With ball games on everyday, Bob is spending way too much time watching them or listening to them on the radio. I decided we needed an outing. As some of you might remember, Bob used to hike, bike 50-100 miles a day, zipline, etc. I remember when _I_ was the one who was feeble and weak, and he took me down the road to this small little trail, where I could get a 'taste of it', without killing myself. He took these pics of me, in the clearing when the short trail ends:

So.... I'm thinking... I was able to do it at my, then, decrepid state... so maybe Bob could do it. The only thing I worried about is if I told him about it, then we got there and saw the path was uneven or grown over. So, I decided to down play it, and said, 'just for something to do, why don't we get in the car and drive down to that little trail entrance and peek into the woods. He said ok, and when we got there, I saw the path looked even enough, but there was this tree that had fallen right at the opening to the trail. It was only about as big around as my upper arm, but on trying to move it, I found it was a very tall tree and went way back, lodging between many other trees. The biggest problem was that it was not flat to the ground, but had space under it, making it about a foot off the ground.

Well, there was another long trail, but one only needs to go as far as the want, right across the road with a wide even path. So, I got him across the road, and found there was a ravene that dipped down. Most people could step down the small steep embankment, but he could not. I had one more idea.. we went back to the little trail and I stood on top of the tree trunk, bending it to the ground, and holding on to Bob's gait belt, he DID step over it

What is about a 10 minute walk was a grueling hour of Bob doggedly refusing to stop till he got to the clearing (above). The sweat was running down my back and down his forhead, while we were being eating alive by flies, but he wouldn't quit taking his small determined steps, one after the other, using the hemi-walker and me spotting with the gait belt.

BOB EXCITEDLY TELLS ME (IN APHASIA TALK) ABOUT HIKING WITH BELLA & THE ROUTE THEY TOOK:

He had thought he'd never be able to be in the woods, ever again, but Saturday, he relived a little piece of the joy he has known through-out his life. He came home and slept like he was drugged for 4 hours... while I did a grocery run, mowed the front & back yards, and cut down a small tree, then cut the pieces small enough to go into a bag... then remembered... uh... don't we have a shredder?