Road Trip Recap: Day 3...landscaping

This day was not our best. We slept in a little which was much needed and felt soooo good. We got ready as usual. I had a weird premonition when I was in the shower that morning which I tried to shake off. We ate breakfast, packed the car, and then sat in the car for a while before going anywhere waiting for it to warm up and defrost the windshield. It was a cold morning after a night of snow. Our first. We'd been so lucky with weather and roads so far. Once the car warmed up, we hit the Starbucks drive-thru for some good coffee and headed onto I-29. I took this photo (above) not long after getting on the freeway. Within minutes after, the car started to fishtail slightly. Shit. We were rocking at freeway speed. The car continued to fish tail more and more and I remember asking Mary if she thought she was going to be able get control again. She looked at me and said, "no." At that point, things happened so fast. Mary stared straight ahead, arms braced at the wheel. Me lightly holding her left arm and calmly coaching us by repeating, "you're doing great, we're OK, you're doing great, we're OK, we're OK" as the car 360'd several times on the freeway before spinning off the road, down an embankment, spinning more in the ditch until finally coming to a halting stop. I kept thinking with every bump that we were going to roll. Thank God we didn't. Silence. I see a car pulling off on the side of the road and I get out of the car. I wave to signal that we are OK. Meet Scott Nelson from Grand Forks, ND. Citizen extraordinaire. He approached us calmly, made sure we could start the car, guided Mary through the thick cat tail stalks and back up the embankment and took it all in stride in order to keep us calm. Nicest man ever. I couldn't stop thanking him. What was my premonition in the shower that morning? That Mary and I slid off the freeway. We were now sacred to drive on the freeway and managed 30 mph with the hazards on until the next exit and headed to a small town gas station. The attendant directed us to a country road that paralleled I-29. We drove it the 2 hours to Fargo at a whopping 35 mph. Kudos to Mary for forcing herself back behind the wheel and moving forward. The thought of a winter storm on our tail was incentive to keep going and get back into warmer weather and onto drier roads. Mary insisted on driving the entire day as "therapy" and we stopped briefly in Fargo, then Sioux City, SD and finally Omaha, NE. We managed to survive on humor cracking jokes about doing a little random landscaping and taking out a corn field, and how we suddenly needed a pair of those nasty balls dangling from our cars. I was thrilled to find ball keychains at our pit stop in Sioux City and purchased a silver pair for Mary (her request) and a gold pair for myself. Mary was mortified that I made a beeline for the balls in front of everyone in the store but was appreciative of her new keychain once we were back in the car alone. Instead of 'fist bumps' we now have our signature 'ball bump' for good efforts. Hysterical. We plan to make 'North Dakota Landscaping' t-shirts and submit a small thank you story to the local Grand Forks newspaper to publicly thank Scott Nelson for his kindness and help. Things like that shouldn't go unnoticed. Omaha was a welcome sight and we pulled in to the nearest hotel, kicked back, processed the spin out as much as we could, and slept. I'll report about the 2:00 am fire alarm and Mary's alien encounter in the next post. Check out our balls:

Road Trip Recap: Day 2

Slept well. We are liking the Days Inn hotels. Had breakfast at the hotel in Brandon, MB before heading back out on the road. The continental breakfasts have changed! This one served hot eggs, bacon, and pancakes along with breads, bagels, cereals, boiled eggs, and of course coffee. We sure appreciated it. The morning is sunny and warm so we pack the car back up and head down the street for some Starbucks, a Staples (had to stop and print my travel insurance and plane ticket for the border) and a bank for Mary. The goal today is to drive from Brandon to Sioux City, SD. We make a stop in Winnipeg to visit my sista G and her family. It was SO good to see them, sit and talk, laugh, and drink tea. Mary kept us entertained with her tall tale stories and Gail and I laughed about all the Fortney quirks and our family history. I was amazed to learn that the other chains of Fortneys in our clan use our great gandfather as a teaching tool on drinking alcohol. Apparently, other Fortney families have their children test alcohol and see how they will react before pursuing it further because of Alex. Was he an uncle or grandfather? I might have the relation wrong but you get the idea. I won't even get into the possible 30 sibling story! My nieces have grown into charming, kind, beautiful ladies. Thanks for a great and long overdue visit! After we left their house, Mary and I spent 2 hours driving through the city trying to find our way out in the dark. Mary was determined to stick to her maps until I finally convinced her to pull over at a gas station so we could ask for directions. Gone are the days of gas station staff having to know their whereabouts in the city they work in...so luckily a kind woman named Shasta talked Mary off the ledge and gave us directions to get out of town. Everyone we met in MB was so helpful and friendly! By this time, the plan to hit Sioux City was a bust and we changed the goal to Fargo, ND. We made it to the border and stuck to Mary's protocol of stopping early (Duty Free shop) and sprucing ourselves up for the border crossing. We are the odd couple in a good way...Mary and her strict plans and rituals and me flying by the seat of my pants and going with the flow. The border guy cared more about telling me that there is no such thing as immigration lawyers (thanks to my H1B visa still in my passport) and that I should just show up at the border with a letter and not waste my money. I didn't argue with him even though he is talking about the TN visa and not mine. Mary is the one coming into the country to work and somehow he targeted me instead. He was nice, it was more like the boy bugging the girl in school kind of thing. The rest of the drive was easygoing until we got further into North Dakota. It was snowing and feeling a little icy so we opted to stop a little early in Grand forks, ND instead of Fargo (about another 2 hours away). This time we stayed at a Holiday Inn Express (and got the 2nd last room in town) which was also a really nice hotel. We ate dinner at Ruby Tuesday and headed to Target...just because. We didn't really buy anything though. Most of the drive was done at night so we were at Target around 10:00 pm and just ready to chill out and sleep in the hotel. Chatted in the hotel, made a tentative route change plan, and discussed the fact that Mary has to wear Khakis for her new job and how nasty they are. A new worry for her for the rest of the trip. We laughed and joked like we had been a ll day and eventually drifted off to sleep. I can't remember what we changed the goal destination to for tomorrow...I think the far edge of South Dakota or Nebraska? I better look at a map before blogging more so I get this right.

Road Trip Recap: Day 1

The first day was our most productive day and went according to Mary's plan...well, pretty much. It was long...12+ hours of driving including stops. We left at 7:00 am wearing our RTC (Road Trip Chicks) t-shirts and rolled into Brandon, MB around 10:00 pm. Fueled mostly by Starbucks coffee. We were so hoping to visit the Ruby's Cafe set in Saskatchewan (from the TV show 'Corner Gas') and score our first souvenir t-shirt. But we couldn't see it from the road and decided to keep on truckin' instead of taking any major detours. We were pretty sad about that. The roads were great and the weather was great until Brandon where it was cold and snowing, but still not that bad. We wasted no time in cracking jokes and laughing and losing our minds in the car together. This is why I love road trips. LOVE them. Our t-shirts caught a lot of attention and were a conversation piece from the get go, and that was really fun. We stopped in Swift Current (now affectionately referred to as "Swiss" Current thanks to a Freudian slip) for lunch at a nice little diner on Main Street called 'Modern Family Restaurant'. Had a surprisingly tasty and huge spinach salad there. After that, or before that...somewhere along the way, Mary realized that the gas tank was on empty and that we hadn't seen a gas station for a while. We continued to drive on empty with Mary panicking and me laughing. We were so relieved to finally see a pitiful little gas station up ahead and immediately pulled over. Only, when we began to look closer, the gas pump had no handle and the store was a little sketchy. I volunteered to go knock on the door but gave up when I saw this sign:

I had to take a picture and show Mary when I got back to the car. She did not find this funny. After minutes of debating how far we could go with the gas gauge needle now below empty, and whether we should hit up the next farmer or keep going...we decided to drive on. We found a little town called Metlarch and some locals in a realty office (portable trailer) who directed us up the road to a gas station on the highway. One of the ladies was incredibly kind and even offered to give us her cell phone number if we got stuck. The other lady looked unsure of us and I can't get her teeth out of my mind. We managed to make it to the functioning gas station on what gas was left and filled up. Mary was relieved and I was still laughing. We were both happy to get to Brandon and settle in for the night in a warm bed at the hotel. All in all, we stuck to our schedule, managed to reach our planned destination for the day, and had a lot of fun.

Road Trippin' with a man boob

Road trip starts tomorrow! Cross country to North Carolina with a side trip to DC and then home. Bags are packed. We have an early start at 07:00. I am so glad this day is finally here. December was a whirlwind of work, surgery, and the holidays. I'm so glad to have all the stress behind me, especially surgery. I think that was the biggest worry on my shoulders so it feels sooooooooooooo good to have that done. And it was a positive experience which means I'm actually not too freaked out about the second surgery in June! Whatever they gave me in the O.R. before the anasthetic made me feel so relaxed that I was thanking everyone and telling them how great I felt. I could hear myself slurring my words, it was hilarious. But seriously, I have NEVER felt that relaxed, it was amazing! Anyway...that's why the reference to the man boob. My tissue expander in place with a little inflation looks just like a man boob. I'm over the pain of the first week but its still uncomfortable. I'm not so sure its 100% kosher to drive but I can. I'll just take the straight, flat routes on the highway and freeways, we'll be OK. I should probably be more worried that we're driving in a Toyota Echo, ha ha. I'm excited to head into the new year doing one of my favorite things (road trip), seeing new sites, making new memories, spending time with good friends and family, and then a new boob in summer. We're stopping in Winnipeg to see my sista G before crossing the state line and heading south. I'm excited to see her and my brother and Polly and the kiddos in DC. I'll get to ride the Amtrack for the first time too. Can't wait. Time to eat, sleep, then put on my RTC t-shirt (road trip chicks) and frappe la rue.

DI Techs ROCK!

I work with them almost daily (or did when I worked at RGH) and they are an SLP's second family in terms of work departments. These peeps are pretty special. Kind, compassionate, fun. I had to have an enhanced CT scan of my head done today and not at RGH where I work. It was actually scheduled for Tuesday but I chickened out because of my crazy fear of non-ionic contrast. The tech that day was so incredibly supportive that she actually gave me the direct number to the techs so I could go have a coffee, think about it, and call her with my decision. She left my spot open for me all day. I called and we rescheduled...I spent about 2 hours at the Garden Cafe at FMC trying to talk myself off the ledge but couldn't. Today I went in for the second attempt and I felt like a total diva! Thanks to chemo it took 2 techs and then an ER nurse to get my IV in. That was after being wrapped in warm blankets to try and warm me up and make those veins pop. After my IV was in, I headed into the CT room followed by my entourage of techs and nursing cheering me all the way. The tech who gave me the contrast and did the scan didn't take his hand off of my shoulder the whole time the contrast was going in. I swear I could have asked him to marry me and meant it! He also very slyly gave me a few cc's of the contrast but told me it was saline "to test the IV line and make sure it was patent". After 5 minutes he told me what he had done and that I was officially not allergic. Nice move! I got the rest of the contrast and scan done no problem! The techs watched me for about 15 minutes post just to make sure I was okay. Then they sent me off with kind and heartfelt wishes for good results and a job well done. AMAZING. Thank you Deena, Krista, pink shirt tech lady with black hair, Susan the ER nurse and ever so calming and supportive Gavin. You have no idea how much of a difference you made in my life today. Thank you thank you thank you for understanding a crazy patient like me!

Seriously?!!!!

The universe is pushing my buttons and its starting to piss me off. My surgery that was scheduled (for the 4th time) on Monday was bumped a 5th time to April. I came home to that lovely voicemail message yesterday and because it was after hours, I couldn't get in touch with the surgeon's office until today. Awesome! I didn't sleep at all last night. I went into their office this morning versus calling and managed to get my surgery rebooked in 2 weeks versus April. It all worked out but I could have done without the stress and sleepless night.  And it means that my long awaited TCM appointment out of town which is booked for the day before surgery leaves me driving there and back in a day, the day before my surgery. Nice. And I have to cancel my 2nd appt. that I had with the TCM doc the following day. It only took me 4 months to get to these appointments, but whatever right? Frustrating! But I wasn't about to turn down the surgery and wait until April. I spent my day off today getting up early so I could get to the office right when it opened. This was my one day to sleep in, that's all I wanted. I came home and was putting the last 2 days behind me by napping on the couch when I see a Peace Officer coming up to the door. I figured it was in regards to my mom (that story in a minute) but it was about my dog. Due to procrastination, I neglected to renew her city license on time and now have a ticket for $250.00. Come on! And as for my mom, I found out yesterday that while my she was at the pool in her condo, someone went into her unit and stole $2000.00 from her wallet. Is there a freakin' full moon or something? Give me a break universe. I'm begging you.

Gearing up for another road trip!

'Tis a busy season for this gal! Working 3 jobs until mid December. Surgery is booked for Dec. 12th. Traditional Chinese Medicine appointment is booked for Dec. 19th and 20th (out of town). CT scan of head is booked for Dec. 23rd. SAIT learning design deadline is also Dec. 23rd. Christmas holidays. And then ROAD TRIP!!!! I'm saddling up with a friend who is moving state side to do travel therapy for the year. We're driving cross country and I can't wait! We'll be making a stop in WPG and I'm excited to have a visit with my sista and catch up. I'm going to get to see states that I've never been to before and Nashville, TN! Here's hoping I run into Scotty McCreery...actually I could also potentially run into him in NC (the final destination for my friend) because he lives there. I'm joking (not really). Then I'm making my way to Baltimore for a few days before flying home. I'll get to spend a few solid days with my brother, sister-in-law, and niece and nephew. And...baby #3 is due around that time so I just might meet the new addition as well! Its been a long time since I've been on an actual road trip with a girlfriend. We ordered t-shirts in honor of the event and I can't wait to put it on and get on the open road. Adventure awaits. I can't think of a better way to celebrate the end of December and all the stress than this.