The Journey from LA to PA...What Could Go Wrong?

Before we left our house in LA we had to have work done on our cars(ouch).

We had the moving company show up and begin loading our belongings in their truck.

I had to leave before they were done as my bed went on the truck so I slept at a local hotel that night.  Hubs slept on an air mattress at the house that night.

Of course we didn't get all the cleaning we planned done so had to pay someone to finish the job.  That was money well spent. 8-)

As I wasn't there at the end I didn't see that everything didn't fit on the truck.  If I had known I would have made some different choices than Hubs made(like leaving 2 Rubbermaid tubs of laundry detergent/stain remover.  That one about made me sick.)

So the day we left I picked up Chester my dog and Hubs and I convoyed out of Louisiana.

We got outside of Shreveport and the skies opened up.  It was slow going and then the hailstorm hit us.  ugh  And this was ugly, big hail too so the going got even slower.  It took us twice as long to reach Vicksburg, the Mississippi border, as it usually does.  We stopped at Vicksburg MS at the rest stop to let the dogs do their business and by that time I was spent.  Between the hail storm and the meds I am on I was so tired and felt unable to safely drive.  I got some caffeine and we made it to Clinton, MS and stopped for the night.  

I let Hubs know I was struggling and I wasn't going to take those meds that make me sleepy on the rest of the trip.  It was the right thing to do .Besides the drowsiness my left knee was ailing me.  It's the knee I haven't had replaced but sure needs it.

So the next morning we left early and convoyed from rest area to rest area and made it to outside of Birmingham, AL before I ran out of steam again.

One of us had to be at the house the following day as the moving truck was going to be there and I was slowing us down a lot.  So Hubs took Chester and put a bunch of stuff in my car and left.  I made it to a hotel in Bessemer AL.  Of course I called "Anne in the Kitchen" to see if she was free as she lives in the area.

Anne had plans that evening but she had time to sit with me while I ate a "fine" Wendy's burger.  We talked, laughed and had a grand time.

Then it was back to the hotel for bed and resting my knee.

The next morning I left and drove and drove.  My little car made it impossible too get my left leg in a comfortable position.  I stopped at most rest areas to get out and  walk a bit if not use the facilities.  I never thought I'd get out of Tennessee. lol  I stopped at Bucee's briefly for a gift.  While waiting at the counter to be helped I struck up a conversation with a younger fellow about peppers.  Turns out he was from Allentown originally(a town near where we had lived in PA)and we waxed nostalgic about PA and we had a big hug before I left with my goodies.

By the time I hit VA I was beat and I went as far as my knee let me go before I stopped for the evening.  My knee was throbbing and I tried icing it to no avail.  I had one more day oif driving left but didn't see how I was going to do it.

I decided to go to the emergency room at the local hospital and see if I could get a shot in my knee or some other relief for it.

Since I couldn't drive my car at this point I called 911 for an ambulance.

Pretty quickly there was a knock on my door and I opened it up to find two people-both young and 1 certainly female while the other appeared androgynous but on the female side of things,  She/he was wearing "muck" boots, like she/he had just come from mucking out horse stalls and there was some straw bedding stuck to one boot, stuck there with what might have been horse poop. 8-((

So I hobbled down to the elevator and out the front door to the ambulance.  As we exited the lobby the androgynous ambulance attendant spit a rather large wad of sputum out like they had chewing tobacco in their mouth,  Yikes!

They got me on the gurney and loaded me into the ambulance and we took the 1 mile journey to the hospital.

Once in the ER it wasn't long onto the dr. on call saw me(after registering and all).  She couldn't give me a knee shot but she gave me 3 other shots so I could get a good night's sleep and finish my journey to PA the next day.  She gave me a shot for inflammation, a muscle relaxer(which I don't understand)and a morphine shot(that must have been so I slept well). 

I got to ride in the ambulance back to the hotel and pay $20 for the honor.(Some one had misplaced the car they used to give rides to folks who came to the ER unaccompanied.)

So the morphine kicked in and I fell into a deep sleep, waking at 4 am.  I gathered my bags and grabbed a banana and a granola bar, paid for a Coke Zero from the drink machine in the lobby and hit the road.

I drove from Rest Stop to Rest Stop the rest of the way up to the new house outside of Scranton.  It was a grueling drive but I made it here before dusk and collapsed in bed.

That's about all there is to say.  It was not a fun 1,350 miles but my knee and my car held up.  

Sluggy