Winding down. . .

Our time here at Elkhart Campground is winding down. We are planning on leaving here tomorrow (Saturday) and parking in the drive at the storage condo Saturday night. Then Sunday morning we will drive the short distance over to the fairgrounds in Goshen for the start of the Escapade, the rally held by the Escapees RV club.

The last couple of days has been spent finishing up the apartment. . . yes, I thought it was done, but then. . . I noticed a slight leak (if there is such a thing) under the kitchen sink. Terry did a quick assessment and determined what he needed to fix it. It didn't require a lot of strength or intense physical labor, so he was able to get it done. But then he wanted to put in a new floor in the cabinet to replace the warped area. Done. The carpet cleaners came Wednesday while he was doing that and cleaned the carpets. The only thing left to do is to drill the door for the deadbolt the tenant wanted. He wants to do that today. Our previous tenant left a yard barn which is in decent shape, but we have no use for. We are going to take it down. I don't really have a time to do that, but I really don't think it will be a big job. I volunteered for that.

Wednesday evening we met friends Nan and Tom at Red Lobster in Mishawaka. We first met these new fulltimers at Elkhart Campground last summer and they caught up with us again at the Sweetheart Rally in Kerrville, Texas, in February. They just arrived back in the lower 48 from their three month trip to Alaska, so we got to pick their brains about the trip. We hope to do this same trip in the future and it was good to hear their experiences first hand.

Then yesterday we met our friend Jeff (wife Sue was visiting a daughter in Chicago) at Ryan's here in Elkhart. Janice and Dean joined us for dinner as well. We are all members of the Class of 05. Our "class" members all went full time in our RV's in 2005. Jeff and Sue have built a house on their lot in the Phoenix area. He just left there a couple weeks ago and said it was 115 degrees and really miserable, so the cool weather here was a welcome relief for him. He is getting some work done on his coach and then hitting the road again.

Last evening we met up with my closest high school friend Luanne and her husband Jim. We try to meet every summer for dinner and catch up with the latest news on our families. Terry and Luanne lived on the same street for several years and we lived around the corner, so we know a lot of the same people.

It is always great to catch up with friends, both new and old, and share our lives with one another. We have made many friends on the road and count those people among our best friends as well as those we have known for most of our lives. Life is grand!

Terry has been doing well. Even with all this eating out, we are carefully watching the diet. We download and print out the nutritional statements from restaurants and, sad to say, many are just crossed off the list. But Red Lobster has some low-sodium meals, Subway has ONE sandwich which qualifies and a couple other establishments have qualifying entries. At some, we eat only the fresh salad off the salad bar which is an option. But as much as I like salad, it does get old after awhile! Hah. Terry does seem to have more energy and is not experiencing the really low heart rates he was having. The increased heart rate results in more oxygen getting to the tissues in the body and the lungs and contributes to an overall better condition. He still has soreness at his surgery sites, but that is getting better daily. We hope that after the fall round of doctor appointments in two weeks we can relax and get on down the road. It's going to take getting back to traveling to make us happy!

Till next time. . .

Dale