There’s Magic in Mucinex

We finally headed north on Thursday and made it as far as Seaquest State Park, (nowhere near an ocean, just someone's name) near Mt. St. Helens. We spent some time at the visitor’s center and after getting settled into a campsite, drove up the western side of the eruption. The crater that was left from the eruption is obvious, but interesting to us, almost the whole drive up (about 30 miles) has been reforested (by Weyerhaeuser it appears) and will be harvested in another 30 years or so. The strange thing about it is that since everything was planted at the same time, they’re all about the same height. It looks almost like a green carpet. There is not many visual signs left of the terrible destruction that occurred.

We had planned to drive around the eastern side on Friday (at Wayne’s suggestion), but I had another terrible night with the mystery illness/sore throat and woke up determined to find another Doctor/Clinic where I could get some relief. (Thanks C for your advice… you’ll forever be Dr. Mom)

We headed north to Olympia and thanks to my trusty cell phone internet connection, I was able to find a clinic to go to and find a Home Depot parking lot close by to park the coach. This time I got to see an M.D. (as opposed to a P.A.) and I made Les go in with me (so they wouldn’t think I was fakin’ it. This Dr. didn’t think I had a sinus infection. He told me that the amoxicillin antibiotic I had been prescribed was kinda wimpy, so heres the prescriptions he gave me:


Some kick-*ss antibiotic stuff (Azithromycin) that cost $47 for six pills, but really seems to work.

A different cough medicine (Tussionex) that costs $53.29 for 90 cc’s (that’s $2,241.28 per gallon). Thank goodness I have insurance.

Vicodan for the pain (I could have kissed him).

Mucinex-D to break up the mucus crap in my chest (you’ll feel like a terrorist suspect when you get this ~ you have to show I.D. and they’ll enter it into their system. I asked if this was a Washington State thing or Federal, and guess what, it’s Federal. But it works great, so I say just go for it.

And the best tip of all, forget the Chloraseptic and use Children’s Benadryl elixir. It does a better job of relieving sore a throat!

Thank you Dr. Urmanski!

So now I’ve left with my own mini-pharmacy and rush back to the coach so I can pound down my first doses. It’s a little early to say voilà, but after one day the throat pain is almost completely gone and I was finally able to get a decent nights sleep.

Today we’re on the west side of Puget Sound and today took a drive up by the Hood Canal to Port Townsend and then back around through Bremerton. On the way through the little town of Belfair, we spotted someone selling Smoked Salmon out of the back of his truck. Les made a quick u-turn and after a couple of samples, we came away with a little over 2 pounds. Yummy!

Tomorrow we’ll be heading around to the east side of the Sound to visit with my cousin, Sandy, and spend some time in Seattle.

Here's something to ponder:

What do you do when you get too old to drive your car? Buy a motorhome and tow it behind.
(Think about that the next time you want to cut in front of an RV…)