Retuning Home 2 & Synchronicity

After posting the previous post and arranging a limo to the airport tomorrow morning, curiosity simply got the best of me. I just couldn't figure out why i was never asked for a co-pay at the hospital when i left Thursday morning. So, i decided to walk to the hospital and ask. I have nothing else to do today anyway.

The woman told me that the co-pay issue is dealt with when you first arrive and i was, apparently, not lucid enough to deal with it so they skipped that step. Yes, i did owe $200 for the co-pay, but they were just going to bill me. So, i payed that and should now be off the hook.

But, when i got to the hospital there was a biker sitting on the ground in front of the building (it's a very small hospital) and i recognized him as a guy i had met at a park i stayed in a few days ago. We were both surprised to see each other but he said he had come to see if i was still in the hospital.

Apparently, the guy that i was riding with when the accident happened told someone at a gas station, who told someone, who told someone (or something like this) and the guy today had heard about it. The grapevine is an amazing thing; reminds me of the grapevine on the henro trail on Shikoku — it's vast and incredibly fast.

When he got to the hospital they claimed no record of me for privacy reasons. We chatted, i told him to drink a beer for me (i don't think i can have a beer while on the antibiotics?), and asked him to try and have double the pleasure for both of us for a few days. He agreed and went on his way.

It's interesting, to me, that i unexpectedly decided to walk up to the hospital at just the time he happened to be there. The world works in strange, but interesting, ways.

Now i have to put together a list of the value of all my gear so the shippers can insure it accordingly as it works it's way back to Lockport.

Lasts thoughts on what's next. In short, i don't know, but wondering if maybe, after i heal, i should ride my bike south from Lockport to Cave-In-The-Rock, where the TransAm enters Illinois, turn west, and then ride the rest of the trail from there. I would completely skip the last little bit of Virginia and all of Kentucky. This all depends on how long it takes my face to heal. The rest of the scraped and bruised parts are sore but usable enough to ride now if i really wanted to.