The Monday after Easter, we did a little shopping, continued to organize stuff to pack in the car and went out to Dubs for our last burger/beer get-together with Bz, Joyce, Mac, Tim and Kathy M. Kathy came over for a visit after we ate dinner.
Tuesday afternoon I played bridge with my little ladies at the center. We had four tables and I won 2nd! Had great cards that day and it yielded me $1.25! Tuesday night I insisted we stay home and eat some of the food we had left over from the winter. It was a very strange meal indeed! However, we couldn't begin to eat up everything! After dinner we went to Bz and Joyce as we needed to get in one last evening of great Wiper/Jensen rummy. We women are NEVER very lucky at that game!
Wednesday night Mac picked us & Wipers up for our last "Sour Dough" pizza night. We should have eaten at home as we still had plenty of food, but...we prefer the pizza!
Thursday morning we were all packed, did last-minute chores, and we on the road to Utah at 9 a.m. We intentionally left a little late to avoid some of the heaviest traffic. We drove as far as Cedar City, UT. The drive was beautiful, except for the last 40 miles over a couple of passes--one at 9,000 plus and another at 10,000 feet and snow was piled high on the sides of the roads in many places. NOT my favorite part of the trip. It was 87 when we left Mesa at 9 a.m. and about 40 when we got to Utah. I don't think the abrupt change in climate was good for me!
Friday we took our time driving to Sandy, UT, to see Lois as she worked until 5 p.m. We actually took back roads and stopped to see some great petroglyphs. We had thought of driving through Bryce Canyon National Park, but when we realized that we had to go BACK over that same 40 mile stretch of road that I said I never wanted to travel over again, we scrubbed that idea...next time, maybe!
We took Lois and Chris to a great Mexican restaurant in down-town SL City...I swear it was the tastiest Mexican I have ever eaten. Had a fun visit with Chris too.
Saturday we woke to at least 4-6" of heavy, wet snow! We drank coffee and visited until the streets cleared off a bit, then we went to a ski rental shop for a very delicious lunch. When we pulled up there, I was afraid Lois was expecting us to rent skis and hit the slopes that day! Then we shopped at a very interesting gift store (huge)...Saturday night Lois had a dinner party for about 5-6 of her closest neighbor friends. It was so fun to meet her friends. We had a really good time.
Sunday, despite the COLD weather and ice chunks frozen to our windshield, we hit the road for a marathon day of driving. I wasn't feeling the best so Gary drove all the way to Glendive, MT. It was well over 850 miles. We had dinner and hit the rack...that is after listening to the announcement that Osama Bin Laden had been killed!
The last day of our trip was when the real misery hit! We decided in our infinite wisdom that we wouldn't need to stop for gas until we got to Williston as that would be a great place to take a short break. UNFORTUNATELY, when we got to Williston (with 25 miles of gas left) we were surprised to learn that the city had been without power for more than 2 days...that meant there were only 2 stations in town pumping gas and the lines were ungodly long. Thanks for a friend, Kelly, in Williston, she directed me to the station that was a bit off the main drag and our wait there was only 2 hours. We had about fumes left when we pulled into the station! Our plans for arriving home early afternoon were dashed by this time. We stopped in Stanley for a quick lunch and short visit with Gary Nelson at the bank as we wanted to share in his joy at the death of UBL. Needless to say, he was happy about that! We got home about 5:30 and managed to unpack the car. I was feeling worse and worse as the day wore on; I called the Botno Clinic and scheduled an appt. with Dr. Jessica for 11 on Tuesday.
However, by 12:30 a.m. I realized that if I didn't go to emergency, I would probably pass out from lack of oxygen. I couldn't get my breath...my asthma had kicked in big time. It is the first time in my life I have ever been taken to ER...pretty good record for an old dame! Anyway, I expected a shot, some meds, and I'd be on my way. My doctor had other plan for me..that included two nights in the hospital, nebulizer treatments every 2 hours, many doses of steroids (that started with a very painful shot in my arm that made me very nauseous, hot, cold and ready to tear my arm off from the pain!) I always brag about my high threshold for pain, but I'll think twice before I do that again. By 4 a.m. I was tucked into my hospital bed and Gary was on his way back home. I was poked and prodded every couple of hours the whole time I was there, but felt fortunate to get out today (Wednesday). I did manage to unpack a few boxes when I got home. but vowed to save much of the work until I am breathing a little better. I encountered all my worst asthma triggers on the way home...dust (from cleaning the condo...plus the air pollution in Mesa/Phoenix is the 2nd worst in the nation) perfume from the blankets in the motels, and COLD in Salt Lake City so now I am the proud owner of a nebulizer and I have enough treatments for about 2 years...hoping that I can stave off another emergency room late night visit. It is GOOD to be home!
