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CHUCK
STRAUB
(11/24/02)
First
of all, Molly is ok and I will be soon. While doing the "My
Favorite Musicals" boxes in Mansfield CT, Chickabirdie, Molly and I
were having difficulty finding "Climb Every Mountain" which is
along a very tall and steep and rocky hill. I decided to go down
the hill a bit to look under the many overhangs and crevices in the
rock. Lost my footing on damp oak leafs and fell slid down hill about
five feet, rolled off the edge and fell off the side another 5-10 feet
onto a landing, bounced off of that and fell another 10 feet onto
another. Chickabirdie was on top of the hill and couldn't see me. I
didn't yell, so she didn't even know I fell. I poked around and did a
few simple tests to see what if anything was broke and decided I was ok
except what I thought was some type of damage to my hip which hurt like
hell. I yelled up to chickabirdie telling her of my situation and to in
no way come down. She tied up Molly to a tree because Molly was
barking and going a little crazy. I had Barbara talk to me so I knew
which direction I had to go for the easiest way up.. I got a hold of a
fairly thick stick and dug small steps into the dirt so I could have
footing for 1 foot approximately every 12 inches. When there was no
dirt, a edge of a rock would work also. Getting near the top it wasn't
so steep and small trees and bushes were used to pull myself up and to
the top. I made Chickabirdie look around the top for a few minutes for
the letterbox but then she made me leave and get off the mountain. Using
a big stick I found. I used it as a walking stick, it took us an hour to
get out of there. I didn't want to go to the hospital but Chickabirdie
kept after me to go to a local walk in clinic in Willimantic. we went
there and it was closed. Being only about a mile form the Windham
Hospital we did go to the emergency room. The first ER nurse I
talked to ended up being b-weekenderwarrier and a little later on in
comes another ER nurse we had met before, Irish Mum.Great people and
excellent care givers. The doctor knew about letterboxing and actually
owned a stamp but did not try letterboxing yet. I went for x-rays and
found that one of the women in there had gone letterboxing with a friend
at Bailey;s Ravine and Under the Mountain but she doesn't have a stamp
yet. Her friend goes by the name Merlin. Don't know him but have seen
his stamp around . Had a cat scan done and the verdict was that there
was no fracture but bad bruising which should be pretty much ok by
Thanksgiving. Got some kind of heavy dose pain killer pills which work
very well. Still have pain when moving around at all but the pills help
a lot. My next letterbox when I am all better is going to be "Climb
Every Mountain" and then finish that series. I do want to say
that we did get through about half of the series before my adventure
down the mountain. It is an excellent series and I'm sure where I was
looking was off the mark. Pink Trotters did give a bold warning about
the cliff area in the clue sheet. She is a good person and in no way had
anything to do with my fall. It was all my own fault, a bit of bad luck,
perhaps bad judgement and slippery conditions. Actually I love the area. We
had met Pete, Wanda and liberumarbitrium on the trail that
day, should have done gone to lunch with them but the lure of
letterboxes is too great. Now if psycomommy can count lizards, I think I
should be able to count injuries while letterboxing. I was thinking of
making up a pin for my vest in the shape of a heart and painted purple.
A purple heart for injured in the line of letterboxing but didn't want
people to take the wrong meaning of purple on a heart. I thought of
maybe a type of iron cross, pre nazi style of coarse or just a
black W (for wounded). Well I have to have some fun with it, because it
wasn't too funny yesterday. Can't laugh much though, that makes it
hurt too. Happy letterboxing and stay safe out there.....Chuck |
