This is not really a journal entry. It is an update. I woke up Wednesday, April 6th, in a tepee. I woke up with a higher fever and with a once more burning bladder. I was not in good shape.
Donnie Turner had come down to the campground at about 8PM and we had talked about my journey and he had expressed great concern about the safety of my boats and the inadequacy of my life jacket. He said I could get a good jacket from his stock in the morning. During the night it rained, rained and rained some more. Expecting the rain I had gathered kindling and kept it safe and dry inside the tepee. In the dark before the grey of dawn, I started a small fire and cooked oatmeal in an empty vegetable can. I then showered, changed clothes and started walking back to my canoes along State Highway 100.
When I came to the boat landing, I discovered that each of my boat hulls had filled with 7 inches of water. That was a big rain storm. My clothing and several dry bags had become soaked. I took half of my clothes and packed them in a canvas tool bag. I walked back up to the highway and up the road a piece to a church. I went in to ask which direction I should take to the nearest town with a laundromat. I was told to go back past the boat dock and on to the town of Hillsville.
Back to the road I went and then started walking and holding out my thumb hoping for a ride. The caretaker at the church had told me that town was about six miles away. After only 15 minutes, the caretaker and a visiting evangelist stopped and gave me a ride into that town.They had gotten worried about me walking in the rain. Again, hurrah for the folks along the river.
I loaded my clothing into driers and asked for directions at the next door gas station so I could buy a charger for my phone. I started walking again and made it the mile or so to the Verizon store, bought a charger and started back. At the laundromat, I charged my phone and called a friend, Kim, to come and take me back to the campground.
She made it to me about two hours or so later and I was not feeling well at all. When we got to the boats the bush they were tied to was 6 feet out from the bank. She helped me load my things at the tepee, tell Donnie's wife that I would be back after I saw a doctor and took me back to Wytheville. I called the Bland Clinic and made an appointment to see my doctor.
I arrived early the next morning in a borrowed car, only to learn that my doctor was ill and that I would be seeing another doctor. During the nurse's workup I reported my infection and an annoying rash that had developed on my right breast. The nurse took a look at the irritation and told the doctor about it. He checked my records, looked at the rash, called in another doctor to look, and said I needed an immediate biopsy. There had been no biopsy taken for clear cell carcinoma at the University of Virginia breast cancer center last winter. The two doctors thought that my rash looked much like Piaget's Disease of the Breast. This rash usually shows up when there is an advanced form of breast cancer underneath. The biopsy was taken. My breast was stitched up. I was given prescriptions for lymph node infection, urinary tract infection and for the skin rash. I was sent home with instructions to wait and not to get wet until the stitches could be removed. I filled the prescriptions at Kmart and went home to wait.
For two weeks I waited anxiously. I called the Turners to tell them that I had been delayed and why. They said they would be praying for me and the Donnie would move the boats to higher ground. When I returned to the clinic for stitch removal, the results had just come back from the lab. I was clear of cancer. I could report that the urinary infection was gone, so we were all quite happy.
The next day I went to look at my boats and found that they were tied to a tree that was far out in the river. The river banks had enlarged more than 30 feet since Donnie and friends had moved the boats.
I waited another week until the river started to recede.
