Two Days In

Posted by meli on Friday, December 07, 2012 in family, life of play, travel | No comments

We did it! 

We hit the road. On Wednesday. Like planned.
Boosh!

I can't say the plan was executed without a hitch, though.
2 days on the road, and we've had a bunch of excitement already.

We woke bright and early yesterday, ready to roll... right after our UPS package was delivered. Of course while waiting for that brown truck, little odds and ends kept popping up that needing tending to. Little odds and ends that added up pretty quickly to mean we didn't even have the 5th wheel hitched up before UPS came at noon. One last run to the recycle center, and we were ready to hitch and ride. Only... our landing gear busted nuts while raising it to hitch. A project that required the entire side of landing gear be taken apart and repaired. 3pm when that finally gets done. Okay, still time to make it over the mountain pass before the snow hit. All hitched up, car loaded, hugs and lots tears saying "see you later" to our grandparents, started the truck ... no lights on the trailer. Whaaa?! 

 

Fingers crossed for a simple fuse problem. No sir. Simple is not the way we roll. Checking this and that, taking apart this and that, and finally they decide to go under the truck to check the wiring. Still hitched up, we needed to back up a little so we could lift the front end of the truck a bit. Me, having never driven this thing before, gets tasked with backing up! The door was open so I would be able to see my Grampa, but I still couldn't really see him, so I stuck my head out further, while backing up (not gassing it... just lifting my foot off of the brake a bit to roll), so I would at least be able to hear him over the roar of the diesel engine. I had my head stuck so far out of the door that I almost fell out at the same time I hear a "STOOOOP". Too late. He was gesturing thinking I could see him, so his stop came AFTER I hit the house. Dented their gutter, put a few new holes in the back of our rig (we JUST finished repairing collision damage!), and our ladder is bent and crushed into the rig. The kids immediately ask "are we going to have to wait for moooooooore repair parts to come in now" (a 2 months process for the last repair, lol). Nope! We are LEAVING TODAY even if that means we're dropping pieces of our house from here to Florida. 

They finally get under the truck... Bingo! Faulty loose connection. A pretty quick fix after that. It was almost 5pm when we finally hit the road. We drove 6 hours before stopping from the night. Now, I've watched a lot of horror movies involving rest stops, thankyouverymuch, so the days leading up to this was a bit worrisome. Once we stopped though all my fears were immediately gone. Maybe because I was already half asleep? lol. We were all very excited for our first overnight at a rest stop, though the excitement only lasted about 10 minutes before we all passed out.

This morning I woke up at 6:30am ready to hit it! Lucy, the sweet stray pooch that adopted us a month ago, decided it was a good morning for puppies! I hoped we had enough time to get settled in FL before the arrival, but ok, lets do this! The first two puppies born were great. Same color as mama, and all kinds of wriggly. The third puppy was black and white. So cute! We were all so excited. Lucy was soon done cleaning him up, and went right into contractions for the next. I noticed that he wasn't wriggling around trying to find a teet. I looked in closer to see that he wasn't breathing! Years ago I watched some puppy show on animal planet, and I remembered them saying that if a puppy isn't breathing, hold it firmly in your hands, belly up, support it's head, and fling it! A swift motion from shoulders to knees. It's supposed to work to bring up any fluid in the lungs. Sooo, we flung him, and flung him, and flung him. He'd make grunting sounds after each fling, but then go back to not breathing. We called the closest vet (40 minutes away), but the Dr wasn't in yet. Started puppy CPR. Holy crap, tiny little puppy mouth to mouth will surely wake you up in the morning! We decided to continue CPR in the truck while we headed to the vet... at least we'd be closer if they thought they was something they could do. He was gasping for breath, which was better then not breathing at all. Atleast there was some sound there. 5 minutes into the trip I was getting worried that the pup was getting too cold, so I stuck him back in the box. I put him under the other three pups, so the body heat would warm him up, and also so their wriggling would consistently be pushing on and stimulating his lungs. 

 

We get to the vet clinic to check in. I look in the box... and there he was. Wriggling and climbing around. Breathing just fine. Like nothing. 

!!!

There was nothing more the vet could do, so back on the road we went with a very watchful eye on little Rocky (had a rocky start, while going over the Rockies, putting up a great fight like Rocky ... I mean, c'mon, there was no other choice in name).

About an hour later, another puppy was born.
Five!
How in the hell did 5 puppies fit inside of this tiny little dog?!
And also, holy freakin nut house up in this RV when they all start running around.
SEVEN dogs in an RV?!
TWO cats. FIVE people.
Get the straight jacket ready.
Also... who wants a puppy in about 8 weeks? 

Speaking of the Rockies. Holy fucking snow, Batman. I wanted to leave early on Wednesday to avoid it, but our late start wednesday, and then all the excitement and late start this morning equals we didn't miss it. At all. Like seriously ... NOT.AT.ALL. We were in snow all day today. Up and down mountain passes. Our truck fishtailed a couple of times. I had a few minor heart attacks. My toes froze. My freshly washed RV is covered in mud. 

 

When we were planning which day to leave I said 

"I don't want to travel with newborn puppies", and 

"I don't want to drive over mountain passes in the snow".

Pssssh!

A week ago I should have said 

"I don't want to win this epic powerball lottery".
I'd be swimming in benjamins right now.

... only two days in.