Lessons from a Road Trip

We recently took a trip to Ohio to spend time with my husband’s family and to celebrate 50 years of marriage for his Mom and Dad. We drove—2 days there,3 days back.

I typically pack for such trips a day or two in advance, or at least make lists of what to pack, so I don’t forget anything. (I am a huge list-maker. I love lists. When we got married, I made lists of the lists I needed to make. Seriously. ) I’m especially careful to be sure that I have enough of my medication to get me through. For this trip, since we were leaving in the middle of the week, I didn’t have as much time as I would like to get ready, and ended up packing later in the evening the night before we left.

While we were packing, my husband had the great idea that we should pack one small overnight bag for the three of us for our overnight stay in Booneville, Missouri (about halfway-ish on our drive), so we didn’t have to take three suitcases into the hotel.

Side note: Booneville is a great little town. There were two civil war battles fought there, so there is architecture and history, and there is a casino if you are into that. The last public hanging in Missouri was there and the hanging barn is still standing-mostly. There is also an amazingly large prison. It’s an interesting little town. If you are ever there, visit Buerky’s BBQ, and say hi to the owner, Lisa, for us. She moved there from Centennial, Colorado a couple of years ago.

Back to the packing. I had my pills in a blue bag, but when I gave them to Husband to pack in the overnight bag, I switched cases. I wanted to pack some Sudafed for My Son, and it didn’t fit in the blue bag. So I moved all medication into purple bag.

The fact that I did not remember this little move had serious consequences later.

I gave the bag to Husband, who gave it to Son, who was told, without being told what was in it and how important the contents were, to pack it in the overnight bag, which had already been taken downstairs.

In Booneville, I could not find the bag, my pills were not there. The blue bag was gone. Nobody could find my pills We were left with no other choice but to fill my prescription on the road. But. Husband’s job had just that month made us change where we got our prescriptions filled, so it was no longer at Walgreen’s. It was through Caremark, the mail order arm of CVS. When we stopped in a CVS in St. Louis, they said they could get the prescription from Caremark but it would take 24 hours. We called my doctor, who said they could phone in an emergency refill to a CVS, so we found one along our route (hooray for Google) in Indianapolis. When we got there, the refill was no where to be found. We called the doctor again, only to find that my doctor was out of the country, and the doctor handling his cases was not available for 2-3 more hours. We found another CVS in Cincinnati (close to our final destination-hooray for Google) and had them phone it in there.

To our relief, it was there when we arrived.

It was about an 8 or 9 hour drive, that felt like much longer. See, I didn’t have my usual pill carrier with me, because Husband’s grandmother has the exact same pill carrier as me, and I didn’t want to take the slightest chance that she would get ahold of the wrong medicine. So I didn’t have my meds. All day.

When we got to where we were staying, we unloaded and unpacked. And my dear Husband? That’s when he found my pills In the purple bag. That not one of us opened in Booneville. We all thought it belonged to someone else.

The worst part is, because Son had been asked to pack the pill bag, he got the blame. So when the pills were found, well, I sobbed. It had been a stressful day and I felt terrible for the whole thing being my fault. I pleaded for forgiveness from my son. I at least had not yelled at him.

He is so kind-hearted and forgiving, he was over it immediately. I’m so thankful for that.

Now if only I could forgive myself as easily.

As my cousin would say, there is a lesson in there somewhere. Like, learn to forgive, and accept forgiveness, easily. Apologize when it is your fault. Stay calm under stress if at all possible. Search everything. Know how to use Google Maps.

And for the love of Pete, pack your own pills.

Peace, Kathie