Prayers are answered

8-16-07 (started) – 8-19-07 (continued)

Now for an update on Kit. The original plan was for her follow-up surgery to be three or four months down the road once she had recovered from the first surgery. This would have been an arterial bypass and reconnection of the bowels. After nearly three weeks in the hospital, she was discharged Thursday (8/9), and by that evening she began having pain in her side again. My sister-in-law Dee was staying the night with her, and when Kit seemed to pass out in the middle of the night, Dee called 911.

We were told that her vital stats dropped so low in the ambulance that she probably wouldn’t have made it if they had come much later. Once she arrived at the hospital, they were able to stabilize her until the surgeon came in to see her. He seemed very worried and decided to go in right away for exploratory surgery, but he warned us that there might not be anything he could do at this point.

He had to remove another foot of her bowel (making about 4 ½ foot total), and he decided he had to do the bypass right away to save the rest of bowels. She made it out of the surgery, but it was obvious that the doctor was still very concerned because she would be sick for the next few days as her body had to flush out a lot of toxins, etc.

She made it through the critical period, and on Tuesday, the surgeon went back in to reattach the bowels. That surgery also went well, and the doctor himself seemed visibly relieved when he came to speak with us after the operation. We’ve been told that she’s not completely out of the woods yet because of her age, possible complications and simple fact that she has to recover from three operations in just over three weeks, but she appears to be on the mend.

Many prayers have been said on Kit’s behalf, and we are grateful for each one. She has been greatly blessed as have we all. Thank you very much for the support and caring. Until we meet again.

Pete the philosopher

7-29-07 (started) – 8-16-07 (continued)

Well, we’ve been home for a few days now, and we’ve had time to reflect and ponder. Okay, in reality, between visits to see Grandma at the hospital and keeping the kids busy with normal summer activities, we’ve finally had time to clean out the RV and put everything away (almost). The question I’ve been asked on more than one occasion since we’ve been home is, “Would you do it again?”

My answer to the question is, “In a heartbeat!”

Now, with that said, I wouldn’t recommend this type of trip for everyone. Becky is a good sport, and I personally thrive on this kind of traveling. I love seeing new places and people, and I like the combination of seeing major sites as well as having the opportunity to stay away from the big tourist spots. Having the RV was a great way to experience different aspects of the country.

I also kind of enjoy having to figure out on the go a plan to make things work out. Traveling through New York City trains and subways with three kids, a senior citizen, a stroller and wheelchair definitely took some flexibility and creativity. Years ago when Becky and I traveled through Europe, this kind of thing was much easier with just the two of us, but the challenge of this trip was kind of cool too. If you don’t like a bit of chaos in your life, this kind of trip may not be the best option.

I certainly plan on future RV trips (and believe it or not, Becky’s even on board with this) although we may wait a few years for the kids to get older before we tackle a cross-country adventure again. Although I love our old, beat-up RV that actually made to the East coast and back, I wouldn’t mind upgrading to a little nicer rig at some point.

Happy travels everyone, and I’ll leave you with John Greenleaf Whittier’s words that I try to remind myself of every so often:

God pity them both! and pity us all,
Who vainly the dreams of youth recall;
For of all sad words of tongue or pen
The saddest are these: “It might have been!”

There's no place like home

7-23-07

Once Becky woke up she drove for a while, and I was able to get about an hour and a half more sleep in the back of the RV. In order to get home as soon as possible to see Kit, we cut across Idaho straight into Nevada. We had to bypass Utah which was a little sad because we had some friends and family that we had planned on seeing, but it’s close enough and we know enough people there that we will definitely make it back up sooner rather than later.

We had planned on staying with our friends Travis and Alicia in Utah, and because we came home early, they are actually out here in California visiting his family so we’ll see them tomorrow (actually, we had dinner with them tonight, but we’re pretending that it’s yesterday – now two days ago by the time I’ve finished and posted this). Our friends Marie and Adam that we saw near Zion’s National Park are also out here so we’ll be able to see them again. The person that we really feel bad about missing is our friend Linda. She is Bill and Dorthy’s daughter and a good friend that used to help a lot with Zac. We hope to see her sooner, but we’ll see her in November if we don’t make it out to Utah before then.

So we made the always-exciting drive across Nevada, and our trusty RV even made it up and over Donner Summit. We made it home by about 6:30; I wouldn’t have thought it possible, but we made it home from South Dakota in a day and a half driving our RV that struggles up hills. When we got home, we couldn’t go over to see Kit right away because there was a shift change at the hospital. Our friends Bobby and Herlin knew we were coming in, and they had dinner ready for us. That was really nice after our long trek. The kids were extremely happy to see their friends again. We had dinner with them, left our kids at their house, and Becky and I went over to see Kit as soon as we could get in to the ICU.

Grandma Kit is doing as well as she could be at this point. The surgery went well, and the doctor is happy with her recovery. They expect her to be in the ICU for another day or two, and then in the hospital for about a week. In three to four months, they plan on having the next surgery to reattach everything they cut apart in the first one.

We are very grateful that she is okay, and we know that she has received many prayers on her behalf. Thank you.

In speaking with Kit, her spirits are good, and she doesn’t regret for a moment going on the trip. She loved spending time with the grandkids and is happy that she made it to Arlington and to her special beach in South Carolina. I know that she really enjoyed the Statue of Liberty, Niagara Falls and the Grand Canyon as well.

Well, that’s it for the trip I guess. Thank you all for following our many adventures. I know that we’ve had a lot of fun, and I hope you enjoyed reading about our crazy family. In a couple of days after we have time to unpack and get back to normal, I will try to write some of my final thoughts about the trip. I’ll do this more for myself since I plan on printing this out and keeping it as a record of our summer, but tune in again in a few days if you're interested in my profound musings.

Thanks again, and God bless you all. I know He has blessed us this summer.

Driving a long way to see a geyser

7-22-07

You’ve probably figured this out by now, but I’m writing this from home in sunny California (although it’s actually overcast, and I’m not going to complain about that in Sacramento in July especially since we have to clean out the RV today). I haven’t had a lot of time to write because we’ve been driving too much the last couple of days. Even though we’re home, I want to finish the blog for the last couple days of the trip. I’ve come this far, right?

Anyway, I got up at 5:30 this morning (I’m pretending it’s two days ago), and we were on the road by 6:30. We had looked at the atlas and had briefly considered going the shortest-distance route from South Dakota, but then we realized that going south down to Cheyenne or into Colorado and Utah would take us through the most difficult part of the Rockies, and one thing that we have learned about our old RV is that it’s not a great climber. So we stuck to original plan and drove to Yellowstone Park, except we drove straight there instead of stopping for the night when we got close. We had to cross the Big Horn mountain range, and while it wasn’t easy for our valiant RV, but we made it across.

We spent three or four hours in Yellowstone as opposed to the two days that we had planned, but we still saw quite a bit. We basically drove from the east entrance along the bottom part of the main loop and out the west entrance. We saw a bear way off in the distance and several buffalo, elk, dear, etc. fairly close up. One of the buffalo was even walking on the street right next to the RV. Katie looked out the window, pointed and said, “Doggie.” We even saw a couple of bald eagles on the way out of the park. We stopped briefly a couple of times to look at some of the animals, but the only time we stopped for an extended period was about 45 minutes to wait to see Old Faithful erupt.

When we left the park, we drove until about 11:00. I slept about four hours behind a closed gas station in a little town in Idaho and then got back on the road again as the rest of the gang slept in back of the RV.

Grandma, four presidents, tipis & water slides

7-21-07

I almost feel guilty because we had a fun-filled day while much more serious things were playing out in California. We were literally standing in front of Mt. Rushmore when we got a phone call from Dee telling us that Grandma Kit had gone into the emergency room early this morning and would be having surgery in a little while. We were very concerned, but our impression at that time was that it was supposed to be relatively minor surgery (maybe even laparoscopic). Maybe we misunderstood or maybe Dee didn’t know for sure at that point yet, but we learned later that day that it was pretty major surgery. The blood flow to part of her bowels had been cut off because of some artery problems so they had to remove part of her intestines. That certainly explains why she hadn’t been feeling well on the trip. It’s hard to have a good time when you can’t digest your food.

Anyway, we found out later that day that the surgery went well, and she will be having at least one follow-up surgery later once she recovers from this one in order to repair the internal plumbing.

Thinking that it was relatively minor at the time and not being able to do much because we were in South Dakota, we decided to finish our plans for the day. Once we spoke with Dee later in the day we would decide if we should come home early.

We did have a very fun day though. One of the reasons I had pushed to catch back up on the driving is that I knew that today would be a blast for the kids without a lot of driving. Our campground was only about ten minutes from Mt. Rushmore (or the Faces of Liberty, as Zac calls them) so we were there fairly early. Everyone enjoyed the monument, and the kids even seemed to like the museum.

Afterward, we drove a little over an hour to Hot Spings, South Dakota where we had a few surprises for the kids. We went to a campground where Alex, Zac and I went on a horseback trail ride through the hills. We had a good time even though the kids were scared for a little while when the horses were spooked by a large sheep that caught them by surprise. We then took them to Evan’s Plunge, a water park that is supplied with the natural warm mineral water that gives the town its name. All of us had a great time there.

That night the two older kids and I slept in an Indian tipi (Becky and Katie stayed in the RV). Alex and Zac were very exited about the theoretical idea of this, but they grew a little nervous when we had wind, lightening and a little rain. They even started asking about mountain lions. Fortunately, they were tired enough to fall asleep before too long.

Back to Grandma Kit. We expected to hear from Dee sometime today, but we realized in the middle of the afternoon that there was no cell phone coverage in Hot Spings. It took us forever to find a working pay phone, and when we finally did, we realized for the first time just how serious Kit’s surgery was. We debated whether we should start driving home right away, but we decided to get some sleep and start out early tomorrow morning.

Grandma is in our prayers.

Badlands & bad directions

7-20-07

Another long driving day, but at least we actually got to see a few things at the end of the day. It was kind of fun exploring South Dakota, the ancestral homeland of our friends John, Anita, et al. We made it to the Badlands and drove through the national park. The kids were mildly impressed, but Becky and I thought it was awesome. After that we went to Wall Drug in Wall, South Dakota. It’s kind of an American landmark that I had never heard of, but Becky knew all about. Apparently, it’s closely associated with jackalopes and the like. It was a fun stop, and we ate homemade ice cream.

Then at the end of this long driving day, we followed the worst set of mapquest directions ever. They took us to the middle of nowhere. If anyone is trying to get to the KOA near Mt. Rushmore, don’t follow the mapquest route. After wandering around in the mountains for an hour, we finally found a town and asked for directions. We got in a little late, but the kids still had time to swim for a little while so they were happy.

Westward ho; so long partner

7-19-07

Kit and I got up early even for EST, and I’m still half used to PST. We got her off at the airport though, and she made it home safely. We hope you feel better soon. We miss you already, Grandma Kit.

The downside of staying an extra day with Bill and Dorthy (thank you again) is that we had a lot of driving to make up. At least we set a new record for our trip with five states in one day. We began in Ohio, drove through Indiana, Illinois (Chicago was a pain in the behind, but I think that Mike Ditka flipped me off on the freeway – just kidding), Wisconsin and we ended up after midnight (past 1 EST, but we had moved into Central Time by then) in a rest area in Minnesota. A long day off driving, but at least we feel like we’re making progress on the way home.