Day 2 Journal--Part 1

8/5/06
12:34pm

Not my best day. Woke up aching all over, limped to the loo on a hurty knee. My tentmate (Diane?) invited me to breakfast--scrambled eggs, bacon, hash browns and fruit--and after too quick a stretch we started walking. I was stiff at first but walked right through it. At a hill in the woods, I lost Diane and walked a ways with Sarah who explained the wonder of the sweep buses. I thought about stopping at the med tent at the first Pit (2.4 miles) but stretched and peed instead, thinking I'd go another 2 mi and then get the knee looked at. Of course, the next stop was a very cramped Grab & Go and not only were there no med tents but there were no sweeps either. In fact, once we got into the Blue Hills Reservation, there were no sweeps at all.

And I... needed to be swept.

For a long time, I just thumbs upped [originally said "thumbed up" but I thought that sounded wrong and dirty] anyone who asked me how I was. But then the pain in my knee was too much to bear and I was starting to get scared and angry and weepy about the utter lack of sweeping.
Finally, some nice people helped me flag fown Wally the safety biker who called in a ranger to pick me up. I waited 15-20 minutes. Ranger Lady gave me a cool pack and a ride back to that Grab & Go. That was embarassing--everyone we passed looked at me with either pity or contempt and I didn't appreciate either. Catching a ride seems like failure to begin with.
Ranger Lady handed me over to Ranger Tom who took me in his Ranger Truck on a 10 minute ride around the outside of the park and to the second Pit where I waited 15 minutes for Med attention--which turned out to be... ice. Then me and another knee injury waited 25 minutes for a sweep to lunch.

When I got here, I went to the Med tent, waited 10 minutes in line and then just gave up and had a pee. After lunch--chicken fajitas, fruit cup, BBQ chips and a giant cookie--I re-lubed my feet and since then I've been trying to decide what to do next. My knee still hurts and now the tummy is overfull and hurting. The next Pit is 3.5 miles. Then another 3.1 to Pit 4 and 1.something to camp. Maybe I'll bus to Pit 3 or 4 and walk into camp? 4 miles doesn't seem like enough, hurt or not.

1:05pm

...

I asked a crew member in a grass skirt if there was transport to the next pit and she said no but managed to talk me into taking the coach back to camp. "Listen to your body," she said. "It's not about the miles; it's about being here," she said. "Save it for tomorrow," she said. So I got on the bus, I wrapped my knee, and if the bus driver doesn't hit "play" soon on the DVD, then I'm taking a nap. My stomache's a wreck. Not good. Had I started walking, I may have passed out soon after. I'm sunburnt, I'm mosquito-bitten and I guarantee I wouldn't be getting up tomorrow morn if I had kept walking.

Or am I making excuses? Hard to say. Apparently, I'm not invincible. Despite the feel-good propaganda, I'm still feeling like an ass for quitting.

3:10pm

The sun is a (expletive deleted) (expletive deleted) and I can only imagine the sizzling, bubbling pile of goo I would have been if I hadn't been sitting on a bus for the past 2 hours. I napped, I watched some Love, Actually, I spent some time feeling like a lonely pathetic--WEAK--[loser] and then I enjoyed the cushioned seats and AC.