CDT 2024 - Day 30, Ghost Ranch. Goodbyes.

Rose at breakfast, Santa Fe, REI, the Clinic

By morning, Peggy's wrist had swelled up pretty good and it was causing her some pain although she rarely complains about that kind of stuff. She did a bit of research and smoke with her health care provider so we (with a lot of encouragement from me) to go to an urgent care clinic in Santa Fe after breakfast.

In the dining hall we mentioned to the guys we were going to the city and did they need anything. Alligator wanted to get some new hiking shoes and wanted to go to REI. So that was settled. After breakfast we would meet and take a road trip to Santa Fe. While we were having breakfast who should come and ask to join us for breakfast but Rose! While we were talking she mentioned that she was leaving the trail. She was flying out of Albuquerque the next day back to Chicago for a birthday party. So now we had a full truck (and Beau) for the ride to Santa Fe.

It was a fun ride with all the conversation and it seemed we arrived in no time. First stop was Peggy to the urgent care clinic. Then we drove Rose to the Santa Fe Community Center as she had a strong urgent to submerge herself in the pool and would find her own way to the Albuquerque airport. "Bye Rose!" From there we went to REI for Alligator. We recalled that it was Memorial Day weekend and the store was swamped so it took a while. Back to the urgent care clinic where Alligator and I found a Subway and got sandwiches for the three of us and waited for Peggy. Eventually she came out, after waiting for her x-rays, with her full arm bandaged. She had a compound stress fracture in her wrist. She would definately not be hiking for a while as the coming sections had snow and she would have to use her poles a lot. That's probably what caused the damage; between the poling during river crossings and the post holing in the snow. All done now.

It had been a rough week for Runningbird. After dinner with the boys we shared hugs all around and said our good-byes. We took some postcards from ChukarBird to drop in the mail on the way home and a package from Alligator (his old hiking shoes) to ship home for him.

In mid-June, ChukarBird and E-Rod were going to be taking a break from the trail and flying to Seattle for a wedding. After a few days they would be flying back to Denver and picking back up on the trail. They asked Runningbird to stay in touch and if she was fit for duty by then, maybe she could join them and hike together (at a more moderate pace) to knock off some more miles. They are a good bunch of guys and that would be a great opportunity. We'll see how that goes.

Peggy and I got the trailer all ready to go and hooked up to the truck so we could get an early start in the morning.

Peace!

Kingcup Cactus; Indian Paintbrush; and Plains Pricklypear.