FINALLY . . . an update!

I fell off of the blogger wagon while I was recovering in Sedona.  I didn't have much to update as I spent the week going to therapy sessions and sitting with my leg/foot propped up.  The rest of the group enjoyed the time in Sedona going on hikes and swims and even going to the Grand Canyon one day and the Petrified Forest, Painted Desert and the meteor crater on another day.  Jim, Scott and Raymond went on a motorcycle ride one afternoon.  They missed a turn along the way and wound up in Winslow, Arizona! 

I had high hopes of being much better by the time we were scheduled to leave the Sedona area.  Our next stop along the way was Zion National Park.  I actually felt pretty good first thing that morning as we prepared to leave.  My leg was still a bit painful, and I was still on crutches, but I felt better than I had been feeling previously.  So we got things packed up and headed out.  We left my bike at a friends house and got on the road.  I rode with my Dad in his little RV.  Within a short period of time I started feeling much worse.  I began feeling weak, dizzy and nauseous . . . overall just plain yuck!  We made it to Zion National Park and the group went to dinner and I stayed in the room and rested.  The next day we toured Zion on a bus that runs through the park.  It worked great for me because I could see a lot without having to walk!  Ginny Laine, John, Sarah, Raymond and Scott got off on one of the stops and went for a hike.  By that afternoon I "went downhill" again and began feeling even worse.  That day my coping abilities dropped to near zero and I started to think about trying to fly home [and would have but couldn't figure out how to get back on my own].  The pain was bad but the way that I was feeling  in general [weak, dizzy, nauseous . . . ] was really what was getting me down .  I had been applying cold to the leg periodically because of the swelling but up to that point had not applied any heat.  The following morning I decided to take a warm mineral bath [had purchased some at the Sedona HFS] and it worked wonders.  It seemed to reduce the swelling and definitely reduced the pain.  I felt better overall than I had in days as we traveled to Bryce National Park.  We drove through the park and it was beautiful [pictures to follow . . . I hope].  I mostly stayed in the RV but did get off at one of the stops where I didn't have to walk very far.  We made our way to a state park near Bryce where we had booked some cabins to stay for the night.  It was a longer drive than we had anticipated to get to where we were staying, but the drive was amazing.  There were some beautiful rock formations all around us as we drove in and even surrounding the cabins where we stayed.  Very impressive . . . it is truly unbelievable the diversity in scenery that we had viewed up to this point on our trip [the reason that we love traveling out west].  It never gets tiresome . . . that is for sure!   And there was so much still to come . . . but I'll have to save that for my next post!