Homeward bound

And so it was that this morning it was time to pack the bags and drive back to Nashville for the long flight home. A last round of cuddles and it was all over. No doubt next time we see them the two kids will have changed hugely and who knows when that will be. We will just have to wait and see.

Planes this round were more or less on time and connections made. We were lucky enough to get our requested upgrade to business class so are travelling back in style – if not supreme comfort. Milestone replies await tomorrow

The last walk

In the afternoon when Eleanor had had a no sleep time, I stayed home to look after Marshall while the others went for a walk to some above ground falls in the national park where we were staying. It was just as well I didn’t go as it was a strenuous hilly walk in high temperatures. It looked like a lovely spot but swimming was not allowed there – no doubt a liability thing – to be safe you seem to need a lifeguard on duty.

Ruby Falls

We were all in need of an early night after all the driving and A & Hs early start, and sleep ins aren’t an option with little kids. The next day dawned bright and sunny so after breakfast we headed towards Chattanooga and the Ruby Falls. These falls are underground and reached by a half mile walk rhrough caves similar in many ways to Waitomo although more confined. Certainly as far as I am concerned it is the only type of walking to do in 35 degree C temperatures. The tour guide commentary is pretty light and the actual falls are made spectcular via the lighting effects and build up music before the lights are turned on to reveal the falls. Eleanor enjoyed the lights but was a litle freaked out by the walk around behind the falls and looking up at the diamond effects as the water cascades down toward you. Good photo shot opportunity.

Boy can it rain here

Despite all the warnings that Eleanor was not a good traveller, she settled down quite happily and soon realized we would not pick up for her all the time. So she chirped away quite happily. Andrew called to say they were leaving the hospital and we should meet them further on the trip to Chattanooga. Unfortunately we drove into torrential rain which reduced visibility to only a little better than zero so we had a very slow and stressful drive. We struck similar weather in a similar area on a previous trip. This time though we felt obliged to keep going as Andrew and Hannah were waiting for us at a Cracker Barrel Restaurant down the line. We were very glad to drive out of the rain a little before that and even more glad that it passed on before we left. It was about another hour drive to Ruby Falls and we stayed clear of rain. In the end we decided to drive up to Cloudland National Park and check into our cabin and leave the falls walk until the next day. It was a lovely spot and very comfortable cabin.

Op successful

Andrew, Hannah and Marshall left home at about 3.30am and headed for Nashville hospital. We were able to follow at a more leisurely pace after breakfast. In fact by the timewe left Marshall was out of theatre and in recovery. The op had been a success and he was awake and perky – somuch so that they were able to leave long before we were due to meet them.

Pre-op preparation

Pre – operation preparation

Tomorrow Marshall will have his first operation on his club foot. He has had it in plaster since his first week with weekly trips to Nashville to have the plaster changed. The foot has turned quite a bit but tomorrow they operate under anaesthetic to drop the heel down. Hannah and Andrew will leave here at 3a.m. in order to be there for all the pre-op stuff, and we will look after Eleanor and take her down with us a little later in the morning as we are all headed for Chattanooga and the mountains for a couple of days. But today they had to go through the procedure of removing the cast. This begins with sanding the plaster to remove the shiny surface and make it more porous, and then they have to apply vinegar to break down the cast for removal. They put a large sock over the plaster and drench it in vinegar. This has been a weekly task the night before going to Nashville. With just over 2 hours drive each way and Eleanor hating car travel it has been quite a business. After the op the leg will go back into a cast for 3 more weeks and then he will have some sort of brace instead for 6 months, and then it will be another brace that just has to be worn at night for a couple of years.

Yaya’s Island

When the weather is stinking hot but you need to get out for a change of scene, Yaya’s Island is a fun place to go with kids. Despite the exotic sounding name this is actually just in a shop building in a mall – you only pay for kids entry so it was quite a cheap outing. They have a big tank of tropical fish. Eleanor’s favourite game is to sit in the blue ring and toss out the balls for others to catch and return to her. Unfortunately today there were no balls to be found there, and none of the young things on holiday jobs were interested in locating any. She still enjoyed trailing Jim around and having a bounce on some of the larger balls, but was actually in need of some sleep. That’s been a bit the case on most days as the weekend was very action packed with christenings, birthday party and presents and cake, grandparents and aunties etc.

Time spent at home is not hard to fill. There often seems to be one grandchild or another happy for some Granny time. Eleanor loves reading books together – often the same one many times over in one sitting. She has favourite pictures and favourite sounding words. She can fill the gaps if you pause. I don’t think I have ever known a 2 year old to speak so clearly and have such an extensive vocabulary – and I don’t think that is granny bias. I was expecting to have to get parent translations but certainly no need for that.

Family photos

Seem to be some tired kids and grandparents around today so we are having a quiet morning. I have been down to get a rental car and now Andrew and Jim have gone to play frisbie golf. Hannah and the two kids are taking a nap, and I’m just processing photos for the blog. We had dinner over at Hannah’s parents place last night and Eleanor enjoyed playing with Jazz the dog. Not sure who was walking who.

A few more precious moments:

Baggage update

Now Monday late afternoon. Two bags have arrived but one still to come and there are more storms in Chicago disrupting flights. The bag we are waiting on of course is the one with birthday presents for Eleanor but she doesn’t seem to be in need of anything else in a hurry. Maybe tomorrow we will have completely arrived.

Now Tuesday and we are now all here. The last case arrived here about midnight – so only 48 hours later than it should have been. Amzingly it took about 3 hours to even get from the local airport about 15 minutes away. We got the call at 9pm to say it was being delivered so Jim stayed up to wait. At about 10.30 they phoned again to say they’d be another hour or so and would leave it by the back door. Makes you wonder if this country really did manage to land a man on the moon :->>

The long long l o n g way to Paducah

Well we are finally down here in Paducah Kentucky with family. It was a problem getting here though. We left our motel in Calgary at 4a.m. to go to the airport only to find that our flight was delayed an hour and we couldn’t go through customs and immigration for the USA for a further 90 minutes. However our flight departed just after 8a.m. with the announcement of a flight time of 2 hrs 50mins. That left us plenty of time for the connection in Chicago. Unfortunately there was “weather” happening in Chicago and we were set into a hold pattern about an hour out from the airport. About 45 minutes into that the captain announced that they could hold for about another 10 minutes and they would then have to make some decisions about heading somewhere to refuel. At about the 11th minute we heard that we were now able to proceed to Chicago, where we again got put in a hold pattern but were finally allowed to land. They reassured us that a lot of planes would be delayed and we would still likely make out connection, but no such luck.

We were then sent to queue for re booking at a later time, but there were about 200 people ahead of us in the queue and only 3 staff processing. Thank goodness for mobile phones as we were able to phone Orbit in NZ and between them and Andrew researching on the internet we got a flight to Paducah at 10p.m. but still had to wait til we got to the front of the queue to get boarding passes issued. That took 2 1/2 hrs. Meantime I sent Jim off with the bag tags to collect our bags. Unbeknown to him he went out through the security area (immigration processing was done before we left Calgary) and of course he had no passport or boarding passes with him. Our bags had been sent on to Nashville he was told. When he tried to return to me he found he had to go through security. It took quite some time persuading them that he should be allowed. They had to check his drivers licence and gun licence with NZ and then rescreen his day bag, shoes etc. Of course once I had endured the queue for that time, I then had to spend about an hour on the phone trying to track down our bags – talking to Indian operators who didn’t understand much and were even less able to make me understand. I’m sure that is deliberate. Short story is, we got to Paducah a little after 11 and no bags, so we had to fill out forms and then go home and wash our travel clothes (which couldn’t be put in the drier) and then get them dry enough to wear to the christening the next morning. Got to bed finally about 1.30a.m. So the joys of travel are many. Despite all it is still great to be here. We are still trying to sort a car as we never went to Nashville, Tennessee to collect the one we booked, and in the end I think we have lost our deposit and will have to pay a higher rate because of the now one way rental to a different state. Just as well Core pays us such a fantastic salary LOL. Anyway, here are Marshall and the birthday girl. The plaster cast is not a result of child abuse – he has a club foot and the cast is to help turn it. He will have an operation on it this Thursday to correct it further so we will look after Eleanor and drive down to meet them later in the day and spend a few nights away with them in Tennessee.

The last few photos were taken at the christening and during lunch back home later.