Not much direction. . .

It's been hard trying to get interested in doing anything in the way of travel since Daddy died. We just kind of waiver between where to go and what to do. We have spent several weekends down in Warsaw seeing Mom and trying to keep all our spirits up. She is fortunate to have a network of kids and grandkids and great-grandkids who visit and spend quality time with her. She is so loved and she tells me she certainly feels that.

She plans to go to Texas this winter. Her thoughts are that she will clean out the trailer there and sort through stuff to keep. The plan is to sell the place there in Texas. Then in the spring she will go back to her place in Claypool. Her traveling back and forth to Texas will come to an end, but she has a lovely place in Nita's woods, so she will have family near her at all times. She is thinking of flying to Houston and we will pick her up there on our way through and head on down to the valley.

I had to go to Indianapolis last week and get a shot in my back. The surgeon I went to didn't want to start with surgery; he thought I should try the shot first. I had an epidural 12 years ago and it really helped but I consider that a band-aid. I have a condition in my back known as spondylolisthesis. It's where the vertebrae shift enough that the bones in the back are no longer aligned. I knew about the spot at the base, which is the result of a Pars defect, but xrays show I actually have another spot as well. It would require fusing about 5 vertebrae.  So I went to get a shot to help ease my pain. I don't think I will have to have another one because it's been a week and so far I can't even tell I had one. This shot was done a lot differently than my first one and the first one helped a great deal. So not sure the next step. I have to wait two months between appointments with this doctor, so even though I started in May, the summer is shot and I can't have anything done now before we leave the state.

When we left Indy, we drove over to Saint Marys, Ohio, and camped at the Grand Lake State Park. We have a friend who workcamps here and he was anxious to see us. We met Dan and his wife Dee when we had our first big campout of fulltimers back in 2005. They were in the same camp, had just gone full time and joined out little group. They have been part of us every since and we have made lifelong friends. Unfortunately, Dan's wife Dee passed away two years ago and this was the first we had seen him since. He seems to be doing well and has quite the support group of workcampers and family in the area. Tab and Deanna were coming in the next day to camp with us for the weekend, so we had a great time seeing them. They visited with Dan as well, being part of the same fulltiming group.

We had quite a storm come through the camp on Saturday night. They were talking 70 mph winds and I believe it. I have never seen it like that, but it was straight line winds and our motorhome was sitting with the back pointing toward the wind direction, so offered the least resistance. We didn't rock and roll too much. So many stupid campers though. Our loop got hit the worse and almost every travel trailer had left their awning out. First hint of a storm, and our stuff all comes in. But most of the awnings were ripped up and the arms broken and thrown up and over the trailers. I'm not sure why they think those flimsy things are gonna withstand some heavy winds. Idiots. The park rangers and watercraft personnel were out immediately writing up accidents reports for insurance claims. They were certainly busy in our loop and it was nice that they were there to do that for the campers. There was only one large limb that came down and that fell right onto an empty campsite. Other than that, there were a lot of smaller limbs, but I don't think there was any damage from limbs coming down.

Tab and Deanna left on Sunday and we stayed over till Tuesday and then headed to the Berne, Indiana, Amish country. We enjoy shopping at the Amish businesses over there.

Till next time. . .

Dale