Posts
 |
| Fawn |
 |
| At Cody airport |
 |
| Evan's Plunge in Hot Springs |
 |
| My Mom and Austin |
 |
| Buffalo Bill Dam |
 |
| Dam that's a long way down |
 |
| Emerson on the hot 4th of July |
 |
| Mom took Austin Fishing |
 |
| Heart Mountain |
 |
| Up on Chief Joseph |
 |
| Mom and I |
 |
| Yellowstone "Buffalo" |
 |
| Lance on "Red Devil" |
 |
| Sunset |
 |
| Heart Mountain |
 |
| Beautiful |
We hadn't made it back to Wyoming since my sister-in-laws
memorial service in August of 2007 and things were not going particularly well
for a lot of our extended family. My brother had divorced and his kids were
having a hard time dealing with that. My Mom and Younger brother, who is
wonderful and has down’s syndrome, suddenly the only ones still living in Cody
after my other brother moved east, made my Mom pretty depressed as her 70th
birthday approached. My husband’s family wasn't doing too well either, his
sister was so depressed she wasn't getting out of bed for months at a time and
his Mom had fallen down steep concrete steps, one full story and been in the
hospital a couple of months with no real therapy or progress, just sitting
there, wearing a catheter and saying the world would be better if she died.
Sooo. . . anyway we knew we needed to get there, but at the same
time, my husband needed 7 1/2 credits by August to keep his Oregon teaching
credential so he got on-line and signed up for any choir type educational grad
units he could find, but they were all over the Northwest.
Brief as I can make it - here is an overview
June 18 - Pack and leave around 11, drive 415 miles, from the
coast, through Medford to Klamath Falls through the desert to Burns, Oregon by
9 PM
June 19 - Drive 500 miles to just past Swan Valley Idaho to
"Falls Campground" on the overflowing Snake river by the Wyoming
Border.
June 20 - Saturday we drove 400 miles across Wyoming through
Jackson, and into the snow
then on to Riverton,
Casper, and Wright and to my In-laws home in Newcastle on the WY/SD border. We
got there by 6 PM and went to see My MIL in the hospital, and out to eat with my FIL - we were staying
with my husband's brother and his wife.
June 21 hospital visits and a steak dinner for Father's Day
Mon, June 22 we checked MIL out for a couple of hours and talked
her into visiting her house. She had to come in a wheelchair but could use a
walker inside. Dad-in-law couldn't pull the chair up the steps.
June 23 My DH, (Dear Husband) had to drive about 80 miles round
trip to get lumber for a wheelchair ramp. YIKES! Wood is expensive and that was
$1000. Newcastle is small and lovely but even a McDonald's or KFC or Taco Bell
is over 80 miles away in any direction.
That evening we brought MIL back to the house and invited her
sister, her Step-Mom and all her in-town family and had a big spaghetti feed.
June 24 Doing Laundry and removing sod where the ramp will go
 |
| In Custer State park |
 |
| It was hard Working here much better visiting |
June 26 and 27 Finishing the ramp, Our two teenage boys helped a
lot and also went fishing both days. Now that Austin can drive he had a lot more
freedom and got sent on a lot of trips to the hardware store.
June 28th We spent the morning at the hospital and then went to
Hot Springs South Dakota - home of mammoth bones and Evans Plunge. My Mom's
paternal Grandmother got married there just a couple years after the plunge opened.
1892, Saw a lot of buffalo in Custer state park and swam for hours
June 29 we drove from Newcastle, up I-90 to Billings Montana.
Met my Mom and Younger brother, and my other brother and his three kids, and my cousin and her
husband and their two teens. We got rooms with hot tubs and a pool and went out
for BBQ and started the celebration of Mom's 70th birthday
 |
| Inside teePee pool |
June 30, more
swimming, Red Lobster, and drive to Cody, WY to the first ever KOA. Sadly my
Mom has packed her house too full of stuff to have room for visitors so we put up a tent. Brother 1 had to
leave to drive back to the East with his kids. I'd expected heat but everywhere
we went was cool and rainy
 |
| Hail |
 |
| Hail Storm |
July 1 - July 5
We stayed around the Cody area but drove a lot
with Mom and brother, We went over to Thermopolis
 |
| Thermopolis Wyoming |
 |
| My cousin's Mom plays Calamity Jane She is related to C. J. |
and the
booths at the city park and to the fireworks on the 4th, we went to a rodeo
 |
| 4th of July in Cody |
 |
| Up on the Switchbacks of the Beartooths and chief Joseph Highway |
July 6, 7, 8
 |
| Baby Bison are camouflaged if you see in black and white like a predator |
Three days of
driving through Mountains in torrential rain and wind and lightning. The 6th we
crossed the bighorns on 14A through Powell and up by Lovell to Newcastle again.
The 7th we came down to Laramie and stayed up til 1 AM visiting Greg's
sister and her husband and two son's - plus the oldest son has a very nice
girlfriend from Cody who actually remembered my Mom and Brother. June 8th We
drove to Denver, Colorado to visit Greg's Mom. She had been moved to Porter's Hospital on the 4th.
July 9th, My 46 birthday, we mostly visited at the hospital and
then my youngest son bought us all tickets to see Transformers in IMAX that
evening.
July 10th Greg's sister came down from Laramie and I stayed
at the motel with the boys to catch up on laundry while they were at the
hospital again
July 11 we visited MIL in the morning then drove I-70 through
Vail, to Green River, Utah
July 12, Drove from Green River to Ontario, Oregon. I usually
get sick from the heat but it was cool and almost green. Every river we saw
this entire month was up to or beyond its banks.
July 13 - Drive all day to Tacoma, Washington
July 14 and 15 Greg takes a music conference for 2 credits and
then we leave at 5 PM and drive home by 3Am and collapse.
I saw so many places I wanted time to explore and was so close
to other cousins and friends that we never managed to get in touch with. My
Mother-in-law was still in Porter's in Denver although she has since gone to
her house, back to the Newcastle Hospital and over to Rapid City’s Hospital. My husband left July 20 for a three
day class in Billings, then went go back to Denver.
This time the boys and I stayed home to work on a yard sale, and
save some of the expense. As a teacher we get no pay between the middle of June
and the end of September and this has been draining the bank account.
On the way home I did hear an appropriate song,
“Sounds Like Life To Me”
( Darryl Worley, Wynn Varble, Phil O’Donnell )
...
He said I don’t know where to start
Sarah’s old car’s about to fall apart
And the washer quit last week
We had to put momma in the nursing home
And the baby’s cutting teeth
I didn’t get much work this week
And I got bills to pay
I said I know this ain’t what you wanna hear
But it’s what I’m gonna say
(Chorus)
 |
| Lots of storms this trip |
Sounds like life to me it ain’t no fantasy
It’s just a common case of everyday reality
Man I know it’s tough but you gotta suck it up
To hear you talk you’re caught up in some tragedy
It sounds like life to me
....
 |
| Wyoming Traffic Jam |
 |
| Living in Cody |
 |
| In the Black Hills |
Legion lake, SD
 |
| reminds me of the Donkeytail plants my Grandpa used to grow or the "Stone Crop" my 8th grade science teacher had us eat |
Don't know what, but very un-redwood
 |
| Love Pilot and Index |
Pilot and index peak up by Cooke City, MT
 |
| Map of our travels |
this shows the insane loops and backtracking we did, and then my
husband had another class in Billings and had to drive it all over again.
| Up on the Switchbacks of the Beartooths and chief Joseph Highway |
 |
| Grandma Mimi |
and she is the real reason for all of this. I wish I could give her even a fraction of the strength and support she's given other people in her 77 years.
But months
later she is still in the hospital with no real solutions, although this 4th
hospital says an MRI scan showed fluid around her brain, and that a shunt
should allow it to drain so the brain can expand to normal. Not sure, but hoping that it might let
her spirit expand to normal as well.
and now 5 years later, she has been in a hospital/Nursing Home ever since. Really since 2006, Her mind returned as strong as ever but her body is weakened by the time spent in hospital beds. Still, when we talk she sounds like our Mimi, and can remember and converse like always and we are grateful to still have her.
No comments:
Post a Comment