Never Say Never!!!

I have decided to revitalize my blog. Many factors have led to this. One is that I often refer to my old blog to look up places I’ve been or to check dates, etc. I find the blog a real source when it comes to checking events in my life. So I have decided to keep it going. Another reason is that next summer I am flying to England and embarking from there on a 12-day cruise of the British Isles and Ireland. I am going with friends and I want a way to record the trip and include pictures. I hope to blog daily and create a travel-log much like I did for our Alaska trip (see 2013, May, June, July, August). Then I had to decide if I wanted to start a new blog or extend the old one. For the present, I am going to add on to the existing blog known as “Skoolzout forever” as it is still an apt title for this former schoolteacher.

 Even though I thought my life was over when Terry died, I found it just changed. Rather dramatically and suddenly, but life does go on. I managed to sell my big motor home quite quickly and had some updates done on my little one, MinnieMee. I drove her for the next two summers, traveling to Virginia and Indiana to visit family every summer. And my new travel buddy, Brendon, travels very well with me. He doesn’t like sitting up front in his car seat, though. He prefers sleeping in his travel crate on the floor behind the passenger seat. He can see me from there so he feels very safe and secure. So that’s how we roll. He particularly enjoys visiting my sister Nita because of her three dogs, Albert loves Brendon and they play non-stop. So much so that he lost a pound (which is a lot for a little dog) over the summer.

Just to update, ten months after Terry died, my Mom died In September 2021. She was 96 and still living on her own in her trailer at my sister’s woods. She had a stroke and after being hospitalized and starting rehab in a nursing home, she had another which was devastating. She made the decision to allow only comfort measures and she died a few days later.

In November, 2021 right after Thanksgiving, my daughter Jocelyn, drove down from

  Virginia and we hitched the trailer on to MinnieMee and we drove to Mission, Texas, to my place Terry and I had in an RV Park. We cleaned out the shed and the Texas Room and put a For Sale sign in the yard. It sold in two hours! We loaded the trailer up with as much as we could carry, including the golf cart, and started back to Florida. We arrived back to my home in 15 days from when we left. A fast and productive journey. In that time I had emptied the place of everything I wanted, sold it and got back home. I would never have believe that possible. Jocelyn got back home and still had a week before Christmas!

In July 2022, I was finally able to have Terry’s ashes interred in Indiana. Covid interfered with a service and getting a columbarium built, but it all came together finally and we had a nice service with family and a few close friends in attendance. 

In November 2022, I found my “dream coach” and managed to buy it. Fortunately it was just two miles up the road. It is a 2021 Coach House Platinum III, one of two models on my list and it has all the bells/whistles I want/need! I was able to sell MinnieMee quickly. Good small motor homes are in high demand.

I mentioned in an earlier post that I published my blog. It ended up being seven volumes and over 1500 pages! I also have digital files that I can load onto usb storage devices.

Till next time. . . 

Dale