Back to traveling!

A week or so ago, we closed up the house and took off in Phaeton Place for the Warsaw fairgrounds. We stayed there for a couple nights and visited with Mom and sister Nita and husband. We enjoyed a great visit. Mom is in great shape for 93 years old with no real complaints.  She is living in her own house, a park model in Nita's woods, and is as independent as she wants to be. Nita visits every day and sees to it that she has what she needs. All the same things we did for her when we would be with her in Texas for the winter. But Mom has decided she will not return to Texas anymore. Our job is to sell her place when we get there and we hope to get that done pronto.

After leaving Warsaw, we went to New Castle and set up camp at Summit Lake State Park, near our former home in Mooreland. We stay there and do the rounds of our doctors which we kept when we went fulltime and travel all over. You gotta' be somewhere for doctor's appointments, so we stick with our old providers.

We managed to have some fun at the same time by visiting with a colleague of mine. They have a Scottish Terrier, Baxter, and he and Duchess got to visit. Didn't really do much together. . . they are like two ships that pass in the night. But it was a change of scenery for Duchess and she does enjoy their back yard!

Our yearly doctor appointments went well. Terry's doctor reinforced our thinking on his medical problems, particularly his heart issues. He confirmed that Terry can build his heart back up from where it is now and perhaps get back into the same physical condition he was in prior to getting sick last winter. That illness really dragged him down and reduced his heart function, but he is already doing better. It will just take time and we are working on getting his stamina back. Walking daily has already improved that, so we are hoping to continue.

We then saw his cardiologist in Indy. He made a couple med changes which we hoped he would. One med he takes is a rhythm drug and the doctor had scaled back on it. Other doctors have tried that, but it seems they all want to give it a go. But it doesn't work for Terry. So they are increasing that again. At least we know from the tests they did this summer that the med, previously suspected of causing lung problems, has not in fact done anything to his lungs, so they were okay with increasing it again.

So we are back on the road and heading toward Virginia to see the kids. . . at least the first round! We will get into Charlottesville on Sunday and visit with Jocelyn, Tom, Ronan, Aenea and Pepper for a week! Whoo hoo! Can't wait to see them. It's been a long summer without my grandkids fix.

We are currently camped at Camp Creek, West Virginia, which is a neat little state park we found a couple years ago. We even have a full hookup site and it's paved. There are streams and waterfalls all around us and it's quite loud when we step outside. I was concerned about the level rising as these streams are raging pretty good right now what with all the rain they have had here. But they assure us the worst is over. The picture on the left and the picture on the right are the same MashFork falls, two years ago and yesterday.


We will go make a supply run today before leaving tomorrow. And do a little hiking.

Till next time. . .

Dale

You may notice a large void. . .

Suffice to say, it's been the worst of times. Terry's health continued to be at the forefront of our thoughts all summer long and getting him back into better and healthier condition was goal number one.

He did start walking again. A physical therapist gave him some exercises, but most importantly told him what he could safely do with his heart condition. He started out walking 10 minutes 3 times a day. He now is up to 35 minutes once a day and walking about 1.5 miles. His sleep problems are ever present, but he spends most of the night in bed and not in a chair, so that is definitely an improvement.

We did get to touch base with some friends this summer and managed to get in his high school reunion and then mine. Those were great times with old friends. These were both our 50th reunions, so a lot of people made extra effort to be there. Mine was a three-day event, starting with a meet and greet kind of thing on Friday night. Then on Saturday, there was a golf outing, a tour of the high school and downtown Goshen. Saturday night was our big event, a dinner, a silent auction to raise money for our scholarship fund, and dancing and mingling. Really enjoyed seeing everyone again. Sunday we had a ride on the "LilyPad" which is a tour boat that goes around Lake Wawasee. It's been years since we have been on that lake and it was a lot of fun. It was a hot day and most of the day we were on the top deck in the breeze, but later when we turned into the sun, we went downstairs into the air conditioning.

Our big plan for the summer was to get the house emptied and sold. Had Terry been well, we would have probably got that done, but as it was. . . it didn't happen. But as he got to feeling better, he did start working with me.

We took two pickup loads of stuff to Goodwill and a half load to electronic recycling. I boxed up most everything that was in closets, cupboards and dressers. Everything is labeled and ready to be packed into the trailer or put out next summer for a garage sale. All the furniture will be sold and there is some nice stuff, but we don't want to continue to pay for storage for it after we sell the house. Most of the stuff belonged to Terry's parents and was not our stuff. Once we get it all emptied, then the house will be sold. Anxious to get that done and behind us. Eventually we think we will have a house in Florida near Brandon. We have to be somewhere warm year round for Terry and it makes sense to be close to one of your kids.

Till next time. . .

Dale