A Winding Path

6/20/26

He sits there looking at me wide eyed anxiety in the air…about to start his third year of medical school, but  can’t pass his exams. Dyslexia is such a hindrance it impedes progress at every turn. As his Clinical Professor I offer to help by tutoring several days a week . .. it makes no sense for him to stop having come this far over two years. Six weeks later, he passes the first part of his Boards and move on to his clinical years. He bestows thanks  on me in unending grace.

7 years later…

I sit with him one night while both of us on call in the ER of a rural NC hospital. He has successfully completed an orthopedic surgery residency and has decided to go it alone. We sit quietly in the middle of the night while he waits for x-rays to return. Tears come to his eyes and he tells me that the other orthopedic surgeons in town have isolated and black balled him …competition to be cut down. He’s decided however, to go it alone. 

Five years on, I’m taking care of his son who has developed juvenile rheumatoid arthritis..the outcome is quite good and again we all move on. 

5 years more and I am referring patients to him for surgical repairs . ..

10 years pass by now  both of us  starting white haired crowns…

on a trek from Bar Harbor to Seattle from 1500 miles away I call him for help with a rider who has  fallen with a swollen bloody knee…

all turns out well. 

12 years pass by and now to this ride …a swollen wrist in front of me … a crash on a mountain decline … I fear a fractured scaphoid bone…I again call him for advice…not to my liking I turn out to be right…

As I drive on to the next rest  stop, I ponder a circle of events and think about how I once helped a young man pass exams only to find myself years later with him holding my hand across 30 years of maturing  and 400 miles of land. The winding path goes on…

These rides are exhausting and sometimes it’s hard to write so for my dear readers I’ll make just a list of events from the past three days…

Leaving Charlottesville  ( where I bent the axle of the trailer … now fixed…) 

I ride to a marvelous orchard at the base of the climbs. 

There I pair up with a struggling rider to help her up to Skyline Drive

…4 hours on… with 40-50  resting stops…the two of us way back … she breathes a sigh of relief at what she thinks is the top. The view is stupendous. 

Unfortunately for her the climbs have just begun. 1 mile on she waves the white flag and her day is done. I call for the support van … it  comes back to ferry her forward for the rest of the day. 

2 hours later after a total of a 6900 foot climb I sail into camp down a steep mountain side… Vesuvius the most difficult climb and descent of the coast to coast ride..my hydraulic brakes smoking on the drop down.

Route Leader responsibilities let me ride each third day so I next drive to Troutville for the nights stay.

Upon arrival we set up camp as riders coast in. Two come to me to ask me to looks at someone’s wrist. 

A fall yesterday down the descent of Vesuvius ..he doesn’t tell me then not wanting to stop the trip …  riding 60 miles   with “moderate” pain…

I fear a fracture and switch into MD mode… make quick call to NC… see above…

I walk into town, find the local physicians office for an X-ray machine only to fine the closest is 15 miles ahead. I call  and they make an immediate spot for him…a scaphoid fracture on the films sends him packing to Texas back home. 

A powerful thunderstorm comes pounding through that night but we are all safely tucked into a church much to our delight. 

At sunrise we move on to Blacksburg where we have a rest day and service projects for the less fortunate suffering from the rages of MS … our discomforts are nothing compared to theirs. They will host us tonight for a celebration dinner to mark  400,000$ raised by these marvelous riders I am helping  each day.

We have now completed the first stage of the trip and tomorrow begin to cross the Eastern Divide…

Kentucky  and your dogs…here we come…