Posted by
str8_talk on Saturday, June 07, 2008 7:03:01 PM
When I celebrated my 16th birthday back in Oklahoma, it was one of the worst years for tornadoes that Oklahoma ever experienced. I just celebrated another birthday ;). For the two and half weeks we were gone KS experienced one of the worst outbreaks of tornadoes in history - over 200 plus in those two weeks, and just shy of 500 for the month of May! We just blew in on Thursday (literally - 35-50 mph winds) from what was supposed to be a 2 week vacation, just my son & I.
My house was still standing despite our absence, my studio window where I'm usually on one of my computers is the top window, the bay window is the guestroom.
My flowerbeds looked very good without any care - except nature. 
This is just a sampling of shots, I don't know how many of you remember I was once a landscape designer.
Everything fared well in the 10 inches of rain, the plants even survived 3 days of hail, another round on the night we arrived home and two days of winds in excess of 64 mph. Thursday night we were pelted with storm after storm of four hours of wind and 30 minutes of pea to nickel sized hail - no flooding...please NO!! In Wichita the storms raced by in less than an hour, but just like the snow this winter all the storms kept streaming up from Oklahoma & pounding us.
As far as the vacation...Sometimes our plans didn't go according to our itinerary. In the end we have many memories to look back on - in our minds and some on our bodies, to remember those "unplanned events." Without them, life would certainly be dull and I cannot say my life has ever come close to being "boring!"
We started our trek on May 20th, the day after my son's graduation from middle school into...eegads - high school...help! As if the fact that he's a teenager and four inches taller than me isn't enough. Our destination for night one was Mt. Vernon, IL. The first few days went according to plan - making it from Eastern KS to the Outer Banks in three days journey. I only realized a few weeks before that I had chosen our first weekend for Memorial Day, although we did beat the traffic; because we arrived on Thursday. We added several states to my list of 27, bringing my total to 32 states visited out of 50. Here are the first of my vacation photos. I will add more in part two...
One of our first stops was the arch in St. Louis:
Arch full view... Arch closeup Me @ base of Arch
A detour in West Virginia: Weathered Barn cattle grazing wild Phlox
We spent 3 glorious sails with a friend on his 55 foot charter sailboat. I shared my passion of sailing with my son and he took to it right away. My friend even allowed him to take the helm which made my son on an even keel to the helm! ;)
My son was threatening to throw me overboard, but the Captain & First Mates would not allow it. I actually received a hug! One of my favorite stops is sailing; we went 3x, it would have been four, but that's in the paragraph that begins: "We stayed four nights then packed up..."
My son & I horsing around. My friend, Captain MK son @ the Helm
I was calming him down here. I Love feeling the breeze in my hair & on my face.
After staying our first night in a bed & breakfast, the 2nd night in the OBX was the Memorial Day weekend and we planned to camp. I had reservations & I called the campgrounds, but the guy was directionally challenged. I told him I would call him after our sail and get directions. When we were through, I called the grounds and they'd shut off their phones! I drove around for an hour trying to find them, none of the locals knew it existed, at least the ones who were up at 9 pm. We had our food to go fm "Awful Arthur's" - great seafood! I had fried oysters, coleslaw, & hushpuppies & my son had king crab legs w/fries. We realized as he opened his food, he didn't have any utensils, I had brought some, but nothing to crack open Crab Legs!! We stopped @ Wally-w0rld & I sent my son in to buy pliers, he came back with a nice heavy duty set to add to my collection. Note to self: "Don't send a male to get a tool, they'll buy the biggest one!" We were exhausted; ate our food @ the visitor ctr and trashed the remains, used the restroom and looked for a police or fire station, another elusive compound. Don't they have crime & fires on the island? I gave up & we positioned my Volvo SUV in the visitor center parking lot.
The next morning we woke up to a dead battery. In my descent into sleep, my son had asked to turn on the air conditioner, which I wouldn't have allowed. The mosquitos were fierce & he forgot about our 12 inch camping fan! I mumbled what he thought was "Yes" to which I have no recollection. So the car was turned on to the accessory p0sition ALL night while we slept until 8 am, we had gone to bed around 1 am. We woke up with a big sign by our car that said "NO CAMPING." Well, we didn't have a tent does that count? We had the back two rows of seats down and many quilts with a pad and two sleeping bags. I just thought we fell asleep in my vehicle.
I had to call a tow service, because someone had borrowed my jumper cables and failed to put them back in my car. I will buy myself another set, because my very clean heavy duty cables w/my rag in a zippered pouch, are covered in grease and the bag is now ripped. I had them for 7 years in pristine condition and were used many times to help others. The tow-operator was nice and followed me back to the station. I arrived first and they were trying to sell me a new battery, he wouldn't hear of it, my car only has a little over 20G on it. He ran his own tests and said, "You're fine, just as you told me, run your car so the alternator can charge it back up 30 minutes minimum and there's NO charge for testing." I filled up my tank and we went for another sail. Afterwards, I was so annoyed at the Campground, I didn't bother to cancel my reservation, (no deposit lost). I found a Motel, the kind where you drive up to your room, it was clean and had Internet. My son was happy & we even had beach access. One night we went beachcombing and found a dead stingray. There were more shells than I've ever seen there before.
We stayed four nights at the OBX, then packed up for Ocracoke Island fully intending to take an early sail; we had to make an early ferry and were rushing around. (Try getting a teenager around early in the summer!) We were doing great until I was getting the last couple of things from the room and checking once-more for items. My son walked in and said "Mom, where are your other keys to the car?" I said "My camera bag, where is it?" He said "NO! Do you have any more?" I said "Yes, another set in the car, WHY?"... "I just locked the keys in the car." "Well, we're okay unless you grabbed my camera." he said "I did, I knew we were in a hurry, it's in the car." So now we know the locksmith on the OBX, he came right away, and had us on our way in less than 25 minutes; I was so prepared with 3 sets of keys, my camera never leaves my side, so that's a perfect spot for the extra set, or so I thought. I wouldn't put a spare on the outside of the car and the locksmith agreed, it's too nice of a vehicle! I'm proud of my prudence - I just can't control another's mind! We skipped the sail and made it to the ferry, with 30 minutes to spare.
Now, if everything has been boring to you so far, this is where things get painfully tedious...I decided to make a pitstop. We cut the engine as instructed and rolled down the windows; my son wanted to stay in the car. I got out of the car thinking maybe a drink or snack for the ferry ride...as I had just pushed the driver's door to shut it, I reached back in to get my purse. Call it crazy, not thinking of the momentum of a new car with a large door, but OUCH! YEP, that door slammed on my hand and I stood there in shock, I didn't curse. I was just numb for a second or two until the pain receptors kicked in. Then I looked back in the window w/my righthand firmly wedged b/w door & car and sternly told my son "OPEN THE DOOR!" It was my mantra, he didn't understand why I was saying this so robotically and like it was the last sentence of my life. Then he noticed I was attached to the car, at the same time my brain kicked in that I do have a left hand and reached for the handle, we opened it at the same time. He was saying "Mom, are you okay?" That was his mantra, as I held my hand with my left and bent over feeling as if my right hand would explode, it was already red, purple, and green. The 3 fingers were my middle, ring, & pinkie. I went to the ferry station and said "Do you have a bag of ice for my hand?" I held up my hand and the two ladies both gasped "Oh My God! We'll fix one for you."
Okay, I'm tough, I went to the restroom while one fixed the bag, the other followed me in thinking I would faint and waited outside the stall. I came out and she kept saying "Are you sure you're okay?" I couldn't understand why she was asking this until I washed my hands and saw I was white as a sheet and I had a good tan already. My hand appeared to be bleeding, but it was just all the blood at the surface. The swelling was instantaneous! When we arrived on the Island on Memorial Day, I sought medical treatment, because the swelling continued. The only clinic was closed so I located the EMTs, who incidentally do not carry splints in their ambulances!! I told them "I've taken Ibuprofen, iced it immediately, kept it elevated above my heart, but I need a splint for my ring finger, it's the worst." They taped it to my middle finger and told me to call the doc if it continued to swell, to take ibuprofen, ice it, elevate it, and not to bump it! DUH!! Were they NOT listening? Please don't tell me something I already know when I'm in pain! I'm going back for my PA, I just smiled and asked if I owed them anything.
(This is my hand as of today the swelling is almost gone and the bruising is minimal now.)
I did have to call the Dr. who happened to be an Orthopedist and he cauterized the nail twice to let off the pressure. Then he had splints, all sizes of a new technology in splints, I had to wear one that would normally be 4-5 sizes too big due to the swelling. He told me "Our EMT service is not well-equipped here." I'm thinking "No, Really?" Then proceeded to tell me there were no x-ray machines on the Island and that he believed I had at least one broken finger. He asked where I was going and told me only Ortho docs have x-ray machines in NC, you'll need to go to the ER @ your next stop. I told him we planned to go deep sea fishing the next day and he said I could, but let someone else reel it in. I replied, "That's the best Part!" He said "You have a high pain tolerance & you're tough, good luck!"
This was a 200 lb Tuna caught next to the sailboat we sailed on, they were preparing it when we came in one day, they also had a 180 lb Tuna.
Unfortunately, the only boat that was available decided not to go out late the next morning, so we decided to head on to Camp LeJeune. The campground we were at had messed up our reservation site, which I HAD paid for and I was too frustrated to deal w/another dilemma.
I've been to the OBX enough that most of the locals know me and the coffeeshop owner allowed us to sit outside his shop after hours that last night so my son could play his Internet game and I could check emails. The locals are trying to talk me into moving there to do wedding photography, it's the 3rd largest wedding market, almost tied w/Las Vegas, and Hawaii ranks first.
My grandson was very excited to see Nana, he kept saying my name, I was his third word, after Mama & Dada, then bye. He nearly jumped into my arms, he isn't walking yet, but he cruises around everything and he climbs everything like my youngest son did. He can turn the TV to the cartoon channel, which he started at 8 mos. and he called me on the cell phone by himself once also. My sons had male-bonding time, video games, paintballing, and saw a movie. So they had their share of bruises to go with mine. They really enjoyed the time together. It was good for my son to have a strong male role model around.
I was able to visit the studio where my daughter is finishing up her CD of ten songs. All lyrics & music she has written except one song and she reworked music on another song. She just finished writing the lyrics to her last song. We had gone to the beach and she didn't wear sunscreen, so she was suffering from a very bad sunburn. In this photo, she's practicing the night before the studio and trying to stay cool. We stayed in JX 6 days because you won't believe, I came down w/a 101 temp the night before we planned to come home. So I had 3 urgent care visits in our 2.5 week vacation. I had a very severe sinus infection and was put on 4 meds and told to wait another day to return. Then the dr. said to take 4 days driving home, w/no more than 6 hrs driving per day.
Part two of our vacation will be our trip to Biltmore Estates, the Maserati, Ferrari, Porsche, Aston Martin dealership. Driving through part of the Cumberland Pass with all the trucks. Staying in the Bourbon capital of America in Kentucky, dealing w/dodging storms and the overall fun we had on our trip. Despite the many things that came up, we have many memories, a great time I spent with my kids, especially my son, and saw beautiful scenery. I hope I didn't bore you to tears.