[Calvin writing] Here we are in Missouri, a few miles short of Rolla. The last 36 hours have been even more "interesting" than we expected.

I got a call from my sister yesterday morning, telling me that Mom was in the hospital again. We were due to leave for Arizona this morning, but we went up there. Mom had had a heart attack, not due to a heart condition, but from being dehydrated yet again. We got there late yesterday after packing everything and setting up the bed. They had Mom in the ICU, hooked up to machinery. She did not awaken while we sat there for about forty minutes, but the readings on the machines looked pretty stable and good. I went to call my sister and one of my brothers. The doctor came in while I was on the phone. He found me, and I talked to him about our situation. He told me that Mom had a "better than 50/50 chance" of recovering and said, "If I were in your situation and I had a plan, I would go ahead with it." We did.

Not thinking through our situation thoroughly enough, we spent last night in the cheapest motel in the town. Looking back, we would have done better to stay in the minvan as originally planned. The motel room didn't have warm water, so we didn't get showers. Had we stayed in the hospital parking lot, we would have had access to restrooms. We have curtains for the van, and the temperture last night stayed warm enough that we really would not have needed the heater. We could have used it, though.

So we woke up this morning (at 5 a.m., as usual) and realized we couldn't take showers. We carry a product called No-Rinse; the time had come to try it. Nursing homes use No-Rinse shampoo for bed-bound patients' hair and the body wash to clean up diapers and like that. The procedure is to spray it on and wipe it off; it doesn't need water. We don't have the shampoo with us. The body wash works just fine. We will be looking for a source for the shampoo.

We ate from our supplies and took off. The trip is going well so far. The minivan gets just under 20 miles a gallon, mostly driving at 70 mph, which has been the speed limit since we left Ohio. We have been in windy weather all day, and she's remarkably steady.

Weather Channel promised us a storm in Ohio and Indiana and Mother Nature delivered. We drove on through rain all through Ohio and snow through most of Indiana. None of it stopped traffic, though. After that, we had cloudy skies, strong winds and dropping temperatures. By the time we reached Effingham, Illinois, the temperature was around 26 Farenheit. The skies began to clear after we left Saint Louis, which will make for a very cold night.

We decided to spend tonight in another motel. The Econolodge where I'm writing this only cost $6 more than the cruddy motel last night, which includes a very nice shower, internet service included in the price, and free breakfast. Cool!

Blessed be!