Day 17

Day 17: October 15, 2021 (Van Horn TX to Marfa TX)

Today was a shitty day.  I slept ok in the RV and woke about 5 AM to work on my story.  I was meeting Bruce and Darin at the hotel at 7:30 AM.  Sunrise here is at 8 AM.  I don’t like riding in the dark on unfamiliar roads.  

I have a high-level outline of my story.  For each of the high-level topics, I’m creating a more detailed outline.  Once that is done, I’ll start writing.  

In my time this morning, I was outlining the details of Amy’s birth.  Amy was born with a congenital heart defect that required open heart surgery.  The surgical technique was just perfected a year earlier, and they didn’t have surgical equipment to operate on a newborn.  We had to wait until she was older.  Amy also had severe gastral reflux; so, everything she ate, she threw up.  It was a nightmare!!

At the time of Amy’s birth, I was in my last semester of electrical engineering school, taking 5 senior level EE classes.  I was 22 and Laura was 21.  It was an extremely difficult time, and our families were useless.  It was just Laura and me taking care of Amy, with me working and trying to finish college.  We couldn’t afford help and Amy needed 24/7 care.  She was on six medications that needed to be administered around the clock. 

There is still a lot of emotion when I go into the details of Amy’s first year.  

I didn’t get all the way through the detailed outline of Amy’s birth through her surgery.  But we had to get the day started, so I stopped outlining.   On the way to pick up Bruce and Darin, I stopped to get gas.  As I was pulling out in a tight area, the backend of the RV swung a little more than I anticipated.  I clipped the tire of the mountain bike on a security post and bent the tire.  

I am the worst f-ing RV driver.  In just less than 3 weeks, I’ve damage two bikes because of my RV driving.  I was ready to sell the RV, ship my bikes home, and call the whole thing off.

Bruce and Darin “talked me off the ledge”.  We ate a little breakfast and then were ready to go.  It’s been a few days since I’ve been on the recumbent bike due to the bumpy roads.  Today, the start of the ride had a smooth road and shoulder.  

We un-racked the recumbent, I put the lights on it and my water bottle in the holder.  Then Darin notices that its front right tire is flat.  FUDGE. (Only I didn’t say fudge.)  Flat time number 6.  We re-racked that recumbent and un-racked the other.

I was finally riding.  It was bit chilly, sunny, and light winds to begin.  As the morning progressed, the winds picked up.  Guess from which direction?  Yep, they were headwinds.  I was not able to get into the rhythm of the ride; too much on my mind with writing my story, feeling like shit about damaging another bike, and work stuff that I couldn’t shake.  

One good bit of information; CNN wants to interview me next week.  Thanks, Angie, for setting that up.

We made it to our destination in mid-afternoon.  Hopefully, tomorrow will be a better day.