On the road. . .

We hated to leave the kids in Melbourne, just as we hated to leave the kids in Charlottesville. We only visit them twice a year and we actually stayed longer this time than we usually do. The kids are at difficult ages to leave. They know us well now and they interact with us so much that we really enjoyed our time with them and stayed as long as we could. My parents are already in Texas and waiting for us to get there. They are 89 and 90 this year and we want to get there and keep them company for the winter.

And there is the other business of Terry needing a surgery. We are going to try and get it done in Houston, I guess, but we still have to make the necessary contacts. He has an ICD (internal cardioverter defibrillator) and the device is nearing the end of its life. Once the battery sounds the alarm, it continues to sound every day at the same time and will continue for three months. So we have 90 days to get it changed out. Since it is imbedded in his chest, it requires a surgical procedure to remove. . . they can't just put a couple of AAA's in it, they have to change out the device itself. That's kind of a scarey thing, because he has done so well with this one, but I'm sure there is something newer and better to replace it. Both his cardiologists in Indianapolis are gone. One retired and one left for greener pastures. So the cardiologist we saw last month had never seen him before. He indicated we could go anywhere to have the device changed out and we didn't need to come to Indy. Terry doesn't really want to go to Indy in the winter, so we have been researching medical centers and using Medtronic's website to learn about centers we might try. Really a difficult decision to make. I think we are going to call upon our contacts at Houston who we met during his cancer treatment and see if we can hook up with someone there. Wish us luck.

We spent one night in Lake City on the way across Florida. Then we moved on to Holt, Florida, because we wanted to investigate the mail forwarding leg of Passport America. They were open at 8 this morning and we were there to talk with them and get information about their service. The reason we are considering this is because our mail forwarder in South Dakota was sold in January and our address is going to change. We are thinking that this might be the time to change as well, but still not sure about this. So we will continue to study and peruse the materials they gave us. I don't think we will make a change yet, but we do have some options.

Today we drove through Pensacola and Mobile, continuing on to Mississippi. We saw a police chase in the eastbound lanes. They actually had cars to the left and behind the guy and it was obvious they had him boxed in. Later on when we stopped for lunch, they were stopping the traffic heading eastbound because of the police chase. We were glad we were going the other way. On the bridge across the Pascagoula River, there was a car on fire sitting in the narrow lane off the driving lanes. Smoke was rolling from under the hood and he was getting things unloaded from the trunk. A pickup truck behind us stopped to help him. There were no emergency personnel around.  Now we are north of Biloxi and after we got setup today, we went down to the casinos. We played around a bit, lost some and won some and probably broke even in the end. We were sufficiently entertained. They are making progress on rebuilding the area after the hurricanes of a few years ago, but I sure do miss those big, old majestic houses. There are a few houses rebuilt and some refurbished, but gone are most of the mansions. I want to get out my old pictures I took right after the storms to see how it all compares. Glad to give them some of my money to help in the rebuilding process.

We will continue on west tomorrow hoping to spend a day or two with Terry's cousin at some point. Then Houston to see my cousin who helped us survive cancer treatment. He is having some health challenges of his own and we want to see him. And we will try to touch base with a doctor to do Terry's surgery.

After that, we are off to Texas and will get into our spot in the valley before Thanksgiving. It's been a busier than usual trip for us, with visiting kids, cousins, new doctors, etc.

Till next time. . .

Dale