Date: 2008-05-23
From: Minnesota

To: Minnesota
Miles today: 0.0

I'm back in Minnesota now and it already feels like a long time has passed since I stopped hiking.This morning I went to the doctor, who after listening to the litany of mild disorders I've been dealing with off and on since January decided I'm still fighting Sinusitis (I list all the symptoms in the Skit's Bits) and gave me about $350 in antibiotics and other stuff in hopes to clear out the pressure that has been messing with my head.My whole left leg from my knee to my foot feels odd right now, tight and tingly and sometimes sore so I think three weeks off is going to be good for it, hopefully it heals up before the CDT.I spent Sunday evening through Wednesday morning with my friends Ian and Melissa in Burlington. I was surprised how large and beautiful the city was. The area is about 80,000 people and you look across Lake Champlain to the Adirondacks and have the Green Mtns. in your backyard. It has a great downtown, many brewpubs, health food stores and mostly well-maintained yards. It certainly wouldn't be a bad place to live.I watched the Life Aquatic, two Bob Dylan movies, read some books, went for a walk with Melissa and their dog Harley and went to a Brew Pub while in Burlington then took the ferry across on Wednesday morning to Platsburgh where I caught a train and about 34 hours later arrived in Minnesota (I basically ended up throwing away $180 on plane tickets I had previously bought for May 28 as it was going to cost that to change them to another date. Since I'm done a week earlier than expected decided I should try to spend most of that time in Minnesota.)The train ride was long and not good for my knees, but I sat mostly in the lounge car and got a nice view of northern New York state (it's really quite nice) and Wisconsin and Minnesota. I bought my ticket through to Glacier (I leave June 12) which saved me some money on the total fare.* * *Skit's bits:* Things I did the day after arriving in Minnesota: went to doctor, went to my niece Brook's kindergarten graduation (my sister's family didn't know I was going to be back yet.)* No. of boys in Winona, Minn., who mooned the train as it went by: 4.* Where I ate lunch on Thursday: In the shadow of the Sears Tower in downtown Chicago.* No. of people who asked me for money at Union Station: 3* No. of days it had been since I washed the clothes I was wearing on the train: 9 (I took my socks off and threw them away when I realized how bad they stank. The train was full most of the time so usually somebody had to sit next to me.)* List of head ailments I've been fighting off and on since January: Lump in mouth near base of tongue (3 different people - doctor, ear, nose and throat specialist and dentist - have dismissed it as not worth worrying about), fluid and pressure in inner right ear, pressure behind/above bridge of nose, mucus drip in throat, occasional feelings of being off-balance and dizzy (this has been worse recently), tightness in vein that goes from cheek to back of head, tingling on top of head, heavy throbbing pulse in forehead sometimes, crink in neck, sore eyes and shadowy vision and sore teeth. (The doctor says all this can be attributed to pressure from sinus buildup and otherwise he says I seem to be in excellent shape, in fact my resting pulse and blood pressure are much better than they were in January before I began hiking. All of these symptoms have been off and on, none are debilitating, just chronically annoying and bothersome, and I haven't been having any headaches).