Summer Travel Map

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Still Kickin'

January 26, 2011
Sun City, AZ

Yes, we're still alive and kicking. As I mentioned in my last Blog entry oh so many weeks ago, when we're not traveling there's only so much to report, and shorter, contemporaneous updates are much easier done (and more properly placed) in Facebook.

So, what is new? Well, the primary thing we've been dealing with has been the ongoing saga of Geri's swollen and painful ankles. As I type, we're at an Imaging Center in Sun City where they're doing another MRI. This has been a somewhat frustrating process (going on since late-October), involving a range of tests, changing primary care physicians, and not a heck of a lot to show for it. But, Geri's hanging in there, keeping a positive attitude, and we'll get to the bottom of it - eventually - I'm sure.

We had good Christmas and New Year's Holidays, spending the former with our friends, Ana and Larry, and the latter relaxing at home with home-cooked Surf and Turf. Since we were home for the holidays this year, we actually deployed the decorations for a change. Every time we do, we say we'll cut back in the future, but as soon as they're up we know we'll keep doing it.

In other news, we finally got around to joining the local Elks Lodge (providing access to quite a few RV parking spots around the country), I fixed (fingers crossed!) the fabric that had come loose on the awnings over the slides on the coach, and we dodged a financial bullet when I was able to repair my failing laptop PC with a $59 drive replacement instead of a $2,000 upgrade to an iMac (although I'm still pining for that 27" model). And, the technology projects have given me a chance to upgrade our backup procedures. There's nothing like finding out that you've lost all your email archives and contacts because you thought they were backed up but weren't to make you pay more attention.

One non-coach project I've started is reducing the paper we store (and haul around with us in the summer) by scanning medical records. If medical practices can go electronic, so can we. We've found that it actually takes longer to go through the paper and pull out relevant pages than it does to scan them to PDFs. Changing doctors has finally lit the fire under us to tackle this one, and it'll be done by the end of February (give or take).

I'm also trying to get out on the bike for an hour-long ride at least three times a week; we'll see how long I can stick with that...

We've continued to eat well (really no surprise there, right?), enjoying quite a few new recipes and techniques and, of course, continuing to work our way through the "drink me now" selections in the "Wine Box". We've been experimenting with various bread/dough recipes, working toward a selection that we can make as well on home or on the road. The Ciabatta is coming along nicely, and Geri's started working on Pizza Dough that's been pretty good as well.

I've started thinking through our summer travel plans, and have updated the map (to the left) with some preliminary thoughts. Since we'll be heading east for college graduations (Alyson and Alicia) in May, we may spend some time in the upper Midwest (UP of Michigan and Wisconsin) on the way west, and I'm thinking about a swing through Ontario to catch up with some of our Canadian friends. We have to make another stop in South Dakota (my driver's license renewal this time), but we might try to do that towards mid-to-late-September to avoid the crushing heat (not as hot as AZ but not as dry either). In addition, there are a number of RV Rallies from Wisconsin to Wyoming that we might use as travel points; we haven't done much of that in the past few years. Not that I want to plan it out too much in advance, mind you.

Well, that's it for now. I'll update the Blog again when summer travel plans start to come into more focus...