Author: sandcastle

For two month we were, more or less, parked at the Shakopee Valley RV Park in the Minneapolis/St Paul metro area. Discounting the short moves up to the meadow and back down caused by the Minnesota River flood, we never moved the RV in all that time. Then we drove it about 2 1/2 hours south to the Winnebago Plant where we only drove it back and forth between the overnight spots and the service center for most of a week. Yesterday, they finished the work on it so today we hit the road for the first time in more than two months.

We are headed to New England to visit our daughter in Maine and see the sights in that part of this beautiful country of ours. Now we don’t like to drive very far on any one day. Mostly because our RV is MUCH more comfortable when parked than it is while driving. So we usually limit ourselves to four hours of driving time plus however much time we spend at stops along the way. Four hours from Forest City, Iowa, would take us to a Corps of Engineers campground on Coralville Lake where we stayed once in the View and which we liked very much. Of course, we never looked at it from the point of view of driving a motorhome like we have now let alone one towing a car but we were sure we would still like that park so we set out mid-morning as is our usual style.

We didn’t make it. We can blame it on the winds we had to fight today but I think we’ve just forgotten what it is like to travel any distance. So we are at Colony Country Campground in North Liberty, Iowa, which my mapping program tells me is really only about ten minutes short of the CoE campground. But this is a real RV park where we don’t have to wonder if our RV and car are both going to fit. We were just too tired to deal with the possibility that the CoE would be a disappointment in our bigger rig. We must be getting old.

Tomorrow we plan to drive to Joliet, Illinois. My mapping program says that’s 3 1/2 hours. We should be able to handle that, right?

That lets us drive through the Chicago area on Sunday when there SHOULD be less traffic than on weekdays. Having said that, now I know I’m getting old. When did driving in metropolitan areas become such a hassle? Of course, Chicago is not just any metropolitan area, right?

That would put us just 2 1/2 hours from Elkhart, Indiana, where the Gypsy Gathering, http://gypsyjournal.net/Eastern_rally,  will take place next week. We could take a break and spend the week there but we’d have to settle for a 20 amp hookup since we didn’t reserve anything before the 30 and 50 amp sites filled up. And it would keep us from traveling on toward Maine and all the great stuff in New England. Are we ready for that? Stay tuned to see.

TTYL,

Linda Sand

We are at the Winnebago Factory in Forest City, Iowa, having warranty and repair work done. Winnebago provides four camping areas. All of them have electrical hookups. There are fresh water fills and sanitary dumps available at the Rally Grounds.

The closest camping area is a row of blacktopping right outside the service center. It was full when we arrived.

Behind that row is a small camping area that feels more like a park. It was full when we arrived.

Up the hill, by the Visitor Center, is another row of blacktopping. It is supposed to be for members of the Winnebago-Itasca Travelers Club and people coming to tour the factory. It was not quite full when we arrived so we stayed there the first night.

Now we are camped across the Highway at the Rally Grounds where they authorize one row of parking only for people in for service. That’s us second from the right.

Winnebago has an interesting method of serving their customers. You can make an appointment for service. You especially want to do this if you need some part they may have to order. Right now they are scheduling appointments for October.

Or you can just walk in the door and get in the waiting line. If you come in without an appointment, you can write a work order for up to seven items. Then they put your name on a white board with columns labeled “Bring in” and “Check in”. They put days/times in those columns. Check in means check back to see what, if anything, is happening. Bring in means bring your RV so they can start working on it. We got in line when they opened at 7 am Monday morning and were assigned a check in of Tuesday morning. That converted to a bring in at 11:40 Tuesday morning. By 2:00 Wednesday afternoon they had completed our list of seven items. So we filled out another list and we are back on the check in list. You can’t fill out the second list until they have finished the first list. We hope to get a bring in later this morning and be done Friday afternoon.

Wish us luck.

TTYL,

Linda

I suppose it’s to be expected that a brain that thinks like mine when awake should also have odd dreams. When I wake while dreaming I sometimes remember them. Here’s a sample.

To start with, in my dream I was a tall man neither of which I am in real life. I had been asked to be umpire for a kids’ baseball game. This was not Little League yet was not just a pickup game, either. One team wore white t-shirts and red shorts and the other team wore white t-shirts and blue shorts. These were the type of clothes that any ordinary kid would likely have in his wardrobe but the fact that one team wore red and the other blue meant there was some organization of the game. It also appeared there was some rivalry between the teams although they appeared to be friends teasing each other more than enemies.

So, the game started and had been going on a bit in an ordinary kids’ game manner when one boy I had not noticed before came up to bat. He was definitely the runt of the litter. A small kid with big glasses. A group of his teammates came up and asked to talk to me before the runt stepped into the batter’s box–not that they actually had a batter’s box but you know what I mean.

One of the bigger kids, a girl, declared that it was not really fair to expect the runt to hit a pitched ball since he wouldn’t be able to see it until it was right in front of him. His teammates wanted him to be able to throw the ball up into the air himself then swing at it. I looked at the kid, then looked at his teammates and wondered exactly what they were after. It felt like they were hoping to set a precedent for pitching to themselves so the rest of the team could have that advantage, too.

I thought a bit then came up with this answer. Yes, the kid could thow his own pitch. The kids faces brightened. But, I added, he’s the only one who can do so. The dissapointed looks on their faces told me I’d been right about their hopes for getting it extended to the rest of them. Then I added that a miss was a miss and would be called a strike, a foul was a foul and would be so called, but if he threw the ball up and it hit him coming down he would not be allowed to take his base. The groans at that announcement shed light on their true hopes.

At that point the phone rang and my dream ended. I wonder who would have won? At that point, I think I did.

TTYL,

Linda

Several years ago I had both my knees replaced with mechanical ones. The left one is fine; the right one is still painful under some conditions.

At my first post-surgical appointment with my surgeon, I reported that pain. She said I was still healing. At the next appointment with her I again reported the pain but she still advised giving it time.

A year later she was gone so I was referred to a different orthopedic surgeon. I reported the pain to him and said I thought it was related to the malfunctioning CPM machine which pulled on my leg during rehab after the surgery causing excruciating pain. I thought that had torn some tendons. He said the x-rays showed nothing wrong with the replacement itself so it sounded like a soft tissue problem–which, of course, was what I said. Then he told me the way they look at soft tissue injuries is with an MRI but they can’t do an MRI on a metal knee because they only see static. The only way to look at that tissue is by opening the knee! NOT! Too soon!

So for about five years I continued living with this pain and letting let it restrict my activities to an unhealthy level.

I finally got tired of that and made an appointment to see the second orthopedic surgeon again. He read his notes from that previous visit which said my ligaments are fine–he never told me that. He said those notes indicate he suspected Regional Pain Syndrome–he never told me that. He does not operate for Regional Pain Syndrome–he never told me that.

So now he wants to refer me to a Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation specialist for consultation.  It’s hard to get those appointments but, in time, I should be able to get one. Why didn’t he tell me that when we still lived here?!!!

He said there are several different things the specialist could try–therapy, meds, and what is in effect rebooting my system by disconnecting a nerve and letting it heal again. It seems nerves can remember pain and express it inappropriately. This is what sometimes happen to amputees who can have an itch in a nonexistent foot. In that case it is a failure to stop communicating.

So, I can either try to get in to see someone someplace where we’ll be stopped long enough to do this or I can call about two months before we come back next summer to schedule an appointment then.

Oh, joy!

TTYL,

Linda

I had the last of our scheduled medical appointments this afternoon. Not all the report cards are in yet, but no one has yet called in a panic and said we need you back soon.  So we have a model railroad operating session tonight and another one next Friday night then, on August 22nd, we’ll be singing every RVer’s theme song: Willie Nelson’s “On the Road Again.”

It been a challenge being in a park where we have no yard to speak of and no guest parking. How do we invite over all those people we want to see? We finally had a family gathering at Dave’s sister’s mother-in-law’s house but we still haven’t seen Dave’s former co-workers yet. Come on, guys, someone pick a time and place and let’s do it! The best we can offer is a gathering at the local Perkin’s Restaurant then carpooling down the hill for those who want to see our new house. Do you want to do that?

We also have friends in Scandia we’d like to spend more time with but Scandia is a 70 mile drive one way from our campground and that’s a long way to go for short visit. We do see them at some of the operating sessions so that may have to do it for this year. Next year we’ll try to park closer to them.

We will be back.

TTYL,

Linda