Thursday, May 17, 2012

On the Road Again

Sober
When we left Roswell, on the trip to Memphis, a stop was made at Starbucks. They had two large expresso fraps that needed a good home.  Deciding to experiment, I took them both.  We tanked APR up on two cheeseburgers from MacDonalds and the fraps.  He had very few problems with directions, handing the trip to Hereford quite well, save for several emergency bathroom stops.

He did okay the next day, from Hereford to Oklahoma City.  I did not stop for food until we reached the outskirts of OKC, where we went to Cracker Barrel.  Sharon met us at the hotel, and visited for ages.  He was great.

The next day, we stopped fairly early for lunch.  I was going to try and make it to Memphis.  By mid-afternoon, it became apparent that we couldn't do it.  Once he ate lunch, he was disoriented much of the afternoon to the point where I stopped in Russellville.

Sharon, who has a husband with Alzheimer's was telling me about travel.  I looked things up and realized we were doing everything wrong.  We needed to travel in short spurts of about 250 miles a day.   

That last day, I followed the recommendations for travel, stopping frequently, keeping him very well fed.  He did great.  Then again, he seems to best when there is something going on, getting lots of attention.  He did fairly well in Memphis.

On the way back home, we left on the 14th, he was tired.  About the time I turned into Russellville, he lost it.  I was afraid he was going to get out of the car while we were driving.  My mother was talking to Floyd.  She had to hang up on him and just start fussing at APR.  He was freaking because he needed to get to a restroom.

We've discovered, when traveling, he would get upset about that.

The following day, he was terrible about directions.  He kept telling me to get off the road so he could find out where we were.  I managed to get him to agree if we went into the welcome center in Oklahoma, and he was told we were o the right road, that he would be quiet.

Forget that.

The next day, we stopped at Fort Reno.  He was very interested.  Then, as it grew later, we had the same problem with directions.  I stopped at a truck stop and got him a map.  He was obsessive with it.  I was going the wrong way.  I needed to go East.  Why was I going the way I was.  It was exhausting and annoying.  He kept fussing that we didn't need to go through Amarillo.  Then, when we were through Amarillo, why haven't we been through Amarillo.

He did not snap out of it until we were in Hondo.




All rights reserved, SJ Reidhead

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