Right or Left at Oak Street? - Wednesday, May 7

My parents loved a song by Roy Clark called "Right of Left at Oak Street". I have memories of them singing along with the radio as I watched from the back seat of our Edsel station wagon. It presented the dilemma a man faced everyday as he drove to work. At Oak street, if he turned right he went to his job and continued his routine of family life and it's responsibilities. If he turned left, he would leave it all behind and start a new life. Although our choices are very different from Roy's, Sally and I are sitting at the corner of Oak with a choice to make, right and we are back on the trail, left and we are off the trail and on to some other spring time adventure. The decision is not based on some dislike of a current lifestyle, rather it depends on a repetitive stress injury and how well it has healed. We would love to turn right, but hobbling painfully up a trail with limited water on an injured foot is not the road to better health, our defining goal of this adventure. Turning left means changing activities in trying to reach our goal.

We have put in place all the infrastructure to continue right-90 days of food all prepared and ready to be mailed, house rented out, maps, gear, etc. We have momentum built in that direction, like a laden ship motoring forward. Turning left would require turning our ship, a task I am poor at. I do not change direction well. Once set in a direction I plod on somewhat oblivious to outside influences. Sally is much more nimble, able to see other possibilities and move toward them with excitement at the new prospects. So, we are at a crossroads. A visit to the doctor this morning, some rest and evaluation and then it is decision time.

We drove Sue to work this morning so we could use her car to get to the podiatrist. We made it to our 10:10 appointment early and were quickly seated in an exam room. The doctor looked surprised to see us back as he entered the room. Sally explained her condition, he examined her foot and suggested the continuing pain might be an aggravated tendon whose pain was masked by the pain of the inflamed joint nearby, which he treated the week before. He administered a shot of cortisone specifically to the tendon, then said walking on it would not further injure the foot, it was a matter of how much pain could be tolerated.

After the treatment we ran an errand or two then settled into a McDonalds to discuss and weigh possibilities. We would not know the effect of the treatment for a day or two, so we contemplated alternatives to continuing the hike if the pain persisted. Cycling became the top choice, so we considered the how and where of that activity, remarking the early season and limited locations available. We checked air flights, bus routes and train tickets home. Generally, we researched alternatives in case the healing we hoped for did not occur.
We picked up Sue at 1:00, then spent the rest of the day icing and elevating a foot, doing a little car repair on Sue's Toyota, dinner prep and pinochle.
By late evening Sally was giving hopeful signs. The pain in her foot was nearly absent for the first time in almost three weeks. We made a sojourn to the aquatic complex on this cool (65°) and windy evening for a soak in the hot tub before retiring for the evening.

Right or Left at Oak Street? We make our turn on Friday.