At around 9:30am, Sammy stopped by our tents in his Jeep. It was unfortunately a 2-seater, so I (James) headed off with Sammy while Sam waited with our stuff. His car, which fortunately had 4-wheel drive, still struggled along the poorly maintained dirt road. Along the way, he shared his knowledge of the surrounding area - ranging from rock formations and lava flows to how coal mining had once been a big industry in the area. He is a cattle rancher and explained the ins and outs of that industry as well. The drive to the Walmart in Grants was 35 miles, but it took about an hour due to the poor quality of the road. After Walmart, we stopped at Blake’s Lotaburger, a classic New Mexico chain. He ordered burritos for himself as well as for me and Sam. We then went to the market so he could run some errands himself. I offered to pay for gas, but he insisted that then he wouldn’t be doing us a favor. On the way back, he took me on what he called “the scenic route.” It turned out that the scenic route was the one that Sam and I had walked on. Driving through it allowed me to appreciate how much ground we cover in a day. I also got to see the terrain that I couldn’t while we were walking in the dark. We finally got back to the camp site a little after 3pm. Sam set up his stroller while Sammy hung around and chatted with us. He also told us that Google Maps was taking us through private property on our route to Pinehill, which was the next place to stock up on food and water. He made some phone calls to let people know that we would be passing through their land. He also gave us the code that we would need to unlock one of the gates. Before saying goodbye, he offered to take the old stroller and our trash and throw it out for us. Shortly before 4pm, we were back on the road. It was about 22 miles to Pinehill, and we ended up walking all the way there. The road was awful for the first half of it, with large rocks and mud proving challenging for the strollers. Sam’s inner tube also popped, which made a loud sound that we initially mistook for a gunshot (we were certainly in hunting country). At one point, Google Maps told us to continue onto a road that didn’t even exist. We instead used our best judgement and took a right turn. We soon passed under a gate that Sammy had told us about, so we knew we were still on the right path. For the last few miles, the road turned into pavement, which was a massive relief. Before the end of the walk, we passed through a small neighborhood and were greeted with the barking of 20+ dogs. The dogs continued barking long after we left. We must have woken up the entire neighborhood. We pitched our tents in the grass right by the Pinehill Market, where we would be shopping in the morning. It was another cold night, and finally getting into the tent was a relief.
10/25/22
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