The best laid plans....

Well, I am not quite sure where to begin really as it has been quite a surreal few days since I last posted.

As I think I mentioned in my last post my stupid back started to cause me bother again. It did not seem too bad when I first felt it pinch, relative to other times when it has gone anyway, so at first I was not hugely concerned as little pinches have sometimes disappeared in a couple of days. This time however was not the case. A week after the initial pain (Wednesday Sept 30th) I woke up to find that it was starting to seize up quite badly, so bad that it took me about an hour to get out of my tent and all I had to do was get my trousers, tee shirt and shoes on. Nightmare! Once out and able to stand I definitely knew I was in serious trouble. I had already decided the day before that I was going to take off and drive to Salt Lake City in order to try and find someone to fix me, but now there was no way that I could drive even with my automatic transmission gizmo. You can well imagine the swear words and thoughts that were circling my brain at this point. I slowly walked around and banged my head off a few trees until my fellow campers woke up, desperately trying to fathom a way out of my situation and wishing that I had remembered to pack my teleporter!

The only solution I could think of was 100% dependent on the generosity and kindheartedness of one of my new found friends who was due to head home from Joe's Valley in the next couple of days for a friends wedding. So with fingers crossed I asked Wes if he would drive me in my car to SLC where we would hopefully find a hotel to stay in, someone to fix my back and then I would buy him a flight back to his home town of LA. Thankfully being the amazingly super lovely person that he is, he obliged and I will be forever thankful.

So I headed off on my 2nd road trip not quite the way I had hoped or planned and although slightly uncomfortable it was a good one, as my newly found Louise was truly excellent company and kept me smiling the whole way.

We arrived in SLC and found the hotel we had looked upon the net before we left Joe's. We booked in and dumped our stuff and after a well deserved shower and a change of clothes we headed out to find a place to eat. Thankfully by this point I was becoming slightly more mobile and the walking into town was helpful in stretching me out a little more. We were quite early in eating tea so headed back to the hotel for a wee while and checked out places to go drinking! This was not as hard as we had thought considering the Mormin rules and regulations about alcohol. We found a very pleasant bar called The Bayou that had so many choices of beers Wes was finding it hard to choose, although his mind was made up quite quickly when he saw one called Poligimy Porter! I also had a good choice as they stocked 4 gluten free beers and about 5 different ciders. Happy days. After 2 ciders my pain was decreasing so we racked up the pool table for a few games. After 3 ciders I was playing quite well.

As we were finishing and about to leave, Wes was invited to the neighbouring table for another game. This man was called Kevin, a local to SLC and clearly not a mormin. He invited us to accompany him to another pool bar and so as not to appear rude we accepted, he also very kindly bought us more drinks. Anyways long story short, 3 pints and 2 tequillas later pain almost gone. Happy happy days.

Obviously my medicinal drinks were only a temporary measure so in the morning I phoned a chiropractor. I don't think I will bore you with details of this but suffice to say I have been cracked by a holistic quack twice and I think am starting to feel better and mending slowly.

I have been away now for a month and typically for my life it has not gone to plan. I have climbed very little and spent way too much of my budget on unforeseen circumstances. Despite this, I have had a great few days here in SLC, mainly due to my knight in shining armour keeping me sane and my spirits (non alcoholic) high. He flew home this afternoon so I am now left to think about my plans, which sadly will not include any climbing for the time being.

I will try and post a photo montage of the story so far tomorrow.