....where I was promptly bitten by a dog, contracted a bacterial infection, went to the hospital, and then spent the rest of the time trying to no avail to extract the hospital bills from the dog owner. Returning home, and vowing never to leave the country again, I thought to myself, at least that's over. Two nights later I was back in the hospital, this time with the infection spreading to new and exciting parts of my body, after which I had to teach a whole class in pain. Still in pain the following week, I landed back in the doctors office who really couldn't seem to offer much beyond a third course of antibiotics.
Convinced I would probably be dead soon anyways I decided my SI injury was the least of my worries so I called my buddy Don who is always up for my ill advised schemes to remote and hazardous locations.
"Bro," I said, "Lets go on a trip."
"When?"
"We have to go tomorrow, I'll be dead soon."
"What?"
"Nevermind, I think we should do the upper section of the John Day in sea kayaks."
"Sure."
"I'll see you at 7am."
I threw a couple F1's on the car and spent the afternoon outfitting my F1 as a kneeling boat to take some stress off the injury. From that point on packing was something of a lackadaisical affair, a couple cans of tuna fish, some apples and oranges, some nuts, a couple energy bars, sleeping bags, warm coat, headlamp ect... I showed up at his house the next morning with boats and a reasonable pretext of camping gear and figured I'd let the open road take care of the rest.
The sea kayaks performed great on the mild whitewater river. My kneeling seat really helped take the strain off my back, although I did switch back and forth when my feet went numb. To be honest the infection and it's assorted complications are still an issue, but Illness and injury aside, it was just nice to be back on the water.