Tension on I-5

from Ben's mom

Ben and I went off to visit friends and family in Oregon on Thursday. We had a wonderful time catching up with old friends and seeing Ben's Grammy and Bam-pah. Ben gets a little out of sorts when he is not in his routine and he was plagued with allergies, mainly to cats. There were cats nearly everywhere we went and as long as he kept his distance, he was ok. But somehow he was too close and his eye puffed up again.

Yesterday, we went to church with my parents and then Ben came home for a nap after a brief potluck. My mom rides to Portland with us, catches the MAX (light-rail) train at a station close to our route, and then takes the Airporter shuttle (which she can ride for free as a benefit of my dad's employment) home. This is a lot of fun and helps with the journey.

We stopped in Portland to eat and my mom received a call on her cell phone that my grandfather had fallen and was being transported to the hospital. (We learned later that he broke his femur and he is going into surgery at 1pm PST today.) This put a damper on everything.

We dropped Mom off and then Ben and I went to get back on the freeway. As I made the turn, I could see that traffic on I-5 was at a standstill. So we veered back on to a side road and since I was in the neighborhood of my alma mater, I was in a good position to take side streets for awhile. We did this, only to have to get back on the freeway to cross the river into Washington. Traffic was wretched all the way to Seattle and we arrived at the airport 45 minutes late to pick up Mike. I told him we are going to put--"Go back to two cell phones" on a priority list for when we can afford it. I felt terrible that he was there stranded and didn't know what was happening with us. He had a cell phone and at one point when I was maneuvering side streets near Olympia because the freeway was again at a standstill, I looked in vain for a pay phone to call him on. They just don't have them at gas stations like they used to.

At one point we had to stop at a rest area as Ben had let me know he was in desperate need of a diaper change. The restroom with the baby changing table was closed for cleaning and thus Ben had to endure the humiliation of having his diaper changed on a bench outside. He told me exactly how he felt about that. At the same time, I discovered he had dumped his water all over his shorts and so he had to travel in his shirt and diaper the rest of the way. But he was a good boy for most of the trip and since we left Corvallis at 3pm and arrived back home with Daddy in Olympia at 11pm, we were rather impressed.

He was thrilled to see his dad at the airport and spotted him before I had even pulled the car to a complete stop. He knew we were going to get him; he shows a lot of comprehension about things like that these days. But it was still great to hear his laugh/giggle when he saw him and hear his chatter to him on the way home.

I was so tense on the road, I was near tears. I told myself that I could fall apart and cry when Mike was safely at the wheel. But I was so happy to have him back that the need for tears was eliminated with lots of kisses.