Going West: The Trip of a Lifetime
November 12, 2008
This is my glossy recounting of a trip to the Grand Canyon with my terminally ill mother, my Aunt Bonnie, my husband and my daughter in a 30-foot RV. We set out from Mom's house in Buffalo, Kentucky on Monday, November 3, 2008.
The preparation for this expedition included Andrew and me picking up the rented RV from the place in Nashville on Saturday, after having gone trick-or-treating with Madison, Elizabeth, and Kayla for Halloween the previous night. Once we returned with RV, we got ready for and went to my 10-year class reunion in Bardstown, a thoroughly unexciting event. Sunday was devoted to packing and assembling the required equipment for the trip. Mom had been having a fever controlled by Tylenol since Thursday afternoon, so we were reluctant to actually begin packing the RV until we were certain the trip would be taking place. That decision rested with Aunt Bonnie, who arrived with her luggage on Monday morning and checked Mom out. It was her opinion that the fever was likely inconsequential and that we were safe to proceed. This pronouncement was followed by a flurry of activity as Andrew and I began loading all the assembled items onto the RV.
By about 2pm Monday afternoon, we were ready to begin getting Mom loaded into the RV. This involved dressing her, transferring her into a wheelchair, wheeling her out to the RV, then Aunt Bonnie lifting and pivoting her so she sat on a sheet on the steps of the RV. From there, Andrew and I lifted the back of the sheet and Aunt Bonnie lifted the front while Mom crossed her arms over her chest. This got her onto the floor of the RV. We slid Mom in the sheet to the back of the RV and then lifted the sheet to settle Mom on the large bed in the RV's master suite. This procedure went surprisingly smoothly, and we were optimistically hoping that this boded well for the rest of the trip.
We actually left at about 3pm, heading to Elizabethtown to get on Interstate 65 South to Nashville. Mom snoozed in the back until I pulled off of Briley Parkway in Nashville to show her the prison that looks like a castle. She was impressed, and we gassed up and continued down the road to Memphis. We'd intended to see Missy that night and boondock in her cul-de-sac. It was getting rather late by the time we got to Memphis, however, and we opted to boondock in front of our house. Vicki stopped by to give us a baby monitor and walkie-talkies for the RV. We also saw Ames and Linda. Madison, Andrew, and I slept inside with our pets while Mom and Aunt Bonnie slept on the RV.
Tuesday morning saw us getting moving fairly early. We stopped by Gibson's doughnuts to take care of breakfast then proceeded to Missy's. Missy came out to the RV to see Mom and to see us off on our voyage. From there, we got on Interstate 40 West. We drove until reaching El Reno, Oklahoma, where we stopped for the night at the KOA Kampground. There was a restaurant by the campground where we got dinner, then we got settled in at our campsite. After a relaxing walk with Andrew, we turned on the NPR coverage of the presidential election, which was sounding quite good for Obama. After hearing John McCain's concession speech and relaying the exciting results to Mom, Andrew and I ascended to the over-cab bunk. The accommodations were comfortable enough, although when Mom called for me in the night, I found that it was not such an easy prospect to descend from this bunk using the little ladder while half-asleep.
We got breakfast from the same restaurant that we'd gotten dinner from. Mom ate about 2 bites of her biscuit, but that was it. The night before, Madison had had the idea of moving Mom up to the dinette bed that she had slept in, so that Mom could be more participatory in the adventure and not stuck away in the back, bouncing in the bed behind the rear axle. This idea was put into action before leaving Oklahoma. Mom walked with Aunt Bonnie from the back to the front of the RV, which we all thought was great. Then we set out, heading west. We stopped for gas and lunch in Texas, but Mom only had a couple of bites of a chicken strip before requesting to be left to sleep. We gassed up at another spot in Texas where Aunt Bonnie and Madison picked some cotton. Andrew wasn't feeling well and slept in the back of the RV for a good part of the day. When he woke up, we discussed our evening's destination. We were in New Mexico by then, and, decided that the KOA Kampground in Grants, New Mexico sounded like the right place to go. We were guided there by God, I am sure.
As it turned out, unbeknownst to us, Mom was having a major crisis resulting from very low blood oxygen saturation at the increased altitude that we'd made it to during that day's driving. As we tried to get Mom to eat dinner, we found that her temperature was 94.6oF and blood pressure was around 80 over 50. We began asking her some basic questions, of which she wasn't getting enough correct to make us comfortable. I had looked up the location of the nearest hospital on the GPS navigator when Mom's temperature was so low. Thankfully, and not by mere coincidence I know, there was a hospital emergency room less than 3 miles from the campsite.
Aunt Bonnie got me out of the RV and into the campground bathroom where she explained that Mom was about to die, that her condition was classic for a body shutting down. She was frank that I needed to make a decision quickly, as we couldn't on since Mom would likely die in the night. I decided it was time to go to the hospital, where people can get help for medical crises.
Andrew drove the RV to the hospital's emergency entrance. Aunt Bonnie ran in and told them that we had an emergency. She returned with several nurses, who, after getting a quick overview of Mom's issues, helped us in getting her unloaded out of the RV and into a wheelchair. Then we rushed into the emergency room, where they put Mom on a bed and began evaluating her condition.
When they took her blood oxygen saturation, it was 48%. It's supposed to be near 100%, and a friend of the family that's a doctor said that he's seen better oxygen saturation on a dead person. So, once they put her on oxygen, her blood saturation steadily increased to about 80%, which is about as good as she's going to get with the lung cancer and all.
After a little while, Mom was started perking up and being more alert. Soon she was making jokes and snide comments and was generally feeling better. The doctor came in and explained that they see this phenomenon frequently there, so near to the Continental Divide. When we explained that we'd left the middle of Oklahoma that morning and driven to that location, the doctor pointed out that we'd gone from about 2,000 feet in elevation to about 6,500 feet in that period. This change in elevation and its concomitant reduction in the ambient oxygen concentration can be physically stressful on people that don't have a respiratory disease, and, for Mom, it was very nearly fatal. When the doctor made this point, it seemed so incredibly obvious that I couldn't believe that I'd overlooked it, along with all the medical professionals with whom the trip was planned.
The doctor decided to admit her for the night to ensure that her condition stabilized. The folks at the Cibola General Hospital were so great. They took excellent care of Mom, and, once she was settled into her room for the night, the rest of us went back to the campground to sleep. It was really cold that night, and we had stuffed the area under the dinette bed with shoes and bags to store them out of the way. Turns out that that wasn't a storage area but was instead the main heater vent. We didn't make that mistake again. After a shivery and not-so-restful night, we headed up to the hospital. Mom was eating breakfast and was doing quite well.
A man came in to get us set up with oxygen for the remainder of our trip. He had Mom practice using an oxygen tank with a conserver valve. This valve allowed the tanks to last for about 10 hours each by only providing oxygen to Mom when she took breaths through her nose. Without the conserver valve, the tank would run out in about 30 minutes using continuous flow. While Mom was getting used to the conserver, the man got us hooked up with a concentrator in the RV. This piece of equipment allowed for continuous flow of oxygen, which it produced by concentrating oxygen from the surrounding air. He also gave us 6 portable tanks to take along, as well as a list of the nationwide providers where we could exchange the tanks along the way, if needed.
Once that crucial piece of the puzzle was in place, Mom was ready to be discharged. With oxygen, IV fluids, and a little tweaking a few of her medications based on the findings of her blood work, Mom was doing better than she had been before we left Kentucky.
By early afternoon of Thursday, we got her sprung from the hospital and back on the RV with our new oxygen equipment, and soon we were hitting the highway bound for the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest. This part of the trip was my favorite because Mom was feeling her best. She was able to sit up and look out of the RV windows as we drove along. She was very impressed with the Painted Desert and took some of her own pictures. It made me so happy to be able to share something so incredibly special and beautiful with her, especially after so nearly losing her the night before. After the sun set on the Painted Desert, we got back on the interstate toward the Grand Canyon.
Mom wanted some authentic Mexican food for dinner, so we pulled off in Winslow, Arizona and stopped at the gas station off the highway. I went in and asked the guy working there where we should go for the best Mexican in town. He gave me the name of a restaurant, and I went back to the RV to find it using the GPS navigator. It wasn't too far away, so we made our way there. I ran in and got some take out menus. We called our order in and hung out in the RV waiting for it to be prepared. We saw a skunk in the parking lot, which made me very happy. We ate a delicious dinner before getting back on the interstate and pulling to the Grand Canyon Railway RV park in Williams.
It was our intention to ride the train the following morning, but Mom had a very restless night. So, Friday morning, I changed the reservation to the next day. Andrew, Madison, and I ate breakfast at the on-site buffet restaurant, Max & Thelma's. It was really pleasant to have a little chill family time together. On our way out, we got a bunch of food to-go for Mom and Aunt Bonnie. We checked out the train for handicapped accessibility and spent a little while looking in the gift shop before heading back to the RV. When we got back, everyone showered and prepared to drive up to the Grand Canyon so Mom could go ahead and get to see it.
We set out for the park, which is a pretty long drive from Williams where the RV park is located. We passed through one area in the Kaibab National Forest where smoke from a prescribed burn was carried across the roadway, with signs notifying motorists of the practice. I found this quite cool.
Once arriving at the park, Andrew read the maps and accessibility guide that we'd picked up at the entrance station. Unfortunately, I was stubbornly stuck on trying to get Mom to the view that I (incorrectly) remembered was located at the (actually inaccessible) visitor's center. So, in my refusal to acknowledge that Andrew's idea to do the Desert View drive along the rim was really what we needed to do, I managed to drive through the crowded area around the lodges and the burro stables about 3 times.
Once I finally decided to go on the Desert View drive, it was awesome. There were many pull-offs, and Mom was able to see some really nice views of the canyon. Aunt Bonnie and Andrew got out and took pictures at most of them. At one place, there were a few juvenile elk eating leaves from some low tree branches that were impassive to the people jumping out of vehicles to photograph them. Mom was happy to see it all, and I got a little teary-eyed about helping Mom fulfill a lifelong dream. After we did the Desert View drive, Mom was ready to head back to the RV park. She didn't want to get out anywhere and wanted steak for dinner.
Andrew used the GPS Navigator to find Doc Watson's Steakhouse, which turned out to be in the Holiday Inn just across the way from the RV park. This convenience suggested to me an opportunity to have a little cocktail while our order was prepared. So, I got some menus, everyone told me their orders, and Andrew and I went in to place the orders and have a drink at the bar. It was very pleasant to chill after the emotionally charged Grand Canyon experience.
After our drink, we headed back to the RV with the food. Everyone enjoyed an exceptionally good meal. The steaks were excellent and really hit the spot. Then we headed over to the RV park, where Andrew and I got together the laundry and took advantage of the well-equipped and relatively inexpensive laundry room. We were able to knock out 5 loads before bed.
After seeing the Grand Canyon, Mom decided that she probably wasn't up to doing the train expedition the next day. When we woke up on Saturday morning, we got gas in Williams and got on Interstate 40 East. Mom's request for the day was to find some authentic Native American jewelry. Knowing that there were numerous places along the way, we didn't have a particular destination in mind.
Before getting out of Arizona, we pulled off the interstate to try to check out the Meteor Crater that is located near Winslow. It was interesting to see the ground near the site as we drove in from the highway. It was evident that something had happened there, as the ground looked sort of wavy and undulating. There were also little random rock formations here and there. It was disappointing then that we couldn't view the crater itself without getting out of the RV. Mom wanted to save herself for her shopping expedition, so we just turned around and left. Maybe next time. As we headed back to the interstate, we saw a ruined stone building sitting off the side of the road. We stopped at the gas station for gas, and I went in to inquire about the ruin. It turned out to be the previous home for the Meteor Crater museum and is now home to a family of ravens. It was very photogenic anyway.
Back on the interstate, I read the signs for the various Indian trading posts until I saw one advertising museum-quality Native jewelry. This sounded like it may have potential, so I pulled off there and went inside to scope the place. They did indeed have extremely beautiful jewelry with plenty of selection. I went back to the RV, and we did our little routine of getting Mom out of the RV, by setting her on the RV's floor, scooting her along the floor on a sheet, then setting her down, step by step, until Aunt Bonnie stood her up and pivoted her into the wheelchair. We maneuvered into and through the store so that Mom could look into the showcases and appreciate the wares. She asked to look at several pieces, and the lady helping us was nice and extremely knowledgeable, explaining the origin of the pieces and their symbolism within the cultures from which they originated.
In the middle of the shopping, Mom got too warm and had a major coughing fit. The clerk got her some water, and we wheeled her outside to cool off. After a bit, she was able to continue. We went back in and wrapped up the shopping. Mom decided on an awesome sterling turtle pendant inlaid with onyx, tiger's eye, and jasper. It is truly lovely and is representative of healing. She also got a small bear pin, which represents strength and courage, and a nice turquoise bracelet. She was very pleased with her purchases, and we made our way back out to the RV.
Andrew had the idea of getting a family picture of us before getting back in the RV. He set up his tripod and walked around to the back of the RV. Next thing, he was coming back around with his hand over his forehead and blood seeping between his fingers. He'd hit his head on one of the storage area doors, leaving a nice but superficial gash on his forehead. The clerk who'd helped us in the store ran out with some band-aids for him. After this injury, he decided to abandon the picture idea. As we were loading Mom into the RV, Aunt Bonnie scraped her arm along the thin metal edge along the doorframe, which left a pretty painful little tear there. Shortly after getting back underway, we took Madison's temperature because she'd been feeling funky that day. She had a fever of 102.4! We gave her some Tylenol, and that brought the temperature down, but it was quite disconcerting that she had such a high fever.
So after some shopping, injuries, and illness, we pushed our way down the interstate until getting to Tucumcari, New Mexico, where we stopped for the night at the KOA there.
Sunday morning, we took advantage of the breakfast menu offered at the campground before getting on the road. That was a really nice convenience and helped set a pleasant tone for the day. Once on the interstate, we passed into Texas. I was driving and knew that just west of Amarillo was the Cadillac Ranch because we had passed it on the way out at speed on the interstate. When we stopped at a Bushland gas station for fuel, I inquired about the art installation's location. The clerk said that it was just 4 miles down the frontage road where we were. So, we drove along the unremarkable stretch of agricultural fields with vehicles streaking by us on the interstate to our left. Then we saw it: in the middle of a cornfield, 10 old Cadillacs, buried with their noses in the ground and leaning at about a 45o angle, set back about 300 feet from the road.
Andrew knew ahead of time that the public is invited to graffiti the cars and had brought several cans of spray paint so we could leave our mark. Andrew, Madison, and I got out and got in touch with our inner graffiti artists. I sprayed a nice heart on the pink hubcap of one car and "Hope & Love" on the front quarter panel on another car. Andrew sprayed Mom's initials and the year on the hood of one of the cars and wrote "Love & Mercy to You & Yours Tonight" on the hood of another. Madison had a lot of fun being allowed to spray whatever she wanted. It was really cool. We left our spray paint behind for the next visitors.
We got back on the interstate until we got to Weatherford, Oklahoma. In Weatherford, there are thousands of acres of wind farms visible from the interstate. I pulled off on a side road to show Mom the scope of the number of wind turbines in the area, although we were still a little ways away from being up close to them. Back on the interstate, Mom could see them towering over the road from her window. We got many great pictures of this renewable energy source, and Mom really enjoyed getting to see them. We stopped for the night in Checotah, Oklahoma at the KOA located on the shores of Lake Eufaula. Madison was impressed that this town was home to country singer Carrie Underwood.
Monday morning, we again got breakfast at the campground, which they kindly delivered to our site after we placed our order. We were hoping to make it Mom's that night, so we hit the interstate. We stopped in through Memphis, where Vicki brought barbeque over to our house for dinner. It was great to see her, and we really enjoyed the fortifying meal before embarking on the final leg of our journey.
We got to Mom's at 1am. We got her unloaded and settled into her own bed, which she said was immensely satisfying. Jessica had left Aunt Bonnie's car at Mom's earlier in the day, so she was able to head out after helping us get inside and collecting her belongings. It was about 3am before I finally laid my tired head down.
After 8 days on the road covering about 3,500 miles, with a few unexpected surprises thrown in the mix, we were back at Mom's, with one of her life's dreams fulfilled.
