First of all--Aunt Louise has made great strides in the last few weeks. She is eating again, gaining some weight, and talking clearly--though usually wryly and sometimes even sarcastically. She still cannot walk more than a step and can stand for just a moment or two.
Yesterday she asked me where I would like to go and what I wanted to see.
"Why?" I asked.
"Because there are places I haven't taken you yet."
"Like Tennessee?" I asked.
"No, a museum!" Her reply was definitely sarcastic.
Now she regularly quizzes me on where I would like to visit or what restaurant I want to try.
Once again I stand in awe of Aunt Louise.
It took almost two weeks for me to get from Tucson to Ft Worth. In El Paso I started to sneeze and by the time I reached Van Horn I was coughing and running a fever. At the juncture of I-10 and 1-20 I had to decide what to do. I could not carry cold or flu germs to Aunt Louise and the more northern route was showing dips in temperature well into freezing. There was no way I was going to turn around so I decided to stay south and head toward San Antonio which was only marginally warmer.
By Ft. Stockton I knew I needed to see a doctor to stop this virus, so I spent the afternoon looking for a clinic that would see me. It was several hours of sitting in various offices and listening to receptionists tell me, "The doctor is too busy to see you today. Would you like to make an appointment next week sometime?" Finally a young doctor (he was all of 14 years old) saw me, diagnosed me, charged me, and pushed me out the door toward Walmart to pick up a prescription.
It was dark when I left Walmart and drove out of town to the closest rest stop where I planned to spend the night. Unfortunately, I was so exhausted I had not refilled my water tank and it was empty. Nor had I dumped my holding tank and it was full. But as I pulled in to the rest stop I practically leaped for joy when I saw a free dump station! Wow! Not everything is bad luck. I pulled up to the sewage receptacle, gathered all the gear and proceeded (in the dark) to connect the hose. As I turned around I stepped on something soft and squishy and almost fell. "What the.....?" Yep, the person that had dumped his tanks ahead of me had filled the area--with his sewage! It is the RVers nightmare! A faulty connection can produce a disaster.
My head throbbed as I pulled out the garden hose, connected it and hosed down the entire area. Finally, I could dump my own tanks but I double checked to make sure everything was connected as it should be. I smiled smugly as I opened the sewage lever, leaned against the RV and listened as the holding tank gurgled into the ground receptacle. It was the tiniest rumble that alerted me; I looked over in horror just in time to see a fountain of sewage come exploding back out of the ground! The system down in the ground was probably frozen and when my sewage (and also the RVer ahead of me) filled up the pipe, there was no place left for sewage to go except up and out!
For the first time in 7 years, I hated my RV life!
I hosed everything down again, and filled my water tank with enough water to take a shower. I knew I was going to need one. I also soaked my shoes (that are fortunately made of rubber) in a bucket of bleach water. Two bottles of anti-bacterial soap later I was in bed and asleep. It was two days before I was able to drive on to Kerrville.
For some reason I have not been able to transfer photos from my camera to the computer. I am hoping Ron can solve that problem for me.
