Home-aha Again: April 27th - May 31st, 2025

The long story short is that I had some medical things I thought were being managed okay, or maybe I was just in a little bit of denial, but hiking 80-ish miles through the desert made me feel like I really ought to see a doctor before spending days at a time in any more wilderness.

So a quick bus from Lordsburg brought us to Phoenix, and then a direct flight put us in Omaha that night, where Susan's dad scooped us up and took us home. I enjoyed a great amount of care and support from a great number of family and friends while paying a few visits to the doctor.

And... Everything pretty much checked out. Some of my symptoms persisted, but otherwise all the tests cleared without abnormalities. Equipped with some adjustments to medication, a meditation & stress reduction program, and a fancy spreadsheet to help with planning, we decided to get back on the trail in Cuba, NM. 9 days of hiking in the New Mexico mountains will bring us across the Colorado border to Chama.

Omaha skyline from Hitchcock

 

 My brief stint as Ben-Borg

Meanwhile, the time in Omaha filled up pretty easily. Susan earned a bunch of money subbing for OPS. I thought I'd earn a bunch of money refinishing a deck for my grandma but Susan ended up earning a third of it because I needed so much help. Despite the rain we managed to squeak by two coats of paint after pressure washing and sanding, finishing just the day before we flew out. We got several compliments from the neighbor, and I realized Nebraska is a place where if you tell people you climbed Mt. Ranier they just kind of say "OK", but tell them you re-painted a deck and everyone's impressed.

 

 The deck after finishing power washing

 
 

Deck all done! 

 Deck all done!

Susan is tired after 73 labor hours on the deck

We did our best to stay in hiking shape doing loops around Fontenelle, Neale Woods, and Hitchcock, running, and picking up and setting down things at CRUNCH gym. I paid a couple visits to the family of turkeys while running at Chalco and we got to know the racoon neighbor while staying at my grandma's place. Being Dead put on a great concert at the Reverb lounge and I bought too much merch. We got to have Hayden meme hour outside of MT and appreciate some intricate Japanese wood block prints at the Joslyn.

  

River pelican at Fontenelle

Green tunnel at Fontenelle

 

Scrambling, Nebraska style 

 Pretty purple bells at Neale Woods

  

 Our neighbor at my grandma's place

Not a bad month overall! We were supposed to be out hiking in New Mexico but I don't regret taking a different turn. Checking in with the doctor will help me enjoy the parts of the CDT we do get to hike instead of being distracted, worried, and scared... And it helps to know we have so many people on our side back in Omaha :)