Lest we forget...

Vegas aside....lest we should forget where we live most of the time

Hallowe'en in Texas...the subtler touches

And just to check it isn't just Fort Worth we head for destinations unknown giving thanks as we go....I could be uncharitable and say they missed off a T.

I have few moments of doubt about navigating but...

And finally our destination

The only natural lake in Texas and it is beautiful

With the odd blip

Would these thousands of water boatmen behave like Piranhas if we fell in.

The peace is just primeval until P and I get out in a kayak...least said.

But this is the last shot taken on my little Canon Elph. Shortly after the lens jammed.

Phew I hear you say

but never fear

Groan I hear you say

One of my first shots with my new ealy Christmas present...guess what another Canon Elph

Then home for Xmas.

The Desert Minx - The Final Instalment - My angel's fear to tread

A more restful night than usual, my burden lightened by not having to cut the holiday and miss the highlight of the trip. As we journey without me balancing on hands or kneeling in footwell I am contemplating Zion National Park's Angel's Landing, well as far as Walter's Wiggles anyway...I never planned to go to the top.

Yet another set of scene changes

Zion is coming into view

And here we are

and guess what? It's all booked for the first night and P wants me to have another night in a bed, Riona isn't questioning it either :-). We pass this bijou opportunity over...

Instead, we spend the night in the same hotel as the participants in the Pensioners Olympics. Unfortunately we had to sign a confidentiality clause with Saga Holidays not to reveal the results of the bedroom gymnastics, suffice to say we heard a lot of this

Next day we have to drive through this rubbish scenery AGAIN...

Shortly we will be going into that hole which appears to have no road to it...

And this is what we see on the other side

The rocks look like giant Walnut whips.

It looks like the earth went through really painful processes to get to this state

All topped off with a  double rainbow on our way back for a second night of fun and frolics with the ladies speed knitting team of Kentucky.

Day 2 we are mostly walking (limping still) behind waterfalls

Then I am not allowed to carry on as Riona and P proceed to the erm.... Emerald Pool..

But the height of the walls is impressive...

I resort to bugs on the valley floor

Today we visit another waterfall with a more impressive backdrop

Tomorrow P and Riona are going up something like this

I am not. I content myself with accompanying them into deep canyons like this

I think it is this they are actually going up

or possibly that!

To celebrate, we are finally camping again

And P and Riona talk themselves in, then out and then back in again to climbing Angel's Landing. I merrily wave them off on the bus and mooch off to eat cake, drink coffee and contemplate sensible shoe shops.

Meantime my intrepid travellers do this, Walter's Wiggles

First proof that Riona was there

And this is the next bit.... 

 I think this is panic.....note the chain......

And the drop

Onward and upward

That stage done

The next stage...gulp

Mulling it over togevver

They stopped at Scout's Landing for more photo shots

and to compare notes with an Australian couple. This together with the fact that they had met the ever present boy scout troop of America and a Korean lady who thought that the best way to tackle a three foot wide sloping path with 1,000 foot drops either side was to re-enact the opening hours of the January Sales at Harrods, the focus being the metal chain that everyone is meant to keep hold of! They determined it was time to return Hop Along who is still so proud of them and knows that even if she had been fighting fit...would never ever have done what they did and she would like to leave the last word of the entire trip to them in video...but the blog capacity is too small. So here are their last words in a picture

The Desert Minx Part 6 - Colgate Man

The night passes and P is discussing trip abandonment and I am ignoring him. 3 cushions and lots of pills and we set off for Bryce Canyon...I end up kneeling on the floor in the footwell as it is a comfortable place to be...P is now responsible for driving and both P and R for photography ... I just keep hearing wow. Here are their efforts

Hang on a minute we've only gone round the corner of a mountain

And then another

And

and just as you settle down to the landscape

The storms they are a coming

Here we are

But they have closed it because that storm was snow and fog and ice…….


We head for lunch and it is gloomy. There is one place along the way, Hatch and everything in it is owned by the same family. We decide to stay here for the night too but can't book into the hotel because the entire family are having a lunchtime nap.


So lunch ...I have not got out of the car since we left Fruita, and I actually can't seem to summon the energy to brave that initial spike up and down my right hand side so P insists on carrying me to the doors of the restaurant where I insist he puts me down and he and Riona drag me, while I drag my right leg. But I can't sit at the table and have to lay down on the bench ...the waitress gives me a strange look as I lay on the seat and pop up to order soup...that's rich for a place where everyone has the same name and looks the same.

Come 2 pm we can book a room and ask for downstairs, so they give us a wheelchair access door...but we can't go in it as they haven't finished cleaning so I sit in the car while P and Riona do the laundry...emerging from time to get instructions about socks...

Once inside I lay on the bed and Riona revels in being able to have a bath. I plan the military manouevre for my immersion which is basically on all fours again and performing the equivalent of a high jumper's roll over the edge of the bath...it is the only time I have been pleased that the US seems to favour the low slung 18 inch "deep" bath.


P and Riona go out on the town...to the pizza place to pick up and we settle down to watch truly crappy fuzzy TV.

A new day and P takes the executive decision to divert to a hospital, the nearest being Cedar City, it is brilliant sunshine then we drive through......... freezing rain and snow and a 20 degree drop in temperature. The blurring is the windscreen not my pills.

We hit a traffic jam in a canyon…the only road through…and which is brown

and high, then orange

And then Cedar City and it’s beautiful cathedral style vaulted ceiling looking like it was just erected yesterday. I am wheeled in...and discover we have not got our medical insurance with us but the bountiful hospital swipes our credit card anyway. We Yorkshire folk gulp... and allow ourselves to be ushered into a private room and the TV is turned on for us, I have my blood pressure taken and we settle down to wait for the main man



There is a blinding flash of light as Colgate Man walks in with his Ring of Confidence smile and Barry White voice. Being unworthy he manages to diagnose what is wrong without even touching me and finishes with:


- hey will you promise me you will see an orthopaedic surgeon in Fort Worth, is that a deal Shaaaaarman?




He has prescribed anti inflammatories and a shot of morphine to settle the agony.


Nurse Kato returns ..I didn't know learning a karate chop was part of administering a hypodermic of morphine and I am sure I don't have an a..e made of elephant hide to warrant it either.


But 2 minutes later

An hour later I walk carefully out of the place on two feet not sure whether my weightlessness is to do with a significantly lighter wallet


We decide to stay in Cedar City..it is a Monday or  "lock your doors" day for the restaurant business.


Back in another hotel I take more pills, 4 hours after the last lot. Thank God I am still relatively pain free to get to the bathroom and not projectile vomit from the bed...jeez how strong are these pills. Night!