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.
Wow, what a weekend that was. We got up at something like 4:30 am and started riding around 5:30 or so. I didnt end up finishing until like 8 pm…all I wanted was to eat, drink and be merry. And big thanks to Mike and Mr T here for waiting around for myself to haul ass back to Atlanta.
Next day…well lets just say that it was interesting, Ive never seen Todd in this much pain, granted Ive never been around him when he gets his kidney stones, and I dont know how the pain related to that, but he was pretty miserable. I guess Todd is a lucky guy to have a wife to drop what she is doing to come pick his butt up.
I am glad you are feeling better there buddy. Just dont hurt yourself with the pups.