North to Toledo...

This morning, David and Caty came up to have breakfast and head to the airport with us. What really happened is that they cooked breakfast while I ran around managing last minute details. :) Then off to Shannon Airport we went...

We arrived at 932 (We can't get anywhere on time!), and by the time we were all out of the van, Matt, our first pilot, was walking over to us. Just for the record, Matt was amazing. He came from a large, homeschooling family and now has two children of his own. He met the whole family, then offered to take the three littles and one older kid up for a quick flight. Since Andrew had flown before, Chris went. The kids had a blast with Matt, so then it was time for us to load up and head out.

The first leg of our flight was just amazing. We had a beautiful day, and Matt chatted with Will over the headset. They thoroughly enjoyed one another's company which was really cool to watch from the backseat. We landed in Wheeling, West Virginia where we met the second pilot, Dick, who landed about ten minutes behind us. We shared our lunch with Matt, then we loaded our stuff into Dick's plane and headed back out.

Dick was much more stoic but no less gracious. He brought a poster for Will of a plane dash as well as an aeronautical map. He also had a third headset, so I could actually communicate with them as well. He even tried calling ahead to the airport when we were about 30 minutes out to ensure that yesterday's rental car fiasco was resolved and there really was a car waiting for me.

We spent a total of 3 hours in the air between the two flights. We did actually get a rental car at Metcalf Field, and we meandered our way to the hotel via the zoo. :)

The Toledo Zoo is one of the top ten zoos in the country. It is truly just a beautiful place. After sitting all day, we were ready to walk around for a while. But hunger won out and we headed for dinner.

Because we had shared our lunch with Matt, we were starving...so we headed to Olive Garden for dinner. Heading back down toward the warehouse district didn't sound appealing. The Toledo Mudhens were playing at home tonight, so parking would have been a nightmare. I knew where Olive Garden was in relation to the hotel, and I knew how to get from the zoo to the hotel, and since my blackberry battery was truly dead, I went with what I knew. While the service was a bit abysmal, the food was excellent. When you are starving, even McDonald's can look appealing...and McDonald's never looks appealing! So, we ate, stopped by a Kroger for distilled water for the CPAP and drinking water for us, then we checked into the hotel. We unpacked, played Bananagrams (I won!), and watched Michael Buble' on PBS while I started charging all of the lovely eletronic equipment.

Will's bp is very low tonight, but he isn't feeling horrid. He is moving pretty slowly, so I am pushing Gatorade in the hope that we can infuse on Tuesday and not tomorrow...100/40 is at the "I should start infusing now" marker, but since he isn't feeling horrible, I am hoping sleep will help. Guess we will know tomorrow.

We see Dr. Grubb at 930 Monday morning, so I need to sleep...

Thank you for your prayers; thank you, Beth, for providing meas so my family won't starve while I am gone; thank you, Erlene, for continuing to hold down Fort Coleman; and thank you, everyone else, for your amazing gifts that helped make this possible...