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**Warning:  Get a drink and settle in…this is a long one… 🙂

As usual, we had a plan.  On Friday of last week we had packed up and had the Suburban packed to the gills, including the bike rack.  We were headed to Austin, where the kids would be staying for the week.  We were leaving promptly at 11 am, in order to make the 4-hour drive before Derek had a very important meeting with his boss at 4 pm, which he would take on the phone in Austin. 

At 11 am, while we are standing in the driveway making last minute luggage adjustments, Derek confesses to me, “I feel horrible – I’ve been nauseated all morning.”  Uh, oh, I think.  That’s not good.  He had just started a strong antibiotic that morning, and I was positive that was the cause of his nausea.  He had been having splitting head pain all week and had seen a doctor.  They thought it was fluid in his ears and gave him the perscription.

Next thing I know he’s inside vomiting.  He came out saying he felt better and we should go.  We make a quick stop at the Hickens, but have to pull over to allow him to throw up again.  Again, he thinks it’s better and we should press on.  We make another quick stop at Wendy’s to feed the boys before the trip.  Derek spends the entire half-hour in the Wendy’s bathroom, throwing up.  Finally I say, ok this is not going to work…let’s get you home and in to bed.  On the way home Derek is vomiting outside the car window and I’m trying to pull over as quick as I can.  It won’t stop! 

So we spend the next 4 hours trying to assess this situation (and washing the Suburban).  Actually, I was assessing…he was vomiting.  For four hours!  It was awful.  But we had flights leaving from Austin the next morning, and somehow had to get our kids settled there to.  So I got on the phone with the airlines and found Derek a flight leaving from DFW to LAX, where I had a 5-hour layover.  He would get to sleep and recover in his own bed, and take a later flight.  We would meet up, fly to Kauai together, and everything would work out great!  So after Derek stabilized around 3 pm, I left with the kids and most of the luggage and drove to Austin.  My Dad and Christy were sweet and met me about 3 hours in, for dinner, and some help driving.

We got the kids set up and to bed.  I got some sleep.  The next morning I choked on goodbyes to the kids (so hard to leave them!) and my Dad took me to the airport.  My flight from Austin to LAX was quick and painless.  We even landed early making my 5 hour layover closer to 6.  No problem!  I had to wait in line for a seat at times (that airport is packed all the time) and had to do some serious navigating for outlet plugs, but it was fine.

Then I got a call from Derek about half-way through.  He’s feeling much better.  But he’s sitting on the tarmac in Dallas…with a plane that is leaking fluid.  It looks like he will not make the window of time to fly to Kauai.  Should I go on?  Should I wait for him in LAX?

We decide that I should go on to Kauai…all of our luggage will be there.  And I will have a place to stay.  I’m exhausted at this point and frustrated, but agree.  I fly the almost 6 hours to Kauai by myself (although I sat by a lovely couple named Rick and Sarah, and we talked much of the way).  I get there around 7:30, stand in line for the rental car with everyone seeming to be on “island time”.  They finally give me the keys and the “stall” number and I head out with my 4 big bags looking for our vehicle.  It’s dark by this time, and I’ve spent the last 12 HOURS in an airport or airplane.  And I’m on my second honeymoon, without my husband.  Enough said.

Most of the cars on the lot are modern, normal looking sedans.  So I start heading for the one that seemed to be in our slot.  Wait a minute…that’s not #87…that’s 89.  I turn my head towards 87 and have to fight back tears.  Ok – no big deal.  It’s a Grand Marquis (no offense to anyone who has one).  With a trunk that is so deep you could bury people in it.  And I can’t adjust the seats enough to be able to see well above the steering wheels.  I’m not kidding.  This is not what I had in mind for my dream vacation.  I take a deep breath, load the car and head out to the main road.

I realize that I don’t have an address or detailed map showing where the resort is.  And then I realize that I don’t have a phone number either.  Derek usually takes care of those details.  So I head in the direction of Princeville (north shore of the island), hoping there will be signs to direct me. 

At one point I pull over in a dark parking lot and say a heartfelt, pleading prayer.  I’m lost, in a “foreign” place without my husband, in a Grand Marquis!  I plead for help in finding the resort so I can get some sleep and be able to enjoy my vacation.

Shortly after that I’m able to make my way thru the Princeville area and find signs to my resort, which happens to be at the end of a dark culdesac on a residential street…prayer works!

I get settled in our room, unpack a little, and fall asleep easily.  I woke up at 3:30 am, and can’t sleep (time change) and then hear the roosters start to crow around 5:30 am (there are roosters and chickens roaming everywhere in Kauai).  But oh is the view beautiful, which buoys my spirits!

Meanwhile, Derek has been working the phones, and finds a way to make it to another island on Hawaii!  He flies from LA to Kona, and then asks the airline to put him up in a hotel.  They oblige!  He sleeps there, all of 5 hours.  Then on Sunday morning, flies from Kona to Honolulu, and from Honolulu to Kauai, in an effort to get there as fast as possible (he’s now seen 3 of the Hawaiian islands!).  I return the 45 minutes to the airport on Sunday morning, greet him with a big hug and kiss.  And tell him that I will not drive one more minute in the Grand Marquis.  He laughs, and trades it in for a new model of a Ford Taurus (TAU US – inside joke).  Much better, thank you.

Pheww!  That makes me tired just writing it.  Quite an adventure, and the vacation hadn’t even started.  Thankfully it only got better from there…

Stay tuned.