It seems some people were surprised to hear that I had gone away on vacation for 2 weeks. I never put it out for the world to see when I am away. Nothing against you all, but the thieves of the world are going to have to work harder than just looking at my Facebook page to see when no one is around. Anyway, this year we flew to Atlanta and spent the next day with my Mom in northern Georgia. One of the highlights of the trip for me was seeing how good she looked. She looked better than any time I can remember over the last 25 years. On our way to my Moms place we stopped for our 30 Big Pie In The Sky pizza. It did not disappoint. From her place we drove to Columbia, SC, where we saw the SC state house, where those jackasses still proudly fly the Confederate flag out front. From there we went to Charleston, SC, where the highlight was dinner at Pages Okra Grill. That place actually lived up to the hype. Next we went to Myrtle Beach. The highlight there were going through this Escher-esque gift shop called the Gay Dolphin. Next we drove to Raleigh, NC, where we saw the NC state house. On our way to my Dads place we saw the WV statehouse in Charleston. Now that is a big state house! Next we stopped at Hillbilly Hotdogs in Lesage, WV. It was everything we thought it would be and more. For example, Zacharys favorite thing was the Hillbilly Bubble Bath packets they had for sale. They were packets of beans with instructions to ingest them 1 hour before taking a bath to make it a bubble bath. Speaking of hillbillies, the notion of hillbillies being something real had never occurred to the kids before. They were strangely fascinated with the prospect of seeing real live hillbillies. Through a GPS quirk we ended up being routed through a West Virginia hillside on which we came face to face with honest to gosh hillbillies. The kids were ever so excited to see such specimens in their natural habitat. It was awesome seeing the wonder in their eyes and hearing the excitement in their voices as they reflected on the experience. Finally, we drove to my Dads place, where we spent the 2nd week of our trip. This was where things went to crap. The 1st couple of days were actually a lot of fun. We spent time with my Dad & went to the Columbus Zoo/Zoombesi Bay. Actually, a few hours of our 2nd day there were spent in the local hospitals emergency room where I had to take Zachary due to an ear infection caused by water getting trapped behind a ball of ear wax in his ear canal. Weve gone 13+ years without an ear infection in the family only to have it happen on our vacation. Talk about timing... Things took a turn for the worst after that when I was in another room & overheard my Dad trying to carry on a conversation with Nicole, only to have it be little more than gibberish. He was thinking 1 word but saying another. For example, he was trying to ask my Wifes name but asking for my Moms figure. It was really scary. After considerable cajoling & putting my foot down, he finally agreed to letting me take him to the emergency room. From his emergency room he was transferred to Riverside Hospital in Columbus, where he spent the next 3.5 days being observed. His problem cleared up but it took a lot of time/tests/evaluation for them to be unable to determine conclusively what happened. They think it was a mini stroke but with those the clot breaks up & doesnt leave anything behind to see in the various scans. If that had to happen to him, it was good that it happened when it did. For one thing, his only symptom was an inability to speak what he was thinking. Had we not been there he might not have tried to talk with anyone while he was affected & not known something was wrong. Even if he had discovered it, theres no way he would have gone to the hospital on his own. Given that we were not originally planning to even visit this Summer but things changed & we did, its amazing that we were there when this all happened. The 4 days leading up to the last day of our trip were spent in hospitals or waiting for news that Dad had been released. It wasnt exactly the most festive of ways to spend a vacation, but again, Im glad we were there. I have to give a shout out to Josh Allens mom. Upon hearing of what was happening with my Dad, she made a most excellent rhubarb pie for us. One of my goals for this trip was for our family to not be a burden on anyone but she put the work into the pie & it was really appreciated. Shes always so sweet to me & the family and I really do appreciate that. On our last day, Dad was back home & we took a little time to go the the Amish (Mennonite, actually) store in Frankfort, OH. I took full advantage of all their samples. That was a fun side trip. The trip came to its only logical conclusion when it was announced that the plane we had boarded would not be allowed to take off due to an equipment malfunction and the flight was cancelled. We were placed on new flights that made us about 5 hours late getting back home. As with the other bits of misfortune on the trip, there was a bright side: Our original flight took us through Atlanta, which is old news to us given how many times we have flown through there. Our new flight took us through Minneapolis, which was new to Carmen & the kids & gave us something new to explore. And, the actual flight time was shorter due to Minneapolis being a much more direct way of getting to Seattle than going through Atlanta. Bless your heart if youve read this far. Ill stop now.
Posted on: Thu, 21 Aug 2014 03:41:10 +0000
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