Mar 27, 2007

We survived the first leg of our journey ;-). First time I’ve ever been the one waiting for Gary to be ready to leave. We left the house at about 10:30 am, and we arrived in Clarksville, TN about 5:30 pm. Gary did most of the driving, but for some reason wanted me to be the one to drive through the heavier traffic of Birmingham and Nashville. I’m not sure that was safer ;-).

While I drove we listened to “Never Have Your Dog Stuffed,” Alan Alda’s autobiography on CD, which Norma had given us while Gary was in the hospital. While Gary drove I worked on my novel.

We took separate rooms at the Holiday Inn, where Gary had made us reservations – we didn’t end up all that close together. The desk person probably wondered just what the heck I was doing, since I spent at least half an hour unpacking stuff from the van to bring in for the two of us. Then I get to pack it all up again tomorrow morning, then unpack everything the tomorrow night. Hope my body holds up!

Gary arranged all his accouterments for the morning bowel and bladder programs on a low table in the room, and I put it next to his bed after tucking him in for the night. In checking his skin, it seemed to me that the right side of his flap showed signs of increased redness after the drive, so he is going to have to do more frequent weight shifts during this trip.

So far, so good!

Mar 28, 2007

Made it! We arrived in Rolla about 5:30. Only thing eventful to happen during the trip was a stupid trailer truck with a load of cars nearly ran me off the road while we were going through St. Louis. I laid on the horn, but he kept coming into my lane (the far right lane), so I ended up on the shoulder of the road.

I did more driving today so we could save a little time – Gary needed to increase his weight shifts to every 20 min. instead of every 30 because of the increased redness on his flap, and of course he can’t lift himself up off the seat when he is driving, so whenever he drove we’d have to pull off the road every 20 min. Not that I’m complaining – it was better for my back to make those frequent stops, so I could get out and stretch.

At the hotel we got adjoining rooms, and they even have a connecting door, so that is nice. After I unpacked the car, I got my zucchini cooking and then meditated. Gary ordered a pizza to be delivered – seemed the easiest thing to do. About 8pm we went across the street to the motel where registration and a welcoming party for the conference was being held. We asked at the desk where the party was, and were told it was upstairs – and that there was no elevator. I joked to Gary that this was an opportunity to practice bumping up the stairs.

The guy at the desk called upstairs and some math people came down to register Gary. Meanwhile, Alan Dow showed up, and so did Darji, so we talked with them for a short time. The organizers and Darji and Alan offered to carry Gary up so he could join the party, but we had only intended to stay a short time – just long enough to register – as we were both pooped; if we had gone upstairs, I think Gary would have felt obligated to spend some time there. So he declined the offer.

Back at the hotel we ran into Judy Kennedy, and a little later while getting something for Gary I ran into Frank Tall. So, I am running into all sorts of people I haven’t seen in years.

Well, have to help Gary arrange his things (tonight we are using the motel's ironing board as a bedside table!), and then we are going to hit the hay!