I have been pretty quiet the last few days. That's because we had a surprise for my Mom's 90th Birthday in the works.
She thought we were staying in Cortez for a few days, when in fact, we were driving down the road each day to make it to Las Vegas by her Birthday lunch on Friday.
We left Cortez on Wed and drove to Williams, AZ. It's where the trains are that go on the Grand Canyon Tour.
Craig has been struggling with an infected hair follicle on his back side. We think it's from getting in and out of the Gator 4 Wheel while we were Camp Hosts at San Luis State Park.
It was hard for him to sit, so I did the driving while he did his best to stay comfortable.
The desert is so changing with the flat lands and then the rising rock. Unusual formations all the way, too. We traveled route 160 from San Luis to route 89 down thru Flagstaff and on to I 40.
I don't know if you can see the reddish orange flowers along the road, but the countryside was solid with them.
Hello again, Arizona!
I thought I was just seeing the red dirt until I realized they were really wild flowers.
I saw a sign for the above rock that said, "Baby Rock"
We stopped for a rest in Flagstaff and helped this trucker with tools and wisdom on how to replace his air hoses. He was most grateful. His truck company told him he would have to wait until the next day for the mechanic to get to him and he was trying to meet a deadline. He was carrying dog food.
In Williams we found a nice RV Park. Canyon Motel and RV Park.
We got set up and I looked at Craig I knew his pain wasn't getting any better. So, I took a picture of the swollen and red butt cheek and sent it to our son, Todd, for some help to know how to treat it. Craig was also running a low temp. I won't post the photo here, but I bet it uploaded to my Google account. Not a pretty sight.
Todd called his doctor friend and they jumped into action to say that he had an abscess and needed to get on anti-biotics and probably have it lanced or have surgery. They called in a prescription and we were able to pick it up at the local Safeway.
Thanks again to Todd and his Doctor, Jeff, for helping us out!
We looked for a VA, but there wasn't one in the area, so we made the decision to try to make it into Las Vegas. It was just 212 miles down the road.
Craig spent the morning laying on his stomach on the floor of the Motorhome while I drove.
Going west on I 40 past Flagstaff is fairly hilly and mountainous, and the roads are in really bad shape, but the Whale did a great job.
Coming in to Kingman with 100 miles to go.
The Interstate is pretty flat through the desert until you get near the Hoover Dam and the new bridge that was built to keep people away from the Dam.
There are signs that say High Profile Vehicles need to drive in the left lane. I guess it's because of the high winds as you cross the bridge.
We made it in to Duck Creek RV in Las Vegas and got set up and then headed toward the VA ER to see if they could help the abscess that kept getting worse and worse.
It was a great facility and prayers were answered when a doctor walked by and saw Craig laying on a chair instead of sitting up. He helped push Craig ahead of the wait to get some help. We got to the VA about 1:30. It was around 5:30pm, after getting blood work and a CT scan to determine the extent of the infection.
The Doctor and med student gave Craig the option of doing a lance and pack right there in the ER bed or to stay overnight and wait to see if they could get him into surgery late afternoon the next day.
Since we were in Las Vegas to surprise Mom and he didn't want to go any longer in the pain, Craig braved having it done right away.
He had immediate pain relief after they drained the abscess and by 7:30pm, we were on our way back to the RV.
I took this just before the procedure after they had given him some pain killers.
I called Midge to let her know that there would be two more at the Birthday Lunch and then we went to bed. We are also adjusting to a new time zone. We had such a better nights sleep and this morning we have had time to relax and get ready to head to the lunch. I hope to get a photo of the surprise on Mom's face. She knows about Craig's issues, but thinks we are still in Cortez.
Thanks for all of the Birthday Cards!!!! She has so enjoyed getting them, they are all over her house!
I'll have to wait to post this when we get back home tonight after the big event.
Blessings,
Kathy
