A concern with hives is that they can get into your throat, making it difficult to breathe. I’d been watching the hives on his neck closely, making sure they didn’t spread upward. What Richard didn’t tell me was that he had a hive on his tongue when he woke up. That was Lie #2.

I stopped for cash and sandwiches at a truck stop. Richard ate a Subway veggie on wheat bread. About an hour or so later, I was truckin’ down the freeway and Richard said he was itching under his arms again. I glanced over at him while he was talking and was shocked when I noticed his face was beet red. He was downright scarlet! My heart starting beating really hard and a heat flush went from my head to my feet. I was SCARED! I said, “Your face is RED!”

He got up to check in the mirror and came back, comfirming that, yes, he face was pretty darned red. I tried to talk him into stopping at a hospital or urgent care clinic. He said no. He just wanted to get to the next campground. I told him okay (that was my own lie) and told him he needed to lie down in the bedroom.

I said a short prayer and told God, “If I see a hospital sign, that’ll be a sign and I’ll pull off the freeway.”

About five minutes later, there was that big, beautiful, blue “H”. I pulled off. Richard didn’t get up until I got to a stop light. I knew he’d come up to the front if he sensed I’d gotten off the freeway. I heard his footsteps behind me and I braced for the debate…knowing I was going to win. He said, “Where are we?”

Right there next to us was another big H sign. I pointed at it and said, “We’re going to the hospital and there’s nothing you can say about it. WE ARE GOING!”

He shrugged his shoulders and said okay.

I had to drop Richard at the E.R. with an umbrella and then I tried to find a parking space. That was NOT fun. Finally found one that wasn’t too far away from the E.R. It was POURING outside and I was thrilled to find two small umbrellas above the RV door. I packed a small backpack of toys and snacks for the boys, put both of our laptops in my computer case (in case the RV got towed – ha ha – that wasn’t likely due to the size of the RV vs. the size of that small parking lot), and made a dash for the E.R.

Richard only had to wait about 20 minutes to get in a room. There were only 2 other people in the waiting room and Richard was called in last. The service there was amazing! We ended up being there for about 3 hours. Most of it was spent waiting for the blood work.

Basically, the doctor there believes Richard has vasculitis, which has been brought on by an allergen or an illness (he has not been sick). His blood is pooling under his skin and his hands were so swollen he couldn’t make a fist. He hadn’t told me that so I considered that Lie #3 – but that one was lying by omission. Richard had vasculitis a couple of years ago but the presentation was very different – small red spots. This is large areas of red spreading everywhere, just like hives.They never figured out why Richard had vasculitis before though I suspected all along it was from the doctor doubling the dose of his thyroid meds a week before the blood vessels starting erupting at the skin’s surface. After two months, specialists, a biopsy and countless tests, he only got better when they took him off the thyroid meds. He did start taking them again later, but at his original dose. The rheumatologist said at that time that it might come back someday. But, we always thought it would look the same.

All the blood work today came back normal. The doc put Richard on two antihistimines and prednisone. He told us to head straight back to Bangor in case Richard takes a turn for the worse.

We have stopped at a hotel for the night. It was hell getting here. We got lost, it’s raining (still!) and there’s something wrong with the headlights in the RV. I’ll try to tell you more about that tomorrow night. I have to get some work done and then have to get to sleep. I have to do all the driving because of the meds Richard is one.

HERE is a picture of Richard’s hands several hours after getting a Prednisone injection. They were much redder before.

HERE is a picture of numerous broken blood vessels under his arm. It looks like this under his arms even hours after the Prednisone injection.

And, HERE is a picture of Richard in good spirits at the hospital.  (Yes, Richard’s used to me whipping out my camera during, um, stressful times.) That’s Mason next to him, watching cartoons. Thank heavens for TVs in some emergency rooms! The boys were angels today!

I usually take Sundays off but I was behind due to our family fun so I worked all day yesterday. The boys played outside for awhile. It was a pretty slow, do-nothing kind of day, the type of day I’ve come to appreciate more as I get older. No stress, no drama…just complete, delicious boredom. Aaaahhh…

Anyway, this morning we woke up, packed up the RV, and hit the road. We’re heading north again, landing somewhere in Maryland tonight. We stopped at a large shopping complex somewhere in West Virginia. Richard went to the grocery store with Mason while I went to the craft store with Max. Max gets very bored if he doesn’t have crafty stuff to do. I bought him some new paper (white and colored) and a kit to build a foam castle. I bought Mason a couple of goodies, too. We finished first so we went to the grocery store to meet up with Richard and Mason. I bought Max four boxes of toothpicks there. Ever since he saw one man’s HUGE toothpick sculpture online, he’s wanted to give it a try. Gosh, talk about a cheap hobby! Fifty-nine cents a box! And, we already had glue on board.

After we loaded the groceries in the RV, and put away the cold stuff, we walked to a sandwich shop. Max has decided that honey baked ham is better than Subway ham. We found a mailbox so Max was able to mail a letter he wrote to Matt and I mailed two postcards to the older kids in Maine. We also ran into Books a Million. I’d never been in one of those bookstores before and it was very nice! I found exactly what I was looking for (a new Beverly Lewis book – Christian Fiction about the Amish, very addictive! – and a book on embroidery stitches). Max got ANOTHER book about graffiti, this one full of train photos.

Max’s new book and crafts are great rainy-day activities and it sure looks like we got them just in time because, yes, it is going to rain AGAIN! We just crossed the West Virginia / Maryland border. There are still purple mountains in the distance. Not seeing many amber waves of grain here but we did see some in West Virginia. The spacious skies are heavy with impatient raindrops. Good thing Grampa fixed the windshield wiper! Well, almost anyway. Richard had to use a bit more duct tape on it today but it appears to be working just fine now.

TRIP PICTURES ARE HERE.

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UPDATE – 7:30 p.m. – Oh My GOSH! We are BACK in the LAND of the LIVIN’! We have CABLE TV!!!

The biggest repair to date was due to a hydraulic leak in the back slide. We’re not sure what we did to cause that one. Repair cost: $1700.00

We have double-paned windows next to the driver’s and passenger’s seats. They’re the front, corner windows, in front of the main windows. There has been condensation collecting in those since before we bought the RV. It’s not unusual for the seals to crack over time, especially with the extreme heat (in Florida) and cold (in Maine) that we’ve subjected this RV to. You might want to sit down before you read this. The quote to REPLACE these two relatively small windows? $2700 for one and $2400 for the other. No, there aren’t any extra zeroes in there. We have, instead, opted to have them simply remove the extra pane from each window. But, we haven’t had it done yet. We didn’t have time before this trip.

We’ve burned through a few tires. We had a couple of blowouts. Okay, I was the one driving every time we’ve had a blowout. The first one was because I ran over what I believe was a hubcap. After that, a repair shop put an undersized tire on as a replacement (unbeknownst to us) and that caused its partner to blow a few hundred miles further south. I, uh, only accept responsibility for the first blowout. We had to have the undersized tire replaced as well so that was three tires on one trip. Repair cost: $1500 ($500 per tire)

The air conditioner has never gone out, thank goodness. And, we’ve never had any engine problems, despite the tens of thousands of miles we’ve put on this RV. The generator is giving us trouble and we’re hemming and hawing about whether to replace it. Replacement cost: $4,000

So, RVing isn’t for the financially faint of heart. Whenever something big happens and Richard gets upset, I just say, “Easy come, easy go. Just doing our part to help the economy.” (And, thank goodness for the credit card! Talk about play now, pay later!!)

This morning, the sink is driving me NUTS! It’s been dripping slowly for awhile but it’s starting to get worse. I really should buy a book on plumbing and try to fix it myself but I’m afraid I’ll break something else, causing that leaky faucet to turn into something so severe that it’ll earn its own column here on WirelessTrips.com someday.

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Yesterday morning, Grampa and Rita left. The boys didn’t cry at the time, but I did. Rita is such a good friend of mine and I am so sad every time they depart. Rita is an elementary school teacher. She’s on her 25th year now, if I remember correctly. She always knew she wanted to be a teacher. She never had any kids of her own because she always felt her students WERE her kids. She is remarkable with children, a true blessing and an inspiration to all small people who cross her path. She also loves to shop and eat, especially desserts. I think that’s why we get along so great. Her sense of humor mirrors mine as well. I wish she didn’t live 2,000 miles away!

We realized before they left that we had no idea when we’d see them again. That just wasn’t acceptable so, before they even got into their van, Richard was planning the next trip with them. We’re looking at Myrtle Beach, perhaps in November. They have a really big campground there that’s open year ’round. That’s the off-season and we can get a spot for an entire month for $600. No, we’re not going to stay a month. Just wanted to show you how cheap it is. We spend all major holidays in Bangor with ALL the kids, including Thanksgiving, so we’ll probably just stay a week.

I spent the day getting caught up on work. Yesterday was our WritersWeekly.com 24-Hour Short Story Contest. It went off without a hitch. We had three wifi connections…just in case. But, nothing broke and everything went very smoothly.

The boys spent the day watching DVDs, playing with their toys, drawing, and just hanging around. Last night, before dark, we took them to the stream, which was MUCH higher because of Friday’s heavy rains, meaning it was about 4 to 6 inches deep instead of 1/2 to 1-inch deep. Mason threw rocks and Max made leaf boats. We had some leaf boat races and that was lots of fun. We saw lots of minnows and water bugs and Mason got to see his very first crawfish! I’m not as brave as I was when I was a kid. I was too chicken to pick it up, fearing a sharp pinch to my fingertips. I will take some kitchen tongs if we go there tonight so we can gently capture one and give Max and Mason a closer look.

The train ride was very relaxing and the scenery was beautiful. A retired couple sitting at our table was from about an hour north of Elkins. A volunteer named Junior Ervin rode in our car and told us historical facts and pointed out landmarks, like the river that has some of the best trout fishing in the East. He knew EVERYTHING, including the names of the campgrounds and towns we passed through, the uses of the different railroad poles and hardware along the track (he was retired from the railroad) and lots of facts about the coal mines in West Virginia. When we passed a house with what looked like an old family cemetery in the backyard, we asked him about it. He simply replied, “Pets.” We’d never seen such an elaborate pet cemetery and we got a kick out of Junior not getting stumped on even one question. He truly made that train ride much more than it would have been without him!

We stopped at a waterfall and took some pictures. The train crew fed us a nice lunch of sandwiches, fruit salad, macaroni salad, tea and lemonade. On the return trip, they came through with huge platters of cookies and brownies.

After the train ride, Grampa bought Max and Mason each a toy train. We ate pizza for dinner at CJ Maggie’s. That was YUMMY! After rolling ourselves out of there, we stopped at Dairy Queen on the way home, at Mason’s request (yeah, like we needed Mason as an excuse to stop for dessert!). Everything was still wet when we got back to the campground but that didn’t stop Richard from starting another fire with Dale while I did some cleaning in the RV. Grampa and Rita are leaving tomorrow. When Max realized that at dinner, he started crying.

Richard and Max are very interested in space. I used to work in the aerospace industry, for a company that made space shuttle and space station parts.  Richard and Max are curious about stars and planets while my interest in space has more of a human-interest angle. I think looking at stars and planets is kinda boring…but I think it would be cool to see and meet some aliens.

On Thursday, Richard had us scheduled to go see the the world’s largest fully steerable single aperture radio antenna. Call me dumb but I thought we were going to see some big radio antenna that broadcast music or news on a global scale or something. Max seemed more educated about it than I was.

So, Dale, Rita, Max, Mason, Richard and I all piled in the van for a one-hour drive into the mountains somewhere in a remote area of West Virginia. I took my lap desk and got some emails answered. Rita tried to take a nap. Mason watched videos on my phone…until the cell signal died. Max was just happy to be there with Grampa and Rita. Richard was helping Dale interpret the GPS directions.

We came over one mountain pass when I just happened to glance up, and saw what looked like a HUGE white satellite dish in the distance. Wow! I mean, it was beyond huge, and so white, like something from a movie! NOW I was interested!

We finally arrived at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory Green Bank. There were lots of large structures that resembled satellite dishes. We went inside, and were delighted that a tour was just about to begin. The tours are free and start on the hour, each hour. We watched an interesting video where they taught us what radio waves are (well, those of us who didn’t know) and how they use those to determine what types of materials make up certain objects in space. For example, they can use radio telescopes to determine that, say, a specific star is made of hydrogen. It got a bit technical and I’m admittedly a hands-on, concrete learner. When things get a bit abstract, my eyes start to glaze over. That’s why I was always so bad at math. Contrary to the topic of my post here, they don’t search for E.T. at this facility. A group in California does that.

Anyway, the video ended and a nice young lady, who was an EXCELLENT tour guide by the way, answered questions and then did a couple of experiments. One involved putting a balloon in liquid nitrogen. The kids thought that was sooo cool (and so did I). When she was finished, she “dumped” the liquid nitrogen on the carpet and it instantly turned to gas. I could feel the cold on my ankles. That was neat, too. She went into great detail about how bad it is to use digital cameras and other electronics near the antenna. Scientists from all over the world submit proposals to a committee and they decide who gets to use the telescope. They then schedule each team on a specific day and for a specific period of time. They may get in 7 experiments per day. She explained that if one person used their digital camera too close to the telescope, or even a wireless Internet device inside the 10-mile safe zone, it could ruin the results of an experiment that a scientist had spent his whole life working toward. Needless to say, we kept our digital cameras and everything else off after we got inside the gates on the bus. You can see pictures I shot outside of the gates HERE and HERE.

When we were there, it was maintenance day and there were men literally hanging from the telescope, waaaay up high. One of them waved at all of us. The boys thought that was neat. Max asked the tour guide how the men got up there (there’s a type of elevator) and how they protected themselves from falling (they’re tethered). There were other radio telescopes there, too, including the one Grote Reber built in his backyard in 1937 after applying for, but not getting, a job at Bell Labs.

After the tour, we had to hit the gift shop, of course. We then drove back to Elkins. Grampa took Max and Mason to McDonalds. We never take them there (we stopped eating there after watching Fast Food Nation) so it was a big treat for them. We then drove to Hickory House Restaurant and had some delicious barbecue.

Back at the campground, we roasted marshmallows AGAIN. My diet starts…NEXT week.

We spent the entire day there and his sweet and funny wife, Wanda, fed us breakfast, lunch AND dinner. Breakfast was bagels and donut holes (much to Mason’s delight) and coffee. Lunch was hot dogs with all kinds of mixin’s for ‘em. Wanda made herself a chili slaw dog (hot dog with chili and coleslaw). I remembered I’d had one of those in North Carolina years ago and loved it so I made myself one as well. Okay, okay, that was my SECOND hot dog. I’d already eaten one the boring, old fashioned way, with ketchup and mustard.

While we chatted, Max and Mason had a grand time playing in their sandbox. I’m pretty sure we’ll be finding sand in all of Mason’s orifices for many days to come. They also rolled down the hill behind the house many, many times. Made me itch just watching them but they were having SO much fun! Mason kept skinning his knees and elbows. He was on the move all day long. He acquired several new Band-Aids to add to the ones he already had on from boo boo’s acquired on recent days of this trip.

After lunch, Richard took Max and Mason swimming. David, who is Tom and Wanda’s adult son…so I guess he’s Richard’s cousin…swam, too. Max jumped off a diving board for the very first time today! I got a great picture of it. I’ll try to post it tomorrow. David was there to “catch” him. He was so good with both the boys.

They all swam so long that Mason was exhausted when they finished. But, he still cried and cried when it was time to get out of the pool. After I put his clothes on, he almost immediately fell asleep. I laid him on their sofa and he slept for about two hours. I went to their front porch to call the kids back home because I could not only keep an eye on Mason through the screen door, but I could also watch a tractor pulling some gizmo that was bailing hay in the lot next door. I got SUCH a kick out of watching that machine work! It goes and goes, sucking up hay like a big vacuum and then, after several minutes, the tractor stopps and the gizmo poops out a round bale of hay in the back. Mason and Max got to watch, too, after Mason woke up.

Anyway, dinner was shaved roast beef sandwiches, sopped with gravy and nestled in hogie rolls. Pretty delicious. I think I could feel it all going straight to my arteries. Mmmm…. Now  THAT is down-home country cookin’!

We had such a wonderful day that there were tears when we had to say goodbye.

We topped off a perfect day by stopping at Dairy Queen on the way home. I’m pretty sure that Strawberry “CheeseQuake” Blizzard is already settled on my hips. Rita and I keep reminding each other, “We’re on vacation!!!”

Last night, we took another walk. We went to a small cemetery that borders the driveway coming in. It was very sad. Almost every tombstone was so old that there were no longer words appearing on them. Nothing to tell the stories of whose final resting places they are. A couple had been re-done. They were for two military men who served in the Revolutionary War.

After our walk, we lit a fire and roasted marshmallows. I said to Richard, “While the flies are a pain in the butt, it’s nice there are NO mosquitos here! Have you noticed we haven’t had to put insect repellant on the boys since we got here?

He said, “Yeah, you’re right!”

I’ve been trying to come up with creative ideas to keep the boys away from the stream that’s behind the trees to the right of the RV. “You might get your feet wet” wasn’t enough of a deterrant. Neither was “You might cut your foot on a rock.” What finally worked was, “I wonder if there are alligators in there?” Heh…

Anyway, last night, as the very last peeks of the sunset were cascading down the horizon, Max asked if I’d take him to the stream to see if there were any alligators. We left Mason with Richard, and walked over there and down the small hill.

We didn’t find any alligators but there were lots of birds – more than I could count! They fluttered their wings not gracefully, but with frantic beats. They weren’t flying one way or the other smoothly. They were darting here and there, even coming very close to our faces. I said, “Wow, these birds sure are friendly, Max. They’re not afraid of us at all!”

Then, the lightning bolt struck. Duh!! These weren’t birds. They were BATS! And, they kept getting closer, and

closer, flying in for a close-up right in front of us, and darting away. I pulled my camera out of my pocket and starting shooting. I was THRILLED! Wow!! Bats ALL AROUND US!! I wasn’t afraid and, taking a queue from me, neither was Max. The camera flash wasn’t scaring them at all.

I ran up the hill for a second, and yelled to Richard, “Come quick! There are tons of bats!!”

His eyebrows shot up and he replied, “Uh, NO THANKS!”

Mason wanted to see so I took him back to the stream.

It was very hard to take pictures because they were moving so erratically and fast and it was getting pretty dark. I did manage to a couple of photos that are blurry but show the telltale bat wing shape. I’ll post a couple of pictures on the WirelessTrips.com photostream.

Mason got tired of bats and I took him back to Richard. I returned with Max to see if I could get a few more good shots. I took one video that turned out really well. Max got tired of the bats, too, but I stayed behind, watching in wonder as they feasted on the insects around the stream. Then, one dive-bombed me! I ducked and ran away shrieking. That was just a bit TOO friendly for me!

Max can’t wait to show Grampa the bats tonight!

While I was taking my shower later, I remembered the mosquito conversion I’d had with Richard and it hit me. The reason there are no mosquitos eating us here is because there are thousands of bats eating THEM! Very cool. I feel blessed to have seen such a beautiful show last night!

The boys and I slept in this morning because there was no noise. The shades in the RV are like the thick window coverings in hotel rooms. You don’t wake up just because the sun does. I wouldn’t normally sleep in on a Monday morning but, well, it IS vacation.

I then worked all day and I’m tired of looking at this computer screen. Monday is always my busiest day of the week. Max and Mason played outside, took turns vaccuuming up flies with the bug vaccuum, and then watched a DVD when the sun got too hot this afternoon. They also played with a flashlight, trying to “catch the light” while the other one was holding it. They just finished eating and want to take another evening walk so I gotta go now.

Max and Mason turned around and walked away.

We left that yucky campground as fast as we could this morning. The spray painting kids not only hit cars, but marred one of the campground canoes as well.

We stopped at Cracker Barrel for breakfast. That was the first restaurant we’ve been to on this trip. We’re not towing a vehicle this time, only Richard’s new scooter, which he had fixed up so it goes 50 mph now (sigh…). That thing scares me to death. Anyway, we’re pretty much glued to campgrounds for this trip. We need to run by a store today but I’m wondering if that’s going to happen. We’re on back roads all day and it’s difficult to find a grocery store with a big enough parking lot to accommodate the RV. We drove up and down mountains all day today so Richard gave gears 1 and 2 a good workout.

First the windshield wiper…and now the driver’s side door. When you drive your house on the freeway, it bumps around to and fro and things inevitably break on a regular basis. Today, we pulled into Shell to fill ‘er up and Richard couldn’t open his door. He had to exit the main door.

I just saw an adorable scarecrow in a small home garden. Couldn’t grab the camera fast enough so I can’t show it to you. It was holding aluminum pie plates (shiny objects to wave in the wind and scare birds), and wearing a large western shirt. It also appeared to have a white ball for its head with a smiley face drawn on.

The mountains of West Virginia are breathtaking, awe inspiring…truly one of God’s great creations. We’re at our campground now. Lots of flies for some reason so we’re paying Max a quarter for each one he gets with the fly swatter. He’s already made $3.50. There’s a nice stream here and it’s very quiet. The wifi works. It’s not fast but at least it’s consistent. Richard is putting up the satellite dish, just in case, and Max and Mason are playing with their trains on the picnic table. Richard is making his chicken salad for dinner. Yummy!

Bad news. Mason figured out he can get out of the baby gates that we put outside for security (to keep him in!). He simply lifts them up and crawls under. Should be an interesting week…