Skip to content
Menu
Planet Stahl
  • Cart
  • Checkout
  • My account
  • Scholorship Fund
  • Shop
  • Candidate Stahl
    • Campaign Donations
Planet Stahl

St Jude – Weekend in Colorado

Posted on April 17, 2023April 17, 2023

I had a few customers come into my work today asking how Summer was doing… Did she make it to Colorado???  Man!!! I am terrible…  I planted some videos and updates on Facebook after I raced out of town… But nothing on the blog.  I am terrible!!!

Thursday morning Summer had a speech appointment first thing.  We went to St. Jude only to find every parking spot taken!!!  I dropped Summer off at the front door and drove back to the parking garage.  I feel for other parents who have little kids and cannot “shortcut” the system as we do.  Even though I generally trust her to get to the door with little incident…  It’s always stuck around in my mind that she could fall on her way to the building with no chaperone.  I’ll definitely get that “Parent of the Year” award I have missed since the kids have grown up.

She does move slowly.  Even with dropping her off near the front door, parking the car back a 1/8 mile, and walking back to the entrance… I still catch up to her in the waiting room for speech.

After speech…  Summer headed to the activity room.  Imagine that?  Those resin stars are not going to craft themselves!!!  Later, we ran over to E Clinic so Summer could plead her case for getting off fluids for traveling.  Summer had every scenario going through her head… Lindsey might be tough… But sometimes the fill-in doctor was more “by the book” and might actually be tougher to convince.  Turns out that both were gone or occupied.  Katie was there and listened to Summer.  She then asked her some questions about what fluids she had already taken.  Fortunately, she was already through one of her 24-hour bags and was barely into the second bag.  (Her backpack still weighed a ton!)

Katie said that the second bag of fluids had not shown much change in Summer’s liver enzymes during the last cycle.  She was safe to stop taking it and have her port access removed till next week.

AWESOME!  Things were looking good!

After getting detached…  We headed back to the Teen Life / Activity room.  Summer got all of her crafts put away and covered up so they would not be tampered with over the weekend.  We then headed back across town to Ramblin Joe’s Coffee Shack for another Cafe Con Leche for me and a Huckleberry Frap thing for her.

I attempted to some laundry done and started bagging up some stuff to bring home.  This is how you know the end of treatment is in sight…  We are starting to unload the apartment!!!  Even with a carload of “stuff”… I still believe a moving van might be in order when the time comes to depart.

Dinner Thursday was provided by Dominos Pizza.  The last time we got pizzas… Summer yelled at me for getting something with vegetables.  This time, unlike every dinner provided by Target House, she was there with me to make sure I picked up something she would eat.  That’s a sign that she has absolutely no faith in my ability to acquire food.  After securing a Mushroom and Chicken pizza…  She ate one whole slice!  Glad she was so involved with the selection!!!  Then again…  It’s her journey… She can pick the pizza without me arguing!

All systems were a go for launch on Friday.  We are doing better than Elon and SpaceX!

The flight from Memphis International was 5:30 AM.  The drive says 15 minutes from Target House.  Summer and I agreed that leaving around 4:15 would be OK.  That meant setting the alarm for 4AM!!!  Yick.  Summer headed to bed around 8:30… I looked at her as she was heading to her room ask asked “You really think you can fall asleep this early?”.  She just shrugged and closed her door.

The alarm ringing that next morning was as crappy a feeling as I expected.  Traffic moved right along and I was able to pull up to the handicapped space at gate 2 in departures with little fuss.  I got out of the car and made sure Summer was safe to walk inside without me.  You could see the ticket counters for American and knew that was a safe distance for her to cover.  I gave her a hug and asked if she “had this?”.  She told me she did…  I watched her walk inside the terminal and pulled away. 

There was so much buildup to this trip to Colorado.  I know that Summer has gone back to Carbondale and spent many nights away from us and St. Jude over the past 11 months…  But this event was something different.  Independence or the first hint of life after treatment.  As I drove away… I was so overjoyed and happy for her that I had tears rolling down my face.  And then when I realized I was crying…  Gigantic tears lept from my tear ducts like nothing I could remember.  What an incredible moment this was!  I made a wrong turn leaving the airport because I was not paying attention…  But I still made it back to Target House to get a few more hours of sleep before heading back to Illinois.

I checked in with Summer before heading back to sleep… She was through security.   I could rest easy at this point.

Now… I travel quite a bit… So I should have questioned in my head where Summer was going to connect her flights from Memphis and Colorado Springs.  I never did.  In my pollyanna mind, I just assumed it was a magically direct flight.  It wasn’t.  Summer texted me around 8 AM to tell me that the Dallas Airport sucks!  Ha!  I think it stinks even when I am at my most capable!  I can’t imagine landing there in her current condition and making the tram connections to the next terminal and gate.  Summer told me that her next flight was delayed an hour for “maintenance”… So she was upset that she got a crappy airport Duncan when she found Auntie Em’s closer to her gate.  I was just thankful she had time to get across that airport.

I continued to load the car and make my way North to Illinois.  Later during the drive home…  Summer sent me a picture of 2 FJ Cruisers covered in a decent coat of snow.  Ha!  Springtime in Colorado!

Summer settled in with the Nates and the rest of her friends from the Air Force ROTC Honor Guard.  Mrs. Elliott, one of the team moms had an AIRBNB for them.  I got a message from her that said the kids were all nice and warm in the basement… Playing games.  Big shocker right?

Saturday was the competition.  I didn’t hear about the results until later Saturday night… But Summer said they had not placed.  She is said everyone was a bit down because of it.  Honestly… I won’t say it didn’t matter to me…  I only want the best for those guys… but I was particularly thrilled just to know Summer was there and put in the hard work to make it happen.

Summer and the gang made this trip last year in one of the final independent things she had done before her cancer diagnosis.  We had thrown new tires on our Prius and let them drive our car all the way to Colorado Springs and back for the span of a weekend.  She planned it and booked the hotel by herself.  I really didn’t think much about it at the time.  Summer has always been the “planner” for trips.  Shocker right?  Wonder where that comes from?


Speaker of trips…  Last year on Memorial Day weekend…  We started this whole adventure.  I messaged Summer a tentative plan for a western road trip.  She had told me a few days ago that she wanted to go back to Mt Rushmore.  We have already been there, and that breaks my rules of going to the same place twice, but her explanation was that we took her so long ago that she barely remembers it.  I do recall it was a whirlwind tour over a Columbus Day weekend.  It was so long ago that the previous service manager yelled at me for how many miles I put on the loaner RAV4 from Forts at the time.  I think we did nearly 2000 miles in a few days!  Central Illinois to Devils Tower along with a 100 sights along the way.

This trip…  If it holds together for Memorial Day 2023 will be a similar route with some additional destinations that will secure those ultra-valuable Jr Ranger Badges.  Map below.

 

Related

3 thoughts on “St Jude – Weekend in Colorado”

  1. Diane Williams says:
    April 18, 2023 at 6:42 am

    So happy to read of the success of independence and conquering the travel flights. Definitely a BiG deal! Not easy for anyone!

  2. Dianne M Beach says:
    April 18, 2023 at 7:35 am

    WOW She did it!!! Of course she did! So happy for her that she could travel by herself. She has been on my mind about the trip. Going by herself and all. More trips to come!

  3. Linda L Robinson says:
    April 18, 2023 at 11:44 am

    Summer had already connected with the next terminal and gate, was actually seated on the plane, by the time I even succeeded in finding the status of her flight. By that time I remembered, the angels are watching over her!

Comments are closed.

Archives

Eric Stahl

Twitter

Tweets by Planetstahl

  • May 2025
  • March 2025
  • February 2025
  • January 2025
  • December 2024
  • November 2024
  • October 2024
  • September 2024
  • August 2024
  • July 2024
  • June 2024
  • May 2024
  • April 2024
  • March 2024
  • February 2024
  • January 2024
  • December 2023
  • November 2023
  • October 2023
  • September 2023
  • August 2023
  • July 2023
  • June 2023
  • May 2023
  • April 2023
  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • February 2017
  • December 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • May 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • December 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • June 2015
  • January 2015
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • February 2013
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • November 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • November 2010
  • October 2010
  • September 2010
  • August 2010
  • July 2010
  • June 2010
  • May 2010
  • April 2010
  • March 2010
  • February 2010
  • January 2010
  • December 2009
  • November 2009
  • October 2009
  • September 2009
  • August 2009
  • July 2009
  • June 2009
  • May 2009
  • April 2009
  • March 2009
  • February 2009
  • January 2009
  • December 2008
  • November 2008
  • October 2008
  • September 2008
  • August 2008
  • July 2008
  • June 2008
  • May 2008
  • April 2008
  • March 2008
  • February 2008
  • January 2008
  • December 2007
  • November 2007
  • October 2007
  • September 2007
  • August 2007
  • July 2007
  • June 2007
  • May 2007
  • April 2007
  • March 2007
  • February 2007
  • January 2007
  • December 2006
  • November 2006
  • October 2006
  • September 2006
  • August 2006
  • July 2006
  • June 2006
  • May 2006
  • April 2006
  • January 2006
  • November 2005
  • October 2005
  • September 2005
  • August 2005
  • July 2005
  • June 2005
  • May 2005
  • September 2001
  • May 2001
  • April 2001
  • March 2001
  • February 2001
  • January 2001
  • December 2000
  • November 2000
  • October 2000
  • September 2000
  • August 2000
  • February 2000
  • November 1999
  • Cancer
  • Candidate Stahl
  • Digital Divide
  • Family
  • Friends
  • Grief
  • Health
  • History
  • Home Improvement
  • Libertarian
  • Local News
  • Music
  • Pets
  • Scholarship Fund
  • Social Commentary
  • St. Jude
  • Throwin' Wrenches
  • Trail Team
  • Travel
  • Uncategorized
  • Video
  • Work
Eric Stahl

©2025 Planet Stahl | WordPress Theme by Superb WordPress Themes