The challenge started before I set foot on trial. I was sitting in my sisters house the afternoon before my flight when I got a text message: "Your flight has been canceled." That was when my carefully laid plans started cracking apart. I needed to get to the southern terminus of the CDT on the Mexican border. To get there I would have to fly to Tuscon and get a taxi to make it to a greyhound that took me to Lordsburg where I would walk a mile to catch a shuttle that took me to to the southern terminus. If I didnt catch that shuttle, well, I didnt want to explore the options of what I would have to do. So when the first leg of my journey bailed, it felt like everything was crashing down. Cortisol growing thick in my body, I opened up my computer and stared at the other flight options. I didnt want to have to deal with this. Not now. I spent the next few hours cursing American Airlines for putting me in this situation as I tried to make one of their replacement options work. They all left later in the day. It would mean I would miss the morning greyhound to Lordsburg and have to take an 8pm greyhound. Which would mean that I wouldn't get to my hotel til midnight, and therefore have to start my hike on four hours of sleep as the shuttle left at 6am. That is not how I wanted to start my hike. But there was no other option.
I got to the airport two hours early and paced around as I waited for my flight. As the time approached, I noticed it was delayed. First by 20 minutes, then by 40. I started to get nervous. I had a layover in n Dallas, and this delay would give me only 10 minutes to get off the first plane and onto the next. If I missed that flight, I missed the shuttle. I had to make it.
Finally we took off. I tried to sleep, calming the submerged panic. When that didn't work I pulled up the flight progress and watched our plane icon inch slowly closer to Dallas.
The wheels hit the ground 15 minutes from doors closing on my next flight. As the plane came to a halt I turned to the man next to me and said, "My flight leaves in like 5 minutes, you mind if I hop out?" If anything, at least I was learning to be more assertive. He let me out in front of him. I waited in the aisle with growing anticipation, looking at my watch every 30 seconds. Finally the doors opened and we started moving.
I emerged from the gate and spun around wildly, trying to orient myself. I was at gate A11. I needed to get to A19. Amped up on arenaline, I ran through the airport, counting the gate numbers as I whizzed by. Gate 12, 13... why are these gates spaced so far out? I mean how many options do people need for shopping and food? I dodged people stroling casually. 15, 16... Another lady passed me, running the opposite direction. I silently offered her luck. 17, 18.. I leapt between two folks blocking the path to emerge at my gate and joined the remaining stragglers checking in. I was shaking, relieved. I had made it. Just like the movies.
Because I had six hours from when I landed in Tucson to when my greyhound left, I was in no rush to get anywhere. Instead of taking a taxi as originally planned, I decided to go with a free city bus. I followed the signs to find a bus already waiting. It must be early.. the website said it wouldn't arrive for another 10 minutes. I hopped on with a friendly lady and happily waited as we got on our way, stopping often to let more people on the bus. This was too easy. My bus would take me right to the greyhound station. But something seemed off. Although I hadn't been paying attention to the directions, it just felt like we were going the wrong way. I looked at google maps. Yup, we were headed east when I needed to go north. I had hopped on the wrong bus. I got off at the next stop. You think with all my travels I'd be better at traveling.
I downloaded the bus app to be better educated. I would need to take 2 busses from there to get to the greyhound. The first was bus 201X. The bus pulled over, right on time, but it had the wrong number on it. I let it pass. As I waited I started to wonder if maybe I had been wrong. That must have been my bus. After seeing the next one wouldn't arrive for an hour I decided to just walk the mile back to the airport and start over. As I waited at the stoplight to cross the street, a bus approached displaying 201X. Ahha! I wasnt wrong; it was just 10 minutes late. I ran back to the stop and jumped on.
As we approached the stop where I needed to switch busses, I pressed the button indicating I wanted off. I didnt hear anything. Maybe only the driver hears it? I pressed it again. The driver drove right past the stop. Of course he did. Why wouldn't he? Why should something work perfect for me today? I asked another passenger if I was doing it right. He tried. Nothing. I made my way to the front of the bus to tell the driver I needed off at the next possible stop. I got off and walked about 10 minutes back to the connecting bus stop. Perfect timing, the bus pulled in just as I arrived.
When I walked into the Greyhound station the worker eyed my pack and said, "you must be going to Lordsburg." "Yes, the 8pm bus." I approached with my ticket. "Oh that doesnt arrive til tomorrow." I thought about panicking but figured he was just telling a joke. Finally I discovered the greyhound was delayed 2 hours and I wouldn't arrive at my destination til 3am. Oh great. That put me at like 3 hours of sleep before walking to Canada. Perfect.
I was relieved to see a backpacker come in but didn't have a chance to talk to him until they kicked out of the building. The bus would be arriving after they closed and we were told to wait outside. I made a beeline over to the hiker. "I'm assuming you're doing the CDT?" I asked. "No I'm just hiking across America in my Altras," he replied. "Really?..." I said. He shook his head in amusement. It took my tired brain a second to register it was sarcasm.
It was comforting to have someone in the same ridiculous situation. We spread out our sleeping pads and lay back waiting among the four other unfortunate souls to catch the bus and exchanged stories and thoughts about the trail. I was so incredibly thankful to have another hiker there. To have to be alone at night with the few other strangers waiting for the bus would have been a little unnerving, and even though we were still pretty much strangers at least we were strangers of the same kind.
According to the website, the greyhound continued to be delayed even further and wouldn't arrive in Lordsburg until 4:30am. At that point I might as well just walk straight to the shuttle pick-up. A growing concern, I decided to just call and see what's up. The lady assured me that the bus was moving and was on its way to pick us up at 10:30pm, and arrive at 2:30am. "But you know there is always a chance that could be delayed again," she added before she hung up. Well that was reassuring.
I hated the thought of using a good hotel room for only 3 hours. "So I know I just met, but would you want to split a hotel room and one of us can cancel our reservation?" I asked the other hiker. We weren't going to be there but for maybe 4 hours. He was down, so I called the hotel. They couldn't refund me but they could switch the day so I got a room for when we'd be passing through Lordsburg again on the hike.
We were trying to get a little bit of sleep when two busses pulled up, earlier than expected. One said Los Angels, CA. The other didn't have anything written on the front. An old weathered women hopped out of the driver seat. "Excuse me.. where is this bus going?" I asked. Her back was turned and she glanced at me from the side of her eye. "I'll tell you in a minute," she grinned and lit her cigarette. I took that to be a good sign and sat down. Soon she came over to us and said she was going to Lordsburg. I wanted to give her a hug.
We found our seats and immediately tried to go to sleep. I didn't have much success. We got dropped off under a starry sky, the wind cutting through our thin layers, and walked a quarter mile to the hotel. I did one quick check-through of my pack and filled waters, then went straight to bed. I still had a hard time falling asleep. I didn't understand how I could be so exhausted and yet still unable to sleep. And I would need all the rest I could get. For a long, tough journey lay before me.
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