The Woes of Traveling

This is long post, but we never want to forget the details of this trip...

Friday, May 14

12:15 pm (central time)- We board the plane that will take us to Reno, Nevada to see Dave's grandma. She had a stroke last year and moved from her home in California to an Assisted Living in Reno.

12:30 pm- A major thunderstorm hit DFW airport. All of the airport crew has to take cover because of lightning. Luggage is no longer being loaded but is just sitting on an open cart in the rain.

1:00 pm- We're told we will have to stay on the plane and will be updated every 30 minutes as to when we can depart. The luggage is still sitting out in the pouring down rain.

4:00 pm- We are finally going to get to fly to Reno after sitting on the plane for over 3 hours. The soaked luggage is loaded.

5:30 pm (pacific time)- We arrive in Reno, James is tired, we're all a little cranky, and our suitcase and all it's contents are soaking wet. Dave's wonderful Aunt Suzie picks us up at the airport.

6:00 pm- We finally get to see Grandma after a very long day. We had a delicious dinner at the assisted living facility that Grandma lives in. Grandma's room is very nice and she seems very happy in her new place.

8:00 pm- We TRY to check-in at the hotel that we booked weeks prior to our trip. We are informed that despite that we requested a crib with our reservation, the hotel was out of cribs. We're offered a room with an extra bed for James. Stephanie has to restrain herself from punching the guy at the hotel check-in counter. We cancel our reservation and go on a search for a hotel with a crib.

10:00 pm- We finally get settled at a hotel and put James to bed. Dave goes out to get a few snacks and some milk for James (we stored it in the hotel room fridge). Dave buys his favorite candy, Red Vines, and when he opens the package back in our hotel room, they are stale and long expired.

11:00 pm- The hotel room air conditioner cycles off and startles sleeping James. We had to move the crib across the room, and get James settled again. This set him up for a restless night. He was awake and crying every couple hours. It was a rough night.

Saturday, May 15

6:00 am- James thinks it's time to wake up for the morning. Mommy and Daddy disagreed, but James always wins this battle. We all took showers and got dressed.

8:30 am- James is ready for his morning nap. While he slept, Mommy and Daddy sat on the floor, on the other side of the room and behind the bed from where James was. We watched a movie on the portable DVD player with headphones so we wouldn't disturb James while he was sleeping. He took a great nap... almost 2 1/2 hours.

11:30 am- We went and picked Grandma up and took her to lunch at the Macaroni Grill. We had a nice lunch. Mommy kept thinking James felt a little warm, but she is not a very good judge normally.




2:00 pm- We took James back to the hotel for his afternoon nap. We took James' temperature and sure enough, he had a fever. Mommy and James napped, and Daddy washed all of our wet clothes from the rain at Grandma's place.

4:00 pm- We were dying for caffeine so we picked up some lattes at McDonald's drive-thru. Both our coffees were made incorrectly and had to be thrown out. No caffeine fix for us.

4:30 pm- We met Grandma at her place and took a walk around her complex. It was a beautiful day. James loved getting to run around outside for a little while.

6:00 pm- We had another delicious dinner at the Assisted Living dining room. Our time with Grandma was really nice despite how tired we were.

7:30 pm- Back at the hotel, James has a fever again and it's higher. We put him to bed. Mommy and Daddy watched another movie on the portable DVD player with headphones.

11:00 pm- James wakes up crying for the first time of many times. Looks like it's going to be another bad night.

Sunday, May 16

6:00 am- James is ready to wake up. Again, Mommy and Daddy disagree. And again, James wins. We all shower and get dressed.

7:00 am- Mommy realized that the milk she's been trying to get James to drink is as thick as yogurt. The refrigerator wasn't even cold anymore! The milk was spoiled. No wonder James didn't want it.

7:30 am- Dave's on the phone with the airline to see if we can get an earlier flight home. Every flight before ours on Monday is full.

8:00 am- James goes down for his morning nap (Mommy does too). Daddy went out for some coffee and brought it back.

11:00 am- We pick Grandma up and take her to Erin's house (Dave's cousin) for a belated Mother's Day brunch for Grandma. Dave's Aunt Carolyn and Uncle Stan are there as well as Erin (it was her house) and Aunt Suzie with her daughter Sarah. We had some delicious curry chicken salad sandwiches and strawberry shortcake. James was clearly not feeling well, and slept on Daddy's shoulder during lunch.

1:00 pm- James temperature is now higher than it's ever been, and he is definitely sick with something.

2:00 pm- We are now at the pediatric emergency room at the Renown Medical Center in Reno. Aunt Suzie and Sarah came with us to the ER. Thank you! Turns out, James has an upper respiratory infection. It takes both Motrin and Tylenol to get his fever to come down. The doctor recommended we not fly home the next day. We thought that was crazy! All we wanted at this point was to be home.

4:00 pm- We pick up James' antibiotic at the pharmacy and also stop to get root beer floats with Aunt Suzie and Sarah. We felt we deserved them at this point!

5:30 pm- We stopped by Grandma's place to say hello and give her a hug, and then stopped by In and Out Burger (a West Coast staple) and picked up some dinner.

7:00 pm- James is in bed. We are exhausted! We watched another movie in silence.

10:00 pm- James wakes up crying... another loooong night ahead! We were supposed to alternate giving James Motrin and Tylenol but the seal was broken on the Tylenol we bought. Of course we didn't discover this until the middle of the night.

Monday, May 17

6:00 am- Awake. James still has fever.

8:00 am- James is ready for a nap. This time, the crib goes in the bathroom so Mommy and Daddy can move around freely in the room and pack up all of our stuff.

11:30 am- Lunch with Grandma at her dining room. We again enjoyed her company so much and had a bittersweet goodbye. Aunt Carolyn took us to the airport.

2:40 pm- Our flight is on time and we got off without a hitch. We're headed home!

7:30 pm (Central time)- We land in DFW!

9:00 pm- We're home! We were welcomed by finding we had left the refrigerator door open! Apparently, we left it open all weekend! We felt it was an appropriate way to end the weekend :)