Friday, June 17, 2022

We started out on June 4th to meet friends eventually in Grand Teton National park

 A few weeks before this we bought another car which has a smoothe ride because my wife is in her mid 60s and I'm now in my mid 70s with a pacemaker. I had some trouble in Lake Tahoe because of the altitude so my wife insisted I go to the emergency room. I thought I might be able to get a permit for an oxygenator but they said my oxygenation was too high for that because it was at 93%. However, I did discover something called Boost Oxygen which is an over the counter remedy you can get places like CVS and others around the country to take a breath of pure oxygen when you need it. I haven't had to actually use it so far but I find it comforting to have it there if I need it. Going to the hospital was a good idea in Truckee next to Lake Tahoe just because they fine tuned my heart medications. Though the doctor wasn't recommending going to higher altitudes for my condition what did happen is all my medications became much more fine tuned so I could better survive the trip across Nevada and Idaho and Wyoming and Montana and Canada.

Then in the Grand Tetons I got injured getting off a boat on Jenny Lake after a nice hike on the back of th lake on a trail. I was a little spacey from the altitude which likely contributed to my fall also somewhat. Then I had to go to the hospital in Jackson for about 20 stitches in my left shin from the fall and because I was taking a blood thinner there was a lot of blood on the deck where this happened at Jenny lake getting off a boat there. But, luckily they had an EMT who was able to keep it together and wrap my leg up tight so the bleeding was stopped. 

However, this made this trip less of a hiking trip and more of a driving and sightseeing trip. But, in some ways because of my wife and my ages this was a wonderful thing because the other couple traveling with us are more avid hikers and because of my injury this got me off of any obligation to overdo hiking. So, in that way this has been more pleasant for my wife and I. So, despite the injury and stitches the trip has been amazing!

It reminds me in some ways of traveling to India and Nepal because of the length of the trip so far and how much on a daily basis we have had to adapt to make all this work for us.

But, after 2 years of Covid and not really being able to travel outside of California this whole trip has been a blessing to my wife and I a lot.

Just doing something different every day since around June 4th now has changed us both a lot for the better.

It's like we have thrown off most of the problems associated with Covid during this trip and started to move our lives on into something new instead.

So, I highly recommend getting out of your covid bubble to explore the world again if you can because it is very healing and renewing to do this.

Even getting flooded out of Yellowstone and almost washed away near Livingston, Montana helped us move forward a lot in our lives by all the stimulation and adventures we have been having along the way.

After all, What is an adventure? It is usually defined as: "A difficult situation well handled". 

And that in the end is what a real adventure often is. It is very stimulating and renewing in many different ways.

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