Smudgy Cheeks Days 78-81 (Monday, June 13th through Thursday, June 16th)

I woke up this morning pretty tired.  I was only able to sleep about five hours last night because I was pretty worried about what was going to happen today.  I had a long journey ahead of me to get to the clinic and then I was also worried about what the result of my ankle would be.

The clinic was really great.  They took an X-Ray of my ankle and made sure that there were not any broken bones.  I have a sprained ankle and I also have cellulitis.  I was given an antibiotic that I need to take for ten days and also a pain reliever that will help with the swelling.  The doctor also told me that I needed to take a 5 to 7 day break from hiking and allow my ankle to heal.  The problem with this is that I had no where to stay.  The church does not allow hikers to stay more than one night.  I began to consider going back to Tom Levardi's house to recover there.

After leaving the clinic I found a CVS and was on my way there to pick up my prescriptions.  This is when karma was good to me.  On the way to the CVS I stopped at a mechanic shop to get directions.  The mechanic there told me that he always wanted to set up shop near the trail where he could host hikers and allow them to get off of their feet for a bit.  I showed him my ankle and told him my situation and he immediately asked me what I was going to do.  I told him that I didn't know what I was going to do, that I had to pick up my prescriptions and get back to the next town over (10 miles away) to pick up my food drop, and then find a way to lay low and heel.  He gave me his number and told me to call him after I went to CVS.  He told me that I could stay at his place until I recovered!!  I looked at him like I had seen a ghost and almost started to cry!  I asked him if he was sure and he said it would be no problem, to just call him when I was done and he would take me to get my food drop and then I could help him with something.

I called him after CVS and he did drive me to the next town to get my food drop and also told me about Pittsfield, Massachusetts, the town where the clinic was.  He also shared a bit about his life and he is such a good man.  He was part of the Peace Corps in Honduras and is still going down there to help people today.

He took me to where he is a mechanic and is working on a car.  I helped him to pay for my stay.  I helped to remove a drive shaft and am going to finish this by the time I leave on Friday.

Mechanic Shop

Working on cars!

Looking for parts

This bus has seen better days!

Having a lot of fun

My ankle

Gathering in Pittsfield

I was on the front page of the Pittsfield paper.  I'm standing to the left of the flag in black.

On Wednesday we took a wrong turn and had to turn around.  Walking across the street we saw Bubbles and Sprout!!!  Crazy!!!!  We stopped for a picture.

My guardian angle!  This is real trail magic!!

Days:  78-81
Miles hiked: 0
Total Miles hiked on the trail:  645.1
Bear: 1
Chipmunk: 1
Deer: 1
Lizard: 1
Snakes: 4
Toads: 2
Vulture: 1
Zoo Animals:   2 foxes, 1 porcupine, 1 bobcat, 1 turtle, 2 bears