From Iowa to Ohio, to the ER, and then Pennsylvania

We departed from York Place in our respective vehicles on Friday June 29th at 7:34 am.  For the next 7-8 hours we would be on the road heading for our stop in Toledo to stay the night.

The first part of our trip was quite uneventful.  Nathan drove the Penske (with the little civic in tow) and with Kronk in the cabin.  I drove the van with Hannah in the backseat.

Hannah did great!  She had her moments like every child does on a long car drive, but I was so impressed with her and how she handled it!  Kronk however did not do so great.  Nathan said he howled for about the first 2 hours of the journey, nonstop.  Poor guy.  He was scared for the entire trip.

I had to get a picture of the truck with the tow-dolly.  I think I took this photo at our last pit stop in Ohio as we were just getting ready to enter Pennsylvania.

I would say that about 3/4 of our driving time was spent in rainstorms--crazy, midwest rainstorms which can be brutal.  In fact, there was a period in Indiana that the rain was coming down so hard you could hardly see what was in front of you.  At some point we must have taken a wrong turn because somehow we ended up in Michigan, which added about a 45 minute detour to our travel route.  Oh well.

After we checked into our hotel we ate some dinner, and then decided that we should get settled for the night.  As Nathan was doing some prep-work on Kronk's cat carrier, Hannah had smashed her finger in the bathroom door.  It was so mangled and deformed that Nathan grabbed her and said "we are going to the ER!"

We got loaded into the van and drove off.  Hannah was crying hysterically as we were trying to navigate to find the hospital.  The receptionist at the hotel gave us bogus directions.  I then googled on my phone "hospitals near our current location" and it took me to some physical therapy facility.  Seriously?

So then Nathan told me to call 411 which I did.  The information lady first gave us the address to that same physical therapy place we were just at.  I told this woman that this location was not a hospital and that we desperately needed an ER!  She then texts me the address of a vetinary clinic.  GRRR!  I was so mad!  My daughter is not an animal, she is a human who need to go to the ER!

After that I just decided to call 911.  They guided us to a firestation that was just a few blocks away.  The firemen looked at her finger and encouraged us to go get it x-rayed, and they gave us proper directions to the hospital, which was less than 5 minutes away.  Thank you firemen!

So, after about 45 minutes of driving around we finally arrived at the hospital.  Hannah, of course, was no longer crying.  In fact, she was fine.  Her finger had regained it's original form, though it was swollen and a little purple, but she was favoring it slightly.  We still however wanted to get it x-rayed to be sure so we took her in.

Let's just say that Hannah was by far the most entertaining, charming patient that evening.  Everyone in that ER facility loved her (who wouldn't really).  Look at this picture.  She was so excited to be there.  It was as if nothing had happened to her finger.

The diagnosis: the nurse said there was a slight fracture, but the doctor said that there was no fracture.  Hmm.  Since when are nurses supposed to diagnose things?  I thought that was a little odd.  We just decided to watch and see how Hannah did.  If her finger was not better in a few days, and if she was still favoring it, then we would do some follow up care in PA.  (By the way...her finger is fine).

One of Hannah's nurses bandaged her little pinky up with pink tape (the kind of tape nurses wrap around your arm after they draw blood from you).  Hannah wasn't quite so sure about it and didn't really care for the bandage.

Check out this nurse!  I HAD to get a picture of her.  She was wearing one of those nursing hats from the 50s!  And she had bright blue eye shadow on, like the kind we used to wear back in the 80s.  Ah...it was classic!  She was such a sweet woman, and Hannah was entertained by her (actually, we all were).

And this is what I-80 looked like once we entered into Pennsylvania.  Lush green trees on both sides of the road.  It was beautiful!

At times when we would be coming out of a pass you would drive into this valley of never ending tress.  It was so pretty, and it made me happy that we get to live here!

We arrived at our home around 3:00 pm on Saturday June 30th.  Our neighbor, Sarah, was kind enough to take Hannah for the next several hours while Nathan and I, along with a few members of the Elder Quorum unpacked the truck.


One thing that was very hard to deal with right when we arrived was that the home was dirty.  Yep, our landlord did not really clean the home, which frustrates me.  After just a few moments of walking around I noticed that the bottom of Hannah's socks were black!  So, I had to quickly run to the store and get the swiffer sweeper tool and sweep the hardwood floors.  Then, later that night I had to clean both bathrooms so that we could all take our baths/showers because they were not clean either.  Ugh.


This last week has been a real challenge because not only are we trying to unpack and get settled in, but also because I have been trying to clean this house from floor to ceiling.  It's a newly constructed home and I don't think anyone has properly cleaned away the construction dust, which has been hard on Nathan's allergies.


So, I promise that I will post pictures of the house by the end of this week.  We are almost finished unpacking and cleaning.  We have just one room left to unpack and when that is all over with I promise I'll take pictures and post them for you all.