www.cancermonster.net

7:45a
It has taken these four days to 1) recover to a small (not even close to fully recovering! Lol) degree from the trip; 2) recover from the shock of what was prepared for us here in Florida; and 3) get my first couple appointments at H. Lee Moffitt Cancer center out of the way. It has been a tough week.

Believe it or not, I didn’t take one picture the night we pulled up to our new house. It was so overwhelming just pulling up to the house and hugging and crying and laughing. And then the tour of the house . . . Furnished and decorated. Dinner was served and I was blown away over and over.

I just kept saying, “It is so nice that ya’ll came over to my house!” (Back in the land of “ya’ll”. . .) I couldn’t lift a finger for a fork. “Hey Lisa, how long is the service included with this house?” lol

And then one by one, the family left and Dan and the kids and I were Home Alone. “AHHHHHHHHHHH” Each of us wandered a new path around our new home. The girls fingered the fuzzy pink pillows and blankets, the dolls and clothes they found in their room. Robbie found marbles and books and toys for boys in his room. There was a bag of clothing in his closet and he loaded each piece into the dresser he found. I watched from the hallway. I stored the images in my heart for safe keeping.

We had planned to live in the motorhome when we arrived. We would not have complained, any of us. We expected a lot in an RV park. Watching the children bouncing around their rooms instead of bouncing around in the back of Clyde . . . I will never forget it.

And there is my bed! My sister, Anita, sold her jewelry to buy me a mattress made from the wispy part of a cloud. She and her daughter-in-law, Kim, made the mattress shop guys bring out every king size mattress in the place for them to try out. “Hmmmm, not quite soft enough. Can you get that one up there, 46 feet in the air?” They did a fine job with the picking. This sucker is two feet deep! And the frame is wrought iron swirls. When I climb up (and I do have to climb) on the bed, I sink into it and my pain fades into the sheets and deep into the sponge. I don’t know where it goes from there. Maybe the pain ends up where ever the socks go when you wash them.

********

9:00p

This is a prime example of why I haven’t written a long well thought out days entry. I started this morning at 7:30a and this is all I have for the whole day. My mom called a little while ago and I told her that I got a lot accomplished today. Then when I was finished telling her all that I did, I stopped to think. “I didn’t get a lot accomplished, did I?” lol I put away more things from the motorhome. I had a nap. I went with Uncle Pappa to register the van. I had a nap. I . . . I . . . I seasoned the fish for dinner. (Dan is doing pretty well, but I just don’t trust him yet with fish . . . yet.)

I need to get caught up here. Maybe I should let you know what happened on Monday at the new hospital. That seems like the logical starting place.

Back at Oregon Health & Sciences University (OHSU), we were awed by the number of hospitals and schools, the departments and specialties represented. OHSU is virtually a city unto itself. The number of people that live and work at and around the campus eludes me, but I have lived in towns with less population.
H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute is a different kind of impressive. Opened in 1987, the Moffitt Campus includes 1,648,869 square feet of hospitals, research and education facilities all dedicated to the treatment and study of Cancer. Each and every patient at Moffitt is battling their own CancerMonster. It is humbling to be a new part of the community, to say the least.

On Monday, Dan and I drove the two hours from our new house in Cape Coral to Tampa Bay, wondering the whole way what we crossed the country to find. What we found was compassion. From the staff. From the fellow patients. From the Valet Parkers even. (Valet parking is the standard there. I tried to imagine what it would be like to open each door and greet people from every walk of life, fighting for that walk. Fighting for their lives.)

Our first task was to navigate the halls to find the Sarcoma Clinic. Then the new patient paperwork required a bit of navigation as well. We then sat with a dedicated and caring young woman who helped us through more paperwork for the disability and Medicaid coverage.

Back at the Sarcoma center, we were called in for the triage portion of our visit. Vital signs. (Good to know that I am still showing signs vital-ness!) This fella was a hoot and put us at ease quickly. The nurse was next. I felt like I had always been a part of her world. Everyone was kind and helpful and down to earth.

Next we met my new doctor. Dr. D is a very funny vibrant woman that confesses to get attached to her patients. She listened. We listened. We asked questions and got answers. Some of the answers were “I don’t know” and “We will do some tests to find out.”

One of the things that she wanted a test for no one told us about at OHSU. I need to back up just a hair. On Sunday afternoon, as we were floating down the sandbar we call Florida, I finally read through some paperwork that was printed out for me the day before we left Oregon. The packet included the discharge summary, the details of the muscle flap surgery and the MRI report. If you remember, when we saw Dr. H at the pre-op appointment, the Chest CT was on the screen. We all saw the spots in my lungs. The Doctors and Dan and I discussed what that meant to the surgery and we decided to go ahead with the plans already set in place.

We never got to the MRI scans.

When I read the report myself, I was not prepared for what it said. I read it again to Dan. It didn’t get any better. Seems there are new “high-signal intensity” lesions in the right hip and femur and the iliac bones. These spots, like the ones in the lung, were not there in the last pictures. A total body scan was suggested to determine if there is osseous metastatic disease.

. . . spread to the bone . . .

This MRI was done on October 1st. It was November 11th. I didn’t know.

It makes sense of the pain I have been having in my right hip. I attributed the pain to lying on my right side instead of my new left butt. The pain increased as we neared our destination making it harder to walk and harder to sit in the front co-pilot seat in the motorhome. We were just hours away from Cape Coral when I found the report. I waited until the homecoming party was over before telling anyone. And then I put it out of my mind.

In fact, I am not sure who in our family, on either side we told. (I’m sorry.) I don’t know what change this would make in my coming treatment. Chemo covers the entire body. Hips included.

We discussed it next with Dr D. She said that the impressions of the MRI didn’t promise what we thought. She ordered a bone scan.

She also ordered a MUGA scan. I have no idea what “MUGA” stands for, but it is a scan of my heart. The Chemo is going to be rough on my ticker. It needs a good once-over look-see. I am also having a CT of the chest, abdomen, and pelvic regions. (The bone scan was done on Wednesday. The other test will be done this coming Monday.) And as for the pain, she increased my extended release Morphine and added some instant release morphine to take for breakthrough pain instead of the Vicodin or Percocet. She said taking just one medication, although different release modes, would be better for my system. (So far, the change is doing me good.)

Dr. D was also concerned about the fluid in my back where the donor muscle was taken for my new butt. She sent me to Moffitt’s version of a triage clinic. They called in a sarcoma surgeon to take a look. Instead of using a needle to remove the fluid, which would have to be repeated as the fluid filled in again, he wanted to have radiology guide in a new drain. The more often a site was opened, the more chance of infection. I am still waiting for that procedure to be scheduled.

It was late by the time we left Tampa. By the time we reached our new home, I was spent three times over. Bed! My bed that is softer than a bunny’s fur was a welcoming sight. I climbed in and cast off the pain that had me in tears for the last hour of the ride. But the first day of Moffitt was done. Many more to come.

It is now midnight eastern time. Way past my new bedtime. Tomorrow I will tell you about the rest of the week.

If I can remember it! Lol

I am going to give the floor to my wonderful Sissy, Pam tonight.   While Dan and the kids and I were bouncing the way to our new home, my sisters were very busy!   Check this out!

Hi! Everyone! I felt like blogging today! Well there are several things I needed to say and as I started to type well, I just kept on going, kinda like when I’m talking……… ( My family saying) “Oh boy”!

I wanted to share my version of this story of day 148, 149, and 150. I don’t think Teresa would mind, to tell you the truth, it is possible that she is a bit overwhelmed, tired and believe it or not, she might be a little speechless right now too. I am sure she will write her version once she has caught her breath. If I know her she is thinking about what she is going to say next. But she doesn’t know the story that went on behind close doors anyway. So I am telling you my version. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house here either on their big entrance when they arrived. But keep in mind that we are all emotionally drained by this time as it was. Funny thing was we expected them around 4 pm, and they didn’t get here till after 7. We did not finish getting the house looking good, the mess cleaned and had it looking like someone lived there until the very last ten minutes that they arrived, and there were over a dozen of us working on it. It was like the TV show Make Over.”

Here is the story: By luck and some begging friends, Anita got a local contractor business owner she knew to rent them this house with no money down, first month free, then rent for half of what they would get for it. This was more of a possibility to even be able to happen because of what is going on here in Florida right now. Construction work is dying out, and there are fewer jobs then ever, because construction is the working classes main industry here. The middle class and even business owners who once were making good money are really hurting bad! There are so many homes in foreclosure and
empty rentals everywhere! Never in the thirty years our family has lived here has it ever been this bad.

This was on Friday, day 148. From that moment on into the entire weekend, Anita and I were on the phone with each other if not together. We kept calling to ask each other did you find one of those yet? Getting them all beds was the biggest challenge for us. Now thinking back on it, I don’t know how Anita did all she did. She had to have been on the phone the entire time she was working everything. She was the main operator of the communication with everyone. Most family we have in Cape Coral are Anita and her husbands kids. The rest of us live in Ft. Myers and don’t know people in Cape Coral. So their friends in Cape Coral who are also reading Teresa blogs like soap opera, were starting to call Lisa who is our sister-in-law, and their friends were offering items to contribute as well. Things like, lazyboys, towels, blankets, desk, toys and school supplies for the kids. I have to express to all of you the entire ordeal was just incredible. And actually started to be fun for us women especially because we had all our husbands doing the heavy and hard work. They were picking up from the places we had bought stuff from, carrying it into the house and putting them together with tools! Imagine that!
When Anita and I started out on Friday to do this thing we were hoping that we could make it nice for them somewhat in the time we had by the time they came in on Sunday. At least have them beds to sleep in, so we had no idea it would end up the way it did.

Now, so you all know, Dan won’t be able to work full time for awhile. The drive to the hospital is three hours away, and although we really don’t know what the schedule is going to be yet, Teresa will never be left in the hospital there to go through her treatments alone without a family member with her. Also, if any of you are concerned about the children. I want to assure you that they will get good care from us while Dan and Teresa have a really big mountain to get over now. If the ones in Oregon weren’t big enough, I am thinking these just might be a bit bigger! Right now the family are happy to have made the journey and are on the top of the world! Because all of the things they have today that they didn’t have yesterday! This was like getting Christmas all at once instead of once a year in life! We have no doubt that we have over-whelmed this cute little family of ours! For Dan and Teresa it was the children’s excitement that gave them the most joy. Understand that they have had nice things and lived in nice homes before. They were perfectly content with the life they had before a monster decided to come and evade Teresa’s body. So it isn’t about that. It is about two people who worked hard together for 20yrs to make a beautiful family and live happily ever after. To have it all taken away from them after, just doesn’t seem right. I know it happens to a lot of families, but still it isn’t right. Well when it happens we just got to deal with it. Anyone who would have to go through it alone I feel very sorry for.

Now to get to work~! I have been selling on eBay for several years now, ever since I lost my drivers license when I had a seizure driving. So it is my home base business that I do. I have been collecting things to sell for sometime now. Anyhow, this month and hopefully next month as well, everything I am auctioning in eBay will go to help Teresa and Dan with their living expensive.

As a dedication to my little sisters triumph, and expressing to the world what she has experienced with cancer, I have made a music slide show about their journey using pictures from cancermonster and our trip we made to Portland last month. Go to this link to view that and you will also be able to see the items I am auctioning in eBay from there. Thank you all, who have helped Dan and Teresa and their family. We would not have been able to give Teresa this much will and lessened her stress without you.
It just might be what she needed to kick butt!

 Click Here

http://pjamz.phanfare.com/9999

BTW:  I LOVE YOU PAMMY! t

lol

Oh, my goodness! Are you just crazy? Well, stop it! We’re fine! We didn’t have internet access last night. But we ARE HERE! WE ARE HOME!

We are better than fine! I can’t even begin to tell you what it felt like to pull off the Hwy and head to a home we have never seen. It was dark. About 7:00p. As we came around the corner into the neighborhood, one of the kids said, “Which house its it?”

“Probably that one with the people jumping up and down in the back yard!” And they were too! Jumping up and down! We honked the horn and they screamed and ran to the front of the house”

As soon as Dan parked Clyde in the front drive, I jumped out and the hugging started. My family! My Sisters, my Brother, Mom and Step Dad, Nieces and nephews. Crying, laughing, crying some more.

The house is beautiful. And fully furnished!   The beds made.  Silverware in the drawer.  Decorated beautifully!   They got the keys Friday night.  And within 48 hours, they collected all we would need and more.   My sisters and nieces did yard sales and goodwills all over town.  And my Brother drove around behind them picking the things up with his trailer!

Unbelievable. Too Much.

And this morning, my brother-in-law, Dick pulled up with the Van. “This is your car, free and clear. You don’t owe anyone anything. ” He drove to Indiana to pick it up. It was full of stuff for the kids. Toys and games, books and decorations for their rooms. And backpacks for each of them, full of school supplies.

Dan says, “I don’t get it . . .”

I say, “It’s amazing. . . ”

Dan and I are, at this moment, on our way to Tampa. Our appointment at the Moffitt Cancer Center is at 12:30. We have no clue what they will do. We packed a bag just in case. While we are gone, the family back Cape Coral (across the river from Ft.Myers) are still working. Gramma and Pop came to hang with the kids for the day. Dick and Anita were still there when we left. Lisa will be bringing more things in today. Joe will be over too.

It’s so overwhelming. To be loved so completely.

I need to get this up and get on to finding out exactly where we are going. I will write more and longer later ok? And I will update you on what we find out at Moffitt too.

Love to you and yours

teresa

I know, I Know! Where’s Clyde??!! Sorry it’s so late . . . Wanted to get as far as possible today. Read on . . . t

********

At 5:30 this morning, Aunt Shirley woke us with a breakfast spread out across the table. Better than any continental breakfast anywhere we have ever been taken care of. It was her surprise to us. God love that woman. It was hard to leave Aunt Shirley and Uncle Mike, but if we hadn’t, my sister Anita would have shown up to kick my new butt and drag us onward.

We had a wonderful twelve hours filled with food and learning a bit about my family history from Aunty’s genealogy charts and My Grandmother’s poetry.

Robbie found a close kinship with a second cousin he never knew he had. Garrison is my cousin Gary’s son. Even though he is the same age as Jaymi, Rob and Garrison spoke the same language: video games and frogs.

Bye Houston. We’ll come back someday.

We have just passed into Louisiana.

Jaymi, Robert, and I all had a nap! 5:30a comes with a price! It was too bumpy and squeaky in Brandi’s bed for her tastes. She sat in the Co-pilot’s seat and kept Dad company.

Compared to the path across Texas, Louisiana will blow past on its own. We are passing the time trying to get Truckers to honk their horns and looking for words that start with each letter of the alphabet. Finding a “Q” on a billboard took quiet some time!

The sky here in Louisiana is overcast and much cooler, thank goodness. And wetter. Just a little sprinkling here and there with sun shining through every now and then. This is the first feeling of tropical south. Uncle Greg and Aunt Lori can have the “dry heat” of the Southwest. And we left the moldy wet to Uncle Denny and Aunt Leenie. (And my Dear #1 Kelli!) We are a good thirty miles from the Gulf of Mexico as we come into Lafayette, but I can still smell it out there!

Driving on. Driving home.

It’s been seven years. The closer we get to Florida the more my mind thinks of it as home. Yet, part of me feels disloyal to Oregon.

Fancy that.

We are now crossing the Louisiana swamp. The kids are amazed. Poor Dan needs a break. Lol.

Driving on through the swamp.

My new butt thinks this bridge through the swamp has gone on long enough.

I had another nap. This time Brandi joined me in the land of slumber.

Meanwhile, down in Florida, people are scurrying around like elves filling an order from Santa. And no one will tell me what they are doing! Haha

Anita calls . . . “Hey, where aaare you?”"
“Almost to Mississippi. What are you doing?”
“Running errands.”
“What errands?”
“Just errands. Hehe hehe. Oh, gotta go. Yard Sale!”
Click

“Hey Dan? Drive faster!”

Then my phone rings again. It’s Anita, but she doesn’t know it. I can hear her talking. “If it doesn’t work there, we can put it in the bedroom.” and then nothing. Foot.

I call her back. “Hey, what are you putting in the bedroom?”
She hesitates. “Huh? I’m not putting anything in the bedroom.”
“You just called me.”
“I did?”
“Yup. And you said, ‘If it doesn’t work there, we can put it in the bedroom.’ Sooo. What are you putting in the bedroom?”
“Haha. You just need to drive down the road! And stop asking questions!”
“If our positions were switched, wouldn’t you be curious?”
“Haha. Goodbye Treese!”

Man.

Driving on. Faster, Dan.

We are coming up on Gulfport. Biloxi is not far off. Before we know it, we’ll be in Mobile, Alabama. It sure is refreshing to pass through multiple states in one day instead of a week to get out of one!

I know I have been writing in sound bites for the last few days. I have to apologize for that. It’s just that . . . Well, it’s hard to use my brain to write long, philosophical lesson-barring lectures when you have been literally bouncing your new butt across the world! Think about it. Have you ever had a butt ache? Pulled a muscle pulling weeds or doing something stupid? Played football with teen agers? Fallen on the ice?

When your butt hurts it’s hard to think with your brain, see?

I took another nap.

We are almost to the Alabama line. Dan pulled off the road around 5:30p so that I could wake up from my nap and cook dinner. I couldn’t eat. I went back to bed. I am having a strange pain in my side. It gets sharp when I breathe in deeply. And my right knee is swollen. I really need this trip to be done!

You know, it’s harder to pretend that your not sick than it is to be sick. Sometimes I wish I could just melt into a puddle of goo and regenerate for a while. Tomorrow we get to Florida. And this crazy ride will be memory material. Maybe then I can just rest for a moment.

Rest in a house, soon to be a home, that my family and friends have set up for us. Can you imagine getting a gift such as this? . . . I am blown away and I have not even reached the Florida line.

Oh thank you. Oh God, thank you.

Driving on towards home.

7:30p

I was laying down when we crossed the Alabama line. I heard them all shout out. They let me miss that one. But coming up soon is the Florida State Line. They would never let me miss that.

Brandi is so excited. She has been trying to imagine what the house will be like ever since we heard about it last night. You have to remember that we have been living in Clyde since May. We have adapted and enjoyed the RV park lifestyle, but we are done with this thirty-three feet for now. This ride across country has cured us of our fancy.

Oh, until yesterday, we were looking forward to just parking the motorhome in a campground and pulling out the awning. But when Anita told us what she and my mom, and Pam and Oh, my lord, what my sister-in-law. Lisa has been up to. And the rest of the Angels.

I asked for 10,000 Angels. God never fails to deliver what we need.

“I wonder what color my room is?”
“I’m going to ride my bike to school!”

For making my kids forget what they have been through and look towards tomorrow. . . I could never repay this. Never.

********
8:00p

WELCOME to FLORIDA!

We have crossed the line! It’s too bad that it’s dark, but we are within reach! At this point, If something else went wrong, someone from the Angel Department could collect us up! In fact, my brother-in-law is on his way back from Indiana.

Hey, Uncle Pappa! Keep your eyes out for Clyde! (formerly known as “The Duck Mobile”). Honk once. We’ll quack back!

********
We have come 570 miles today and Dan is still not satisfied. But he has been on the go since Aunt Shirley’s breakfast at 5:30 this morning. We have found a KOA in Milton, Florida and are setting up for the night. Bright and early, we’ll be on our way again for the last leg of this unbelievable journey.

Long day today. No more driving.

We are in Florida. Good Job Clyde.

9:00a CST

Tomorrow, we drive on.

7:20a MST
(Thirty miles from here it’s 8:20a CST.)

We made an early escape from the place where we stopped last night. We have been driving for about 45 minutes. We’re watching the Mexican hillside off to our right. (The kids and I are excited to SEE Mexico!) Yes, we just came through El Paso.

We didn’t get out of Las Cruces until close to 5:00 last night. The original goal was Stockton, TX.   250+ miles from Las Cruces.   Stockton being the next town after El Paso with an advertised RV park.

We, no Dan had to make a decision. Option One: Drive on past El Paso in the dark, trusting the repair shop’s handiwork, into the Texan Desert, knowing the next place to plug in was four to five hours away. Option Two: Stop for the night just over the Texas Border and take both El Paso and the desert beyond in the daylight.

It seemed a simple decision to Dan. I have to admit I didn’t see his wisdom at first and pitched a little fit. I wanted to get going! I was tired of waiting around. And the Camping World park we stopped at was under construction and had neither Wi-Fi nor Cable! However, because of that, it was cheep. And Cheep is our best price at the moment.

Dan fiddled with the old built in antennae on the roof. We have never been able to get it to go up with that crank on the inside. It just wasn’t a priority fix since we always had cable or satellite. (I suppose it would have been good in the Walmart parking lot or that night when we “no camped.”) I know that he would have left it alone still had he not been trying to settle me down.

“Look, Treese! Network Air Channels! We can watch Kid Nation AND Gordon Ramsey!”
“Yah, ok. But I still don’t have internet.”

I was in such a good bad mood that I didn’t want to give it all up at once. I’m such a brat. You know how that is.

We were smack dab in the middle of nowhere and nothin’. I really was surprised that there was any air channels at all.

I suppose I should back up a little more. Late yesterday morning, the correct part arrived and the mechanics got to work. Checkout was technically noon, but they gave us until 2:00p to vacate the suite. All that is recap.

2:00 came and the repairs were not complete. We loaded our belongings on a bell cart and rolled it down the hall to the lobby. Now what?

Haha. Dan made a tidy pile of our bags and pillows behind a chair that marked the border of the lobby and the continental breakfast room. There was a TV in there and I tuned it to cartoons and plopped the babes in front of it. I gave them “the look” that means “don’t even think about it.”

Dan left to sit vigil over Clyde. The very moment the motorhome was backed out of the repair bay, Dan would take possession and rescue the rest of us from lobby hell.

And I sat.

*********
I have to interrupt the story to tell you something that just happened. The exact reason we bought this class of motorhome instead of a pull behind version was that we knew we would at some point need space between us and the kids. These kids woke up on the silly side of the bunk today. They were just behind us on the couch singing the same silly songs over and over. We let them go as long as possible before sending them back to lay on our beds and sing ’till their voices cracked. Rob went back with them. He didn’t last long, though, before he was begging for them to shut up! Then he started wackin’. [And ruined the perfect story I was writing about them at the same moment! Grrr.] So he is back up here with Dad and me, enjoying the quiet with us.

********
12:15p. Central

We stopped for gas in Van Horn and I made breakfast. A Mexican version of my Daddy’s Hunky Eggs (whatever is leftover in the fridge with eggs scrambled over it). Last night’s chicken with peppers, onions, and tomatoes made today’s Huevos Rancheros. Then I laid down on my bed with a “House” video on the laptop. We woke up at five mountain time this morning, which if I have it right is four pacific, so I fell asleep relatively fast. I haven’t ridden back here in the bumpy back end for a while. I feel alright, but I’m tired. My back is swollen with fluids too. I think I need to take it easy. Sleep a little today.

Oh, back to yesterday. . . Lol

The kids and I sat in the lobby of the hotel with all our things long enough to contemplate the plight of the homeless and formulate a plan for their rescue. Or so it seemed.

By this time all the staff knew who we were. One very nice lady, who had been helping us with extra blankets and garbage bags throughout our stay, asked me if the motorhome wasn’t done yet.

“Soon, they are just finishing up now.”

“Your kids are very quiet there watching TV.” She nodded towards the backs of three kids that must belong to someone else sitting glued to the breakfast room TV.

“They have been threatened.”
“Oh? Ah, haha. Over here, they are so quiet. . . Over there in the room they . . . Ah . . . Well, they are quiet over here.”

She was sweet. Yes, I know that back in the room, which was across from the housekeeping department, the kids weren’t so quiet. But they were quiet there sitting out in the open. There are certain times when kids know it would be dangerous to their happiness to disobey their mother. This was one of them.

Somewhere around 3:30, I happened to look up and saw good old Clyde pulling through the parking lot.

“He’s here! Dad’s here with the motorhome! It’s done!”

I think the hotel staff was just as excited for us as we were for ourselves. “Bye! Thank you!”

“What’s the damage, Dan?”
“The right part cost more than the wrong part.” He was spinning the answer to my question. That is never good.
“How much, Dan?”
“$589.27″

Ah geez.

The $425 that he first quoted us was an unbelievable number. And then Clyde tied up a bay in his busy shop for three days. And it is likely that the correct part from the manufacture would be more than the wrong part from the part store in Albuquerque. But that and the muffler and the hotel . . .oh man.

If we had known that this trip would be so hard, we would have made a different plan.

Because we hadn’t had them look at the battery problem (we knew we couldn’t afford to fix both problems), Dan decided to buy an extra starting battery at Walmart. If we get stuck somewhere we can switch out the batteries and if we don’t need it, we can return it in Florida.

By the time we loaded up, got the new battery and put our stuff back where it belonged it was almost 5:00. And that brings us back to the beginning of today’s post.

Now it’s 2:15p CST and we have been driving through the Texan Desert for about the last five hours. IT IS HOT OUT HERE! Nothing out here except wind and windmills. Thousands of windmills. And a whole lot of sun. And the six of us: Dan and the kids and me and Clyde.

Driving on.

I am so hot. I stink almost as bad as the cows back in California, I think. (Aren’t you glad I shared?)

And the cell phones are on roaming. If we make or take a call, it will suck out all our prepaid minutes. I didn’t post last night and we are not answering our phones. I know at least one person that is going nuts. My dear sister Anita keeps calling. I did try to answer once, but it didn’t go through. “Hold on sissy, we’ll find some civilization soon.”

Hey, Anita, that mercy flight is looking pretty good about now.

“You know I could just snap my fingers and be medi-flighted out of here, Dan. I am only sticking with you out of courtesy. I could be in Florida in a couple hours. You should be nice to me.”
“I’m always nice to you.”
“I’m hot Dan! I smell like a pig. I have to get out of this motorhome.”
“Point to the where and tell me why?”

Driving on. lol

We are about thirty miles out of what looks on the map like a decent size city. Dan promised we could get out of the motorhome and go inside someplace air-conditioned for a little while. I think he wants to keep me around. Gotta love the man for loving me.

Hopefully we can make some calls while we are there too.

*******

2:51p. CST

Who owns this land? More importantly, why do they want it? I think I am getting delirious. Robbie is not much better off than me. He is rolling back and forth on the couch chanting “When are we gonna get to a tooowwwnnn? When are we gonna get to a tooowwwnnn?” We are all losing it.

********
7:30p CST

We are in a KOA in Junction, TX. About 130 miles out of Austin. This has been a crazy ride. The past few days have been expensive. Between the repair bills and hotel bills and gas . . . Anyway, we still can’t use our cell phones. I guess the Verizon Network Gang didn’t follow us into the desert. “Can you hear me now?” NOPE!

Had we known what we were getting ourselves into . . .

You know, I am finding it hard to believe this is my life. The programming of my world was pre-empted and somebody else’s life is now showing. (Poor Bloke) This is not real.

Only it is.

I am so sore. I am almost out of pain meds too.

A long, long time ago I was a Tae Kwon Do Instructor. Wonder what made me think of that? Maybe because I have never been so far away from that life.

Dan has dinner ready. I need to get this up so that you know where we are and what we are doing.

WE ARE PRAYING.

Tomorrow’s plan: We are taking 10 to 290. 290 will take us through Austin and cut off a bit of mileage. We will take 290 all the way into Huston. Early afternoon we are meeting up with Aunt Shirley for a short hug. And then we will find our beloved (gag) Hwy 10 again. We should be able to make it to Lake Charles, LA by dark. It’s too bad there isn’t more daylight this time of year. But we pulled in here tonight with the batteries on E. Can’t drive after dark.

Please, keep praying for us. We are still moving on only by the Grace of God. I have never been so beholden to everyone in my life. It’s almost too much to handle.

I should feel proud that God thinks so highly of us. Lol

The closer we get to Austin, the more chance we can use the phones and makeup the calls that we have missed today.

Love and Blessings to All,
teresa

1:30p MST

We have been hanging in the hotel. . .

. . . going a bit nuts and making a mess . . .

. . . eating continental breakfasts . . .

. . . while Clyde gets rehabilitated in the Pokey.

They have the part and they have been working on getting in put in place.  We have been given a late check out time of 2:00.  I just wanted to let you know that we will be taking off as soon as they release our dear home to us.   We hope it’s before two, so we don’t have to lug our belongings across the Walmart parking lot!   If not, we are hoping the hotel will store our stuff until Clyde is finished.  But in any case, I have to sign off this internest connection now and I wanted you to know what was going on.    We will drive as far as we can this afternoon, but we still haven’t addressed the battery problem.  Don’t know how long we can drive after dark.  I will try to let you know later where we are.  In the meantime, know that we are fine.  Really.  We are now in a hurry again, but we are fine.

Love to all and our deepest thanks to those who made this possible,

teresa

“Welcome to the World of RVing” my sister says as I tell her today’s news.

She has traveled extensively in motorhomes.  She knows what it means to break down in Small Town, America.

“The wrong part was delivered this morning.  They ordered the right part directly from the manufacture.  It will come tomorrow morning.  They will get it installed as soon as they receive it.  Maybe noon, one o’clock tomorrow we‘ll be back on the road.”

Tomorrow.

Another night in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Remember way back in the early part of this story, I told you my story was called “Tomorrow” because I vow to always have a tomorrow.  I look to tomorrow for strength for today.   But I have to tell ya, I am sick of Las Cruces’ version of tomorrow.  I don’t trust this tomorrow business at the moment.

When Dan called me with the news, I was trying to ignore the bickering of the two girls trying to share the laptop.  I had finally told them that they couldn’t have the computer and the TV and changed the channel from Scooby Do to Judge Judy. (Not a whole lot of difference there . . .)   I had lowered the volume in the room a tad by sticking Rob in the shower.  (The shower is his all time favorite place. He would spend hours in the shower if he could.)

Another night in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

I looked around the hotel room.  As rooms goes, this one was . . . not so good.  It registered in my mind that the room was crowded and our things were spread all over. Last night, we had to rearrange the furniture in order to open up Rob’s roll-a-way bed.  And still, one end had to rest on the double bed that the girls begrudgingly shared.  And Dan takes his half out of the middle.  That didn’t leave much left on my side of our double bed.  I slept lousy.

Another night in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

At least Anita was able to reschedule the appointment at Moffitt for Monday, November 12.  If we get back on the road by tomorrow afternoon, we can make it.  We have to make it.  We’ll make it as long as Clyde doesn’t decide to  . . . NO!  Even though the motorhome is across the Walmart parking lot and snuggled into his bay, sucking up their electricity . . . It still might hear me.  No, we will make it.  No more problems.

Please.

Another night in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

When Dan came in, I was still staring at the room.  He is very good at reading my moods these days.

“I’ll be right back.”
“Where are you going now?”
“To the front desk.”

He came back a short time later to ask me to come see another room.  Ok.

“I told them what was going on.”

When I walked in to the other place, I saw a standard king room: one king size bed, a desk and a chair with an ottoman and a TV.  Then I turned to see the OTHER room.  A living room with a couch and chair, a desk and a SECOND TV!

“Yes, this will be much better.”

After hearing our tale, the manager gave us a suite for just a little bit more than we paid for the little double.  And we have been hanging out here since about 10:00 this morning.  The kids have their room and they love it.  We dragged the roll-a-way down from the other room.  That was given this time to Brandi.  Jaymi gets the pull out couch all to herself! And for Rob, we brought the ottoman in from the king room and made a Rob size bed out of the chair and two ottomans.  He was very pleased.  And no one will be poking any one else come bed time. They turned on their cartoons and I walked away back to my room and my KING SIZE BED and my soaps!

Our room has a couple extra items.  One is a small fridge.  The other a small microwave.  DINNER IN!   After All My Children, which comes on at 11:00 here btw, I walked to the Walmart by myself! I claimed a scooty cart and picked out some microwavable lunch: Cup-a-soups and frozen mini pizzas.  I bought some sugar free tea mix and a cheap pitcher.  And Lunch was planned for pennies!

The kids were thrilled.   I really have good kids.  It doesn’t take much to please them.               I miss the kid I left behind in Oregon all ready. She’s not a kid, I know.  But she is my baby.  I hope she knows how much I love her.

Another night in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

When it comes time for dinner, we will walk back to Walmart.  Each of us will order up our favorite TV dinner and we’ll hike back here to the old home on the range.  We will more than save in food cost what we had to pay extra for the suite. And in the morning we will have another free continental breakfast.

Joy Ride.   Joy sit.   Joy.

So, you see, within every nightmare there is a dream.  Pockets of Happiness.  We are stuck here in Las Cruces, New Mexico, but it might be a good thing.   Dan wouldn’t stop.  For weeks now, he would not relax.  He has been in overdrive.  Even when we pulled to a stop along this route we’re on, my Dear Dan would be busy with this or that, moving until he dropped.  Now, with Clyde in the pokey, Dan has nothing to do.  He has no choice but to sit still and veg.  Yes, he has been back and forth across the Walmart parking lot too many times to count.  But as I am writing this, he is laying across the king size bed watching TV.  He came back from the pool where he took over for me in watching the kids play.

“It’s all your fault, you know Dan. You wouldn’t rest.”
“Yah, Dad was too stressy.  He needed to relax some.”
“Yah, Dad, God wants you to lay on the bed.  Wait, I think I might have just heard God say something . . .”TAKE THE KIDS BACK TO THE POOL, DAN.”

Another night in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Yah, Joy.

Oh, and our room has another feature that I like: A door between the kids room and ours.

Joy.

I am so tired. Sometimes you get so tired that your brain won’t register the simplest things. Like . . . where you are and what time it is there.Let me think. . . Oh, yes. Las Cruces, New Mexico. And I bet you want to know what is going on here in good old Las Cruces. . .

We stayed the night at the RV park. It was very nice. The clubhouse was like a hotel. And we ate complimentary continental breakfast before we pulled away to find the mechanic that God had set up for us.

It took several tries. The first place was sympathetic to our cause, but was way too busy to even look at the motorhome today. They suggested that we try a muffler shop down the road. They would be able to work on it right away. If it were a simple muffler donut gasket, they could handle it. Ok. That might work. We found the recommended shop not far down the road. They put the Clyde (we named the Motorhome CLyde) up on a lift (That looked funny! I didn’t have my camera!)

Right away they saw that the left side muffler (not the one we replaced in Lincoln City) was blown apart like an open can of sardines! (That’s how Dan described it to me.) That’s what was making the super loud noise. The gaskets . . . They wouldn’t do anything about. But they did weld on a shiny new muffler for $89. And then we were driving away. (As apposed to “Driving On”) The engine was less loud, but still sucking air.

The next shop produced a recommendation for the final shop. We had passed this shop earlier. It was next to the Walmart. There were semi-trucks out front, but we could see RV’s in the bay. It was a big place. Professional.
We gave the first lady we saw the story and she looked me over to see if she believed it. She must have, because she picked up the phone and called the shop manager. While we waited for him, I was praying, “Oh, Lord? Please touch his heart, Lord. Make him want to help us . . .”

He came in the room like he owned the place. He kind of reminded me of Donny Osmond for some reason. Lol He listened. And I could see that he was thinking deeply. I should say that there were ten or twelve bays in that shop. Every bay was filled with a patient. Some big trucks, several big motorhomes. I saw a city bus. . . The front lot was filled and the back lot was filled. There were school busses parked along the side of the building. It was a busy place.

He was thinking.

“I better get back to the motorhome. We have three little kids in there.” I left the men to think.

And I called Anita to update her.

“You know you will have to fly now.”

“I know. I just want to stay with with Dan as long as I can. It will be hard for him to manage the kids on his own.”

While I was on the phone with Anita, the Mr. Osmond-look-alike came out with another fella and asked me “Which side?”

“Ah. . . Which side? I . . .ah . . . I . . . Have no idea. My husband is still inside, let me call him out here.”

I don’t enjoy being ignorant. Yes, I am ignorant when it comes to most engine things. I have been married for a long time. My husband has no idea what the difference between “dice” and “chop”. You don’t see me laughing at him! (lol Just chuckling once in a while . . .)

What side? THE WHOLE DERN THING IS LOUDER THAN A FREIGHT TRAIN FELLA!

“Oh, here’s my husband now . . .” wheew.

I hung around listening, trying to figure out what the manager was going to say. A woman that was inside when we were telling our story came up to me in the parking lot. She said she was trying to dig up all the American money she had. (I believe she was Canadian)

“It’s not much. Just $14,00. I wish it was more.”
“Oh, no ma’am. Thank you, but . . .”
“Take the kids for Ice Cream. Please.”
“Thank you.”

She hugged me.

I looked up at my husband in the drivers seat. He was watching. His eyes were red too. This is hard for us. So hard. So humbling. We have never been in this situation before.

The manager interrupted our silent conversation. The engine was hot. Too hot to work on for a couple hours. If it turns out to be the gasket, it would take a couple hours. But the manifold might be cracked. In that case, they would have to get the part in and it would be a little longer. He pointed us to a hotel on the opposite side of Walmart. Within walking distance of the shop.

Dan drove the kids and me to the hotel. We gathered up clothes and crayons and bathing suits. Snacks and Sodas. And checked in. It was just after noon. Dan then drove the motorhome back to the repair shop and left it. He walked through the Walmart and bought a cheep Styrofoam cooler for the sodas and came back to the Hotel. He wanted us to walk back over to the McDonald’s for lunch. I was too tired. He took the kids and I took a nap. I took a nap with one eye and watched my soaps with the other. Hey! I haven’t seen them in a week!

When the family came back, they wanted to go for a swim. I wanted to continue my nap/soaps. As Dan was getting ready to take the kids to the pool, the repair shop called. The manifold was indeed cracked. The part was coming from Albuquerque. They would start on it first thing in the morning and it should be done by noon.

“Due to your circumstances, we are going to do you the best we can. We can replace the manifold for $425. That’s a good deal.”

That’s great. We have to thank them for that. Even so, It’s more that we currently have . . . for gas to get to Florida. Lol We have until noon tomorrow. . .to sell a kid or two.

And for tonight, we have a hotel with a view of a pool. And cable TV. And air conditioning. And we have faith.

Matthew 17:20 says, “I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.

As I napped in the room, Dan played with the kids in the pool. He needed the down time more than he admitted it. I peeked out the window and saw him giving the kids rides on his back. They were ALL smiling. It was a good thing.

Tomorrow, we will Drive on.

As it turns out, my appointment with the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa is Wednesday, not Friday. Lol Anita called them to see if it would be possible to move the appointment and found out that we had the day wrong. Couldn’t make Wednesday. They are changing the day to the beginning of next week. What a relief off our minds. Not that we can afford to post pone it any farther.

The altitude is weighing on my lungs. I am short of breath up here at 4,000 ft. And I am so tired. I think I will finish my nap now. This time with both eyes.

Until tomorrow then . . .

Mwaaack

6:25p mountain time

At least I know what time it is.   And that’s about all that is going for this day.

We left  . . . where were we this morning?  Anyway we left late because we couldn’t tell our bodies that there was some mix-up with the time.  We slept long.  It was a good sleep though.

We traveled about 180 some odd miles when we heard a loud BANG and the motorhome started chugging like an antique rail car.  Coughing and spluttering. We pulled off the road in No-Wheres-Ville, New Mexico.  The motorhome never actually died. It just begged to be put out of its misery.  We stood there on the side of the road, Dan and I, dodging tiny cactus creatures that threatened to hitch-hike on our legs, and panicked for three minutes (Give or take a few).

“Maybe it’s just bad gas.”
“It’s not bad gas, Treese.”
“Maybe it’s just a hole in the exhaust pipe that is making all that racket.”
“No. I think we blew an exhaust gasket, Treese.”

I started to sing prayers.  Dan started to sing curses.  I sang louder than him so that God would hear just mine and not his.  I think it worked.

We had two options. One, we could call Roadside and get towed to the nearest service center.  “Billy Bob Garcia” would be kind to us, right?  Two, we could get in and try to drive it to the next exit ourselves.  Then we could choose between “Billy Bob” and “Tex Alamoto” for the repairs.  We chose to take the chance of driving it in.  We climbed aboard and settled the children back into their seatbelts.  I continued to pray.  Dan continued to curse.  But we did both more calmly.  See the prayers won out!

We drove on.

Slowly at first.  Strangely, the gages never changed.  The oil pressure didn’t drop and the temperature gage didn’t climb. We figured we were about twenty miles out of Los Cruses, NM.  Could we make it?  The first exit looked like a road to nowhere.  The next a convenience store and nothing else.

We drove on.

The engine was loud and popping.  The gas gage was sucking air.  But we kept going.  Backfire here.  Pop-rattle-rattle there.  “Dear Lord, help us get to Las Cruces.

We drove on.

Funny now, all the people that have been calling us all along, were not answering their phone.  We really needed advice from Greg.  He wasn’t answering.  Anita wasn’t answering.  Denny didn’t answer.  At first.  The second call he came on the line asking me what time it was!  Lol

“We have problems bigger than time.  We are in a bit of trouble here Den.”

I told him what was going on and where we were.  He got on his computer and found our location.  He found the RV repair shops in Las Cruses.  He navigated us in.

“Your next exit will be Ave. de Masilla.  Take a right and then the first left. And there’s a shop there.  No looks like the whole road is all about RVs.”

He was looking at Google Satellite Maps.  He could see aerial photos of the road we were taking.   That’s my Denny.  Go Denny.

We saw RV Sales and Repair on the left and an RV park on the right.  Through the middle we saw a Walmart Super center on the other side of Hwy 10.  Denny did us proud.  Of course on Sunday at quarter to noon, the shops were closed.  We pulled into the RV park.  Turned off the engine and Dan and I walked hand in hand inside.  It was a nice place.  Our Good Sam RV Club card would get us 10% off our inevitable stay.  Before we committed to the park, we wanted to make sure that the shops were going to stay closed all day.  What if they opened at noon or something, you know?   So we pulled away and checked the shop signs as we went down the street.  All  still closed. All day.  Oh well.  There was the Walmart. We needed something to cook for dinner and some milk.  I needed some medicine and to exchange that comfortable bra I got in California that I hadn’t tried on . . .

When we checked out of Walmart, our PayPal card was declined.  What?  Run it again. Declined.  We had some cash.  Then we had less cash.

What’s up with that.

We re-boarded our boat and chugged back out and back around to the park.   I once had a stick shift Camero.  It was hot. It started acting up and I couldn’t afford the fix.  “I could cut out the catalytic converter.  I would run better, but it would be really loud.”  I hadn’t thought of that car in a while.  It came back to me this afternoon for some reason.

When we tried to pay for our lot with the PayPal card, it was declined again. Now we had even less cash. What is going on?  The majority of what we have left for gas, not to mention trying to get this motorhome repaired, is in that account.  And it’s only in there because people have been kind enough to put it there.  We couldn’t have made it this far without your help.  We thank God for that account.  That account has been our saving grace.  And now it’s declined.

What is next.  This trip has been hard enough.  Now this and that.  And I think God must think highly of us.  They say that God never gives you more than you can handle.  He must think I can handle all this.  Isn’t Butt Cheek Sarcoma moving to your lungs enough?
We have to get to that money.  Why would it be locked.  Well, we are moving across country.  State to state. Using the account for things we never used it for.  Once our bank called me when I flew from Oregon to Florida to see if I really rented a car.  And to see if I really wanted the rental car company to charge my card with $10,000.   That was nice of them.   Why didn’t PayPal call us if there was a question?  Hmm.  Could it be that we moved from Portland to Lincoln City and didn’t change our address on the account.  And could it be that we changed from our Blackberries to prepaid cell phones and didn’t change the phone number on our account?

After we were settled into our lot in the campground and all the hookups were hooked up, Dan and I got on the Wi-Fi and on paypal.com and dug through the account looking for answers.  We were not really getting along at that particular moment, so I left him to it and took a nap.  And then I took the kids to the hot tub.

When we got back to the RV, Dan wasn’t there.  But there was a Roadrunner!

   HAHAHHAHA

It was much smaller than the one the coyote chases on that old cartoon, but there was no denying it was a roadrunner.   The kids were determine to catch it.  It was pretty fast.  They had to be sneaky.  I am not sure who’s idea it was but they thought that if they pretended they were each a cactus, they could sneak up on the roadrunner.  I laughed so hard I almost fell down.

Those kids held their hands up in the classic cactus pose and when they thought the bird was looking the other way, they would run ten feet and stop.  Run ten feet and stop.  It was hilarious.  Of course, if that coyote could never catch a Roadrunner, neither could my three little cacti.  But they made me laugh and that was just what I needed.

I called Dan.  He had walked down the street to check when the repair shops would be opened in the morning.  And he tried to buy something again with the PayPal card.  Declined.

I went back to the website.  We had, indeed, not updated our information.  I changed our contact info and found a link to call customer service.  (That is new!) And I signed Dan’s phone up for mobile banking.  When Dan got back from his walk we called PayPal together.  It was just what I thought.  Weird charges in weird places and the phone numbers disconnected.  We had to answer questions about where we made purchases and where we tried to make charges today.  And we let them know that we are driving on.  As soon as we get the beast fixed.

Now, everyone, go check that your PayPal account is up to date.

So we had a whole evening here at this really great park. Dan and the girls did the laundry and I cleaned up the motorhome and cooked up dinner.  What tomorrow will bring is unknown.

It is possible that the problem with the motorhome is more minor than we think.  If someone could get on it right away and get it done, we could get on our way and maybe make Tampa, where the new Cancer Center is, by Thursday night.  If the problem is a blown exhaust gasket like Dan and Greg think, it will take some time and cash to fix.  Even if it’s less than $500, we won’t have enough after for gas.  If it’s worse than that . . . We may have to come up with another way out from here.   We thought of many things.  But it will all depend on what the mechanics say tomorrow.

And I have to be in Tampa by Friday morning.  One way or another.

This trip has been  . . . Well it’s been a trip.   When I was eleven, My family moved from Ohio to Florida.  We broke down every 100 miles.  We are still talking about it.  Laughing about what we weren’t laughing about back in 1978.

I will be talking about this trip for the rest of my life.   And that will be a long, long time.  I guess we need a lot to talk about for all those years.

Amazing.

I wish we could just drive on.

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s episode of “Wing and a Prayer” when 10,000 Angels show up to carry the old motorhome and the five lonely castaways all the way across the state of Texas and then straight across the Gulf of Mexico . . .

PS: Just in case your wondering Dennis, at this moment, it’s 9:10pm Mountain Standard Time.  “Does anybody really care?”