Taking A Walk

by Dwayne Phillips

This happened on the day we walked through Harrisonburg, Virginia.

It was a good day. We started out in rural areas at a spot where Route 11 crossed Interstate 81. We walked through three small towns that were wide spots in the road – Mauzy, Lacey Spring (not springs), and Melrose. I recall a good cup of coffee for only 61 cents.  I also recall one spot in the road where the trees cleared and I could see a water tower in the distance. Water towers indicate some inhabited area is approaching.

Then came the city of Harrisonburg. There was an area near downtown that didn’t look so good, so we drove through it. Downtown was okay, but nothing special. Then James Madison University – very nice.

The rest of the walk was several miles of Golden Mile-type things that led to our motel at the southern edge of the city. It was on this last section of the day that things became painful. Every step sent a jolt of pain up my right leg from my ankle to my hip.

I kept walking. This was near the end of the first week of walking and pretty much everything in my legs and feet hurt. These extra jolts of pain didn’t seem that much out of the ordinary.

We walked to the end of the city and checked into our motel. Everything went as usual (blogging, moving photo files, shower, etc.) and we ate dinner at a Chinese restaurant – good food.

After dinner, I was sitting on the edge of the bed and looked at my legs. The shin of my right leg was swollen. In the center of it was a dark red dot surrounded by a lighter red circle. My left leg didn’t look or feel like this. Something was amiss.

The next day was a half-day of walking. We quit at noon and drove back to our home in Reston. It comprised nine miles of painful walking. Every step on my right leg sent the familiar but unwelcome jolt from the ankle to the hip. I was happy to stop at noon.

The weekend at home brought some welcome rest. I saw a doctor on Monday morning to confirm nothing serious like a broken bone. His guess was that something bit me causing the red dot and swelling. I visited the dentist that afternoon (see the episode of a tooth falling out of my mouth). We stayed home an extra day so I could visit the dentist again the next day. I never thought I would welcome a visit to the dentist, but that visit gave one more day for the swelling to subside.

The swelling went away completely over the next couple days of walking. The pain also passed to be replaced by some other pain. Nothing, however, over the entire walk hurt as much as the jolts from ankle to hip from that bite. I still have no guess what bit me, when it bit me, where on the road it bit me, or anything else.