JUL 25, 1995

HEADING OUT

I never thought that last Friday would never had come. I wanted to get out of the body cast just to take a full shower along with a good stretch. The cast was supposed to have been taken off earlier in the week ut there was an unexpected operation that the doctor had to perform.

After x-rays were taken to see how well the bone fragments of my L-2 vertabrae had knitted together, the cast was finally cut off. I was glad to get it off because I sort of gained some weight due to my inactivity. The only concern that the doctor had was that when I would get older there would be a good chance for me to get arthritis in the lower back.

I didn't really ride out from Hannibol because of something unexpected. My friend's insurance company in Cedar Rapids wanted to pay me some compensation because of the accident not just my hospital and medical bills. The amount was quite substantial and would keep me on the road for a while. The only problem was that I would have to go up to Cedar Rapids to pick up the check. This wasn't much of a problem because Frank had to go up into Iowa to pick up his daughters from their grandparents.

We loaded up everything for ride up to Cedar Rapids. It was around noon when we got to the insurance company but the check was waiting for me at the reception desk. From the company, we went over to a nearby bank to get some traveler's checks. Before Frank had to leave, he drove me to a motel on the east side of Cedar Rapids. Tomorrow, I'll be heading out to the Madison, WI area where I will watch some other friends' farm while they go to a bike race in France.