We’re a little slow in the morning after having dinner, wine, and music at Nita and Don’s last night. Our camp seems to have become more established after our days here, too. It’s more than an hour before we’re ready to move.

We stop by Nita’s to say farewell and leave our leftover food on her hiker box. They give us a nice fanfare as we walk out of town.

Ann’s sandals, which she has cut more and extended with duct tape, seem to be working. The first few miles go quickly.

This road has more traffic than the one we came in on. A guy in a cowboy hat, glasses, and white moustache stops, saying, “I assume you two want to be walking?” We answer a happy yes.

As the miles go by traffic lessens, and Ann slows down. Her feet are hurting again. By about 11 miles I hear sobbing behind me, and turn to see that she can barely walk. We stop and talk. Clearly her modified shoes will not get us to Grants. We decide to try to catch a ride back to Pie Town, then 90 miles to Soccorro for new shoes.

We wait an hour with no cars, then a familiar white truck comes. The white-moustached guy sees me with my thumb out, stops, and says, “I thought you didn’t want a ride!” He’s already been to Grants, where we could have picked up new shoes. He thinks we’re crazy, but takes us back to the Daily Pie Cafe.

Ann wants a root beer, so we go in. We feel a little sheepish saying hello to the owners, who we just said goodbye to.

A biker riding the continental divide bike route sees us and introduces himself. Sean from New Zealand is having dinner with Mark and Mary Ann, horseback riders he met at the campground. We end up joining them for dinner at their table. It turns out Mark and Mary Ann live near Soccorro. They offer to take us there and help us find shoes tomorrow. After dinner they give us a ride back to Pie Town’s campground for the night.