Friday, January 24, 2014

Captains Log...Day Two





Last night we hit our first major glitch of the trip when I discovered that Tess's pulse ox machine, you know, the one the tells us her heart rate and oxygen, was not working properly. Not exactly a comforting feeling when you have a kid who has needed oxygen at night more often than not over the past few months.

After tinkering with it for a bit (read: hitting it multiple times on it's side and possibly calling it a few colorful names not fit for print), it decided to let me win and started to do it's job. And thanks to Kim at Dr. Stephenson's office, a shiny new one should be waiting at our hotel in Xenia upon our arrival! Now say a prayer that our old one has enough life left in it to get us there before quitting for good.

But we are the Griswolds, excuse me, I mean, the Reidys, and we can roll with the punches.

And in that spirit we woke up this morning bright and early and raring to go!

Okay, so I rolled out at almost eight o'clock, just in time to give Tess her morning meds.  The princess HAD TO BE WOKEN UP at 9:15 so we could get her dressed and out the door. Yes, our little diva does love her sleep!

Meanwhile, the hubs braved the frigid temps and got Tess's car seat switched over from our van to the rented Suburban. THE BIG SUBURBAN. I want you to remember that. Suburbans are big, am I right? It was when he tried to get the wheelchair in the back of the Suburban that a warning flare went off in his brain. He heroically (stubbornly?) tried to ignore it and continued on with packing the dog supplies. Another warning flare shot off. This one was not to be ignored.

I knew when I heard the front door open and peeked around to look at his face that there was trouble afoot.

"We still have tons of stuff left to pack and we're already almost out of room."

Uh....WHAT?!?!

I informed him that, even though I had not been the one out in the cold, struggling with trying to move a car seat, a wheelchair and other irksome items, that there was no way he could be right. I mean really, it's a Suburban for crying out loud! Tons of space! More than enough room! It had all fit in our van! Load her up, baby!

"It's. full. No. more. room." He spoke as if trying to explain to a small child. I shook my head and again informed him that he was wrong. "It's not possible that our van is bigger than that Suburban. How can that be accurate?", I skeptically questioned while giving my best 'Oh Please' expression.

You can imagine how that went over.

The hubs huffed out a big breath and gritted out, "You go out, and you figure out how to load it up. The wheelchair had to be shoved in on it's side. You need to start prioritizing what you absolutely cannot live without."

Hello! I need everything, hence the reason it is all packed up in front of you waiting to be put in the...wait for it...BIG SUBURBAN!

So we both went out and surveyed the situation. Well, I pretended to survey while really just stood around pointing aimlessly at things that needed to get from one vehicle into the other and generally feeling very confused and cold. I'm sure I was a great help. The hubs quickly figured out I was going to be of no use with this dilemma and did his best impression of Tim Gunn (you know, from Project Runway) and "Made it work!". Yes, he got everything in, albeit a tad snug. Snug as in, there is no room for a dog. Anywhere. Well, we'll just cross that bridge when we come to it. Tomorrow's another day and all that.

So I set up Garmin for us and Toy Story 2 for Tess and we were off like a herd of turtles!

The drive was fairly uneventful unless you count almost being side swiped by an eighteen wheeler (TWICE) eventful. Not much to look at although it was pretty as we came in to Pennsylvania. We are here in Wilkes-Barre, PA for the night, all tucked in to our hotel room nice and cozy.

Anther six hour drive is the plan for tomorrow to get us to Mansfield, Ohio which is only 2 hours from our final destination.

It's supposed to snow. Naturally.

4 comments:

  1. So, smarty pants, thought you didn't have to go through Pennsylvania. FYI, Danielle is only 20 mins. away.
    Loved this post.
    Auntie

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  2. Another entertaining enlightenment to your journey. Kudos to the hubs for always striving to please his Queen & his Princess :) Prayers & God speed.

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  3. ...and the crazmania continues. Well, as always I am awaiting the next post. Please drive safely and if it is storming....just wait it out...though sounds like none of you have enough room left the "big suburban" to move so you would likely all end up in place should an unlikely accident occur. Be nice to your driver. Any man who can sport those shades needs to be well taken care of. Love Mum-e.

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  4. don't know about the organization you are using but with the TSE pups we train them to ride on the floor of the passenger side of the car (front or back). It's tight but the pups do learn to curl up and stay quiet.

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