Trip, Part 1 -- Ohio and then on to Alabama

First off, I previously explained the main reason for this trip here, so I'm not going to dwell on re-explaining all that now. Let's just get to the trip itself...

The first leg of my journey was roughly 600 miles to Cincinnati, Ohio, to meet up with my cousin Dave. I like to drive so a 10 hour jaunt doesn't really bother me. And besides I had George Strait along for some company... I took all 25 regular GS album CDs spanning 1981 to 2008, plus one custom compilation featuring some GS odds 'n' ends from miscellaneous sources. I left saturday (Nov 15th) just after noon and arrived in Ohio just after 10 PM. Of course, I stayed overnight at that point.

The next day began with attending church. Dave is a minister in Cincinnati. The church altar was decorated for autumn. And since it was the first sunday following Veteran's Day Dave did not do the main sermon, instead turning the reigns over to one of his congregation and 83-year-old WWII vet who was at the Battle of the Bulge when his unit was surrounded and forced to surrender. He told of his experience, mostly of being a POW. It was quite a tale with the basic message being that through faith in God you develop confidence in yourself and you can do anything. Apparently he's given the same experience-based talk a few other times to other organizations and Dave only recently heard about it for himself and immediately jumped at the chance to have him speak to the church...

   

By the way, Dave is an ex-military man himself. He was an Army chaplain for twenty years or more, most of that time stationed in Germany, so I'm sure he and his guest speaker could probably talk for hours just about the local towns and terrain. Dave was disappointed he couldn't fit into his own old dress uniform for the day and he was unable to get a new one. I told him I could PhotoShop one in later, but I didn't get to that yet. (LOL!)

After church Dave and I set out for Alabama, another 600 mile trip. We traveled right by Paul Brown stadium where it just so happened that "my" Philadelphia Eagles were playing "Dave's" Cincinnati Bengals in a rip-snortin' epic battle of football heavyweights. Yeah, right. Let's face it, both teams essentially stink this year (even though the Eagles have at least been hovering around .500). We had the game on radio for as long as we could make it out, but somewhere in Tennessee we lost the signal for good as the game had been dragged into OT (13-13) with both teams seemingly unable or unwilling to find the end zones. (I don't know that even GPS would have helped them.) Dave called home to his wife Lana (who wasn't making the Alabama trip) and asked her to call us when the game ended just because we were curious as to the outcome. A while later she informed us that the game indeed ended in a tie, the first tie in the NFL in six years. Thrilling.

Along the way in Tennessee I spotted a giant Christian cross in the distance along the northbound side of I-75. I expected to see a humongous church of some serious denomination as we approached, but instead the closest building to it was an Adult World Supercenter! Hmmm, I'm not sure about their brand of religion down there! (LOL!) Maybe it's their way of preaching to the sinners instead of the saved, I don't know. There was no identifying signs or markings on or near the cross, just the big ol' cross. If I'd known I'd have tried to get a picture (and unfortunately on the way back, I didn't have the camera out at that spot either). I just thought it was amusing.

So we went about ⅔ of the way, well into Alabama, then stopped at a motel in Gadsden for the night. I would have been willing to go all the way to Donna & Dan's, but Dave has been there before (I hadn't) and yet he was still quite unsure of actually being able to find their place in the dark late at night/early in the morning. So I trusted his experience and didn't quibble at all. I found out what he meant since even in daylight he made a wrong turn or two due to a landmark carpet store building no longer existing and just general dirt road backwoodsiness where the scenery all looks pretty much the same.

We finally saw several signs for their local church, but each time it was positioned in the middle of a fork in the road with no arrow indicating which fork to take! (Nor was it obvious just from the positioning of the signs.) Anyway, we managed somehow and before we knew it I spotted an actual road sign indicating we were on Donna & Dan's road even though we didn't know it. We just happened to get to it from a slightly different direction.

The first pic here is just a lake in Alabama somewhere along the way. The next two are shots I took standing in the middle of the road at the end of Donna & Dan's driveway and looking first East, then West. There are neighbors near them, but the other homes are well hidden by woods:

       

Dave and I were the only ones there at that point (late morning on monday, Nov 17th) as Dan and his daughter were off to his treatment, Donna was at work, and the other clan members from NJ who had arrived in Alabama the night before were off gathering nutritional supplies. So Dave and I just puttered around a little bit. We took care of unhitching Dan's trailer which had been previously left in Ohio and which Dave wanted to return to Dan in exchange for his own trailer (a slightly heavier, more sturdy one) which was in Alabama.

Once the others of the NJ brigade arrived back at the house, three of us took a walk to explore a little. Donna & Dan's church is around the corner from them, but we didn't know exactly how far. Dave, his sister Nancy, and I set that as our destination not sure if it would be within reach or not. We kept thinking "It's probably just over this next rise" and then eventually we came to it. As we stood in the parking lot for a short breather before turning around to head back we saw Dan's truck coming along the road. His daughter Deena was driving on their way back from his treatment and they stopped to say "Hi." Even though they knew we would be at their house at that point, I think they were surprised to meet up with us at the church instead.

That was the first we had seen Dan since his diagnosis and the start of his treatment. Apparently he had not been feeling well, had not eaten anything for three days and was pretty much feeling like crap. But that's understandable really. He's lost about 60 pounds since his treatment began all due to the effects of either the treatment or the pancreatic cancer itself.

The next day Dave and I accompanied Deena and Dan to Columbus, GA, where he goes every weekday for his treatments, radiation 4 or 5x/week & chemo 1x/week. It's a two hour trip one way and they have to get up before sunrise to be there on time. Heck, that kind of schedule along would tire me out, sick or not! It was interesting to see the surrounding area and especially the treatment center.

I thought it was good in that everyone receiving chemo or other IV treatments were all in this one large open space room together. The result is that the patients have, in essence, their own built-in support group. They get used to seeing each other and chatting about their shared battles. There are many ages and races represented, but all share the same general battle with the Big C (though different variations of it, of course).

This was tuesday and because Dan had been feeling so bad and not eating, they gave him some sort of special IV infusion. I think it was elctrolytes and such to battle dehydration and generally get him feeling a little better. It worked. You could tell as he was just sitting there that he got a little more animated and conversational.

When we got back to the house that afternoon there was enough time that Nancy and Dave and I decided to take another walk. This time Deena joined us as well. Just for goofs I took a shot of the three of them doing some "dead end walking." I'll also include a shot here of a small lizard which was on the back step the next evening. There's really not a lot to do for excitement in their part of Alabama... take walks and watch lizards, that's about it. I'm actually kidding, though perhaps not as much as you might think. Anyway, I like quiet backwoods areas myself, so I didn't mind.

   

So anyway by tuesday evening Dan was feeling a little better—not great, but simply better—which was good because his son Daryl and his wife and two daughters came for a big family dinner/visit. It went really well. Dan was able to eat a very little bit and, after laying down a while, was then able to visit with everyone for a while. The evening was the highlight of the trip really and that's when I took the most pictures while folks were gathered...

1) Deena reading to her niece while Kaitlynne's Mom Brandy listens, 2) A hug for Donna from her granddaughter Courtney while Donna's sister Nancy looks on, & 3) Deena's reading audience has doubled to both her nieces, Courtney and Kaitlynne:

       

1) Dan looks on (along with brothers-in-law Donald and Dave and granddaughters) as son Daryl test-plays with train Dave brought him, 2) Dan chatting with Deena & Brandy, & 3) Family dinner:

       

1) The military men kick back and chat, 2) A spontaneous unposed couch lineup of Donna's daughter-in-law Brandy, then Donna, Donna's brother Donald on the end, and their mother Betty between them:

   

The rest of NJ gang left for home the next morning (wednesday) while Dave and I stayed one more day. During the big visit the night before Dave and Daryl (Dan's son) got to talking and Daryl said to Dave that there was this one guy at his post that Dave should meet. Dave was stationed in PA for a while shortly before he retired from the military and Daryl works at his post with someone who was once stationed at the same post in PA. Long story short, it turns out that not only did Dave know the guy from when he was stationed there they were very good friends during that time. In fact Dave once hauled something for the man using Dan's trailer long before the man ever met Daryl. So here both Daryl and Dave know the same man very well at different times in their lives, but neither was aware that the other already knew the mutual friend. And the man himself had no idea that Dave and Daryl were related, that Daryl's father is in fact Dave's brother-in-law!

They just all got along really well and had many shared interests without even realizing the close family ties that were involved. So Dave took the day wednesday to go to Daryl's post and they all had a fun visit getting reacquainted, apparently coming up with more and more freaky coincidences that they never knew about. Strange.

So in the meantime I accompanied Deena and Dan to his treatment one last time (since Dave was leaving for Ohio the next day). Dan was still feeling pretty good and while he was waiting to be called in for his chemo to start he mentioned to Deena that he could really go for a hamburger. She gave him a surprised look and questioned whether or not he was kidding. He assured her he was serious. She didn't know if he'd actually eat it or not, but the doctors have said that no matter what he wants to eat, if he in fact really does WANT to eat it then by all means he should do so. So Deena and I went out in search of a McDonald's to fetch the specifically requested Big Mac. Neither one of us knew if there was one close by, but I spotted a billboard for one on the main road running by the treatment center as we walked to the vehicle. So we knew there had to be one in that general direction and sure enough it was right down the road a couple blocks.

When we got back to the center Dan was in getting his treatment, but we brought the sandwich to him and he ate the whole thing! (With the help of some anti-nausea meds in his IV apparently, but who cares.) We were impressed. Then he had a pack of peanut butter crackers too. So obviously he was feeling pretty good by then. He was even talking and joking around, more like his old self. It was good to see.

Unfortunately the nature of cancer treatments is that the patient feels good or feels like crap based on the treatment cycles more than the underlying disease progression. Dan knew that the chemo would hit him in a few days with various ill effects. Plus he was scheduled to undergo a procedure the next day to have a stent or shunt or something put in. Still, you take the highs and enjoy'em while you can. Because of the next day procedure he was not allowed to have anything more to eat after midnight, so that evening he had some fruit and Deena, Donna, Dave, and I just chatted around the table.

   

Dan's surgical procedure went well, but they ended up keeping him in the hospital overnight (and he probably wasn't all that thrilled about that turn of events). And in the latest update... Donna & Dan made the trip to Atlanta to a cousin of Dan's for Thanksgiving while at least one (possibly more, but I don't know) of Dan's family from NJ went down there for the holiday (as opposed to US going down to Alabama on this trip as we're technically from Donna's side of the family). I sorta heard that Dan wasn't feeling too well though, so I don't know how much he was really able to enjoy the time. Again, that's the nature of the treatment if not the diease itself and the patient just has to try to roll with the flow as best as possible.

As I understand it, Dan should have completed all his radiation and chemo now and the doctors plan to reexamine him a month or two to check on his status as to whether the tumor has shrunk any, stayed the same, or grown. In the meantime, I'm sure they'll be in take-it-day-by-day mode. My hope is that without the harsh treatments (and tiring schedule) he might be able to get some energy and strength back, not to mention just simply a more regular appetite.

Oh well, that's more than enough for now, but that's the bulk of the general story from my perspective. It's probably hard to keep straight all the relationships (who's what to whom), but that's OK as it's not really that important in the grand scheme of things. If anyone reading this is confused or particularly curious about anything and would like some sort of clarification, feel free to ask and I'll see what I can do. It's always a little difficult to figure out just how much detail to go into so that I provide sufficient context for the photos, but without posing unnecessary risk to privacy concerns. Consequently it's often hard for me to really tell if parts of it make all that much sense if someone is not familiar with everyone to begin with.

I have a few more shots from the return trip to Ohio, but the corresponding explanation shouldn't be near as detailed. I hope to have that posted by sometime on the weekend if not sooner, but we'll see...