Date: 2014-04-30
From: Zero Day

To: Doctors Office
Miles today: 0.0

I'll bet you can't guess where I am, yeah still at Hemlock Hollow Hostel. No I haven't fallen in love with the place, I prefer to have my scenery change on a daily basis. I just don't know what to think of my right leg, I am afraid that if I start hiking it will get worse and even possibly become life-threatening. It is 51 miles to Erwin and if I try and hike it while limping it may take me awhile. My intention was to start hiking today but last night my foot looked more swollen than ever. I am afraid now that it is an internal infection, not an ankle sprain or shin splints. The pain that caused me to believe that it might be an injury was probably just the swelling making my leg hurt. I am no doctor so it's time to let the medical professionals determine my next move, I have already spent three days here trying to recover. I tried to text my wife Paige and tell her that I needed someone to come down and pick me up so that I could see a doctor. Of course the message wasn't received, the reception down here is dismal at best. I gave up and went to bed not thinking that she may get the message later. When Paige got the message she tried to contact me but I was fast asleep. She contacted the owner of the Hostel and they wouldn't go down and check on me. If you know Paige you would know that she doesn't give up that easily, she contacted the Greenville Fire Dept. and they sent an EMT out to check on me. We had a late night visitor at the bunkhouse looking for the Mailman. He looked at my leg, explained why he was out here in the middle of the night, and assured me that he would call my wife and tell her that I would be OK. I should have made that text the next morning instead of last night but I was thinking that if I let Paige know earlier she could make plans with my daughter Meghan for them to come down together on Wednesday. My bad! Anyway they are on their way and will arrive sometime this evening, a 7-8 hour trip. A few hikers are stopping by, some will stay the night and others just to resupply. Smokin' Bear was in and said that Lumberjack was leaving Hot Springs this morning. He showed me his swollen knee under his brace and it looked terrible, I can't believe he can walk on that. A couple of Marines section hiking stopped in for dinner and to stay the night. I passed on dinner, I figured we would eat in Erwin. I watched some TV and walked up the road several times to call or text, I wasn't having any luck. We finally got some rain around 5 o'clock after they had been calling for severe storms for 3 days. About 7:00 my rescue party showed up and we headed for Erwin Tennessee for the night. They brought me a cheeseburger, my first one since late March, I guess the curse is finally over! I wanted to go to the urgent care clinic and see if I would be able to hike or if I needed to go home and take more time off. While driving there two hikers were trying to get a ride into Erwin. As Meghan was slowing down I told her that I knew them and it would be safe to give them a ride. She jokingly said "Let's pick em up" a famous line from the movie Dumb and Dumber. One of them (Munchie) had a black beard and a red bandana and my grand daughter Rhain said "Look, a pirate." We gave them a ride to the Super 8 and we also got a room there because it was getting late. The hotel would meet most hikers expectations but was not a hotel most travelers would want to spend the night. I spent most of the evening laughing at my two grand daughters so I wasn't complaining. We had pizza delivered to the hotel and everyone finally went to sleep way after hiker midnight(9:00 PM).