Saturday, Feb 15th 2025, 0700-0800
End of Section 4, mm50 hitch into Salome
1 mile.
I had a restful sleep, despite the highway noise, which was pretty minimal. Pulling a massive day before will do that to a person. I was on the highway bright and early, trying to get a ride. There was a sketchy car parked right where I started, so I walked a ways down the road to get away from it. On the one hand, drivers might think I’d broken down. But on the other hand, the car looked so sketch that it also would reflect poorly on me. Besides, people are leery of the broken down vehicle act, a fraud to get people to stop and then car jack them. The sketch car was exactly the type you’d expect from someone trying to pull that kind of crime.
It took about 30 minutes to get a ride. The two older guys that stopped for me had a really nice truck and seemed friendly enough. The first thing they asked was if that was my broken down vehicle a ways back. I don’t think they quite believed my story about walking from Tucson, but not many people do. They dropped me off at the Sheffler’s motel in Salome, where I had a reservation for the night. It was only 8 am, so I went to the only place open, which was a gas station with preheated food items. This was just the ticket I needed.
Salome ended up being an interesting place, for how small and out of the way it was. For $60 a night, the Sheffler’s motel couldn’t be beaten. They let me check in at 10 am! and the room, though rustic, had everything I needed. I got tons of chores done (yay sink laundry), then went to the Dollar General for a resupply.
On the way, I came across a lot where a lady was selling a bunch of random stuff. She had bins of all sorts of snack foods, most for a dollar each. I went crazy sorting through the bins, finding nuts, dried mango and all the sugar to get me through the rest of the hike. It was like a hiker box on steroids! Sure, some of this stuff was a bit expired, but after surviving my expired tuna stint, I was feeling confident and bold. Who cares if chocolate, chips and candy are a little past their best by? These things don’t really go bad.
I walked away from the lot having scored nearly all my resupply for $22, too much food in fact. I still had to go to the DG to get some dinners, but that was about it. I had high expectations of going across the street for dinner at Don’s Cactus Bar, but then was disappointed to learn that they only did frozen pizzas…it really was just a bar. So back to the gas station I went, where the clerk sold me the leftover preheated offerings for a dollar each. Man, this was my thrifty dollar day!
The nearest real restaurant was down the road over a mile, and I didn’t feel like walking the highway that far and back in the dark. Had I a hiking buddy with me, I would have done it, but there’s just some things it’s wise not to do when you’re along (I know, like hitchhiking!…but I don’t really have a choice in that). So I went back to the bar to have a beer with the locals and eat my gas station dinner. A guy with a vocal assist device tried to have a conversation with me, but his disability and the noise in the bar did not make for a good combination. So he started showing me videos of Jesus Saves on his Instagram, instead. I felt like I was in a South Park episode. Fun times!
