The saga: Final installment

So, here we are in this dump of a motel "suite" with the overwhelming stench of rotting bodily fluid, or something.... And no one has eaten. it's 7 p.m. and we have yet to eat dinner. And, we can't take puke boy anywhere in his vomiting, fevered state, so I volunteer to stay in the room with him, while dh takes the rest of our brood to the motel's restaurant to eat. He called me from the restaurant shortly after they'd ordered to ask me what I wanted to eat, and after listening to the options, decided it would be fairly safe to order a french dip. So I did, and waited for them to return. And watched some tv shows that I had never seen, but kind of enjoyed. Although I probably will never watch them again... I'm not a big tv watcher, I guess. Anyway...

Poor puke boy, he has had NOTHING to drink since his vomit a few hours earlier in the metropolis of Las Vegas during rush hour, because we couldn't find the extra bags I'd asked the gas station attendant for, so I let him drink some water, keeping careful track of where I put his glass so as not to infect anyone else who might accidentally come upon it and drink from it. And he had that in no longer than 15 minutes before he began to throw up again. Thankfully, the child can make the toilet when the option is available to him. Which cannot be said for certain other children of mine who have autism... So, he is lying down on one of the 3 beds in the room and attempting to rest. And watching cartoon network on the other TV. SO, I think I forgot to mention that this room is a suite, and has 3 queen sized beds, two on one side of the room w/ a t.v. and one on the other side of the room, separated with a wall with a wide doorway between the room's two sections. And I was totally planning on using this to my advantage, if you know what I mean, since dh and I had the ONE bed on the other side of the wall, and the entirety of the rest of the trip had at least one child in the bedroom with us at all times. But, since we had two kids who were sick, we put them in one bed together, put the girls in a bed together, and the well boy, and the youngest boy slept in make shift bed rolls on the floor. One of them on our side of the wall... So much for that... Oh well.

So, dh finally comes back with all the kids, and they set about getting ready for bed while I eat my french dip sandwich, and it was actually not bad. And when I finish eating, we say prayers and go to bed. Well, dh and I normally sleep with a fan for "white noise" and it's at this point that we discover the "auto" function on the thermostat doesn't work. Great. And, because I am fairly keyed up after watching a stupid episode of "Medium", a show that I love but can't watch because it causes me insomnia, I decide to play Solitaire on my iPod nano. Dh ends up having to turn up the heat in our room, which is already like a freaking oven, but it's the only way to get the freaking fan to come on. SO... I am roasting (and you KNOW it's gotta be hot if I'm too warm) and can't sleep, and conveniently, there is a 1x2 foot window above the door to our room that's not covered with anything curtain wise, I mean, it's privacy glass, so I get it. But there are those of us who like it dark. PITCH BLACK, in fact. And because this room is on the parking lot, it's VERY well lit. Unfortunately for both dh and I. And I can't sleep. So... after a rough night, we get up and get on the road. They were forecasting snow for Cedar City all the way home, so I was worried that we'd have bad roads, but so far, there was no snow falling, and it was clear skies, and a whopping 2 degrees when we left. So, we ate McDonald's breakfast for the umpteenth time on that trip, filled the gas tank on the van, got some extra puke bags from the gas station (this time I kept track of them- in fact, they're still in my van) and we were off.

We had mostly cloudy skies but dry weather, and we didn't stop until Tremonton, where we ate lunch. And still the skies were cloudy, but no precipitation. And we pressed on. As we approached Snowville, which is about 7 miles from the ID border, it began to flurry ever so lightly. No big deal. We continued on, with no change in the weather, until the minute we crossed the state line into Idaho. Then it was as if the sky opened up and it began to dump snow with reckless abandon. But the roads were ok until we reached Burley area. We debated about stopping for the night, but we didn't want the kids to miss another day of school... Had we known that there would be a snow day the next day, we may have stopped.. but we were SO close, and the thought of sleeping in our own bed, with our fan and the heated mattress pad was so inviting that I don't think we would have even if we had known. So we kept going...

We stopped in Mountain Home because we wanted to give the kids the opportunity to go to the bathroom. It was about 4:45 and we again debated about stopping, because the roads were really getting bad, and there were PLENTY of idiots out there driving too fast and being stupid. But we decided to keep going. And that's when it really got fun. I was driving, because I am a bit of a control freak, and I like to drive because I feel like I have a little more control that way. And dh was scaring the crap out of me... but, that's beside the point. So anyway, we're driving along, and this dumb jerk hauling a trailer whizzes by me like I'm standing still, and then has to slow down for the car in front of him. Meanwhile, I am merging into the left lane to go around the cotton topped little old lady in front of us who has slowed to a snail's pace, which is a mite slower than we really needed to be going. So I end up behind trailer idiot, who then begins fishtailing. GREAT. I see my life pass before my eyes. Miraculously, he regains control without killing anyone, and guess what? He slows down!!! What do you know, people can learn from their mistakes. So.. anyway... the drive from Mountain home to our house is usually about an hour and 15 minutes. It took us 2 hours. And we were home less than five minutes when puke boy began bawling that his ears were hurting so bad, he couldn't possibly stand it. So at 7:00 when I wanted to sit on my ass and do NOTHING for the next week, I had to go back out in the 6+ inches of snow we had gotten that day and take him to quick care. I was sure he had an ear infection. Turns out he had exactly what I knew was wrong with the other child, and wondered if that was what was wrong with him.... strep throat. Four of my six children had strep throat. So, anyway, that was the end of our unplanned road trip to Arizona. I think the next trip we take, I would like to have during the summer so we at least don't have to deal with the snow...

Hope you enjoyed this little peek into a trip from my life. It's finally over. Now we can get back to the normal insanity that plagues us on a regular basis. :)