Sherman Branch-Storm Damage Report

Family matters left me with 2 hours at Sherman Branch last evening. Hi Doll is my baby's Great Grand Mama and she is in the beginning of her 9th life which to most means she is 90 years old. She woke up with serious neck pain and was rushed to the ER yesterday which is the second time that has happened in 3 years. The first was a result of pressure in the spinal cord in between her c-4 and c-5 vertebrae that was fixed by a surgeon who opened her neck to relieve the pressure, then had her out of the hospital and back to work within a month. That's right Hi Doll has been working for almost 30 years since she retired back in the 70's. She spends 4 ten hour days serving bread to people out at the K & W on Independence and she drive commutes alone each way. Yesterday Hi Doll spent the day at CMC where by the afternoon they had done a CT scan and ruled out pressure in the cord like what had happened before. This time the problem is being caused by deteriorating arthritis in her neck in the same area which is causing nerves to be pinched resulting in pain and possible mobility problems. Even though this crazy lady volume 1 can tolerate pain(she lived through the Great Depression in Arkansas) she is still in hurt. Her spine doctor was with her yesterday afternoon and after the results of the scan were read he let her go home for the night. Today is another day, maybe the pain has let up a bit

So, after riding home from work, I tended to the animals at the house which at present totals 13 living creatures, I fixed my rear brake with 2 adjustments and then I headed out for Sherman. I did have music in, the light was right and even though it was over 90F degrees I felt really lucky to be moving through the woods under my own power. The plan was to ride the Roller Coaster loop 3 times before completing the way around. On my second lap I saw a familiar bike frame and rider's form way out ahead through the twisty. It was none other than Tim Kingery and I snuck up behind him after like a 3 minute chase. I sat behind him for at least a speedy mile before he realized over his own music that I was actually there. We shared a laugh and once out of the section we split up for I had to go around the Roller Coaster one more time to stick with my plan and he was proceeding through. The rest of my ride was by my sweaty self, I saw no one. Small amounts of wind damage on the main zig zag section but then after the lake loop on the main back towards the end there is major. Some huge old hard woods have been ripped, twisted and torn down leaving themselves strewn in random directions. Because I rode there last week I am assuming that the last line of bad weather we had Sunday night caused the destruction, it would have been something to have been there when it happened.