Day 5: October 24, 2022
Change of Plans

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I got no external pictures when I checked into the CarlinVilla last night. It was dark, of course. So here are a couple of departing shots along with a look at the room I'm departing.

I retraced a bit of yesterday's drive to make that stop that time had made me skip. I've been here before but not since Steve and Casey Claypool acquired the business last December and changed the name to Doc's Just Off 66. I did, however, meet the new owners in Pontiac and Casey's description of their milkshakes has had me craving one ever since. When I made the decision to bypass Doc's last night, I knew opening time was 11:00 AM but I somehow convinced myself overnight that it was 10:00. When I realized my mistake, I simply set out to burn some time by driving a little farther north.

I drove directly to the northern end of the section of bricks at Auburn then proceeded to follow the older alignment south.

Along the way, I decided to take the opportunity to fill my tank. As I was leaving the gas station, I got a call from a friend telling me that someone at the conference had tested positive for COVID-19. Before that call I had not thought that my slightly scratchy throat was anything unusual. After the call it felt a little scratchier and a lot more important.

I immediately did a search for pharmacies and found a Sav-Mor in the town of Virden. They had rapid tests in stock and I undertook one while parked in the town square. I waited out the full fifteen minutes but most of that time was spent looking at the very clear positive indicator that appeared shortly after the test was started. I called my primary care physician and arranged for a video conference the next morning. Then I started for home.

With a freshly filled gas tank, I was able to make the drive non-stop. My symptoms -- scratchy throat, slight fever, general achiness -- increased a bit as I drove but remained quite mild. In the video conference with a nurse, possible treatments were discussed in case things got worse but I was advised that the best treatment for me was likely lots of sleep and liquids. It's advise I've had no difficulty following. As I write this three days after that positive test, I feel things have leveled off. I think symptoms worsened just a little over the first two days but today I feel just about the same as yesterday. My guess is that things will start to improve tomorrow. I've absolutely no doubt that the mildness of my symptoms is the result of being vaccinated and double boosted. As the nurse commented, the vaccine might not keep you from catching the virus but they do a great job of keeping you out of the hospital.


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