They tend to sneak up on you, don’t they? Melanie had mentioned that she had noticed a blur in her left eye as we were heading home. If you remember she had previously had a right macular hole closed in 2020, just prior to CoVID. At the time they had told her to stay vigilant as to changes in the other eye. Calling both doctors at the same time, she was able to get an appointment within a few days. My orthopedic appointment would not happen for three weeks. More time for my hip flexor tear to heal, I guess.
We arrived at the eye clinic in plenty of time for the mandatory two hour wait. I can understand there being delays with surgical schedules and emergencies, but come-on. It became a joke as to how long we would have to wait for Dr Sen. And there are several separate places to wait. The main one, at least 45 minutes. Then back for a scan. Then the 30-minute wait while waiting to go back to the exam room. And of course, the mandatory wait to see the Dr., at least fifteen more. Then he comes into the room like he has never seen you before. Rush, rush…then gone. At least he was friendly for those 5 minutes. Then go back to the front desk to wait again for fifteen to get the appointment for surgery. Yep, surgery again. The quickest date would be in three weeks. And a four-week recovery.
Between Melanie’s eye appointment and my appointment to look at my hip would be two weeks. The nearest clinic for my hip was 90 minutes away. This was the same clinic Melanie went to for her knee. Different Doctor as they all had their specialties. Dr McGrory was nice, but brief. He moved my leg this way and that, asking about the pain. Then he twisted and jerked my leg and asked if that hurt. It took all my power to not answer his question with… A THROAT PUNCH. Yes, that fucking hurt. Then he sent me off for a round of x-rays. The results were as expected. Bone on bone with other issues. Titanium would be in my future as a total hip replacement would be needed.
But first, let us regress. Some things needed to be done.
A couple from the UK had left their bikes with another friend in Tennessee. His circumstances had changed, so we were doing our best to help them all out. Problem was, we could not find anyone else that was willing to help. America, eh? Anyway, we had found one person to store the motorcycles, almost seven hundred miles away. Mark from Outback Motortek East had agreed to store Simon and Lisa’s BMW Motorcycles for them. The problem would be getting them from where they were to where they needed to be. I was still injured and waited for surgery and Melanie was not supposed to be lifting things. If it was going to happen, with us doing the work, it had to happen now. It was only 1500 miles round trip anyway.
We stopped at my son’s house the first night to head into Chattanooga for Octoberfest. That is always a fun time. And seeing the family is always fun. Plans were hatched to do the real thing in Munich in the near future. It will be fun sharing a beer with my grandson, Caleb, in Germany. He will just be old enough. Monday morning, we picked up a trailer and headed north to get the bikes. They had been parked in a barn for 5 years. Along with their massive amount of kit. We expected the worst. But surprisingly, everything was in undamaged shape. We backed the trailer to the barn and pushed the bikes into the trailer. That was followed by so many boxes the bikes would not have moved, even without the straps. Doors closed and off we went. Our stop that night was at friends Bootsy and Ziggy’s house. We had a great visit as we always do, each sharing our most resent injuries and fixes to be made. Then on to future plans. Seems we all have new adventures coming done the pike.
The next day we got up and rolling early, headed toward Virginia. As what happens, something was wrong with the truck. The loud newly developed grinding meant the front brakes were in need of changing. We carried on using the engine brake as much as possible. Mark met us at the shop and we opened the doors, hoping for the best. Not a thing had moved. We unstrapped the bikes and rolled them into his storage area. He was going to clean them up and move them into his showroom for display. If anyone has been around or in the overlanding community long enough, these bikes would be a draw. Simon and Lisa Thomas had spent 16 years on motorcycles exploring the world. It was interrupted by CoVID, as were many other journeys, including ours.
Mark and his wife, Luisa, had graciously invited us back to stay at their home for the night. It was another fun night exchanging stories and catching up. A wonderful meal and a couple of bottles of wine rounded off the evening. Halfway back we realized the brakes just wouldn’t make it. A quick phone call to a local shop and the kind mechanic had us out and on the road in under two hours. WOW! We made it back in time to realize both of our A/C units had gone out. What the HELL. We had to hustle to get them fixed as Melanie’s eye surgery was just around the corner. On the way home we decided to stop a couple days in Helen, Georgia for a little taste of Octoberfest. The main party happens on the weekends here, so it was fairly deserted. We had a good time anyway drinking some Octoberfest beers and listening to music.
We arrived at the wait-a-lot Drs office just a little prior to our time. It was excuse after excuse as to why the wait was so long. It was over a four hour wait. Melanie finally got frustrated and walked to the front desk to see if she just needed to come back tomorrow. There was never an apology, just more excuses. She finally was called, and the surgery was performed. We were told it was all a success. Like her other macular hole repair, she needed to recover in a face down position. Her last one was for up to two weeks. She only needed one. This time awas only 5 days. That was a huge relief. After the five days she got the okay to keep her head in a normal position, just no big travel or elevation changes for the next month.
We survived that then it was going to be my turn. A right hip arthroplasty. Time to sneak in a couple short trips and a few motorcycle rides. But, more on that later…
Cheers,
2WANDRRs
2WANDRRs 
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