Winding down. . .

The bad summer that would never end is about to close for us. We will be leaving northern Indiana on Friday and traveling south to visit with Mom for a day or two before we head to central Indiana and doctor appointments. Hopefully there won't be any more problems and we will be able to get the storage condo all closed up this week.

We were over yesterday to drop off Duchess while we went out to dinner with friends. When we got there the garage door was open. We are quite certain we did not leave it that way, but when Uncle Dan stopped by, he said it had been up for two days. While we were talking, Terry got to checking things and found a loose wire on the keypad. He fixed that and then changed the code to be sure no one had the combination for it. He's rather handy to have around.

I don't think that I mentioned the result of the neurosurgeon appointment. We had a good meeting and I was able to report that this epidural I had barely worked. I do feel better, but it doesn't cover all my activities. . . still had some breakthrough pain doing things like vacuuming. . . I know, I know. . .just don't do it. He believes that surgery will help me. I have spondylolisthesis, which refers to the forward displacement of a vertebral bone in relation to the natural curve of the spine, most commonly occurring after a fracture, and most often the fifth lumbar vertebra. I have two of these in my back. One I knew about when it was diagnosed at age 20 and another higher up in my back. It will require fusion of 4 vertebrae. They will also use "cages" and rods to stabilize it. It will take a year to heal and the fusions to adhere. We're thinking I will do this when I return to Indy in the spring for our doctor appointments. I think it would be a good move for me. I should be able to straighten up and to walk without a limp.

Sunday morning we got word that Terry's first cousins, Gary and Marty and their wives, Jo and Betty, we in a serious auto accident near Baton Rouge, Louisiana. They were in Gary's truck, a Ford F-250 heavy duty crew cab diesel pickup with a long bed. They were stopped in traffic on I-12, ironically for an accident, when they were rear-ended by a tow truck. The tow truck was a flat bed, that they winch vehicles up on it. It was a much larger commercial truck and was doing 60 mph, never hitting his brakes. He ran over and pushed Gary's truck off to the side and another 450 yards (yes, I said that correctly) before it all came to a stop. The air bags did not deploy for some reason. The truck bed was smashed all the way to the back seat of the truck. Three of them had to be cut out of the truck. It is unbelievable that anyone survived when you see the pictures of the wreck. They have a variety of injuries, broken wrist, broken nose, multiple broken ribs, cuts, contusions and abrasions. They are all home from the hospital now and Marty and Betty have flown back to Michigan. In fact, we went to see them Friday night. Their daughter, who is a nurse, was there caring for them. They are recovering.

Meanwhile in Louisiana, Gary's sister, Shirley, drove down from Missisippi to care for them. It is wonderful they have family to help them in this time of need. They are doing okay now, but Gary has revisited the hospital twice, once for blood clots  and once for arm pain. They still have many doctor appointments and tests to go yet and some things that haven't been resolved, but we just have to wait till they heal and recover from this devastating wreck. There may be some surgeries yet to come depending on the findings of the tests. Please keep them in your prayers, please.

We have been trying to find a different vehicle to two behind our motorhome. We really like our little Sport Trac, but would like to retire it. We still would like a little truck to tow but there are only two lightweight trucks and we didn't like the one we test drove. So we will keep looking and hope we find something. The little truck is still running fine, but she is 13 years old.

We have enjoyed dinner dates with friends and relatives recently. We try to touch base with everyone when we are here in the summer. This year was a little more difficult with so many things happening.

Till next time. . .

Dale

Elkhart Campground for a bit!

We arrived at Elkhart Campground on May 9. It seems like we never left. We found that our friends were back and everything seems to be in order. They have added some pads to about half the campsites which is a big improvement because now we don't have tall grass growing up around our feet when we get out. It's easier for them to mow because they don't have RV's sitting on the grass. It's a big improvement.

We made arrangements with Gerald at Charger Enterprises on getting our one broken jack replaced. We ordered it from Tiffin and it came a couple days later. So last week we closed Phaeton Place up and took her in. They told us to have her there by 7 a.m. and they would "work her in." They called at 9:15 and she was all done! Wow. Can you spell service? What a great team they are at Charger. So now we are finally sitting on all four jacks and no one can tell now if our rig's "rockin." LOL

I had an appointment last week with a neurosurgeon in Indianapolis. It's time to find out if anything can be done about my back. I have struggled with it for my entire adult life and it isn't getting better. Course I knew when the doctor explained it at age 20 that it wasn't going to get better. He said to put off doing anything as long as you can. Back then back surgeries and treatments were not as successful as they are now, so I thought 46 years was long enough to wait. I would like to know if I have any options for helping me deal with it. I don't want to wait until I'm too old to have anything fixed. I'm in good health now, so the time is right. This was my initial consultation and I have to go back in July for MRI's, x-rays and a talk with the surgeon.

We had dinner with my high school classmate Luanne and husband Jim on Sunday. It was good to see them. We always enjoy our time together. We went to Red Lobster. It's been a long time since we've been to one of those, but we had great food with great friends.
 
Later in the afternoon, we got the Miata out and put the top down and went for a drive. We ended up on the shore of Lake Michigan up at St. Joe, Michigan. It was a little cool, but it was sunny and we were comfortable. We stopped to look at the lake. It happens that where we stopped is the place where in the 1950's, erosion along the lake led to the destruction of several homes. Some homes were actually moved and still stand elsewhere in the town. Some were destroyed and a few remain today, precariously close to the edge of the cliff. Foundations can be seen where the homes once stood. We also could see the St. Joseph Light from our perch atop that cliff.

I also had to have a tooth pulled. It had a crown on it and this winter it snapped off. There was no saving it, so I made the appointment and was sedated and had it pulled. I don't remember much after that. The next few days are a blur. Hah. But that is a good way to have that done. I had one pulled years ago without being sedated and that was okay. I was in so much pain at the time I didn't care that I was awake. At any rate, it is healing nicely.

We are here another week, then we are headed south to Terry's family reunion. Hard to believe it's that time of year again. But we are headed down to Mississippi and from there will visit Red Bay, Alabama, where Phaeton Place was born. We're having the chassis checked out this time. Everything is going well with her now. We've had our trials over the past year, but she is running great now and everything is working like it should. Talking with other people and problems they've had, I feel fortunate that we have run trouble free for 10 years and then just a few corrections after that. Here's to the next 100,000 miles!

The other night Mars was visible. I don't know if you got to see it, but I did. While I was outside, I was able to snap this picture of the moon. While I did see Mars, it was much too small for me to capture on my camera, so I chose the next best thing!

Till next time. . .

Dale