This is almost an unbelievable story!! I am
still dumbfounded that this could happen after EVERYTHING that we have been
through!!! We knew the direction we were supposed to go in; we even would pray when something would happened to know if we should continue or change directions!
It is hard to understand why so many stumbling blocks have been put into our
path when we are heading in the directions we know is right. In the moment of
curiosity, we still have always be reassured to keep going and so we do! Many people even questioned why we continued forward with our plans when everything was going wrong, I can't really explain it, but we simply knew we were supposed to move forward!
Derrick broke is foot:
One Friday in June we were supposed to hit
the road for a weekend road trip to see Mt. Rushmore! Friday went as planned,
we have the car packed, trip mapped out, reservations made, friends called, and
I then I get a call at 5pm… about the same time we were supposed to be getting on the
road…. Derrick begins to say that he thinks his foot was broken, I tell him if
it still hurts Monday we will take him to an Insta Care. I guess that is not
how Workers Comp. works. I am sooo mad at this point, not at Derrick, but at
the situation! WHY do people have to be so careless! 1st, Derrick’s
work truck was not usable. That truck has a lift so the guys don’t have to lift 600-pound monuments; they should have NEVER put their workers in that
situation! 2nd, I was so mad at his co-worker for being careless.
Once they lifted the monument out of the back of a pick-up truck by hand, they sat it on
a wheeled dolly. His co-worker tipped the monument over and it landed on Derrick’s foot, breaking
several bones across the arch of his foot! AHHHHHHHH We have spent a 18 months
to be where we were at and he was supposed to leave with the military in
August….. It is now unsure if he will actually even go to boot camp. They may easily
release him! As frustrated and mad as I was, I felt that everything would be ok
and work out…. I didn’t know how but it didn’t matter!
After the Doctor checked him out, I asked him
what he wanted to do. He told me that if he had to stay home doing nothing, he
would rather be on a road trip sight seeing! Once we got him some codeine we
hit the road… I think we passed Morgan at 10pm… what a long road ahead of us!
We had hotel reservations near Mt. Rushmore for that night. I knew it would be a long drive
but there were not many places between here and Mt. Rushmore… maybe Casper, WY
and I vowed to never stay there again as long as I live. We called the hotel to
let them know we were still coming, albeit really late.
Anyways, I got Derrick situated laying down in the back seat with his
foot propped up. Somewhere half way across Wyoming, I was obviously driving, I
peaked at the top of the this hill and I noticed something was in the middle of
the road, in the 2 or 3 seconds I had to react, I felt I should hit the debris head on. I knew
as I hit it, our car did not fare very well. I WAS PISSED to say the least!
This car is BRAND NEW! We got off the next exit and I just had nothing good to
say, I was mad about Derrick’s foot and NOW I was so mad about the car. At this point I was sure I couldn’t complain much more…. and at the moment of extreme anger, I was overwhelmed with a
feeling that I should be grateful, GRATFUL for WHAT? I was taught there and
then! The other alternative was to swerve and miss the debris. It hit me like a TON of bricks! If I swerved and possibly over corrected I would have more problems than a bumper and dragging undercarriage. Derrick was
not buckled while he was lying in the back of the car. I do not even want to imagine the
out come of that! Pretty sure that was the end of complaining for me, I was
inspired not to swerve for a reason! from this point on of the trip, I had him buckle up! The car did NOT fare well but still
drivable! My undercarriage was now dragging and I even tried to fix that, but I could
not! On the road we went. I once again called the hotel and said we are still
coming! We drove and drove and drove... sometime in the early morning I called the hotel and tell them we are still coming! I didn't care if I got 3 hrs of sleep in a
hotel, I NEEDED IT!
We pulled into the hotel at 7 am….. a 9HR drive ALL night! We
tried to check into the hotel, a very reputable hotel, and paid over $100. They will NOT
let us check in?? WHAT THE HECK!? I called them 3 times throughout the night and
explained our situation, broken foot and car accident! We ONLY wanted to sleep until check out!! He did not care and would not budge but I still had to pay for the room. I told the
guy that I was going out to the car and calling their corporate! Corporate
called the front desk and they still REFUSED to give us our room!!! IM
LIVID!!!! I have had the WORST 24 hours in a LONG TIME!! I told both corporate
and the hotel what I thought of them. We had no other choice then to continue on our way to see Mt. Rushmore
After Mt. Rushmore we headed up to Dickinson, ND, 5 more hours of driving. Begrudgingly
driving without sleeping, the vast rolling hills on North Dakota were stunning;
I felt I could see for miles. And the clouds looked as if we were in a glass
bubble and the clouds were smashed on top of that bubble. I have never seen
anything like that! On our drive, we realized we were in the middle of nowhere
and almost out of gas. I didn’t even think of how many miles we would be
driving, I figured there would be something on the way from here to there. MY
BAD! Wouldn’t that make my day! I swear we floated on fumes and a prayer into
Dickinson! WE were staying with a good friend of mine from middle school! This friend was a highlight in my middle school years and I LOVE her to pieces!! The last time I saw her was 8th
grade, 13 years ago. We have kept in touch and I was soooo happy to see her, meet her husband Blake, and her little boy Wyatt. It is hard to explain but I love when I meet my best
friend’s husband and know that they married and gem; someone that was taking
perfectly good care of her and truly treasured her!! NOTHING makes me happier! I
cannot tell you how much I love this family( I know I say that a lot but I mean it)! We honestly stayed up pretty late
talking and then we had to get up at the butt crack of dawn to get on the road!
Thank you Schulte family for letting us stay with you!
By the time I went to bed, I had been up near
40 hrs straight. We hit the road really early, and I was not ready to get up! I
knew we needed to though! On our way out of town we had a rude awakening. North Dakota
has some kind of law that stores cannot be open on Sunday until the afternoon.
It is a religious thing! WOW think of all the people here in Utah that would
Throw a FIT! I don't normally shop on Sundays but sometimes when traveling we have no other choice! It was nice to see that other places besides UTAH have values and religious standards.
We
were supposed to visit with a family from Derrick’s mission in Grand Forks, the
Smith’s and then head to Fargo to stay
Sunday night! Well After meeting this family I fell in LOVE with them. Kelly
and Greg have 5 beautiful daughters. Greg is a highway patrol and Kelly is a
clown. No really! I hate clowns but she certainly isn’t one of the creepy ones!
This family had so much love for each other, so much passion for life, and a
drive to do more and better their lives! WHERE have they been all my life!? Of
course we stayed the night with them, the next morning I did not even want to
go home! I knew we had to! We got up so incredible early it hurt! We had 1200
miles home and it took us 23 hours because I had to catnap on the side of the
road every few hours… oh and I did pick up a speeding ticket when I was warned
from Greg not to speed in North Dakota! DON’T SPEED in ND!!! I pretty much
hated my life all the way home and decided I would NEVER drive 2500 miles in
one weekend by myself!! Once at home and in bed, I got to sleep for 2 hours that night before I had to
work the next morning! Talk about a no-sleep handover!
Until next time! oh and PS Sorry I rambled and I hope some of this post made sense!
