failure of a trip

Josh was offered an overnight trip to Coeur d'Alene this summer to attend a one-day golf course meeting in July. The trip was courtesy of the IGCSA (Idaho Golf Course Superintendent's Associaiton), which he is currently the President of, and they were willing to pay for our gas & hotel. I thought it sounded like an opportunity for fun, so we made plans for me to join him on the short trip.

 

I had 3 objectives for the trip:

1. Go to dinner somewhere nice

2. Visit my grandpa

3. See the Coeur d'Alene Resort golf course

 

Things didn't go quite as I'd imagined they would, though...

 

We left late in the afternoon on Thursday, July 18 after Josh was done working for the day. It's about a 5 hour drive from Salmon, and we headed north to Missoula, and then west on the Interstate. I wanted to stop in Missoula at Fuddrucker's to eat, but Josh wasn't hungry, so we continued on without stopping.

 

When we were a few miles away from Superior, Montana, we could see smoke plumes, and as we got closer, the sight made me sick. The forest fire had gotten so close to the town and several homes, and it made me think back to what happened in Salmon last summer (CLICK HERE to read a blog post from last year), and I hated seeing the destruction.

We arrived at our hotel in Coeur d'Alene that night, and got checked in. It was the same hotel I stayed at last year for the music teacher's conference, so I was very familiar with it already. I told Josh I was starving--so we looked up nearby places to eat. I was in the mood for a French Dip & Swiss from Arby's (I'm ALWAYS craving that sandwich!), and we discovered there was an Arby's behind the restaurant within walking distance. I was looking forward to the meal, but it ended up being the WORST Arby's experience ever.

They were completely swamped and busy, and it felt very disorganized. We waited for almost 10 minutes before our order was taken, then we found out they were out of their shake ingredients (Josh loves their Jamocha shakes, and I wanted to try their new berry shake), then we waited another 15 minutes for our order to be completed. It was so frustrating! The food wasn't that good, and all night, I felt urpy.

When we got up the next morning, Josh was sick. At first he thought it was from the terrible food we'd eaten so late the night before. But when he started puking and couldn't stop, we knew he had the flu. Earlier that week, each of our 4 boys had gotten the flu, and Grandpa T. and Uncle Tim had gotten it before them. So, we realized that the virus had finally reached Josh. He was so miserable that morning.

Because of his paralyzed vocal cords, vomiting is very painful for him. He always ends up swallowing some of the liquid into his lungs, and he coughs it up for hours, and it burns so badly. It is difficult for me to watch him when this process happens, because I'm always afraid I'm going to watch him die from it.

I knew that I needed to keep up my strength, so I decided to eat breakfast. Josh had gotten flavored milks for us the night before, and I had put them in the room's refrigerator for the next morning. But that morning, I realized that I had never turned on the fridge, so all the drinks were warm. Gross! I was thinking I would just eat at the restaurant in the hotel instead--Josh had received a voucher for free breakfast there, but I couldn't find the green ticket anywhere; I looked all over our hotel room, in the car, and in Josh's bag. Finally, I was getting so irritated with looking that I decided to leave and just go find a McDonald's. As soon as I returned--Josh found the free food voucher in a pocket of his bag that I hadn't looked in. Of course it surfaced--after I'd already eaten the diarrhea-inducing breakfast food from Mickey D's.

Nothing was going as planned, and I got very impatient with poor, sick Josh that morning. I was in the bathroom (after the disgusting breakfast), and didn't hear my phone ring, and he answered it. He brought the phone to me, and I talked on it, and as soon as I hung up, I began yelling at him for getting his sick germs all over the device that I used. I was completely baffled that he didn't understand that I needed to stay healthy to drive us home, so he needed to stay away from me and my stuff! He just stood there staring at me as I was yelling all my frustrations at him. I felt bad as soon I stopped yelling, and apologized several times; sick people don't deserve to be yelled at, and I felt bad that his plans for the two-day trip were ruined, too.

Josh's meeting was during the lunch hour at the nice CDA Resort. He wasn't going to eat, since he couldn't keep anything down, but he'd spent so many hours with his toilet companion, that he felt like he could be in a room with other people and keep his stomach contents in tact.  We checked out of the hotel as late as possible--at 11:00, and drove downtown. He started keeping down little sips of 7-Up, so that was promising, and when I dropped him off at the Resort, he was weak but able to be upright and I felt confident that he would be okay for a couple hours.

After dropping him off, I drove west to Spokane to visit my Grandpa P. It was a nice visit, but short: I stayed for a little over 2 hours. He was disappointed that I couldn't stay longer, but I was just glad that I was able to see him! We talked about pets from his youth and adulthood, and I heard so many new stories that I'd never heard before! I truly had an enjoyable time with my grandpa! I love him so much!

 I drove back to Coeur d'Alene to pick up Josh, who was exhausted. I told him my plans to try and see the resort's golf course (I've been wanting to see it for 10 years!), so we drove to the east end of town where it's located, but there's a security gate to get in and giant solid walls surrounding it, so it's practically impossible to see. Looking back, I wish I would've just shown them Josh's tag, and explained that we were in town for golf course meetings, and seen if the security guard would've just let us in, but instead, I just flipped a U-turn and left the entrance area. Next, I drove to a gas station to get some lunch food for me, then we began the drive home.

Josh rarely ever lets me drive when he's with me. He thinks I'm a terrible driver, and he prefers to be behind the wheel. The only exception to this is if he's really tired, then he'll let me take a turn until he feels rested. This was the first time in our entire marriage that I drove the whole way home from a trip with him in the car. He was truly THAT sick that he allowed me to do it! I don't drive as fast as him, but we made it home just fine--and he slept almost the entire 5 hour drive.

Remember how I said I had 3 objectives for this trip? Well, here's how well I fared:
1. Go to dinner somewhere nice - FAIL
2. Visit my grandpa - SUCCESS!
3. See the Coeur d'Alene Resort golf course - FAIL

It was not a successful trip, obviously. But, I am glad that I went--because I was able to chauffeur Josh home so that he could get the rest that he needed. And, the highlight of the trip for me was seeing my Grandpa. If I had to pick just one of the three objectives to complete, that would've been the one!

Josh started feeling better the next day, and it all worked out okay--he was able to take that one day off work (he never takes off work when he's sick so it's good he got sick on a vacation day, I guess), he was able to attend his meeting, and I proved to him that he could survive in a car with me behind the wheel!