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.