So this picture here shows where I was pretty much the whole day today! Today was my fourth zero in 54 days on the trail. I was ready for this one! Rockin’ and I had the option of the hostel in downtown Salida,
staying with someone willing to host us downtown, or a hotel a mile from
downtown and away from any and all distractions…we went with the
hotel and it was well worth it! I needed some serious downtime and quiet
to focus as much had piled up since my last zero in Pagosa Springs.


In the picture above, I have the care package items from my latest resupply. I have my Doritos and Mountain House from Katy and Chad, yay! My Reeses’s from my aunt Edie and Uncle George, score! A wonderful card from my friend Heart who hiked the PCT last year, aww! Plus, this leg’s supply of Clif Bars from Corinna who has supplied me a month’s worth of Clif Bars, whoa! As for the cookies I’m holding, these “pink cookies” were the surprise of the box…when my sisters and I were little, we would get to go to Cristaudo’s Bakery for a special treat and that would be pink cookies. My dad moved back to Southern Illinois in the past year and managed to send me some pink cookies! These really bring back some great memories and took me right back to childhood. What a great surprise that I never saw coming! Thanks everyone for your care package items. It is really fun and encouraging to get these little surprises.

As for today, I seriously sat on this bed most of the day and it was wonderful! Rockin’ woke up at 5:30am since we are usually on trail at that time or getting ready. Once she got up, we were both up and couldn’t fall back asleep. Neither one of us sleep much as we were up til midnight last night. We went down to the continental breakfast and I did my best to stuff as much food in me as I could. Then I went upstairs and did blogging, video loading, a slideshow from the last section, emailing, phone calls, and multiple Skype calls. My one venture out of the room was down the street to grab Subway for lunch. I drank a ton of whole chocolate milk today and ate leftover pizza from last night too. As for dinner, Rockin’ grabbed me a microwave pasta dinner at the grocery store. A true zero day and great rest for my body.

The goal was to finish in time to watch some shows on Hulu and sadly I didn’t. It is almost 11pm and I still have about an hour of stuff to do. Darn! I have loaded a few videos and a great slideshow from this last section and the photos are some of my favorites of the whole trip so far! There are even pictures Rockin’ took of me with her camera that she has let me add to the slideshow, so check it out as it is the next post and I will have it up shortly. Sure wish I was taking a double zero…I guess the shows will have to wait:(

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