WIA Day 0

The lead-up to WIA, in fact my very attending it, was predicated on the Monday morning appointment with the orthopedist.  Much to my (expected) delighted, he noted that my recuperation was progressing excellently, and that at the six-weeks-and-four-day mark he released me to resume normal activities.  I was now free to progress through the stages of bipedal locomotion, casting the walker aside and moving through the crutches and then a cane and then nothing.

We hit the road the next day, winding up in Kansas City on Thursday.  Mrs. Barn was not sanguine with the idea of me driving, so she spent every mile of the trip behind the wheel.

Along the way we even took the time to do something we almost never do, we actually stopped and engaged in tourism.  Since it was only 25 miles off the interstate we took the detour and spent a half-day at Pleasant Hill Shaker Village just outside Lexington KY.  I  was walking for four hours with the assistance to my pair of crutches.  It was exhausting.

Worse than that, the almost nonexistent on-site programming and tepid presentation at Pleasant Hill was disappointing.  We learned from the one fellow we saw working there that the plan to eradicate craft practices from the site will be complete in the hear future.  To me that removes a return visit from the list of things to do.

Still there were some noteworthy encounters, beginning with the remarkable circular staircase at the building now serving as a restaurant and hotel.

My steadiness on crutches was iffy, so I did not get the perfect picture from the bottom.

While walking around, probably my favorite thing of the whole place was this amazing stone wall.

Among the pieces of furniture these two caught my eye.  The first one has a one-piece side board, eight feet tall by about twenty inches deep,

with this one being my all time favorite.  I might have to build something like this some day.

Even though I was mobile, it was not sprite-like and my motion was super slow motion.  This rendered much of the place inaccessible to me, but still it was terrific to spend the day upright and moving..

That night as I drifted off to sleep I had the delightful experience of aching from a day of “walking.”