Leading With Her Chin

N34*43.426 W111*59.477 Elevation 3266’ Turns out we should have ended our visit with George and Josi at their townhouse in Mesa, AZ as soon as we got up this morning. We’d had a fabulous dinner last night, eaten outside on the patio in the warm evening air: fish tacos made from seared tuna with mango-avocado salsa, and plantain chips sautéed in olive oil and parsley, along with black beans for dinner, accompanied by wine and after-dinner port. However, we started our day with a quiet cup of coffee with George and Josi, then headed out for our run thinking we would get a relaxed start to the day. This plan began just fine: the weather was clear, blue sky, about 70 degrees and we’d had a good night’s sleep. We were just arriving at our 2 ½ mile turn-around on our run and feeling good, when suddenly this crack in the sidewalk jumped up, grabbed the toe of Cathryn’s shoe, and threw her into the air! Unfortunately Cathryn had failed to pay attention during her flying lessons and ended up skidding to a stop several feet later, using the back of her right hand and her chin as her final landing gear. No question about it, it hurt, and she needed several minutes to recover enough to get up off the sidewalk. We ended up collecting quite a crowd: walkers, other runners and people driving by, all of whom stopped to offer a variety of assistance: calls to 911, Kleenex to put on the bloody chin, and the offer we actually accepted of a ride back to George and Josi’s townhouse. Once back, Cathryn cleaned up the wound on her chin and a few on her hand and relaxed a bit. We ended up deciding to go to an Urgent Care clinic at George’s urging and have the chin checked out since it looked like it might benefit from a stitch or two. It turned out she got two stitches and at least twice that many bad stories from the New Jersey doctor who staffs the clinic. The trip to the clinic ended up taking 3 hours total (partially mitigated by Starbucks coffee and a New York Times delivered courtesy of G and J while we waited) so we didn’t get back to their townhouse until 1 PM. After showering and saying our goodbyes, we headed north. All in all, not a great day, but luckily it seems that with a couple of Tylenol every few hours to address a sore chin, and a rather large bandage to cover the stitches, we should be able to have a better day tomorrow. After leaving Mesa, we drove 2 hours north to Cottonwood, Arizona, about 15 miles west of Sedona. We intend to stay here until we head west to pick up Adrienne in Las Vegas Saturday night. We decided that today’s major event didn’t lend itself to a photo; we’ll let you all see if you can find the scar under Cathryn’s chin when you see her next. We’re at a nice campground with a site on a river, hot showers in heated bathrooms, and internet – altogether nice! We intend to do some hiking in the next couple of days.