Almost There

What a ride! We finally got on the road twelve hours later than we'd hoped. I can't believe that it took so long to clean out one room. But finally, we got going and hit Parley's Canyon at 7:30pm. We had wanted to drive just six to eight hours a day but that first leg started out so far behind that we would have been checking into a hotel for just four or five hours so we drove until 5:30am (Tuesday), slept in a rest stop for a couple of hours and got back on the road for the seven and a half hour drive to Cathrin and Jay Hales home in St Joseph, MO. That drive caught us up for the rest of the trip.

Cathrin is my sister! We say that one of us was born into the wrong family and we should have been born twins. Our friendship goes back twenty years beginning with Desert Storm. Her husband was an officer, mine was enlisted. In the military, you don't mix officer's with enlisted. It is a culture of class distinction. It didn't matter to either of us OR our husbands. We just had the greatest time and we still, to this day, remain "sisters".

We spent a wonderful time with all the Hales' clan to include the spouses and grandchildren. It felt like home and I felt a pang of sadness that we'd be gone for a long time from our own children/grandchildren. I think that it helped that each of their grandchildren had a counter-part in our family. For example; they have James, we have Owen. When I watched James I realized quickly that he and Owen (Nagle) were so much alike. The evening went something like this...
Me: "Is your name Owen?"
James: "No, it's James!"
Me: "Are you sure, because you sound like an Owen?"
James: "No, my...name...is...James!"
That went on all evening as I teased him and he remained firm in his answer, "My name is James!"
At the end of the evening, as he got ready to leave I asked him, "So, Owen are you going home?" to which he responded without even missing a beat, "Yes!"
It was the laugh of the evening! Thanks, "Owen"...

We left Hales' at 10:00am on Wednesday and drove through Missouri, part of Illinois and ended up in the small town of Dale, Indiana. It's located near the town of Santa Claus. I would be excited if it were not still September...
We hope to make it to Raleigh, NC this evening but after watching the news we're not sure if that will happen. It seems that the East if suffering with huge amounts of rain and are having a problem with flooding and wet roads. So, we'll travel while the sun shines and then see what happens from there. We've been blessed with alertness and, get this, little pain with my hip. I've only taken one Ibu 800 ONE TIME and I'm traveling in relative comfort. Yes, we're blessed!

We do have an update for Trevor. It seems that after his visit with the Dr. yesterday, he has fluid built up in his lungs. He also has (as Alicia put it) a gnarly sinus infection. They've put him on antibiotics to try and clear it up and he'll be using a respiratory apparatus to build his breathing strength. If that doesn't help, back to Primary Children's for more aggressive treatment. To add insult to injury, he hasn't added much weight to his skinny frame. The stress of all that's going on has caused him to lose some of his hair and mess up his skin. HOWEVER, he is alive and the surgery to the jaw is stable.

It seems that the insurance company for the driver of the truck that hit him has been less than cooperative and information has not been provided in a timely manner. Alicia finally had to hire an attorney (McConkie) to help her. The bills are now beginning to come in. The first one was for $39,ooo PLUS. And that was just for the first three days/daze and didn't include the helicopter or the ambulance (which took him from the street to the landing zone, just 5o yards away! We told Alicia, as did the attorney, "Your job is to take care of Trevor. We'll take care of the medical bills." Great advice!

Just getting ready to leave for the last leg of the trip. Thanks for the continuing prayers in behalf of our family and for us.

Much love,
Elder and Sister Zollinger