Posts Tagged “illness”

Well! We’re going to have to tell you more about Austin later. We had a bit of a development. We were supposed to leave Austin on Friday morning and head to Jackson, Mississippi. Instead, on Thursday night, we were both up all night with a horrific stomach virus. I’ll spare you the details, but trust me, it was not pretty. We had to stay an extra night in Austin, and then we tried to make it to Jackson yesterday — and we almost made it, thanks in no small part to a refueling stop at my aunt Catherine’s in Shreveport, Louisiana. But when we got just outside Vicksburg, we became concerned that the place we were headed in Jackson might contain some new and terrifying strain of the virus we had just endured. Plus, IT WAS SNOWING (!!), so we decided to stay put. So, this morning I’m writing this from the Vicksburg Super 8… and we will be going to Jackson (for real this time) later this morning. We’re both feeling significantly better, but still far from fabulous. Being sick is as awful as littering!

Sorry, everyone. We have been very busy bees since 2009 began, and we took a trip up to Hagerstown for Christmas, Round 2. We’re back home now but have been trying to blow through lots of work and organizing projects, plus I had a strange and mysterious illness for a couple of days. But! I’m better now and we’re starting to get a handle on all the stuff we have going on. I have a bunch of photo comparisons I want to post, and I’ll get on that as soon as we get the pictures resized for the blog.

Being at home working all day every day doesn’t beget as many blog-worthy stories and adventures as traveling across the country does, but please rest assured that we’re quite happily enmeshed in our various projects.

Photo comparisons (and who knows what else) to come! Keep checking back…

Unfortunately, I was still pretty sick for most of the day today. However, we don’t have time for sick days anymore, so we did walk and drive around Las Vegas a bit before we left!

Brian and I both think we need to go back sometime, no sickness allowed. Oh well; this was supposed to be just a taste anyway.

So we got on the highway and drove north! We passed (very briefly) through Arizona!

This was very exciting since Arizona is a new state for both of us, but today was just a drive through. We got to see some pretty neat stuff, though!

Then we were in Utah!

As many of you know, it’s actually Utah’s fault that we wanted to come explore the west. We came to Salt Lake City last spring for a conference; while we were there, we rented a car and drove out to the salt flats (in fact, the photo in our header at the top of this page is from that day trip) and to Antelope Island. We were soooo pleasantly surprised by how fun and interesting and beautiful and alien Utah was that we had to see more… and now, here we are again. Hooray! Our first Utah destination was Zion National Park!

The part of Zion we were in is Zion Canyon, which is basically made of sand (!), and one of the interesting aspects about it is that it was formed by exfoliation rather than erosion (meaning that big chunks of rock slide off in huge pieces after getting waterlogged, rather than the formations being slowly eroded away by water).

They don’t allow cars through most of Zion. That’s because it’s the 8th most visited national park, and apparently it used to be a constant solid traffic jam, so in 2000, they implemented this shuttle bus system. You have to take the shuttle bus up through the canyon. The bus stops at a few points along the way where there are trails you can take and the like. With me being in the state I’m in, though, I just wasn’t really up for that, and we got there kind of late anyway due to the fact that we forgot about the whole time zone thing. But!! We actually got really lucky because the bus we happened to choose was driven by one Chris M., who is extremely passionate about Zion and told us all kinds of interesting information about the park as we rode along (in fact, he had made his own mp3 recording that he played as we went). That’s how I know about that whole exfoliation thing. Chris was truly informative and a delightful guide! So we stayed on his bus all the way up the canyon and all the way back.

In general, though, I don’t know if I’m 100% behind the shuttle bus system. It’s definitely a greener choice for the park, which is awesome obviously, but the design of the buses is such that it’s extremely difficult to see anything while you’re in one (there are heavily tinted windows and lots of blind spots), and also I don’t think the other bus drivers tell you all kinds of fun facts. Because we had Chris, we had a really good bus experience, but sans Chris, it might have been kind of lame. Oh, but Chris did say that winter is a really good time to visit Zion. It’s not too cold, it’s not crowded, it’s cheaper to stay in the lodge in the park, and the shuttles aren’t running, so you can drive your own car in.

Anyway, here’s something else I learned:

See that? That’s a trail you can take. The walking path up there is only about 3 to 4 feet wide… and it’s a drop of 800+ feet on both sides. But people do it all the time, apparently! I would pass out and die, I think!

We did enjoy Zion, and now we’re holed up in a Super 8 that’s in transition to become a Rodeway Inn in Kanab, Utah. Tomorrow, I think we may stay in Kanab but move to a different motel — this one is okay but kind of expensive and there’s no guest laundry (and I am about to be in a desperate laundry situation). Other than the laundry situation, though, I think I’m starting to feel better, thank goodness!!

We left Bakersfield this morning and drove through the desert on our way to Nevada. We saw about a million wind power plants in Tehachapi!

We also got to see some Joshua trees near the highway! This was very exciting because we thought we wouldn’t see any (since we ended up skipping Joshua Tree National Park). One Joshua tree grove was near a rest stop so we got close enough to hug one!

Our route took us alongside (but not into) the Mojave National Preserve (and not, alas, through Death Valley — we considered going that route instead, but it just added too much time). Hopefully some other trip can include those adventures!

Before we knew it, we were in Las Vegas!!

We’re staying at Bally’s. We chose this place on the strip solely because it hosts the show we saw tonight, Jubilee!

Brian and I really wanted to see a classic Vegas show involving showgirls with huge feather headdresses, sequins, and crazy over-the-top tackiness (often referred to here as “opulence”). You guys, Jubilee! could not have been a more perfect choice. It has been running in Las Vegas since 1981 and has seven different acts, including performances by former Polish hand balancing champions, an aerial silk artist, and a juggler; the main company enacts the stories of Samson and Delilah and the Titanic, among other things. Please don’t ask me to try to explain it. I’m just not up to the task. But it was like opener!! Finale! Finale again! Another finale! Juggling! Finale!!!! Also, we were in row H (maybe 50 feet from the stage), and the woman sitting in front of me was totally using opera glasses (dude). The show was both amazing and horrible, as Brian said.

Moving on, I also have to report that shortly before the curtain went up on Jubilee!, I started feeling pretty sick (most likely from a dubious taco I ate for lunch). Unfortunately, my problems persisted into our post-show exploration of the Las Vegas strip, so we couldn’t quite do it up the way we wanted to. We did go into some of the other places nearby, and we did attempt to play some slots (and we came out about even, I think). I don’t really understand 99% of the slot machines here; they seem pretty complicated and confusing, or maybe I’m just unfamiliar. But anyway, we both enjoyed seeing the fountains at the Bellagio!

The fountains put on a show every few minutes set to music and everything and it’s really fun and pretty.

Now we’re in our hotel room, which is by far the nicest room we’ve had so far on this trip (but not the most expensive, by the way! Hotels in Vegas are cheap; I think they just [rightly] assume they’ll get more of your money from gambling, food, shows, etc.). I’m hoping tomorrow I’ll feel up to seeing a little more Vegasy things before we move on. Whew!

When we stopped at Bear Country, USA, we were on our way to Mt. Rushmore!

When my parents came in here in 1979, apparently you couldn’t get very close to the presidents. Since then, a lovely new visitor’s center and amphitheater have been built!

You can actually see the carving quite well from this observation deck — the photos make it seem like we are farther away than we actually are:

I learned some interesting things about Mt. Rushmore at the visitor’s center, especially about the significance of which presidents were chosen. This is from an explanatory sign:

The four American presidents carved into the granite of Mt. Rushmore were chosen by the sculptor to commemorate the founding, growth, preservation, and development of the United States. They symbolize the principles of liberty and freedom on which the nation was founded. George Washington signifies the struggle for independence and the birth of the Republic; Thomas Jefferson, the territorial expansion of the country; Abraham Lincoln, the permanent union of the States and equality for all citizens; and Theodore Roosevelt, the 20th century role of the United States in world affairs and the rights of the common man.

On the drive away from Mt. Rushmore, there’s an area where you can pull over to see this:

Right around the bend from the profile view, we saw a mountain goat!

After that, it was on to the Crazy Horse Memorial:

Are you guys familiar with the Crazy Horse Memorial? I’m a little ashamed to admit that I didn’t even know it existed until recently. It’s a fascinating story; basically, in the 1940s, several Native American elders (most prominently Chief Standing Bear) in the Lakota tribe invited (white American) sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski (who had worked on Mt. Rushmore) to design and execute a memorial to the prominent Lakota leader Crazy Horse. Korczak started carving that mountain with a single jackhammer. He lived at the mountain and worked on it every day, alone, until his ten children were grown up enough to help him. Korczak died in 1982, but his family continues the work on the sculpture and memorial; the entire project is funded by admissions and the like. Anyway, it’s an absolutely incredible story, and the whole experience of seeing the progress on the memorial so far was truly inspirational. We took a bus trip through the work zone (they’re still working actively on the carving, and the best way to carve a mountain is to blow it up — systematically, of course!) so we could go to the base of the mountain:

Crazy Horse’s face was completed in 1998 (after Korczak’s death); since then, lots more people have gotten interested in the project and visited the site. With the increased interest and the technological advances in the mountain-blasting arena, it’s completely possible that the work that Korczak started completely by himself could be finished within the next few decades. It’s a very worthy cause, so I encourage you to consider making a contribution if you have the means!! The finished sculpture is going to look like this:

The completed project is going to be 641 feet wide by 563 feet high; Crazy Horse’s head is going to be 87 feet high (the heads of Mt. Rushmore are only 60 feet high). Shew!

After Crazy Horse, we drove back to Rapid City. We encountered several deer on the way:

They are really everywhere out here. I kind of wish we had gotten Pearl those deer whistles, but hopefully we will be okay. I guess if she had deer whistles, we wouldn’t get to enjoy seeing them on the side of the road…

On our way back, we had to get a closer look at something we had seen from the road when we were heading towards Mt. Rushmore earlier that day:

If you think that is a giant bust of President Reagan in front of a miniature Washington Monument flanked by giant busts of Presidents G.W. Bush and JFK… you’re absolutely right. What?! Turns out this random roadside um… artwork… is kind of a teaser site to get you to go to President’s Park, which apparently includes giant busts of all 43 presidents. And guess what? It’s close to our next destination: Deadwood, S.D.! We can’t wait!!

All right. So, after enjoying mini-President’s Park, we returned to Rapid City (officially, “The City of Presidents”). We had dinner at The Corn Exchange, which was excellent. Now we’re back home in our Motel 6, resting up and rebuilding strength so we can forge ahead tomorrow. We’re both feeling much better and are looking forward to our next adventure!

Um… you guys, before we left, when I joked that maybe Brian and I would just find a nice little town on our trip and stay there forever, this is not what I had in mind.

We had to return to RCMC’s Urgent Care today — this time for me. My symptoms were bad this morning… not as bad as Brian’s had been, but still, we decided we better just go nip this in the bud. UGH! (Alas, no Dr. Welsh for me, but we still got it done.)

So now we are both heavily medicated (yay?). After taking my drugs and then napping all afternoon, I do feel quite a bit better, but not yet well enough to, you know, do anything fun. Brian, however, is feeling lots better today, so we both have high hopes for tomorrow. Please stay tuned — we hope to have some more fun reports for you in the coming days!

It definitely sucks the big one to be sick on vacation, but I don’t think the setback of the last few days is going to mess us up too much. We may be cutting out some optional stuff from the trip, but I think we still have plenty of time to explore the USA before we need to be home in mid-October. For now, the focus is on healing and recovery!

We finally broke down and went to the doctor today (Brian’s temp kept going up and down, and he starting thinking he had a sinus infection). The doctor we saw at Rapid City Medical Center’s Urgent Care took one look in Brian’s nose and said, “Ooh! You’ve got quite an infection in there!” Uff da. So now he has some antibiotics!

Unfortunately, in the interest of journalistic integrity, I have to report that I am now starting to feel a little messed up myself. In my case, though, I think a lot of it has to do with lack of sleep and being in dry hotel rooms every night. I’m going to be mainlining water and Emergen-C all day, and I think I’m going to take a nap as soon as I hit the Publish button here. The doctor said Brian should be feeling better within 24 hours, so we are hoping he’s right! Everyone please keep your fingers crossed.

Brian’s temperature is now 97.9! Woo hoo!

Perhaps Wall Drug’s free water is, in fact, a miracle cure.

Well, we did go to the Badlands today, but Brian’s condition has deteriorated a bit. He really wanted to go to the Badlands and was okay for most of it, but he started feeling worn out when we were about 2/3 of the way into the loop. When we got back to our Motel 6 in Wall, he had a low-grade fever. Soooo he slept for a few hours and woke up to take some more medicine, and we’re going to see what his status is in the morning. We may be hanging out here in Wall for another night. Please send healthy vibes his way!

We had a big day today and did a lot of cool stuff and I can’t wait to tell you all about it, but I’m going to have to and so are you because we got in really late. However, we’ve decided to stay put for two nights because Brian is feeling under the weather and we’re going to try to nip that in the bud — he is going to lie here in the room and drink water and take Emergen-C until he feels better. So I should have tonight’s update for you sometime tomorrow!