Maggie

Maggie

Friday November 2, 2018

We have been home almost a week now, I am usually so busy when we return from a road trip that I procrastinate wrapping up the travel blog I been writing at night to occupy my mind. I have been having sleepless nights as I struggle with a terrible foreboding.

Towards the tail end of our trip we noticed Maggie just wasn’t herself. Fearing she got Valley Fever (A respiratory disease of the desert southwest) we made an appointment with our vet as soon as we got home. They checked her out, ran a few tests and then told us we need to take her to a Specialties hospital in Charleston, right now! She is retaining fluid that is putting pressure on her heart and lungs.

We drove straight to Charleston and admitted Maggie into their emergency department. More testing, more evaluations, much guessing, and the result being we had to leave her there for more testing the next day.

Maggie was in Charleston for the longest two nights of our lives. The doctors called every day but have not been able to learn the cause of her problem. Thursday morning we decided to drive down and get her. If she was going to die we wanted her to be in our arms and not alone in a hospital two hours drive away.

On the drive down, the doctor called and suggested we come and get her. They don’t know what to do pending some lab tests that had to be sent to a specialist. It may take several days to get the results and she didn’t see any sense in keeping Maggie in the hospital all weekend.

We’re home now, Maggie is resting but fitfully, it’s like she can’t stay in one position for too long. She did eat a little when we got home. She’s had fluid removed from her chest cavity several times in the last few days and we’re researching the local 24 hour hospital to see if we can take her there if starts having respiratory difficulty, as we fear the fluid will return.

So we’re trying to keep her comfortable until the test results come in and hopefully they will tell us something definitive. She’s still a very sick little girl

A beeline for home

Fridays drive: Foss Oklahoma to Tupelo Mississippi. 662 miles

Friday October 25 2018

We continued our journey home with another long drive on interstate 40. FlyingJ travel centered spaced out every 300+/- miles made fuel stops very convenient for us. Despite 40 being a major east/west truck route traffic flowed smoothly until we neared the Mississippi River.

About fifty miles west of Memphis everything just stopped. We inched forward for a very long time, with no indication of what the problem was. There was no construction, no lane closures, no emergency vehicles, just a long line of traffic barely moving.

Slowly traffic began to move and soon we were back up to speed but now traffic was all bunched up. Running turnpike speeds in bumper to bumper traffic is stressful but we had to stay on I-40 to cross the Mississippi river at Memphis. Stopping for the night in Arkansas was not an option; all the area campgrounds are on the Tennessee/Mississippi side of the river.

By the time we got to Memphis the sun had set. Memphis is a major shipping hub with truck traffic 24/7, there’s Friday night traffic, all the campgrounds are off the highway somewhere and Memphis is a high crime area. I decided to stay on the highway and drive on to Tupelo some 115 miles down the road.

It was an easy run, my only concern was deer running into the road and that never happened. At Tupelo we again assessed our situation and decided to check out the local Wal-Mart as an overnight stop. There were already several RV’s and about 8 trucks lined up in the back of the parking lot. We joined them and had a very restful night there.

Our journey today was totaled 662 miles.

Saturdays drive: Tupelo Mississippi to A H Stephens St Pk in Georgia. 373 miles

Saturday October 26 2018

We moved from Tupelo Mississippi to A H Stephens State Park in Crawford Georgia today. It was an easy run, there was the normal congestion thru Atlanta but traffic flowed without stopping.

Notable in today’s journey, we left I-40 in Tennessee and have been traveling on 78 and I-22. From Tupelo Mississippi to Birmingham Alabama is one of the nicest roads in America. Thru rolling hills in northern Alabama, the highway department has manicured the landscape back for a hundred yards on each side of the roadway. It is a most pleasant driving experience.

I-22 in Alabama

Nearing Birmingham GPS Aimee and I had another of our infamous disagreements. I have no idea what route she was trying to take us on, but I knew the way to the Flying J travel center and then on thru the city. We kissed and made up on the other side when we both agreed to drive on I-20.

A long time ago

Birmingham always brings back memories for me. A long time ago I was training at Jungle school in nearby Anniston and was volunteered for funeral detail on weekends. On one Saturday we drove to Birmingham to a southern black church for the funeral of a young soldier who was KIA in Vietnam. That was quite the cultural experience for this white boy from suburban Newark Delaware.

Our camping neighbors at A H Stephens State Park

We reached our planned destination for the night at A H Stephens State Park about 50 miles east of Atlanta. (Stephens was the last vice president of the confederacy) The park was having a Halloween themed weekend and was full of local campers. The park employees found us a spot for the night in the equestrian section of the park. It was a newly constructed camp host site behind the horse stables. It was a little muddy getting to the site, we didn’t care, the horses didn’t seem to mind the intrusion, it was a very quiet and dark night.

We covered 373 miles on Saturday.

General outline of our trip

Sunday October 27 2018

Last day on the road, we can almost smell the ocean. We know the way home by heart, well most of us do, GPS Aimee had weird ideas about getting thru Florence. The fastest way home from west of Florence is to take I-95 north to exit 181A Hwy 38 to 501. There is one traffic signal as soon as you get off 95 and then it is smooth sailing at mostly 60 mph until you get to Aynor.

After nearly two months on the road we arrived home early in the afternoon. It’s good to be home.

I don’t really know what our total mileage was for the trip; I would guess it was about 5000 miles. We spent $3240.22 on fuel, most of that in the motorhome, maybe a couple hundred for the truck we tow. Our lodging costs where significantly less at $787.86., this is because we spent many nights at no direct cost to us. We camped 17 nights at Thousand Trails parks which are free to us as members. We also had two visits to Kamp Kolman totaling 10 days. (Kamp Kolman is Dave and RaeAnne’s driveway) We spent one night in a Wal-Mart parking lot which was also free.

Heading home

Los Alamos to Ross Oklahoma (472 miles)

Wednesday, October 24, 2018

Millie and I finished up the projects we’ve been working on at the Kolman house. We’ve put everything in place in the motorhome and tomorrow morning we head for home. As of now, we are canceling our side trip to Magnolia in Waco Texas. It will take us four days to go straight home and we would like to get there as quick as possible in case pain flairs back up in the infected tooth. The grandkids are disappointed, they wanted us to stay for the town Halloween festivities this weekend, but they’ll get over it.

Thursday October 25 20218

Goodbyes were said and we were on the road by about 8:45 this morning.  It was foggy until we got down off the mountain, but its slow going down the curvy mountain road anyhow. Once we got on I-40 it was a 70 mph day that helped us rack up a total of 472 miles for the day.

Tooth update: So far so good, Ibuprofen and antibiotics keeping the pain at bay. Records from Los Alamos dentist sent to my two dentists at home.

Truck update: We’re still running the REMCO transmission lubrication system but it is still causing a lot of anxiety. The pump allows us to tow the automatic transmission equipped pickup and it is still acting up. So far it’s still running but we randomly get pressure warnings in the motorhome control panel. When I go back and check it, everything is running fine. We have a back up plan if needed, I can remove the driveshaft and tow it without using the pump if need be.

That’s all for now, I will wrap this trip log up when we get back to Myrtle Beach.

Heading home

My very short experience with drugs

Sunday October 21 2018

The family drove back down the hill and to Santee Fe for lunch at Wecks and then Lowes for some project supplies. Wecks is a local Tex/Mex franchise, open for breakfast and lunch only and well worth a visit.

I haven’t mentioned this before but I’ve been suffering with a tooth problem almost this whole trip. It’s been strange because it comes and goes, at first I thought I was just grinding my teeth at night and started wearing my mouth guard. The discomfort was always there but the intensity of pain increased when we got to the high altitudes in Yosemite. It settled down in Las Vegas but returned with a vengeance when we went back up in altitude in New Mexico.

I take pride in never taking Opiod painkillers; I had a whole collection of them from various surgeries, but never took any. About a year ago I flushed enough of them down the drain to make a drug dealer cry. I kept the newest script and locked it in the motorhome in case of an emergency.

By Sunday evening the pain was very intense. I tried going to sleep but gave up around one AM and got out of bed so as to let Millie get some sleep. By 3AM I said OK this is an emergency and I took the OxyCodone. It never relieved the pain but it did knock me out for a while.

By morning I thought I was going to die, literally. Millie took me first to an urgent care facility where the doctor determined I was not going to die but probably had an abscess tooth and should probably see a dentist. Lucky for us there are a lot of dentists in Los Alamos and the urgent care doctor recommended tooth slayer said bring him right over and we’ll fit him in. 

X-raying was all the testing they needed to see the infected tooth. He explained that the pain was caused by gas escaping from the tooth into the surrounding tissue. This may explain why the pain intensity changed as we increased or decreased atmospheric pressure as we went up and down in elevation.  

Because the tooth in question is an anchor for a bridge and there is also external decay under the bridge it is going to be a complicated (and expensive) repair. It was mutually decided that treatment would be delayed until I got home to my regular dentists. He did give me prednisone which I took for one day to reduce the inflammation around the tooth and an Anti-biotic to start the healing process.

Within hours the pain was almost gone but I still felt worst than I can remember from the narcotics. All I wanted to do was go to sleep, which I did until four in the afternoon. I really didn’t return to normal until sleeping through the night and getting up Tuesday.

For those of you that must use opiod’s for some legitimate medical reason, you have my deepest sympathy, for those of you who use them for some misguided recreation; I strongly suggest you find the intestinal fortitude to quit. That is not what life is supposed to be like.

Las Vegas to Los Alamos

Las Vegas Nevada to Sky City New Mexico (515 miles)

Friday October 19 2018

As usual on departure day we woke up early, six happened to be the exact time this AM. No point in laying there waiting for seven so we started early. We had enough fuel that we didn’t have to stop until we got to the Flying J Travel stop in Kingsman Arizona. Crossing the state line saved us a few cents per gallon and flying J’s have dedicated RV fuel islands and parking for lunch and dog walking.

From Kingsman we stayed on I-40 all day and all the way to the Sky City Casino. We’ve stayed here before at their adjacent campground which has easy in and out pull thru sites for quick overnight stops. Sky City is about 50 miles west of Albuquerque New Mexico, our drive from Las Vegas to here today’s drive was 515 miles.

152 miles

Saturday morning, after a quick stop at the next flyingJ along the route we departed I-40 and took I-25 north thru Albuquerque. Santee Fe is the next city along the way to Los Alamos. We took the relief route around Santee fe and then 285 north to injun country. If you know what you’re looking for you can see Los Alamos over on the mesas on the far mountains. To get there you have to drive about twice that distance as you make your way thru the mountains.

Los Alamos New Mexico

A lot of this part of the route is on Indian reservations. Driving posted speeds is highly recommended. They always designate a stretch of road as a safety Zone. Violations in the zone are doubled and Indian police give no warnings to the paleface.

Paleface go that way!

Soon we were climbing the last mountain to Los Alamos. We disconnect the truck at the bottom and Millie drives it, it’s easier on the motorhome climbing to the 7000 foot elevation. We have to unhook it in town anyhow so I can back into Kamp Kolman. That’s RaeAnne and Dave’s driveway. Todays driving distance was 152 miles.

SOAR

The week of  October 14 2018

You may remember our campground the last time we were here was not in the most desirable neighborhood. That RV park had a 6 foot security wall with coiled razor wire strung along the top. Despite the alarming border defense, we felt very secure inside, what with the squad of ladies who paroled the sidewalk out front! Seriously, the only good thing about the place was it is part of our campground membership and we stayed there for free.

This year I rectified that situation by booking at the nicest RV Park in Las Vegas As a bonus, it is just four miles from the Orleans Hotel where the reunion is held. On Monday we drove over and picked up our registration credentials. While we were there we spoke with some of the early birds to the reunion. 

The next several days Millie stayed at the campground while I attended the reunion activities.  Millie was welcome to come along, but she wanted me to be with my friends without distraction. Besides, she had a sewing project for the grandsons that was promised to be delivered on our return trip thru Los Alamos. Yes, Millie has a sewing machine in the motorhome, she also has another one she leaves at her daughters, and two or three more at home in Myrtle Beach.  

Orleans Hotel/Casino in Las Vegas

The reunion is mostly a guy thing, a hospitality room (bar), a symposium on the aviation assets that flew for SOG, an MIA/POW update, stuff like that. I also attended a memorial for the 16 KIA who perished in an attack on Forward Operating Base 4 on August 16 1968.

War reporter and author Joe Galloway was guest speaker at the aviation symposium. Mr Galloway coined the term "Gods own lunatics" in reference to Army aviators.

On Wednesday evening I worked the security desk at the hospitality room, which was much more interesting than I thought it would be. I had almost a constant stream of folks stopping to chat including the president of the SOA and a retired general. 

Gregg Allton's M Town Show

During the week I took Millie out to eat as often as she wanted and we saw a Mo Town show on Tuesday night. And what Las Vegas trip would be complete without visiting some local thrift shops!

Larry, Millie with SOA Secretary (and also our friend) Duffy Jensen

Thursday night’s banquet brought the reunion to a close, Afterwards Millie and I cruised Las Vegas Blvd to take in the sights under the sparkle of millions of lights. Just like ocean blvd in Myrtle Beach there was a long line of vehicles in the makeshift parade.

Special Operations Association Banquet

Las Vegas Blvd

One last story about the reunion. This year there was an interesting program in conjunction with the other activities. The families of the KIA on FOB4 never knew any details of their loved ones demise. The operations of MACVSOG (Google it) were Top Secret for 30 years after the war ended. Because this past August was the 50 year anniversary of that tragic day the SOA invited the family members of the fallen to SOAR. Sixty two family members accepted the invitation. At the memorial service they heard details of that fateful morning in 1968, for many of them it was for the first time. At the banquet every family member received an SOA (Special Operations Association) challenge coin and each family was presented with a plaque honoring the sacrifice made by their loved ones.

Death Valley to Las Vegas

Lone Pine to Las Vegas

Death Valley to Las Vegas

We departed Lone Pine first thing the next morning; we actually got away at 8:30 AM, a half hour earlier than our normal 9 AM. We really didn’t know what to expect on our drive thru Death Valley National Park other than it was over 200 miles to Las Vegas and it would be about 100 degrees in the lower elevations. 

Neither of us was too keen on hiking in the desert, so we had already decided this was going to be a drive by tour. All of the feature stops require some walking to a view point and we’re thinking, it’s a desert, we can see all we want from the big window in the bus as we cruised along.

17 miles of continuous downhill

One thing we didn’t expect was another mountain pass; this summit was over 5000 feet in elevation. The real surprise was the decline on the other side of the mountain, seventeen miles of 4 and 6 degree downhill. The downward road angle was continuous with no leveling out or short uphill ridges. After the first few miles there were very few curves, it was a straight shot down the road to the valley floor. 

Death Valley

The terrain changed several times as we descended to the lowest level of the United States. Statistically -282 feet, the lowest level we experienced was -190 feet. Ironically just 84 miles from here is the highest point in the lower 48. Mount Whitney is 14505 feet above sea level.

Soon we were set up in the Las Vegas RV Resort, the next day Sunday, our new voltage convertor arrived and I quickly installed it. Tomorrow we register for the reunion at the Orleans casina/hotel.