 |
| This was the proposed route for our 2016 summer tour |
I'll be the first to admit I've been
lucky when it comes to my health. I was never very good at healthy
living. All through my earning years I worked long strange hours and
didn't eat or sleep normally. The only thing good I can say about my
routine is at least I didn't smoke. So when I started getting weird
pains it was only natural for me to say to myself, Had I known I was
going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself!
As we drove across Canada I started
getting a strange sensation in my abdomen. My whole belly became
tender. It didn't hurt when I pressed on it, the best way I can
describe it was it felt as if my abdominal muscles were inflamed.
This came on gradually over several
days and like I do with all my aches and pains (old guys are tough) I
ignored it. One night when I laid down to sleep, pain started
radiating out from my stomach, it went all the way through to my
back. It kept intensifying until I finally got out of bed. The pain
immediately started subsiding and I was able to go to sleep semi
reclined on the sofa. Same thing happened for the next two nights.
Not being able to sleep with Millie, I
was not able to keep my mysterious ailment a secret. Not being able
to fall back on the old men's adage, if you ignore it long enough it
will go away. I had to accept that something was wrong, the fact that
a same age friend of mine died during this period put a big crack in
my invincibility shield so we had to confront it.
It didn't appear to warrant an
emergency room visit but looked like it was going to take some
doctoring so we made the decision to go home.
 |
| Day one Sault Ste Marie to Lancaster Ohio |
 |
| Day two Lancaster Ohio to Troutdale, Virginia |
We were 1000 miles north of Myrtle
Beach and just drove south for two days. The length of Michigan and
south to Lancaster Ohio the first day and the rest of Ohio and thru
West Virginia to Virginia the second. We stayed two nights at
Grindstone campground in the Jefferson National Forest. Millie's
sister lives nearby and we visited with them while resting from our
two day driving marathon. Finally we drove the last 250+/- miles to
our home in Myrtle Beach.
 |
| Virginia to Myrtle Beach |
As it usually happens, all symptom's of
my mysterious ailment completely disappeared. Two days later when I
went to my doctor there was nothing for him to poke or prod. My GP is
an internist so I gave him as detailed a report as I could in hopes
he would know what was going on. His best guess is that I had a
twisted intestine that fixed itself. Note: I have since spoken with a
neighbor who is a nutritianist with a Master Degree. She had a
different theory, but thinks I will be OK so I won't elaborate.
 |
| Yellow is the missed part of route, red line is our route home |
We had completed about half of our
original planned route before cutting the trip short. We will miss
the Mall of America, the Winnebago Factory, Pikes peak and who knows
what else we would have seen along the way. Most important is not
visiting the grand kids in New Mexico, but Millie is already making
plans to fly out to see them.
So that's the story, we'll be back on
the road again and in the mean time we'll just make the best of it.
The walks on the beach will help, so will the ocean view from our
balcony. There's always the fall locals specials at the theaters down
the road, the movies, walks on the boardwalk, Netflix's and even
Walmart! Life is still good!
