1977-2023

Our camping days started with the rental of a small motorhome back in 1976 followed by the purchase of an 18 foot trailer to accommodate all 5 of us.  It wasn’t long and we upgraded to a 23 foot Wilderness that we thought was the cat’s meow.  We kept that and moved it to MI in 1981.  By the mid 80s it became apparent that Ted’s weekly travel schedule plus the girls’ school activities and the need for a third car made selling the trailer and truck a good decision.  We just didn’t have time to use it.  Life went on and about two years before retirement, Ted had chosen a HitchHiker 5th wheel and new truck to re-enter the camping world again.  That 2004 was replaced later with another 2008 HitchHiker, a little bigger.  By 2014 he had his eye on a dually truck to pull a 2014 36 foot Mobile Suite since HitchHiker was no longer in production.  

We traveled extensively in the HitchHikers and Mobile Suite with 2009 our banner year.  We traveled out West covering 11,000 miles, over 109 days visiting 17 states and a bunch of national parks.  In 2020 we decided to check out motorhomes. After much research and knowing our needs, I set my sights on a 2016-19 Newmar Ventana.  The 2016 was the first year for the added Star frame and Ted wanted a tag axle and Comfort Steer.  I wanted two recliners opposite a couch, a table not a booth, and light colored furniture.  Black and gray were coming into vogue and I didn’t like it.

At one point I knew every Ventana fitting some of that criteria for sale throughout the entire US.  I finally joined Newmars For Sale and put an ISO ad to narrow down selection.  No one had everything I wanted.  It took 15 minutes for Jim to write to me from Maggie Valley, NC.  He had exactly what we wanted but couldn’t sell until April because he needed to use it in March.  Covid was just shutting everything down so we had many conversations until April when our Mobile Suite sold and we told Jim we were coming.  We ended up buying the motorhome and a Jeep Grand Cherokee Summit set up for towing.  We enjoyed it for 3 years but much has changed.  Most of our traveling companions have stopped traveling or sold their rigs for medical reasons.  There is no place in the US we particularly want to go or see.  We have visited 49 states for Ted, 46 for me.  That is coupled with our 44 countries visited that will be 49 when we return from Dubai next December.  

A nice couple is all excited with their new motorhome and we have coached them from start to finish to help them enjoy it for a long time to come.  Ted took Rusty out driving, followed him to a local campground to go through setting up and tomorrow we will both go back over to go through departure protocol.  We leave for Florida Saturday in our new Expedition to meet up with the girls for our “girls gone wild” (on a Disney cruise) long weekend.  And a new chapter begins.  

Here are some memories.  

In Missouri heading north.

Addison Oaks, 15 miles from the kids in Michigan

Retama Village, Mission TX 

Mammoth Cave in Kentucky

Ted cooking a beef tenderloin for our whole family.  I baked a dozen potatoes in the convection oven,  a dozen ears of corn in the instant pot, made a broccoli salad and chocolate eclair cake.  It turned out perfect!

Easter 2022 with John and Vivian at their park in Cypress TX.

Foley, Alabama with Ira and Lee

Indian Springs, Cincinnati where we stayed each and every year visiting family. 

Thanks for the memories NuWa, DRV and Newmar for your fine vehicles that added so much to our life,

Staying Busy

Ted had his “annual” endoscopy since he missed 2020 (Covid) and 2021 (travel and difficulty with scheduling) and 2022 allowing me to be the patient with two surgeries.  Dr W said there were some acid streaks and upped his omeprozal from 20 mg to 40 mg.  A few innocuous polyps were removed from his stomach opening but doc said they were nothing to worry about.  It will be two weeks to get pathology report.  I will worry anyway.  Update:  All is good with pathology.  

Thursday we had our neighborhood birthday lunch at Chicken Salad Chick.  I really like their food but my WW app certainly doesn’t.  I was going to rejoin WW the next morning so I went for broke and had a chicken salad croissant, broccoli salad, grape salad and ate the cookie that comes with it.  WW gave me the news the next morning that I have 13.6 lbs. to lose to get back to goal I reached in August 2018.

Friday evening we went to hear Gerre sing in the Methodist church presenting The Weeping Tree Cantata.  They had an impressive choir, bells and orchestra and we enjoyed the presentation of the Passion of Our Lord.  Last year for Good Friday we went to Cowboy Church while camping with John and Vivian.  Then there was the Christmas concert at the Baptist Church.  So ecumenical of us!

Sunday we attended Mass at 9 am.  Holy Saturday Mass the night before is a 3 hour long stream of events including reading special prayers, blessing holy oils to be used throughout the year in sacraments, baptisms and confirmations of those entering the church after completing the RCIA program, burning the remaining palms to use for Ash Wednesday next year, etc.  It has been years since we attended that Mass.

We went to Gerre and Barry’s for dinner Easter Day with their son and his family.  We hid 170 eggs for the kids to find (young adults really).

The Masters was on TV and we watched that while some of the kids went fishing since they live on Lake Conroe.

We had a huge table running from one end of the room into the entry hall for eating dinner.  When we were finishing up, their grandson-in-law brought them a card and it contained a sonogram telling them their granddaughter is 3 months pregnant.  Gerre cried, Barry cried and I cried.  It was such a wonderful ending to a wonderful day.

Because I am out of town so much I took the first available Canasta play day to host after I came home.  It just happened to be the day after Easter.  To make things easy, I chose to serve a catered lunch from Chicken Salad Chick.  I ordered Fancy Nancy chicken salad croissants, broccoli salad, pasta salad and cookies.  I had fruit salad left over from Sunday so I included that along with chips and macaroons.  

It was a big hit!  But the catering for 10-12 people had at least 3 dozen sandwiches!  Everyone ate and I bagged up two sandwiches and a separately wrapped cookie in a ziplock and everyone took one home.  I had pretzel nuggets and York peppermint patties on the play tables and even some of that was eaten.  I didn’t win, I was in the middle again.

I had my bone density, blood work and oncology appointment later in the week.  They are trying the last of the three hormone therapy pills available to see if I can eliminate the joint pain the other two have caused.  Bone density was a bit better, blood work was all good, I was down a bit in weight and an appointment for December for a mammogram and follow up was made.  All good news!

The community college where Nancy and I take classes presented “Footloose” on Wednesday evening.  It was free for students and seniors!  We scored on both fronts.  The Drama Department did an excellent job and we both enjoyed it.  I have been humming “Let’s Hear It For The Boys” ever since!  We grabbed a bite to eat afterwards (it started at 5:30) so we had a late dinner.

I took this week’s class via Zoom but was disappointed in the presentation.  It sounded like a sales pitch to me and apparently the college agreed because I received an email from the Director advising people to be careful about following through on the subject discussed!

Friday was my first weekly weigh in since joining back up with Weight Watchers.  I was down 4.2 lbs. leaving me a little less than 10 lbs. to lose.  Ted was proud of me!

I saw Dr. Chang Monday.  All vitals and blood work in line!  I got a haircut and Cindy noticed how I am getting curls out of nowhere!  Our class on Medicare was cancelled but our Doc Talks on joint pain and weight management were very good.  

Wednesday, the folks wanting to buy our motorhome had it inspected.  A husband/wife team spent 5 hours testing a total of 700+ items.  There were a few things they needed some assistance in how it worked, to get them checked off.  When all was said and done, there were two items.  A wood screw missing from the glide on a drawer (if I had a wood screw I would have fixed it), and the sensor in the black tank still says 1/3 even though it is empty. 

That is not unusual for something to be stuck to the sensor.  We sat still for 3 months.  We emptied and cleaned it every week and filled it with Calgon and Pine Sol for the drive home.  Nothing worked.  The inspectors told them the sensors are notorious for doing this.  You will know when it is empty but will not get another reading until 2/3 which gives you plenty of time to empty the tank.  One day it will just work loose and the 1/3 will go away!  Fluids were taken from transmission, engine and generator and as of 7 pm Friday, no results.  The buyers were told by the inspectors that they didn’t expect any problems based on our maintenance records and the condition of the well cared for motorhome.  

And in the midst of all of this we sold our current Expedition and bought a new Expedition from Planet Ford.  We pick it up Saturday.  We hope to close Tuesday of next week on the motorhome.  Our storage will be due 5/1, the license plates expire 5/1 and the insurance expires 4/27!  Time now is of the essence!  There was a MI man who opted to take his 5th wheel home from FL before getting into serious negotiations and he was on the phone to Ted several times on Wednesday asking how it was going.  He was “ready to pull the trigger.”  So we have a back up if things go south though I would not pay $1000 to get an inspection and then not buy over a screw and dirty sensor!  

Wish us luck!