Time To Head East

It's Tuesday morning and time to head east. We've had three days of much-needed relaxation with friends. Our weekend in Firestone, Colorado, with Tim and Julie was terrific. Linda and Julie hit it off from the start and spend much of Sunday afternoon shopping, and Tim and I watched a good chunk of three ballgames, so it was a win-win arrangement. After a dozen years of separation, the friendship picked up right where it left off, so it was a great two days. We also helped them inaugurate their new grill; the steak and salmon dinner was delicious.

We were on the road at 5AM yesterday because Linda had to be at the dialysis center in Cheyenne at 6:15. I enjoyed the 75-mile drive because the speed limit was 75 and I got to drive 80, tootling through the darkness with a Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young CD. Linda had dialysis in that center on last year's trip, so I knew exactly where to go. We pulled into the parking lot right at 6:15--and saw a sign on the door saying they had moved. Sweet! Two phone calls, one detour, and 15 minutes later, we pulled into their new building. Nothing to it.

We spent yesterday with Mike and Helen, whom we visited last year. Perhaps you're wondering why we spent eight days in Wyoming, dropped down into Colorado for the weekend, went back into Wyoming, and will now be going through a good chunk of Colorado to start the seven-day trek eastward to home. Mike and Helen were in Chicago this weekend for his son's wedding. Our rendezvous in Cheyenne was a fine day full of story-telling and ceaseless conversation. Helen, the director of the Wyoming State Museum, just took off for a meeting to prepare for her budget meeting later today with the governor. Good luck on that one.

Only yesterday did we finalize the arrangements for Linda's dialysis on Friday. It took a lot of phone calls, some often-elusive patience, and some maneuvering, but she does have the "first-shift" time we've been requesting all along. Now all that remains is the extra dialysis session she'll need before we get home. If you have followed this blog, you know that we had to shift her regular schedule for this trip because of the scarcity of dialysis centers in Wyoming. She'll go back to her regular schedule a week from today in Cooperstown.

Shortly we'll be hitting the road (9AM) for a drive of 500 miles or so to the middle of Kansas, where she has dialysis tomorrow. And who knows what else along the way.