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

Tail of the Dragon

We have three trips from Florida to Indiana planned for this summer in order to get all of our household stuff here at our new home in Florida. This second trip was to fetch Li'l Red, the Miata, and drive her back. Terry thought it would be fun to take her on the "Tail of the Dragon." The Tail is a mountain road in southern Tennessee, northern North Carolina which encompasses 318 turns in 11 miles. 

So on June 20, we flew to Fort Wayne and picked up our rental car. We drove to Claypool to see Mom. Since we are still social distancing, we visited with her for about an hour on her porch. Well we were in the yard and Mom was on the porch. From there we drove to Nappanee where the Miata was stored. We reconnected the battery and she fired right up. So we each drove a vehicle back to Fort Wayne to the hotel. We decided to spend the night there because we needed to return the rental the next morning.

The next morning, we returned the rental, put the top down on the Miata, and took off for Florida. We took mostly red roads, the two-lane roads to enjoy a slower pace. Terry actually drove all day the first day! Yay! I had a break from all the driving I do. But he had a sore neck from putting together all the IKEA furniture we bought the week before, so I drove the rest of the way.

We spent the first night in Richmond, Kentucky, and the next night in Lenoir City, Tennessee. The Tail starts south of Maryville, Tennessee. We were pretty pumped to do the Tail. It is a destination for a lot of motorcycles and sports cars. Terry said some of the Miata groups do the Tail. It has 318 curves in 11 miles. Along the way are photographers who take pictures of your vehicle and then they put them on their website and you can purchase them. I got one from killboy.com and the other from 129slayer,com. You can go to those sites and look at all the picture of cars "doing the Tail."

We stopped at Punkin Center which is ten miles north of the Tail. We bought a few souvenirs. When we  entered the road, we saw a  officer who was writing a ticket to a car! Hahahaha Back up the hill on the curve were a couple motorcycle riders who were taking pictures of the scenario. I think they found it amusing that a car and not a motorcycle was getting a ticket. 

  The road was very curvy, with second and third gear getting the most attention. It wasn't a difficult drive and quite fun in the Miata. I kept my speed down and didn't tempt the motorcycle cops. It didn't take long, but my shifting limbs did get a workout. At the southern end is Deal's Gap and there is a store there and a camp of sorts. Very fun. Bought more souvenirs! 

When we were done there we headed to the Cherohala Skyway. It's a road not unlike the Blue Ridge Parkway that runs along a couple mountain ridges. It was recommended to me that we not miss it. It was very pretty, lots of beautiful scenery, but we probably should have passed. Terry's neck was really giving him fits and he didn't get to see any of the sites. I got out a time or two and it was worth it, but it was a long ride. Unlike the Blue Ridge, there are not any roads intersecting, so once you get on, you must ride it to the end. 

Once done sightseeing, we traveled around Atlanta through the mountains, rather than risk getting into a questionable area where demonstrations might be occurring. We had thought we would spend the night in Athens, Georgia, but the hotels there are downtown. As we were looking for them, we traveled through the town square and there was a demonstration going on there at 4:30 in the afternoon, so we kept going. We eventually, found a room south of Madison on I-20 and we spent an uneventful night there.

The next day we were up and I decided we were going to get home by evening. We actually got in before dark. Doesn't take long to unpack the Miata because the trunk is so small, we had to be careful to travel light!

So Li'l Red is spending most of the time under the canopy. She gets out occasionally, but we've been having rain most every day. She's waiting patiently for her next outing!

Till next time. . .

Dale

Quarantine!

We are counting down to Monday when we drive to the Tampa airport to pick up a rental car. We will come back home and pack it with all the gear we are taking north. Then later Monday or more likely Tuesday, we will leave Polk City and head to Indiana. It is time to break out of quarantine and go back to Indiana and pick up a trailer load of stuff and bring it back here.

We bought this place in December and made a trip to Texas to pick up some stuff there we wanted to have here. We will eventually get the Texas palace cleaned out of stuff we want and then we will put it up for sale. But until then we will keep it and probably spend a few weeks there every winter. . . or not. . . whatever strikes our fancy.

This first load we are bringing back includes MinnieMee, the little motorhome, and the enclosed cargo trailer. The trailer is currently stuffed full and in a storage unit in Nappanee, Indiana. It is there with the rest of the household stuff that is all boxed and waiting on a ride to Florida. Also in there is the Miata, my sweet little ride. We first have to get the Miata running and get some new tires on it. The ones on it are original and nine years old. Then we will return the rental car to the South Bend airport.

Then we head to the storage warehouse where MinnieMee is stored. We will get her running and take her to the Elkhart Campground near there. We will camp in her there, but we will first have to empty it into the storage locker in Nappanee. We put all our electronics in MinnieMee so they could be in climate controlled storage, but we need the stuff out so we can live in it. We also have to empty the cargo trailer because we are going to get my organ which is in a different climate controlled storage in Elkhart. We are going to go pick it up and then we will load the trailer with anything else we can fit in around the organ.

We will visit mom while we are there, observing social distancing, but it will be good to see her and Nita. We plan to spend some time sorting through the household stuff in storage and visit with some friends in the camp. We have to get new tires on the Miata, so may do that at that time.

Eventually we will start the trek back to Florida with MinnieMee and the trailer in tow. We plan on going to Mississippi to the family reunion on the way back, if they are going to have it. Haven't heard from anyone if they plan on going. We have lost three more members of the family since last year. Only one still came regularly, but he was there last year and we knew he had some health challenges then. So it will be bittersweet if we are able to connect with the rest of the family.

We have been trying to get things ready for the trip. Getting packed and cleaned out the refrigerator/freezers in the motorhome. We have been raiding it regularly, but we didn't want to leave it running while we were gone, so we got it cleaned out today. It is thawing overnight, and I will get it cleaned up tomorrow.

We have found some people who want our furniture. We bought the house furnished, but didn't want the furniture. We have changed all the beds with new mattresses and foundations, but kept that furniture as it was suitable. They are bringing a truck this weekend some time and taking the rest of what they want. We have new furniture being delivered mid-June when we return back to Florida. That will be the living room furniture. Then the only thing left is the dining room furniture and some bookcases, etc. We intend to get that all from IKEA, but they are currently closed and aren't saying when they will reopen. We hope they will be open by the time we get back and then we can finish up the furniture in the house.

We have been staying home mostly during this quarantine time. Trying to follow instructions to keep us safe. We did our doctor visits by telehealth and will follow up in the fall. We have our masks and our antibacterial wipes to take with us to try and keep things clean, so I'm hoping all will go smoothly and we will stay safe on our trip.

Till next time. . .

Dale