The Five Words You've All Been Wondering if I'll Say

It happened the morning we were getting ready to leave Glenwood Canyon.  It had been an emotional week. We were doing all the things we did with my dad. Even Rusty got misty eyed at one of my dad's favorite restaurants. But the thing that I stupidly didn't realize was that we were there on my dad's birthday. He would have been 85. That hit me pretty hard but I guess I didn't realize it until we were getting ready to leave. Don't get me wrong, I love Glenwood Canyon. It's one of the most amazing places and it's no surprise why my dad loved living there. Between all the emotions and the fact that I woke up the morning we were leaving to a tweaked back, I think it was just too much. Rusty had gotten up to prep the sewer and, water and electrical outside and I was working on prepping the inside. Making the bed is a contortionist's nightmare without a tweaked back to say the least but I got it made. Then I start to notice blood on the floor. I figure the dog's done something so I examine her but I don't find any blood. That leaves only one other person left inside so I hold my feet up to the closet mirror and sure enough, I've got a split on my heel that's bleeding. So now I'm walking around with my heel up with a tweaked back. Finally I give in and throw myself on the bed and start crying. Rusty comes in and hears me and asks me what's wrong and I say those terrible words...

"I want to go home."

Rusty was so sweet, he held me and let me cry it out and then said, "I broke my wife." That made me smile and I said I was broken. I told him my back was screwed up and I was bleeding all over the floor. He bandaged my foot and got the ice pack for my back. He asked me if I wanted to stay where were were for a couple more days (there was a seven day limit but sometimes they will let you stay longer if there was space) but I told him no, I was ready to go. He helped me get the inside prepped and we ate a quick bite.

The plan was for me to drive us on the first leg and then for Rusty to take over, because of my back Rusty wanted to drive the entire way but I didn't have a problem sitting so I told him I could drive so I drove us through the canyon and up and over Vail pass. We stopped outside of Eagle to switch drivers. When Rusty went to check on the car, he saw that we had lost the cover for the water heater vent at some point while I was driving. This is an essential piece of the RV so while we were stopped he created a makeshift cover so that at least it wouldn't get wet and dirty. Next he called the RV park in Golden where we were headed to see if we could get a package delivered and then he called Tiffin to get the part. It took him nearly an hour to get it all setup but we were supposed to have the part the next day. This was good since we couldn't turn on the hot water heater without it. Rusty drove us up the next pass and through the Eisenhower tunnel and then down into Golden. We were at the RV park in Golden at 1pm and all setup again by 2. The park was awesome but I was confined to the bed for the next couple of days alternating ice and heat on my back. Whisky and Rusty hiked all over. Of course one of the days Rusty was running errands, we got hit with a major storm. I had the TV on and then were warning of golf sized hail heading our way. I figured that was it, the RV was going to look like it had been attacked by rock throwing giants. Luckily the storm didn't dump golf sized hail (just dime sized) and only for about 2 minutes so we had no damage. Rusty missed the entire storm and luckily avoided it in the car as well. The part didn't arrive the next day but Tiffin called to let us know what the problem was and because they goofed up they were going to cover the cost of overnighting the part to us (about $250). But it was there the following day and UPS delivered it to our RV door - who knew such a thing was possible???

We were in Golden for three nights. The plan was to drive quickly through eastern Colorado and Kansas. We wouldn't even been unhooking the car, I had gotten all the food together for our meals before leaving Glenwood. Our first night we stopped just inside the Kansas border in Goodland. That's when we got hit with a massive thunderstorm. Freaked both me and Whisky out. When you check in they tell you where to go in the event that a tornado warning sounds. The second night we were in Salina. Salina was okay but the park was right next to the freeway so we slept with the windows closed and the AC on. Western Kansas is flat as a pancake and there are no rocks or really anything but grass, wheat, sorghum and corn. Eastern Kansas is a bit more rocky with grassy rolling hills. I thought it was pretty. Last night we made it to Kansas City, Missouri. I think my mom was born in Missouri, but I can't remember for sure. I know that she used to refer to it as "misery" and my grandma never really liked talking about living here. 

Kansas City's not bad. We're near the freeway but not so close that we had to shut the place up. Today we're heading back to Kansas to do a tourist stop - we'll take side roads and enjoy driving the Fiat through the rolling hills in eastern Kansas. 

My feelings about wanting to go home didn't last more than a couple of hours, but it did kind of scare me. I kept thinking "what have I done?" I didn't want to go back to LA but I did wonder if we made the right decision. Doing a touristy thing today will help. I am, if nothing else, a tourist at heart.

You'll have to wait to find out what the touristy thing is we're doing, or if you're feeling adventurous, you can study a map to see if you can figure it out...

xoxox

Julie