Our drive was a long one and relatively uneventful, except for the mad dash we made through the rest area at lunch time. It was pouring (AGAIN!) and the wind was blowing so hard that the umbrella I was sharing with Mason turned inside-out, much to his glee. The rest stop (it was one in Maine) was PACKED! We bought our food and dashed back through the rain to the RV so we could eat in relative quiet.

The steroids kept Richard’s vasculitis at bay and, while he’s still itchy, he does seem to be better. He wants to wait to see if it’ll go away completely before we see a specialist but I’d feel better getting a diagnosis (or at least trying to) so we can avoid this in the future. He hates being itchy and I hate staying up all night worrying about my honey.

Percy must be getting used to our long trips because, while he did jump on me and bark when we got home, he didn’t pee on me like last time. He’s such a good doggie and he loves his Mommy so much.

The big kids were happy to see us and even more happy to get their souveniers. I always try to buy them a thing or two on our trips. I didn’t get them much this time because I’d planned to go shopping in Connecticut but those plans were squashed because of our early return.

LESSONS LEARNED ON THE 2009 COUNTRY ROADS TRIP:

If it’s raining when you leave home, that rain will likely follow you on your entire trip.

Free wifi SUCKS. Fee-based wifi is better (sometimes). Neither can be counted on to work all the time and your 3G connection is only as good as the closest cell tower. And, when a campground employee tells you their wifi works just fine, don’t believe them and always have a backup means of getting online.

Chainsaws should not be allowed in campgrounds.

The “scenic route” is beautiful, but hard on the RV.

The little numbers 1 and 2 on your gear shift are for going downhill! Wow!!

If a highway sign advises you to use the highway, USE THE HIGHWAY.

If the guests at a campground scare you, you might want to leave early.

There is no shortage of lightning bugs in the East in July.

Bats aren’t very afraid of people.

If it’s raining and dark, STAY ON THE MAJOR HIGHWAY. If you are night blind, plan to arrive at your destination LONG before dark…just in case you get lost.

If Mason is on board, you can never have too many Band-Aids or Neosporin.

It’s hard to diet when visiting Aunt Wanda’s house!

I can survive without Cable TV for seven whole days!!

Murphy’s Law: As soon as you fix one broken thing on an RV, something else breaks.

You shouldn’t encourage your children to read other people’s tattoos.

Retired folks who volunteer are HAPPY folks!

The BEST highway signs are the Hospital highway signs.

And, never leave home without Benadryl!

PLEASE STOP BACK BY IN NOVEMBER! We are currently planning a fun trip to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina!

Whoo hoo!!!

Richard pulled out his laptop and Mapquested the distance between our location in New Jersey and Bangor, Maine. It was about 11 hours. I thought I could drive another four hours that night, arriving at our sleeping destination just before dark. Richard decided a hotel would be best because he wasn’t up to unpacking/packing the RV and doing the sewer/water/electric hook-ups. I don’t mind driving after dark, but I have a very difficult time seeing the road after dark when it’s raining. And, yes, it WAS raining AGAIN!

We hit some New Jersey traffic just outside of Newark, which slowed us down. We stopped at a diner where Mason and I had breakfast for dinner while Richard and Max had…dinner for dinner.

We got back on the road and saw a highway sign that said “New England” and directed us to two major

interstates. Richard said the GPS was telling us to go a different way that would cut an hour off our trip. So, we did what the GPS lady said. Big mistake…

It was quickly getting dark and it was pouring. We ended up on a parkway somewhere. It was pitch black and I could barely see the white stripes on the road because of sheets of rain coming down. Somebody honked at me at one point. I didn’t know why…at the time. Richard got up to go to the bathroom at one point. After he got up, I noticed an underpass looming within just a few feet. It was REALLY low. Oh my God. I didn’t think we’d clear it. It sloped down in the right-hand side. It all happened so fast that I didn’t even have time to scream. I instinctively ducked in my seat, expecting the instant impact. We cleared it!!!

I started freaking out. A dozen thoughts went through my head at the same time. If we’d hit that bridge, we’d have all been severely injured or killed, especially Richard because he was in the bathroom and not buckled in. I started looking for trucks. None. How many times are you on a busy highway and can’t see a truck? Never! I was looking on our lanes and the oncoming lanes. NO TRUCKS!!! WE WERE ON A CARS-ONLY HIGHWAY!! OH MY GOD!!!!! Another underpass could come at any second. I slowed down dramatically. Richard came back from the bathroom and had to listen to my dozen thoughts in a stream of frantic,  high-pitched babbling. We found an exit pretty quickly, got off, breathed two huge sighs of relief. Sure enough, there on the entrance ramp (by the exit ramp) was a sign that showed trucks weren’t permitted on the road. Of course, in the pouring-down rain and in the dark, we hadn’t seen the sign when we’d gotten on earlier. And, the GPS didn’t warn us, either. Richard says we need a new one.

We found ourselves in a dark, pretty darned swank neighborhood somewhere in New Jersey / New
York. I’m really not quite sure where we were. It was dark, still pouring, and there were no street lights. The road was a VERY winding road. I was crawling in the RV at about 10 mph, around and around the trees that hugged each curve. The branches were high enough. I thanked heaven for companies like UPS that drive high vehicles on obscure neighborhood streets, keeping the clearance high for the rest of us. We drove for about half an hour without ever passing another car. I felt like we were going in circles, passing one huge mansion after another, each set far back from the road, with almost no light to lead our way.  Richard was using the GPS to guide us through those back roads to an Interstate. It took about an hour to find our way out of that maze.

We finally got back on an Interstate and were relieved to once again be cruising with our trucker friends (truckers are very kind to RVers). I told Richard I didn’t want to drive another hour in the dark and rain to get to that hotel he’d called. I told him to find the nearest hotel with the GPS and we’d just pray they had a room. I had to drive another 15 miles or so but we found a Marriot that had plenty of rooms and lots of space in their parking lot for the RV.

I can’t even describe the relief of turning off the engine that night. What an, um, adventure our day and night had been! After bathing Mason, who had Cheetohs in his hair, the boys crawled into bed and I
was finally able to check my email. There were no emergencies so I posted an emergency note to our
website for our authors, stating I’d be offline all day Friday, and I tried to get some sleep. It wasn’t easy because I was still worrying about Richard.

A concern with hives is that they can get into your throat, making it difficult to breathe. I’d been watching the hives on his neck closely, making sure they didn’t spread upward. What Richard didn’t tell me was that he had a hive on his tongue when he woke up. That was Lie #2.

I stopped for cash and sandwiches at a truck stop. Richard ate a Subway veggie on wheat bread. About an hour or so later, I was truckin’ down the freeway and Richard said he was itching under his arms again. I glanced over at him while he was talking and was shocked when I noticed his face was beet red. He was downright scarlet! My heart starting beating really hard and a heat flush went from my head to my feet. I was SCARED! I said, “Your face is RED!”

He got up to check in the mirror and came back, comfirming that, yes, he face was pretty darned red. I tried to talk him into stopping at a hospital or urgent care clinic. He said no. He just wanted to get to the next campground. I told him okay (that was my own lie) and told him he needed to lie down in the bedroom.

I said a short prayer and told God, “If I see a hospital sign, that’ll be a sign and I’ll pull off the freeway.”

About five minutes later, there was that big, beautiful, blue “H”. I pulled off. Richard didn’t get up until I got to a stop light. I knew he’d come up to the front if he sensed I’d gotten off the freeway. I heard his footsteps behind me and I braced for the debate…knowing I was going to win. He said, “Where are we?”

Right there next to us was another big H sign. I pointed at it and said, “We’re going to the hospital and there’s nothing you can say about it. WE ARE GOING!”

He shrugged his shoulders and said okay.

I had to drop Richard at the E.R. with an umbrella and then I tried to find a parking space. That was NOT fun. Finally found one that wasn’t too far away from the E.R. It was POURING outside and I was thrilled to find two small umbrellas above the RV door. I packed a small backpack of toys and snacks for the boys, put both of our laptops in my computer case (in case the RV got towed – ha ha – that wasn’t likely due to the size of the RV vs. the size of that small parking lot), and made a dash for the E.R.

Richard only had to wait about 20 minutes to get in a room. There were only 2 other people in the waiting room and Richard was called in last. The service there was amazing! We ended up being there for about 3 hours. Most of it was spent waiting for the blood work.

Basically, the doctor there believes Richard has vasculitis, which has been brought on by an allergen or an illness (he has not been sick). His blood is pooling under his skin and his hands were so swollen he couldn’t make a fist. He hadn’t told me that so I considered that Lie #3 – but that one was lying by omission. Richard had vasculitis a couple of years ago but the presentation was very different – small red spots. This is large areas of red spreading everywhere, just like hives.They never figured out why Richard had vasculitis before though I suspected all along it was from the doctor doubling the dose of his thyroid meds a week before the blood vessels starting erupting at the skin’s surface. After two months, specialists, a biopsy and countless tests, he only got better when they took him off the thyroid meds. He did start taking them again later, but at his original dose. The rheumatologist said at that time that it might come back someday. But, we always thought it would look the same.

All the blood work today came back normal. The doc put Richard on two antihistimines and prednisone. He told us to head straight back to Bangor in case Richard takes a turn for the worse.

We have stopped at a hotel for the night. It was hell getting here. We got lost, it’s raining (still!) and there’s something wrong with the headlights in the RV. I’ll try to tell you more about that tomorrow night. I have to get some work done and then have to get to sleep. I have to do all the driving because of the meds Richard is one.

HERE is a picture of Richard’s hands several hours after getting a Prednisone injection. They were much redder before.

HERE is a picture of numerous broken blood vessels under his arm. It looks like this under his arms even hours after the Prednisone injection.

And, HERE is a picture of Richard in good spirits at the hospital.  (Yes, Richard’s used to me whipping out my camera during, um, stressful times.) That’s Mason next to him, watching cartoons. Thank heavens for TVs in some emergency rooms! The boys were angels today!

He’s napping again this morning because of the Benadryl. The boys are still asleep, too. I just took a picture of them. The flash made Mason stir but he didn’t wake up. Good thing, too…cause I need to get some work done and the wifi here is the fastest we’ve found on this trip!

I asked Richard if he wanted to stay an extra day. We could just double up on our driving tomorrow. He said no. He wants to get on the road. I’m going to make him a spot on the bed so he can keep his feet up while we’re driving to help with the swelling. We have to go to the grocery store today so I need to plan a couple of meals for the next two days. I’ll do the shopping while the boys can stay in the RV with Daddy.

I can pack up everything and get road-ready inside the RV. One thing Richard must do is unhook the water, electricity and sewer. In all the years we’ve been RVing now, I’ve never learned how to do that. I realized this morning that if something happened and I had to do it, I’d be in a pickle. Of course, I’m sure I could convince a nice male fellow camper to assist me but I don’t want to bother other people.

More trip pictures are HERE.

Richard is not running a fever and there’s no vomiting or diarrhea. His face isn’t swollen. Neither is his tongue or throat (or I wouldn’t be typing this right now). I have asked him about 20 times if he wants me to call the doctor but he keeps saying no. Once we arrived at our new campground today (somewhere in Timbuktu, Pennsylvania), he took a cool shower and I made him a nice cool spot on the bed with a fan to his side. I also gave him my lap desk so he can work if he wants. No cable TV here so he can either work, surf the ‘Net…or take a nap. He’s doing the latter right now.

Trying to figure out what caused it. When you’re on the road, you’re exposed to all kinds of new stuff.

Here’s new stuff he’s been exposed to in the past 48 hours:

MONDAY:
1. New campground pool. Loads of chemicals and heaven knows what kind of bodily excretions. Eeewww!!!
2. Campground pizza. Yummy…but ingredients unknown.

TUESDAY:
1. More swimming – same pool
2. Brand new bottle of sunscreen (used by Max and Mason also – no reaction by them…not that that means anything)
3. Cherry red slush drink from campground cafe (probably contains more chemicals than water)
4. New green tea peach diet Snapple

WEDNESDAY at 4:00 a.m. is when he woke me up and asked me if I could see what was itching.

Not much itching now but the burning under his arms is bothering him. I looked and he’s scratched himself pretty good under there. I dug through all the cabinets, the first aid kit, and an extra backpack of toiletries we have on board and found a brand new tube of Hydrocortisone. He was happy to see that.

If I had a tow vehicle, I’d probably drag him to a clinic but he’s adamant. He doesn’t get freaked out about medical stuff like I do. I’d also go buy adult strength Benadryl. But, we’re stuck with what we have for now.

We do have a Scooter on the back of the RV that goes 50 mph. Richard had it ramped up so you can drive it on main roads if you need to. Problem is…I couldn’t get it off the doohickey on the back by myself if I tried though I’m sure I could get a fellow camper here to help. Even if I could, I’ve never driven the thing before.

If he gets worse, I know how to dial 9-1-1 and, yes, I already put the campground address and phone number near my phone just in case. But, I’m thinking it’s just a bad case of hives and if he were going to start having trouble breathing, that would have started hours ago. My imagination won’t give it a rest until he starts turning a corner, though. We’ve had several emergency room trips on the road in the past so one more wouldn’t be terribly out of the ordinary (sigh…).

Have to go cook dinner. Don’t worry. I’m only feeding him stuff he’s eaten many times before. I’m also making him drink tons of water to flush whatever the allergen is out of his system.

UPDATE: My sister called. She was at the campground with us last night. She has an itchy, red raised spot on her thigh, the size of a dime. She thinks it’s poison ivy. We’ll see. They both drank some of that peach tea, and they both swam in the pool (we all did) and Autumn drank some cherry slush drink today. Mason did, too, but he’s clean. Just checked him. All of us swam but Max, Mason and I are fine. Of course, different people have reactions to different things. More updates later, as spots develop…

ANOTHER UPDATE: It was a long shot but I walked down to the campground store with Max and Mason and they had individual packets of Benadryl for sale! I bought three packets, enough for the next 12 hours. Richard was very happy to hear that when we got back. I won’t let him take any for the next two hours, though, because the kids’ dose won’t wear off until 7:30.

Max and Mason are happy because I bought them each a small toy (since they’re stuck at the RV all night – no pool and no park). Max picked out a cap gun…but we didn’t buy any caps. I’m not interested in torturing myself and everyone around our RV, too. Mason picked out a toy car that is towing a toy RV. Um, I think he has four toy RVs now.

UPDATE: 7:10 p.m. – He’s up from his nap and the hives are definitely lighter than they were earlier. He thinks it’s because he’s not as hot as he was when we arrived this afternoon. That may be the case but they also haven’t spread further down his legs or to his face (seems to have stopped at his knees and upper neck for now). I’m about to give him his dose of Benadryl for grown-ups.

UPDATE: 11:45 p.m. – It is still spreading, down to Richard’s feet on the front of his legs, but not past the backs of his knees in the back. It’s spread more to his palms but not up to his face or even the upper part of the back of his neck. Considering it spread so quickly this morning to almost his entire body within just a few hours, the hives have really slowed down.

He has lots of broken blood vessels under his skin where he was scratching under his arms and also behind his knees and in the inside of his elbows, where the bends of the skin are. Those areas are pretty startling.

But, the “old hives” (the ones he got this morning and early this afternoon) are definitely lighter than the new hives so his body is fighting it pretty well.

Other than the itching/burning, he seems to feel just fine. I think it’s more of an inconvenience for him while it’s been an afternoon and evening full of fretting and hand-wringing for me.

Mason couldn’t get his floaties on fast enough and Max was splashing with glee. There weren’t too many people there so it was very pleasant. Richard swam with Mason while Max and I went down the water slide over and over and over again. It was SOOOOO much fun! There were 60 steps to the slides. Yes, I counted!

I more than worked off that huge honey baked ham sandwich I chowed on yesterday afternoon.

Mason got cold after awhile and started shivering so we dried off and came back to the RV. We put on dry clothes and Richard picked up pizza for dinner, which is made on-site here. It was really good!

After dinner, we went for a walk. There was karaoke at the the pavilion. It’s Christmas in July here and some people had up Christmas decorations and lights. There were lots of kids at the playground and Max and Mason had a great time. Mason is getting more independent. He’s able to crawl up on the playground equipment and slide down the slides by himself…without falling off. One little boy who wasn’t much older than Mason was helping Mason at times. It was very sweet. Once again, as soon as the sun set just enough, he fireflies emerged. One little boy smashed one between his hands, right in front of his parents. They said nothing…so I did. I told him fireflies are very special, that they’re magic, and should be treated with gentleness and love. I told him I believe they’re fairies. I said this right in front of his parents and they were smart enough not to say anything to me because, boy oh boy, would I have let them have it.

I guess what I said worked because the boy brought me a new firefly a few minutes later and showed me how gentle he was with it.

Let me preface this next part by saying that I have nothing against people with tattoos. I would never get a tattoo myself but I know people who have tattoos and they are very nice people. Now that I have (perhaps unsuccessfully) protected myself from an onslaught of tattoo-wearers and supporters, I will continue.

Sometimes, girls have tattoos that, well, just aren’t something their mothers probably approve of. We were at the water park at this campground today and there was a woman in a bikini in line in front of us with a tattoo just above her bikini line (butt cheeks). The tattoos was, shall I say, adult in nature. I saw Max staring at it, not because he is into girls yet (thank you, Lord) but because he is very into graffiti, street art, tattoos and other forms of self-expressive artwork.

I leaned down to him and whispered, “That’s called a Tramp Stamp.”

Still staring, he whispered back behind his hand, “Mommy, what’s a Tramp Stamp?”

I replied, with a wink, “That might mean she’s not a very nice girl…if you know what I mean.”

He paused, looking puzzled for a moment, and then said, “You mean she doesn’t always say thank you?”

I usually take Sundays off but I was behind due to our family fun so I worked all day yesterday. The boys played outside for awhile. It was a pretty slow, do-nothing kind of day, the type of day I’ve come to appreciate more as I get older. No stress, no drama…just complete, delicious boredom. Aaaahhh…

Anyway, this morning we woke up, packed up the RV, and hit the road. We’re heading north again, landing somewhere in Maryland tonight. We stopped at a large shopping complex somewhere in West Virginia. Richard went to the grocery store with Mason while I went to the craft store with Max. Max gets very bored if he doesn’t have crafty stuff to do. I bought him some new paper (white and colored) and a kit to build a foam castle. I bought Mason a couple of goodies, too. We finished first so we went to the grocery store to meet up with Richard and Mason. I bought Max four boxes of toothpicks there. Ever since he saw one man’s HUGE toothpick sculpture online, he’s wanted to give it a try. Gosh, talk about a cheap hobby! Fifty-nine cents a box! And, we already had glue on board.

After we loaded the groceries in the RV, and put away the cold stuff, we walked to a sandwich shop. Max has decided that honey baked ham is better than Subway ham. We found a mailbox so Max was able to mail a letter he wrote to Matt and I mailed two postcards to the older kids in Maine. We also ran into Books a Million. I’d never been in one of those bookstores before and it was very nice! I found exactly what I was looking for (a new Beverly Lewis book – Christian Fiction about the Amish, very addictive! – and a book on embroidery stitches). Max got ANOTHER book about graffiti, this one full of train photos.

Max’s new book and crafts are great rainy-day activities and it sure looks like we got them just in time because, yes, it is going to rain AGAIN! We just crossed the West Virginia / Maryland border. There are still purple mountains in the distance. Not seeing many amber waves of grain here but we did see some in West Virginia. The spacious skies are heavy with impatient raindrops. Good thing Grampa fixed the windshield wiper! Well, almost anyway. Richard had to use a bit more duct tape on it today but it appears to be working just fine now.

TRIP PICTURES ARE HERE.

~~~~~

UPDATE – 7:30 p.m. – Oh My GOSH! We are BACK in the LAND of the LIVIN’! We have CABLE TV!!!

The biggest repair to date was due to a hydraulic leak in the back slide. We’re not sure what we did to cause that one. Repair cost: $1700.00

We have double-paned windows next to the driver’s and passenger’s seats. They’re the front, corner windows, in front of the main windows. There has been condensation collecting in those since before we bought the RV. It’s not unusual for the seals to crack over time, especially with the extreme heat (in Florida) and cold (in Maine) that we’ve subjected this RV to. You might want to sit down before you read this. The quote to REPLACE these two relatively small windows? $2700 for one and $2400 for the other. No, there aren’t any extra zeroes in there. We have, instead, opted to have them simply remove the extra pane from each window. But, we haven’t had it done yet. We didn’t have time before this trip.

We’ve burned through a few tires. We had a couple of blowouts. Okay, I was the one driving every time we’ve had a blowout. The first one was because I ran over what I believe was a hubcap. After that, a repair shop put an undersized tire on as a replacement (unbeknownst to us) and that caused its partner to blow a few hundred miles further south. I, uh, only accept responsibility for the first blowout. We had to have the undersized tire replaced as well so that was three tires on one trip. Repair cost: $1500 ($500 per tire)

The air conditioner has never gone out, thank goodness. And, we’ve never had any engine problems, despite the tens of thousands of miles we’ve put on this RV. The generator is giving us trouble and we’re hemming and hawing about whether to replace it. Replacement cost: $4,000

So, RVing isn’t for the financially faint of heart. Whenever something big happens and Richard gets upset, I just say, “Easy come, easy go. Just doing our part to help the economy.” (And, thank goodness for the credit card! Talk about play now, pay later!!)

This morning, the sink is driving me NUTS! It’s been dripping slowly for awhile but it’s starting to get worse. I really should buy a book on plumbing and try to fix it myself but I’m afraid I’ll break something else, causing that leaky faucet to turn into something so severe that it’ll earn its own column here on WirelessTrips.com someday.

~~~~~

Yesterday morning, Grampa and Rita left. The boys didn’t cry at the time, but I did. Rita is such a good friend of mine and I am so sad every time they depart. Rita is an elementary school teacher. She’s on her 25th year now, if I remember correctly. She always knew she wanted to be a teacher. She never had any kids of her own because she always felt her students WERE her kids. She is remarkable with children, a true blessing and an inspiration to all small people who cross her path. She also loves to shop and eat, especially desserts. I think that’s why we get along so great. Her sense of humor mirrors mine as well. I wish she didn’t live 2,000 miles away!

We realized before they left that we had no idea when we’d see them again. That just wasn’t acceptable so, before they even got into their van, Richard was planning the next trip with them. We’re looking at Myrtle Beach, perhaps in November. They have a really big campground there that’s open year ’round. That’s the off-season and we can get a spot for an entire month for $600. No, we’re not going to stay a month. Just wanted to show you how cheap it is. We spend all major holidays in Bangor with ALL the kids, including Thanksgiving, so we’ll probably just stay a week.

I spent the day getting caught up on work. Yesterday was our WritersWeekly.com 24-Hour Short Story Contest. It went off without a hitch. We had three wifi connections…just in case. But, nothing broke and everything went very smoothly.

The boys spent the day watching DVDs, playing with their toys, drawing, and just hanging around. Last night, before dark, we took them to the stream, which was MUCH higher because of Friday’s heavy rains, meaning it was about 4 to 6 inches deep instead of 1/2 to 1-inch deep. Mason threw rocks and Max made leaf boats. We had some leaf boat races and that was lots of fun. We saw lots of minnows and water bugs and Mason got to see his very first crawfish! I’m not as brave as I was when I was a kid. I was too chicken to pick it up, fearing a sharp pinch to my fingertips. I will take some kitchen tongs if we go there tonight so we can gently capture one and give Max and Mason a closer look.

The train ride was very relaxing and the scenery was beautiful. A retired couple sitting at our table was from about an hour north of Elkins. A volunteer named Junior Ervin rode in our car and told us historical facts and pointed out landmarks, like the river that has some of the best trout fishing in the East. He knew EVERYTHING, including the names of the campgrounds and towns we passed through, the uses of the different railroad poles and hardware along the track (he was retired from the railroad) and lots of facts about the coal mines in West Virginia. When we passed a house with what looked like an old family cemetery in the backyard, we asked him about it. He simply replied, “Pets.” We’d never seen such an elaborate pet cemetery and we got a kick out of Junior not getting stumped on even one question. He truly made that train ride much more than it would have been without him!

We stopped at a waterfall and took some pictures. The train crew fed us a nice lunch of sandwiches, fruit salad, macaroni salad, tea and lemonade. On the return trip, they came through with huge platters of cookies and brownies.

After the train ride, Grampa bought Max and Mason each a toy train. We ate pizza for dinner at CJ Maggie’s. That was YUMMY! After rolling ourselves out of there, we stopped at Dairy Queen on the way home, at Mason’s request (yeah, like we needed Mason as an excuse to stop for dessert!). Everything was still wet when we got back to the campground but that didn’t stop Richard from starting another fire with Dale while I did some cleaning in the RV. Grampa and Rita are leaving tomorrow. When Max realized that at dinner, he started crying.