It seems that just about every time we try to go on vacation, the world conspires against us to foil our plans. On our 1st anniversary, we spent half the day in the E.R. because my wife had severe stomach pains. Before our first backpacking trip, our refrigerator broke. This past anniversary, we had to go to Urgent Care for Jonah. This vacation again was almost spoiled by a trip to Urgent Care. A few days ago, Jonah came down with a runny nose. No big deal, RIGHT? Then yesterday (Saturday), he took a huge turn for the worse. He was having a real hard time breathing. He was wheezing, and his chest was retracting. You could tell pretty easily that he was miserable. So we once again had to visit Urgent Care right before vacation.
Thankfully it wasn't very busy when we arrived. We were brought back right away. We subsequently waited for about a half hour before anyone saw us. This made no sense to me. A P.A. finally came in to check Jonah. She gave him an oral steroid and a breathing treatment to help open up his airways. She also ordered a chest X-ray to check for signs of pneumonia. After the first breathing treatment, Jonah improved immediately. He returned to his happy, chatty self. Though, the P.A. did put him on a second treatment because she still heard wheezing.
Let me tell you something. Nothing makes you feel like more of a horrible, awful, selfish parent than asking whether your child's illness is going to ruin your vacation plans. She proceeded to make us feel like terrible parents by telling us that she wouldn't leave her children with the grandparents if the roles were reverse. We were pretty sure at that point that our trip was canceled. We were released from Urgent Care to go to the pharmacy to get some meds. We went home praying Jonah would get better.
Thankfully, he seems to have recovered really quickly. We gave him a breathing treatment at home (with a nebulizer that was delivered to our house) last night before he went to bed and this morning. He seemed better last night, and this morning he seems at almost 100%.
After talking with the grandparents, we set up a cautious plan. We would head up north, checking in often to see if his improved condition held up. We checked when we got to the Mackinaw Bridge and tonight before we went to bed. So far, he is doing great. Praise the Lord! My parents haven't had to give him any more breathing treatments. As long as he is still doing good tomorrow morning, we will continue our trip as planned.
Besides that, so far the trip has gone well. We got a later start than originally planned, leaving at 11 instead of at 8. But it didn't really matter much. We made good time on the way up, keeping stops to a minimum.
We arrived in Munising a little before six. It rained on and off on our drive up. Thankfully, it wasn't raining when we got here (we're at the Munising City Tourist Park, by the way). The wind has been another story. It is blowing rediculously hard, which made putting the tent up difficult. I was really nervous it was going to blow away. We have it staked down really well, and so far it has held up like a champ. We also moved the truck to try to block some of the wind.
After we got the tent up, we headed into town for dinner. We ate at this dark, dingy greasy spoon called the Dogpatch. It was our last "real meal" before we head into the backcountry. We had some delicious bacon cheeseburgers.
Now that I'm loaded up with a greasy guttbuster, I'm ready to go hike 42 miles.
Right now, we're justed huddled up in the tent listening to the wind howl and waiting for morning.
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