Last night I slept near Blue Diamond on the way to Death Valley. I woke around 6:00, crawled out of sleeping bag, and took one of the new pain pills, and then crawled back under the covers. I got up around 6:30 and a hellish wave of nausea hit me. Pounding head ache, dizziness, light headedness, weird. Concern is kidney took a turn for the worse. Made decision to drive back to ST George to seek medical help. My thought was if I had hospital problems I would rather be here w/ relationships already established. My body was out of control. I kept hoping I would “straighten out” and not need to see a doctor. Finally mid afternoon I entered the clinic. My story is getting longer to tell. New dr but had access to my medical records. Blood was drawn & analyzed for crit level and I am topped off so there is no kidney bleeding. This dr diagnosed my issue as a reaction to the new pain pill. He wrote a script for hydrocodone and told me to take a pill when I was in pain which is almost all from my head. As the day wore on my body burned thru the Rhyzott and I reconnected back to earth. The dr kept emphasizing that I am healing a tear on my kidney that is like having had surgery. I must be gentle to allow the wound to heal. He said 3 weeks is too early to really start riding. The dr was maybe 75 lbs overweight and maybe had little idea of physical conditioning contrary to fit urologist. I will “shop” dr advice next week. The urolgist said in 3 weeks I would be about 70% healed, fully healed 6 to 8 weeks. I am counting on riding a week from this Monday. The high blood pressure he attributed to the fact that my blood level is back up and it should start dropping as the meds: 1 pill per day at bedtime kick in.

Went to a restaurant / sports bar to check out Gonzaga’s game. I was early. The OSU game was on which was great so I watched the Bucks win in OT. The bar did not buy the special package meaning they did not receive the Zags game. The help was very helpful in identifying possible establishments that might have coverage. The waitress used here cell phone to call the places. Chilis had the package. I drove over and worked w/ the bartender to turn the TV at the bar on to the game. Several colleg football games were on. Several people asked if the bar TV could be turned to one of them The keep kept his agreement and turned on the game when it started. GU won in a tough smash mouth game. Cool. medical treatment, a Buck  and Zag win.

Tired and spent. 130 miles each way ST George to Las Vegas. Tomorrow I plan to be in Death Valley for a shower in a park XG. I read that several XGs in the park have wi-fi, perhaps my card will work.

Sleeping at the gravel edge of a motel parking lot. Temp is low 40s. Bed time.

Yesterday I drove to LV to see Race Across the Sky and see Grace’s on screen presence. She made an impression on the movie maker as she had her name captioned. Movie wight make weaker people want to race the 100 miles.

Slept in parking lot near theater. Noisy. Plan today was to hit REI for a Death Valley guide book and a Jockey outlet for new underwear, so far the only items to wear out so far.

Woke up w/ a pounding headache and pulse. Visited a quick check right in same parking lot. Concerned that fall damaged my brain. DR said that he wasn’t concerned about bleeding. He didn’t explain why I have had a headache since the first fall back 10/8. The hydrocodone didn’t knock out the headache so he prescribed another pain killer, a one a day deal. BP was 147/89 which is way high which might be causing the headache. he prescribed a BP lowering drug. Stopped @ pharmacy to fill script. Insurance balked @ the BP medicine. Ended up driving back to clinic where the dr changed the script to what the insurance would accept. I take a pill tonight and will see if my headache is gone in the AM. Both of the falls have my body out of whack.

Drove thru the wild burro management area again NW of LV where the burros have the right of way. Saw several last spring. They are protected, all you can do is fence in your yard and shovel the manure.

Tomorrow is Death Valley. Forecast is for balmy 74 degrees. I will learn how wired the park is.

Pleasant sleep on my bed last night. I lifted it up to learn what my body would do. Won’t do that again for a few more days.

Bid adieu to Scott as he headed to Sedona.

My turn to leave JEM TH. Battery dead! Too many hours of listening to XM and not enough driving. OK. Have road side assistance from insurance carier. Fired up computer but it was having issues blacking out, something to do w/ the battery charge. Managed to find on line a tow service in Hurricane. Said he would be there in 20 mins. I walked out to the highway to wait. Along the way I picked 2 grocery bags of litter. He beat the 20 mins. He put the cables from a portable charging device and the motor turned over right away. Cost $75. Now I wrestle w/ insurance claim reimbursement.

Fed Ex site said fork was out for delivery. Cool. Last night I bought a ticket on line to Race Across the Sky, theater in Las Vegas, 130 miles away. Have the ticket, put the fork back on my Spot, find a computer geek store, get a shower in Santa Clara where I scored one last spring, & drive to LV in time for movie.

Bought a 6 pack of beer for bike shop. Pulled in and fork had been delivered. Parking lot install and Spot back on the van. PUSH said that fork is fine, leak source could not be identified. Rich went ahead and rebuilt it all the way to eliminate whatever caused the leak. Warranty.

Computer store told me the issue is with using the battery charger when the battery is charged. I always plug in charger when computer on. Computer finally said I can’t take a charge when i am full. Cool, a win for me, no charge and knowledge gained. He said that the battery needs to run down to almost empty before charging to prevent the battery from creating a memory. Said that if I wanted I could run computer on rig battery power and just take out computer battery.

Guy @ Anytime Fitness remebered me from last spring. Used the lavender bar of soap from Jen.

Windy drive down !-15 to LV. Spectacular drive down Virgin River canyon.

Deal w/ movie is friend Grace has some face time and video version won’t be released for 4 months.

LV puts me on course to trip to Death Valley NP for several days. Have another week  to complete 3 weeks of rest.  Poke around Death Valley environs for several days.

Back in PST again.

Stark desert and then LV pops up w/ lots of people & traffic. Dirt bag camp tonight or maybe a mtn biker might adopt me for the night. Buzz of 737s taking off from airport.

Turner factory is just 350 miles away.