I have not had the time to post anything in the last few days, not because I had nothing to report, but because I have not been able to take time away from my hectic pace of preparing for the trip.
The first thing I have to report is the change in the estimated date of departure. I had to move it again to July 23rd for the same reason I moved if from June 27th to July 6th, then to July 11th, and then to July 17th. The reason involves a tradeoff, a reasonable one at that, of safety vs. schedule. Let me explain. Since last May, I have been wrestling with one problem or another with my right leg, brought on, I’m sure, by my daily jogging since I was 17. (You can tell who we early-lie joggers are – we are the ones limping today,) Actually, I first noticed the problem during my first road trip to Alaska in 2000 when my right leg would cramp up after driving for an hour. It really wasn’t a cramp, though, but something deeper and more sinister. Fast forward to last May when I went to my acupuncturist for two months when my knee started to feel funky, with no success. Then when the problem next showed up in October in my back, I visited my chiropractor for two months. I abandoned that, too, after no success, but then, when I found myself in mid-December unable to walk, put on my shoes or pants, or get into my vehicle, I knew it was time for action. Since then I have had x-rays of my right knee, back and hip, MRIs of my knee and back, an arthroscopic operation on my right knee to repair a torn meniscus, and 19 sessions one physical therapist and then 15 more (with four more to go) with another, shots of cortisone and three injections of Euflexa in my knee, as well as two epidural shots in my L-5 spinal area. I think finally I am final seeing the light of day on solving this to set a departure date with confidence. My spinal doctor convinced me to return for the third epidural shot in two weeks, and to stay off the road for two days afterwards, and I agreed with her, so I moved he departure date to July 23rd. I still have not looked at the itinerary yet to see what damage to it this will do, if any, but I still think the entire trip is doable, especially if I stay in most campsites for one night each. Incidentally, when I have to move on every day when I am on the road, when I get up in the morning, I just convince myself that I have been in that spot for a few days, and it works. So, for now, July 23rd is the new departure date.
I spend my days in this narrowing window of time before the trip doing only three things: the essential quotidian chores that must get done every day (e.g., walk Donner, workout, therapy, etc.); things I must do before I leave for the trip (e.g., pay bills, redo my will, etc.); and prepare ready for the trip. This is the one time each year that my To-do lists becomes an essential daily chore first thing in the morning. I still have not merged the marginal To-do or To-Take lists in my head with the prior trip’s, which I will soon, but I am pretty confident that I have been spending time on the things I need to get done without running out of time to do them at the last minute or delay the trip further, although but I am getting close to critical point.
Probably 80 percent of my trip prep work over the last 10 days had been buying things for the trip, things that are targeted at reducing the irritations I experienced on prior trips, but postponed doing anything about. I get two or three deliveries every day, and Zack, the UPS guy who drops my packages off at my front door, knocks on my door even if he has no deliveries for me just to hear the status report on the trip.
One of the irritations I was demined to do something about this year was (and yes, you are reading this right) my Defender’s waste basket. My vehicle is so packed -- but in an organized way -- that a waste basket, an indispensable item in the vehicle, can take up valuable space. But even then, the Defender’s interior can turn into a dump if I am not careful. I have no idea where the DUD (Defender’s ubiquitous detritus) --mostly coffee cups, juice bottles, and health bar and dog snack wrappings-- comes from sometimes. So, having decided that my requirements were for a small, green, collapsible, waterproof, attractive, hidden wastebasket, I Googled Image (GI) <green+small+collapsible+waterproof+attractive+hidden+wastebasket+1799571> and bought the first one that appeared, and voila, the perfect wastebasket for my trip was found. (Click here.)
Incidentally, I have to be very cautious about each and everything I take on these trips because I will have less space in my vehicle and tent that the mound-bound Apollo astronauts had in their space capsule, and they were only on the road for 5 days and 22 hours, whereas I will be on the road for 100 days.
One of the items I bought that I am anxious to get to is Donner’s radio collar. Although I am taking many precautions to make sure he does not get lost, the consequences to me and him if he does would be so great, I needed to add another measure of safety, and that was a radio collar with a 10-mile range. That poor guy is going to be loaded down with a backpack, a vehicle safety harness, a regular collar, a choke collar, an e-collar, a prong collar, and now a radio collar. Sometimes I wonder what he is thinking, like perhaps that life chained to a tree for four years in a depressed LA district wasn’t that bad after all. Or maybe he is thinking that all that stuff is canine bling.
Enough said for tonight. Until the next time.
ED, from off the road in DC
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