Hall Guy, part II

 Welcome to the first real Jeep trip of 2018! The day began with me driving over to Logan to get my  stitches removed from my leg. It had been 14 days and they were ready to come out. The whole process took all of 3 minutes and I was free to go home. I stopped by Womak's place on the way home and we decided it was a great day to return to Indian Springs. We got on the road at about noon and headed south to the Simpson Mountains. This time I did choose the correct road up to the canyon where the springs are located and we soon arrived at the desert oasis. The metal cabin above is a leftover from the areas mining period.

 With this year being a lot dryer than last year, I didn't expect to see a lot of water, but the spring area was nice and wet. The road through here is a bloody, muddy mess which makes it all the more enjoyable. We scouted around and found 2 of the mines that are in the area. 

 The first one was basically a hole in the side of the mountain. Womak went in and found it to be quite small. Total depth was around 15 feet and that was it. Bummer! I was hoping for something better. We then decided to head over and check out mine number 2 when disaster struck. Me, being the graceful swan that I am, tripped over an ancient barb-wire fence. I landed in a sticker bush and thought to myself that I am turning into a real klutz. 

 I picked myself up and started walking back towards the Jeep when I felt moisture running down my leg. I looked down and my new stitch free scar was now gushing forth with a whole lot of blood. Needless to say I was not happy with my life at that moment. We were miles from the nearest paved road, let alone a place that could fix me up and that kinda sucked. We broke out the good old first aid kid and tried to stop the bleeding the best we could. The fix lasted all of 10 minutes before I bled thru the bandages on my leg. We arrived at the bottom of the mountain and pulled over to try something new. We took an old surgical towel and put it over the soaked bandages and then since we had no way to keep it there, Womak cut one of his sleeves off of his shirt and tied it around my leg, kinda like a tourniquet. This seemed to satisfy the blood gods and we headed out to the nearest place for repairs: Tooele. 

 An hour later we arrived at the only place open in Tooele, the hospital. We picked the perfect time, NOT! The wait to get in to be seen was over an hour. The place has 9 ER rooms and they were all occupied. They finally got me in and stuck me on a gurney in the hallway. From that point on, I was known as "Hallway Guy". There were 2 Dr's working in there and since I wasn't bleeding anymore my priority status was low on their list. The Dr finally came over and looked at it and agreed it did need to be stitched, again. He got his trusty needle out and numbed up the area and said he'd be right back. Well, about 1 minute later an ambulance arrived with a cardiac case and my priority dropped again. After about an hour, he returned with his suture kit and cleaned it up and started in with the first stitch. My leg was awake. It wasn't super painful, but its not something I would want to do again. He got a funny look on his face and went and got another needle of numbing juice and shot me up again. He wandered off to work on other patients and about 25 minutes later returned to finish what he started. I told him there were stitches inside that might be ripped also and he looked and agreed they were. He ignored that and finished sewing up the gash. He said a nurse would be back to put a bandage on it and sign me out.  

The foto above shows my new and improved stitches before she came and covered it with a bandage. Of course it took another 15 minutes for that to happen, but eventually she showed up. I signed my life away and was told to have a great evening. By now it was like almost 9 so we headed out towards home. Such a lovely day.....  Needless to say, I will be returning to Indian Springs to continue our quest to visit all the mines in the area. As for the title of today's post, this wasn't the first time I have been on a gurney in an ER in the hallway. I really thought it was funny and to be honest, it's really cool sitting there where you can hear and see everything that is going on. Not that I want to do it again, but it wasn't too bad, really. All in all, it was a great day. We now know where 2 of the mines are so we will have to return to explore it all some more. Sounds like a plan to me. Jeep on my friends!