Tales from the Trail #28: A union of angels in Uniform …
I was in great spirits after passing through the opulent oasis of Zionsville, and for awhile found it relatively easy going down the roadway through that cool night – smoothly making it to the intersection of highways 421 & 32, and then just as fluidly taking a left turn onto the latter to head for the town of Lebanon. Now I knew from recent check-ins online that it was going to be a long 8+ mile stretch of “nothingness” from the aforementioned intersection to the edge of the aforementioned town, and my feet very soon started to ache and my body just as quickly became a bit fatigued – with neither condition being in any way helped by the fact that there was (for whatever odd reason) an inordinate amount of traffic on this particular stretch of roadway that evening, and that as such I was once again forced to walk “Frogger style” for much of the night.* And so it was that I was not at all upset when local officers Jamison (from the town of Lebanon) & Alex (from the nearby hamlet of Advance) arrived on the scene in Jamison’s brand new squad car …
Now I will admit that their initial vehicular approach was somewhat aggressive – and therefore a bit frightening** and yet once they stopped in front of me and exited their patrol car they were both nothing but polite and respectful. It turned out that they had been called by another motorist who had passed me earlier in the evening and had set out to find me and do a welfare check on “some crazy guy walking down the highway” … Though a bit standoffish at first (they were almost certainly expecting me to be intoxicated on alcohol or inhibited by some other substance), they both warmed to me right away once I told them what I was doing and why. Jamison then said that he had noticed my obvious limp and offered (essentially demanded, really) that I hop into his cruiser and let them give me a ride into town. And that is precisely what they did; with all three of us then engaging in some lively banter about the Walk while they drove me all the way to the far side of Lebanon to the Lebanon Christian Church – where they then dropped me off at some nearby picnic tables, gave me the snacks they had been saving for themselves that eveni8ng, and rode away after wishing me well on my Walk …
And yet their wonderful act of graciousness is not where this story of kindness ends. For after they departed, I knew right away that it was going to be too cold that night to get any decent sleep outdoors. And yet despite knowing that I would have to walk more to find warmth elsewhere, I decided to stay there under the church’s pavilion for a few minutes and eat the snacks the officers had given me. And yet while I was heartily munching on the same, I hard a low guttural growl in the darkness only slightly off to my left. I shined my flashlight immediately in its direction and noticed the largest coyote I had ever seen just 20 feet away from me, looking in my direction and slightly baring its teeth (!!!) … Fortunately, my canine friend was frightened by my flashlight and immediately skulked away into the shadows, though that bold encounter with the local fauna still remained a clear cue for me to get the heck away from there, which I did in short order; heading back towards Highway 39 in the hopes of finding a store or restaurant that was still open at that late hour …
And I didn’t walk that far at all before I spotted yet another police officer stopped at a traffic light and flagged him down to ask where I might get in out of the cold until that morning’s LCC services began. He had no good ideas for me at the time (“This is Lebanon, man. Nothing’s open right now.”), so I asked him if the ER at the hospital across the street (Witham Health Services) might take me in and let me relax there for a bit. He said they might, and then he wished me good luck before driving off into the early morning, so that is indeed where I walked after he departed … It was no trouble at all to get to said ER, and yet unfortunately, the same wouldn’t let me stay there to get warm (“For insurance reasons” – even though I was literally the only visitor there at the time). So the security guard on duty told me that I had to either head back out into the cold or check myself in to the ER as a patient. Quite frankly, there have few decisions in my life that were easier to make, and I smoothly asked for the requisite forms needed to check myself in. Yes, the real reason for my visit was “stalked by coyote” (a truth that I did indeed write onto the ER admission form) and yet my feet were both seriously screwed up at the time, so an ER visit seemed like a fair enough exchange to get in out of the cold …
Needless to say, the nurses on call were initially less than thrilled with my obvious “shenanigans”, and yet over the next several hours – especially after hearing more details about my Walk and its ways – they warmed to me like I warmed to no longer being outside. The doctor who later examined my feet turned out to be exceptionally kind as well, eventually telling me (with a slight smile and almost even a knowing wink) that they were not going to be able to discharge me for several more hours, if that was OK with me, and then turned out the light in my room when he left so I could more easily sleep awhile therein! And sleep there I most certainly did – around three hours of glorious slumber without once waking due to plummeting temperatures or wild canine growlings; sleeping quite soundly until the nurses gently woke me at 6am and politely told me I was “free to go.”
* Again, for those who missed my explanation in any earlier posting, walking “Frogger style” refers to the way I would weavingly avoid (mostly oncoming) traffic whenever I was walking on roads with no substantial shoulders; painfully hopping off the roadway onto often uneven, stony ground when forced to do so, and yet just as often crossing in front of oncoming vehicles in order to walk in peace on the other side of the road until they passed.
** I had seen their car approaching me through the darkness in the distance, and so had crossed over the road well in front of them to walk on the other side of the otherwise clear highway, when they suddenly veered straight for me, activated their lights, and pulled to a stop only a few feet away.
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