We are off to Austin.. keep fingers crossed

We spent a couple of days with family in NOLA.. My mom hasn’t been well, however she looks great and seems to be getting better. Congestive heart failure, kidney and liver failure all take their toll on a person. She is strong, motivated and has lived for over 10 years with the heart failure. She and my dad inspire us to keep going and stay strong.. and tell us that under any circumstance, do not let anyone stop us and never take “NO” for an answer.

Kezia still has back pain. I fear its from her own cancer. Of course, I tend to worry to much. Lochlan still isn’t feeling well. His appetite has been low, upset stomach and just a bit clingy. As a parent of a child who died of cancer, Neuroblastoma, you always worry about your other children; I wonder, does he have early stages and we don’t know it? No, its such a low probability – like almost 0% chance. But its still a fear and most other parents in our support circle and beyond have the same fears. The reality is, the travel and not having his regular diet takes a tole. Plus, we feel the largest factor to him not feeling well is he is cutting a tooth.

In about half an hour we are setting off for Austin. Its about 8 hours.. 10 with Lochlan. This is ok because we want to make sure he gets some exercise and a chance to get out and run around a bit during the trip.

We have a lot of work to do while driving. We are still preparing for this pitch coming up Monday. We are nervous, however not that much. The bottom line is, its our pitch, our company, our product and design – we know it and we got this!

Kezia has done a great job writing the pitch and working with our coaches to refine it to be the most impactful. We will write more tonight or later today..

CareAline’s Trip to Austin for Impact Pediatric Health at SXSW – Day 1.. Finally, the day is over and sleep time is near..

Today has had its ups and downs. It started down. I had to set a limit on how long we were going to work on the camper this morning; For u to find a short in the wiring inside the camper meant that we would need to either remove the fake wood paneling in hopes of finding the wiring.. or pulling the entire harness and replacing it. Neither option worked for us at this time. We needed to get on the road regardless. We started working on it at 8 am.. we stopped at 11’ish am. Making the decision              This was a small blow to us financially. We planned the drive and camping to save money..  I (mike) was so frustrated and really getting down on myself for not testing that wiring a week ago..My father in law Craig and I replaced the wiring harness that goes from trailer to car and it worked fine hooked up to his truck.. so we assumed it would work on mine..

I want to clarify what I mean by camping i this situation.. In the summer we camp for fun.. to hike, sight see, explore, teach our son about nature, campfires, marshmallows and the occasional craft beer.. Sleeping out in nature – we tent camp in the summer. In this instance and for this trip, what I mean by camping is – we drive all day, pull into a campground at night, not even unhook.. we pop up the camper, turn the heater on and go to sleep. Then get up early in the morning, like 5am, crank the camper down, get in the car and hit the road aging.. on average, it would have cost us anywhere from $15 – $30 per night -vs- $100-$140 a night in a hotel.

Although the morning was a drag.. once we got on the road we felt much better. I was getting pretty nervous because we need to go see Mikes family in Louisiana first (its on the way). Mike’s mom has not been feeling well and was just released from the ICU.. She has congestive heart failure.. She is strong and not willing to let things bring her down and keeps moving forward.. We will spend a couple of days with them and then head off to Austin.

When we started raising money on the Indigogo site to help with this trip, it was budgeted for camping.. not hotels.. Although we are stressed out.. we have a mission and we try hard to keep that mission in focus…

Lochlan is ready for bed, which means all lights out.. Good night, thanks for reading and we will have much more on our story tomorrow..

Cheers

http://igg.me/at/CareAlineRoadTrip

Mike & Kezia

Finally on our way to Texas for the Impact Pediatric Health Competition at SXSW

Finally on our way to Texas for the Impact Pediatric Health Competition at SXSW

We told Lochlan we were going to texas, he got dressed for it... oops..

We told Lochlan we were going to texas, he got dressed for it… oops..