Travel & Places,  Washington State

Finding Our Way to Vancouver Part II

Sunday morning 

We arrived at the Motel 6 at around 3:30 am after landing and sitting on the runway for about 20 minutes because of a backup in Seattle. 

While waiting for our luggage I’d begun feeling poorly again. I’d felt bad since the day before when our flight issues had occurred but I’d chalked it up to nerves. It had settled later that day and I had felt better when we left Houston. But as we settled in for what meager sleep we could get that night I knew I wasn’t doing well at all. 

Morning came and we slept in as long as possible but our bodies were still on central time. We had all gotten little if no sleep on the plane and I think the only person who slept extra well at the motel was Forest. 

You know that feeling when you aren’t sure if you are extra hungry or if you are going to be sick? Well, that was me. Stomach grumbling and I was hungry but it wasn’t long before my body said SICK!!!! 

Luckily, if there is a luckily, we had woken up several hours before we had to be at the car rental at the airport. I had time to expel my guts and rest and thankfully there was kid tv available so Forest could be distracted. 

Chris fetches Sprite for me to drink and ice for me to chew and I alternated between sipping and heading to the bathroom. Eventually I told chris to take the shuttle to the airport by himself and come back to pick us up so I had more time to rest. 

By the time he got back I felt semi-well enough to get in the car for our drive to Vancouver. We planned a stop to the Safeway to get supplies, snacks and something I could barf into should the need arise. 

I should preface all of this with going back to last week. Early in the week Forest and I both had some tummy ailments but it seemed to pass and then on Thursday I picked Forest up from school and his cheeks were bright pink. We’d gone to the beach that previous Sunday but it seemed far too late for a sunburn to appear. A quick google of “pink cheeks in children” automatically resulted in 5th disease. 

5th disease is a human parvovirus that in kids presents first as a rash on the face and later moves to the other parts of the body. By the time the rash appears you aren’t contagious any longer. I’d mentioned it to daycare too the next day but they hadn’t noticed anyone else with it. And in kids there’s not much to do but let it takes its course over 1-3 weeks. 

By the time Saturday rolled around it had faded from his face somewhat and started appearing on his arms which to me sealed the deal. Otherwise he had no complaints. 

In adults, if you catch it later in life it can be worse, mostly presenting as stomach issues and possibly joint pain towards the end. My guess was I had the adult version. Good times. 

Leaving Seattle was slow on I-5. I remembered that traffic was horrible here when we came in 2012, too. Forest pointed out the people “camping” along the side of the highway and we had to explain what homeless people were and why they couldn’t afford to live in a house. Houston has a few encampments and Austin has even more since real estate has skyrocketed there, but it hasn’t been so blatantly visible to him before this. 

It was slow going until we got north of Seattle and still not super fast between the smaller suburbs up until we got close to the Skagit Valley. I had started feeling  alright after we left town and worked up a bit but soon began feeling bad again. We stopped at two gas stations which conveniently only had port o potties and I wasn’t going to hurl in those. I eyed nearby bushes with desire but we moved on down the road and managed to find a decent gas station with a bathroom. Outside a farm trailer was loaded with fresh corn from the valley for sale. If we weren’t traveling it would been a great stop to pick up some for home!

One last hurl before the border, I told myself. I didn’t want to show up asking Canada to let me in as I was barfing. Thankfully my stomach settled once again and despite one moment later that evening I thought I wouldn’t make it, that’s the last time that happened. 

I had been mentally keeping track of when/if Forest had gone pee—he tends to not go first thing in the morning and then forget after a while. I’d thought he hadn’t gone so we asked and sure enough he hadn’t—it was 2pm. The highway had a wait time for the border of about 40 minutes and we found the last roadside rest area and pulled over. 

Everyone’s bladders empty, we headed the last few miles to the border. 

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