The Best Laid Plans of Mice & Men...

Here is a recap of our madcap adventures to date:

Sunday:
We were scheduled to depart at 4pm with 2 vehicles--the bus and the Explorer. We ended up leaving at 5pm, only to discover the Suburban experienced power surges that caused the fuse for the left, right, and brake indicator to blow out at the slightest bit of acceleration. After three stops at various auto parts stores and several fuses later, we finally called it quits and headed back to the church office to unload the Suburban and transfer everything over to the old, "trusty" Sligo van. We then met up with the bus and were on our way around 7:30pm.

Monday:
We make it through the night fairly "event-free", cycling through our arsenal of drivers; I took the 2:30 A.M. - 7:30 A.M. shift.

I make it through the night fairly event-free until 4:49 A. M. That is when I received a call from Maybell.

She is in tremendous pain, bleeding, and all alone.

Her mother calls me to tell me she wants to drive herself to the hospital.

I call back and a compromise is reached. She is taking a taxi directly to the George Washington University hospital emergency room.

Not wanting to dampen the spirits of those on the van and realizing there is nothing else of significance I can do until I hear back from Maybell, I wait. And drive. And wait.

10 minutes later Maybell makes it to the ER, is checked in, and has four physicians at her bedside attending to her. I let my mother-in-law know she arrived safely.

I want to wait until our next stop to discretely alert the rest of my family back home but the next scheduled stop isn't until breakfast at 7:30 A.M. --so I call my sisters. Team Thompson has been activated. Carol is on her way to the hospital and Linda will be watching her in the afternoon.

I then had to deal with my current situation. Monday morning; leaving Ohio; entering Indiana; not reaching Oshkosh until 4-6 P.M. that afternoon. My shift is now over so I book a ticket, now from one of the passenger seats, to fly out of Appleton, Wisconsin, the nearest airport to Oshkosh, as soon as we arrive.

In the interim, we make two stops in our search for a decent breakfast finally ending up in Rolling Prairie, Indiana. It is in those two stops that another situation comes to light--the bus was having serious A/C problems and leaking oil. At the second stop, a mechanic is called out. The oil leakage is due to a secondary compressor hose which can be fixed. However, attempts to fix the A/C prove futile.

Then Pastor Sigue, who is now up to speed on my situation, makes a suggestion. South Bend Regional airport is 30 minutes away. Cab it.

A plan is formulated and while the entire Pathfinder unit waits for the bus repairs to be finished, I cancel my initial flight and track down a taxicab service that will actually pick me up from off the turnpike (not an easy task). I grab two of the six bags I brought with me and say my goodbyes.

I posted photos and a video from that last stop. I will miss them. They are a great group that makes being a Counselor a breeze. And even though I only made it as far as Rolling Prairie, Indiana, I have already had quite an adventure.

Epilogue:
After a $65 cab ride and the combined gracious and unyielding efforts of the United, Delta, and Northwest ticket agents to get me out of Dodge, I walk through my door at 11:30 P.M. Monday night. It has been 38 and 1/2 hours since I last bathed or had any decent sleep.

And as for Maybell--she found out at the hospital that we were six-to-eight weeks pregnant but it was not to be. A partial miscarriage. Now we wait to make sure her levels come down. I get to be Mr. Mom for the week; make sure she eats; make sure she drinks; make sure she doesn't have a fever, etc. --a task I relish. Taking care of my baby.

Tuesday's tasks involved a visit to our PCP and more blood work. We will get the results Wednesday.

In the end, Maybell is healthy and safe and we have our future. All is well.

As for the Pathfinders--I found out the A/C never worked and they made it all the way to Wisconsin only to get stuck in the mud at the campground site. But it was nothing that Director Milam's camp cooking couldn't cure, along with a third place trophy for our drill team. All is well.

The best laid plans of mice and men...