Sad, Sick Days

Although the sun was finally shining, yeahhhh!!! Being on the road has been a little more challenging this week than others. I woke up with a touch of a sore throat and opted out of golf, so Mark figured something was up. I am always up for golf! I blame it on the middle-of-the-night rainy pool noodle job! That is definitely why I am sick. Mark played a round of nine holes without me, and I’d managed to make some tea by the time he returned. Mark decided to pull everything out of the back of the truck that had been weathering the rain the last few weeks to dry out in the sun. We made a plan to head for the Crater Lake area, and a day of driving was probably best for me. Although I really didn’t want a cold to slow us down. 

The next day, we left the trailer behind and drove up to Crater Lake. We were gaining elevation and ran into snow. It was incredible how the higher we got, the taller the snow stakes were along the side of the road. It was hard to believe the snow would get that high. There was actually a snow tunnel to enter the visitor information centre. We had reached 7076 feet above sea level. The lake was beautiful. Unfortunately, the trail down to the water was closed, but I think that was probably a good thing. I might have gotten down there and not had enough energy to get back up to the top. I wasn’t feeling any better, so a little hike around the top was about all I could muster. Even the washrooms had snow tunnels, so of course I had to take a photo! It must be incredible here in the dead of winter. 

With my cold really settling in for the long haul, I wasn’t up for much, unfortunately. We did a few little hikes to a beautiful waterfall and headed to Lassen Volcanic National Park. If I wasn’t already feeling bad enough, our luck was about to change. I was texting to check in with family when a deer jumped out in front of the truck. Thankfully, we missed it, only to hit the second deer that followed. It was a terrible thud, but it had stayed down and didn’t come up on the hood or break the windshield, so we figured we didn’t do much damage. WRONG! The deer didn’t make it, and we had done some nasty damage to the grill, bumper and the vents inside. Mark did some repairs to open the vents, and we kept an eye on the temperature; we were able to keep on trucking. We were heading to an RV campground outside of Reno that had wifi so we could watch the World Series. I slept on and off in the hot sun with my seat heater on full blast, serving as a heating pad. It was Hallowe’en, I had a splitting headache and was missing home. There was a buzz online of costumes, and even Meg texted saying that she was missing our annual Hallowe’en photo from school. It’s a super fun time to be a teacher, and I was feeling blue and missing out. All of my beautiful teacher friends spammed me with photos and messages, which cheered me up. 

Me looking just how I feel!!

We were all set up to watch the game. I was tucked into the blankets with a good dose of Tylenol and Advil, trying to ease my throbbing headache, when Mark realized the wifi wasn’t fast enough to stream the game. Why it didn’t work this time was beyond me; we had streamed the games next to the campfire in more remote areas than Reno for crying out loud! I really was not up for going to a sports bar, but I really didn’t want to miss the game either, so off we headed. We listened to the game on the radio on the way to the sports bar, and I was praying that this game wouldn’t go into overtime, as game 5 had, or I was going to be doomed! I felt rough and really should have just stayed in the trailer. Sadly, the Blue Jays blundered in the ninth, and we would have to wait for another night to bring home the World Series. 

With more Advil and Tylenol on board, the next day, we checked out Reno and tried our hand at gambling. I won a hundred dollars at the slot machine and, like a true gambler, cashed out. So maybe my luck was turning! We headed to Carson City and the Nevada Days festival. We had no idea what we were getting into. Nevada Days is a big deal in Carson City. Everyone lands in on Thursday with their RVs, and they don’t stop partying until Sunday. There is a big parade, beer tents and everyone is walking around with open alcohol. The music is pumping, bands are playing in the streets, and everyone is selling something. We didn’t arrive until Saturday, after the parade, so things were slowing down, but that didn’t stop us from being heckled in the streets; Mark was wearing his Blue Jays t-shirt and ball cap. We were walking through the crowds and the band started singing the Star Spangled Banner, followed by everyone yelling ‘Go Dodgers’ it was nutty! I was afraid we might cause a riot. 

With an afternoon nap and a little bit of makeup, I almost pass as healthy!

Hopefully, the Federal Hotel would have fast enough internet for us to watch the final game of the World Series so we wouldn’t have to spend another night in a sports bar. I could cheer as loud as I wanted without worry of being beaten up. NO such luck! So here we were in a little dive bar in a small town with the TV on as the bartender served us in his Dodgers jersey. There were lots of Jays fans in Reno, but in Carson City, we weren’t as lucky. Everyone was a Dodgers fan around us. My headache was starting again, and all the locals started rolling in for the game. We made friends with the group in front of us, who weren’t really baseball fans, so they decided to cheer for the Jays with us. There was a really loud and obnoxious guy at the bar that our new friends didn’t like, and the louder he cheered for the Dodgers, the louder they cheered for the Jays. If this continued, I could see us in the middle of a bar fight really soon. The stuff the guy at the bar was saying was awful, slamming Canadians and the Jays, and these girls were having none of it. It turned out one of them was a bartender at this bar, and this guy was a well-known character, with not many friends in town at all. Locals came up to us, commenting on this guy's behaviour too, and told us to ignore him. They said that anyone who didn’t like Canadians was crazy! The funny thing was, he kind of looked like Joe Biden, which kind of made sense. I was really hoping that we would win, just to lay it on the nasty guy, but no such luck. We were SO close!! The bartender in the Dodgers jersey came over to apologize to us when we were leaving, and asked that we not judge Americans based on the behaviour of the local at the bar. Wow, it was an exciting night, but we got out unscathed and now have lots of new friends in Carson City, Nevada!! BUT it sure was a sad ending for the Blue Jays. 

The next stop was Las Vegas; surely our luck would change there. I would be feeling fit as a fiddle and kick this cold to the curb. At the very least, I would get a good night's sleep, not being in a sports bar… right! Who was I kidding? We were in Vegas, baby… the city that doesn’t sleep. I was never going to get over this cold! In reality, I think we were the only tourists in bed by 10:00 pm in Las Vegas, but unfortunately, that didn’t help Mark. He went to bed feeling rough; now there were two of us sick on the road.