The Great Drive -- Or, The Long Way Home (Pt 3)

So, on the 10th, we got through North Carolina, Tennessee, and we were in Kentucky, when I finally got a hold of my family to wish Mom a Happy Mother's Day. Lois was up visiting, and I was telling them about not feeling well, and we started comparing symptoms. We've got the same thing! And I found out where I got it! One of our other friends had it, and was round for 3 days at Lois' house. Both of us caught it from her, as did the husband of another friend. He went to the doctor, and was told, sorry. It's a virus. You'll just have to let it run its course. So, since I felt fine, if not able to swallow comfortably, we decided to revert to our original plan, which was going to be a heck of a lot more fun. So we headed northeast from Kentucky, skirting past Cincinnati, OH, stopping for the night about halfway between Cincinnati and Cleveland (better?!? I got told off by him for spelling it wrong earlier) for the night. Oh. My. Word. I've never had such a miserable excuse for air conditioning! It was constantly going on and off, really noisy and didn't ever really cool the room. I was up every 2 hours. It was horrible.

On the 11th we got up and drove the rest of the way to Niagara Falls, Ontario (through Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York). We decided to stop off there and see the falls on the 12th. I got up this morning and felt pretty rough. Much worse than I have done. But, at least had slept much better. So, dragged my feet and finally got out the door around noon. I felt miserable, though. Really poorly. Sitting in the restaurant waiting for lunch to arrive we were discussing the possibility of just heading straight home, possibly even today. I got a hold of Lois, and we re-compared notes on our symptoms. Seems like I do, in fact, have the same thing. It's just miserable. And, since I felt quite a lot better after lunch, we decided we'd see how I feel in the morning. If I'm really miserable, we can just pack it in and go home. If not, I can still get to my appointment on Thursday. I've also got an appointment with Grandma's doctor for Friday afternoon.

We also found a health food store that sells essential oils. Thyme and tea tree oils are both natural anti-viral/anti-bacterials, so I'd wanted to get some. They get absorbed directly into your skin, so if you put it straight over the lymph node, it gets to work in the most important spot! (You ought to mix thyme with something else, like grape seed oil -- my favourite -- or olive oil, because other wise the thyme is likely to feel a bit like it's burning your skin.) They also recommended this cool stuff called Lymphdiarral. It's specifically designed to drain the lymph system and reduce swelling in both acute and chronic lymph problems due to infection or injury. Well, that pretty well made my day! I've been using it all day, and I can feel a reduction in the swelling. I'm hoping I wake up and it's much better tomorrow.

We also walked around the Falls for a bit. Really pretty. But let's be honest . . . how long can you stand and look at a river? We spent about half an hour, then came back to the hotel. Just taking things easy today.

Just a couple of seconds of the roar of the water falling over the side.


We've got this really sweet little Australian Rosella Parakeet (a real parakeet, not a budgie that we just call a parakeet!) who lives in our hotel. Her name's Paris (since the Hampton chain is owned by Hilton. . .) She's a doll. Click on the video to see a short bit of her. You can hear her chirp. It's very sweet.