Revived at the IV Lounge

August 15, 2024

Zero Day #4

The alarm went off at 5 am and I dragged my poor dehydrated body out of bed and dressed quickly. We packed up our gear and left it out in the common area before walking down to the bus station. It was cold and we huddled together on the bench. There is honestly nothing worse to me than the combo of an early morning and shivering. Henry had just mailed home his puffy because he hasn't used it once and I giggled at the fact that he was now freezing. We had misread the bus schedule and were somehow 20 minutes early so when the bus finally pulled up I was thankful. We settled in, the ride went quickly, I read my Kindle for most of it. We got to Breckenridge early and went to a coffee shop where I got a hot apple cider and 2 chocolate croissants while we waited for the IV lounge to open.

Love of my Life

We got there an hour early and I reassured the worker that I was more than happy to wait for my appointment time we were just looking for somewhere to chill but he was so friendly and helpful and had me in the chair less than 10 minutes later. He got an IV started on me the 2nd try, hung my bag and left me to hang out. Henry and I talked about our plans and he surprised me by saying that he'd like to just hang out again at the hostel today and head out early tomorrow morning. Although we were both restless at this point it really didn't make sense to go back and get on trail to get a half day in at this point. The sick side of me did not argue. The worker popped in every now and then to check on me and to chat about nursing.

After getting unhooked I went out to pay, he gave me a discount so the total ended up only being $60! It was such a great experience that if I ever do this trail again I would totally pop in to get an IV just for a little altitude top up in the future.

Walking out onto Maine Street I could not believe the difference. It was like I had come back to life, I felt like myself again. Took the bus back to Leadville, napping on Henry's shoulder trying to recover from our early morning.

We got another room at the Abbey and then walked to get some BBQ because miraculously my appetite had returned! I took another 2 hour nap curled up in bed and when I woke up we walked into town and went to the thrift shop.

We discussed dinner... you know you've been in town too long when you've tried almost every restaurant and nothing sounds appealing anymore. We ended up walking to Safeway and buying frozen waffles and ice cream for dinner. Very hiker trash.