road TRIPIN!!!

Leaving Colorful Colorado

We're here!  After nearly 5 full days of traveling we have arrived in North Carolina.  We left Tuesday afternoon and headed out to Wichita, KS where we stayed for our first night.  As we settled into our hotel for the night we discovered that due to a slight mental malfunction there was no Walgreens clinic in Dallas (our next stop)  I needed to have a TB test which we started at home monday evening.  The plan was to have it checked once we got to Dallas.  Unfortunately the lack of Walgreens clinics in Dallas meant getting it checked in Dallas was not actually possible (I had the test started at a Walgreens clinic since you can have it checked at another one).  Lucky for us Wichita did have a clinic.  This threw a slight curve ball into our plans, meaning we had to spend the day in Wichita waiting for the correct time.  

Windmills in Kansas

We filled the day with a trip to the movies and a search for food.  We saw We're The Millers which was hilarious.  The movie has also now inspired me to want to rent an RV and travel around the country.  Ok actually that is only partially true, I have wanted to do that for awhile the movie just reminded me of that!  In addition to the movie we got a lovely tour of Wichita thanks to the unending wisdom of Siri as we searched for a place to grab a quick bite before getting my arm evaluated.  Luckily, no thanks to Siri, we managed to locate a cafe.   The cafe offered my mother a chance for some food and me a lovely italian soda (made with the good syrup!)  While we were inside I met a lady who has a daughter with CF.  I was taken off guard as the women approached me.  We were in a cafe that was an outreach of a local church so naturally as a stranger approached me I assumed it was some sort of spiritual attack and prepared myself for the worst.  As the lady began by saying I don't see a lot of young people with oxygen, my thoughts were turning towards confirmation of my hunch, assuming to get some sort of lecture how my situation is probably because, according to her, I don't know God enough or that I simply need her to pray for me or at the very least I was expecting to be questioned as to my spiritual beliefs.  As the lady continued I realized that was not at all why she approached me.  It turned out that the women had a daughter with CF and seeing me on oxygen made her think I might just have it too (a good guess).  It was nice to meet someone who is familiar with the disease. 

Oklahoma

After our lovely cafe encounter we headed over to Walgreens to await the highly anticipated TB results.  I was very anxious as I awaited the doctors opinion on my highly questionable forearm.  NAH,  it was pretty obvious I didn't have TB!  Once all the paper work was taken care of and I was officially cleared we hoped back in the car and headed south to Dallas.  

On our drive we passed through Oklahoma, which is a state I have never been too.  I thought it was really pretty.  We also got to pass thought a little of the area that was hit by the tornado, though we did not see much.  I did see a spot where a store was gone with a sign saying returning soon, I assume it was destroyed by the tornado.  Also the top part of a movie theater sign was being worked on and mom saw a house that was missing its roof.  

Bob, Mom
Susan, Me, Sarah

As the sun went down we entered into Texas and finally reached Dallas.  In Dallas we stayed with my cousin Sarah who recently moved out there.  It was pretty fun getting to see her and where she lives.  We stayed in her apartment with her and she took us around.  My Aunt and Uncle also happened to be passing by Dallas on their way home after taking my cousin to school.  They stopped by and the 5 of us went out to lunch together.  We picked a cute old fashioned soda fountain a few blocks from Sarah's apartment, which was fun to get to see.  They had all kinds of drinks and some crazy sounding sandwiches.  Unfortunately I wasn't hungry so I did not try anything.  I will just have to go back someday!

Linda, Me, Mom

After spending Thursday in Dallas we headed on down the road to Alabama.  Our next stop was Linda and Jeff's house.  Linda is my Stepdad's sister.  It was nice to get to see them and hang out for a while!  Linda took us around and showed us downtown Huntsville.  It looked nice and had a ton of very cute houses.  After a stop at a nice little Deli we headed back to the house where we spent the afternoon.  Linda and Jeff inherited a hamster, which no one in the house liked, but I thought was the cutest, and I spent my afternoon with him!  He was the craziest hamster I had ever seen, in that he would go out for "walks" as Jeff called it.  Basically the hamster would be released into the back yard and would just wonder around for a while.  The crazy part was that he didn't run away, or even try to run away and could simply be caught by walking over to him and picking him up.  I had a fun time playing with him.  Later he found some shade under a tree and took a nap!  We hung out in that spot for at least an hour!  I am going to miss that little guy! (I tried to get mom to let me keep him as Linda and Jeff did not want him but she wouldn't :(, not even for 50 bucks which Jeff offered to give her to take him off their hands)  

My little Buddy

As the sun came up on Sunday we began to prepare to leave for the final leg of our journey.  (I may have exaggerated that just a tad...we might have left a tad closer to 10 :P )  We drove through Tennessee, a small part of Georgia and into North Carolina.  We also passed through the smokey mountains which reminded me of  home a bit, though I would call them baby mountains!  After a few more hours our trip was finally done.

Baby Mountains

Today was spent shopping as we needed to get a few things that we didn't bring (soap, shampoo, toothpaste, etc.) and hanging out.  Tomorrow will be the start of business! I am looking forward to getting things moving and hopefully finding out kinda what the plan is.  I am also looking forward to starting rehab and meeting some people out here though I have heard that rehab is tough!  Lets hope I can make it through!  

Later Gators!