Hey, All!
Couldn't take the suspense of hearing very little from Jim after his return from Knott's (other than some cryptic messages about doctor's visits), so with the help of Eddie Janis I tracked him down at his home this morning and got an update:
Jim made the trip home OK, taking about the same time, and making about as many stops on the way back as the way out (some pictures have already been posted, more to come - He took so many pictures, almost seems like he was gone for three weeks!)
Once he got back, he noticed some intestinal bleeding, which turned into some sort of ulcereted Colitis kind-of thing. (Not a lot of details, here, but we both agreed that it's a pretty shitty time, best avoided if you can.) He ended up in the hospital for intestinal surgery, and during recovery developed an infection which required another hospital stay and further surgery (remember, his immune system is pretty weak due to the lung transplants and meds he's on).
He's back home and recuperating, but told me he hasn't been doing much of anything other than concentrating on recovery. He got out last week to a graduation for the daughter of the donor of his transplanted lungs, as well as over the weekend for Memorial Day celebrations in his town, and has made a Krispy Kreme run in his Speedster (hmmmmmmmm........I wonder if his wife knows about THAT trip?) and that's about it - no cyber time, no emails, no nothing.
He promises to be back soon with more pictures of his trip, and was happy to hear that he became an inspiration for others to make the trip to Carlisle. He was also really happy to hear about the big turn-out at Carlisle and promises that, next year, he'll be doing BOTH Knott's and Carlisle - probably trailering his Speedy, but he'll be there. He continues to be an inspiration.........
That's about it.......he sounded well, albeit a bit tired, but I may have been thrown off by the Oklahoma accent (like just about every commercial airline pilot's down-South accent I've ever heard) and he was all excited about Carlisle news and how well the weather turned out.
Look for him back on here as soon as he feels up to it.
Gordon
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