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November 7, 2002
10/21/02 The chaos of traveling
I mentioned in my intro that we would be going to Chattanooga to visit the TN Aquarium and see a movie at the IMAX Theater. In all my plotting, planning and organizing I managed to schedule our trip for the busiest week in October. My calendar looked something like this:
Monday – OT rescheduled for Thursday, Jaida’s speech therapy @ 6:00
Tuesday – Jarod sees Dr. Grad (pulmonologist) for follow up @ 1:30
Wednesday – Jarod sees Dr. Ogunbi (ped GI) for follow up @ 2:00, Jaida’s speech therapy @ 6:00
Thursday – My mom has a mammogram @ 1:45, Jarod has OT @ 3:00
A normal evening at our house goes something like this:
Get home around 4:30, make dinner for Jaida (or coerce her into eating it), go to therapy if it’s scheduled, come home and bathe the kids, give Jarod a breathing treatment, remember to wash his face and give him some water (the steroid can cause thrush and skin irritation), give the evening meds, warm a bottle for Jarod, take him to bedroom where Steve is and then tuck Jaida in for the night. By this time, its 8:00 and I usually have my dinner and read my mail. Steve puts Jarod in bed and we talk for a little while before I try in vain to remember what I need to be doing to be ready for the next morning. I vaguely recall something about picking out clothes and laying out stuff for breakfast. What usually happens is, I scan the large wall calendar to check the appointments, put my dishes in the sink and go to bed. I am so lazy and Jarod still wakes up once a night to drink a bottle. I started taking vitamins again and that helps me get up at 5:30 the first time the alarm goes off. Hopefully, I can get better once we get this gluten-free thing going smoothly. Now that Jarod is quickly approaching 23 lb, I am going to attempt to wean him from the night bottle.
We planned to leave Friday morning and I have no idea when I thought I would pack! To add even more stress, this is payday week and I still have to do all my other errands. That includes a trip to Wal-Mart for food and diapers, etc. Then I have to go to the health food store for all the special things that Jaida needs. A trip to Winn Dixie for Pediasure since Wal-Mart never has enough cases to get me through until next payday. (Super Center my butt! They are always out of something I need.) I really loathe going to the store more than two or three times a month for major shopping unless it is absolutely necessary, it’s so time consuming. So I scanned the pantry and freezer to make my lists and try to get at least Wal-Mart and the health food store checked off.
I decided that after Jarod’s appointments on Tuesday and Wednesday I could do one of each, if time permitted. Tuesday’s appointment ran too long and that was out. On Wednesday, I had just enough time to hit Natural Gourmet and then pick Jaida up on time. We had speech therapy that night so there wasn’t much room to fudge it. Of course Jarod decided to wake up at 5:00 that morning and throw his nap schedule all off kilter. After his appt. he fell asleep on the way to Natural Gourmet and I had chosen not to bring his stroller. Jennifer, his OT wants him to walk more and not ride like a baby. At least they have carts but my arms were nearly dead by the time I had my list all checked off. I’m just glad I got that over with.
Thursday, after OT, Jarod and I went to Wal-Mart. I was rushing so much (and Steve kept calling me on my cell), I really couldn’t concentrate and the store was jam-packed. I got the basics and decided to get whatever was left when we got back on Sunday. I was tired and I needed to get home and finish packing. I got home and got out the lists I had made. I got out the overnight bags and the kids giant diaper bag. I went from room to room and my two helpers followed. I had to pack medicine and Jarod’s nebulizer. I knew that TN climate was similar, but the altitude had me worried. I did not want to send Jarod into a major asthma attack. I had to include outfits for any type of weather. The 10 day forecast I got from weather.com gave me some idea, so that helped.
Friday morning comes, and I get up at 5:15. Steve has just left to do payroll and get his workers started. I head to the kitchen to get a fresh loaf of bread in the oven to take with us. I planned to take food for Jaida to make it easier to follow her GF diet. Jarod woke early that morning at 3:00 so he was in my bed. I went back to check on him and Jaida had woken him up. I decided to get them dressed and then finish the bread. By the time Steve got back, I was half way done packing and still in my jammies. He started taking the finished bags to the van to help sort out my confusion.
When I began to plan this trip, I wanted to rent a car. Steve said we could just borrow one his parents’ vehicles. They have four, after all. I was leaning towards his mom’s brand new Lexus LS430 since she barely has 15,000 miles on that puppy. It’s still got the new car scent and she goes 30 miles a day, tops. But, Steve wanted to take his dad’s 1987 Chevy van for the extra room and ease of loading. I wasn’t driving, so I said, whatever. His dad took the van and had it all checked out, fluids topped off, etc. It was pronounced seaworthy. Or so we thought.
Finally, we get in the van and wave goodbye to my mom. It’s 9:00 on the dot and we have some last minute errands to run. We have to go by my in-laws’ house to get the cooler that goes in the van. Then it was on to K-mart for bottled water and sodas. Also, my husband, who is never without his Ironman watch had recently destroyed another and he was refusing to go without a replacement. And our last stop was the bank to deposit our checks so the checks for bills I had mailed the night before would actually clear. At 11:00, two hours behind schedule, we were getting on to I-65 and it happened. In the curve of the on-ramp, CLICK…the engine goes dead. I feel like I’m about to hyperventilate. This van had broken down with us in it four years earlier and I was having déjà vu.
Steve coasts to the side and tries to restart it. He pops the hood and I try to restart while he checks different things. Steve gives up and calls his dad. Then, Steve calls his mom and tells her to bring us her car. She’s not in the car, she says, it’s at home. Ooops! Steve calls his dad back to tell him to come rescue us in the car. In the meantime, my FIL calls his friend (a retired mechanic) to come and see if he can fix it. Mr. Mechanic shows up around the same time as my FIL. After trying to restart it again, Mr. Mechanic proceeds to take the van apart. He thinks he knows what the problem is and he’s come prepared.
A couple of our employees from work see us from the other side of the highway. They turn around to see if they can help. Instead, Steve asks them to help us unload the van and load the car. Jarod had fallen asleep right before the engine died and I am preparing myself for him to be awake the entire FOUR hour ride to Chattanooga. He slumbers away, still strapped in his seat. Jaida wants to get out and play. Mr. Mechanic laughs when I say, “You are NOT going to play on the side of this highway!” It’s a tight fit, but we get all our crap in the Lexus’ massive trunk. It’s now 12:15 and we are just getting started. I was so proud of myself for not having a hissy fit. The old would have been abandoned on the side of the road while screaming after my husband as he drove off.
We stop for lunch in Birmingham and everybody is happy for a while. Halfway to Gadsden, I have to get out and hunt through the trunk for a short sleeved shirt for Jarod. It’s now too hot for the all-in-one romper I put on him at 7:30 this morning. Jarod is mad since he thought he was out of his seat for good when I put him back. We continue on and Jarod amuses himself by playing a game of peek-a-boo with the towels we brought ‘just in case’ pukey boy has an episode. Jaida relents to the sand man and drops off to sleep. The closer we get to the GA line, the crankier Jarod gets. His shrieks wake Jaida and she entertains him until we get to TN.
We get to our hotel and bail out of the car. Jarod has dropped off to sleep just minutes before. Sigh. I go inside to check in and Steve finds a parking space. I get our room key and we go upstairs to check it out. Boy, did I luck out. The room has a full kitchen; a sink, dishwasher, two-burner cook top w/hood, microwave and full sized refrigerator. WOW! There is separate living area and a bedroom. The kids run all over the room like they’ve never been anywhere before. Oh wait; this is their first hotel stay. I go about the business of unpacking and setting up the kitchen.
Jaida wants dinner but not any of the things I brought. We decide to get take-out from the Texas Roadhouse across the way. I order Jaida a cheeseburger without the bun. Steve keeps Jarod busy while I eat and help Jaida with her food. I give the kids a bath and Jarod a breathing treatment. Steve folds out the sofa bed and the kids go nuts. A bed in a sofa, wow! Getting them to go to sleep in a strange place was a different story. It took twice as long. At 11:00 TN time, Steve and I go to bed too.
Saturday morning, we get up and get ready. I get out my mapquest.com directions and we hit the road. We get our tickets and pick our movie time. We head to the seahorse exhibit and start there. Jaida is captivated and we look at seahorses and sea dragons for 30 minutes. We go to the “Rivers of the World” exhibit and see catfish as big as Jaida. That’s impressive, considering Jaida is 43” tall and 49 lb. I bet those boogers were 40 years old. We zoom through the rest of the aquarium and head to the IMAX. They give Jarod a pair of 3-D glasses too. We stand in line directly under a vent blazing out heat we no longer need and wait to go in.
Once inside, Jarod throws a huge fit because I won’t let him sit on the nasty floor. Then, he’s furious that the ear pieces won’t fold down on his glasses. He finally gives up and goes to sleep. Thank you, Jesus! I thought they were going to ask us to leave. Jaida gets freaked when a giant crab appears to come right at us. She uses Steve’s hand to swat it away. After 45 minutes, the movie is over. We head back to the aquarium for another look since the tickets are like all-day passes. We go through the WHOLE thing one more time. Jaida is sleepy and hungry, so we go back to the hotel and feed her lunch and put her to bed for a nap. Jarod is wired from his catnap in the movie and he refuses to lie down. Instead, he plays with the floor level A/C unit (and gets himself a nice cold, which Steve and I later got).
Steve and I talk; he really doesn’t want to stay another night. We decide to pack up when Jaida wakes up and head home. Of course, I want to look around the “largest mall in the southeast” before we go. It wasn’t as exciting as I thought, so we look briefly, get dinner and back to the car we go. There we were the happy little family. Jarod dozes and wails off and on in protest of being restrained in his car seat. Jaida is fighting hard to stay awake. I smile at her in the mirror, she’s clutching her stuffed animal seahorse and wearing her seahorse t-shirt from the gift shop. Steve’s as happy as a pig in slop that he will sleep in his own bed tonight. And me, my nerves shot from Jarod’s screaming, fighting the urge to open the door and throw myself on the highway.
We make it home at 9:00 and Jarod is no where near ready to go to sleep. We unpack the car and try to unwind. Jaida shows my mom her seahorse and tells her all about the m-aquarium. I tell my mom that we are not going on another overnight trip “until these kids are 15 and 12”. We all get ready for bed and I have to talk Jaida out of sleeping in her shirt. She carefully spreads it out on the extra bed in her room. In spite of all my sarcasm and griping, we all had a good time. All the hard work was worth it when I see the smile on Jaida’s face as she snuggles down to sleep with her seahorse.
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