Zigzag walks into Blake's Lotaburger

Walking round in circles, your nose to the ground

Day 9, Zero Day in Silver City

Wednesday, April 21, 2021

Thru-hikers say a "zero day" is a day of walking zero miles, but that was far from our zero day today. Zigzag and I had chosen a hotel we hoped would be near everywhere we needed to go. From that standpoint, it was about in the middle. But Silver City was spread out, and that meant we were far from pretty much everything.

Weather Clear with temperatures from low-40s to low-70s
Today's Miles 0.0 miles
Trip Miles 133.7 miles

Walking to Walmart was in one direction, more than a mile away. The post office was in the opposite direction, about 1.5 miles away. Those were just two of the places we went to today, but you get the idea.

If I totaled the miles we walked, I'm sure it would be seven or eight miles.

Walking to the Silver City Post Office

At least the day was good for one thing. We were able to sleep in a little later than if we were on the trail.

We first went to Denny’s for breakfast. The service was dreadfully slow, but we thought we had plenty of time to get our chores done.

That was followed by stops at a couple of outfitter stores. I didn’t need to buy anything. Zigzag was looking for a sun hoodie and found one at Gila Hike & Bike.

Next, was the post office. I needed to pick up my driver's license, which Kim had mailed to me via general delivery. This was my real driver's license, which replaced the paper one I had trouble with when I flew to Tucson.

Zigzag decided he wanted to send some items home, so he picked up a box. He planned to mail the stuff tomorrow when we walk out of town.

Blake's Lotaburger

A morning full of walking around town made us hungry, and we stopped at Blake's Lotaburger for lunch. This fast-food chain is a bit of an institution in the state. The specialty burger here has Hatch Valley green chiles, which is very New Mexico. I ordered one of those and it was good.

Our next stop was Walmart, located on the far end of town. We had a lot of shopping to do, and this required some strategic planning.

The next place to buy food would be Doc Campbell's Outpost. Though expensive, a full resupply could be done there, and it was just three days away. After that, we would have another seven or eight days of walking to reach Pie Town, where there was only a convenience store.

We didn't want to carry 10 or 11 days of food all the way to Pie Town, and we didn't want to rely on a convenience store when we got there. Today we bought more than we needed for getting to Doc Campbell's. We could buy there the remainder of what was needed to reach Pie Town.

So we wouldn't have to rely on a convenience store, we bought enough food at Walmart to mail a box to Pie Town. We just needed to send enough for the three or four days necessary to reach the town of Grants.

With all of that seemingly sorted out, we headed back to our hotel to organize everything. It was only then that we realized a big flaw in our planning. We might arrive in Pie Town after the post office closed on a Saturday. That would force us to stay in town until Monday.

I made a quick call to Nita, who owned the Toaster House hostel in Pie Town. She confirmed we could send a box through UPS. We then had to hurry to get to the UPS store before it closed.

Taxilady, Doggone, Gravity, and Zigzag

At last, we were able for the first time today to relax. We didn't even need to walk to eat dinner. Doggone and Taxilady picked us up, and we went to a restaurant recommended by the hotel desk clerk.

The whole day had been spent going around and around Silver City, but it was worth it. Our resupply plans were set out for the next two weeks, and now we could go back to walking in a straight line.

Who do you think you are?
What do you mean when you put us all down
Walking round in circles
Your nose to the ground
You think you're saying something
Because you're making a sound

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