Sore joints and travelling don't go well together

Today I was to continue my journey to Steubenville, Ohio to visit a couple of friends studying at Franciscan University.

It was a trip I was very much looking forward to since it would afford me the opportunity to visit with Sr. Clementia, FSGM whom I have known for many years and first met through the TEC program, and to visit with my one of my former students in the pre-theologate.

Last night I slept very little and woke tired and sore. Nevertheless, I thought the drive to Steubenville was one that would be difficult but doable, all seven plus hours of it. However, it soon became clear that the journey was one I could not prudently make.

A weather change is on the way - thunderstorms and, from the feel of them, potentially big ones - and the more I drove the more my knees and hips began to swell; there is something about driving that affects my arthritis more than any other other activity. At the same, it was all I could do to keep myself awake for the first hour on the Interstate. Prudence told me I had to turn back and regretfully withdraw my plans.

I made it as far back as Effingham and stopped to rest; here I will spend the night and tomorrow I'll call back to the parish to check on things. I was to be away until Saturday afternoon and I brought a few things with me to work when my friends in Steubenville were at class.

I'm beginning to wonder as to the state of my arthritis. Last summer was the first summer since my arthritis has been largely controlled with medicine that it acted up in the summer; this is the first spring it is acting up. It used to be that I was largely free of the arthritis in the spring and summer; I'm not sure what to make of it.