Bad Day in Bend

So to bring everyone up to speed.  Life out in the desert hasn’t been to bad.  We all miss Aaron and his sense of humor, I can even admit to missing Jerry and Rachael.  We got word a few days ago that Aaron was going to run the Tustumina 100 dog sled race and the night of the race we were glued to the computer waiting for the updates of his position.  Rachael ran the 200 mile portion of the same race and from the looks of her positioning during the race, they were using it as a training run.   We were amazed at how well Aaron was doing when he checked in at the mandatory 4 hour break check point.  He was in 2nd place over all and only 16 mins behind the leader.  We all went to bed with hopes of seeing Aaron in the 1st position by race end, but that never happened.  He ended up finishing 9th overall, and after talking to him we found out that he (the dogs) missed a turn and he ended up getting lost in a fog for about 2 hours. That’s when the troubles started for him, he also mentioned his headlamp dying on him, as well as his team got turned around some how and he ended up running back thru the check point he just left.  Overall everyone in the house is really happy with his run, we still wished we saw him winning the race.

So today is some what of a down day for us.  We have had a sick puppy and have slowly been nursing him back to health.  A week has gone by and we thought we got him over the hump, but he still was not eating or drinking on his own, so we thought it best for the Vet to take a look at him.  Come to find out he ate a rock and it was blocking his intestines up, so we either had to fork out about $2000 to remove said rock through surgery or put him down based on the information presented to us, we had to make a tough decision.  We put him down.  Dave explained to us that typically if you have a dog that eats rocks he will continue to do said behavior until it does him in. So to say the least my spirits are down.  I did not sign up for this, but it is life.

New Years

Life out here is slowly deteriorating.  We now have Aaron a guide that worked on the Mendenhal Glacier in Alaska this past summer, he showed up a day before Thanksgiving.  It took a few weeks for him to catch onto the routine, but he does have a huge handicap.  Aaron is the most ADD person I’ve ever met.  Perfect example, he was cooking a meal for himself and it literally took 1 and half hours to cook his dish, mostly because he gets so distracted.  Once he told us all of his ADD stories it all kind of put the puzzle together, and we cut him a lot of slack now.  Christmas came and the stress levels were intense.  Jerry has been really stressed about the tours, as well as the travel preparations for the Iditarod.  The way Jerry handles his stress is thru micro-managing us and we are starting to get sick of being talked to like we are idiots.  Rosie and I probably have one of the strongest friendships in the house.  A few days before x-mas, she was cracking under the chaos around us, but between Beck and I, we did our best to boost her spirits.  Right now I would have to say we have an “us” (being the tour dogs and tour guides) and “them” (being the race dogs and Jerry and Rachael) mentality around the guide house.  I’m sure a lot of these feelings have to do more with the stressful environment around the kennel.  I have to say that over these past few months I’ve grown a lot of respect for Dave the kennel manager.  Pretty much everything that he says helps all of us out.  So for the last few weeks he has been our go to guy with a lot of our questions for a preparation for the sleds.  With that said we have gotten several feet of snow just before x-mas and we were on the Mountain training on the sleds a day before the tours started.

            The trail and sleds on the mountain are completely different from the training out at the kennel.  Our first training exercise was to hook one sled up to another and be pulled down the mountain by the dog team, very similar to water skiing.  My training runs were disastrous.  I never made it down the mountain without falling off the Tag-sled.  Two days later I was guiding tours on the tour sled like a champion.  I will say, due to the reservation load it was sort of a sink or swim training environment.  I honestly can say I feel pretty comfortable giving the tours, but some conditions do worry me, but I suck it up and learn from my mistakes.

            So on to my mistakes.  A few days ago I took out a family from New Zealand and up until that run on the sled I was the only one to have flawless runs.  With that said, this run was deadly.  The picture looks something like this.  The father of the family tipped in at a stout 330 lbs and then he had 2 medium sized daughters.  So all and all the cargo weight had to be close to 475-500 pounds, and due to my weight load I had a huge powerful dog team to drive.  My wonderful leaders, I say this sarcastically, are Boris and Dugan and the team consists of 10 other crazies.  The tour starts out fine.  We have some moist packing snow that is slowly building up under the break rendering it useless.  Then I hit our crazy downhill “S” turns and navigate the first one brilliantly.  I tap my Kiwi passenger on the shoulder I wish him to lean towards to help maneuvering around our corners.  We enter the 2^nd “S” turn and we gain speed because the snow has built up under the break and it’s not making contact with the ground.  We make it thru the first portion of the “S” fine I think we are home free.  We enter the 2^nd portion and I tap the big fella to lean left. All is good, we go from the inside of the turn back down to the outside and catch a rut and before I know it we are tipped side ways and stopped quickly.  Everybody is fine, but we fell on the side of the snow hook (the emergency break for sleds) so I politely asks my guests to get out of the sled so I can up right the sled and set the hook.  Literally nano-seconds from the hook touching the ground the dogs decide to go.   All I can say is I was holding on to the sled with one hand and the force of the dogs pulling shot the snow hook to smack me in the leg.  Within a few seconds I realize I’m in trouble and start yelling Whoa as loud as I can.  Still being drug behind the sled and the command word not working I let go of the snow hook and try grabbing the handle bar with what is my free hand, all the time Yelling WHOA!!!! WHOA GOD DAMNIT!!!!!WHOA!!!!!!!.. BORIS DUGAN WHOA!!!!!!  They finally slow to a halt and I plant the hook, but they start pulling again before it could catch.  So once again I’m being drug by one arm.  I was able to get on the friction break pad with my knees and now I was trying to push the metal claw break with my hand, while yelling WHOA once again.  I lean my face past the sled runners to see where we are headed and I’m greeted with a series of snow drifts right in the face.  I’m finally coming to the conclusion that I may have to tip the sled over to get more resistance to get my crisis under control.  Boris and Dugan finally had enough fun dragging me and stop.  I set the snow hook and work to gain my composure.  With in a minute or so I see my guests walking down the “Trail of Death” that I just navigated one handed and blind.  I figure the Team drug me about 250-300 yards before stopping.  The rest of the tours have gone fine thus far.  So if any of my great readers want to experience a “once in a life time” sled dog ride you know where to find me.

            The guides at the house are counting the days before Rachael and Jerry leave for Alaska and we hope all the stress leaves with them.  Yesterday would be one of my worst days in Bend and I was really starting to question if I was just wasting my time out here.  After some talking to Rosie and lots of Kisses from Lori (the dog that may come home with me) I settled down and will live to fight another day.

Bend Thanksgiving

Things have been going very well out here in Bend.  We had a small Thanksgiving celebration at the Kennel, Rachael cooked a wonderful turkey and the fellowship during the meal was amazing.  Life at the kennel has been some what like the movie Groundhog Day.  Everyday starts out the same, and the routine is getting very mundane.  Rosie and I have finally become pretty good friends, so I’m very grateful for that.  I couldn’t imagine spending an entire winter with someone that would only have the bare minimum of conversation with me.  I’m slowly starting to get very attached to the dogs and it’s making me a little nervous about wanting to bring all my favorite dogs’ home with me.  The training of the dogs is extremely amazing to me.  I’m amazed on how quickly the dogs recover from the training runs, after about 20 mins the dogs are ready to go again.

            The big topics around the kennel are when the snow is coming.  We would slowly gain a good base of about 20 inches or so at the Mountain and a few days later that same base would melt back down to 8 inches.  So we keep training the dogs and pray for snow.

Bend 11.22.08

Bend

11.22.08

 

So with all that has happened since my last entry, I have to mention this past Presidential election.  As most of you know I’m not big into politics by any means, if I had to categorize myself I guess you can say I’m Liberal (what ever that definition is.)  I will say that here at the kennel most everyone was rooting for Obama as well as myself.  Election night comes and I have the privilege, nay the honor to actually witness the night’s historic nature with a man that was a true activist in the Civil Rights Movement.  It seemed from my stand point things have gone full circle for Jerry.  That’s pretty much all the politics I want delve into.

My life here in Bend has turned into a nice routine, Wednesdays and Saturdays have turned into town days for me, so as soon as we are done running dogs and doing chores I head into town for a shower and to do laundry occasionally.  The routine is kind of nice, very reminiscent of my time on the Trail.  My town days pretty much consist of loitering around coffee shops as well as the occasional trips to the Columbia outlet store where you can get killer deals on gear.  I hear there is a REI, but I haven’t made it there yet.  I will say I had a chance to taste great beer while out here, and maybe the trail name might change to full brew with these beers.

The kennel has grown some since my arrival.  Tori had a litter of 6 puppies a few days before I got into Bend, and on Halloween, Maui had a litter of 6 puppies as well.  Obama and Biden (the 5 month old puppies) have graduated to their own houses out in the kennel, and the first few nights they howled at there new experience.  So does anyone want a puppy??? 

I think the hardest thing I had to do while out here was take Maui’s new born puppies and cut off their dewclaws.  The way it was explained to me, is that when the dogs are adults and have a dewclaw, when booties are put on the dog, the dewclaw ends up rubbing and abrading the dogs skin causing problems and potential of infection also there is a chance that the dog can catch it on something and it could get ripped right off.  Anyway to hear the little yelp of the puppy was heart breaking, but then again I guess you can compare it to a new born child’s circumcision.  I don’t remember mine.

It was a blast having Beck come out and see the crazy life I lead now.  I won’t lie I think I could do this for awhile.  The only thing that can get under your skin is when the dogs turn into butt heads and make it impossible to harness them, but they’re dogs, they love you unconditionally.  Perfect example would be a dog named Twister.  It takes an act of congress to get him harnessed.  Most dogs will allow you to suit them up, not Twister.  He jumps and scrambles if it’s a game of keep away.  I even have on occasion told him fine you aren’t going and then he just bounces around, as if saying, take me, take me, please take me, please oh please, which turns into another wrestling match to get him harnessed.  By the time I have him harnessed I’m sweating and worn out, and still have 3 more teams to harness. 

So one part of my day that I’ve grown fond of, is listening to Dave and Jerry talk about the days of some dogs that are long gone.  The stories are hilarious.  Dogs that plot against one another, or apparently there use to be a dog that would just mess with Dave on tours.  The way the story is told to me is the leader was fine for every other musher all day long, running the 6 mile tour flawlessly.  When Dave would take her out she would try and run up the ski runs, or even run through the ski lift line, and as he puts it she would run right past the tour truck (which is where the tour ends) and run for another mile up the road.  He would command “haw” which is a left and she would go right.  The story goes on and on.  It usually ends with Dave saying, “that dog would just abuse me.”  I guess I know that feeling. When Beck was out we took a team out for their run and they wanted to go the long way on the way back.  We tried every thing, Beck even almost got trampled by the team, that did not stop them.

In Bend

The rest of my time spent in Chicago was spent catching up with an old friend, as well as my stay was dragged out longer then I anticipated.  Apparently, Parker and I got along so well that my brother kept persuading me to stay another day longer, then another day, so all told I ended up staying 4 days longer then expected.

            Now the rest of my journey to Bend was nothing fantastic.  Nothing spiritual or existential, definitely no Jack Kerouac moments on my version of the Oregon Trail, just a 2.5 day drive from Chicago and some bad Map Quest directions.  I end up rolling into Bend around Noon on Wednesday.  The guide house is a simple single wide trailer home, with a humble kitchen and a fly problem.  My move in takes less then 5 minutes, thanks to my experience of hiking the Appalachian Trail.  I meet Rachel, who is pretty much the one in charge of the day to day dog care, as well as she is training a team for this years Iditarod.  Rosie is another guide in training like myself, but she has been at the kennel since late September helping Rachel train the race dogs.  Then there is Dave the kennel manager, and his job is to keep all of us motivated and moving forward.  Dave is also responsible for the day to day activity when Rachel heads up to Alaska for the race season.

            Now on the phone 100+ dogs sounded daunting, in person just seemed flat out overwhelming to me, but I was up for the challenge.  So pretty much the first day at the kennel was spent finding my way around everything, as well as adjusting to off the grid living, we have a privy here that is used 90% of the time, just like ole times for me.

            A typical day, wake up around 6:30 and make coffee and wait for Rosie and Rachel to wake up.  Dave rolls in from his house in town, around 7 and we all sit and eat breakfast and finish up our coffee.  By 7:15 or 7:30 down in the kennel harnessing race dogs and hooking them up for their run.  Once Rachel has taken the race team out of the kennel then we start harnessing the tour dogs and hooking them up for their run.  So all told there are 4 tour teams of about 16 dogs per team and then 2 race teams of about 16 dogs, there are also a handful of dogs that are still in race team try outs, as well as the dogs that are dropped from the race team get put on the tour teams, but are not running to date, due to the fact they are in shape from the distances covered trying out for the race team.

            Rachel pretty much takes the race dogs on a 9 mile run, which makes up 3 laps from the kennel to the end of the houses driveway and back to the kennel.  We only take the tour dogs for a one lap run since a lot of the tour dogs are just starting to run for the season.  Pretty much we only run 2 teams of tour dogs due to the early morning heat.  Once all dogs are done running Rosie and I water all the dogs, and I scoop poop while Dave and Rosie feed all the tour dogs.  Rachel likes to do all the feeding for the race dogs to keep a nice strong bond between her and the dogs.

            Then Rosie and I take the 2 puppies, Obama and Biden (about 4 months old) for their daily training walk, where we train them not to wander off, as well as train them to come when called and only run about 40 or 50 yards ahead of us and then they are to wait for us to come.  Sometimes the walks go as planned and sometimes Obama and Biden just rather run and rough house with each other.  When we are finished with the training walk we are done for the day, which is usually around 11:00, which leaves the rest of the day to go for hikes, or do some biking if I would have brought a bike with me, or head into town.

            Now a not so typical day is when Todd gets thrown off the 4-wheeler due to pure dog power, or when Todd gets dragged to the ground by a dog that pulls Todd through the kennel to the dog’s house.  Then there is time we took the race team out for a long training run of about 25 miles and the 4-wheeler breaks down and it takes most of the morning for us to get back to the kennel. I will elaborate on these stories at a later date.

            The one thing I love most about this kennel is there are 3 simple rules for the dogs. 1 no fighting, 2 no breeding, and 3 no chewing.  So with that said there are no aggressive dogs at this kennel.  I won’t lie, the first few runs we took the tour dogs out, we did have a scrap or 2, but a lot of this was from the tour dogs watching the race team run out of the kennel for about a month straight before they got to run, so some of the dogs were a little amped up.  Pretty much a quick reprimand and all is fine.  No dogs are ever beaten here, the discipline is a quick spank with a harness or a pinch of the dogs lip or ear and they pretty much get the point.  I would have to say after the first 2 days of runs for the tour dogs all that anxiety is gone and now they just run.  We do have one guy here Blake (dog) he has horrible manners when on the mainline so we team him up with a real bitch of a dog named Pia (she will not put up with snarly bad manners).  Since we’ve teamed them up, Blake looks back at me and has a look of what did I do to deserve running with her (to date Blake’s manners have improved.)

Chicago

I plan to leave Savannah around 2 or 3 a.m. and as usual I end up leaving around an hour later then planned.  Usually my hold up is me not wanting to get out of bed.  I’m off driving to Chicago like of I’ve done 1000 times before.  I use to make this long distance run while in college.  Since my school was on the quarter system I would drive home for Thanksgiving then again at the end of my last quarter for the year, to be honest I pretty much make this drive now on pure instinct.  The only real plan of attack is to pretty much try and miss rush hour traffic in all the major cities, which in the last several runs I’ve been able to master.  The drive holds certain nostalgia to it. I reminisce the thoughts of architecture theories and then when I pass the firework stores in Tennessee my childhood spirit rears its head.  By Illinois I’m wishing someone has invented a teleporter, since now I’ve been in the car for almost 9 hrs and still have 6 hours more to go.  As usual the last hour of my drive is based on the pure adrenaline of just being done, and when I reach my brothers door step I hope to never get behind the wheel of my car.

             So now on to my nephew; Parker is about 10 months old.  The one game I play with him that I find most enjoyable is throwing balls.  Let me paint the picture of how this game is played.  Parker has a ball pit full of plastic balls, so I would lay up against it and sit for about 15 minutes throwing balls at his poop filled diaper (to me the most cushioned part on him.)  The fun part was to watch his face as the balls would bounce off him, he would look at the balls with a look of; “where did that come from” and my thoughts were from the guy throwing them at you.  When my A.D.D. would kick in I would then turn to Parker and say clean up this mess.  The beauty was he would look at me with a face that truly showed he had no idea what I was saying, then he would just smile.  After awhile I realized what the smile was for, he really did know what I was saying and he was just playing dumb so I would have to pick up all the balls.  Then again how do you argue with a 10 month old.

            Now once again not being an owner of a child, I don’t have the first clue on how to take care of a kid.  I find it interesting that Parker comes home from daycare and has to get the germs washed off of him.  In my opinion I would leave the germs on him so he could build a strong immune system (this is maybe why we don’t have kids.)  Oh and I also learned that babies skulls aren’t fully developed until they are 1 yrs old, so mom and dad guard lil Parker’s head like a hockey goalie.  I have yet another solution to remedy this problem.  How about a helmet to protect under developed heads, I would have to say that answer was strike 2 in the raising of a kid.  So the rest of my time was spent tormenting little Parker, only for the reason he will probably never remember any of my tutelage that I gratefully bestowed on him.  I can’t finish this story without Strike 3 right?  So strike 3 would have to be when I would get frustrated that Parker would not talk or do any other social behavior, so I decided to try and teach him his first words, “you want fries with that.”  Whenever I would say this to him, Jamie, his mom would give me the evilest stare.  My only come back was, “I’m just trying to teach him something useful.”

Nov. 2 2008

Nov. 2 2008

Bend, Oregon

 

 

So after months of sitting at home and pretty much being a recluse I decide to get a job.  Let me first give a little background information.  Beck and I went on an Alaskan cruise, where we visited the town of Ketchikan and wandered into a little bookstore.  We both went our separate ways and ended up meeting back at a dog section of the store.  Here I find a book about the Iditarod and for the next few days I immerse myself into the book.  By the time I finish the book we are back from the cruise, and to be honest I’m getting a little antsy and not wanting to be a trophy husband any longer.  So for a few days I search the internet about potentially becoming a volunteer at the Iditarod.  After several dead ends, you pretty much have to fly yourself out there and put yourself up for the duration of the race. Screw that.  Plan B.  I spend another few days searching the internet about sled dog mushing jobs.  To my amazement there is a pretty large culture of mushers out there.  Jobs ranged from dog handlers for racers to guiding tours.  So I decide to send a resume to some of these places.  What do you know, within a few days I have to break some scary news to Beck. 

            One of the Jobs I applied for happened to be in Bend Oregon and I was having a phone interview with Dave the Kennel manager sometime this evening.  As of right now Beck has no idea of what I’ve gotten myself into.  I call Beck over to my computer and show her the website I found for the dog sledding jobs.  By now in our relationship I have mastered a way of breaking big news to Beck, to not only get her excited about my new endeavor, but also present it in a way that makes it sound like the best option for me to pursue at this point in my career/life.  Now of course Beck always has some sort of guideline for me to follow and I usually slowly get that information from her before I really dive into these adventures.  Thus far, I’ve been able to play into them pretty well.  Now after seeing all the jobs that are out there, I point her to the one I will be having the phone interview for later this evening.  She tells me to apply, and in my mind I’m yelling thank god, since this job is another 6 month long adventure, and I’m just coming off an adventure.  I could always play the, this one will make me money card, but no need.  No sooner then the words fall from her mouth, I announce that I have a phone interview tonight, and this is pretty much how my life goes.

            My phone interview comes around and all sounds amazing, well sort of.  There was the mention of dealing with 125 dogs which over the phone sounded a little daunting.  I head back to the website and apply for a few more positions, looks like they need a guide in Minnesota, and one in Montana, even one in Whistler so I send resumes to all of them.

            Once again within a few days I have some more opportunities coming down the pipeline.  I trade emails with a few of these folks and was able to set up another phone interview for the folks in Montana.  After the interview with the guy from Montana, things sound good and bad.  This job starts in December and pays 300 more dollars then the one in Bend, then there is only having to deal with 65 dogs, but here is the snag.  Apparently this guy also takes his guides up to Alaska so through the entire interview I’m uncertain if I would be in Alaska or Montana.  To top it all off we are communicating via cell service so every time I try to get a handle on if I’m going to be in Montana or Alaska the phone breaks up.  Another draw back to the Alaska/Montana job is the guy is completely computer illiterate so I have to snail mail a resume to him.  So I explain to him about perusing the Oregon job, and he tells me that I won’t want that job, that his is better.  So now I have a timing game that has to be played.  I send out my resume via snail mail the next day and hope that the folks in Oregon don’t call before this other guy can offer me a job.  In the mean time I’ve been emailing the job in Minnesota, but I’m truly uncertain how that one will play out. 

            I would say about 4 or 5 days have gone by since I’ve had my Bend interview, as well as the Alaska phone interview.  Now every time I hear the phone ring I’m running to check the caller ID to make sure it’s not the Bend folks.  One afternoon Beck is home for lunch as she always is and I’m in the back yard playing with the dogs, well because what else is there to do.  Also I should note that Beck has been giving me a hard time about calling the Bend guys back as a follow up, but to be completely honest I really wanted to go to Alaska.  The phone rings and before I can tell her to let the machine get it, it’s the owner of the touring company out of Bend.  Now you need to understand my wife, if there is anything that relates to me actually adding monetary value to our household she turns into a child at Christmas.  She runs to me jumping for joy and telling me it’s the guy from Bend.  I pretty much have a 2^nd phone interview with Jerry and he offers me the job.  I scramble for some sort of stall.  So I tell him that I’m 90% sure I will take the job, I just want to run things through my wife about maybe flying out there or driving.  Jerry is very understanding about the proposition.  As soon as I hang up the phone Beck is asking me 1000 questions.  The only answer that would shut her up was; “he offered me the job” excitement boiled to a new level in the Soprych house, but I still want the job in Alaska.  I was able to buy another day or so of time. 

            So to shorten this up, I ended up taking the job in Bend and for the first time in my life would be living west of the Mississippi.  The week before I left I was researching all kinds of cold weather clothing, and actually showed a little restraint, only thing I bought was a sweet pair of mittens.  Here is something that needs to be mentioned.  For some insane reason, Beck within the last 2 times of me leaving has put these ridiculous honey-do lists together. So before I could leave for Bend I had to paint the bathroom and reseal the deck, all while she went away to a Michigan football game.  One good thing for this set of chores, at least I’m not coming off the flu like the last honey-do list where I had a 103 fever for 3 days and then the day it breaks she tells me to tile the laundry room.  I finish my chores and pack the car. My plan is to make it to Bend in about a week, while in route I would stop at my older brothers house and see my nephew.

4 month break

I completed the Appalachian Trail and it felt wonderful.  Chili Mac and Snoopy headed back to Savannah with me to spend a week or so deciding what they were going to do next with their lives.  Chili Mac decided to go home for a bit before he would go on his European Tour, and Snoopy decided to head back up to New Hampshire and hit the High lights of the Appalachian Trail.  Now as for me, I sat dormant for the remainder of the summer, border line being a recluse. 

In early August Geoff was planning a going away bike ride, which entailed a 145 mile round trip ride from Atlanta to Alabama via the Silver Comet Trail.  He was able to recruit my dumb ass and a few others to go on this marathon ride.  For all intensive purposes the ride was a success and some finished the round trip jaunt, as for myself I stopped at the 70+/- marker at the Alabama State line.

The next day I woke up and felt great.  I mean the body felt like it did some exercise, but nothing hurt.  I head to the bathroom to drop a Duse and when I’ve finished I go and flush the toilet and I feel the most excruciating pain in my lower back.  I can hardly walk, so I hobble back to my sleeping bag and decide to lay down in hopes that all will be better.  I laid for about 30 mins thinking that I have broken my back.  Now I try and crawl my way over to a chair to see if I can sit since I will be driving myself back to Savannah today.  After 1 hour and 45 minutes of unsuccessful attempts in to said chair I realize I’m in a bad situation. 

Geoff is now out from his bedroom and I explain what has happened.  Come to find out Geoff’s dad is a physical therapist, so he gets him on the horn.  Now as I lay on the floor explaining to Geoff what’s wrong and what I feel he relays the info to his dad.  About 5 mins into the conversation I’m asked if my testicals are swollen then I hear bits and pieces about the hospital and surgery.  Now I’m freaking out.  Worst case scenario I had was I broke my back, now there is talk of “my boys” and surgery.  After several more mins on the phone, Geoff relays all the information to me and the “boys” are going to make it.  Now I need to figure out how I’m getting home, there is no way I can drive my car.  I call Beck and explain the situation and she scrambles to find a flight up to Atlanta and within 20 mins Beck is scheduled for a flight and all is almost whole again in my little world.

A few hours have gone by and Geoff’s mom and dad show up to his apartment and Allen, Geoff’s dad gives me a examination then hands over a TENS device to me to help numb the pain.  Now after the 4+/- years I’ve known Geoff, and countless trips and what not, this is the first time I have ever met his parents.  Talk about bad timing, I couldn’t even move from the chair that I crawled in.  Then again getting into said chair was a feat in itself. 

Beck finally shows up and we load up my stuff and she drives me back to Savannah.  Have I ever mentioned that my wife is the greatest woman in the world?  So for about 3 or 4 weeks I slowly nurse my back back to health.  I’m feeling pretty good just around the time we need to go on our Alaskan Cruise.

Day 62

Day 62
04.24.08
Docs Knob – Pearisburg

Jukebox, Thorny, Popeye and Lil Mac took up most of the space in the shelter so I ended up cowboy camping next to the trail.  I’m up a little before sunrise and pack up quickly.  I’m anxious to get into town as well as I want to get in and get Trin off the trail before the heat of the day.  I cover the 1st 3 miles pretty fast and take a break and call Beck so I can get my lighter weight gear sent so I can pick it up in Waynesboro.  Jukebox and gang catch me and I hike into town with them.  The miles go by pretty quickly and we are in town by 10:30.  I spend most of the day at the local coffee house, then Snoopy and Loafy and I hit Dairy Queen for lunch.  Around 2:30 Shutterbug finally rolls into town and he has spent most of the day talking on the phone to his girlfriend.  It’s dinner time and Hearts, Snoopy, and I all head over to the local pizza place to stuff ourselves.  We end up finding out our waitress lives in the motel we are staying at and she sort of invites herself to our room when she gets off work.  Now back at the room we all sit and watch hockey then basketball, 10:30 rolls around and our phone rings and it’s Bonnie the waitress.  A few minutes later there is a knock on our door and she joins us for the evening.  We find out that Bonnie is 25 yrs old and looks every bit of 35.  The more she talks the more the stereo-types are sticking to a southern trailer park girl.  We also find out that she has recently been arrested and has a charge of “conspirisy against West Virginia”.  That’s right the entire state of West Virginia.  She explains the charge to us and it makes no sense to us.  So she finishes her beer, and he hand her a yeungling beer and she does not like it.  She then asks us how the “Genius beer” is and we quickly correct her and tell her its Guiness, but for the rest of the night she refers to it as the Genius Beer.  So after maybe an hour or so she tells us that she is married and that she pretty much snuck out of her room on the other side of the motel to hang with us.  For the rest of the night Shutterbug is freaking out about us getting shot and killed by Bonnie’s husband.  Seeing Shutterbug’s anxiety raise every minute the Bonnie is in our room turns us to a whole other form of entertainment.  For the next hour or so we keep asking Bonnie questions and at one point Snoopy convinces her to slap Shutterbug in the leg.  Shutterbug doesn’t move but we all bust out laughing.  Bonnie finally leaves at 2:30 in the morning, as she walks out the door she tells us she told her husband that she went to the store.  We all sit back and think to ourselves what store in this town would still be open.  Now Shutterbug is really freaking out, he thinks her husband is going to kick down our door.  The rest of the night is uneventful, and we all live to see another day.

Day 61

Day 61
04.23.08
Trents Grocery – Docs Knob

Early morning rain wakes me up this morning.  We walk over to the grocery store and get Trin and I breakfast and coffee.  I break my camp site down and throw my tent in a dryer that is part of the Trent Grocery store.  We have an easy hike to a spot to break and me and Trin head out pretty quickly.  The flat terrain was a nice change, but the day is starting to heat up.  Trin and I end up passing the same creek what I felt like 50 times, and I’m starting to get tired.  I finally reach the shelter and throw my pack down and get Trin some water.  Jukebox and his gang show up 20 minutes later and we all break.  The heat of the day has gotten to us all and we all take a 30 minute nap in the shelter.  My break last longer then the rest and I push out with Shutterbug an hour later.  The rest of day is filled with a climb and Trin and take it slow so we don’t get over heated.  I take a quick break and find that my ankle is killing me.  I press on and the next 1.5 miles is filled with rocks and this aggitates the ankle even more. I hobble my way into the shelter and make dinner.  All I can think of is rest when I will get in town tomorrow.