Rick felt so bad this morning that he left his tent behind to save the weight. He rolled it all up and left it at the well for someone else to have.
We hiked to Highway 9 where Judy was waiting for us. She drove us all back to LordsBurg for another night at the Econolodge. Wow! So much to do on town days! You give your laundry to the hotel and $5 and they call you when it is done. I have no town clothes, so I had to wear my rain clothes, but Lordsburg is hot! It doesn’t take long to start sweating in all the plastic and turn into a burrito in a microwave. I made it to Dollar General and bought a $10 shirt. Next I bought food, and then off to Kranberries with Pat and Judy where I had the salad bar and 3 huge glasses of soda pop. I had no room left for my green chili burger so I wrapped it up and put it in my pack.
We went to bed and an insane thunderstorm started up with lightening next to the hotel. I went out on the balcony at around 10:00 and I’m pretty sure a bolt hit the parking lot right below me. It absolutely poured with the wind driving the rain at a 45 degree angle. This went on until 4:00AM. How lucky we are to be in a hotel for the night!
While on the hotel balcony a pipeline welder who was staying at the hotel came out of his room talking on the phone. He eventually hung up and came over to visit. He couldn’t believe I am 60. He kept saying bullshit, and you are shitting me, and no fucking way I believe that. He did this for a weirdly long time – like 5 minutes? I finally went and got my drivers license just to get him to knock it off. Nice guy and I’m glad I look younger than my age, but that was kinda strange.