Warner M.D.: Broken Foot Road Trip

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! 1^st, 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! 2^nd, 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 8^th 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!