Things started out a little stressful as I was supposed to get my new shipment of meds just a couple of days before we left. Every month Aetna overnights me a new box of 12 shots in a foam cooler with frozen gel packs, but they won't ship the new box until I only have one or two left. I then have to spend an entire day at home as UPS will only give me the time window of 8am to 8pm for delivery... super convenient. Luckily, I can usually work from home for that day.
I was working from home waiting for the meds to arrive Thursday when I got an email from UPS around 2pm that my delivery had been rescheduled for Friday. I had two issues with that... first, the gel packs will only last so long so if the meds are too late they are compromised and can't be used. Second, I couldn't sit home another whole day waiting for the meds to arrive. I called UPS and they informed me my package had accidentally been rerouted to Roanoke Virginia... um, how does that even happen with an overnight package? The supervisor assured me they could get it to me the next day and that she would call me later and give me an update on the progress. She never did call me back, but I was able to get Lois, (my MIL), to stay home Friday while I was at work and then I got home about 3:30 to relieve her. Except suddenly I got ANOTHER reschedule email from UPS for Monday.
At this point I kind of lost it and flipped out. We were supposed to leave town the next morning, I had no shots left to take with me which meant I would be without medication while we were gone. The supervisor lady had never called me back, at this point the medication would probably be compromised AND this was $9000 worth of shots that I wasn't sure my insurance company would reship! After spending yet another hour speaking with another, different supervisor on the phone and not getting anywhere other than him saying basically the same things the lady had said yesterday and telling me it was in Roanoke and they would do their best to get it back to me by the next morning, I texted Mike in a panic and he suggested I just call Aetna.
Aetna, unlike UPS, were absolutely WONDERFUL. As soon as they answered the phone I had a bit of an emotional meltdown, but the sweet woman on the other end of the phone calmed me down so quickly and let me know that everything would be fine and they would get everything sorted out. She then told me that they had just gotten a call from UPS who had told them they believed they had lost the package, (not what they had told me), and that even if it resurfaced, by the time I got it it would be compromised. She then promptly set up another shipment TO MY HOTEL so that I would have meds while I was away. She was the most warm, compassionate woman... I was so relieved after speaking with her that I just started crying. What did I learn from this experience? MAKE SURE YOU HAVE ENOUGH MEDS FOR ANY TRIP AT LEAST A WEEK AHEAD OF TIME!
Thanks to Aetna we were able to leave on time the next morning for our little trip. It is a 6 1/2 hour drive to Casper Wyoming, which is a LONG drive for someone with MS, but our new Santa Fe was a lifesaver! I never thought I would use the heated seats because heat always causes that pesky zinging down my spine... however, after an hour and a half, my body was starting to feel it and I wasn't sure how I was going to make it another 5 hours. At this point, my smart hubby put on the heated seats, but then blasted me with the AC. It was the PERFECT combination. The heat relaxed my muscles and the AC kept me cool. I was absolutely fine the whole rest of the way!
If you have never been to Casper Wyoming, I have to be honest... there is very little to do there. However, the people who live in Casper are some of the nicest, most friendly people I have ever met in my life. At first I thought it was just our hotel staff, but it didn't matter what restaurant we went to or who we talked to, they were so incredibly kind. We also noticed the lack of aggressive driving... people were just very "laid back" there.
We wanted to explore the area a bit, so we had scoured the internet to see what we could find to do. I had found a cool little pioneer museum we could visit, (The National Historic Trails Interpretive Center), as well as a walking trail with a waterfall at the end, however other than those two things, there was not much more to see! We spent a lovely couple of hours at the museum learning about all the different "pioneer" trails for the western expansion... Oregon, California, Mormon and Pony Express.
We also enjoyed walking up to the waterfall and exploring around there a bit.
However, once that was done we were literally stuck for what to do next. It was in the parking lot at the waterfall trail head that we came across an article called "The Seven Wonders of Casper" which peaked our interest. It was a funny little list of seven quirky things you could find in Casper, so with nothing else to do, we decided to spend the afternoon finding all seven "wonders." In no particular order they were:
1. The Echo Chamber: If you stand in the middle, you hear everything you say being echoed around you, but everyone outside of the chamber just hears your regular voice.
2. The "Eggbeater" which literally is this tall white tower that has three legs holding it up. AND it's part of the strangest looking Wells Fargo Bank I've ever seen... a broken egg? The tower apparently used to have a Wells Fargo sign attached to it at the top, but the wind made it too dangerous, so they had to take the sign down.
3. Lookout from Casper Mountain. This really was a beautiful view.
4. The magic mirror. I'm not gonna lie. We could not figure this one out to save our lives. There was definitely no magic for us!
5. The spiral stairway. Down the back alley of a row of shops, there was this magnificent stairway that takes you... absolutely no-where. Confession: I would not have even walked down here if hubby wasn't packing heat. It seemed like the perfect spot for the scene where Batman's parents get shot. :/
6. The clock that no-one see's. We literally had to drive up a parking garage to the third level to see this clock that had been painted on the outside of a building down the alley next to it. My guess was it was painted before the garage was erected. But now it's just where no-one can see it. (Unless you are in this parking space.)
7. Gravity Hill. This was the one "wonder" that we actually found pretty amazing and really got a kick out of... I'll let the video tell the story:
At the end of the day, while we didn't find the 7 wonders of Casper exactly awe inspiring, we did have a fun filled afternoon with a lot of laughs. Ironically, that evening we found our own 7 wonders of Casper, most of which were in the parking lot of the same restaurant:
By the way, my hubby completely passed and is now certified to teach Tai Chi for both arthritis and Fall Prevention. I'm so proud of him! He swears he is going to get me doing this to help me with my balance issues. We shall see love, we shall see. :)
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