Thanksgiving 2018

Okay, off we go to Arkansas again for Thanksgiving.  But this time it is immediately interrupted by a head cold.  I felt kind of bad as we left out on Wednesday afternoon, and that only increased as the night progressed.   By the time we arrived at the hotel on Wednesday night, I was fully into a cold or flu or whatever this nastiness is. 

Next few days….  we have Thanksgiving dinner at mom’s house.   All good!  But afterward, as we had planned to go to Silver Dollar City, I told my niece Jill that I just didn’t feel like going.  I’m sure I couldn’t stand 6 hours or so of crowds and noise and (most of all) rollercoasters.    So, she took Ivy and her bunch to SDC without me!  Thank you, so much, Jill!!   God bless you for doing that.   That was such a blessing, plus gave Ivy some time with her cousins and stuff like that.  Thank you thank you thank you.  

Ivy was dead tired when y’all returned to Mom’s house.  In fact, she doesn’t even remember getting out of the car and walking into the house!  LOL.  She was amazed the next day and kept asking, “How did I get into the house?”  I said, well, I took you out of the car and you walked into the house, took your clothes off, and climbed into bed.  She swears she doesn’t remember any of that.  😀  

Friday, we packed up our stuff and headed back toward Houston, but decided to go the longer route through Hot Springs, Arkansas instead.   Holly dropped me off at one of the Buckstaff Bathhouse just in time for me to be get the spa treatment.  In fact, I was the 2nd to last person before they closed.  There were numerous Japanese and Indonesian tourists (male) in the bathhouse, and I was one of only 2 … maybe 3 … white guys in the whole place.   I really enjoy the old-timey bathhouse experience in Hot Springs.  It is pretty cool with it’s 1920’s atmosphere and lion-footed bathtubs.  Check out these reviews and photos on Yelp and TripAdvisor.  Good stuff.   Not too expensive either – I paid $35 for a 1 1/2 hour spa experience.    Afterward, we had dinner at Granny’s Cafe on main street.  That was some good food, too!  

Then the long drive back.  Ugh.  It seems like it took forever to reach our hotel in Dennison.  But we made it.  And then our air conditioner didn’t work right.  It was set on 45 degrees … which I would later learn that someone had set it on celcius … but whatever the case, I had to get up in the middle of the night and shut the air conditioner off because it was unbearably cold.   The next morning, as well, I heard a knock on the door and it turned out to be the front desk… they said there was a leak from our bathroom to the bathroom below (on 2nd floor).  Sure enough, our shower as non-stop running and leaking.  As we all check out of the hotel, we agreed that this was the last time we’d stay this place.  Thanks, Holiday Inn Express, but you disappointed us one too many times.  

On we go to Dallas.  Rockwall, actually.  We stop to visit Toni and Nabil in their new home in Rockwall.  Wow!  Nice house!  Ivy put on her gymnasium suit and went for a swim in their hot-tub with her cousins.  We enjoyed our visit, and I even stole away for about 1 and 1/2 hours to visit my friend in Forney which is only about 14 miles away.    Later, I returned to enjoy some lunch made by Toni, and got a tour of the house including the spot where Nabil fell throught he ceiling!!  I really like visiting these folk.  Such good, down-to-earth people.  I think it is great that we have relatives in the Dallas area and even close together in Dallas area!  It gives us reason to visit the Dallas area more often.  😀  

Finally, off we go on our last leg of the journey.  I felt somewhat sick and stuffy-headed, but Holly said, “Please drive.”  So I did.  I drove the rest of the way home.   We arrived about 9 pm on the 23rd, and proceeded to just crash.  The dogs were very… VERY… excited to see us!  lol.  But we pretty much went straight to bed.  

Another year done.  

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Update:  When we got home, my illness became worse – much worse.  I woke up one night feeling so bad that I contemplated going to the emergency room.  I had a strange pain on the right side of my face.  I was thinking…is this a stroke??   But I managed to calm myself down and go back to sleep (for a couple of hours, at least).  I went to a doctor and learned I had multiple problems going on – Brochitis, flu, and high-blood pressure (186 over 110).  And would later learn I had an abscessed tooth….hence, the pain on the side of my face.  Even weirder, I learned I have numerous dead nerves around this tooth, so that’s why I never felt it despite it being abscessed.  Only when my sinus infection became so bad that the tooth pain increased all throughout my nose and cheek and jaw.  

So she gave me some meds in the office, and prescribed some pills.  It worked!  Over the next 7 days or so most of the sickeness went away, and the BP seems to have returned to manageable levels.