The traffic around Chicago on Friday was MUCH worse than it has been the previous Friday, when we arrived.

At one point, we almost had a very bad accident. Richard was changing lanes at the same time a woman in a car was also changing lanes (into the same lane), and was moving into his blind spot. Good thing I was looking out the window to my side at that moment because I saw her just before she’d have hit us and I screamed, “NO!” Richard quickly moved to the left again. The lady never even saw us. It took about 15 minutes for my heart to stop pounding after that. We’ve decided we’re going to allot extra time from now on to trips in this area, and do whatever we can to go completely around Chicago to avoid the traffic (and their horrible, bumpy roads!).

Oh, and one other thing we saw today was a grass fire between the north/southbound lanes of the freeway in Michigan.

Tomorrow, we’re goin’ shoppin’ in Frankenmuth, MI!

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I’ve posted many, many more pictures of our trips HERE.

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Late in the afternoon, we drove to Jim’s house. Jim is one of Richard’s old school friends and the one with the huge Star Wars collection. How huge? See for yourself…

Jim gave all the kids (our two youngest boys and our niece and nephew) souvenirs. They were all beyond thrilled, and happily played Star Wars using their imaginations for the rest of the evening.

On Wednesday, we worked in the morning (that’s the day we send out our weekly issue of WritersWeekly), and then met up with the family to head to the Dinosaur Museum in Kenosha, WI. It was very small but quite impressive for its size.

Scott’s wife, Kelly, who’s a friend of mine, met us there. We split from the group after the museum so we could get groceries. Kelly and Scott had invited ALL of us (13 people total) to their place for dinner. Kelly wanted me to see Woodman’s, a huge grocery store with three whole aisles of candy. Yes, I bought the “big kids” at home some goodies!

Kelly made a fantastic dinner for everyone (and she even let me help some!) of stuffed burgers (stuffed with cheese and bacon – aaaahhh!!!) and baked red potato chunks swimming in oil, butter, salt and pepper. She also made a beautiful fruit pizza for dessert that was gluten free. We ate the whole thing!

Thursday was our last full day in Racine and everybody was kinda bummed about that. We woke up early and drove to Richard’s mom’s house. We were excited about eating at Frank’s Diner in Kenosha, WI, which was featured on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives on the Food Channel. I wanted to take some pictures for Ali (our daughter, who’s majoring in Culinary Arts) and, of course, do some taste-testing (ahem…). Richard and I both had the garbage plate and, yes, it was as amazing as everybody says it is. I got the half-portion and still couldn’t eat it all. Highly recommended!

After that, Grandma Cindy wanted to take the children to Toys R Us for a spoilin’ session. Max got to pick out his birthday present (he turns 9 soon) and the other children got to choose something for $10 or less. They were quite happy about that!

I worked in the afternoon while Richard and his sister took all the kids swimming. Cindy/Grandma was shopping and cooking up a storm for us as she’d invited everyone to dinner at her place. We had amazing pork loin sandwiches, delicious cheesy potatoes, corn on the cob, green beans, and homemade cherry pie for dessert. (One more week until I start my post-trip diet!!)

We all had to say sad goodbyes after that as we’d only see Chris (Richard’s friend) the next day.

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I’ve posted many, many more pictures of our trips HERE.

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On Friday night, we had a beautiful storm and fell asleep to the sound of huge raindrops plop-plopping on the roof of the RV. That’s one of my favorite sounds.

On Saturday morning, I emptied my (rather large) purse and then re-packed it with sunscreen, bottled water, and an extra pair of clothes for both the boys. We drove to Richard’s mom’s house, where we met up with her, Mike, Becky (Richard’s sister) and the cousins, Ben and Emma. We all had breakfast before heading to the Renaissance Fair. During breakfast, Mason wiped his sticky-bun-laden fingers all over his nice, clean shirt. I was nervous about using his one extra outfit that early in the day, knowing if I did he’d need to change all over again. I was right. On the way to the fair, he took a drink from a bottle of water and sloshed that all over himself. I changed his outfit just before we got out of the car to go into the fair.

Oh my gosh, it was SO HOT THERE! After living in Maine for a decade, we aren’t accustomed to that heat and humidity. I was thrilled to be able to find turkey legs, however, and I “gobbled” one down, despite the heat.

Kelly and I cooled off with some Mediaval Margaritas. Heh…

The children rode some rides and I went into some of the shops.

Grandma and Mike bought the boys swords and they had a great time with those!

Emma adorned her  hair with flowers and leaves, with some help from a beautiful fairy.

It was a fun time but we were sure ready to leave when 4:00 rolled around. We drove back to Racine and we all had a big dinner at a Mexican restaurant. Despite the spicy food, it was MUCH cooler in there.

On Sunday, we all took the long drive to Grandma and Grandpa Blum’s house. Mason calls them Gramma and Grampa Balloon. Very cute. Grandma had made us Thanksgiving dinner. What a treat that was! It was delicious! Later in the day, we made sandwiches with the leftover turkey. Yum!!! It was a great day and the cousins enjoyed playing together, inside and out. Grandma had Becky go through her magazines and get rid of the old ones. I gladly volunteered to take them because the pile contains lots of cooking magazines (for Ali) and others (for Max’s schoolwork – cut, paste, cut, paste).

On Monday, I worked in the morning and then we ran some errands (lunch and grocery store). Chris, Scott and Kelly were coming to the RV for dinner (Richard’s mom and step-dad had to work that day). I wanted to make a gluten-free dinner and it wasn’t really too challenging at all. After I researched which chili is truly gluten-free (some claim to be but are not), and after standing in front of the hotdogs in the store with my phone and Googling the different name brands, and after finding a small gluten-free section in that store, it was a breeze! I was more concerned about cross-contamination because we’re such bread-heads. I started off by scrubbing the kitchen counter and table in the RV. I then rewashed ALL the dishes I planned to use while cooking. I also went through several clean rags while washing and drying my hands all afternoon, just in case.

Finally, I wouldn’t let the boys open the bread drawer all evening, nor would I allow them to bring the hotdog buns inside. I also made a chocolate cake with chocolate icing from a gluten-free mix and it was perfect – nice and moist. I garnished it with strawberries. You really never know how baked items will turn out when cooking in the RV oven so I was pleased.  It all worked out great and Kelly didn’t get sick. Yea!!!

After dinner, another old friend of Richard’s came over, bringing his wife. At one point during the evening, Chris, Kelly and I went to the park with Max and Mason. It was after dark but we didn’t care. We had a blast until we got busted (by someone half our age!) for being in the park after closing hours. Heh…

Tomorrow morning, Richard is taking the boys swimming while I work and we’ll be having dinner at the home of someone who I’ve heard has a HUGE collection of Star Wars memorabilia. The boys are so excited! Yes, of course I’ll take pictures!

I’ve posted many, many more pictures of our trips HERE.

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I heard a funny noise at one point and discovered a loose panel on the RV, flapping wildly in the wind. We had to pull over so Richard could fix it with duct tape and some of my craft wire.

Max entertained himself with a plastic skeleton, some tape and a tissue box.

We entered Elkhart, Indiana around dinnertime and passed by some Amish farms. I love restaurants featuring Amish recipes and we were easily able to find one. I ordered Creamed Chicken and the plate they brought me a huge, steaming pile of it! In case you’ve never had it, it’s shredded chicken, swimming in gobs of gravy, lying on top of biscuits, which are lying on top of mashed potatoes. I’ve heard it’s a negative calorie dish!

Richard wanted to know if they expected me to go out and work all that off in the fields after the meal. I didn’t even come close to eating it all. I asked the waitress if anyone does indeed eat that entire plate and she said only two of her customers have….and they were men.

I also ordered one of my favorites, pickled beets.

And, there were 30 PIES ON THE MENU! I had a huge piece of Banana Cream Pie and it was heaven.

After dinner, we walked to some shops. I bought some crafting supplies (you can never have too many of those!) while the boys each got a small toy. We then drove to a local grocery store, which had hitching posts for the horses belonging to the Amish. The store seemed quite old (it had those old sacker carts) but it was very clean and all the sackers had on ties!

We are heading through Chicago traffic tomorrow, on our way to Wisconsin. Richard is going to try to time our departure just right so that we won’t encounter any traffic in Chicago. Ha ha ha ha ha!!!

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I’ve posted many, many more pictures of our trips HERE.

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I took the boys inside while Richard finished pumping the gas. I ordered Mason’s “sammie” (that’s what he calls a flatbread, cheese sandwich) and Max’s usual, a “ham, salad and pickles sandwich” (salad means lettuce). I then ordered a toasted veggie for myself and the guy helping me got all bent out of shape when I told him which veggies I wanted before I told him which cheese I wanted. He made some crack about me getting ahead of myself. I was confused and said, “What?” At that moment, Richard walked up behind us.

With even more attitude, the Subway employee sighed and replied with something like, “You’re talking about something that’s down the line.

I realized he was giving me, the customer, lip so I raised my voice and said, “Look, I’m just trying to order lunch for my children. I don’t need attitude while I’m doing that.”

He didn’t say another word (and it’s a good thing he didn’t!). I looked back at Richard, who is the polar opposite of me when it comes to confrontation, and I’m pretty sure he was pretending he didn’t know me at that moment…until Mason turned around in my arms and said, “Hi, Daddy!” Heh…

We spent a few hours driving through Pennsylvania, which I love. The rolling hills and quaint farms are beautiful. If you venture onto the back roads, you’re likely to see one of these:

Whenever I see a sign like this I just wanna buy a quilt and eat some pickled beets!

Several miles down the highway, we hit some construction. Richard was driving very slowly and I was sitting in the passenger seat, formatting an author’s book, when I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. A nice old lady was motioning to me. I opened the window and she said, “Your steps are down.” I thanked her profusely, got up, and turned them “off”, causing them to retract. They have previously done that automatically when we turn the engine on so that’s something we’ll need to add to the maintenance list. It was very nice of that woman to take the time to alert us because those steps are brand spanking new and it would be a shame to have to replace them yet again.

We had to replace them two weeks ago because, um, I was backing the RV out of the driveway and, er, the steps didn’t retract then either and, uh, I kinda hit the railroad ties and the steps bent badly and broke, getting wedged firmly into the wood. I should have taken a picture that day of Matt and Richard using a crowbar on those steps to try to straighten the metal. Richard was not terribly pleased with me on that day. That was even worse than the day I ran the entire side of the canopy along a huge tree. Heh… (See last picture HERE.)

When we finally arrived at the campground that night, the boys were getting restless. Right next to the campground office was a lake with a dock, a sand beach, and a slide in the water. Oh boy, were the boys thrilled! We quickly put on our shorts and sandals and headed for the water.

Max contemplating whether to keep going up…or to go back down.

Mason was admiring the sand castle built by a previous lake visitor.

They played there for about an hour before they decided they wanted to go to the park. We went back to the RV to put on dry clothes and then we walked to the park.

There was a sweet little girl there, probably around 6 or 7 years old, who approached Mason and said, “Would you like to play with me? I’m playing time portals and I need help getting back home. Right now, I’m stuck with the dinosaurs!”

Mason had NO idea what she was talking about but he was very pleased to play along. About 15 minutes later, she ran up to me and said, “There was a bee in his hair. I told him not to touch it but he did and he got stung.”

I looked at Mason who was just standing there holding his thumb. He sure didn’t look stung to me! I asked him if he got stung. He said yes and I inspected his thumb. Sure enough, there was a tiny hole there. He’d never been stung by a bee before so we walked back to the RV so we could treat it and keep an eye on him. I had a bad reaction to a bee sting when I was a little girl so I wanted to make sure he wasn’t going to have any trouble.

On the way back to the RV, he was still holding his thumb, but not crying at all. I thought that was really odd. I know those hurt like crazy! I also noticed he was cocking his head back, as if to rub the back of his head with the top of his shoulder. I said, “It’s okay, honey. The bee isn’t in your hair anymore.”

He replied matter-of-factly, “It stung me there, too.”

I looked and, sure enough, he had an area of swelling on the back of his head, just above his haircut line. I could see a tiny puncture hole there, too. So, Mason had two bee stings and didn’t shed one tear. Wow! He was more upset about not being able to stay and play with his incredibly creative time-traveling friend than he was about the stings!

Mason’s Bee Boo Boo

I’d called Richard to tell him what happened and he was ready when we arrived with the first aid kit. We washed the stings, looked for stingers (none there) and applied medicine. I bandaged his thumb but not his head. He then chilled on the couch, watching movies for the rest of the evening. And, again, no tears at all though he continued to rub his thumb for a couple of hours.

Tomorrow, we’re be driving through more of Ohio and into Indiana. I was born in Indiana but only lived there for three months before moving to Texas. We won’t be near any family as we’ll be passing through the wrong part of the state. We are looking forward to driving through miles and miles and miles of cornfields, which can put even the most caffeinated driver to sleep. Come on along!

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I’ve posted many, many more pictures of our trips HERE.

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The KOA we stayed at had a HUGE sandbox and Max and Mason spent two hours ensuring they’d leave with sand in every nook and cranny. Needless to say, they both took showers before bedtime. Good news is the sand didn’t back up the RV pipes.

We didn’t pass any restaurants in town that appealed to us so, for dinner, we ordered pizza to be delivered to the RV. That’s always nice. No dishes!

We all took a walk at dusk. The early afternoon air had been really humid and warm but the evening breeze was perfect. This afternoon, Frank sent pictures of my pumpkins back home. I’ve been lovingly tending to them for over a month and Frank volunteered to try to keep them alive during my absense. If you’re a fellow gardener and are curious, click HERE.

Tomorrow, we’re heading further west, into Ohio. Come on along!

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I’ve posted many, many more pictures of our trips HERE.

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At one point during our drive, we almost veered off the road. I told Richard to let ME shoo the bugs out the window from now on (sigh again…).

The bike rack was a bust. It not only didn’t hold the bikes steady, but it left a big, ugly, red mark on the trunk of the tow vehicle.

I plan to send a picture to the manufacturer and we will return it and get our money back. The bikes are now lying on the bed in the back of the RV. We’ll just chain them to the outside of the RV each time we stop at a campground.

We spent the night in Danbury, CT and we had dinner at Two Step, a southwestern restaurant. The food was really good and the service was outstanding but the restaurant was bare. We arrived at 6:00 p.m. and only one other table was full. Just before we left, one more family arrived. It was a huge place and it was sad to see it so empty. Not sure if the economy is affecting that town that badly or if everyone in town was busy on a Monday night.

Max and Mason at Two Step in Danbury, CT

Just as dinner was wrapping up, we heard thunder. As we stepped outside, the sky opened up. Richard is still recovering from his badly broke leg so I took off my sandals and made a run for it. I then drove the car to the door and picked up Richard and the boys. The deluge filled up the streets pretty quickly but it didn’t last very long. We were then treated to a beautiful sunset in the Connecticut hills.

Before bedtime, Mason called Grandma Cindy to tell her he can’t wait to come to her house to play. He watched himself in the mirror while they talked.

Tomorrow, we’re heading farther west, through New York State and into Pennsylvania. See ya there!

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I’ve posted many,  many more pictures of our trips HERE.

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Yesterday was absolutely gorgeous but today we have a steady drizzle. Too bad we’re not parked somewhere because we love the sound of rain on the roof of the RV.

We had the same problem with the tow vehicle as last time (the little transmission knobby gizmo sticking) but Richard got busy with the WD40 and it’s working fine now. We bought a new bike rack and I’m not thrilled with it. It’s on the back of our tow vehicle and the bikes are bouncing all over the place. I’m certain the car is going to get scratched and I’m not certain if the bikes will still be there when we arrive. Unfortunately, the rear-view camera on the RV only gives us a view of the tow vehicle, not the bikes on the back of it.

The boys are watching movies in the iPad and I have to work all day. Richard gets to do all the driving. We’re heading to Danbury, Connecticut, which is quite a drive but the boys are usually pretty relaxed, and happy to ride for several hours on the first day of a trip. They are VERY excited about seeing their cousins Ben and Emma!

Join us right here for the next 3 1/2 weeks. We’ll be making stops in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin and Illinois and we’ll be staying in different places on the way there and back. We’ll even be visiting a Renaissance Fair on this trip. Smoked turkey legs! Yea!!

That afternoon, we rode with Ali to her new apartment with a load of her stuff. She was going to spend the evening packing up our room and Max and Mason’s rooms. Our rooms were going to be painted and refloored while we were away on our trip. Richard wanted to watch a movie but I talked him into helping me help Ali get those rooms packed up. I’m still feeling guilty about that…

A few hours later, Richard was coming down the attic steps, taking out the trash, and his foot slipped on one step near the bottom. His body twisted around and I’m not sure really what happened after that but we all heard a large THUMP, and then Richard yelling, “I BROKE MY LEG! I BROKE MY LEG!!”

There were about 12 people in the house right then and we all went running. Richard was sitting near the bottom of the stairs, already sweating profusely, and not moving his leg. He has on his work boots but the broken bone was clearly visible just under the skin. His foot was also sitting at a very odd angle.

I called 9-1-1 while Zach watched Richard to make sure he didn’t pass out (he didn’t). Long, long ago, Richard was an x-ray tech and he knew what he’d done. If he moved, his bone might come through the skin and the severe break would turn into a very, very bad situation requiring emergency surgery. He was still sweating and grimacing and he was incredibly brave. He said, “Tell them to hurry. It’s going to break through if I move. Please tell them to hurry. Oh, and somebody get my iPad.”

No, I’m not kidding. He really said that and we all laughed about it…the next day.

Anyway, the older kids had quickly moved all the cars out of the driveway, and were outside, ready to flag down the ambulance. They arrived very quickly and walked upstairs to assess the situation. They had to wrap his foot and shoe in a large pillow and tape it all up. Richard pretty much had to shuffle down the last flight of stairs while one paramedic held his foot and, let me tell you, it was agony for him.

He was in so much pain and I wanted to cry listening to him groan. Max and Mason were there and Frank’s girlfriend, Kate (God bless her), came up to them and said, “Hey, guys. Let’s go play a game!” She whisked them away to protect them from witnessing their father in so much pain.

Once they got him to the bottom, they strapped him to one of those cool little chairs, got him to the ambulance, on the gurney, and whisked him away. I rode with him, of course.

At the hospital, it was quite busy and Richard was dumped on a gurney in a hallway with a red number on the wall. It took 45 minutes for them to triage him and Richard was getting more and more worried because he said if any veins or arteries were affected, he could lose some function in his foot if they didn’t move quickly. He said, “They’re either going to set it or do surgery. I hope they can just set it.”

A nurse finally came along and had to take his shoe off. I thought it needed to be cut off but she said it would be just fine. After she got the shoe off, while torturing Richard during the process (he’d had NO pain killers at all), she clucked her tongue and said, “This is a bad one.” I was starting to get very angry but I bit my tongue so as not to stress Richard anymore.

Things moved very quickly after that. He was given two Vicadin and sent to x-ray. A few minutes later, he was moved quickly to a room. The anesthesiologist came in and said, “Your bones are in many tiny pieces. You should have been taken immediately to trauma.” She then turned and mumbled to herself, “We are going to have a meeting about this one.”

She pulled out the x-rays and showed us what had happened. His tibia and fibula were both broken and both were dislocated from the ankle.

Richard said, “Are you going to set it or operate?”

He looked pretty crestfallen when she said, “Both.”

I got instantly nauseated and was embarrassed when I blurted out, “I’m going to be sick.” That seemed odd to me. I saw the foot hanging at an odd angle and that didn’t bother me. I later saw the bone under the skin a and that didn’t bother me at all, either. Heck, I even took a picture of it. Hearing about it and knowing he faced two immediate procedures sent my worry meter through the roof and I almost got physically ill but I managed to push it back down. He is my best friend and my rock. I love him so much!

They needed to immediately set it to fix the dislocation because his arteries were stretched and risked breaking. He was also at risk of nerve damage if the blood supply was cut off. They just had to wait for the doctor to arrive.

They whisked him off to trauma. As soon as the doctor arrived, they brought in two huge, burly guys to help. I thought, “Oh my gosh! They’re going to sit on him, just like in the movies!!”

No, they didn’t do that. They sedated him (with the same stuff Michael Jackson overdosed on) and pulled on his leg. He yelled out so they stopped and gave him more. They waited a moment and pulled again. He yelled out again. They gave him the rest of the syringe and said they couldn’t give him anymore. He was out cold and didn’t budge when the doctor grabbed his foot and popped it all back into place. The burly guys were there to hold him down if they needed to (they didn’t) but also to hold his entire leg completely stationary while they put a splint on. Just after the doctor set the leg, Richard’s oxygen level dropped and the anesthesiologist and nurse anesthetist grabbed his head, cocked it back, and dug their fingertips up under his jaw. One of them then started massaging his chest and talking to him. Seeing them set his leg didn’t bother me at all. Seeing them trying to get him to breathe just about did me in. I was not expecting that and, well, I can’t even find the words to describe how shocked and terrified I was that my husband had stopped breathing. Shaking, I said, “Aren’t you going to give him something to wake him quickly?”

She responded, “This is very fast acting. He’ll wake up any moment.”

Right then, his eyelids fluttered and opened, and he said, “Wow! I could hear voices far, far away! That was weird!”

No, he’d never been sedated before (never broken anything or had surgery, either), and didn’t know what to expect.

They’d said he would feel much better after they set it and they were right. The painkillers didn’t hurt, either. He’s previously been grinding his teeth and very agitated. I noticed a complete change in his mood after he woke up, as you can see here:

Pain meds. Aaahhh…

A few hours later, we were in his room and it was then 5:00 a.m. His surgery was scheduled for late that afternoon. At 7:00 a.m., Zach came to sit with Richard while I went home to try to get some sleep.

I slept for two hours before Zach sent me a message telling me they were going to come get him in 45 minutes. I was dressed and in his hospital room within 17 minutes.

Four hours later, he finally got wheeled away to surgery (sigh…). He came through just fine and…let’s just say airport metal detectors will take on an entirely new meaning for him now. He has 3 screws on the inside of his leg/ankle and seven screws and a metal plate on the outside. There was a small piece also broken off the back but they “didn’t bother with that.”

They said they’d had a hard time waking him up in recovery, which is why it took two hours for him to get out of recovery instead of one. I asked his nurse that night if anything had happened during surgery. She said, “Now that you mention it, yes. The nurses said they had a hard time keeping his SATS up (oxygen levels).”

Turns out the exact same thing had happened during surgery that had happened the night before. I said, “Oh no! Just like last night!”

She replied, “What do you mean?”

I told her what had happened in trauma. She got very upset and said, “Nobody told me about that!”

She ran out to get a monitor so she could keep an eye on his oxygen levels and I stood next to him, watching him sleep. And, yes, he did stop breathing after each snore. I’d thump him and he’d start breathing again. They say he has sleep apnea, which doesn’t mesh well with anesthesia. I spent the next hour obsessing over that monitor and the nurse said later she was watching it closely in the nurse’s area, too. It never went below 93 but they wanted it around 99/100. He was on oxygen the whole time.

The next day, they took him off oxygen but kept monitoring him and the alarm started sounding when it dipped down to 88. I wasn’t there at the time as Zach had relieved me again. It’s a good thing I wasn’t because I’m pretty sure they’d have needed to sedate me!

Anyway, his levels kept dropping so low that the alarm would sound and wake him up. He’d go back to sleep, the alarm would sound again, and he’d wake up again. They finally just turned off the alarm so he could sleep but they kept monitoring him. First thing Monday morning, I called our doctor to get a referral for a sleep study.

On Monday, he was doing very well, making phone calls, eating and in good spirits. The doctor came in and said if he mastered crutches and a walker he could go home! Yea!!!

He didn’t have any trouble with either one and he was home by mid-afternoon. Ali is moving out anyway so she turned her room into his recovery room since it’s downstairs. He can’t put any weight at all on his foot for six to eight weeks and he won’t be “good as new” for about four months. I’m now paranoid about blood clots so I’m making him move frequently. His biggest enemy for the next two months will be boredom so we’re all trying to be as entertaining as we can. I can tell you…there is no shortage of walker jokes in this house!

On a serious note, we’re now absolutely positive that we were not supposed to take that trip. We should have gotten a clue with the car problem. After the broken leg incident, well, let’s just say – we can take a hint!