I know it’s probably a bit broken-recordish to bring up yet again, but we had had such a rough year with the stress of selling the farm and buying the new place and moving, and Gary’s too-demanding job that we gave some quick thought to the idea of going on a family trip at Christmas. Our last vacation was a shorty to Arizona in Spring 2012 so it felt like we should. We were overdue. I even considered for the first time ever, letting the kids miss a day of school so we could leave as soon as possible. But Gary couldn't take off work that Friday anyway, so we would leave on Saturday morning.
Except Jack had been really sick all week and putting him in the van for a two day drive didn’t seem too smart, so I took him to the doctor Friday afternoon to see what was up. The doctor tested him for pertussis (yep, whooping cough has been pretty prevalent here among the teenagers even though vaccinated), but the test results wouldn’t be back until the next week, likely after Christmas Day. But she prescribed an antibiotic to treat him as though he had pertussis and she knew we were wanting to travel. She thought after 24 hours on the medicine it would be ok for us to leave, but if he did test positive, we would get a call and the health department would be tracking us down and we would all have to be treated, away from home or not. So do we go, knowing that one or more could get sick on the way?
But the other thing was Gary worked crazy hard all that week and had an exceptionally crazy stressful Friday, so once he was off work, the idea of hopping into the van at 5 the next morning did not feel like the right thing to do. Plus, because of his schedule, the van had not even been looked at to ensure safe tires, fluids all good, etc and that made me more than a little nervous. So, we would wait until Sunday morning to leave. That matched better with his credo “Do not leave on a vacation in under twenty-four hours of leaving work.” He has learned that the hard way, like when we hurriedly left for Michigan and managed to bug bomb poison the family pet in the process (RIP BlueBlue), and the time we were set on the idea of leaving for Tennessee in a rush and we happened to flood the Walton house which was to be sold with a closing date of less than a week. After a couple of those kinds of experiences, you hopefully learn something: Don’t rush it.
So, yes then, we will take our time getting ourselves out and then we planned to leave Sunday morning bright and early. Except Saturday morning Gary woke up sick and I mean sick. He-couldn’t-get-out-of-bed sick, flu with aches and shivers and a cough that was unreal, so he was beyond miserable.
Then I was miserable. I so much wanted a vacation, a get-away, and this was how it was going. I knew we would have to cancel the whole thing altogether. Sad sad sad.
Sunday he was still in bed but by evening said he felt a little more human. You know the part in Dumb and Dumber when Lloyd says to Mary, the girl he likes but is so not in her league, “So you’re telling me there’s a chance? Yeah!!”
That was me.
I packed my suitcase. The kids had been packed and bags sitting in the hallway since Friday. All we had to do was look over the van, leave provisions for the cat and dog, get Gary upright, and load up. Totally do-able.
Except Grant had had his braces adjusted a few days before and had a wire out of place that was hurting/driving him crazy. I debated. Could we just get to St Pete and find an orthodontist there to fix it? Or do I do the right thing and delay our trip even longer until I can get him into the office and get it fixed? I swear, Mom-guilt always makes you do the right thing.
Luckily Dr. B could see him right away when I called Monday morning so we took that appointment and got the braces taken care of. We thought we would leave directly after that since we had our stuff loaded and all six of us in the van, but then we remembered like ten things we forgot. So we stopped back by the house to get those things and then we were on the road, believe it or not.
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