One of the partially true myths I have about myself is that something will test me at the beginning of a trip. This evil event questions whether I have the fortitude to go ahead and not wimp out. Usually it’s something relatively small, like an item left at home or a mechanical problem with the car, or a cold that comes on just as we’re leaving.

This trip’s evil event is a much worse one than usual. On Sept. 23, 2017, I was playing tennis with the IUP Women’s Tennis Team as part of their annual fundraiser. I was teamed up with a team member from Colombia, South America and our opponents were the Indiana High School Girl’s #1 player and another IHS team member. I was playing about as well as I’ve ever played. My fitness was better than it had been for years since I had begun biking 7-12 miles most days.

I taught myself how to play tennis with my friend Bruce Crispell when we we in high school. Unfortunately, tennis strokes are not intuitive so I became a quirky, unpredictable player with terrible traditional strokes. I also compensated for my lack of skills by running down balls that seemed impossible to get. Occasionally, I would get those balls but even if I didn’t get them, my hope was that the player would try a better shot next time that would go out of the line.

I apologize that the last paragraph seemed to be irrelevant and annoying but it explains what happened with the tennis match. I ran for an outstanding shot made by the IHS Girl’s team member that was hopeless. I suddenly turned possibly 180 degrees and my feet got tangled. My fall was bad, really bad. I didn’t hit my head fortunately but the impact and shock to my body made me almost pass out. At first I thought I would just sit out a few minutes and get back in. Thankfully, the coach and my friends the Bungo’s knew better. The police came and then an ambulance took me to the Emergency Room.

I had a bad bruise on my knee but the X-Rays showed nothing. The harsh pain was on my hip. The ER doctor was convinced nothing was broken and said the Radiologist would get back to me if he saw anything. He called it a contusion and prescribed Vicodin.

A couple of weeks later I saw my family doctor and because my pain did not seem to be going down, he suggested a CT Scan, which showed I have a “fracture of the greater trochanter” that should have been caught in the ER. It’s a small fracture of a part of the femur that is not weight bearing. The bottom line is that I’m in pain when I walk but especially if I move my leg sideways. A cane cuts the pain in half or so.

Like I said at the beginning, this was a big test of my desire to make this trip. I and my travel agent had made massive plans that would not be easy to change (shout out to my travel agent, Marlyn Kray of International Travel Expeditions — itexpeditions@gmail.com). It was tempting to cancel and possibly most sane people would have cancelled. Sanity, however, is overrated. Would I be in a worse state in 6 months? I felt that as long as I’m able to walk, it’s not going to be that much different walking in Australia and New Zealand than walking here.

I wonder if the myth of overcoming the danger at the beginning of a trip influenced me not to cancel. Did I just lump this serious problem into the same category as forgetting to bring underwear? We need categories, stories, and myths to make sense of the world. Sometimes it’s hard to figure out when they apply and when they don’t. As I’m writing it makes me feel like I’m ambivalent about making the trip. The reality is I’m firmly committed to doing it.

Margaret on the other hand is much more worried about the trip than I am. She is concerned about the long distance travel, staying in many different hotels, and the unpredictability of everything. She likes travel but not this type of extended trip. This was before my injury. Her feelings make total sense to me. She is willing to go and is possibly getting excited about some of the amazing things we will see and do while keeping her fears intact.

For me, this is a much easier trip than other ones I have done since retirement in 2014. The other ones were mostly to places where you cannot drink the water and need to be careful about the food. Since 2014, I’ve been to Peru (also Buenos Aires, and Rio); Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and Russia; Sri Lanka and the Maldives; South Africa and Ghana; and France, Dubrovnik, and Italy. In 2011, I went to Korea, China, Bangkok, and India; and Cyprus, Israel, Jordan, Istanbul, and Athens. So this doesn’t seem like much of a stretch except for the pain of the injury.

We leave tomorrow with a flight from Pittsburgh to Chicago, then on to San Francisco, and 15 hours from there to Sydney, Australia. Fortunately, we are travelling business class, which means we’ll have lie flat beds on the overseas portion. Someone will meet us at the Sydney airport and give us a 2-3 hour tour of the city before bringing us to the hotel. We have tickets at the famous Sydney Opera House that first night to see a Rachmaninoff piece.

My fear of the injury and the travel is overshadowed by my fear of not living life to the fullest. I know of people who speak of some day travelling to places of their dreams but never make it. There is always another reason not to go. The fear of not living my life to the fullest was enhanced when I had open heart surgery in 2013. Fortunately, a doctor sensed that there was something wrong with my heart and encouraged me to see a cardiologist. I had a valve replacement and last minute they realized I also need a double bypass. If the doctor hadn’t caught it, I could have had a heart attack or …

So, am I being foolish by continuing with this trip? Should I have waited 6 months and redone the arrangements for then?

I haven’t written anything in my blog for a while and I have no pictures for this entry. I hope to continue the blog when we are on the road with lots of pictures and reflections. Looking forward to hearing from all of you.