I Left My Heart At Wounded Knee

I hurt my knee again 2 years ago when I broke my hip and it has only gotten worse with popping and unsteadiness when walking.  The pain is minimal, but it can still really hurt if I somehow twist it the wrong way.

Walking along the Sanford River Walk by Lake Monroe

As a hiker/backpacker/bicyclist/walker my knees are incredibly important to my personal forms of travel.   Being unable to walk or bicycle much without my knee popping and being unsteady during the super-hot summer was just bearable.
I have been to a doctor and to a knee specialist while trying to fix it.  Fortunately the X-Ray and MRI show damage there is minimal, not requiring surgery.  But still the popping and unsteadiness continue. 
I was given a shot of Cortizone in the knee last week, and I am exercising it again and am really trying to improve my walking situation.  I was able to walk 3 miles along the waterfront in Sanford last weekend without any pain and with only a little weakness.
My plan is to just continue exercising and walking, increasing distance daily and weekly until I'm back up to my 15+ miles of off pavement travel in a day.  I figure that if I can make it to that goal of 15 miles a day, I can eventually make 20-25 miles of continuous hiking/backpacking/walking that I'll need to do in order to hike a long trail like the AT.  Of course that is a long way off.  If I'm able to backpack again on over night trips with my ultralight backpack (9 pounds base weight) by late winter/early spring I will be a happy hiker!
For bicycling, I will focus on riding the indoor bicycle in the gym, moving to my mountain bike for short rides outdoors.  20 miles is the distance I had been riding recently, so I will work on increasing that distance closer to the summertime.  While not my 200 mile week rides of old, I am just happy to be out there again.
Please bear with me while I take baby steps to get better, I believe it will all pay off in the end.
The good news is the temperatures in Florida are much cooler now and if the rain holds off, I will be able to walk and bicycle enough to slowly improve my condition.