SharivilleLife stories from Shari

Mar. 9, 2010. Tues.

Late start.  Well I needed awhile to get started, plus a couple cups of coffee.  Anyone who knows me, knows I’m not a morning person. We ate breakfast at the nearest Flying J at about 2 PM.  Being west of the Pecos by now is worse than being east of the Pecos. ( that’s pretty funny, esp my fondness for rivers, the Pecos River was about 3 feet wide,) but at least it had running water.  Probably rare out here in this area. Now being west of the Pecos there isn’t even cactus let alone anywhere to eat.  We were almost into El Paso before we got breakfast.   We drove thru El Paso, that city never ends, there’s houses from mountain to mountain all thru the valley between, as far as the eye can see.  I don’t think I would like to live in El Paso.

We drove on to Las Cruises,  New Mexico, and to Bev and Mike’s house.  ( Tommy’s mom and step dad.)  So I pulled a “Shari”. I had made reservations for the second and third day out.  Then I find that the place I thought was close to Bev’s is actually 50 miles away in Demming,  New Mexico.  Well OK, they looked closer on the map.  So we did a fast visit, I think we did a lot of visiting in 2 to 3 hours.  But we had 3 cats crated in the back seat and a puppy crated in the trailer, and had already driven 350 miles. That’s with a horrific head wind.  Vincent was home and he and Mike showed us their art work.  I’m impressed.  Mike does fantastic things with photos and Vince is into all forms of art work, doing great with mastering  Corel painting, and really doing wonders with photo restoration. They both sell their art work. Lucky me…… I came away with such a nice gift from each of them.  Mike gave me a matted print of an Indian Chief dancing in full regalia, very spiritual and gorgeous.  Vince gave me a print of his Fox Eye.  It was the abstract that was on face book.  He pointed out the various  animals and birds within the painting, sooo fascinating.  Wonderful gifts and  much appreciated .  Bev, bless her heart, since we couldn’t stay for dinner, she sent dinner with us.  Mike’s wonderful, and they were, Chile beans, and Bev made a macaroni salad and some fresh baked brownies,YUM!!

Well Bev, you will get a laugh out of this part.  Not only did I make reservations 50 miles away, but that turned into 72 miles from your house before we finally arrived at our destination at about 8 PM.  You see after we left Demming, it was 3 miles on one road and 3 miles on another and then 7.5 on a gravel road.  When Jerry found out about the gravel road, I thought his head would start spinning.  Jerry hates gravel roads, esp dragging this sled.  By now we had crossed multiple cattle guards, Angie loves those.  We has seen many signs stating Open Range.  At any moment I could picture a very large Brahma Bull  to appear in the headlights.  It was another ” Shari” moment.  It seems I had neglected to read the fine print about the RV Park, the part about the gravel road. Oh well, in trouble again. Of course by now its pitch black way out there in nowhere.  The wind was blowing 60 miles an hr.  and we are looking for Hidden Valley Ranch RV Park on a road clearly marked “dead end road.”  Well we finally came across it, thank heavens, my life was on the line by then.  They told us to just find a place and park it, very layed back they were.  An so you won’t believe it but the place was full of RVs?  Go figure.  A few minutes ago Jerry took Teddy out for a walk and it was snowing, almost like a blizzard with the wind still blowing a gale.  Snowing in March in New Mexico.  So here we are in the middle of nowhere and the phones don’t work and the air card don’t work and of course no satellite for another night.  I’m in big trouble.  Bev – the dinner was wonderful and esp for a snowy night.  Thank you, Thank you so much.

Mar. 8, 2010, Monday.

We got a late start out of the Metroplex, were hoping the rain would pass, finally figured we may wait forever.  After hitting interstate 20 it rained so hard and the wind blew with such fury the windshield wiper  couldn’t keep up. On down the road we drove into beautiful blue sky with fluffy marshmallow clouds.  Problem being we were in West Texas by then.  If you have never been to West Texas, its a treat.  The vegetation consists of muskeet, cactus and tumble weeds.  The landscaping is done with a bazillion plastic bags blowing and hanging off everything.  They will still be there in a hundred years. Damn litterbugs.

The wind increased and we went thru about 50 miles of dust storm, often pretty dense.  All along the highway were abandoned buildings of old business’ and long abandoned houses.  It gave me a sad  lonely feeling to think about the hard work that once went into all that.  I wondered where all those people have gone to. It has to be a challenge to try to eke out a living in West Texas.  Along the way were cotton fields with wisps of cotton still hanging on, waiting for a new season to plow the fields again.  I thought of my friends who talked about living in West Texas as children and working in the cotton fields and how difficult it was.  Along the highway were many oil wells, usually only pumping at about 50 %.  Makes me wonder why they all are not pumping full speed ahead?

After dark we found an RV park, few and far between. We had by then driven 400 miles, after promising ourselves we would only drive 250 to 300 miles a day.  Well no satellite tonight, Jerry really didn’t want to watch Fox News or the Weather Channel anyway.

You will notice these posts are not on time, because I have had quite a time finding a place my air card could connect me to the internet.

We waited all day and finally Jerry went in for his cardiac catheterization.  Thank you all for your  prayers because thankfully they found all of the previous grafts from the first surgery to still be open and viable.  There was one coronary artery that is 70% occluded and will need an angioplasty and a stent, but we still have to address the aortic valve that is in need of repair, or replacement.  Tomorrow we will find out from the open heart surgeon here if he feels that Jerry is stable enough to travel to Dallas, with a referral to a cardiologist there.  We then hope to have the surgery done at Baylor University Hospital in Dallas.  As of tonight that is our plan , but then we all know about plans.

Everyone here has been wonderful to us all. The hospital is a wonderful facility and the staff have outdone themselves.  We could not have ended up in a better place to have an emergency.  This vacation sure has had its problems.  Jerry’s cousin in Iowa says I need to write a book about  “The Vacation From Hell.”   Some of you will get to meet her, she will be out to visit us when we finally do get home.  She is a hoot , her name is JoAnne.

Angie and Tommy have been life savers here for me.  And I get to ride around in a gorgeous Camero.  Jerry is in good spirits and feels good having the kids here too.  They are such a support system.

Liz, you should see the fall foliage here, its absolutely beautiful, I haven’t gotten the  pictures that I would ordinarily have gotten for obvious reasons, but I have enjoyed the scenery. Well, once again thank you all so much for your prayers, calls and Emails of support they mean so much to all of us , especially Jerry, who is trying so hard to come thru this. Thank you Liz for the beautiful flowers, it made Jerry’s day.  More Later,    Hugs;    S and J.

Angie and Tommy arrived this afternoon.  I’m always so glad to see them , but today, especially glad.  I was feeling so alone with trying to make all these decisions.  The doc’s told us that they did not recommend that we take Jerry out of the hospital until they performed a heart catheterization.  It seems as of this morning they decided that he had indeed had a  heart attack.  Angie and Tommy had arranged to have a private plane fly him from here to Dallas, but they strongly discouraged that, and actually maybe they are right, because if he suddenly decided to have another heart attack in mid air it would be very inconvenient at several thousand feet up.  They said if we decided to check Jerry out of the hospital I would have to sign a paper saying, ” it’s against medical advice,” I’ve seen this before in my own practice, as a nurse, and it almost always turns out not to be for best. After talking with Jerry and the kids we have decided to stay here and go forward with the heart cateterization.  It will give us a definitive answer as to how much damage to the heart that has already been done.  We already are aware of the valve , but now we have the further problem of the actual heart attack, a very real complication. Problem is the time schedule, it won’t happen until 4PM on Mon.  Tommy said they will be staying here with us, because he’s not going back to Dallas without Jerry.

I’m so praying that they will find him stable enough to travel and in that case we may still fly Jerry and Angie and I to Dallas. Thanks to Judy Lou, who put me in touch with another classmate of ours Joy, who  lives only 65 miles from the kids, suggested instead of the VA, we admit him to Baylor University Hospital.  I had completely forgotten about Baylor, it’s a well known teaching hospital with fab resources.  That’s where we will probably have him admitted to.  Now it could be the case that during the heart cath they may find they can do an angioplasty and put in stents , which would resolve the blockage.  That would take care of the heart failure, and Baylor can then deal with the Aortic Valve problem, that is not so urgent.

At any rate we are staying at the trailer in the meanwhile. Jerry is doing much better now with all the fluid off his lungs so he can really breathe again normally. He also feels better with Angie and Tommy here.  So all things aside things are looking up now that some decisions have been made.  Please continue to keep us in your prayers and think positive thoughts for us all.   I will continue to keep you in the loop, as Judy Lou and Bob say.   More later when I know more.    Hugs,  S and J.

I drove into the hospital today without any trouble I just followed the big H signs.  It’s a good sized town and the hospital is all the way across town.  Jerry is doing much much better today.  The meds are working to get rid of the fluid in his lungs. He can now lay down and breathe.   The doc’s think he has a double whammy, both congestive heart failure and an upper respiratory infection.  So they are treating with antibiotics also.  Now that I look back, this has been coming on for several months.  He’s been more pale and llistless and not wanting to do anything more than he had to.  I just figured he needed a vacation.  It was a great vacation until about 2 weeks ago when the respiratory infection started, ending with CHF.

With tests we now know that the aortic valve they replaced 7 yrs ago now needs a replacement.  We were never really told the duration of the kind of valve they gave him, we now know 7 yrs and guess what,  it’s been 7 yrs.

As I write this Angie and Tommy are on the road headed here.  Tommy will drive the truck pulling the trailer with Jerry and I will ride with Angie in her car.  We will spend one night on the road as it’s about 700+ miles to Bowling Green and then 25 more miles to this park.  Angie secured a spot in a park with full hookups about 1/2 mile from her house, so its handy.

It’s been trippy driving that truck, but I’m doing OK. I have to remember to account for the big back fenders that stick out.  It gets scary when I have to turn a corner with a car already at the intersection, tight squeeze.  Today I drove it up to the valet parking and asked the guy to park it, as I could barely drive it.  He gave me a funny look.

The staff at this hospital are so helpful.  In fact, Jerry’s day nurse went outside and searched the various parking lots, it’s a big hospital, until she found the truck.  The night before I had followed the ambulance from the small hospital in Cave City, to the big one in bowling Green, about 25 miles. When we got onto the hospital grounds they stopped and told me to park the truck and get in with them, that way I could go straight into the ER and up to the ICU without a hassel.  It was 3 AM and I had no idea where I’d parked the truck.  It was a very scary night for both of us.  But what’s that saying, “when the going gets tough, the tough get going,” guess that’s what happened.  Looking back on Tues. night it seems like a bad dream, that somehow turned out OK.  The nurses were all so good at working together in the ICU.  They got all the tests done, IV meds, all the lines hooked up to the machines and all the labs done.  They used humor to ease some of our fears and Jerry has fun teasing them about their southern drawl, y’all.

Jerry will be discharged tomorrow and then Sat AM we will all hit the road for Keller, where the kids live.  It’s a suburb of Dallas.  With Angie’s help we have decided to go to Dallas, as there is an awsome VA hospital there.  Besides it’s a long way from home and for now home is where this trailer and my cats are.  We will have lots of support with Angie, Tommy and Felecia with us. Liz will continue to hold down the fort at our house in Chico.  God Bless Liz, she’s always been there for me.  With her there I have one less worry.

Tonight back at the trailer, I went over to the laundry room to get that done before the trip and while I was putting the clothes away I realized it was the first time in 35 yrs of camping that Jerry was not there to help me.  It was an empty feeling.  As Angie says we will take one day at a time and one thing at a time until we get it all taken care of.  I will continue to blog as it is actually helpful to keep a running tally of what’s going on.  I know we are in all of your prayers , please keep us there.  I will continue to keep in touch with whats going on.  Thank goodness for computers…………….Hugs  S and J.

Hello all, not so good news here.  Jerry is in the ICU at Bowling Green Medical Center.  The main problem seems seems to be the replaced aortic valve of, 7 yrs ago has run its course and now we are looking at some major heart surgery.  Angie and Tommy are driving up here tomorrow, Tommy and Jerry will drive the truck and trailer back to Angie’s.  Angie and I will go back in her car stopping one night on the road, as its about 700 + miles.  We are going to go to the huge veterans center in Dallas to do what we need to do.  They have a great facility in Dallas according to Angie.  Liz has things covered at our place in Chico, and will continue to take care of business there.  Don’t know how long this will all take, but we are in it for the long haul.  I am asking for prayers.  Jerry is doing well so far and sends his love to all.  I will keep you all in the loop.  Hugs   Shari.

Well yesterday was an interesting day.  First we went further into Mammoth Park to the Green River.  Along the Green River Rd we encountered a sign that said “this road ends in water”, and it did, there was the Green River Ferry taking autos across the river both ways.  Very interesting.  There are two such Ferrie’s in the park.  We didn’t cross then, maybe later before we leave here.  The Green River is suppose to have 82 fish species and also some very very endangered freshwater muscles.  I didn’t even know about fresh water muscles.

This park is largely wooded.  Beech trees and yellow poplar and  sugar maples, along the river area and white and black oakes, and hickories along the upper sloaps. I looked into that because I was interested in the different colored trees.  They are quite different from the west coast. We have seen many deer and wild turkeys and got some pictures of them.  They even have Red Cardinals here and there is not a prettier bird.

After a very nice drive I had talked Jerry into a little trip to the ER at Caverna Hospital.  It seemed to me he had some labored breathing and I had noticed some wheezing during the night. He got the cutest little female doctor, with a true Kentucky drawl.  First thing she said when she came into the room was, ” we are going to get you taken care of.”  They were all so positive and kind there, so Jerry didn’t freak out. In the end he was glad he went in, cause he got it in the end..  It seems that cold he had never went away only truned into brochitis just like last year.  So after a shot in the butt, antibiotics and prednisone we were on our way. At first I thought well more bad luck,………….but, then I think about it, it could just have well happened while we were home doing nothing, instead of here doing everything. So, with a couple of days rest and the meds he will be a new man. We have extended here until the end of the week and believe me it’s a beautiful place to spend some extra time.

The cats are enjoying the new place too.  So much so that the other morning about 2 AM something woke me up.  I could hear the heater running but above that was a tiny meow.  So, upon counting heads, Sophie was among the missing.  I called, even opened the door thinking maybe she had slipped out somehow, no Sophie.  I opened the closets, looked everywhere, knowing she’s the one for sure to come when I call her, and finally I pulled open the big drawer where we keep the crackers and cookies and out popped Sophie like nothing was wrong.  These cats keep life interesting at times.

In one of my previous blogs I mistakenly call Amish people Mennenites , when in reality they were Amish, Judy Lou called my attention to it and she was right.  I did get them mixed up.  Judy knows these things because she lived in Ohio where there are lots of Amish people.

We took some pictures of tobacco fields and old barns with tobacco drying in them.  I haven’t seen that since I was here in 1958, visiting my moonshining, tobacco growing kin folks, who I can’t even find anymore.  I think the revenuers finally caught up to them.  Well so much for that……….more later in the week after a couple days of rest.        Hugs….. S and J

We are having a heat wave, it got to 50 today, with partial sunshine.  I was really tired of the rain.  It’s suppose to shine for a couple of days and we are going to take full advantage of it.

Today we went to the National Corvette Museum. You would think it’s a guy thing but I personally found it very interesting. I’m quite sure I will never see another like it.  It was fun watching Jerry salivating with his tongue almost hanging out.  They had some simply unbelievable Corvettes there.  It’s a huge place and really shows off America’s sports car.  There were over 70 Corvettes showcased in periodic setting.  That made it interesting for me.  There were classics in mint condition and my favorites, one of a kind peototypes,  that never went into production.  One of them was so beautiful and stylish.  It was prettier than candy appple red and I just wanted to lick it, it looked that delicious.  They had some race track champs there, Tommy would have liked this museum.

There was a movie and lots and lots of paraphanalia relating to the history of the Corvette.The overhead music would occas play the theme from the old TV show  Route 66, It was one of my favorite TV shows long ago,  Does anyone remember it?  This museum opened in 1994 and they just had their 15 yr anniversary on Labor Day.  Caravans of Corvettes came form all over the US and foreign countries driving to Bowling Green Ky.  For the 10 yr reunion they said there were caravans of Corvettes for over 200 miles long. I would really like to have been here to see that.  I did get pictures of my favorite Vetts.

On the way out, George, they had a special, on loan, from GM, about 30 Corvairs of all types.  Got some pictures for you.    There was a sedan and convertable and Van like  you’ve already restored.  This display will only be here for a couple months more.

Here in bowling Green is the only Corvette plant in the world.  They do tours, but we are not that  much into Corvettes, so we will pass. Jerry tells me that the stars are out tonight, so tomorrow will be a sightseeing day and Mon we head west.  More later,       Hugs , S and J

Hello from very beautiful Kentucky,  Everything here is colorful.  The grasses are green, green and the rolling hills are displaying their wonderful fall colors.  We’ve had our share off rain and it seems that the trees have peaked and are starting to drop their leaves.  It hasn’t gotten out of the 40s in quite awhile.  Thank goodness for my cozy trailer.

We drove up to Mammoth Cave Park, it’s about 15 min from the RV park. Despite the weather the place was jammed, they bring in buses of tourists and school kids.  They have limited the number of cave tours now as the main season has passed.  Mammoth Cave Natl Park has over 367 known miles of cave passageways running beneath these southern Kentucky hills.  That’s something to think about.  It’s known to be the worlds longest cave.  In 1981 this park was designated a World Heritage site and in 1990 declared an International Biosphere  Reserve.  This is a magnificent American treasure.  I sized up  the various cave tours and have pretty much made up my mind not to go in.  My last experience at Wind Cave in south Dakota may have cured my desire to plant myself underground for any length of time before the actual time comes. I think there is plenty to do above ground anyway.  The park sits in the middle of 53,000 acres of hardwood forest above ground and they are on fire, not literally, with fall colors of gold, red ,orange and yellow.  Really a site to see.  I can’t believe that even in the New England states it could be prettier. I had a feeling Kentucky would be beautiful and so far I’m not disappointed.

We drove thru Cave and Park cities, all of these little towns close to the park are fairly tourist oriented.  I’m not fond of touristy stuff.  We drove into the largest city in the area, Glasgow.  We went to the Wal Mart, of course, and while shopping encountered Mennonite people.   They were dressed in black and grey clothing, nothing brite or colorful.  The women had on huge black wool capes.  When we left we could see why, they had arrived in horse drawn buggies.  Wal Mart provides a  special area for them where they can unhook the horses tie them up and let them graze while they shop.  I took some pictures as I’ve never seen the buggies in real life.  They have even provided a waste container so they can dispose of the poopies. They have a Community near here where they live without electricity or gas powered equipment. I cant identify with that, people themselves seem to be very serious and intense. I didn’t notice any smiles  or facial expressions, no joy. I wonder if it’s difficult for some of them seeing the rest of the world so different or……….maybe not.

We came home and I made some veggie beef soup for tomorrow, and used my George Foreman to cook a steak and Hamburger.  Guess who had what?  We added a salad and some delicious sugar corn and rolls.  Cookies for dessert,  I was going to make some baked apples but ran out of time, we were hungry.  Tomorrows another day.

Glad to hear everyone and everything is OK at home,  I heard from Bonnie and Liz.  Despite the fact that Liz has been terrorized by the raccoons, they are mischievous little rascals.. I guess they were playing with her and turning on a sprinkle near the spa. But then Liz never met a problem she couldn’t handle and she outwitted the rascals by putting a bucket over the faucet.  No Raccoon will buffalo her.  Well more later.             Hugs S and J.

Hello from Diamond Caves Resort and Mammoth Caves in Kentucky.  We had a nice drive from Owensboro this afternoon.  Stopped for lunch at a favorite place  and then on to Park City, where all this is located.  Tomorrow we will investigate the area.  It’s nice and quiet here, green grass and beautiful colors in the hills.  There will be some good picture ops. Don’t know yet if I will be able to do the cave thing, but since it is a Natl Park, it’s important to me.

Today was a nice day of the beginning of 4 here.  Maybe more if we need it.  Jerrys satalite is working well and he’s happy and my internet air card is doing good too, we are both happy. I’m looking at the various brochures of area activities. Did you know that all Corvette’s made in the world are made in Bowling Green Ky. right here in this vicinity, and they have a Corvette museum  here also. They also have some kind of railroad museum too.  So we should find stuff and things to do. So for now all is quiet on the Eastern Front, will be better able to keep in touch here.         More Later.          Hugs. S and J.