Thursday, August 29, 2013

Whatever I did to offend you Posideon I apologize.

Assateaque 2013, what a kick in the balls.

The lead up to this vacation was great. Everything went as planned. That morning we packed up the truck, hooked it up to the camper and took off.

The drive down was easy, Danielle even tok over the reigns for a bit. Once we got to the ferry I switched back into the drivers eat to get the truck and camper onto the boat.

Here's where our story gets interesting.

I pulled onto the ferry following the lead of the worker and I realized that she steered me way to close to the side wall but no biggie really.

We hopped out of the truck and went upstairs, the ferry takes off and we are thrust into some seriously choppy waters. the boat does some serious rocking the kids think its a blast and i used it as an excuse to get some sleep.

As the boat prepares to dock we head back into the truck. The trailer ahead of me pulls out and I get the wave to proceed. i turn the key and I get flashing lights and a clicking buzz. I try again same thing. The guy waves me on as I look at him with a face of sheer panic and wave him to me. He knew right away what was wrong, had me pop the hood and jump started me. A sigh of relief left me as I leaned out and asked what the hell happened there. He told me to check my battery as they jump start about 4 other cars. We deduced that the severe rocking tripped something in the truck and the other vehicles.

Usually when I leave the ferry and drive into Delaware it's a pleasant hour and fifteen minutes of back country driving. this time I was in full panic that the trucks battery, or worse yet the alternator was shot. I pulled into an Auto Zone and had them do a battery test. The nice employee showed me that the battery was in fact fine. With this new sense of security I proceeded to the campsite.

 When you pull into a campsite at Assateaque you have to back it in. Usually this takes me a couple of times, backing in straightening it out backing it undone. This time I couldn't focus right it took me a longer time than is should have to back the camper in, another clue perhaps that things weren't exactly kosher. As we begin to unpack a little girl comes over and instantly becomes friends with my oldest daughter Thira, her family also has an airstream so we all bonded instantly. Anyway back to unpacking I pull out my generator and start it up and of course its running rough, this piece of shit generator ran smooth as silk the week before when I tested it at home. Then to annoy me even further the fridge in my camper was not cycling over properly. Refrigerators in campers or RVs are called 3 ways. They run off of standard 120 power, 12v battery power and propane. They are supposed to smoothly cycle between the three, this one would not. This fridge is two years old and costs way more than you think it should. Needless to say i was pissed.

We had a great night that hanging out with our new Airstream friends in their rv eating ribs from Smokers.

The next day we finished setting up than ran out for breakfast and supplies. All the while I was dragging ass. I was exhausted and grumpy. When we finally got out to the beach it was windy and cold so that didn't help my mood. That night we headed out to the boardwalk and I had zero appetite in fact eating was the last thing that I wanted to do, my temper was super short and every time I sat down I was falling asleep. This is all adding up to a doozy of a night.

The kids had fun though and after a while we headed home. I had Danielle drive the 10 miles back and I instantly fell asleep. Passed out cold. I barely remember getting out of the truck and walking into the camper. I know I was in there because I woke up a few hours later in a state that I have never dealt with before.

 Here we go, this is the good stuff.

I'd say it was about 2 am and I woke up with a red hot fever, super nauseous, my head completely stuffed and shaking. I knew this was trouble. I ran outside, grabbed hold of the garbage can and let it go. This scenario happened four different times. Falling asleep for a minute, waking up because I can't breathe, and of course nauseous.

At one point I wanted to call 911 but Danielle yelled at me horrified that we would wake up the neighbors, She willed me to go to sleep which I thankfully did for a couple of hours.

As the sun started peeking through the Airstreams windows i woke Danielle and the girls up. I was freezing, shivering, sweating, nauseous, stuffed, and panting like a dog. I couldn't take a deep breath so I was taking these short little ones and since I was stuffed my mouth and throat was dry so I was constantly sticking my tongue out like previously stated dog.

Thankfully the ride to the hospital was close and although the walk to the emergency room door from the truck was short it took me forever. When they asked me my info I had to stop, take a deep breath, and concentrate so i could tell them the correct info such as my name, address, med. history. At the time this was a chore.

Luckily the wait was short so I saw the doc pretty quickly. The sinus infection was obvious but he wanted me to do a chest X-ray as well. When I was done with the exam and X-ray i was hanging out waiting for the results and I of course had to blow my nose. There was a box of tissues five feet behind me but I had to convince myself to get up and get them.

The Xray showed that my right lung was infected, pneumonia. What the fudge. Who gets pneumonia while camping on the beach? A man who pissed of the god of the Seas thats who. Obviously I did something to upset him which is why he made the ferry ride so rocky and my equipment malfunction, and he must of sent a crab up from the shore Sunday night that was infected with the bacteria that gave me the pneumonia. The crab snuck into the camper and proceeded to shake the pneumonia onto me as I was sleeping. This all makes perfect sense to me now as I look back at it all.

Thankfully the powers of modern medicine are stronger than that of a Greek gods. I was given a little pill for nausea that dissolved on my tongue while in the hospital which started my road to recovery and I took the first two pills of the Zpac that were prescribed to me right away. By the time I was back at the campsite i was feeling much better. Within a half hour I was hungry and a half hour after that I was walking out to the beach feeling as strong as Hercules. Amazing what modern medicine can do, I also attribute my hastened recovery to my lifestyle. Right before Assateaque i was in the middle of a great workout routine and a very healthy diet so my body was primed for the recovery.

My personal battle with Posideon was over, so I thought. Tune in for the next tale in the saga of my 2013 Assateaque adventure. it gets wackier before it gets calmer.

2 comments:

  1. thats a crazy story! well written as well. almost like a stephen king, but no monsters. that sucks buddy. glad your feeling better. i bet you were freaking out.

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  2. NOt Posideon...this was the work of a Spartan

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