Chapter 20

[Preservation – Jim out from Salt Lake]

I lay back and rested. I was still in pain. I tried to sleep hoping my body would feel better with a little rest. I did sleep a bit though restlessly. I awoke thirsty and still tired. The blood had quit oozing from the cut in my leg though I didn't know if that were good or bad. I tried to move my right leg and it did though it hurt badly when I did. I didn't try to move my left leg at all. I wondered if I could hobble if I could figure out some way to splint my leg. I would also need a crutch of some kind.

I looked around in the car and saw nothing that would be of use except a jacket in the back that I could use to tie something. I opened the passenger door and pulled myself and the jacket out and onto the ground. I wrapped the jacket around my left leg to at least give me some cushion as I dragged along the ground. I looked around and saw no tree branches or wood for splints. Up ahead, I saw a pickup truck that had something sticking out the back. I began to drag myself to it hoping it had something I could use and could reach.

I slowly approached the pickup truck. It had wood in the back. I just had to figure out how to reach it. First, I would rest again. I again felt better for resting. At least my breathing got back to normal. My right leg hurt badly but it also moved more readily. I decided to try putting weight on it and pulled myself into a sitting position at the back of the truck. That worked and I decided to go further. I pulled my knee up and pushed on it trying to lever up with my right leg and my arms. That put weight on my left leg and I had to stop. I thought about it some more and finally figured a way to lever up that didn't affect my left leg much. It dangled and the bone hurt badly when it wiggled. I managed to get upright and looked in the truck. There were a number of short and longer pieces in the bed. However, opening the bed would create a problem as the longer pieces would fall and probably hit me. I knew that putting weight on my left leg was impossible.

Holding my body at an angle to prevent my left leg from touching the ground, I reached into the bed of the truck and pulled a couple of short pieces of wood for splints. I saw some rope which I reached for also. That over balanced me and I fell. I screamed in pain. I held on to the rope and, using it and the wood, managed to splint my leg. I pulled myself up again and pulled a longer piece of wood that would work as a clumsy crutch. There was another piece of wood and I took it, too. I saw a hammer and some large nails. I measured roughly the length and nailed a couple of nails in each piece of wood to give me handles. They would hurt my hands but would be somewhat serviceable. I could move with more ease and a lot more speed. The wood cut into my underarms and the nails hurt my hands but I could move.

I started to search for a car with keys. I found one. The battery was dead.

I then started to search for jumper cables or keys until I saw another truck. The keys were in the ignition and the light turned on when I opened the door. I got in, pumped the gas a couple of times and turned the key. It ground for a moment and then started! I let it run for a bit. I debated on moving back toward Salt Lake or going on. I heard another rumble and saw rocks sliding down behind me. I put the truck in gear and slowly headed away from Salt Lake. The truck was an automatic so my left leg could just hang while I drove and operated the brake and gas with my right. Having my left leg hang down was painful.

I wanted to get away from the area. It seemed much too dangerous. I pulled to a flat section and looked back. There was a sign, "Watch for falling rocks." Surely there had been one going north. How did I miss it earlier? It didn't matter now. I had wheels and could move. The question was where.

I saw a sign for Echo and followed it. There was a small town. I pulled in at a pharmacy. I found a wheel chair and then some real crutches. They would be a real help. I went through the pharmacy on my new crutches looking for a computer that was working and had an Internet connection. There was a computer but the connection would not work. I left the pharmacy after grabbing some bandages and over-the-counter pain pills.

I went to the police station looking for any information that might help. There were computers but none had a working Internet connection. Next door was the EMA office. There I struck pay dirt.

There was still no Internet but there was a list of hams in the area, three of them. Even better were the two meter radios and list of repeaters. I took a radio and an antenna with a mag mount to the truck and painfully hooked it up. I knew that my chance of connecting to one of the Salt Lake City repeaters was slim but I programmed them in and tried each one. It was now late in the afternoon. I decided to find a place to stay for the night and food to eat. I found a city map and tracked the three hams' addresses on it. I went to each in turn. The first two were Technician licensees. The last was a General licensee and he had an HF transceiver. The power was still on. I got it running but missed the forty meter net. I tried twenty meters but had no success. I went back to forty meters and called CQ but no one answered.

The house was comfortable and didn't smell, meaning no one died in it. I decided to stay there for the night. I looked in the freezer and found a frozen dinner. It would do. I ate and went to bed after taking some aspirin.

The next morning started with coffee and a debate. Try to get back to Salt Lake City or stay here, hope for better radio conditions and get help to come to me. I finally decided that one day would be workable. I waited impatiently for the time for the net to come around. I figured forty meters would be the best hope. I called and called. No one heard me. The antennas were not very good. I had looked at them earlier. They weren't high and were too long for forty or twenty meters. We had not been using eighty meters in Salt Lake so I had little hope of anything there with people I might know.

Well, I had tried. I had lunch and left heading north on I-84. I would ride up to I-15 and then head south to Salt Lake City. That didn't work. Just beyond Henefer, I-84 went into mountains. Rock was blocking the road where it hadn't taken it away. I came back to Henefer and looked for a place to stay. I found a small motel that looked clean and pulled in. The power was working. It had an attached restaurant and the freezer had some food in it. I cooked a steak and had some canned beans with it. It wasn't great but I really didn't care. I went to bed early tired from my efforts.