The storm had been threatening all day, but I thought I'd dodged the bullet when I reached my destination and set up camp before it broke. Not.
For most of the night, I was fine; my tent kept me dry and I got some sleep despite being repeatedly awakened by howling winds, thunder, and once by what I'm pretty sure was a tornado, but which I only heard and never saw. But then, around 3 AM (why do these things always happen at 3AM?), the wind REALLY started to blow and the rain to fall, and the tent began leaking around the zipper. So I moved some things to the other side, used my poncho and some other water-resistant items to keep the water at bay, and lay back down to try and sleep. Until the wind began to blow so hard that the tent poles bowed and the rain was pushed through the fabric of the tent wall.
At this point I decided that I ought to use some precious battery power and check the weather on my phone. Big line of red, all the warnings that go with it, but at the end, "extreme wind warning". Well that doesn't sound good. So I put into action my emergency plan: put on pants so I have somewhere to keep wallet and phone, the two items I MUST preserve, and boots, in case I have to walk out. But I'd waited too late. The tent stakes on the windward side came up, one at a time. I grabbed my walking stick and tried to prop that side of the tent up. A pretty comical sight, if anyone had been there to see it; me with my pants halfway up, fighting 60+ mph winds with a hiking staff, and the tent wrapped around me. Couldn't even get out of it at that point, it was flapping around so violently. "Lord, I could kinda use a break here." And when it came, I dropped the pole, pulled up my britches, put on my shoes, and exited the wet, soggy, tangled mass that had been my gear.
So now what? Status--I'm f----d. Course of action--have to get some help. Well, it just so happened that my new friend Charlie, who I met in Key West, was back in Florida. We'd been trying to arrange a meetup, but couldn't get our schedules to mesh. He'd said he'd be available between the 17th and the 20th. And he'd also said, "If I'm in Florida and you find yourself in trouble, call me, and I'll come get you." Well, Charlie is a man of his word. I left a voicemail for him at 4:38 AM, and by 8 o'clock he'd driven from the other side of the state and I was warm in his van, with dry clothes, clean water, and something to eat.
But that's not all. I'd started to feel sick while I was packing up my wet things and waiting for my ride. I thought it was probably just fatigue or dehydration or whatever. Happens a lot out there, to be honest. But it kept getting worse, and by the time we reached Orlando, Charlie said I'd gone completely pale despite all the sun coloring from two months outdoors. I'd promised to buy him lunch in gratitude for the rescue, but I left mine in the parking lot, and it soon became apparent that I was sick in earnest. So, next stop: the hospital. Probably what happened is that I got careless when filtering swamp water for drinking and cooking the night before, because I'd been in a hurry to beat the storm, and let some dirty water spill on the canteen mouth or something. Anyway, they treated me for dehydration, gave me a medley of drugs, and sent off some lab work, because it's probably just a routine viral infection, but with swampwater you never know.
So they sent me on my way with a handful of prescriptions and instructions to call for the lab results in a few days. My lovely friend Jessica picked me up from the hospital, took me to get my drugs and lot of gatorade, and brought me to her house, where I currently sit with a cup of coffee and a good book, two of the things I'd been missing sorely out on the road.
Plan of action: rest, recuperate, and regroup. Equipment check, maintenance, and possible replacement. And see an orthopaedist about this knee. Then, hopefully, back on the road in a couple of weeks.
The morals of the story: number one, the Lord is looking out for me, and works in mysterious ways. If it hadn't been for the storm, I'd have ignored the first symptoms of illness and gone on, and I'd have been hours into a very remote and inaccessible trail by the time I'd realized how sick I was. Then I'd have been FUBARed. Number two, thanks for true friends like Charlie and Jessica, who are there when I need them.
"Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour. For if they fall , the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up ." -- Ecclesiastes 4:9-10
"A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity." -- Proverbs 17:17
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