On The Road with Jim and Pat

Hello from North Platte Nebraska

Thursday morning   May 17, 2012   (First travelogue of this trip).

We are at our “normal” stop on our way to visit the relatives in Iowa – the Wal Mart parking lot in North Platte (map).  We left Evergreen a bit after noon yesterday and got here about 7:00 local time.  That probably seems like a slow trip for some of you (about 300 miles).  However, I decided to drive a bit slower (set cruise on 66 MPH) – partly to save fuel and partly because I was not all that confident about the tow dolly tire situation (more on that later).  We also stopped several times to check on the tow dolly.  Lastly we had to slow down quite a bit during some huge dust storms and high winds that we encountered in eastern Colorado.

We need to step back and apologize to our readers for not posting in the past few months.  As we have said many times, our intent for this blog is to document our travels, focusing on our bus travels.  As a side note, these blogs have been a wonderful “diary” that allows us to relive some of our wonderful experiences.

During our absence from posting, we have had a kind of tough few months.  Each of our daughters have had some pretty significant health issues, Judy has documented the fact that the are in foreclosure on their house, and we have closed the RV Safety Systems business.  In addition, Pat had to have cataract surgery last month.  We can only hope that our extended family has better days ahead of us.

Closing the business has been quite traumatic.  As some of you recall, the business was based on a fire detection system that I developed.  That product was well received and has proven very reliable.  We developed a second system for a marketing partner and that product passed every test that the customer devised including some actual vehicle fires.  The second project has languished and will probably not become a reality.  Our original product had reasonable sales, but the profit did not cover the debt incurred for development and marketing costs.

Part of the huge marketing costs involved trade shows.  That said, those shows were a great experience and involved a lot of amazing travels in our bus. 

Now that we are no longer traveling for business, we will be posting less frequently.  We hope that you will check in occasionally, or opt for the email notification of posts.

Now, what about this tow dolly situation?  Tow dollies are  not at the top of my list for bringing our own transportation.  We have always towed “four down” using a tow bar.  We have towed our Commando, Durango and the Service Truck over the years and consider that to be the best option.  My plan was to finish the Durango engine rebuild and bring it on this trip.  I got the engine running and it runs well, but my diagnostic software is showing intermittent sensor problems that keep me from getting my emissions test and license plates.

So, our only alternative was to bring the PT Cruiser.  It can’t be towed with all four wheels on the ground because to the automatic transmission.  I would have to install a special pump to circulate the transmission fluid and I really don’t like that approach.  So the only alternative is a tow dolly.  I found a great used unit made by the Acme Tow Dolly company.  I will try to post a picture of the bus/car combination next time.

That is all for now.

Hello from Evergreen, CO

Tuesday morning   January 24, 2012   (fourth travelogue of this trip).

Before we get started, I did “wash” the last post by pasting my word processing work in a text editor and then pasting the text editor document in the blog.  It did seem to solve the word spacing problem.  Not a big effort, I just have to remember to do it.

In our last post, I talked about leaving San Antonio on Sunday and taking a leisurely drive home.  Well, that did not happen.  Sunday our GPS program took us on a route that had very few towns with reasonable hotel options.   We finally made a course change in Paducah, TX and headed west so that we could connect with I 27.  We ended up stopping in Plainview, TX at a Holiday Inn Express.  That put us a bit less than half way home (about 450 miles that day).  We ended up crashing after having a great Mexican dinner at a local restaurant.

Monday we left the hotel about 8:00 AM and arrived in Raton, NM about noon (with one hour time change).  The weather was great, but there were some indications that it would snow today (hasn’t really started).  We ate lunch and made the decision to drive the rest of the way home on Monday.

We really could not have asked for better traveling weather on Monday.  The same could not be said of Sunday.  We fought terrible high winds most of the day.  At times we could not see more than 100 feet in front of us due to blowing dust. 

We had noted that our route on US 87 in NM took us through Des Moines.  We had hoped to have lunch there to say that we had spent some time in Des Moines, NM.  Turns out the town is very small and like most of the towns in the area, it is slowly becoming a ghost town.

The vast amounts of blowing dust conjured up pictures of the terrible “Dust Bowl” that took occurred in the 1930’s.  While the terrible dust bowl conditions existed in a large area of the US and some of Canada, the major impact was on the Oklahoma and Texas panhandle area – right were we were. 

There are lots of good reference on this terrible period.  Here it the Wiki link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_Bowl

I have often wanted to read John Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath”.  The  excerpts I have seen suggest he vividly portrayed the tragedy and suffering of that era.  What we saw was very scary.  The farmers had really tilled the soil to the point is was very finely divided.  That coupled with the terrible drought they have suffered the past couple of years make you wonder if the conditions might be conducive to a repeat.

We do not have any plans for travel until May.  You never know when that will change.  As a result, our posts will not be frequent for the next few months.  You can check in once in a while or sign up for the email option.

That is all for now.

Hello again from San Antonio, TX

Saturday evening   January 21, 2012   (third travelogue of this trip).

First, I would like to acknowledge that some of you get these blogs via email.  Those email versions have a word spacing problem (often, several words are run together).  The word spacing looks fine on the Internet version of the blog.  It looks like “Word” type programs contribute to the problem.  I type this blog in an “Open Source” version of Word, and then paste it into the blog.  I will try an intermediate step of pasting it in a basic text edit program to see if I can “wash” some of the control characters that may be causing the problem.

Now, back to our normally scheduled program.  Thursday I traveled west on I 10 to Boerne, TX to finish a fire suppression system installation.  The customer wanted to install a second system triggered by a “safety switch”.  I had done some of the installation on the system when we worked on the coach in CO in September.  It took all day to finish the install, but I took my time and “spruced up” the original install.    The weather was in the high 70s and sunny.  That made the install pretty pleasant.

Yesterday it was cool and very overcast.  It was foggy most of the day and it seemed to me to be a misting rain, although the weather folks did not report that.  By afternoon, it cleared up a bit.  I took a long walk on the River Walk.  It really goes on for many miles.  Our hotel is on a “U” shaped channel of the river.  I walked about a mile to the main river.  The River Walk is lined with all kinds of restaurants, including many well known chains.  There are also many large hotels on the River Walk. 
All of the River Walk is located below ground level.  Both sides of the river have walking paths and wonderful landscaping.  It is just plain beautiful.

Just down from our hotel on a branch of the River Walk is the River Center Mall.  It is as large as any mall in the Denver area with dozens of stores, including many well know chains.  It also has a fairly large food court that has served our food needs many times this week. 

I have been enjoying my quiet time during this trip.  I had a bunch of computer email digests to read, did a bit of tax record preparation, and generally just goofed off.  To top it all off, the Barrett-Jackson multi-day classic car auction has been on the Speed channel several hours each day.  They are selling over 1300 vehicles this year – many for over $100,000, some for much more.  They even have a fantasy bid contest that I have been playing with.  Update:  we just came back from dinner and they were auctioning off a ’48 Tucker and it went for $2,650,000!!

Last night Pat and I, along with one of her downline, went to eat at Luciano’s on the River Walk.  It was a great Italian restaurant.  They had great Crème Brulee that Pat had scoped out a couple of days ago {grin}. 

Pat’s Leadership Convention ended yesterday.  Obviously, she had a ball.  Today is a lower-key regional convention.  As usual she thoroughly enjoyed both of the events.

Tomorrow we will start home.  We will probably take a leisurely 3 days to drive the 1000 miles.  Looks like we could hit some snow.

That is all for now.

The San Antonio River Walk is a public park, open 365
days a year. It is a network of walkways along the banks of the San
Antonio River, one story beneath approximately 5 miles of downtown
San Antonio.  Lined by bars, shops and restaurants, the River
Walk is an important part of the city’s urban fabric and a tourist
attraction in its own right.

The River Walk winds and loops under bridges as two parallel
sidewalks, lined with restaurants, shops, hotels and more. It
connects the major tourist draws from the Alamo to Rivercenter Mall, 
Arneson River Theatre and La Villita,  the San Antonio Museum of
Art, and the Pearl Brewery.

The photos below show the River Walk. Since it is January, the
trees are not leafed out, but it is still beautiful and peaceful.

Yesterday it was almost 80 degrees and we ate lunch at an outside
table beside the river. It was gorgeous. There are many signs
asking you not to feed the birds and other animals. Obviously folks
have ignored the signs, as a couple of beautiful ducks walked right
up to us and waited for us to offer part of our lunch (we obeyed the
signs).

After lunch, we walked to the Alamo. It is well restored, but not
at all what we pictured. It is not a fort as most folks think. It
started as a mission in the 1700s and slowly changed so that it had a
military basis including a hospital. The grounds are well kept with
beautiful trees, shrubbery, and flowers. It is only a couple of
blocks from the hotel and right in the middle of downtown San
Antonio.

Pat’s activities started today, but we were able to get away for
lunch. She has her Manager’s Reception tonight, so I will have to
have pizza and beer on the River {grin}.

Tomorrow I will travel about 30 miles back up I 10 to finish
installing a special auxiliary fire suppression system on a
customer’s motorhome.

That is all for now.

My healing process has had its ups and downs, but I’m still so
thankful that I will not have to have any radiation or
chemotherapy!!  The recovery from the surgery has gone at least
as well as I expected, if not better.  My only remaining symptom
from the surgery is the fatigue that I expected, but wish it would
progress a bit more quickly.  I continue to work on patience!

The reconstruction process has been a bit more than I expected,
but, I guess if I stop to think about it, it all makes sense. 
When they did the mastectomies, a plastic surgeon placed “tissue
expanders” as the first step in the reconstruction process.  I
guess I didn’t stop to think exactly what expanding the tissue
might entail.  Each week (or every couple weeks depending on our
travel schedule), I have to have saline injected into the tissue
expanders, thus stretching the tissue.  At first I described the
process as being similar to having your braces tightened, but I’m
now realizing that the similarities are pretty limited.  Luckily
I only have two more “fill” appointments and then I will have
about three months to heal from this process before the next surgery.

Kelly and Damon

8/26/11
I continue doing well with my cancer journey.  My last “fill”
was July 18th and I expected to be back to myself by the
next week, but realized that it was another time to practice the art
of patience.  The reconstruction process continued to be
challenging, but I finally felt like I had a breakthrough last week. 
I started sleeping without ice, sleeping almost through the night,
and being able to sleep on my sides for a few minutes at a time (all
things I took for granted before this journey).

I have discovered that physical therapy is a great tool during
this process.  I have found a therapist who knows what she’s
doing and is incredibly supportive.  She helps me remember that
it’s not uncommon to take five steps forward and then a couple
back, but I’m so thankful that she’s helping me through this
process.  We started with the simple art of breathing because I
had to re-train my body since I hadn’t been able to take a deep
breath for so long.  She has taught me some great stretching
exercises and we’re hoping to progress to some weight work in the
next week or so.

My next surgery is scheduled for November 9th so I
shouldn’t have any more appointments and will continue the healing
process until then.  During that surgery the tissue expanders
(or rocks as I fondly refer to them) will be removed and permanent
implants will be placed.  That surgery will be a day surgery and
should be much simpler than the first one.  As Madison says, the
surgery will also probably be easier than the fills.

Kelly and Damon

Each year since then we’ve done Sleep in for the Cure which was
just our speed.  This year Molly talked us into going down for
the family event and we’re so glad we did!  We were amazed at
the number of people who come for that event.  It was an
emotional day for me, realizing that I wasn’t walking for the women
in pink shirts, but was now wearing the pink shirt.

It was also a day to remind me of my good fortune.  Seeing
the women without hair and talking to a woman who went through lots
of radiation and chemo helped me keep my perspective and continue to
feel lucky in my situation.

The next surgery in my reconstruction will be next Wednesday. 
During this one they will remove the tissue expanders (AKA rocks) and
replace them with saline implants.  I’m looking so forward to
having something more comfortable and I know it will be nice to be
able to comfortably cuddle with the girls.

Damon and I went to the pre-op appointment yesterday and learned
that, although this surgery will be SO much easier than the last one,
some of the restrictions will be the same.  This surgery will be
about 2 ½ hours versus the 4 hours for the last one.  This
recovery is expected to be shorter, hopefully only a week or two.
I’m still coming to grips with the fact that I won’t be able
to lift my arms over my head (including washing my own hair) or drive
for two weeks and I won’t be able to work out for a month.  I
will only be able to lift 5 pounds for about a month.  I guess
these are small sacrifices compared to other things I could have gone
through.  I am especially thankful that I won’t have drains
this time!

As I continue to focus on humor, I’m picturing the “Iron
Maiden Bra” that I’ll be wearing for a couple weeks.  I’m
sure it’s going to be very sexy, but I promise not to send
pictures!

Kelly and Damon