Date: 2009-08-14
From: ME - TX

To: Home
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: scattered clouds

III. Plan D.   Monday morning (Aug 3rd) was a reluctant call to my primary care physician¢s office, per my HMO, US Family Health Plan. I love USFHP, a Tricare affiliated provider. My call was placed at 0815, and by 1045 I had seen the PA, picked up a vicodin Rx, and had X-rays taken. I received the USFHP quarterly brochure and this issue had an article on fall prevention for the elderly: 1 in 3 adults over 65 fall each year, 20-30% suffer moderate to serious injury, falls are the leading cause of death for people 65 and older, every 18 seconds an elder is treated in the emergency room for a fall, and there is a death from a fall every 35 minutes. On Tuesday, the doctor¢s office called to report that I had broken #6 and #8 ribs, which immediately made my pain much more noticeable.I made to call to White Wolf Inn in Stratton ME to release my drop box to TNT. I talked to TNT later in Stratton. He also put Chomp and Half Full on the line and they too mentioned the difficult fordings and were concerned about my crossing.        Plan D is now to rest up for 6-8 weeks to let my chest fully heal. Hopefully, I can begin exercising soon. I don¢t know what my plans are after that. I could return to ME and continue hiking SOBO from where I left the trail. Or, I could go to Damascus and finish the SOBO section to Springer. Or, I could call it a long section hike for this year and pick up later. I even had a call from Truckie and he offered to hike from ME to Harpers Ferry with me next year.I intend to provide an update to my status in probably a month or so. Also, I mailed all my original images to Ms P&B. I¢ll get copies of these and may add some more images to the photo section in this web. And, I¢ll have plenty of free tome to respond to guest book entries.V. POD: Why do I hike? Why do I love the outdoors? Simple; I love it. But on a more philosophical basis, its truly a time for spiritual renewal and reflection. I don¢t try to or intend to prosletyze my beliefs. I find it difficult to find God in the hustle and bustle of the big cities, where you¢re surrounded by buildings, shopping malls, freeways, traffic, etc. But, get me in the country and I can see God¢s presence everywhere: the mountains, vistas, trees, rivers, stars, creatures, the mornings, the evenings¢¦. I recall seeing a cross in the sky formed by contrails from airliners on Good Friday, the Christian passages in the trail shelter registers, trail magic provided by the Bastian Ministries, the prominent churches and murals in the small towns. I thought about carrying a radio or buying an iTune and downloading a couple of hundred tunes. Instead, I focused in on only four songs, mostly from my church. The obvious first was ¢For the Beauty of the Earth¢.   In one of my photo classes, we had an assignment to produce a slide slow from a couple dozen of our best images. This was an easy choice for me, as I really liked some landscape photos I took with Lumpy in Moab, UT. We could even add music to our slideshow. Again, it was an easy choice: ¢For the Beauty of the Earth¢. The problem was finding a version to download. After searching the internet, I found a version I had not heard before that really made an impression. This particular version can be found at this link:   http://www.imeem.com/imelon/music/ksn3nzRJ/libera-boys-choir-for-the-beauty-of-the-earth/ (Note: The web site does not allow hot links, you must cut and paste this url)The others were old time favorites: ¢Onward Christian Soldiers¢, ¢The Happy Wanderer¢ and a song from summer camp at Methodist Lakeview Assembly: ¢Courage Brother Do No Stumble¢. I would regularly play these tunes in my mind. Then, after having all the rain, I had to add ¢The Ants Go Marching¢ from rainy days at Boy Scout camp and then later added one of Caetlin¢s favorites: ¢Chugga Chugga Choo Choo Clickedy Clack¢.And even though I hiked a great deal without a partner, I was never afraid or alone.