Texas!

The end of April I got to go to Fort Worth Texas for a conference for the hospital.  I went with two other people from the hospital, Janet and Amy.  We had quite the adventure!

We left bright and early Tuesday morning out of Cedar airport.  I got to sit by a brand new Elder from Parowan who was flying straight to Brazil.  It was his first time on a plane and it was fun to watch him watch Parowan go by for the last time in 2 years.  We grabbed some breakfast in the airport and waited not too long before getting on our plane to Dallas.  About the time that they started handing out drinks they asked if there were any doctors or nurses on the plane so the three of us got up and helped out with a lady who was having stroke like symptoms and had a super high blood pressure.  I got nominated to sit by her the rest of the flight and keep an eye on her and take her blood pressure with a crappy cuff and stethoscope.    Their bag of medical supplies was somewhat hilarious.  They had ACLS drugs and IV valium but no glucometer or other basic items.  The thought of being in a situation where we’d need those and be able to use them is somewhat hilarious.  I can only imagine trying to do compressions, bag someone, start an IV and give those meds in that tiny aisle!  And valium, well if you’re seizing that much and need valium that bad, we’re not getting an IV and there’s only one other place for that to go!  You’ll hope to never see anyone on that plane again!  OK back to the story…Janet and Amy had to go up and talk to the pilot on the phone who then called a medical control center who then directed them to divert.  The lady was so not happy about that and made her anxiety that much worse.  So we landed in Albuquerque.  Did you know if you land somewhere you did not intend to land that it takes 1+ hours of paperwork before you are allowed to take off again?  Me either.  When we got in the air the flight attendants told us we could have anything we wanted…it was on the house.  We asked if we could have peanuts, cookies and pretzels LOL!  She asked if we wouldn’t like some cocktails….darn it we don’t drink :)  So we got all three snacks!  When we landed I’m not even kidding it sounded like they were hand cranking the wheels down and I thought Amy was going to die…she’s afraid of flying.  We were starving!!! So as soon as we got to our hotel room and got checked in we ran out to find some food.  OK it was so yummy that I took a picture of it!

That night we were exhausted and went to bed.  Janet had to be up earlier than the rest of us so she set an alarm.  It was pitch black and an alarm started going off.  It was so loud!  Both Amy and I thought that it was Janet’s alarm…oh no it was a fire alarm.  It was soon followed by instructions to leave the building.  So I put on a jacket over my exercise pants and t shirt.  Janet was looking all over for her pants and shoes it was pretty hilarious.  We hiked 5 flights down stairs.  When we got outside we saw fire trucks, which I would totally expect even for a fluke thing, but no…they were breaking into the water supply.  There was really a freaking fire on the 6th floor of the hotel!  We were thinking oh great!  We should have brought our stuff!  We’re going to be displaced in Fort Worth in the middle of the night with nothing!  About a half hour later they got the fire out and let us all back in.  It was in an air conditioning unit on the 6th floor.  So up 6 floors we climbed and went back to bed.  Everyone else fell right back asleep…oh not me, I was awake for 2 hours!  I was so tired the next day!

The next day Janet went to a class in the morning and Amy and I drug butt.  We finally got out and walked around.  Around our hotel was so pretty!  The streets were brick and there are trees and it’s so cute and clean.  Amy did a little shopping for her kids and then we went and had the best dang food ever.  Don’t worry I have a picture.  Those fries had onion and jalapeno on them and dipped them in ranch.  They were amazing!!!  And I don’t even want to think about how bad for me.  The sandwich was a chopped bbq brisket….to die for, end of sentence.

Here’s some of the stuff we saw.

Mounted police

marijuana cookbooks…who knew?

And some views from our hotel room…our room was right above the street going underneath

The black dome and right behind it was some kind of restaurant.  Looked fun!  and rooftop gardens  

After that we started the conference.  It was SOOOO good.  I know that sounds lame, but it was.  I was so excited after each speaker.  I took like 30 pages of notes over 3 days.  And the conference was super upscale.  I’m a little too country for some of that stuff I think :)  They had food all over the place.  They also provided dinner both nights.  The first night was at the hotel and it was super yummy and it had an open bar (more free alcohol again?)  We were laughing at that and decided we knew why the conference cost so much money! 

Here we are being the “patient experience” Yes I know I look preggers…no I am not….thanks.  Josh informed me and if I’d been in the same state he probably wouldn’t have been concious :)

We then made it through the night incident free so we figured maybe we were good to go.  The next morning they had “breakfast on the terrace”  For anyone wanting to know what that looks like…it looks like this.

A little fancy schmancy.  This day was also filled with tons of great information and lots to get excited about as far as work goes. 

For dinner they took us out to a “country western club” aka…a bar.  A big one, but a bar nonetheless.  They thought they’d show us all a good cowboy time.  They showed most people a good cowboy time.  I sat back and laughed a little.  Some people tried to dress up like cowboys…most failed miserably!  It was pretty hilarious.

But they had a voucher for a free picture on a bull so we had to do that….HA HA HA….

They served us some dutch oven-ish type food.  The meat was delicious.  The potatoes were not dutch oven and the cobbler was interesting and had no ice cream with it!  They handed out “free drink” coupons and yes it’s more of the same…alcohol.  By the way the water tastes like they dipped their hose into a pond so even the fountain drinks tasted nasty, so we turned in all of our free drink coupons in for bottled water…we just aren’t fun I guess!  I don’t have a picture of dinner…sorry my phone died.  But I did get a picture of Johnny Cash’s handprints just for Jesse

And Kenney Chesney just for kicks

We did a little shopping and then headed outside because it was getting somewhat smokey and loud inside.  I found Chris LeDoux’s star :)

This “club” is down at the stockyards so we walked around a bit but it was dark and dead so we made plans to come back the next morning and then took the early bus back to the hotel.

The conference ended at 12 and our plane didn’t leave until 6 so we took a taxi back down to the Fort Worth stock yards to do a little sight seeing and shopping.  It was way cool.

The first indoor rodeo arena…

Where they loaded the stock into trains.  There are lots of really cool little shops to spend all your hard earned money at.  And we had lunch as Risckey’s again where I once again filled myself with those onion and jalapeno fried….yummy!

Other fun pictures….

I took a picture of this sign just for the boys :)

We had an interesting time getting a Taxi.  The taxi dispatchers down there are idiots in my own personal opinion and experience (I talked to them 3 times, it pretty much makes me an authority on the subject lol)  We finally got one and got back to the hotel and to the airport where we waited a bit.  Our plane was quite a bit smaller than the one coming down on….not information that Amy was happy for me to be sharing.  In fact, not much that came out of my mouth helped her feel better ha ha.  I skyped Josh and the boys while I was waiting. Here we are waiting…ready to go home and see our families!!

The trip was mostly uneventful with a few bumps in the air along the way.  By the time we hit turbulence a few of us needed to pee really bad so by the time we landed we bolted for the bathrooms.  TMI I’m sure.  Then we had to wait for our flight to Cedar.  I had no idea but they board every stinking Brazillia at the same dang time in the same terminal.  I’m not kidding.  They were boarding all of us and you just walk down the thing and out onto the tarmac with 10 other airplanes and hope you’re getting on the right one!  Due to my inability to say anything soothing, I just kept my mouth shut on the way home about the fact that it was raining :)  The plane ride was smooth but loud and I was excited to see Josh waiting for me at the airport.  By the time we got home…close to midnight only the big boys were awake to see me.  I crashed hard and went to bed.  I was so tired.  But it was a way fun trip, with some fun girls and I learned lots of new exciting stuff that I’m excited to share at work!