August 2009

We are on the road! on Monday my mom got me a doctor in Denver to take my cast off and my pins out. We have until Sep. 24 to get there. My sister's b-day was Tue the 25th, and we planned to leave the next day. We wanted to leave Wednessday after catching breakfast at Perkins with Laura, Claire, and Corey, but we ended up having to go back home and continue packing. Then we ended up packing into the rainy evening, so we didn't leave until Thursday. But, we should still have plenty of time to see the Badlands, Devil's Tower, Little Big Horn, Yellowstone, Canyon of the Crescent Moon, and Dinosaur National Park before hitting Denver.

We camped at Maumee Bay State Park, Oregon, Ohio the first night. We didn't get there until dark, and we lost the backpack tied to our saddlebag (which I caught and held onto until we pulled into BP), and we thought the mirror was on fire, but it got brighter in rhythm with the left turn signal, and it turned out to be an orange thread flapping in the wind... not sparks.

The next morning we rushed out of the park and still ended up getting caught in the rain. We were in farm country since Joe wanted to avoid toll roads for the sights, so there really wasn't anywhere to pull off and get the laptop and stuff inside. Then there was a random ice cream shop, and we parked under their awning until the rain stopped.

The second night we stayed at Pokagon State Park, Angola Indiana. We were pretty tired from having to pack and unpack the motorcycle every morning and night, so we are staying a second day, hence why I can blog. We are at Bob Evin's drinking coffee and hot chocolate because its freaking cold! In an hour we are going to see District 9 (b/c the only other movie at the little theater we are going to Joe and I saw with my family... by the way, do not go and see the new Quintin Tarintino movie with your mom... its intense).

So, the night before we were to leave on our trip, I kinda tripped and fell over backwards and broke my wrist. I was actually skating around my mom's neighborhood with 2 of my sisters and Joe. We were heading back home down a long windy street that is all down hill when Brittany and I noticed that we had lost Joe and Jessica. Brittany turned around on her bicycle after I spun around on my inline skates to look up the hill for them. Then I saw Joe start to come around the corner and I hit a pothole. I tried to catch myself I guess, and ended up on the ground cradling my arm. Brittany came over to ask me if I was ok, but then she let out a little grumble when she saw the offset of my wrist. Joe quickly caught up to us and helped me to my feet as Brittany accepted a cell phone from a couple walking their dog. My mom wasn't answering, and so I took the iniciative to start skating home again.

I was only 2 streets away, and when I got there someone had already beaten Joe and I home and informed my mom about what happened. Jessica ended up driving me to Southwest General's ER where they took x-rays and quite a long time with the vicodin. Eventually they told me that I broke my wrist and would have to come back and get a cast. They sent me home that night with just a splint wrapped with an ace bandage and a prescription for percocet. That was Monday night. I called Kaiser on the way home, and after some hoops I met with an orthopedic Dr. on Thursday at Metro Health that said I needed surgery. I ended up getting 3 rather long pins in my arm Friday afternoon after waiting almost 4 hours due to complications with the previous patient.

We hoped to leave this week, but now I have to get these pins removed before getting the full cast. I also need to be off percocet before I ride on the back of the motorcycle. Today is my first trial of that, and I have to say that it is nice to be off drugs for the first time in almost a week. On a better note, this gave Joe time to rig up a rack on the back of the bike for our sleeping bag, backpack and laptop. The plan now is to call my Dr. and ask if the pins can be removed by another facility down the road. If not, then its two more weeks of waiting, and I don't think that would be healthy for either of us.