Our Travels During 2024

January 6, 2024. Well, another year with Biden in office; our country is quickly degrading into Sodom and Gamora -- pedophilia; thousands of illegal immigrants invading our country and Biden refuses to close the border and Mayorkas lies to the American people all the time. The House is talking about impeachment, which needs to happen, but who knows.

January 9, 2024. Yesterday afternoon the wind started up out of the northwest – up to 25mph with gusts up to 50. Jim was shooting pool and Lucy and I walked over to say we need to put the awning in as it was getting beat up. It’s a new awning, and I did not want it ruined. Two guys that were in there came over to help hold the awning down while we took the clips off. The high side must have been getting beaten good as Jim said the wings on the slide bar broke off – maybe, we think. When the wind dies down later today we will need to lower the awning to see the damage. It also would not roll up tight, so I’m going to raise and lower it a few times to see if it helps.

January 12, 2024. We left Tres Rios yesterday to head to Houston for the week and then on to Lazy Palms. We left just in time, too, as a deep freeze will be hitting the Dallas/Fort Worth area this weekend putting the nightly temps into the teens and maybe even single digits. It will be cold in Houston, but only into the 20’s on Monday and Tuesday nights.

I ordered parts for the awning and furnace to be delivered to Jetstream on Monday. We will be taking the burner out on Monday and hope that is the problem with the furnace.

Had a picture taken of Juliella and me. She is now 13 years old and will be taller than me in a little while.

January 17, 2024. Spent a few evenings at Josh & Karen’s house visiting. They watched football all day Saturday; Sunday they went to church but Jim was not feeling up to going. Sunday night we went to their church for dinner and a movie. Josh and Karen made spaghetti and salad for our dinner and then we watched a movie, which I cannot remember what it was. Some Disney movie about sea monsters coming out of the water, turning human and going into the city.

The freezing weather that is blanketing the country will make it down to Houston on Monday and Tuesday night. I’m glad we are not in Glen Rose as their highs are in the 20’s and lows 11 and 12. Monday our parts arrived for the furnace so I went out and started to tackle the repair. It was tricky getting the screws out as they were pretty far into the burner area. Tried using the hex head, but that was not easy. Finally got a long screw driver from our neighbor along with a 13/16 wrench to get the gas flange off. Followed a YouTube about what needed to be done. It was getting pretty cold and darker by the time we were finishing up. It said that there was supposed to be 3 screws, but we took out four.

Our neighbor on the other side – Juan Carlos – came over to ask if we needed help. He is an electrical engineer and helped put the new electrodes on the burner. The new electrodes had its own wire coming off of it, which was supposed to connect to the solenoid, but instead he cut the end off of the connector and put a connector, making an extra wire connection. They pulled the electrodes out but may have been more than 1/8” gap. We put it back together, and it still did not work.

 

So then Monday night we went over to Josh & Karen’s to eat dinner but forgot to let the water drip, so when we got back the water hose was frozen, so we had no water except what was in the tank, and no heat. The little floor heater does not keep up with the cold. Jim fired up the Buddy Heater to warm up the trailer. He did not come to bed until early in the morning and shut off the Buddy Heater. The trailer at that time stayed in the mid-60s the rest of the night.

The kids did not have school on Tuesday (or Monday as it was MLK day) because of the icy roads. But I kept looking at YouTubes about how to fix our furnace. I determined that it was the electrode gap or the new electrode not getting a spark. So I went back out in the 20 weather and started pulling the furnace apart again. It was a lot easier this time as I knew what screws needed to come out and what to do. I got the burner out and decided to put the old electrode back on. I cleaned up the connection on the electrode, brought the burner into the trailer and installed the old electrode back on. There was a screw missing on the electrode so I found one in my box and put it on the electrode. I tried getting the gap to 1/8” but was not having much luck.

Decided to go out and put it back together anyway. Juan Carlos must have heard me and came over to assist. He ended up taking out the screw that I put into the electrode and put in the extra screw to hold it in place. He also used pliers to pull out of side of the electrodes to 1/8” gap. We put it back together without screwing the burner in to test it and make sure it worked. We eventually did get the furnace working, so now we have heat.

In the afternoon I went out to try and get the hose unfrozen. Using my hair dryer on the Y valve, then on the hose itself along with moving the hose to break up the frozen water inside of it. I eventually determined that the water inside the water filter was frozen and that’s why the water was not flowing. I got Jim to unscrew the water filter and sure enough, the top was encased in frozen water. Got that out, turned on the water, and then we had water. So I put all that back together so we would have water that night.

We went back over to Josh & Karen’s Tuesday evening for dinner and left the water dripping this time; which turned to ice during the night. There was a big water pile but at least we have water. 8am and the weather is still 28 outside. I’m waiting until it reads above freezing before turning off the drip.

January 18, 2024. This morning Jason’s school had Pastries with Pals before school started. Phil picked me up and we drove to their house and walked to school with Karen and Jason. I think Jason was really happy to have two of his grandparents come to breakfast with him. They had a place to get pictures, so I was able to get one of us before going in to eat.

 

Today is Josh (44) and Sean’s (39) birthdays. We went to dinner at J Henry’s to celebrate. I always enjoy going there; their food is really good, all the time. They also have a great beer menu – lots of craft beers. Karen and Juliella baked Josh a cheesecake for his birthday and we went over to their house after dinner to have some. Karen also FaceTimed with Jacklyn and Sean during that so we sang Happy Birthday to both of them.

Josh & Sean

I was also able to get another family picture since we did not take one at Thanksgiving. There is Josh, Karen, Karen's Dad, Phil and Jim. In the front is Juliella, Jason, and Gayle.

 

January 19, 2024. We left Jetstream Friday morning on our way to Lazy Palms. We stopped in Refugio at Heritage Trails RV Park for the night. They had FHU sites on concrete pads; not quite level so I had to unhook to level us front to back. We disconnected anyway to run to Shell to fill up the tank.

Heritage Trails RV Park, Refugio, Texas

January 22, 2024. We arrived at Lazy Palms on Saturday afternoon under threatening weather. Luckily it was not raining yet, but we are expecting rain for the next couple of days.

They gave us a FHU site on weeds with a concrete pad that is too far back from the front door. No fire ring; no picnic table. There are also a LOT of stickers all over the place that keep getting in Lucy’s paws. There really is no good place to walk; we did walk around the park one day and in the mornings we walk up the unpaved road. The roads through the park are gravel/dirt/clay and when it rains turns to mush, which sticks to the bottom of your shoes.  OH- another major thing – there is no Verizon service here. I have to put the phones on Starlink and Lazy Palms WiFi in order to get service.

Lazy Palms Resort, Edinburg, Texas

There really are palm trees here; not a lot of them, but they are interspersed around the park.

Jim went to shoot pool on Sunday and found out they play only one game called 101, which is because of the Canadians who play here. He does not like that game so I’m not sure how much he will be playing. The activity schedule is confusing. There are many things on it, and it looks like most of the card playing in at 7 or 8pm.

Some of our friends from Tres Rios are here – Joe & Gloria, Doug & Marlene, Brandy & Ron, Jim & Janette. 

There are a few museums/attractions that I want to see while we are down here, so I’ll make plans on fitting them into our agenda.

 

I paid for one month and I think that is all we will be staying, especially since the others are only staying for one month. I prefer Tres Rios by a long shot.

Going to head to Walmart this morning for our weekly shopping with a stop at Specs as well. Edinburg is about 25 miles south and has a lot of different stores, so we are not lacking for places to shop.

January 24, 2024. The weather has been overcast and misty with bouts of rain here and there.  I would really like some sunshine already.

Lucy and I are still heading out at 6:45 for our morning walk. This morning we walked around the whole park, which was only a bit over one mile, so then we walked up the unpaved road to get our two miles in.

There are two fields of watermelon being grown with grasses in between to help keep the winds down.

January 28, 2024. This afternoon Jim and I went to La Sal del Rey, a salt lake that is very close to the campground. It is part of a Natural Wildlife Refuge for many types of animals and birds. There are a couple of entrances, and we found one where we were able to drive in very close to the boardwalk. We got our picture taken by a young couple there, and I put my purse down on the salty sand and I think I must have picked up sand fleas or something because I ended up getting really bit up all over my stomach and back area. It really itched and I was glad to have some cortisone to take away the itch.

January 30, 2024. Today there was the annual Ladies Luncheon where they do something special in the park. The luncheon was really nice – Gloria, Marlene and I sat together. Lots of good food and desserts. I ate too much – especially too much of the desserts (cheesecake and Boston cream pie). They had a lady from the local Butterfly Center come in and tell us about trees and flowers that attack butterflies. It was pretty interesting, but of no use to us who are not native to the area.

Then at night Grady has a friend here, LaVoyne who had an ice cream social for all of us down from Tres Rios. It was a very nice get together; did not stay real long but had a good chat with everyone. We got a picture of all of us and one with Grady and LaVoyne.

Grady & LaVoyne

February 3, 2024. Grady mentioned to Jim about us buying a lease lot here at Lazy Palms. They charge $1,260 for the year to lease a lot. So we can put our RV on it, or put up a park model (400 sq ft) with a small shed in the back. We picked out one that Grady had suggested, one right next door to the owner, facing his house, which would be east, Lot No. G-13. Jim did not want to face west, as the setting sun makes things very hot.

 

Site G-13

Last night Joe had Karaoke so we went to that. It was fun; Jim of course sang a few songs, Joe sang and some of the Lazy Palms people sang songs. The ladies got up and sang Those Boots Are Made for Walking, which was lot of fun.

Jim had his telemed appointment with Dr. Waters about the results from his urine sample from last month. The name of the test that he did was called Intelliscore, which looks for markers (proteins) in the urine which appear only when cancer is present. Jim’s score was 49. What he said about the last biopsy is that the cancer may be at the top of the prostate where probes do not always reach.  So now Jim has to get an MRI to see if there is a lesion and if cancer is present. If so, then Dr. Waters will do another biopsy in the hospital, knock Jim out so he cannot move, put his feet in stirrups and do the biopsy that way.

February 8, 2024. The wind has been awful the last few days; we brought in our awning because the wind was just beating the arms and we did not want any damage done. 

Jim’s MRI is set for March 1 at which time we will see what is going on with his prostate. I have read about taking Ivermectin for cancer, and one of the cancers it helps is prostate cancer. So, I will be talking to Dr. Waters about that depending on the results of the MRI. Jim continues to take Prostadine, which seems to be helping his prostate.

Tuesday the wind had died down enough that we were able to fix the piece on the arm that broke during the Tres Rios wind. It was an easy fix; Joe and Doug came over and Joe had a punch and metal piece to hit down the pin so it would not come out. We also put on the catches to keep the arms up while the awning is up.

February 17, 2024. We were scheduled to leave today but it started raining Thursday afternoon and it still continues through today, so I changed our schedule to leave on Sunday. It’s raining, wind is blowing and the temperature is dropping. It looks like a couple of our other friends who were going to leave today decided to stay one more night as well. Joe and Gloria are staying until the end of February. 

Grady did some work on our site – trimmed the tree and threw down some grass seed. I hop the seed takes and we get some grass growing. He said he would put down more if needed. The lot is all mud now and I’m glad we are not on it. 

The roads here flood and get mushy in the rain. This morning I put on my rain pants and sloggers along with my winter jacket and umbrella. The wind was whipping and I slipped and fell along the back road when I stepped into the water. We did not even do our complete circle around the park since the weather was so nasty.

February 21, 2024. We left on Sunday to sunny skies and no rain. I am glad we stayed an extra day because Saturday was still a pretty dismal day. We drove to Big Mesquite RV Park in Three Rivers for one night, then to Medina Thousand Trails in Lakehills on Monday. It is west outside of San Antonio, but we have not ventured into San Antonio yet. Don’t know if we will.

We did get a nice grassy spot at Thousand Trails, but it is right next to another rig with three little girls. We stopped at Walmart on the way here and it was pretty late by the time we got here. We looked at a few sights but did not see a good view of the north sky for the Starlink. Even though this site is close to the site next to us, we decided to stay here because there was a lot of grass and a good view of the north sky. The family and three girls do not come out much; they home school during the day and come out late afternoon to play. Met the dad but mom has not ventured out of the RV yet.

Lake Medina Thousand Trails

On Tuesday we went into Bandera for lunch and to visit The Cowboy Store. We stopped into Bandera Gun Works which is next door to the Cowboy Store. Jim was just going to run in and talk to them; I came in afterwards and just started looking at guns. I mentioned I wanted an automatic that was easy to rack and one of the gentlemen in there brought out a Smith & Wesson and proceeded to show me all about it. It was very easy to rack, called an EZ which made raking very easy. I ended up buying it, which really surprised Jim. He was not expecting that at all.

I now have to learn more about it so I can take care of it myself, instead of having Jim to everything. We went back again on Wednesday to buy some more ammo, the target rounds being $20 a box.

We also went to the Bandera Natural History Museum. It was really amazing; there is a whole room of art. They have a couple of women who take you on a tour of the art room to tell you all about it. It has old paintings from the 17^th century along with carvings and other things. Then we went into the main section where there were a bunch of animals from the different sections of the country. It was quite amazing and very enjoyable.

February 24, 2024. Just hanging around the park these last few days. Took a walk down to the non-existent lake and took some pictures of it. I wonder what made the lake go dry? I will have to look into that. The park is still OK to visit; not all Thousand Trails are on lakes. But this one still has great trails to walk on, unlike some of the parks where they removed the trail to put in more RV sites.

The last time we were at Medina Lake Thousand Trails was in 2018 and this is what the lake looked like back then:

February 26, 2024. Stopped in Round Mountain for two nights at Peach Valley RV Park so we could get our shopping done in Marble Falls. 

Peach Valley RV Park

The RV Park was nothing special and there was no good place for Lucy and I to get our walk in; but they did have a large field which we walked around a few times. On our way into shopping we stopped at Dead Man’s Hole Historical Landmark. It was very interesting.

February 28, 2024. Arrived at Tres Rios yesterday. It was nice to be back and Lucy was especially happy. She was happy to visit with everyone who stopped by. She especially enjoyed our walks around the park, putting in her mark and smelling all the other dogs.

Tres Rios, Site 129

The weather was great on our drive, a bit overcast which Jim enjoyed as the sun was not causing glare on the roadway. We did not stop the whole way here, about 2-1/2 hours of driving up 281 into Hico and then Glen Rose. The weather was in the 80s when we got here and now a cold front came in during the night with winds at 20-25mph and highs today in the 50s. Since Jim came up with a new way to tie down the awning, even with this wind it did not seem to move much. There are 6 tie downs with two crossed from the end of the awning to the picnic table.

February 29, 2024. Leap Day of February. Had my annual doctor’s appointment with Dr. Josie Lopez this morning. We talked about my thyroid and T4 and T3. We also talked about other tests that she would like done, like another Cologuard and a mammogram next September. So she ordered me a Cologuard and I need to call to make sure they send it to Tres Rios. She put in a whole lot of tests that I will go do in April, which will be six months since my last round of tests. She gave me another exercise to do to firm up my lower abdomen.

Jim has his MRI on Friday morning for his prostate. Tonight he was supposed to do a suppository to get rid of all the poop stored up. He sure was resistant to doing that and was very grumpy and giving me dirty looks. I did give him another option which he’s done before with the Muralax, but he did the suppository. He does not trust the medical industry, and is being resistant to doing it all. But since I want him to do this, because I do want to know what’s going on with this prostate, he is going along with it.

March 6, 2024. Jim did not enjoy the MRI; it took about 45 minutes and he said it was very loud. They gave him earphones and ear muffs over those and he said it was still loud.

I cancelled the appointment with Dr. Bhatti because I did not see any reason that Jim needed to see him. According to Dr. Waters’ office they have to have a clearance from Jim’s pulmonologist before the biopsy. I also told them that the 8am procedure time was too early as they wanted him to take a shower the day of and be there at 6:30am. They want him to have an EKG and something else I don’t remember and she said they could do that the day of the procedure. But all in all, we cancelled the biopsy because Jim said that if the MRI did not show any cancer, there was no need for a biopsy. So we kept one appointment, which was the follow-up, but now it’s for Dr. Waters to discuss the results of the MRI with us. That appointment is set for March 21. I think I may just ask Dr. Waters to put Jim on Ivermectin for about six months and then we’ll see what his numbers are and if a biopsy is still needed.

We have also started back with Life Vantage, the pills Jim's cousin Jay gave us when we were in Minnesota. I decided to give them another chance, and I also ordered a couple other products in hopes that they will help my thyroid.

It's called the "little yellow pill."  I also just bought the Protandim NRF1. It’s a synergizer to help my mitochondria, and also liquid collagen. I’m not going to buy the liquid collagen anymore because it’s 10 small bottles and I’m supposed to drink one bottler per day. That’s a lot of money to spend on that. So I’m going to use ½ bottle per day so it lasts longer.

Yesterday was Super Tuesday and there was a bunch of states that voted in the primary for the next Republican president. Nikki Hayley was the only Republican still in the running but she got trounced by Trump and dropped out. The only states she won was Vermont and D.C. So now Trump just needs a few more states and he will be on the ballot with Biden. The SCOTUS ruled 9-0 against Colorado trying to keep Trump off the ballot, which also takes care of Maine and Illinois trying to do the same thing.

The Dow is heading up and up today, maybe because of the hope of people that Trump will be coming back.

March 10, 2024. What is in the air? Last year at this time we were heading into Georgia and into the Midwest. This time we are here in Texas and something is blooming causing my eyes and sinuses to go haywire. My eyes are puffy and feel awful and last night my sinuses were plugged. By morning I felt better, but as the morning wears on, my eyes are feeling cruddy again.

Lucy and I got up at our normal time, even though last night the clocked jumped forward one hour. It’s going to take a bit to get used to the new time change, so we just get up before sunrise. I know, the sun rises at the same time every morning; it does not matter what the clock says, it’s still coming up.

Tres Rios is packed this weekend; spring break is upon us and we have someone right next to us where Dustin used to be.

Doing a lot of research on my thyroid; I would like to get it healed so I can stop taking my pills. So I’m changing my diet and getting rid of the goitrogens and lectins. I will also be adding back in carbohydrates as they are beneficial to the thyroid. I’m just trying to figure out which ones, especially for breakfast and lunch. I’m looking more toward fruit as the carb, instead of the Simple Mills Bars, even though these are really good. I stopped making the muffins with oatmeal as I read that oats being a grain, are not good and can contain mold, so I need to think of something else to make – something with fruit.

I also bought some Red Mill’s Baking Soda and am saving capsules and filling them up with the baking soda. Right now I am taking 6 capsules per day to help with my arthritis.

March 17, 2024. We have been having a lot of trouble with the electric at the site we stay at here at Tres Rios. Our EMS keeps cutting off the electric to us due to low voltage. It has been happening so much these past three weeks that I am ready to move to another site. Dennis thinks it’s our EMS that is the problem, but Jim told him that we did not have any trouble anywhere else, only here. We have to leave on Tuesday for our week out, and I think we are going to have to go into another site when we get back. I think maybe we should move over to the next row; we’ll still be on the end but the electric should be better. 

Jim ate some Moonshine Pickles one night and thinks he got poisoned from them. He was sick for about 4 days, barely eating and sitting on the toilet a lot. He’s better now and is glad it’s out of his system.

March 20, 2024. Got to Whitney Resorts on Tuesday for our week out. We could not get the site I asked for as they are renovating the bathhouse and laundry so the whole building is closed – which means the laundry room is closed. My idea of getting all the heavy laundry there is gone; and now I will be heading into town to the local laundry to do it all. Oh well.

Whitney Resorts

When I walk Lucy in the afternoon we go to the trail that ran behind the houses, near the Thousand Trails property. They did plow a road down through the middle of the tail, but there is still enough for us to get our walk in. There is property near the dead end next to Lori and Paul which is for sale, so Jim and I want to look at it this morning. There are two metal covers already there and a shed with two rooms. Kathleen McCrory came up to show us the "shack," which I should not really call it that as it’s realty nice inside. There are currently two rooms, one with a couch and chair, and a small bathroom with full shower, toilet and sink. The other room holds the washer dryer combo and a full refrigerator. I will probably move the frig and put in a small oven/stove, which will help with homestead exemption.

Anyway, we decided to give them an offer. They are asking $49,500 and we made an offer; they countered; and we countered again, which they accepted. We think it’s a good deal for everything in there. There are even towels in the bathroom! There are a bunch of gardening equipment as well. The only thing that needs to be done first is the water spigot needs to be fixed. Someone backed over it and broke it off. That’s no big deal, and Kathleen said they would get it fixed.

Now we are going to have to buy a golf cart! We are here until Tuesday and will go back to Tres Rios for three weeks.

March 27, 2024. Spent yesterday morning talking with the electric company trying to get new service at the property. Texas is very confusing. You use Texas New Mexico as the service provider, and then pick an actual electric company to provide your electric. I picked Revolution Energy because they have 5* and their phone number ends in 1776. I put in a request to get the meter changed from commercial to residential.

Then when we got back here to Tres, we were informed that they were not going to be accepting mail or packages after April 8. I don’t know what people are going to do; some companies like Fed Ex only ship to physical addresses. They are screwing their members again.

Jim and I are also going to send a letter to corporate to complain about our electric; it’s still not fixed and Dennis just ignores our requests.

March 29, 2024. A few of us decided to head to the office this morning and let Renee know how upset we were with the new rules about mail and packages. Even though the member book says that they do not accept mail, they have ignored that for at least 8 years (since we’ve been coming here). Tony was very upset as well and sent his contact and paperwork to his daughter, who is a paralegal in a law firm in Dallas. She thinks we have a case against OCP since they have set a precedent by accepting mail and packages for so many years. We will see what happens.

I also mentioned to Renee about our electric, and of course all she said was they will take care of it. If I don’t see any progress, I will send a letter to corporate.

March 31, 2024. The last day of March is also Easter Sunday. I took Kelly to the Happy Trails Cowboy Church this morning for their Easter Service. It was very nice; we sat with Rod & Susan and Kelly’s new friend Cindy came and sat with us as well.

April 4, 2024. What an awful night we had – our power started going out around 10pm and was on/off for about 6 hours. Finally got to sleep about 2-3am and woke up at 6am. I went out and took Lucy for a walk and left Jim in bed.  He slept without his c-pap because of the electric going out so much. Then when I got back from my walk, it went out again about three times. It usually does not go out during the day, for some reason it only happens at night.

I did let Renee know and all I get from her is they are working on it. But I think it’s time to call the Public Utility Commission of Texas and file a complaint. If Renee and Dennis know about the issue – did they let corporate know? I don’t know. Maybe I’ll send an email to Sheraye Cox, who is VP, Manager of Member Service first. Find out if they are aware of the issue.

April 5, 2024. Thursday night we hooked up to a different pedestal with an extra 30amp power cord that Doug had. The electricity went out a couple of times around 11pm and did not go out again all night until 7am when it went out as I was heading out for our walk. It went out a few more times after that and it was high voltage every time. We even tried to hook up the Anker and hooked that to the EMS but it also knocked our power out because the Anker has its own power safety feature, so we could not use the Anker to power the trailer. It’s solely for emergency purposes.

Our next decision was to either move to Whitney or move to another spot here at Tres Rios, so I opted to move to another site, along the tree line into Site 104. It’s an OK site with some green grass. But now we have another trailer to look at instead of the park. We are only here another week and a half, so we will just have to put up with it.

Tres Rios, Site 104

I doubt that our site at 129 will be fixed by the time we decide to come back. Jim thinks that since it’s high voltage, the issue stems from outside the park and the power coming into it. But why it’s affecting just us at this one specific site is a puzzle. Electricians checking the power find nothing wrong; but that’s probably because it’s an intermittent problem. Jim is burned out from not enough sleep; from worrying “will the electric go out on us…”

April 11, 2024. Over the weekend of April 6-7 Dennis put two families in sites 129 and 130 (probably without telling them of the electrical issue). Jim went over and told them of the issue we had. One night Randy said that when he left cards he noticed the man in 129 outside with a flashlight looking at the pedestal. I never went over and asked them if they had any problems, but I guess I should have, just to know.

We have had ZERO issues with our electric since moving to site 104.

But even though I told Dennis that the site needed to be monitored 24/7 to see if there is an issue, I doubt he is going to do that.

On my rant on Ocean Canyon Facebook page one person who stayed here did have issues when they stayed at TR and it was not fixed as they had to hook into a different pedestal.

I did mention it again to Renee when we went in there to talk about the mail issue, and she said they would do something about it. But they have had plenty of time to do something, so today I wrote a letter to Sheraye Cox of Member Services with a copy to Jason King, CEO of Outdoor Adventures to tell them of the issue we had, and attached pictures of our EMS showing the code for the high and low voltage and pictures of the EMS showing 145 and 146 voltage. We’ll see what kind of response we get from that. I wish there was some federal agency I could complain to.

April 12, 2024. We received a call this morning from Sheraye Cox and she has James on the phone with her (previous TR manager). She was trying to understand the whole situation and even went so far as to ask if it was our trailer that was at issue – geez. We tried to explain the best we could about the situation. James said he tried to find something to monitor the electric but could not find anything. I believe that our friend Randy has something that will as he ran an electrical shop and his son now runs it. I’ll have to ask him.

Later that day we did see an electric truck at TR but of course they could not find anything. When I talked with our neighbors Randy & Melodi, they said that the electric company was up 312 installing new transformers. Could it all be connected somehow? I would like to think that something like that would solve the issue we had. It’s very odd that we did not have any major issues like we just experienced for the years we were in that site, and all of a sudden we do. Who is at fault?

April 20, 2024. We left TR on April 16, which was our time to leave and headed to our new home at Whitney. We are getting settled in and buying some things for the place. Got four chairs for the deck and I bought some paint and am re-painting the bathroom because they had just used regular paint and not semi-gloss, which should be for the bathroom. I also did a lot of caulking around the shower.

We have also been trying to help a young couple at Tres, Mike and Kelly, who have been having issues with Camping World about the purchase of their trailer. It’s too long to explain here, so I’m not going to get into it.

Mike & Kelly

Mike was an Army medic in Afghanistan and has PTSD very bad. This past Sunday he went to church with Kelly and was dressed in an army kilt and a long knife. Why he took a knife to church we will never know, and why Kelly allowed it is another question. Mike was raised Jehovah’s Witness, and then went to a Cowboy Church. He did not like what the Pastor was saying in the sermon and got up and started ranting; swearing, etc. It turned ugly and he started pulling out his knife when he was tackled to the ground and ultimately arrested for felony assault. There are multiple eye witnesses and of course they all have their own viewpoint of what happened.

So now Mike is in jail; Kelly is trying to handle everything outside and is having a rough time; she does have a lot of support at TR and I hope they do not kick her out. They have already lost their spot at Rainbow RV where they went for their week out. Now Camping World is repossessing her RV and she will be without a home. Mike also has a service dog that is very old and Kelly has to decide what to do with him.

I did a POA for her on Friday; emailed it to Marla to print out for Kelly so Kelly could take it when she went to see Mike. His bond was set for $100,000 and of course no one has $10,000 to put up a bond. Don’t know when court is or how he will get out. I made a Give Send Go campaign to raise money for Kelly & Mike, then when we talked to our friend Bill (Cajun) he said to be very cautious about having Mike on the campaign because the Army does not like stuff like that. So I ended up changing the whole thing to just Kelly’s name.

The whole thing with them has been causing us sleepless nights, worrying about us and helping them. I finally got some good sleep last night; went to bed before 9pm, woke up a couple of times, but went back to sleep. Jim came to bed at the same time but said he did not sleep good, so he’s still trying to get some sleep.

We’re also with the dilemma of Jim needing a biopsy for his prostate. Since I had cancelled the appointment with Bhatti, the hospital is adamant that he needs the clearance from the pulmonologist, which is not going to happen any time soon as we are now in Whitney and it’s too long a drive to Granbury right now. I don’t know when we will get back to TR. In the meantime, we are taking the Life Vantage pills, which should help, along with the Prostadine, Vitamin D and E, and now he’s on Fenbendazole and CBD oil.

April 23, 2024. I put our new My Pillow pillows on the bed the other night. They were just not comfortable at all. I lasted about ½ of the night and could barely sleep before I put my old pillow back on the bed. Jim lasted two nights before I put his old pillow back on. Since neither one of us like them, I packed them up and shipped them back for a return. I’ll have to decide if I want to replace these with the same ones.

Also been checking into homeowner’s and automobile insurance for our new place. I am going to have to switch companies as National General will not insure our new shed; so I called the company recommended here at Whitney. Our new insurance for full-time will cover the trailer and the shed and will be with Foremost. Our Excursion will be switched as well, and we are going with Progressive. Our insurance premium went up to $148 per month with National General. Now our rate will be $107 per month, and the Excursion is paid up for six months at $224. The difference between the two is not that much, but I could not insurance the shed with National General.

I also called TxNM electric again and requested a residential meter; and the guy actually came out today and put a residential meter in for us. He said the state of Texas is not favorable to RVers that travel and have a permanent residence like ours; they want to make extra money so don’t want to give us residential meters. I had to put out a piece of lattice to show that we are here full time, even though we are not.

May 2, 2024. Been working on the new homestead; finished painting the bathroom with semi-gloss to make it more water and moisture resistant. Bought a corner table for the TV; also bought a Starlink Mesh Router for the Living Room so we can get reception on the TV since I moved it away from the door. Also bought two wall lamps and I still need to get a floor lamp for behind the recliner. 

Been doing laundry in my washer/dryer combo. It’s really nice to just go next door and do laundry. I still do not have a place to fold the clothes so I just bundle them up and plop them on the bed to fold and put away.

I also noticed water puddles on the floor in the laundry room and noticed light when I pulled away the fiberglass. Yesterday I went to Ace to buy some Great Stuff Foam and put that behind the fiberglass. Then I noticed that under the steel frame some of the foam seeped down and realized that I should have Foamed the floor near the end of the concrete and siding. So I went back to Ace and bought another can of Foam and did that area. It rained last night and today there is no water! I also bought some silicone and put that around the air conditioner as there was light showing around it.

I have also been looking at the different types of ceiling and wall paneling to put in the Living and Laundry rooms. I found what I like and took pictures of it and sent it to Pam for Garner to look at. I also ordered a fan from Amazon for the Living Room.

May 8, 2024. I went with Garner and Ted to Lowe’s to pick up some material for them to work on our place. The ceiling material I ordered had not been delivered yet even though the website said it was supposed to be. Now it’s “delayed.” I even called customer service and all they could tell me was that it’s on the truck for delivery, but did not know when. I did buy the wall paneling for the laundry room though. When the ceiling material is delivered, Garner will go pick it up.

At cornhole on May 7 I was told that there was a virus going around the park and one of the symptoms was going to the bathroom all the time. I don’t know who Jim would have caught it from but it sounds like that’s what hit him. A few days ago he said he felt like it was all over; he felt great and could even walk good. 

Then Jim and I started looking for a golf cart. Jim said we need a golf cart and I noticed Kathleen was selling one, but by the time we got around to looking at it, she was at the office and someone else had bought it. We did find out that another man in the park, Charles, buys golf carts and fixes them up to sell them. So we looked at one that he was selling; it looks like a good deal so we decided to buy his. While we are here at TR he is going to buy a back seat and side view mirrors and install them for us. So when we get back I’ll have to go to Hillsboro to the Credit Union and get $$ out to pay for it. It’s going to run us around $2,600.

May 9, 2024. We left Whitney and headed to Tres Rios for three weeks. We started hooking up to our regular site 129 at Tres Rios, but shortly after we plugged in the electric, we got a low voltage warning on the EMS. So we stopped setting up and tried to decide our next plan. I decided that we would have to move instead of continuing to set up. So we moved to Site 107, which is where Coy & Teri used to be. It's a nice big yard, but since some people think it's a "cut through" I put up a rope to block their access.

Tres Rios, Site 107

In addition, when we were pulling out of the site at Whitney Jim was concerned about the inside corner and did not even think about a fishtail, and sure enough the right rear of the trailer hit the pole and took off the rubber trim, side light and the cap to the bumper. He stopped right when he heard the noise and before he tore the peddle off of his trike. We had to do some maneuvering to get out of that spot, such as unhooking and repositioning the truck so the rear end would go left to get away from the pole. We then straightened up, hooked back up and he backed up until we could turn to get out of the park. Jim is not happy with himself; he feels very bad about damaging the trailer, but at least he did not rip a hole in it! 

May 14, 2024. Yesterday we went to Jim’s primary doctor and saw the LRN Leslie Ross. She said that the MRI did show necrosis of Jim’s hips, mostly in the left hip, which is the one that has been bothering him.

We also mentioned about him feeling like crap, and visiting with Paul, our next door neighbor at Whitney. Since he carries around a bag and wears a diaper, there is a chance Jim caught something from him. They are speculating “clostridioides difficile (c. diff), which is a bacteria spread through feces. So they put him on a very strong antibiotic called Metronidazole. This antibiotic is used for certain bacteria and intestinal parasites. I find it odd that the last part of this drug is a “dazole” because what I have been giving him for his prostate is called Fenbendazole, which is an anti-parasitic. I stopped giving it to him, and it looks like I should not have stopped. Since he is on this antibiotic, I am not going to give him the Fenzol. 

This morning we had a very bad storm come through; lots of heavy rain and wind. Our site is flooded now and Jim’s slides and Lucy’s toys almost floated away until I picked them up and put them on the cooler. Surprisingly, my grill did not get blown over. The wind was around 15mph which I guess is not that bad. By 10am the worst of the storm is over but it’s still going to rain all day. Lucy did not like the storm and laid by me the whole time.

May 18, 2024. Jim is feeling 100% better. Yesterday we went for a trike/bike ride around the park, talked with Cliff for a bit and then went and sat and talked with Amelia & Ron.

May 23, 2024. This morning we went to Hugley Hospital for Jim’s prostate biopsy. We had to leave here at 6:30 to get there for a 7:30 check in. They started on him pretty soon upon arriving, but it he did not get taken into surgery until about 9:45. I went out to the waiting room, where I sat until about 11:30. The surgery took about a half hour, and then he went into recovery. Doctor said he was able to see everything in there using the MRI which made it very easy. He took some extra samples from around the area and they also had to go into his urethra to make sure it was working good.

Now later in the day to pee hurts and it’s coming out red from blood. He was prescribed two things; one for pain and one antibiotic. I also bought him another thing called Azo which is for UTI pain relief. Hopefully tomorrow he will feel better; and then he will start on most of his other herbs for the prostate.

May 31, 2024. Jim had a few miserable days when it hurt very bad to pee, but he took the UTI pills which helped with the pain. Jim was supposed to have a CT scan for Dr. Bhatti (Pulmonologist) on the Wednesday before the biopsy but they wanted a $300 co-pay. I had just spent that much for the biopsy and said no, I am not paying any more money for something that is not really necessary.

We left Tres Rios on Sunday, May 26 because it was supposed to start raining during the week and we needed to have the awning dry as it is in while we are at Whitney.

Monday Whitney had a golf cart parade so we put our big flag on the golf cart and joined the parade. There were about 20+ carts in the parade and we drove all over the park.

We bought a weed eater which was on sale at Ace Hardware. It’s a really neat one and does a great job. I was out there clearing out the weeds in the yard before all the rain hit. We also got our golf cart; Charles actually delivered it to us Wednesday afternoon. It's really nice having a rear seat that folds down, and side mirrors to see behind us. I bought two water bottle holders that are big enough for my water jug, and also got two flag holders from Kenton to put up our flags.

Garner and Ted came on the 30^th to work on the living room. There was still water on the floor and in the insulation in the laundry room so they could not finish the walls. We started looking at where all the water was coming from and Garner felt it was the air conditioner. The A/C is exposed to the weather, which it should not have been. The water would pool up in the pan and then spill over into the laundry room. So Garner said he would drill some holes in the bottom of the pan so the water would drain. He started where there was already a little hole, but the drill got away from him and he drilled right into a freon line. There goes the air conditioner! He and Ted then spent the next 2 hours getting the A/C out of the wall. It was in there really tight and it was very hard to get it out. They banged on it with their hands and then a hammer. Then Keyo came over and helped as well. It finally came out so I took a black trash bag and taped it over the opening.

I looked at Walmart, Lowe’s and Home Depot for a wall unit but did not find one in stock and they were all too big. I had a very specific wall opening to work with, so I ended up buying it from Amazon and was able to get one smaller than the opening. I also ordered an awning to go over the A/C on the outside to keep the weather out of it.

June 3, 2024. Garner and Ted came by this afternoon to put up the awning slides that I bought. I want them put up along the metal railing of the cover that runs along the side next to the so-called golf cart freeway. It also blocks some view of us sitting outside as we face our next door neighbor. After they finished, I put up the green screen that we used with the awning and trailer at Tres Rios during the summer. It turned out good. I tie-wrapped one side to the pole and then put the big screw hooks into the ground and hooked the awning down with big bungie cords.

 

Then we are also taking the full package of Life Vantage pills that help unoxidized our bodies and get them back to normal. We have been on them since the end of April and it says that we should give them one month for every decade we’ve been alive. So that means, it is going to take us a minimum of eight months to reduce the oxidation and inflammation.

June 5, 2024. Jim had an appointment with Dr. Waters this morning to find out the results of his prostate biopsy. He took quite a few plugs, but since Jim had that MRI, Dr. Waters was able to pinpoint where he thought the cancer would be. There were three places that showed cancer: one had a Gleason score of 3+3=6; the next had a Gleason score of 4+3=7; and the third had a Gleason score of 3+4=7. 

So, what is a Gleason score? The prostate tissue that was taken is examined under a microscope to see if cancer cells are present. Only a biopsy can confirm prostate cancer. If cancer is found, the tumor is graded in the medical lab. The grade indicates the difference in appearance between normal cells and cancer cells when seen through a microscope. A Gleason grade ranges from 1 through 5 and is based on the degree of differentiation among the cells. A Gleason grade of 1 indicates that the cancer cell clusters resemble the small, regular, evenly spaced prostate tissue, while a grade of 5 indicates irregular, fused cancer cells that have spread to surrounding tissues.

 

Gleason Grading System

Prostate cancers often have areas with different grades. Therefore, a grade is assigned to the two areas that make up most of the cancer. These two grades are added together to yield a Gleason score between 2 and 10. Prostate cancers are often divided into 3 groups, based on the Gleason score: (1) Score of 6 or less: low-grade, most likely to grow and spread slowly; (2) Score of 7: intermediate grade; (3) Scores of 8 to 10: high-grade, most likely to grow and spread. (Jim’s were 6, 7 and 6.) His grades were in the 3 and 4 group of cancer cells.

While there Dr. Waters talked about giving men shots to help reduce the size of the prostate, so we opted to get one of those. The shot was Camcevi, which was given into his abdomen. The next step is getting a PET imaging scan. The Posluma PET scans help develop an informed treatment plan for prostate cancer because they provide important information.  How do PET scans work? First an imaging agent (like Posluma) is injected into the body. Then it binds to a target, such as cancer cells, to light it up. This can be seen on images from a PET scan, showing the location of the disease. As an advanced diagnostic imaging agent, Posluma is highly specific to the prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) and attaches to it, highlighting prostate cancer where it’s located. We will have a follow-up with Dr. Waters next month, and then will be seeing an oncologist.

June 12, 2024. Jim was feeling pretty good the other day and we took a ride around the park – him on his trike and me in the golf cart following behind him. The next day he was still feeling good so he decided to do some weed eating and then went to shoot pool that night. The next day his hip was really hurting again; he seems to have over done it. He needs to go slow and not try to do too much at one time.

I submitted a request to put up a metal shed to put my gardening tools. I almost made a mistake by buying a plastic shed from Ace and then talked to Mark who told me that I needed to get it approved first. Luckily I was able to cancel that order as it was an online order. Then I looked at Amazon and found a small metal shed which I put in my saved file to wait for approval (hopefully) from Rodney. I mentioned this to Laurie the other night and she thought it should be approved since it was a metal shed and to let her know if they denied my request. If they do deny it, I will appeal. There are so many unattractive sheds all over the park and they are an eyesore. Mine will be up against the other shed and shielded from the wind. (He denied it.)

During one of our rides in the golf cart on the golf course we came across some roadrunners. What a cute little critter -- it just hopped up the sidewalk as we inched our way up.

June 18, 2024. I got a message from my old office manager from when I worked for Shapiro, Fussell in Atlanta, Georgia that my boss had passed away. She said he was pretty sick, but did not know what he died from. I cannot find any information online, just this obituary, which does not give any information. I worked for Herman from December 1996 to 2011, when the firm closed its doors.

June 20, 2024. Jim had his PET (positron emission tomography) scan on Tuesday. We had to drive into Fort Worth to Texas Health. It was a 62 mile drive and took us about 1.25 hours to get there. They have a parking deck, valet parking and a very small free parking lot. We were lucky to find someone leaving in the free parking area so we got a parking space there. The first thing they did was talk to us to find out some history, then inject Jim with an isotope called Posluma that takes about an hour to get into the body before he went in for the PET. Posluma injection is indicated for PET of prostate-specific membrane antigen positive lesions in men with prostate cancer.

Waiting for the Posluma to get into the body

The radiation oncologist called to set up an initial appointment to discuss the results and plan of action. Luckily I was able to set this up through telehealth since Dr. Matthew Cavey is in the same building where the PET was done.  That appointment is set for July 19 at 2pm.

Garner and Ted are almost done with the living room. Had to get a few more pieces of trim, which I painted the other day. In the meantime, they are working on the laundry room. I bought a floor lamp for the living room to lighten it up, and the ceiling fan has a light in it too. And the wasps have decided to start building a nest again right above the door to the living room, so I have to zap them again.

Jacklyn helped me design the laundry room; she said to buy graph paper and measure it out to see where everything goes. It worked like a charm, and I was able to figure out where to put the sink and refrigerator to make everything fit. I bought a large storage shelf, a table to put over the water heater, a stainless steel outdoor stand alone sink, which will fit in front of the water heater, and some corner shelves to put up by my sewing desk. 

June 25, 2024. Using the graph paper, I was able to design my laundry room to it’s fullest potential. I have a storage shelf on one side with the laundry table next to it. I am not going to put my sewing table behind the door, even though it would work there, but will put it right inside the door with the cooking table next to it where I will put the toaster oven/convection oven on. I put together the sink and set it inside in front of the water heater and it fit perfectly. I had Lewis come over to look at it to see about fitting the water and drain. He said it would take a couple of hours to do and he had all the fittings to make it work. So as soon as Garner and Ted are done, he will come over and do that.

All the stuff that I bought for the room has just about all arrived, and now all I am waiting for is them to finish so I can set up my storage shelves, move the refrigerator and set up my sewing table and everything in that corner. I have corner shelves to put up with pictures and flowers, and a lamp for the table to help me see when I sew.

Jim has been complaining about his left hip hurting and the hurt will not go away, so I made him an appointment with an orthopedic doctor in Cleburne for Thursday. I don’t know if the MRI will help them determine what is wrong, or if they will do an X-ray to see if they can see anything else wrong. I hope they can do something to fix it.

Our "back yard"

Lights on the deck

June 30, 2024. The last day of June and we are still in Texas in the blazing heat. Pat & Marshall and Brandy & Ron are here for their week out and yesterday we met at the Community Center and played a few games of Vegas. It’s been such a long time since I’ve played; it was fun. We played about five or six games and I won one. But that’s OK, because we had fun playing.

The rain has gone away for a while and it’s been in the high 90s and triple digits and 80 at 7am. Lucy and I still walk, but not as far. Afternoons it’s like being in a blast furnace.

We went to see the orthopedic doctor; they took some x-rays and basically Jim as arthritis in his hip. It’s getting worse and if he gets to a point that it’s unbearable, she said a hip replacement would be in order. Jim was pretty against that, but he talked with Dr. Marks who said his wife had one and it was the best thing she ever did. The doctor prescribed a pain medication and also suggested getting some Tylenol Arthritis.

Garner and Ted finished up the living room and laundry room last week and I’ve been busy putting up the shelves and cooking table. I cleaned out the back of the truck and the ammo and put most everything on the shelves. It’s looking very good and I’m pleased with how it turned out.

We have a white ceiling in the living room with a ceiling fan to help cool the room.

July 3, 2024. Had our 4th of July golf cart parade here at Whitney. Had quite a few golf carts in the parade; we had our music going as we drove around the park. We had a good time waving to people and enjoying the camaraderie. One thing I did notice was that the Liberals that we know in the park did not join in the parade. They did not come out to wave and one even tried to ignore all of us as we went by. Very puzzling; as if they are just not patriotic and are adverse to it all.

I went to play Vegas with some of our TR friends on Saturday afternoon. Had a good time but lost most of my pennies. Also went to play Pokeno on Tuesday afternoon. Never played that before. It’s like bingo only you have playing cards on the boards, people call out the card and you put a penny on the ones you have. First person to finish wins the pennies. There are some other things you get to win the pennies.

Lewis came in yesterday to plumb the sink in the laundry room. He did a great job and now I have water in there. I like the way the laundry room turned out with my sewing corner, the storage shelves and the wall with the washer/dryer, sink, table and refrigerator.

My sewing corner

July 6, 2024. I try to get out pretty early in the morning to walk before the sun comes up and starts heating everything up. This morning I was able to get a really nice photo shot of a deer standing under a tree with the morning sun behind it. And of course, Lucy had to chase it away.

July 8, 2024. This past week Hurricane Beryl came barreling through hitting southern Texas between Houston and Corpus Christi. It then moved into Houston knocking out power and flooding the city. Josh & Karen were without power as well. They were scheduled to fly out on Monday to Boston to meet up with Jacklyn & Sean before heading to Maine and Bill & Julie’s China Lake house. They decided to postpone their flight until Tuesday; and since they were without power, the dog sitter came and took the dogs to her house.

July 10, 2024. We drove up to Hugley Hospital to see Dr. Waters this morning. What a long drive for us to see him for about 5 minutes. He verified that the PET did highlight the cancer in the prostate. He also mentioned that there were a couple of other spots in his rib cage area that were highlighted but he did not know what that meant. He said that this is Dr. Cavey’s area and he will tell us about them. 

July 13, 2024. Been getting up every morning about 6:15am and Lucy and I head out to the golf course to get our 2 mile walk in before the heat hits. This morning I saw the resident beaver in the upper pond. It stopped to eat for a while and then when he started swimming I moved to follow him, and he went down and did not come back up. It was pretty cool seeing him (or her).

 

July 15, 2024. On our way home from our nightly golf cart ride we stopped by John Melton's house on the corner of Alfa Drive. He has lots of cars in his driveway (collector and salesman) and he has this one special car for sale that Jim fell in love it. John will sell it to us for $18,000, but I said no way, we don't need another car. Jim got out to drool for a while and even sat inside of the car. 

July 18, 2024. Since it is going to start raining next week and continue for a while, I decided to work on the leak around the air conditioner. I removed the A/C unit and started caulking all the openings on the inside and outside. I had bought some waterproof foam from Walmart and sprayed that all around the outside metal frame.

July 19, 2024. This morning I cut the foam that had puffed out of the frame, both around the A/C hole and along the top of the building where I had sprayed foam earlier. Also, I already had the paint that pretty much matches the exterior wall so I painted all the foam and part of the frame. That is going to have to dry now, and I will check it and maybe put it all back together this evening, or wait until tomorrow morning.

We had Jim’s telehealth video conference with Dr. Matthew Cavey, the oncologist that will take care of Jim’s prostate cancer. One thing we found out is that the shot Jim got in June – the Camcevi – is good for six months. The purpose of this shot was to put the cancer to sleep, and to reduce the size of the prostate. Doctor said Jim will probably get more of those shots. So it’s going to be October before Dr. Cavey will start any treatment.

The treatment consists of five days of treatment, every other day. Before the treatment starts we head up to his office where he will put pieces of gold into Jim’s prostate. This is permanent; they will never come out. He will also put some gel in between the prostate and rectum. This is temporary and will disappear in six months. The gold pieces are to highlight where the radiation will be directed. Jim is having external radiation.

A week after this we go back for a planning CT scan, and then another week after that starts the five days of radiation treatment. All treatment will be done by the middle of November. I’m thinking we will take the trailer and stay at Benbrook COE park that is about 20 miles from Baylor Scott White instead of driving 1-1/2 hours (one way) to get to the hospital when the treatment starts.

There are also some spots on two of Jim’s ribs on his left side. The doctor is not going to do anything about those and does not seem too concerned. He said that when Jim goes back sometime next year for another PET exam he will look at the ribs again and make a determination at that time.

So now we have about three months before Jim’s treatment starts. Do we travel, or just stay here? I have work that needs to be done on the trailer and I wanted to do before we traveled anywhere. It’s going to cool down with the rain coming, so now would be a good time to get out and get the work done.

July 26, 2024. On my way to corn hole last night I came across this little critter near the maintenance area. It was in the field sitting and looking at me; seemed very curious. Then it ran across the road toward the house and disappeared around the corner.

July 30, 2024. Jim had another birthday a few days ago and has caught up to me again. His hips and knees are still hurting and he has not been doing much because of the pain.

But I ordered him a “reel” lawn mower called Sun Joe. He saw one from Fiskers but it was very expensive and then saw some reviews on the Sun Joe being good for seniors, so I ordered one from Amazon for him. It came today and after putting it together, started mowing the lawn. He really loves it and enjoyed mowing the lawn. It does not cut the very high stuff, so we still have to use the weed eater.

 

I have been out in the yard every day pulling up the sand spurs so they don’t get spread around from the mowing. I also pulled out a bunch of weeds along the fence line. I am going to paint the fence once it gets a bit cooler.

Garner came over on Saturday to put up a barrier on either side of the A/C, which we hope helps keep the water out. I had taken the A/C out of the window again and put Eternabond along the lower edge of the frame, so I hope that helps keep the water out as well.

 

Don't know if it will keep the water out as it has not rained very much since this was done. Jim saw these that were done at Blackbeard's and thought it was a good idea:

Got more work done on the trailer. The door window was coming loose, so we took it out and cleaned it and the frame up before reinstalling it. That only took a couple of hours, and now it looks good. I used the crescent wrench to bend the bumper that was bent when Jim jack knifed the trailer and bent it all up. Got it straightened out and a new end cap put in. Also put the vinyl screw cover back on. I had ordered some vinyl but it was not stiff enough to stay in the grooves, so I put the old back on and caulked it into place.

August 5, 2024. We went to a get together that the park had for the residents on Friday night. There were not all that many people there, and since we got there a bit late, John Melton put another table up and joined us there along with a few of the other residents. It was a nice get together; talked with the few people who sat with us. Stayed about an hour or more and then took a golf cart ride home.

Whoever is doing the mowing now only mowed half of the field behind the residents’ houses and did not mow the section next to the Thousand Trails or the trail that Lucy and I walk. So Sunday morning I took the Reel mower, roped it to the back of the golf cart and went down to the trail and mowed the high grass where we walk. Why did I mow it and not the park? I don’t know why the park did not mow it; I mowed it because I am not going to ask or mention mowing to Ken, who is in charge of maintenance and mowing. The last time I asked him about getting the trail mowed, I heard from Jim that I was “bitching about the mowing.”  I found this out when Jim was out on the golf cart and just so happened to go down to the old maintenance area where Ken was and Ken mentioned to Jim (I doubt Ken knew Jim was my husband) that a lady and her black dog had come around and was “bitching about the mowing.” And there you have it – I am not going to ask Ken about mowing anymore.

 

August 9, 2024. It’s been blazing hot for the last couple of weeks; many days have been near 100 with lows in the high 70s. Lucy and I still get up early and get out onto the golf course around 6:30am. Have not been doing anything else as it’s been too hot to go to museums because we will not leave Lucy in the truck when it’s that hot.

We went out tonight for our nightly golf cart ride and as we went down the circle road, it just flat died. When I put my foot on the gas nothing happened. So Jim called Charles and he came and we towed the golf cart to his place so he can look at it and hopefully figure out why it died. He said if he cannot figure it out, there is a golf shop he takes carts to.

August 14, 2024. We got our golf cart back Monday night. Kim Scoggins came into town on Sunday from Maine because she has some school thing to do while down here. Jim went to shoot pool with Mike Monday night and Kim was riding around with Shannon & Tracey. So I hopped in the truck with Lucy and drove down there. The girls were just coming around on the golf cart and stopped to talk; we ended up at the picnic table sitting and talking for awhile.

Gayle and Kim

Then when we arrived back at the trailer, our golf cart was sitting there. Charles put in a new light switch. He said that the old switch shorted out and somehow that made the cart die.

Tuesday night was corn hole and I was Tracey’s partner again. I was surprised that we beat John Melton & Zeek on the first game, then John Downing and Andrew on the 2^nd. I was shooting better than I usually do. The last game we played Pam & Lori and got trounced. I shot like crap that game. But since they do not switch and play again for losing twice, we got our picture taken and got on the Sun Country FB page. WooHoo!

August 21, 2024. Last Saturday we went to an open unadvertised, unofficial flea market on Hwy 22 on the way to Hillsboro to get Jim a walker. The girl running it said it was her father’s and when he died, she inherited all his stuff. So we were able to get a decent walker for $10. Jim wanted the walker so he could do the Tai Chi exercises in the Living Room.

I was also looking for a small mirror to put up in the laundry room, and she found a small one that was used as a frame. I took the back holder off and since it also had a hook at the top, was able to put it up on the wall in the laundry room. It’s a cute little mirror, and she just gave it to me. I will be using it to cut my hair.

It's been in the triple digits for the past few weeks; it has been almost 80 when Lucy and I go walking at 6:30 in the morning. I get to see some beautiful sunrises, but it’s too warm to go on our long walk. It’s going to get a bit cooler next week – high 90’s. But the mornings will be in the lower 70s, which will be nicer for walking.

Monday night I made some meatballs for dinner and cooked them in the air fryer. It took me a while to figure out how to work it, but the meatballs turned out good. I found them on Facebook and call them Rene’s Meatballs. They turned out good; and with them I made an egg pancake and cheese sauce.

August 23, 2024. Jim’s lower back is still hurting him a lot. I’ve been rubbing a multitude of things into it – Hempvana, Alpine Dispensary THC, Tiger Balm. It’s been hurting for a while now and I thought maybe it’s from him weed eating, which it may be. It’s been a low ache, but Wednesday night we went for a golf cart ride around the park and then on the golf course. The golf course is pretty bumpy in places and must have jarred his lower back because later than night he ended up in a lot of pain.

But he asked me something this morning about the Apricot kernels he’s been eating. Serving size is 3 kernels, but he’s been eating 5 every night. So I looked up if cyanide can cause muscle pain, and found out that it can, specifically apricot kernels. They contain amygdalin, a naturally-occurring compound that converts to cyanide after eating. Cyanide poisoning from apricot kernels can cause joint and muscle aches and pains. I don’t think he really has cyanide poisoning, but it may be aggravating his back pain.

 

August 25, 2024. I looked up cyanide poisoning and found out that apricot kernels contain amygdalin, a naturally occurring compound that converts to cyanide after eating. Cyanide poisoning can cause joint and muscle aches and pains. Since Jim has been in such excruciating pain in his lower back, he has decided to stop eating the apricot kernels to see if his back gets better. Between that and putting the heated Back Buddy on it, and me rubbing all sorts of creams onto his back, he is much, much better.

August 28, 2024. Jim’s back is getting better by the day ever since he stopped taking the apricot kernels.

 

The golf cart started dying more – twice in one day – so Jim checked the voltage of the solenoid and determined that it needed to be replaced. So I ordered one from Amazon and it came in today. Went out this afternoon and replaced the solenoid; it was not that hard and I got all the wires back in the place they belong.

Talked with the team at the oncologist office to finalize when Jim’s treatment will start. Got that date settled so now I can start making my RV reservations for the next few months. I have figured out we will be leaving here the end of October and will be back the end of February.

August 31, 2024. I noticed a big tree in the common area that had split and the huge branch was leaning toward Steve’s shed and the power lines. The next day it had split even more and if not taken care of, would have taken the power lines down. This was Friday and I called the office but at the same time Jason (who works here) was driving by and I called him over to show him the tree. He said that yes, it needed to be taken care of and he would let Ken and Rodney know.  Within the hour both Ken and Rodney were there to assess the tree and Rodney was on the phone with the tree people immediately. The tree guys showed up Friday afternoon to look at the tree and came back Saturday morning and took it down. It was a huge shade tree and now that is gone and our view is very different.

I moved the bird feeder to the other dead tree in our yard; I knew it would be in their way if I left it by the huge tree. The birds found it easy enough.

 

We had our water filters delivered today so I thought we should change the water filters. First one was easy – under the sink. The Culligan filter was more difficult. The valves had fused together and we had to use the vise, two wrenches and penetrating oil. Had to clean the threads real good and put plumber’s grease on all of them. Got a new water hose as well because the blue flexible one we had was the issue. They use silver/galvanized (?) fittings which is what fused to the other fittings. We had a white water hose so that was put on because the other one leaked all the time – a slow drip. With the new hose and fittings we fixed the leaks.

Sept. 6, 2024. Had a real nice get together with Whitney residents at the Event Center put on by the park; free hotdogs and fixings and we brought desserts. There were quite a few people there and it was very nice seeing everyone.

Sept. 10, 2024. Mark said that he could put a 30amp plug into our site, so he ordered the parts and came over yesterday to put it in. So now we have a new electric plug so we can now plug directly into the 30amp outlet and the EMS is not sitting on the ground.

Also, Charles came over Saturday and messed with the golf cart again. He went down to Hillsboro to talk with Rick at the alternator shop that also works on golf carts. The guy suggested that he take the plug off of the controller and spray it with cleaner and put it on and off a few times. Since he did that, we have not had any trouble with the golf cart. Charles also said he bought a toggle switch for the forward/reverse instead of the lever we currently have. He will get Mark to help him install it, and I told him there was no rush as Mark has a lot of chores to take care of.

Started my work on the trailer so it’s ready before we hit the road. I cleaned off the old caulk around the garage under the trailer as it was coming down already. Also washed the area and also washed all around the underside where I put in the wallboard. It was filthy and now I’m going to paint it with white Flexseal to seal it back up.

Sept. 12, 2024. Spent Tuesday afternoon putting caulk and flexseal around the garage as well as flexseal all of the outside underside of the trailer. 

I did some fanagaling to hold the underside of the garage up so the caulk and flex seal would seal. It actually turned out good and I think it will hold. 

Wednesday I put black flexseal on the underside of the front of the trailer. The wood under there is holding up but is buckled in some places. The last time I did work on the front underneath was when we were at the Orlando Thousand Trails in 2023. I had pulled a lot of thin wood strips from underneath there and then painted it with Rustoleum. It is holding up OK, but I thought putting flexseal under there would keep the moisture out.

Jim is upset with the folks who play poker on Monday & Wednesday nights because they complained that he and Mike “made too much noise” when they were playing pool, and banded together and made Rodney put up a sign that said no pool playing when they were playing poker.

They can easily move their poker table back into the other room where it used to be instead of banning people from shooting pool when they are playing poker. It’s really not fair to the pool players. So Jim confronted them Monday night and found out they threw Rodney under the bus by saying it was his decision, not theirs. But all in all, Rodney will adhere to what the poker players want and bar the pool playing.

Sept. 20, 2024. Did some weed pulling in the yard for two days. There were lots of weeds; in fact, I filled up the large trash can twice with all the weeds. That did leave a lot of bare earth, so I came up with a short term solution since we cannot plant any grass seed until spring. There is a lot of rock in parts of the yard, which we cannot figure out why. Anyway, we went out to the golf course and went to the places that were just mowed as the grass was very high and had a lot of seeds in it. We filled the trash can and the plastic bag with the grass shavings and spread it all over the yard. We will go back and get more to put a deeper layer over the yard so it sits through the winter and hopefully brings us some grass by spring. 

We got tomatoes that way; I did not plant any seeds for tomatoes but we got a few tomato plants with good tomatoes. Only thing we figure is that there were seeds from the previous owner. I also threw down some sunflower seeds from a broken bird seed bag, and now we have a lot of sunflowers growing. I don’t think we’ll get any seeds, but the flowers are pretty. We have some pretty morning glories growing along the fence as well.

It's been 10 days since Charles sprayed that connection on the controller, and we have not had any problems with the golf cart. Dare I say it’s fixed?

We bought two big 12x12 blackish panels from a member here at Whitney and will put it up along the one side that faces Lori’s house. Going to take down the green panel that I put up and put the black ones up instead. I bought 150lb magnets with hooks from Amazon and will use them to hold the panels up.

We had a family of wasps build a nest on the frame as you enter the cottage and Jim just said to leave them alone. Come winter they will leave and then we can take down the nest. Anyway, this morning when I went to the cottage the nest had fallen down onto the track of the screen door. The wasps are up where their nest was, looking lost and looking for their nest. One of them found it on the ground but left it alone. 

Sept. 22, 2024. Today is the first day of autumn and Jim and my 45^th wedding anniversary. I baked a Tres Leches cake and took it to Whitney Pot Luck today. It just so happened that our anniversary fell on the first day of autumn and a Sunday when Whitney has their pot luck. My Tres Leches was a hit; there was only one small piece left, which I am saving for Jim. There were also birthday cakes for the September birthdays, and lots of food. Afterwards I played one set of corn hole before heading home.

Sept. 30, 2024. Hurricane Helene a Cat 4, swept through the panhandle of Florida into Georgia and up through North Carolina and Tennessee and then northwards on the 28^th and 29^th. It was 500 miles in diameter and reeked havoc to Florida’s west coast – St. Pete Beach, Cedar Key, Steinhachee – gone. Then it went into the mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee and swept towns and houses away. There is no cell service or electric; people are lost, running out of food, water and money. Downtown Waynesville and Asheville were flooded and the winds blew many businesses and houses away. Chimney Rock is gone and other little downs from the dams that broke and the water running down from the mountains and flooded so much.

Barb Mars and Marjorie and OK, and so is Andy, who called today to say he was OK.

Last week we also took down the green screen and put up two black screens to give us more privacy and protection from the sun. I bought some 150lb magnets with hooks to put them up. Had to borrow a 12 foot ladder to climb all the way up to install the hooks and put up the screen. They turned out very good and I like them versus the green one.

Jim and I hooked the TV in the Cottage up to the trailer to see if he could get over the air stations and it worked! But we had our two cords hooked together and Jim wanted an antenna instead. So today when I went to Walmart I bought an outdoor antenna so he could hook up the Cottage to that instead of the trailer. We rescanned the TV and got 97 channels OTA!

October 9, 2024. Yesterday Jim had his surgery to put the gold beads into his prostate. We had to be at Baylor Surgicare in Fort Worth at 9:45am for his pre-op. Had a few meetings with staff and then sat for over an hour before he was called back to really prep. He had to be knocked out of course and Dr. Cavey said everything went well. We got home about 3pm, so it was a long day.

On top of that, we were keeping track of Hurricane Milton that is heading straight toward the Tampa area. Jacklyn and Sean took two days to prep their house and yard for the storm and then took her car to a garage in Brandon and then they headed for Bill & Julie’s house in Sebastian. Right now the hurricane is scheduled to hit tonight as a Cat 3. It could lessen but we’ll just have to wait and see. We just hope the water surge does not impact their house. Also heard that there is another hurricane out there that may impact Florida in another week or so.

Been working a lot on getting the truck, RV and cottage ready for the winter. This morning I took the awning off of the laundry room A/C and then caulked all around it again. I bought a better brand of foam – Loctite Foam for Big Gaps. I read that the other stuff I used was an inferior brand (GM); this stuff worked much better. It came out and pretty much stayed up in the eves where I put it. Tomorrow after it dries I will trim it and then paint it gray.

 

October 11, 2024.  Was able to trim the Foam that I sprayed in the eves of the Laundry Room and then paint it. I would like to find some plants to put in front of the LR by the street; maybe it would help with the rain that may seep underneath and get into the laundry room. Still trying to figure out where the water is coming from. The last time water got in there was a small puddle near my sewing table, so maybe putting the foam along that side of the eves and caulking again will stop the water from coming in.

Went back to the golf course and got another trash container full of freshly cut grass and spread that all over the yard. Also watered the heck out of it, so I am hoping to see some grass growing before we leave. Also noticed something was eating the tomatoes and leaves, only to discover three huge green caterpillars chomping on them.

October 16, 2024. Juliella turned 14 on the 13^th and Josh & Karen’s Anniversary on the same day. They have been married 17 years.

Yesterday we drove to Dr. Cavey’s office because Jim had to get a CT exam, and then immediately after went to Baylor, Scott for an MRI; all getting ready for his prostate treatment. Hopefully Dr. Cavey’s office will be able to work with us as to Jim’s treatment because I found out they have specific time frame after reviewing the CT and MRI.

October 24, 2024. The Hill County Appraiser showed up at our door last week to assess our living condition. I showed her the Living Room with the bath and our Laundry Room with the sink, refrig and air fryer. She said that she would put that into the system and give it about two weeks before applying for homestead exemption again. In the meantime, we got our tax bill for 2025 which has to be paid by the end of January.

Jim and I went to vote on Tuesday the 22^nd. The lines were not that long and we were there about 30 minutes before heading out. We then had to drive to Cleburne to Labcorp to get Jim’s bloodwork done. I had a bunch of extra stuff tested, so I am looking forward to seeing the results.

Also am starting to pack up things and do laundry as we are leaving on Sunday and I want to have most everything packed on Saturday. It’s only an hour drive, so we don’t have to rush out of here on Sunday. Still have not heard from Cavey’s office as to when the radiation will start, so I’m hoping we hear from them either today or tomorrow. 

October 26, 2024. Spent the last couple of days putting stuff away and doing laundry to get ready to leave. Will take the golf cart to Pam in the morning as she is going to baby sit it while we are gone.

Came back the other morning from our daily walk to find that some critter went through the yard where I am trying to grow grass and dug it all up. Since we are leaving for a few months, I wonder what it will look like when we get back. I hope it’s not too dug up and some grass actually grows.

Dr. Cavey’s office called Friday night to let us know when Jim’s first treatment will take place. She gave me two options – 6:30am or 8:50pm, so I picked the 8:50pm time. I know we are going to have to drive in the dark, so we’ll leave at 8pm to give us time to get there.

October 27, 2024. Finished getting everything packed away, turned off everything we could think of and took the golf cart over to Pam. We left their around 1pm and got to the COE around 2. Did not have any problem finding out site and getting settled in. There is a woods right behind us and Lucy enjoys sitting outside staring into the woods for critters.

So I’m sitting here typing and just realized that the COE closes the gate at 10pm. I am wondering if we will get back by then; Jim would have to be in and out before 9:30pm since it’s a half hour drive to the park. I am going to call Dr. Cavey’s office Monday and see if we can get in there earlier, and if not, I’ll have to talk to the gate attendant about it.

October 29, 2024. We left early enough last night to stop and get gas and then got to Dr. Cavey’s office around 8:15pm. We were ushered into a waiting room where two other couples were waiting for their treatment. Talked with these couples while sitting and waiting, and luckily Dr. Cavey came and got Jim around 9pm and actually got him in and out by 9:15. We got back to the campground by 9:50pm, so we were very glad we made it by 10pm. Next treatment is Wednesday night at 7:40pm.

Lucy and I have just been walking on the main road that goes back into the park for our morning walks. I did not like the nature trail, and walking the road is OK. I cannot let her loose too often, which she does not seem to mind. But we are able to get our two mile walk in. 

November 1, 2024. Yesterday we went to museum – the Texas Civil War Museum. Unfortunately, the museum is closing because the owner is sick and the state of Texas does not want any of the artifacts, which are all from the civil war era. It was a very nice museum; they even had a band playing music to entertain the guests.

 

Met a young German lady (Savina) who was camping across from us at the COE near Fort Worth. She sent her little bus over from Germany while she flew over and now she is traveling the US in it. She is on her way to Miami to compete in a backgammon tournament. We did not get to talk with her much and would have liked to talk more, but with Jim having his treatment yesterday, we thought today would have been a good day, but she ended up leaving. She was on her way to the Fort Worth Stockyards to watch the bulls run, then continue on to Florida.

November 6, 2024. Tonight is Jim’s last radiation treatment and tomorrow we head to Tres Rios for two weeks. Yesterday was the election of the century, the election that would determine the direction the country would be taking.

 

Early voting was heavy, with we think many votes for Trump. Yesterday we watched TV all day and especially into the night. The eastern states closed first and the majority of them went for Trump – even Pennsylvania. Thanks to Scott Pressler who spent this summer going around PA talking to people and turning the state Red. He even talked to the Amish and many of them voted for Trump this time. 

I went to bed early, but was not able to fall asleep until about 4am and then got up at 6am to take Lucy for her morning walk. 

Once Pennsylvania was finalized for Trump, that was the end of the election as he now had enough electoral votes to win the election. He even won the popular vote – 72,220,053 to 67,459,374 for Kamala. I still cannot believe how many people voted for Kamala. But, not as many as one would think. According to some of the pictures I have seen on red v. blue, there is not much blue out there. 

Well, I just got a call from Chad, who works for our financial guy, Nick Michels. He told me that this is my year for the RMD from my IRA. The money is going straight into the Credit Union account with 10% being withheld and sent to the IRS for taxes. I’ll get a 1099 next year showing the distribution and the amount of tax paid. Next year will be Jim’s turn for the RMD.

November 7, 2024. Jim had his last radiation treatment last night. He then went to read the plaque beneath the bell and then rang the bell three times. They took a video and some pictures, but I did not get myself together in time to take a video, but did get a couple of pictures. The next check up is the beginning of February; he will get a PSA test and then have a conference with Dr. Cavey.

"Ring this bell three times well to celebrate the day. This course is run. My treatment done. Now I am on my way."

In the meantime, we need to find someone to look at the MRI and the spot they said was on one of his ribs. We also have to get his hip looked and see about getting that taken of. He does not want a hip replacement, but he’s constantly in pain.

Arrived at Tres Rios today. Thought about taking our old spot, but there was a trailer in it. Ken did tell us that there was someone else who had an EMS who experienced electrical issues in the row. I wonder if they will ever put new electric boxes there. We were told they would, but it’s been a few years now and nothing has been done.

So we went into Site 74, which is on the end but we did not set up with the yard in front of us, which we had done in the past.  But we’re only here for two weeks, so it’s OK where we are. 

November 12, 2024. Had a great Veterans event on Saturday; Rene spoke and they showed movies of the war and veterans. Rhonda sang at the end; it was very nice.

Monday Jim and I had our annual PCP visits, which included our annual “Medicare Wellness” visit. I sat in with Jim and Dr. Schmidt and we talked about all the things happening with Jim, from his EKG (he’ll be going to see a cardiologist for), what stage his hip necrosis is in (4 out of 4), the spot on his rib (that’s for Waters), and his liver test results, which put him on the road to cirrhosis of the liver. Also talked about getting a handicap sticker for the truck, which the doctor agreed to and wrote him a prescription for it.

November 14, 2024. Jim now has an appointment with a Dr. Rice who is a cardiologist for December 10. Our travel plans have changed since we went to see Dr. Waters on Wednesday. We went up there to talk about the spots on Jim’s ribs and was told again that we will keep an eye on them and there is nothing to do now. We discussed another Camcevi shot and the Tamsulosin. Also talked about Jim needing to pee, so he is getting another drug to help control his bladder. He is getting another Camcevi shot in December and that is what caused us to change our travel plans. I cancelled our trip to the Thousand Trails and made a reservation at Tres Rios for December before heading to Houston again for Christmas.

November 20, 2024. Came down with a cold the day after my appointment with the PCP. I don’t recall anyone sick in her office, but I got the virus from someone. I was pretty miserable for the first week, but it’s now finally going away. Still have a plugged up nose and a cough.

Judith is watching over our place at Whitney. We had a straight line wind come through one morning and shook the trailer. She sent me a text that the black screen came down from the wind. I’m really surprised at that since we have 150lb magnets holding it up. Pam told me that there were other people whose screens came down too. Garner showed up there and said he would just take it down. We’ll just have to put it back up when we get back. We are thinking of putting two magnets on the corners to make it more secure.

Lucy had a check up this morning. Since she has never had a real check up in 13 years, I decided it was time for one. The doctor was pretty impressed with her; her blood work was normal and stool test came back negative. She does have cataracts though, so that hinders her sight. Her ears are clean so she probably just has convenient hearing. He cleaned her teeth just by opening her mouth and scrapping her teeth. He said to keep giving her the fish oil and everything else I’m doing.

November 28, 2024. Thanksgiving Day. We arrived at Space Center Houston on Saturday, November 23. Karen and Juliella were in north Houston at a Girl Scout camp riding horses. Josh and Jason had the weekend together. We went over to visit Saturday night for dinner. Sunday afternoon Karen and Juliella came back and Josh and Jason had gone golfing. We went over again that evening to visit.

Monday was grocery shopping and then we went over again and went out to dinner at J. Henry’s; Tuesday Karen worked and I made the Goulash for dinner. Josh, Jason, Juliella and Jim went shooting at the club that Josh belongs to. I would have liked to go and shoot my gun since I have not been able to shoot it since I bought it.  

Wednesday I made some cranberry sauce and baked a couple of pumpkin pies and took them over to their house.

Tomorrow is my 73^rd birthday and they are having a brunch which I am making the Cranberry Mandarin Orange Bread to share. 

November 30, 2024. Saturday was cleaning and then in the evening we went out to dinner at Rouxpour, a cajun seafood restaurant, for my birthday dinner. My favorite dish is their Stuffed Shrimp Rouxpour which is jumbo shrimp with boudin stuffing with Treme sauce (crab meat and butter cream sauce) with mashed potatoes and green beans.

December 1, 2024. Sunday we went over later in the day for dinner. They spent most of the day doing church functions. We are still eating left over turkey and ham for dinner.

December 3, 2024. Monday was shopping and then we went over again later in the day as they all went back to work and school. Juliella had girl scouts in the evening, but we still were eating leftover turkey fixings. There was still a lot of desserts left over and of course I was still eating that too.

December 4, 2024. Arrived back at Tres Rios on Wednesday for 2-1/2 weeks. Jim has some doctor appointments while here and of course, visiting with friends. We were hesitant about going into our old spot because of the electric issue we have had, so we went into site 104.

December 6, 2024. Jim had a foot doctor appointment Thursday afternoon to have that toe looked at again. I have been putting DSMO lotion on his toes and I cut down the callous so his toe does not hurt as much. We went to find out what there is to do with his toe to help. The only thing we got was a rubber thing called a Hammer Toe Crutch Pad for him to wear when he walks. It keeps the toe straighter so he does not walk on the tip of his toe.

December 9, 2024. An old friend and former worker from here at Tres Rios, Tim Westover, came into town to visit with Ron & Brandy, who came in from Louisiana to visit relatives. Tim drove down from Abilene to see them and came by a couple of times to visit. It was really nice seeing him again as it has been quite a few years since we have seen him. Like us, he feels very strongly about his RV friends being closer to him than his blood family.

Gayle, Tim & Jim

December 10, 2024. My lower left tooth with a crown started aching just before Thanksgiving and I was ready to see the dentist. Then the pain went away and I did not call. The pain came back after we got back to TR after Thanksgiving, so I decided it needed to be looked at. My whole jaw aches and the tooth under the crown hurts. I hope I won’t need to have that tooth pulled and it’s just an infection that antibiotics can take care of.

 

Jim has an appointment with a cardiologist today. Since he had a wonky EKG when he went in for the insertion of the gold beads, Dr. Schmidt put in a referral to a cardiologist for him.

I also have a call into Dr. Cavey’s office to see if he thinks it’s a good idea that Jim gets another Camcevi shot. To us, it does not seem like a good idea since how will we know if the radiation took care of the cancer if the shot puts the cancer to sleep and lowers the PSA. Dr. Cavey wants Jim to continue to get the Camcevi shot through November 2025. 

Just got back from Jim’s appointment with Dr. Levi Rice, a cardiologist in Granbury. They did another EKG on Jim and did find that one side of his heart’s electric impulses are not connecting altogether. Even though this is occurring, he does not see anything of issue with his heart. Does not recommend anything unless symptoms happen, such as chest pain, etc. He just wants a follow-up in six to eight months. And if he does happen to have any symptoms, to get an ultra sound/eko cardiogram.

We have also started having an issue with one of the trailer tires; in fact, it’s the same side that we have had issues with in the past where the tire has shredded. It seems that it’s starting to separate as tread looks like it’s expanding and may shred. Jim called Granbury Tire and talked with the guy there. We decided instead of taking the trailer in to get just one tire, Jim wants to get all four replaced. We are going to get a rating higher than are on the tire – from E to F. Still Carlisle as these have given us good service. 

December 14, 2024. Santa was visiting Tres Rios and was taking pictures with children and pets. I took Lucy up to see him and get a picture with Santa.

Had a great time at karaoke tonight. Don’t know when we will get to participate in another one as we will not be back to Tres Rios or Whitney until the end of February, and we don’t know when Joe will hold another karaoke. There were lots of friends there, many who have come in for the holiday. The “Three Amigos” got up and sang some songs, and Chuck joined in on some of the songs. The women got to have their finale singing “Those Boots are Made for Walking.”

December 17, 2024. Decided on Tuesday to get our tires on the trailer changed. It was a beautiful day – warm, sunshine. Glad we did them today since there is a cold front that will be coming in tonight with some rain and wind; tomorrow will be chilly, not really cold, but very windy. The tires look so good and we are very glad to get better tires. They are F rated, instead of E, which will give us more wear on them.

December 19, 2024. When I was checking the brake lights and turn signals on the trailer and bike rack, the right turn signal was alternating instead of a steady blink. Could not figure out why, but one of the bulbs is dim and needs to be replaced.

December 20, 2024. In the middle of the night our thermostat decided to stop working and we woke up to the trailer in the 60s. Good thing we had the auxiliary heater going! So I pulled out the instruction book and started trying to figure out what happened. The error code was E1, which is when there is a loss of communication between the thermostat and the system power boards. There is a way to reset the thermostat, so I did that, but the heat pump did not come back on until it warmed up outside. I could not figure out why the furnace did not come on. Then Jim asked about the switch in the furnace compartment and resetting that; so I went out to look at it and discovered that I forgot to flip the switch back to “on” after I reset the gap between the prongs. And it got down to 29 last night!

December 21, 2024. We had to leave on Saturday, which was the day the park held their Christmas luncheon, but we did not stay for it and headed out. Terry took a picture of all of our friends that were at the luncheon and posted it on our Friends FB page. What a great group of people we hang with. I really like all of our friends at Tres Rios.

I noticed that there was water spilling out from the rear area where the tanks are. So I think that when we are somewhere, maybe back at Whitney, that we need to take down the cover and look to see what is going on.

Also, when I checked the brake and turn signal lights on the trailer and bike rack, everything was working fine. The turn signals worked and the turn signal on the right side was steady and did not blink alternately. Very confusing.

As we were driving, Jim was noticing that the trailer was swaying much more than usual and it was very stressful on We stopped at a rest area so I could let some of the air out of the tires. He felt that 95 lbs. was too much as the pressure gets higher when we travel and the tires get warmer. He called Doug to ask his opinion, and he suggested that we lower it to 85. So, that is what I did and Jim said that the swaying pretty much stopped and it was much easier to drive.

I have also been having second thoughts about getting a root canal on the molar that has been bothering me. I finished all the antibiotics and right away it started hurting again, so I decided to start taking Fenbendazole, two capsules of 222mg each. Started with twice a day and now am taking two capsules in the morning. So far the pain has gone away, so I’ll keep up with this protocol. This is the same stuff I bought for Jim’s prostate cancer.

December 25, 2024. Got into Jetstream (now Space Center Houston) RV Park in Houston, Texas on Sunday the 22^nd and after taking two hours to set up we opted to stay home instead of heading to Josh’s house.

We had another sway emergency with the trailer after we left Caldwell and were heading toward Brenham. Hit a part in the road that was bumpy and the wind was hitting us sideways. The trailer really started swaying this time, so much so that Jim had me pull the brake on the controller to stop the trailer. Very scary, which is why we just stayed at the trailer, so Jim could chill from the experience. It’s crazy because everything we read about tires and sway say that the tires should be inflated to max, but that is what was causing the sway. Doug talked to his son, a truck driver, who suggested we put the tires to 75psi, so I guess that’s what I am going to do before we leave here.

Phil came into town yesterday and we took him with us to Josh & Karen’s for dinner, and then we went to Hope Lutheran church for Christmas Eve service.  There were a bunch of people getting their pictures taken in front of the Christmas tree at church, so Karen had us all get in front of it and we had our picture taken.

We also took him back to the park with us after church and Jim had to cram himself into the back seat so Phil could sit in the front.

 

This morning we all got up early and went to Josh & Karen’s for breakfast and then to open presents. The grandkids loved their presents and Jim was surprised when I presented him with the Ninja Woodfire grill. We stayed for a little while then came back to the trailer to chill for a while and then back there for dinner. 

Jason on the Beanbag Chair

Putting together Legos

Christmas Dinner

December 26, 2024. I was going to do laundry during our time back at the trailer and drug all the stuff up to the laundry room only to discover that there was only ONE working washing machine. Talk about being pissed off. I took a picture of the laundry room and also sent an email to Sun Outdoors complaining about the state of the laundry room. I decided to go to the local laundry facility to do the laundry.

 

Juliella loved the Lego flowers that she got for Christmas and made some beautiful bouquets from them.

I bought myself a pair of boots from Hike Footwear, which were supposed to be waterproof, and turned out NOT to be waterproof. I wore them when I took Lucy for her morning walk in the dog park; the grass was wet with dew and my toes were soaked before I even got all around the dog park. Talk about being disappointed. I sent off an email to the company and voiced my disappointment. I could send them back but since they cannot sell used shoes, I could get a 30% discount and keep them, and maybe I’ll just give them to Kim as she has a pair and seems to like them. Unfortunately, I also bought a pair of sneakers but had them shipped to Whitney so I won’t be able to wear them or test them out until we get back there.

Jacklyn and Sean posted a Christmas picture on line, and we also talked with them on Christmas evening through their iPhone Face Time. 

Sean, Jayden, Jacklyn

Lucy decided she like Autumn’s Christmas toy and confiscated it; she growled at both Autumn and Lola every time they would walk near her.

December 28, 2024. Phil left for Arizona Friday morning and Josh and Karen had an engagement with friends for dinner so we did not see them yesterday. We had decided to go to J.Henry’s for dinner as it is one of our favorite places to eat when in the area. I usually get the same thing – Bacon Wrapped Chicken, and Jim gets an appetizer and a beer. They have a great selection of craft beers and it’s very hard to pick one. He usually has to sample a few before choosing one.

Tonight’s trip to J. Henry’s turned out to be very special. Jim started talking to a couple of women outside and then when we walked in he heard someone talking about Bitcoin and had to chime in and ask some questions. He eventually came to sit down with me for dinner, but still listened to their conversation and made comments. At the end of our meal, they invited us over to sit with them and Jim wanted to sit at the bar and sample beers to fill the growler we got from Josh.

It turns out that the people sitting there was the actual OWNER of J. Henry’s, some of his friends, and his in-laws. John, the owner, invited us to sit down with him to talk. Jim gave him a business card and told him about my website and blog and all the adventures we had been on. He was very interested and excited to follow our adventures. They home school their children and by following our adventures, their children can learn about other parts of the country. We sat there for quite a while talking and sharing experiences of traveling. John was adamant about wanting to meet our family and wants us to come back with everyone to meet him. We will talk with Josh and Karen and figure out a date when we will go back to J. Henry’s. 

John's in the blue shirt next to me

I also found out that Julie’s sister, Jennie, passed away on Christmas Day. This comes just one week before they were planning on heading out from Florida to come visit us in Houston. Julie flew up to Maine for a couple of days, but they still plan on heading to Houston as planned.

December 31, 2024. Josh and Karen were invited to a football game with some of their friends this afternoon, and asked us to come over and stay with the grandkids for a couple of hours before they got home. We got there around 4pm and stayed until around 8pm. Josh ordered us pizza for dinner which got messed up with Grub Hub as they never went to pick it up and bring it over. Josh and Karen got home about 6:40pm and Josh ended up having to go pick it up. We also had cheesecake from Karen & Juliella’s dinner at The Cheesecake Factor from the night before.

Autumn and Lola cannot stay away from Jim; Autumn climbed up into his lap to give him kisses.

I was tired from not sleeping the night before and went to bed before 10pm; Jim was tired from eating too much at dinner and came to bed around 11pm. There were not too many fireworks around us, so they did not keep us awake.

Jim is continuing to take his blood pressure every morning using the monitor sent to us by Cadence, a company hired by his cardiologist Dr. Rice to monitor people’s blood pressure. I also read about some additional tests that should be given to people with heart issues, and even though Jim does not have any, I am going to request the tests in the fall for the next time Jim goes to see Dr. Rice.

I am also going to ask Jim’s oncologist for a couple of additional tests beside the PSA which will show whether the prostate cancer is gone, and if there is any other cancer in his body, such as the spots on his ribs.

And now it's the end of 2024, and we head into a New Year with promises of health and prosperity when Donald Trump takes office on January 20, 2025. I'm looking forward to the New Year.