Bill wants to leave YESTERDAY

Last night the temperatures plummeted and the winds picked up. Had winds up to 63 mph. The whole house was shaking. And at 8:00 this morning the temperatures were still pretty low. 

Tonight I think we will still have a freeze warning. But the winds are letting up some. We have to go out and do some errands, but waiting for it to warm up a little.

Went to the doctor yesterday and got an All Clear. No more problems, but not a guarantee it won't return. Oh well.
Today we should get the package we are waiting for, if so there is no reason to stay here any longer. So will have to make up our minds on a date. Right now we have "stuff" piled all over the house waiting to be put in the RV.
Just wanted to share my pretty sunflower that Bill made me again. It is nice to look up and see it all the time.

Around 10 it had warmed up a little, but a darn cold wind was still blowing, so we headed out to do some errands. Had breakfast out first, then to Sam's Club to get a few things. Surprising how fast you can spend money there. Then to WalMart where we managed to spend even more money. Stocking up on a few things that we can't get in Mexico. Then to the bank to get some Pesos. 
Saw the mail lady on the way home and let her know we put in a change of address and to please don't put junk mail into our box. Also let the office where we live know we'd have the RV out front and to have security keep a check on our home. So several check offs on the list. 
Never did get very warm today, in fact it is 5:30 and the furnace just came on. 

Two more things off the list.

Beautiful day Thursday so we did some errands. One of which was going to the pharmacy to order all of our meds for the winter trip. No problem, give them the list and pick them up the next day. We also got our flu shots while we were there. Thank goodness, other than a sore arm no side effects from them. Any way, when we got home there was a voicemail message from the pharmacy saying the insurance would not fill the prescriptions for 90 days, they would only fill them for 30 days??? Because it was so close to the end of the year!?!? WHAT? 
So I called the insurance company. After about an hour on the phone, most of it on hold everything got straightened out. As the insurance lady told me there should never have been a problem. And she called the pharmacy back to make sure the renewals went through. It is so great when you get help for a good customer service person. 
Friday I got a call from the pharmacy, they didn't have one of the pills and it could only be filled that day -the vacation override is good for one day to fill everything. So the pharmacist told me he would transfer the prescription to a different store and we could pick it up there.  So later we went to the other pharmacy just up the road a bit and waited 40 minutes for the order to be filled. Then stopped and picked up everything else. All done now. 
We are trying to figure out when we will leave, of course that depends on my doctor's appointment on the 29th. If all is well we will soon be on the road. 
Another glitch in the planning is the NASCAR playoff races. I really would like to watch them. There are four left. The first of the four is this weekend, no problem. The second of the four we will still be in the US, no problem.  Depends on where we are for the 3rd and 4th, if I'll be able to watch them.
All next week is going to be really cool - as in the 60's. For me that will make it much easier to load the RV. For Bill not so much. Starting to get things out and ready to go. 

Devils Tower, Wyoming

Some more from our summer trip.
That days drive, it was way back on August 21st. From Harden where we visited Little Bighorn to Devils Tower, WY. Something I've always wanted to see. It was worth it.

Just a weird house that was for sale passed it on the way to the campground.

Driving up to the park. We could see the Tower from the front window of our RV in the campground. But once out on the road it disappears for a while. Then suddenly there it is.

Just like in the movie.

I am always fascinated by the red rocks. Love them. Take way too many pictures of them.

Entrance to the park. Again used Golden Age Pass! :)

Driving through the park towards the Visitor Center

For some reason I was surprised about all the big trees in the area. I guess I kind of pictured it sitting in the middle of a flat desert.

The trees blocked the sight of the tower on much of the road up to it.

From the Visitors Center. Up closer.

Can you imagine those chunks of rock falling off or sliding down the side.

Inside some information about the area.

Kind of out of focus, but good enough to demonstrate the legend.

Just another look at it.

Some video Bill took.

Some more pictures from the Visitor's Center. 

 Heading out of the park. Love the colorful rocks.

 A whole big colony of these guys. They are so cute.

 The RV  Park with a view of the tower out our front window.

 I have many more pictures but think this is enough. Leaving the park. Wish there had been more clouds and color - but ...

Hope you can read this. From the parks paper. 

Guess it sounded like a good idea at the time. 

And that was that part of the trip. Still have a couple more things we visited that I haven't shared. 

Today here in Vegas it is quite cool and very windy. We have a couple of errands to do later in the day when it warms up some. I'm finally getting some of my energy back. Actually baked Bill a birthday cake one day late and made paella for dinner.  And - drum roll - mopped the floor. Nice to feel human again. 

Pretty much good news.

Didn't realize how long it has been since I've posted.  Our days were pretty much wrapped around my appointments. Leave the house at 7 a. m. to get to the "infusion" place by 8:15 - EVERYDAY they sent me a text to remind me to be at the doctor's office at 8:15. All right already.  My last one was Sunday. Never did put the port in my arm, just moved needle every three days. They were pretty good, no bruising at all and no soreness. Monday did a bit of lab work. Will get results early next week. For some reason, and I asked about it, the antibiotics have made me really lethargic - just want to nap or sit.  But that is getting somewhat better. 
Bill took the motorhome in this morning to get the part of the leveling system that had a recall fixed. Turns out we didn't need it done. So parked it out front of house for a while and he worked on a few things inside it. Back in storage now. 
No date on leaving for Mexico yet. Waiting on lab results. Tomorrow or the next day we will order all our prescriptions for until we get back home. Sometimes that goes easy sometimes it is a mess. Hoping for easy this time. Also need to get our flu shots. 
We are going to have to start working on our plans for the trip to Mexico. Trying to figure out how to make the driving days shorter.
Total it is about 1300 miles. In the states there is no problem, but once into Mexico the places to stay are long drives. 
Any way just letting every one know we are fine. 

And the week continued.

So will try to catch  up some. Bill is much better, seems to have shook what ever it was. Around the 3rd we both went in to have yearly routine lab work done, think I mentioned that. Then went for our driver's licences. The next day I called our medical insurance company to see why we hadn't yet got the reimbursement for all of Bill's medical expenses in January in Mazatlan. Umpteenth call. The person I talked to this time said, "Well it has been approved and should have been paid. Let me look into it and I'll call you next Wednesday." I told her she would have to call in the afternoon 'cause we had doctor's appointments in the morning. No problem.
Got up early for appointment and saw nice sunrise. 

Early morning appointment. We go in together. Got weighed etc by the nurse, then sitting there waiting for the doctor to come in. Door flies open, Doctor walks in hands full of paperwork. Looks at Bill and says you're fine. Then looks at me. And the day went to heck in a hand basket.

"You are in trouble." are the first words out of his mouth. What? I knew my pesky, had it off and on for years, infection had come back, just didn't know how bad it was. Seems like it is now resistant to all the antibiotics that I've been given in the past. He scared the crap out of both of us. Long list of what could happen up to and including death! I'm speechless. Long story short. Before we got home I had a message from an infectious disease doctor to call immediately for an appointment. I called and had an appointment to see her in two hours. So over to that office we go. Only solution is intravenous infusion of antibiotics for ten days. And the office is way across town. I ask can't it be done a different way, that's a long drive? Yes if you want to check into a rehab facility for 10 days. Don't think so. In ten minutes I had an appointment for my first treatment the next day. I have now had three infusions - seven more to go. IF they work. The way I got sent home the first day. The needle and some tubing are under the wrap.

Yesterday my arm was getting a little red so all was removed after the infusion. Today of course, another stick and tube and infusion. So here is how I am at home today. Just above the back of my right hand.

Either tomorrow or Wednesday they will put a "port/piece of tubing" in a blood vessel in my upper arm and that will be how the infusing will be done until treatment is over. Not looking forward to that. Just hope it all works.
Needless to say, putting off our leaving for Mexico for awhile.
But good things did happen we finally got our reimbursement from the insurance company for Bill's January surgery. Hooray! Cross that off list.
Oh yes, it got pretty cold here for a couple of days, down to low 40's at night. Got up and turned the thermostat to heat and NOTHING. Our brand new furnace just went HUMMM for about 30 seconds and that was it. Had to call for repair, but also had to work it around doctor's appointments. Did get it fixed later that day. Someone forgot to turn the heater switch to ON when they installed it. Works good now.
We were going to get our flu shots this week but think we'll put them off for a while, until I'm free of infection.
The funny things is I feel fine, no symptoms of anything. Bill, bless his heart, is waiting on me hand and foot. 
Strange. Just got a text message from the doctor, wants to see me 8:15 tomorrow morning? 
Just a wall on the way to the doctor. 
Have a good day. 

Been an unusual week.

I don't know where to begin. I can't believe it is only one week - seems like months have gone by.
Last Thursday we had appointments to get all our medical lab work done. That went off without a problem - well almost. I still have a bruise on my arm - one week later - still deep purple and about the size of a golf ball. Stuck the needle in my arm and wiggled it around saying "Oh, that's a slippery one. There I've got it."
Did some errands and went home. Had appointments to go get our drivers licenses renewed. Because four years ago when we got the Nevada licenses we got the "REAL" ones - where you need 50 proofs of everything including your last born's foot prints from hospital - well not quite that bad but it took a lot of paperwork - I thought it would be simple to renew them. NOT!  First we had to fill out a big long form. Asking many of the same questions we answered four years ago. Bill was filling his out so I started working on mine. Well the more I wrote the more my hand shook. Each word I wrote got progressively shaker and harder to read. So I waited and Bill finished my form. We'd been watching one of the clerks near where we were sitting. She was having a hard time with the man she was working with and we could see her patience flying away. So guess what clerk we got. Yep, she was not smiling when we got to her, rather abrupt. Oh goody. She takes our paperwork and old licenses. She looks over my paperwork. "Where does this say you were born? Your writing is awful shaky. What's the cause of that?"
I answer "essential tremors."
She gives me a yah sure look. "You didn't put your license number on here!" But then she writes it down. Continues to check my application, fills in some blanks, each time giving me a dirty look. Finishes my paper work and gets Bills.
 "Do you have your naturalization papers?" ]
"What?"
"Citizenship papers or Passport, do you have it?"
"Not with me."
"Well you need something to prove your a citizen."
"But I already gave them all that when I got the license four years ago."
"Well we need to see it again! Maybe they can pull it up." And she gets up to go talk to someone. We're dumbfounded. Back she comes but she has with a copy of a passport - I see it and say, "That's my passport." She glares at it. Then turns to Bill, "Your social security number doesn't match your information. Whats your number?"
Bill gives her is number, she inputs it still doesn't match. You know how once you say a number wrong you for the life of you can't remember the right one. Also Bill is having a hard time hearing her. We are in a huge office with lots of people talking and a loud speaker blaring "now serving number... in the back ground and she is talking low. "Do you have hearing aids?" she asks him. Did you leave them home?" As she writes Hearing Aids on the paper work.
Bill says, "NO I don't have hearing problems, just is just noisy in here." At home he can hear me sneaking potato chips when the bag crinkles. She doesn't believe him. Any way, again what is the correct ssn - finally he gets the one wrong number right and he matches the info in the computer. She leaves again and comes back with a copy of his passport. Thank goodness, guess we won't end up in jail. Now it is time for the eye test.
":Read the number on the top line. I went first so I read them off "4398 0731." Feeling good that I could see them.
"You left off four numbers."
"That's all there were." Do you have glasses?"
"Yes."
 "Put them on." I did - still only saw two sets of numbers. Then I closed one eye - OH YES saw the other four numbers read them off.
"Good, she says. writing something down. That will be $18.75, swipe your card through the reader."
Then she tells Bill, "Read the numbers."
Same thing happens to him, can only see two of the sets of three and he is wearing his glasses. Takes them off, puts them back on and squints and finally sees last set of numbers. Paid for his license. What an ordeal, for a while I was afraid neither of us would get them renewed. Now we have four more years till we have to do this again.
The next day, Friday Bill took the Jeep to the welder already wrote about that. Later he went out and crawled under the Jeep to retape all the wires to the lights on the tow bar. When he came back in he looked exhausted. Didn't think too much of it. Its hard laying on your back and working with your arms up especially in the heat. A couple of hours later he really didn't look good. Asked him if he was feeling okay. Kind of an UH answer. Not long after I heard him in the bathroom talking about Ralph. I think in all our years together I've only seen him ralphing once or twice. Well this continued for hours. I had him drink some water and it shot back up. By now it was midnight. Too long. Called paramedics. Off to hospital he went. I rode in ambulance with them as I cannot drive at night, the glare from headlights blinds me. Got him settled down so the ralphing stopped and IVs to replenish the fluids. But decided to keep him there for a while and probably release him in the afternoon. . So now a problem, 5:30 in the morning and I wanted to go home. Called a cab. Got the only cabby in the city who had no idea where our major cross streets were. So I had to tell him every turn to get home.
I went back to hospital later in afternoon. Nurse said he would probably be released soon. Then in came doctor, he didn't like some of the blood work, but would check it again at 5:00 and might release him then. I mentioned that it would have to be before dark. Well at 6:30 we got the news he would spend the night. Lovely - it was just about dark. I flew out of there, by the time I got to car it was DARK. I didn't want to take the main boulevards as they always have lots of traffic. So I took the back way that passes a big stadium. Wouldn't you know there was a big event going on there. Traffic in both directions for blocks. I was fine with the taillights, but once I passed the gates all the incoming traffic was in front of me. Thank goodness I didn't have far to go, I know the people behind me didn't appreciate how slow I was going. Too bad. So glad to get home!
Went back to see him Sunday morning. They needed more blood work at noon then would decided if he could come home. By now he was feeling good. Up and walking around, anxious to leave. I left did errands and went home. Finally called me and said come get me. Got out around three. Consensus was some kind of Food Poisoning. We hadn't eaten out and I hadn't cooked for him. So.... But most important he is better now.
Then on Monday I got sick, think it was just nerves, only lasted a day.      During this time one of our sons was also having some medical problems and in the hospital and seeing specialists. He too has been home for a week.
And that my friends was only the beginning of our fun 10 days.  Have not even been able to play with my new camera.         

Our Summer Trip

Well bless my heart - this morning I've managed to set up and get working my new Nook AND our new TV remote that uses Google Assistant. With it I can get to things I never knew we could get to. Only problem is I can't figure out how to get out of them. Well eventually I can. Hate it I have a remote that is smarter than me! I dread the day my cell phone quits working - I'll never be able to figure a new one out. 
Been tying up the loose ends from our summer trip. 

This picture is the new trip planning program I am using, not real fond of it and have to be online to use it and it eats up a lot of data. Called RVTripWizard. And it is $40 a year. If I can find anything else, I will drop it at end of my year. Cannot reload my old Streets and Trips cause Microsoft no longer supports it so I can't get the serial number uploaded and without it no activation. No way to activate it. Crap. 
So back to the trip. We were gone 59 days. And most of those days it was above 100+ in Las Vegas! Most of the trip it was somewhere in the 80's during the day. But on the other side, we did run into some pretty cool weather in northern Montana. Cool enough we had to run the furnace all night and part of the day some days.
We drove the motorhome 3609 miles, spent $1300 in gasoline. Didn't check on how many miles we put on the Jeep but I figure around 1500. Another $250 in gas.
Our campgrounds averaged out about 39 dollars a day. We stayed in 26 different campgrounds. KOA's are not cheap. A few were Passport America and several accepted Good Sam. The cheapest one we stayed at without discounts was $20 - full hookups and WiFi and really nice near Fort Laramie, WY, most expensive was $125 A NIGHT - BE SURE to make reservations if you are going to any National Park. We didn't and that was the only campground we could get near Jackson Hole. [I didn't tell Bill about that price until we were home.] I know some of you are wondering why we didn't boondock. Well it is because I am spoiled. I want electric, AC, TV, Internet and all the rest of the comforts of home. 
We visited fourteen National Parks and Monuments. Thank goodness for Golden Age Pass. Several of them we went into more than once. Also went to Monument Valley a Navajo Tribal Park. Had to pay for that one.
And along the way visited some really neat little towns and explored them. Bills favorite was Spearfish and Spearfish Canyon. Mine I think was White Sulphur Springs and all the barn quilts and history of the town. Both places had great scenery and nice campgrounds. 
Took thousands of pictures. Still sorting through a bunch of them. Blog posts yet to come.
Our second highest expense after campgrounds and fuel was eating out. I had plenty of food in freezer, even fixed more meals then I usually do when in RV. But it still averaged out to about $22 a day. Had some great food, one little restaurant in Guernsey, WY had amazing food. Some places especially National Parks had expensive and just okay food. 
And I bought several t-shirts and pins from the parks we hadn't previously visited. Also two books. One about White Sulphur Springs and one about Women Homesteaders. It is a good thing I didn't live in those eras, I wouldn't have made it. 
No repairs or work on either the RV or the car. But did have to get propane when using the heater so much.
I learned that I don't like traveling so many miles, would rather go shorter distance and spend more time there. We both found we don't like having to travel more than 120 miles a day. We both get tired and restless. 
Just one picture for each place [I think]

Still catching up

My calendar for the month of October looks like it has measles there are so many things scheduled. 
Bill spent part of Saturday making a big batch of chicken milanese Lots for the freezer for sandwiches and quick dinners.

Any excuse to use the new camera. Had it set on Gourmet to take the picture of the food. Now if I just remember to use that option when taking food shots. 

Just a micro shot with the new camera. Lantanas are such pretty flowers. Love that they can be two different colors. 

Getting our house cleaned room by room. Almost done with that. Amazing how dusty it can get when closed up and empty. Still have to make an appointment to get my eyes checked, my glasses don't seem to be helping any more. It has been several years. I'll get the eye exam here but the lenses in Mexico. As our friend the optometrist there will put the new lenses in my favorite old frames. [I had started typing this a couple of days ago.] But yesterday I did get one thing accomplished, called eye doctor in the morning and was in and out by 4:00 in the afternoon. They strongly suggested I get cataract surgery on both eyes. So guess might do that next summer. So this morning got a call from the cataract surgery place, wanting to make an appointment for me. What? Guess the eye doctor sent them  referral paperwork.
Didn't go out at all over the weekend the winds were howling. I thought our poor Palo Verde tree was going to blow over. 
Crappy NASCAR race Sunday. 
Just got home from more errands. Had to buy a new Nook e-reader as mine refuses to download any new books, plus it scrambled all the old ones. Use to have the most recent first - now????
Also got cash to fix the Jeep Friday. And picked up a 90 day supply of all our meds for both of us. EGAD! Thank goodness for insurance. Not only a busy month an expensive one what with the new camera and Nook. We still need to go someplace where I can really try out my new camera. Maybe next week.