As you might imagine, there wasn’t a whole lot to write about today, being a long day of driving. 🙃
I woke up somewhere around 6:30, I think, And though I tried to get myself to go back to sleep, as my van hadn’t begun fully cooking yet, the best I seemed to be able to do was doze, my brain too active concerned that someone was going to pull into the parking lot any moment.
I finally gave up trying to sleep somewhere around 8:00, I think, and realizing that I would just be sitting in my van cooking waiting for 10:00 church to start, I decided to drive on down the road to the next town with a church that was about an hour and 45 minutes away (Grand Island).
Spent a fair amount of time today praying, mostly for a friend of mine and her husband. 🤍 I’ve kept their names in the temple for a little while now.
Felt nice to be chatting with God about people who are important to me. 🤍
I got to the Church in Grand Island in perfect time to get changed, use the bathroom, and sit down just as the sacrament hymn was about to start. 🙏
Oh! And I got to park in the shade! 🙏
Walking into the church, the AC felt so good ☺️, and it’s pretty amazing that, though I was dealing with brain fog from lack of sleep, I wasn’t really tired. Not during church, at least. After church, I picked an empty classroom and decided to write my journal for yesterday entry while in the AC, and I started getting a bit tired.
By the time I finished, I was pretty sleepy, and I debated, and I was the last one in the building with the lights off, and I debated sleeping until temperatures were better (which would take about 8 or 10 more hours 😅).
I decided to just grit my teeth and bear it, changed out of my church clothes and back into my shorts and t-shirt and headed on down the road.
Goodness, it was hot. 😶
🥵
The air was so thick and full of water that each breath was heavy.
How on Earth did I live in this part of the country nine for nearly nine years? 😶
🥵
Wow.
I drove and drove and drove, mostly listening to talks and podcasts as I went, wiping the sweat from my face, over and over again, and taking drinks of probably 90° water for my water jug.
I don’t know if it was the lack of nutrition, or a little bit of dehydration, or the gasoline fumes inside the van from the fuel tank and full gas can, or a combination of the three, but I ended up with a pretty good headache, and may be heat exhaustion?
Is it possible to get heat exhaustion without actually doing anything physically taxing? 😅
🥵🥵🥵
When I finally stopped for my first break somewhere around 10:00 in Lamar, Missouri (a fair bit south of Kansas City), stopping at the Walmart Supercenter parking lot there, I was so physically messed up, that I was out of breath with only a little bit of exertion, and the heat inside the van without the wind blowing on me was overpowering to the point that I couldn’t muster up the strength to get everything off of the top of my cooler in order to retrieve my migraine meds, so I gave up, and and though I preferred not to go shopping on Sunday, given where my health was at, I figured it was probably smarter to go in and get myself taken care of.
Texted a little bit with my sister Heather and my mom. Have a bunch more messages to reply to as well.
I bought some ice cream to pound in the hopes that it would both help cool me down and arrest the progression of the headache.
Gratefully it did exactly that. 🙏
As long as I was eating ice cream, I was relatively comfortable. 🙏
I didn’t wait around at Walmart very long, getting back on the road quite quickly. I did want to get up and walk around a bit, so wandering around the parking lot and then inside Walmart was good for my back, I think (thinking about the significant increase in symptoms on my flight from New Zealand back to the States, and the numb leg that I still have. 😬).
My brain was out of it enough that I forgot to fill my tank up with the gas can while I was stopped, so I ended up running out of gas a little ways down the road from the Walmart. Gratefully, I was able to quickly pour in the five plus gallons inside the gas can to give me just enough gas to make it all the way to my mom’s house, slightly concerned that I might run out of gas again before getting there. 🙃
Gave my mom a big hug, and we chatted for a good little bit. Things are getting a little nutty for her right now, so we talked about those things.
Made plans for tomorrow, and now I’m going to crash. It’s just after 1:15, and I’m pleased that I chose to write my entry tonight instead of waiting until tomorrow, when things are likely to get super busy super quickly.
G’night, my lovelies. 😊
Lift the world.
Bring it on.
~ stephen
Lift the World 