The Ride Home

We are back from the coast in a day long drive which exhausted Shelby, tired me out, and left David feeling fairly good. Neither Shelby nor I slept well last night, both of us haunted by our own individual demons. Today I can barely move my arms. I can type, so that's good. Duration of typing is another question.

The drive home yesterday was what you might normally expect of a drive from Vancouver to Calgary; 12 hours of everchanging and consistently beautiful scenery. We saw no large animals along the way. Thiis was mostly unfortunate for Shelby, as this was her first trip through the Rockies to the coast. I get the feeling she would rather have stayed home, or at least done shorter segments.

The only real excitement was when David had to make an emergency stop. It was at that moment I realized my seat belt had not been done up after a catheter check. My bad. That moment came with me sliding out of my wheelchair and into the small space between my wheelchair legs and the back of the seats in front of me. Shelby's response was to scream "Om My God!" David's response was to wait a moment then ask if I was okay. Other than being squished, I was fine.

We stopped the van. David and Shelby removed the power wheelchair. Shelby put the sling underneath me, then lifted my back into my wheelchair. I put my seatbelt on then rolled back into the van, whereupon David and Shelby secured the chair once again. Shelby said she had never seen such a "shit show". She's only 19; she doesn't have a lot of experience yet. I've seen much worse.

We ended up getting home at about 10:30 PM. After ablutions and clean underwear, both Shelby and I hit the sack by 11:30 PM. Neither of us slept well; I because the fan in my room was making this incredible noise, and Shelby most likely because of her reaction to me sliding by her in the van.