Photos from our July stop in Bremerton!

Of course, it's real easy to tell where I fit in with "tallness".

My pesky battle

I had to pick up yet another prescription while in Pendleton.  A uti had been haunting me since St. Louis.  After picking up different meds there and in Yellowstone, I got a prescription for Cepro to assist in kicking this pesky, painful, nasty, annoying, haunting, blasted, (and as many other words as I can't think of right now).  Weeelllll~ the Cipro kicked me.  Right out of the ballpark.  As usual for me - I didn't read all the side effects - I don't generally get any side effects from anything.  I  am bull-headed and bound that I am going to get rid of this annoyance.  Since the kidney stone incidents in June ......

So anyway, I took the pill and didn't feel so well.  Thought maybe the stress from seeing Gerald and all the traveling had caught up with me.  I took to the bed and slept between the nausea.  Then the cramps hit... boy I was one miserable puppy!!  Until late that night this kept up.

But morning came and all was better!  Yay, that little bit of flu or stress was over.  Ate a bite of breakfast and took another pill before getting in the pickup to head for Washington.  {  ]  (  :(  Ugh.  We didn't make it 100 miles before I had to ask Keith to drive.  I couldn't enjoy the scenery, I couldn't do anything,  Just be miserable.  AGAIN. . .

When the nausea got so bad that I couldn't stand it any more Keith decided that we needed to make it a really, really short travel day and stopped at  the Best Western just beyond this gas station (that had a chapel right in the parking lot).  I was so ill that I was tempted to go in - but to sick to get out of  the pickup!

So our plan to drive straight over to S'te's was thwarted by this 'bug' that I seemed to have caught.  While calling to tell my sweet daughter that we wouldn't be there as planned - she looked up this 'different medication' that I was taking and learned that not all folks react to it very well.  Ok... so I went to lay on the bathroom floor with my pillow and didn't take any more Cipro.  I went back to the antibiotic that I was taking before.  Just to be taking something I guess.  I really got to feeling like a human again after many, many hours and it looks like we were going to be able to continue our trip - tomorrow!

We made it to Bremerton, a day late, but feeling better for the most part.  We got straight out of the pickup and into the van to go see what Keith saw on the internet - that he wanted and that S'te checked out for us.  We got to the place and found that the particular item that Keith had his heart set on had been sent to a different place.  To makes ure that no one else ended up with this particular item - they called ahead and had it held for us and S'te took us STRAIT there to get it.

and

And

Here is

And he jumped right into Keith's lap and hasn't left it since! :-)

Keith has changed the pronunciation of his name and he is now called 'Kako' but we've left the spelling alone... after all, who cares?

A great choice, they bonded immediately, and have remained fast friends!

Thank you S'te, for finding him for Papa!

Couldn't have done it without you!

Another stop on our trip

The ending of out trip out contained little to actually write about.  We did meet up with my sister, Sharen, in Pendleton, OR  She drove over from Cultus Lake where she was camp hosting for the summer.  We went out for dessert and a great chat and then met again in the morning to go over and visit our brother, Gerald.  He is looking pretty well considering all things.  He is back on Hospice and I believe he has made his peace with God.  The hardest part is so, so, still in front of him.  His health is still doing a yo-yo, he rallies a bit and then it's 2 steps back.  I look forward to his letters - but then cry after reading each one of them.  But, back to the visit, it was a good one.  We had a few laughs, remembered a few old times, got pictures taken, ~ Gerald actually had some licorice and asked for a cola - I'm not sure he is "supposed" to have them ~ but at this stage - what difference is it really going to make - so he had what he wanted.  After Sharen took off to head back into the hills I went back for an afternoon visit.  We had to cut it a bit short as he really wasn't feeling that great.  I did get to meet his physicians' assistant and the head of the hospice care - so it was another greatly productive visit.  I gave him a huge hug since I know it will be another year before I see him again.

Visiting Gerald is always very bittersweet.  I love my little brother, hate some of the history he has, am compassionate about his disease, emphasize with his decisions about medical treatment, AND want him to be here to visit next year, but also know how much pain he is in, how long it has gone on, and know that his own wish is for it go be over.   I really do pray for God to be merciful.  That is about all that is left.

Cody and Yellowstone photos

Here are some select photos - but for the WHOLE shebang... Check out my Flickr set 2010 East - West Trip!  There are probably more photos than anyone would really want to look at! :)

Just passing thru today!

Cody, Wyoming - the only town we saw

I just loved the way this looked.

East entrance - via Wyoming

Three Bears Lodge ~ A great place to stay!

                                                                                                                                                                                                       

Some really, really hot mud! 

Boiling hot water to go with the snow on the ground!

 

  Old Faithful taken from the deck at the Lodge

South Dakota photos a wonderful tour!

Made it to the Black Hills in South Dakota

Amazing

Crazy Horse - a granite mountain being blasted into a memorial.  Amazing feat!

Keith after lunch.

A tunnel between Crazy Horse and Mt. Rushmore in the Iron Mountain

Mt. Rushmore from the peak of Iron Mountain

Another Iron Mountain tunnel.

 A campsite near the road.

Mt Rushmore - Awesome!

The rainbow showed up just about back at the hotel.

Home again after a long day!

Troubles......

My favorite laptop is down - it has all of my photos on it that go with my intended posts of the rest of our trip across the country.  At this time I can only give a synopsis and then ~ if time and interest allows ~ I can go back and re-post.

We went to Yellowstone National Park and stayed at Three Bears Lodge in West Yellowstone.  The package we had included a wonderful, scrumptious dinner for 2 (I had the prime rib, Keith had shrimp), full menu breakfast for both mornings of our 2 night stay, and a great tour of the "Lower Loop" which was an all-day tour with a huge lunch at Old Faithful.  I wish I had the photos!  It is amazing what God has done with this Earth!!  I don't know why us Americans go abroad (us too!) and spend our money when we have so many unique things to see right here!!!  The geysers were amazing!  We got up close and almost to personal with elk and bison (right on the side of the road!!) and the views from Yellowstone's own "Grand Canyon" and falls are awesome!!  All of this was included in the tour as well as the history of the park, fires, wildlife management techniques~  Our guide was great!!

After Yellowstone we headed westward again towards Pendleton, Oregon to meet up with my sister, Sharen, and to go see our brother.  We (pretty much I) loved the scenery on our drive thru Montana, N. Dakota, and Idaho.  The views at the 'viewpoints' are amazing.  During part of our 'Montana drive' the skies were rather overcast and you could see all the layers of the huge,huge clouds.  And at times, we were so high in the mountains it seemed like I could reach up and touch them!!  Our small time in Idaho was all mountains and huge green trees.  It was like crossing into a different country when we crossed over into Eastern Washington.  It was hot, dry, and way, way barren.  After all the huge green trees and animal sightings of the last several states, it looked like we'd crossed into desert - which in reality, we had.  High Desert in fact!

So that pretty much takes care of a little update to get closer to where we are today.