Both of our Mothers were at the same Emergency Room on the same day?!?

 We're way behind in getting travel posts published because we were having way too much fun traveling! So we won't be confused about when each "wandering" happened, we'll start each blog with its actual date.

August 23, 2023

After sitting at one spot for close to a month, there were more things than usual to pack up and put away. Denisa enjoyed having her piano out so she could play on the days that we got home early from a day of exploring. When we are hopping around the country with 3- to 7- day stops we never take the time to get the piano set up. Now it was time to put it away once again.

We spent some time in the morning getting the motor home ready to roll again. This would be a normal day of packing up until we got a text from Denisa's Mother. She had a biopsy on her leg a couple weeks ago. This day the wound had reopened and she couldn't get it to stop bleeding, probably because of the blood thinner prescription she takes. She made an ambulance trip to the local hospital, where they got the bleeding under control and bandaged her up. That was an unexpected turn of events to monitor from afar!

It was a very sad day to see our 14,000-foot mountains in our rear view mirror. We have enjoyed this time with cool summer weather and beautiful views all around us. Our drive out of the mountains took us along the Arkansas River.

Highway 50 is a curving road that loses elevation as it winds down the Arkansas River Canyon. Just like we had rafted on the Arkansas River near Buena Vista, we saw rafters further down-stream enjoying this picturesque part of  the river. 

Our month-long stay in one place was nice because we did not have to worry about where we would be camping for a whole month. As we made our plans to leave, we had to call quite a few places to find a campground on our travel path that wasn't full. It reminded us that it was still the summer travel season. 

We were on the road with the motor home heading south, when we got a phone call from Mark's sister. They had taken Mark's mother to the emergency room, and they admitted her to the hospital. So both of our mothers were at the same emergency room on the same day! It was time for us to get back to the Oklahoma panhandle to check on these two special women. They are 93 and 95 years old, and still living on their own.

It was a down-hill drive, as we left our campground at 8,200 feet and drove to Rocky Ford, Colorado at 4,178 feet. While we usually drive less than 100 miles on a moving day, we went 200 miles because we were in a hurry to get back to the panhandle of Oklahoma where we were raised. Our overnight stop in Rocky Ford was at the local fairgrounds. They had just finished the county fair, and they were renovating the regular campground. But they allowed us to stay overnight at a spot with electricity. We thought that the campground sign was interesting. We did register with the local police department as the green sign instructed. Then we happily complied with the white sign. We have no dogs, we will keep our bicycles in their rack, we don't carry a skateboard, and we will gladly not bring any snakes! Why would snakes be on that sign!?!

When the fairgrounds office allowed us to spend the night, they didn't tell us that we would be in the water sprinkler zone. We woke up to water hitting the side of the motor home. So Mark decided to take advantage of the water to do a fast wash. He had to time his brushing to coincide with the revolving sprinkler's spray on the side of the motor home.

Then we realized that this free wash job was from the local water that was leaving hard water spots as it dried. So we had to hand-dry both sides of the motor home. Sometimes free things aren't really free.                                                                                        

This overnight camping allowed us to shop the local produce stands the next morning. Rocky Ford, Colorado, is famous for its summer melons. In the pickup, we visited five different fruit stands along the highway.                                                                                  

Our favorite fruit stand was Knapp's Farm Market. Their cantaloupes were 99 cents per pound. We ended up buying more than 30 pounds, so our 14 melons were just 80 cents per pound. The motor home is doubling as a delivery truck to bring lots of melons to friends and family in Oklahoma.

Watermelons were expensive, so we only bought one $10 melon that was surprisingly small.

It was good to shop around, because we saw rattle snake watermelons as high as $14.99, and cantaloupe for $7.99 each. Of course, you could get a real bargain if you bought two for $16?!?

We also bought a box of Colorado peaches and a dozen ears of corn. Then we left Rocky Ford and headed down the road for the motor home's annual oil change. After doing extensive research, Mark contacted a truck repair place in Lamar, Colorado. He asked them lots of details and gave them all the parts numbers for the filters they would need to do the job. The young man on the phone assured Mark that they would have everything needed, and we made an appointment. When we arrived, they didn't have any record of our appointment, none of the parts were in stock, and they confessed that they had never changed the oil in a motor home. The price we were quoted also went up dramatically. The young man who seemed so competent on the phone was gone. We had planned our route around this service, and we were disappointed to be leaving without this annual chore completed, Bummer! 

We were so mad that we decided to just drive all the way to Oklahoma. We drove right on through Kansas . . .

where we stopped for the last diesel fill-up at just under $4 per gallon.

Normally, we would have spent two weeks driving from Buena Vista, Colorado back to Oklahoma. We would have stopped at several campgrounds and enjoyed some more mountain hikes in Colorado. But instead of two weeks, we made the trip in two days this time. After two much-longer driving days than is usual for us, we were welcomed to Oklahoma through a bug-spattered windshield. 

We arrived in Beaver, Oklahoma, as the sun was setting. We parked the motor home beside Denisa's mother's house. With both of our mothers visiting the same emergency room on the same day, we were in a hurry to check on them.