Month: September 2011

Well, of course, I am back from my trip! We cut it a bit short, as it was raining and cold every night in the mountains.

I drove about 12 hours to Dallas, TX, to my friend Kristal’s house. The drive was nice, no serious problems. The roads in TX are a bit of a mess. The interstate highways have no fencing in between the roadside and the access roads!

That means sneaky-sneaky cops!

Let me illustrate…..

================= Interstate===============me, not speeding========
——–side of the road, NO FENCING!————
==============frontage/access road======== cop clocking traffic==========

That is just not fair! Really!

I didn’t get pulled over once on the trip… Kristal, though…. Sorry doll! My out of state tags did you in!

Any who…..

So, we left Dallas and drove up to Amirillo, TX. From there we went up through New Mexico to get to the mountains of southern Colorado.

We stayed a few nights in the Rockies, but had to give up the ghost… The ladies in tents got rained out, rained on, and cold to the bones in their tents. I camped under my truck camper shell, so I stayed dry, and mostly warm.

We were all ready to bail, though. It was a great time, and the mountains were beautiful, but it was just to bad a weather to stay..

We packed up, ( I say we, it was all Kristal packing up my stuff, thanks sweets!) and drove back to New Mexico and camped for the night in a Motel 6.

We all played some euchre, (yay! Kristal finally got to win a round! Sorry, Jenea… You will learn, Darlin’) and then took off the next morning for TX.

Kristal was able to get a flight to Utah, and I am glad she did. I took off for home, as I ain’t getting on a plane right now with prosthetic legs!

I didn’t get to meet Brian and Nancy, but I already think a lot of them for hooking Kristal up and getting her to the Best Friends shelter!

I did get to meet Meghan and Becca, and ladies, you are top notch! I am very glad to call you friends!

I know this is not near enough of an update, and I didn’t even think about getting out the camera, but I am wore out from my day today! So, sorry 🙂 I will write a longer blog for ya later!

N

Or, if you have read the book and know the title… I’m Gone to Texas….

Or I will be in a few short days! I am going with some friends out West, and will be gone for a few weeks… We are going to Colorado, Texas, Arizona and Utah.

Not in that order, of course 😉

But, before I tell anymore about the trip, how about I give you some updates!

First off!

New sockets! As of yesterday, I have new sockets. These are a departure from the old sockets, fo sho… See, the old sockets were like a well fitting pair of work gloves. Big, thick, well padded, and great for the everyday chores.

The new sockets? They are like a set of hand made Italian leather driving gloves. Small, close fitting and curve hugging.. I only need to wear my liners and a thin sheer nylon sock over my liner for these to fit.

Wow, is all I can say. The downside? I have only a few days to learn to walk in these new sockets. Every major socket upgrade comes with a learning curve, and these have a real hairpin turn for a curve. :/

I couldn’t really walk in then much yesterday, as I over taxed myself walking the Louisville riverfront during a photo shoot.. Yea, a photo shoot. My prosthetics people asked me to do some photos with a professional photographer for their website, and of course, I agreed!

But, as I am apt to do, I overdid it. The photographer was named Andrew, and was a great dude to work with. If you read this, Drew, feel free to make a comment with your business info in it below, I don’t mind giving you a bit of free advertising space 😉

So, anyway, I did the shoot on my old sockets, and was worn out by the time I was ready to try the new sockets.

Poor Tommy, one of my leg guys, spent like an hour or two working out the kinks or adjusting my new legs to a perfect fit. Anyone who knows how I get when I am frustrated will understand what poor Tommy went through. (Yea, Jenny Jenny, it was one of my cussing and grumbling fits lol)

So, I made it home, came in the house and crashed out… It was a long drive, and a long, yet productive, day.

I haven’t gotten back up on my legs yet this morning, but I will when I get done posting this blog…

So, back to the trip.. Umm, a good friend is having her birthday celebration as a trip this year. She doesn’t usually celebrate, but this year she is going overboard, and invited me along. The invite came in February, and it has been a shining star for me to gaze at, and a reason to push myself to get better! I want this trip!

I am going to forgo the wheelchair, and do this without. It is going to be a test to my stamina, and my will power. But I will do it! One of the places we will be going is the Grand Canyon, and I want to stand on the edge, raise my voice and say “Fuck You, World! I am still alive, and I am still standing!”

When I do that, I will probably get some complaints from other campers, but I give not two scheisse about it. I need to do that, for me 😀

Anyway, I will be leaving out very early on the 6th, or very late on the 5th, and am going to be driving to Texas.

I will have limited Internet access, but will try to throw up quick blogs when I can to document the trip. I will be avoiding facebook like the plague, and the only posts their you are likely to get while I am gone are the auto update of my blog.

Why no Facebook? For the same reason I won’t be answering my phone… This is me time, to the max. I will be hanging with good friends.. Camping, mudding in the truck, having a few choice beverages, helping out some animals in a shelter, and seeing the West in all it’s glory!

Josey Wales didn’t update his FB and stay on his phone during his trip, so why should I?

Wish me luck, this is going to be an awesome, scary, great time!

Neil