The Great Road Trip of 2009 – Thursday, April 2, Part 2
June 5th, 2009 at 10:57 am by Dee O'Neil Andrews
[Note: Sorry I've been "absent" all week. Had Dr. visits with Cardiologist & Nephrologist, but all is well with my heart & kidneys, so that's good news. My pinched nerve pain is better, as well, from sitting in traction, so I'm a bit more hopeful about that after 2+ months. Did I tell you we're going to Birmingham to see a top notch Neurosurgeon on Mon. June 22? Can't wait.
Also, it's going to take me a while to finish up this day's post about this day of our road trip, so if it's not all up, yet (it's about 11 a.m.), keep checking back today for the "rest of the story." At least as far as April 2, 2009 went. It's exciting. Dee]
April 2nd – Rest of the Second Day of our Road Trip From Abilene to South Mississippi
When I last left you on the GRTof2009, it was late morning in east Louisiana on I-20 and we had passed through what we thought was the heaviest of rain storms and were looking to stay ahead of them to get on home. My blood sugar was pretty low, so I’d had a Coke and was ready to hit the road again.
We had not eaten breakfast and kept thinking we’d find a good place to stop to have an early lunch, which we needed. Especially me. So, we drove on east through Monroe, then across the mighty Mississippi at Vicksburg and on over to Jackson.
It rained on us the entire way and when I talked with Tom, he indicated the moving front/storms were massive in size, covering all of Louisiana and most of Mississippi. This did not portend well.
As I knew from experience, there were not really any easy off the road places to eat along that stretch, traffic was heavy and besides it was raining – heavily at times – so we drove on.
We cut south from Jackson, down U. S. 49 towards Hattiesburg. This was a four lane road, but alway heavily traveled and not an interstate. Just south of Jackson, in what was now very heavy rain, thunder & lightening, we stopped to get gas and walk around a bit. Dummy me did not check my blood sugar, again, thinking it was fine from the Coke I’d had an hour and a half before. That turned out to be a huge mistake.
Each mile we drove, conditions worsened exponentially. I was driving about 40 mph with the windshield wipers on as fast as they would go, but still couldn’t see a blasted thing – not even the vehicles in front of me. There were narrow shoulders on the road and no place to turn aside to wait it out. None.
I was, as you can imagine, extremely tense, burning nervous energy by the tons and existing on adrenalin. I felt totally trapped by the circumstances, but there was no choice but to drive on. I worried greatly about keeping my mom & Laura safe, too.
By the time we got close to Magee, Mississippi, about 1/2 way to Hattiesburg, it began to hail with what sounded like baseballs being thrown at the car. I was horrified! This whole trip had been my big idea and now here I was in my mom’s beloved 13 year old car with less than 40,000 miles on it and I was going to be the one who ruined it forever. Pressure was building.
Besides that, I’d been feeling kind of shaky the past 1/2 hour or more and felt I really needed another Coke, but I didn’t want Mom to have to get out of her seatbelt to have to reach over and dig around in the ice chest under these conditions. We could have been hit, hit someone or skidded off the shoulder of the road from the winds at any second, I feared. We’d passed one massive wreck, already. Plus, there were tornado warnings out all along the way and Magee had been hit by a bad one just a week ago this day.
Tom had been through Magee the day after the tornado and it was devastating. Now here we were in the same place under the same conditions. There was still no place to stop.
Finally, many more miles down the road – at 2:30 p.m. – I found a big quick stop/gas station and pulled in, manuevering among dozens of vehicles, to come to a stop in front of a little fast food place that was part of it. I told Mom I needed a Coke and that I needed to just sit there for a while. I’d just checked my blood sugar and it was so low that I should not have even been functional enough to do anything more than lie back in the recliner for about 30 minutes, but here I was driving under circumstances that Mom & Laura both said they could not have done at all, having had no experience with such things.
It poured down excessive rain as we talked about what to do next. Mom had kept saying how thankful she was that I was driving and in control because I was the only one who could have done it. I checked my sugar again after about 15 minutes and it was still very low. I drank a second Coke.
Do you have any idea how many mg of sugar are in two Cokes? Tons! Yet, here I was guzzling them down as quickly as possible to get my brain function going again. Without "sugar" in the brain to keep it working properly, one becomes very disoriented and completely irrational. I’m telling you right now – it was God who had brought me through this to this point of safety, and God alone. And, I knew it. Without a doubt, I knew it.
Laura went in to use the restroom and to check out the menu in the little chicken place as we debated what to do. We thought about having her run back in to order us some food to sit and eat in the car. Then we talked about driving on to Hattiesburg, another 45 minutes away, to try to eat there, were there were numerous good places to eat.
But, in the end, the overriding factor for me was to get on home as quickly as possible, which was about an hour and a half away. This was what I had wanted from about 3 a.m. that morning when I wasn’t able to sleep. I told them that I was OK to drive now with so much sugar in me and that once we got home, I had plenty of food, if they could hold out a while longer and snack a bit, and we’d have a big dinner.
Heavy rain continued to pound us as I got back on the road. But, several miles on down the way, as we neared Hattiesburg, it began to clear out and miracle of miracles, we saw some blue sky between the clouds. By the time we hit I-59 at Hattiesburg, it was sunny and mild, as if we were in any entirely different world.
It was a little after 3 p.m. and I suddenly decided to pull of to find a place to eat, after all. Then, when we got on home (an hour away), we wouldn’t have to worry about cooking, but could just get unloaded and try to relax. We settled on Chili’s and all had excellent salads with grilled shrimp. We’d made the right decision.
The last hour of the trip on home was easy, even with some light rain along the way, and we arrived here about 4:30 p.m. in bright sunny weather. I called Tom to tell him we’d made it, with all the gripping details to follow, and he told me to go in the house to open the garage door so we could park Mom’s car inside and unload. I told him I would, but first, had other plans.
I told Laura & Mom that I wanted them to come into our home through the front door as honored guests. So we did.
We spent the next couple of hours taking the grand tour so they could both oohh and aahhh over every detail and then unloaded the car. First things first, you know.
I was thrilled to be home in one piece and thrilled to have them both here. The weather was lovely and I opened all of the windows and door to the back porch, where we went out to sit after Tom got home.
Most of all, I thanked God that he had kept me and kept us safe and healthy so that we could do this and be together. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity for joy and happiness as a family that God blessed us with. I had been praying about this for over three months and now it was coming to pass.
I was overjoyed and looking forward to the next several days of their visit. Each day was to bring more fun than the day before, so stay tuned.
To Be Continued . . .