this thin.

But when we went to the Coffee Corral just down the street, planning on eating everything in sight, oh no!  It was closed.  And so was everything else.  The whole main street was deserted.  Looks like Anaconda just plain shuts down on Sundays.  We were standing there in dismay when we spotted a cheerful group of CDT hikers walking along the other side of the street.  “Hey!” we shouted.  “Where can we get breakfast around here?”  They all grinned and pointed down the street.  “The Early Bird Breakfast, only $3.95, at the cafe!”

So six of us walked into the cafe and got a table together, and we all ordered basically the same thing.  Two of the hikers (Popeye and his girlfriend Olive Oyl) are headed out today, but the rest of us are staying on.  There was a lot of fun talk, but eventually Fixit and I mentioned that we were headed for church this morning and that naturally led to the questions of “Why?” and “How come there are so many different churches–why can’t they agree?”  We had a great time answering the questions.  Three of the hikers were very interested, but one guy totally blew us off.

We headed for the Assembly of God church, and along the way we met a guy carrying a rifle.  Not sure why he was doing that, but one thing we have noticed in Montana is that a lot of people are openly “packin’ heat.”  They are very proud of it, too.  “There’s no crime here!” they say.  “No crook would dare try anything.  And those mass shooter guys wouldn’t last 2 seconds.”   Very true!

We found the church and joined in with the adult Sunday School class (Good for them that they have one!  A lot of churches don’t do SS for adults anymore!)  Turned out that they were going through an intriguing book called “Believe” where the writer interviewed a lot of different pastors and Christian leaders with the question, “What are the basics that all Christians agree on?”  (Hmm, an interesting corollary to the CDT hikers’ question about “Why can’t the churches agree on anything?”)

The church service was great, the sermon on Psalm 60, with the point of “How do you respond when you lose/everything goes wrong?”  But an amusing highlight for Fixit and I was the announcements.  The pastor said, “Next Saturday is the Men’s Breakfast, and ladies, by popular request, we’ve booked time for you at the shooting range while the men are having their meeting.”  Then he looked at Fixit and I and said, “I bet you don’t get announcements like that in your church in California!”  We just laughed and said, “Yeah, no way!”  The folks in the church were very friendly and asked us to let them know when we make it to Canada.

For “lunch” we went and got ice cream, then finished up the pasta we had left over from dinner yesterday.  Then we just lay down.  We tried to call a friend, but the cell phone didn’t connect.  Oh well.  After awhile we went for a walk to see the Art Deco theatre and to just look around a bit, before going to Dairy Queen for dinner.  Along the way we saw deer grazing in people’s front yards.  Smart deer!  No hunters here in town…or maybe not so smart?  It would be really easy to quietly “bag” one of those “town deer.”

Then it was early to bed.  I had been sort of frustrated by the fact that we were “trapped” into having to take an unplanned zero here, but now I realize that we desperately needed the rest.  Now that I am not hiking, I realize how tired I really am.  So we are grateful to the Lord for stopping us here in Anaconda!  Back to the trail tomorrow!