Our time here has come to an end. . .

This will be my last post on Skool'z Out Forever. . . As you all know, my traveling companion is gone and while I do still intend to do some traveling. . . it will be different.

Phaeton Place has been sold. Bittersweet, but I'm glad I was able to get that done and get a good price for her. She is living in South Carolina now and her new owner is very happy with her.

I intend to keep MinnieMee for the time being, but I plan to trade/sell her and get a Class B, van-type RV to travel in. I'm looking at Coach House and Leisure Travel Vans.

I have a new buddy, a 5-year old Scottish Terrier named Brendon. He is a cutie and I hope he takes to traveling!

I am keeping my place in Polk City, Florida, and beginning to do some of the upgrades Terry and I had planned. My plan is to stay here most of the winter and do some traveling to see family in the summer, once Covid is gone.

I am publishing my blog in several volumes. I plan to keep it for my grandchildren so that one day they will read about their grandparents' adventures fulltiming!

I wish you readers all the best. It's been a great 15 years!

Dale

Signs

When Terry died, I prayed for some sign that he was okay. I remember all the tales of signs when my sister died and stories others have of when their loved ones passed on. A common theme among all those stories is the cardinal. A beautiful red bird, my favorite of all, and one that seems to show up during these times.

As the days after his death wore on, I resumed my normal activities in the motorhome, sitting in my chair and spending time on my computer. It was usually dark when I would arrive back at the camp from my daughter's house and as I sat in my chair I would hear "clunks" and "thunks" from outside somewhere. Sounds like that are very common in a campground and I was in relative close proximity to other campers and thought nothing of it. It was dark outside and I couldn't see anything outside anyway.

  One morning as I was sitting and enjoying   coffee I heard the noise again, as I had several different times. On impulse, I put my blind up and looked out the window next to me. To my surprise, there was a cardinal staring right back at me! He was on the sideview mirror at the front of the motorhome, not but a few feet away from me! The thunking noise I had been hearing for the past couple days was his pecking at the mirror! And this noise all started after I had asked for a sign! Imagine that! It was several days before I would leave for our home in Florida, and that cardinal stayed with me until I left, sometimes perching briefly on my window frame. I eventually started putting out some sunflower seeds for him and he eagerly ate them up! daughter's mother-in-law, Sharon, spent a night with me and she even got to see the cardinal! 

Later she sent me a lovely plaque to hang in my house. My son's mother-in-law also gifted me a pillow she had made. 

Dale

Terry's Obituary

Terry Allen Pace

APRIL 15, 1950 – OCTOBER 11, 2020

Terry Pace, age 70, died Sunday, October 11, 2020, at the University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville, Virginia, after a short illness. He was born April 15, 1950, in Booneville, Mississippi to Henry W. Pace and Valera Tennison Pace.

In 1971 he married Dale Ann Schrock who survives. He is also survived by his daughter, Jocelyn Pace (Tom Lynch) of Charlottesville, Virginia, and his son Brandon Pace (Megan) of Melbourne, Florida. He loved his three grandchildren Ronan Lynch, Aenea Lynch and Brynlee Pace. Also surviving is an uncle, Dan Nichols, of Goshen, Indiana. He was 

preceded in death by his parents.

Terry was a 1968 graduate of Concord High School in Dunlap, Indiana, and Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. He taught school for five years at Tri High School near New Castle and then entered the business world eventually working in sales for a garage door manufacturer. He and his wife raised their family while living in Mooreland in central Indiana. After retirement, Terry and Dale traveled for 15 years in their motorhome. They had recently moved to Florida.

Terry requested cremation and there will be no public service. He is being cared for by the Cremation Society of Virginia. At a later date, his ashes will be interred at Brown Cemetery in Millersburg, Indiana.

Contributions in Terry's memory may be made to the American Heart Association or a local animal rescue/shelter.

Last evening, my loving husband of 49 years, Terry, passed away from complications of spontaneous bacterial peritonitis, which contributed to septic shock.

He had been in Methodist Hospital in Indy for a week, released on October 5, and we then traveled to Virginia to see our daughter Jocelyn and family before we headed back to Florida. But he developed more problems on the way to Virginia and when we arrived, I took him to the ER at UVA. They were extremely diligent and we thought the care they were giving was working. However, yesterday things started to turn for the worse and his body/heart could not maintain necessary blood pressure. They put him on 3 aggressive meds to counter this, but it still was dropping. They told me it was not likely he would live through the night even with treatment. So in accordance with his wishes, we withdrew support and continued to administer pain meds to maintain comfort. He said all he wanted to do was sleep, which he had not really done for days.  His passing was peaceful just about 45 minutes later with Jocelyn and I there. Brandon flies in today.

Terry wished to be cremated, so that will be done. With Covid still looming, I don't believe a service would be appropriate and he himself hated the entire funeral process. So he will get one last ride in Phaeton Place when I take his ashes back to Florida. My plan then is to return to Indiana next summer with the kids/grandkids to inter his ashes in Brown Cemetery, where my family is all buried. I will publish that when the time comes, but it will be next summer.

Our hearts are broken, but we are thankful we had Terry for 22 years after his heart attacks at which point they gave him 72 hours to live. It was a good life even then.

Terry Pace, 1950-2020

The best of times, the worst of times. . . , part 3

Our visits over, we made our way to central Indiana to have our final doctor appointments in Indiana, as we are changing over to Florida doctors, since we have a house there. At this point it was becoming more clear that Terry was in trouble. . . brain fog, slurring/stuttering and shuffling his feet, tremors. Long story short after setting up camp, I drove him to Methodist ER in Indianapolis, a 60 mile drive. He was admitted. It's been a roller coaster week, but really have mostly good news. He thought he may have had a stroke, but that wasn't it. They ran every test there was. The problem was that he has taken so many heart meds over the years, they have started affecting his other organs. So he was there for almost a week while they "detoxed" his body. They have changed some meds, dropped several, added one. Today he got his ICD changed out to a new improved model and he was discharged later today. Whew. I was tired of driving back and forth to Indy.

We see our GP tomorrow for the last time, then heading to Charlottesville to see our daughter and family, then home to Florida. We are following up with the heart doctor via telehealth and the liver doctor in Indy is setting up a follow up with a colleague in Tampa. So all is good. Terry is better, albeit tired, than he has been in a long time. These meds have been working on him a long time. . . like slowly being poisoned. Some he cannot take anymore. Hoping it all works out.

Hopefully with living in Florida 8-10 miles from our doctors, it will be easy to get the care he/we need quickly. We still plan to travel but that will probably be mostly in the summer. 

All things considered, we've got a lot done since we left Florida. Visited with Brandon's, lost our toad, found our toad--continued on, drove to Indiana, windshield replaced, refrigerator replaced, visited with Mom twice, visited Uncle Dan, spent a week in the hospital with Terry, but he got detoxed and on the road to recovery, got his ICD replaced and saw our internist for the last time. Busy couple weeks.

Till next time. . .

Dale

The best of times, the worst of times. . . , part 2

 We continued on our way to Indiana and made it to Duncan Glass, now Gerber, on Thursday afternoon, a day early. We had an appointment for Friday which had been made some time ago. They were to replace our windshield, 

As we were setting up, a fellow strolled out and apologized that he would not have enough manpower to replace the windshield on Friday, but since we were here early (2 p.m.) they could do it right now. Whoo hoo! So we cleared off the dash and went in search of something to eat since we had skipped lunch.

Once they were finished with the windshield, we drove over to Elkhart Campground and spent the weekend there. We used that as a base and went to visit Mom and sister Nita down near Warsaw and also Terry's Uncle Dan in Goshen. We enjoyed visiting with friends, Andie and Roger at the campground as well.

Monday we were out of there early and on our way to Shipshewana and National Refrigeration. We were scheduled to have a new 4-door Norcold Refrigerator installed to replace our aging and "working poorly" Norcold. Leon Hershberger has sold the business and although he was there, it was the new owner, Glen Miller, who did the changeout for us. He was very good and did an excellent job and it works very well. For the time being, Glen will continue to operate at Leon's service center which is at his house, but by next year, he hopes to have a business location north on 120.

Once we finished up there, we hooked back up and drove to the Warsaw fairgrounds to visit with Mom one more time before leaving the state. 

Till next time. . . 

Dale

The best of times, the worst of times. . . , part 1.

We made ready to leave Florida to see our doctors in Indiana for one last visit. Since we have moved to Florida, we are lining up doctors here so we can doctor in the winter months when we are living here and then travel during the summer months when it's so hot in Florida. Sounds like a plan anyway.

Terry was having some problems while we were getting ready to go and had to take his time to get much done. He continued to be plagued with tremors and was starting to have some speech difficulties. So we were hopeful the doctors could find the problem and treat it. He was also scheduled to get his ICD changed out.

We started out our trip by camping over near Brandon and spending time visiting with them on the weekend. Always a good time. He fixed us a tenderloin on the Big Green Egg and, as usual, it was great!

We left his place on Monday, the 21st of September.I wish I could say the first day of our trip from Florida to Indiana was uneventful, but nothing could be further from the truth. After 30 years of towing a toad, ours broke loose from the motorhome.
I saw it probably almost immediately as one towbar pulled out from the sleeve in the baseplate. Running 62 mph on I-95 around Titus. I eased off the throttle and turned on the flashers as I eased toward the shoulder, not too fast or braking too hard, either of which would spell disaster. I got Phaeton Place stopped and had to pull up and adjust to get the toad off the roadway as it had drifted toward the travel lane. We both got out and rushed back. The towbars, one of which was completely loose, the other intact, but they were folded together like when they are stowed. I had to back the toad up so Terry could get between the coach and car as the car was "kissing" the back of the motorhome. Fortunately, no damage there, but some scratches in the gel coat which can be rubbed out. We got the toad loose and decided to drive both separately to the next rest area a short ways away and try to regroup.

We got a tech from Demco, the towbar manufacturer, (on the phone) who after requesting a dozen or so pictures, determined the tow bar to not be damaged. The parts on it that were bent are aids for stowing and would not interfere with the normal operation of the tow bar. What happened was that one of the bars that is inserted into the baseplate on the car and locked in plate by a spring clip had come out. This is a standard part and is used to convert a Blue Ox base plate to a Demco towbar. Thousands of us use these and we have been trouble free with towing this way for years. But somehow it came undone. How? Well, suprisingly, the part was still functional even though it had suffered some dragging and grinding on the road. But Terry has extras of these and removed the old one and put another on. The Demco rep thought we would be good to go although he didn't care for that system and wishes Blue Ox would find a better solution. We continued on our way another 250 miles without incident.

Terry thinks, and we have all heard this but don't think it could happen to us, that someone at the truck stop where we had just fueled up may have pulled that locking pin on that part. Just pulling it a tad bit would have done it. We had so much wind that a good jerk on the loose pin could have done it. There just seems to be no way it could fail by itself. I think surely no one would do such a thing that could result in a serious and perhaps fatal accident, but then I look at what has been going on around the country and think. . . . oh yes it could.

Fortunately we had a good ending. Arrived at our predetermined place for the night, albeit a couple hours late, but got a good night's sleep.

Till next time. . .

Dale