Final aftermath

This weekend marks two months since we returned from our ill fated trip, and I am happy to report that after much forthing and backing, and two stays in our local hospital, Barbara is well on her way to recovering from the major events and conditions that so bedevilled us at the end of the trip and after we got home.

We are both very grateful for all the help and care that we received in hospitals and emergency rooms, and from many friends who sent cards and flowers, and said prayers for Barbara's recovery.

We have also heard from several Evergreen Club members who kept up with our blog and wanted to be sure that we were OK. Thank you all.

This whole experience, has driven home, yet again, that since we none of us know the day of our appointment with Him, it is well to ensure that we live each day to the fullest, and to prepare our mind and spirit for that inevitable day of home going that awaits all of our futures.

Home Sweet Home

After 4 nights there, Barbara was discharged from the hospital in Abilene, Kansas, on Monday June 22, and we spent the next three days and two nights on the road. We arrived home this afternoon around 4:30pm. Although very tired, Barbara was feeling much better on this last day of the ride home, and after eating a wonderful dinner delivered by our friends the Loper's, she is once again ensconced in her own bed, and will no doubt be very much better for a good night's rest.

Even though it did not end as we expected, we owe thanks to many folks along the way including
several Evergreen Club members who contributed to making this a wonderful trip. Their hospitality was exemplary, and we will treasure the friendships that we made with all of them during the trip west.

On the medical side, the aides, nurses, administrative staff & physicians of Urgent Care, and Presbyterian Hospital in Albuquerque; the Urgent Care Clinic in Limon, Colorado, and especially those at Memorial Hospital in Abilene, Kansas, all contributed to making the crises of the various moments of the trip more bearable, and in helping Barbara to regain her bio-chemical balance, and dealing with the effects of acute altitude sickness, kidney problems, out of control blood glucose levels, and abnormally high blood pressure, each of them made every effort to support and help us in our time of need.

More detailed recollections of the trip, along with some more photos will be posted later this week.

Though we did not get to see it first hand, Alxe sent us this photo of
Basho and his bride Amanda at their wedding party on Saturday, June 20
in Boulder, Colorado. We wish the young couple the very best for a long,
healthy and happy marriage.

Trip turn around

The past two weeks since Albuquerque have been something of a whirl, and what was the great Noden Road Trip has become more of the Noden emergency room visits. After our arrival in Albuquerque Barbara became ill, and so on the morning after our arrival there, on Sunday, June 7 I took her to Presbyterian Hospital, in downtown Albuquerque, and we spent the rest of the day there while she underwent several diagnostic tests.

The ultimate diagnosis was that she was suffering from acute altitude sickness, complicated by an existing bronchial congestion brought on by a cold. The prescription was twofold. One, a prescription for a substance containing steroids to reduce the chances of brain and/or lung edema, and two, a prompt return to lower altitudes.

After a careful review of the altitudes involved in the balance of the trip, we cancelled the rest of the itinerary including Grand Canyon & Lake Havasu in Arizona, and Bryce, Zion and Arches National parks in Utah and went to visit Alexandra and Martin in Boulder, Colorado. We spent several days there, resting and enjoying the quiet before the wedding, and then after realizing that Barbara was not improving we decided to return home via the shortest possible route to sea level climes. Barbara was very reluctant to leave Boulder because it meant that we would miss the wedding of Basho and Amanda, which was the primary reason for the road trip.

On the way home we made yet another ER stop in Limon, Colorado, to get a prescription for an oral fungal infection, ("Thrush") that Barbara developed while in Boulder. We did not know it then, but this was the result of a steroid induced spike in her blood glucose levels.

After reaching Abilene on the evening of Wednesday, June 17, we spent the night in a local motel, and the following morning it quickly became apparent that Barbara was not doing well. Accordingly, I brought her to Memorial Hospital, and after a long morning session involving many tests in the ER, she was admitted to the hospital. A "perfect storm" of cascading events and conditions, including high glucose levels, high blood pressure, atrial fibrillation, oral infection, etc, convinced the doctors that she should be kept here until systemic stability could be achieved. Thus, we have spent the last three days and two nights here trying to achieve that condition.

At the time of this writing we are expecting that Barbara will be sufficiently recovered to be discharged on Sunday, June 21. If so, we will make haste to return home.

Stop # 8-Albuquerque, NM-June 6-9

After a long drive through southern Colorado we crossed the border into New Mexico, and drove to Santa Fe where we stopped to go through the Georgia O'Keefe museum there. Barbara has long had the urge to see the works of this iconic American modernist, and she was not disappointed. The museum was superb, and we had a lovely luncheon in the open air terrace of the restaurant next door.

Our hosts for the next few days were Bob & Donna Benson, whose beautiful ranch house was made even more interesting and colorful by virtue of the bedroom to which we were assigned--The Balloon Room. The whole room was decorated with miniature hot air balloons in an unusual and colorful nod towards the sport of ballooning which is very popular in Albuquerque.

Unfortunately, it was in Albuquerque that Barbara awoke on the second day of our stay feeling very ill, and after we took her to an urgent care center, they in turn sent her to the city's Presbyterian Hospital. After several hours there of observation, poking, prodding, monitoring, and giving lengthy medical history information to the EMR staff, it was determined that she was suffering from acute altitude sickness. At the end of the day, and armed with some new medications to treat the condition, they released her with the strong recommendation that we not visit any more locations during our trip that were any higher than the 6000 foot mark.

Thus, we very reluctantly cancelled our plans to visit, Williams, AZ at the Grand Canyon, Lake Havasu at the western edge of Arizona, and that portion of the trip to the national parks at Bryce, Zion and Arches in Utah. After resting for a day during which she became comfortable with the effects of the medication, we drove back into Colorado on Tuesday, June 9 and have safely arrived at our daughter's home in Boulder, Colorado.

We will rest here for for several days, and then attend the wedding which was the primary object of this road trip. Assuming that Barbara is feeling OK again at that time, on June 23 we will resume the trip, ("downhill") into South Dakota, Iowa, Missouri, and North Carolina and then home in early July.

Stop # 7-Colorado Springs-Wednesday & Thursday, June 03, & 04

After a long drive from Kansas, we fetched up in Colorado Springs at the home of Richard & Barbara Kohlhaas, who live in a Co-Housing community in the center of the city. Barbara and I were unfamiliar with the concept and we quickly learned about the ownership and governance of such a community. Richard and Barbara were kind enough to take us to their community dinner of the first evening that we were there, and we had a delightful meal, and were introduced to the community members in attendance.

On the next day, we were required to attend to the first crisis of the trip which began late in the afternoon as we drove across the Kansas-Colorado border and discovered that the A/C in the car had quit running. In addition, a small stone chip in the windshield, which had been there for some time, became a full scale crack, and it was obvious that it would have to be replaced promptly. Fortunately, we have full glass insurance coverage, and we had the windshield replaced quickly without out of pocket expenses for us.

After finding the nearest Infiniti dealer we had them diagnose the problem, and after some time sitting in their showrooms, we learned that we were facing a major expenditure to replace the A/C compressor, the seals, the condenser, and various other related parts. In addition we were told that we had other mechanical problems, and that when all was counted up, we needed to make repairs that would cost approximately $2300.We also were told that the repairs would take a full day, and so after securing a loaner car from the dealer, we retired to the Kohlhaas household to decide what to do next. We briefly considered trading the car, and buying a new one, but the overall costs of such a transaction were prohibitive for us and so we elected to go ahead a repair the faithful Q.

While we had the loaner car, we spent the day sightseeing; first at the Garden of the Gods, a city park of awesome rock formations, dimensions, with Pikes Peak as a background, and then later in the tiny community of Manitou Springs, a funky little place with small art galleries, restaurants, and shops that was a delight to wander through. In the evening we ate at Giuseppe's Restaurant in the old railroad station of the Denver & Rio Grand Railroad. A great treat, an excellent meal, and we managed to snaffle a menu to send to my Cornell Hotel School colleague, Giuseppe Pezzotti.

Stop # 6-Garden City, KS.- Tuesday, June 02

After leaving Council Grove we drove across the State of Kansas, to Garden City. Here we stayed with Max & Marianne Miller on the evening of June 2nd. On the way, we began to more fully appreciate the sheer size of the state, as we drove through many hours in the farm country, and kept passing very tiny roadside communities, that were a long way from any urban centers.

We arrived at the Miller's to find that Marianne had fallen in the pool area of her local YMCA while doing her morning workout, and had cracked her wrist bone, and subsequently had been placed in a soft removable cast, which made for some difficult maneuvering problems and hand coordination.

We spent a very pleasant evening with them, and learned about their pre-retirement life on a cattle farm and Max's current business in ownership of a building in their downtown. In order to avoid any extra work for Marianne, we left early the next morning before breakfast for our next destination, which was Colorado Springs.

Stop # 5-Council Grove, KS Monday, June 1st

After leaving Oklahoma we continued west to Kansas, and there we stayed with Jeanne & Garland Richardson, in Council Grove. They were kind enough to take us on a tour of the area, and one of the wonderful pieces of architecture that we saw, and photographed was in the adjacent town of Cottonwood Springs, where we came across the Chase County Courthouse. The building and its attendant marker were a reminder of a previous time when such buildings were taken very seriously by the municipalities that built them, and they customarilly had to have a truly "gravitas" demeanor and style.

In the evening we dined with the Richardson's at the Hayes House Hotel in Council Grove, in their restaurant that was located on the ground and basement floors of a building that had been in continuous use as a hotel since the time of the frontier expansion in the west, and which was located directly on the Santa Fe trail.

In one of those coincidences that frequently mark our travels, the chef had been born in the Tompkins County Hospital in Ithaca, New York, while his father had been attending the Veterinary School at Cornell.

Stop # 4-Tulsa, Oklahoma-Sunday May 31

After attending church on Sunday morning in Fayetteville, AR, we drove westward and came to Tulsa, OK. Here we stayed with Conrad and Winifred Coussens, who are self-styled "Okies" and who were marvellous hosts. This was yet another stop during which we made fast friendships with our Evergreen hosts, and regretted that we had not scheduled a longer stay.

On the way west on Monday June 1st. we stopped in that the Will Rogers museum and we spent a very pleasant couple of hours touring it while looking at the artifacts of his life and the records of his untimely death in 1935 . He was a genuine American folk hero, and his statement about never having met a man he didn't like seems to resonate with the qualities of an earlier and less complicated time in American life.

Stop # 3 Arkansas-Friday & Saturday, May 29 & 30

After crossing the Mississippi at Memphis we drove through the delta country of Arkansas going due NW towards the Western part of the state in the Ozark Mountains. The scenery was first flat, and filled with mostly rice and cotton farms, and then as we began to gradually rise off the delta plain the rolling countryside became truly beautiful.

Our friends the McFadyens, who once lived in the area of Mountain Home where they ran a fishing camp on the White River, convinced us that we absolutely had to have lunch at Gaston's Resort on the White River in Lakeview, AR. We went there and had a lunch that couldn't be beat and called the McFadyens from the main dining room to let them know what a great place it is.

Our hosts in Fayetteville also have a farm just south of Eureka Springs, and they agreed to meet us there and take us to that idyllic spot. David & Sally Wimberly were kind and gracious hosts and entertained us at an outdoor campfire in the evening. We sat around the fire and drank wine and watched the sun go down over a beautiful valley. They had their Sheltie dog with them and his unusual name is "Tender" since he had once been a contender for a prize in a dog show.

On Saturday we spent the day in Eureka Springs. enjoying the many quaint shops, art gallery's and restaurants that fill the town. we also learned of the existence of what turned out to be an absolutely stunning architectural gem known as the Thorncrown Chapel. This was the legacy of a local man who bought some land and the created a chapel in the woods. Barbara and I sat inside the chapel for a half hour drinking in the peace and beauty of the site and the building.
After luncheon in a funky street side outdoor cafe, we drove down to Fayetteville to the Wimberly's city residence and stayed overnight there. We met the Wimberly's cat, which they described as being, "16 years old and grumpy" but we found him to be friendly one of his species.

On Sunday morning we found the First Presbyterian Church of Fayetteville and attended the morning service. After the service we met the Pastor at the door and after sharing our information he noted that he had once been the chosen candidate for the Associate Pastor slot at our church in Fernandina Beach. Subsequently, as the result a cancer diagnosis for his father, he sadly declined our offer in order to be closer to his dad. Our church subsequently chose Rev. Hope Lee for that position.

Second Stop

Thursday, May 28-Memphis, Tennessee. After a ride through the quiet, rural areas of Alabama, and Mississippi, we fetched up in Memphis to meet our hosts, Barbara and Larry Cannon.

In one of those coincidences that serve to demonstrate that the world is a very small place, Larry and Barbara discovered that they were both born in Bingamton, NY and that they had much of that area's geography and history in common. Larry, an Army veteran, and his lady have spent many happy times in various parts of the world, as they have been able to take advantage of the low cost option of US military air transport to various countries. We spent a very pleasant evening with them, telling stories of our travels and travails, and after a wonderful breakfast on Friday morning we took our leave and drove across the Mississippi, and into Arkansas. Barbara managed to get a pretty good picture of the point on the bridge where we crossed into Arkansas from Tennessee, and even though we were traveling at 60 mph the through the windshield focus came worked very well.

First Evergreen Stay

Wednesday-May 27-Montgomery, Alabama. We spent the night with Hart & Leona Stemple. They were gracious hosts and their home is filled with antique Asian artifacts from their time in Korea and other Asian cities. We spent a couple of hours prior to our arrival sightseeing in the areas around the main government complex & at the historic courthouse, where Jefferson Davis was sworn in as the first President of the new Confederacy. At breakfast on Thursday morning we ate a scrumptious meal in the formal dining room and afterwards reluctantly took our leave of our hosts and headed for our next stop in Memphis, Tennessee.

Day One

On day one we have driven from Amelia Island to Montgomery, Alabama. We saw much of the rural landscape of south central Georgia, along with the beautifully preserved main street of Eufaula, Alabama--antebellum if ever there was antebellum. The weather was warm and clear and mid 80's. After dinner at Schlotzsky's deli on the strip we are off to meet our hosts Mr. & Mrs. Stemple.

Kitty in the basket

In the middle of all the hustle and bustle of the preparations for the trip we happened to look down and saw this image of Max the cat in his basket. This is the personification of calm in the midst of the storm. Talk about oblivious! We must try to remember that from time to time we need to emulate this serenity.

One week to departure

As we reach the last week prior to departure the filled in portions of the check lists are growing. With the arrival in the e-mail today of a warm confirmation note from Richard & Barbara
Kohlhaas in Colorado Springs, our overnight plans and confirmations for the trip are complete.

Richard and Barbara live in a co-housing community, http://www.casaverde.us/ and they very kindly invited us to dinner on our first night as their entire community enjoys one of their frequent community dinners. We are familiar with the co-housing concept since there is one in Ithaca, New York, known as Eco-Village, and several of my academic colleagues at Cornell called it home.

New Camera

We will also be taking along on the trip a camera that we bought last year but have barely used. This a mini digital still and video camera-an AIPTEK- which is built along the lines of the better known "Flip" cameras which are now being used by many folks to capure and email both still photos & short video clips, and also to post them on social networking sites lke FaceBook and MySpace. We will use it to post short clips on this site.

Getting ready

We are putting together the final list of things that must be done prior to our departure on May 27. Somehow, it seems the list gets longer with each passing day, as we remember yet another detail that must be taken care of.

We did make some change in technology, and purchased a digital card reader so that we can more easily capture the photographs from our Kodak digital camera without using Kodak's proprietary software, Easy Share, which is truly frustratingly limited and clunky, and often drops photos while uploading from the camera to our computer. The result will be much easier uploads results to this blog and fewer "lost" photographs.

We will be taking along Barbara's new laptop, a Toshiba Satellite model, that has proven to be a great help. With its WiFi card in place we should be able to find lots of good signal nodes to pull up the Internet and our e-mail while we are on the road.

I had quite a discussion with Dave, our auto mechanic at Island Auto Care, about whether to equip the car with an inverter to carry the extra electrical load for charging and running cellular phones, the GPS unit, and the laptop. In the end we decided to go with a three headed multiple outlet which plugs into the cigarette lighter, and as long as we are careful not to overload demand draw from the electrical system, we should be OK to charge one unit at a time while running on the road.

Some changes along the way.

After some back & forth with some very nice folks in Edgewood, New Mexico, we were unable to make arrangements to stay with any of them in that locale. However, we must definitely say thanks for the great efforts by the Bacca's, the Phillips, and the Fongs in that city.

Accordingly we shifted destination slightly, and our hosts in Albuquerque, Bob & Donna Benson, were kind enough to arrange for us to stay for two extra nights. Hooray for their kindness and courtesy.

So now, with the exception of Moab, Utah, the town closest to the Arches National Park, where we will take our chances on availability for commercial spaces when we arrive there, all other stops on the way to our turn around point in Boulder, Colorado, are filled in with Evergreen Club friends.

Also, on the return trip, we are awaiting confirmation from some folks in Des Moines, Iowa, and St. Louis, Missouri, but all other stops are now confirmed. We have decided to spend part of the July 4th weekend in the mountain house, (just above Marion, NC), of our friends the McBrearty's where we have happily stayed before. We will probable drive home from there on Saturday, July 04, but that will depend on how well rested we are after the long trip.

New confirmations

With the exception of Stop # 8 in Edgewood, New Mexico, all our Evergreen member stay overs leading up to our arrival for the Basho and Amanda wedding in Boulder, are now confirmed. Again we are just in awe of the friendly and courteous responses that we have had to our e-mails and telephone calls, and it is clear that we are going to meet some wonderful & very interesting folks on this trip.

We are now working on dates and locales for the return portion of the trip, which will include stops in South Dakota, Iowa, Kentucky and North Carolina.

New stops confirmed-Some still awaiting confirmation

The last few days have seen a flurry of e-mails and telephone calls to various members of the Evergreen Club around the US.

Stops # 2 in Memphis, # 5 in Council Grove Kansas, # 6 in Garden City, Kansas, # 9 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, # 11, in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, and # 12 in St. George, Utah, are all confirmed.

Stops # 4, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, # 7 in Taos, New Mexico, #8 in Santa Fe, and # 10, in Williams Arizona, are still pending confirmation by Evergreen Club members.

It is truly inspiring to hear from Evergreen members, (even those who have been unable to host us), as each and every one has been quick to respond, and polite to a fault. One lady we spoke to was on vacation in another state, and still was able to confirm our stay at her home.

Stop # 3-Arkansas

Stop # 3, on May 29 & 30, in Eureka Springs, Arkansas has been confirmed. Sally Wimberly wrote us a very warm and charming note confirming our stay for two nights, and giving us a long distance introduction to their Shelti dog, and what she described as a "...grumpy 16 year old cat." When responding, I noted that we too, had a cat and a dog, which we were leaving at home, and thus we certainly understood the domain needs of domestic pets.

Sally also noted that they have an 80 acre farm outside Eureka Springs, and since we too used to live on a farm in the New York State Finger Lakes region, we are looking forward to a seeing theirs during our stay.

First stop confirmed

Today we received a gracious confirmatory note from Hart & Leona Stemple, of Montgomery. Alabama where we will make the first stop on our summer trip. They note, that having lived in Asia, they follow the custom of removing shoes at their entrance door.

You really think a side trip to Vegas could be done quietly?

In the beginning...

From May 27 through July 05, 2009, Barbara and I will be taking a long road trip through the US. The turn around destination, and the primary purpose of the trip will be to attend Basho & Amanda's wedding in Boulder, Colorado in June.

We intend to use the smaller highways and byways, and to avoid as much as possible the big interstate concrete. We are planning to see much of rural America, and its artifacts and places of local interest.

Along the way we will be using several overnight accommodations via the courtesy of fellow Evergreen members all along our route, and we will be posting regular updates of our adventures on this site as we go along. We will be road testing our portable new GPS unit, along with the use of our laptop with mapping software. We will also be using the Google photo software Picasa to record and post photos of the trip.

The west bound trip will take us through Albama, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Arizona, Utah,and Colorado. On the return, east bound, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, North Carolina and Georgia.

We solicit your input and any ideas that you may have about "must see" places to visit.