getting stuff done - the 1st 2 weeks

David & Anna's house, Richardson

Sunday, 9 - Saturday, 22 May 2021

When I got to town, I had 2 main priorities: get over this stupid stomach flu and get my RV cabin door fixed.  There were many secondary ones, but these were the get-done-no-matter-what type.  For the first, I spent a lot of time just lying around, waiting for the illness to run its course.  I'd already tried a generic Imodium, which worked very well.  But all it's intended to do is deal with the diarrhea, leaving the other symptoms untouched.  And while no-diarrhea is absolutely a worthy cause, I didn't really want to take it again because what I really wanted was for the illness to go away.

But the side effects of this illness - the dehydration (I could drink 4 bottles of water during a day and still not need to get up during the night), the nearly constant exhaustion and lack of energy - were the problems I actually wanted to solve.  It finally occurred to me that spinach salads with raisins might help; they usually have the undesirable side effect of causing constipation which, these days, was a desideratum, and I thought the extra iron might help.  And, in fact, the salads did help.  

So except for walking the dogs, I cut myself some slack and didn't try to do anything but read John Putnam Thatcher mysteries.  And over time, the diarrhea went away, I've gained strength and started to feel more like a functioning human being.

Alvarado

But while I was waiting to get well, I wanted to get moving on fixing the RV.  On Monday the 10th, David went with me out to Alvarado where I bought the RV several years ago.  They'd never bothered to return my phone calls, and I figured the only way to get an answer from them was to stand in front of them.  And that worked: no recalls in place for this RV.  The woman in Service who was helping me offered to set up an appointment to find out what was wrong with my door, but she said they'd charge $150 for an hour of labor just to make the determination.  What's more, she didn't say they'd waive that charge if I got the work done there, which shops often say (so do lawyers).

Given their failure to return my phone calls (a simple matter) and the sloppiness they'd shown in the finish work when I first bought my RV (remember they'd neglected to connect the water hoses in the kitchen sink?) and the possibility they'd charge me through the nose for work that might not be the best, I told her I'd think about it.

Rockwall

The next day David and I went out to Rockwall, to the place I've gone several times before that has done an outstanding (and not very expensive) job of making the various repairs I've asked them for.  Dodie, the owner, took one look at the cabin door and said, "You've got a broken hinge."  And he showed us quite clearly that one side of the hinge was attached to the door and the other side of the hinge was attached to the frame, but the two sides weren't attached to each other.  The whole hinge was completely split in two.  Which of course would go a long way toward explaining why I couldn't get the door to latch securely.

He said he couldn't start for 2 weeks and that it might take 2-3 weeks once he started, but he agreed they could do the list of 5 or 6 additional things I told him I wanted done (replace the torn screen door; fix the heater's thermostat - like that).  So I made the appointment.  I'd hesitated because that would put me still here until almost mid-June, which wasn't at all what I'd intended, but the work has to be done, and I trust these folks to do a good job, and anyway this is a busy time of year for everybody involved with RVs so I didn't figure anyone else would do it faster.

On the way over there, by the way, we saw a sign that said, 

     "Pray for Police.

      They Need God.

      We Need Them."

Gracie

On the way back from Rockwall, David told me to pull into a parking lot because he wanted to read me a text he'd gotten from Anna about Gracie.  She described some pretty bad symptoms (vomiting, inability to stand up, eyes whizzing back and forth, and more) she'd seen in Gracie and thought she'd had a seizure.  She made a vet appointment for us while we were on the way home.

The vet was one Anna had used in the past, who she trusted, and Anna went with me to describe the behaviors she'd seen.  Turns out she also did the heavy lifting because Gracie couldn't reliably stand up, let alone walk, so Anna carried her into the office.  Actually, they didn't want us inside but we realized that only when we were standing right at the door, in the pouring rain, with Anna's arms full of a 50-pound dog, and we were wearing masks, so they let us in.  They said later it was a weird feeling for them because they hadn't had a client in the office in over a year.

The vet said Gracie had had a stroke, not a seizure.  He said she's young enough (though she's 12) to have a good chance at making a full recovery.  That seemed impossible at that moment because she still couldn't even walk, she was holding her head at a very odd angle, her eyes were still whizzing around - she just looked very sick indeed.  But he gave me some pills for the next 5 days and various bits of advice and encouragement and the staff carried Gracie out to the truck, though Anna had to carry her into the house again.

And she did show vast improvement fairly quickly.  Daily we could see changes: when she rebelled against being carried and managed to walk on her own - not very well, doing a lot of staggering around at first, but she did it; when she started drinking water, when she started eating again; when her eyes gradually stopped whizzing around; when she started to have normal elimination again.  Bit by bit she's getting well.

But I was thanking my lucky stars that this hadn't happened while I was alone, living in the RV, that has steps in and out.  I honestly don't know how on earth I could have handled that.  Here, I have lots of help and support and a floor on the same level as the outside so no steps.

Dexter

The following Saturday, the 15th, David drove me and Dexter to a different vet to check out the growths he has on his back and side.  The vet's conclusion: though the one on his back is likely no big deal, the fact that it's growing means they should remove it.  We have an appointment for that on Thursday, the 27th.  They couldn't find the one on his side, mainly because I told them the wrong side.  They suggested I mark it with lipstick so they could take a look when I bring him back in.

Lipstick is hard to come by in this household (nonexistent in mine), so Anna thought we could mark that side growth with Halloween face paint instead.  The hard part of this procedure is, because they'll need to sedate Dext to remove the growth, I'll have to keep him from eating breakfast on that Thursday morning.  Dexter doesn't understand the concept of not eating - anything - so I expect a lot of pushback on that one.  The vet said to have him at their office by 8:30 AM, and I said I'd bring him in as early as I could so I didn't have to deal with his non-breakfast distress.

COVID vaccine

I don't think I mentioned that when I was in Iowa, I tried to find someplace to get the Johnson & Johnson vaccine specifically and was finally reduced to calling the Iowa Dept. of Health.  The woman I talked to listened carefully to my explanation of my traveling life and told me many places were refusing to give people a 2nd dose if they hadn't given them the 1st dose as well.  She said one couple who had gotten their 1st shots in Florida were now in Iowa looking for someone to give them their 2nd shot, and having a lot of trouble with it.  I honestly can't imagine what the problem would be if they have the little vaccination card that says what they got and when they got it, but apparently it's a thing.

The wait time between doses for the Pfizer vaccine is 3 weeks, and it's 4 weeks for the Moderna version.  I can't be certain I'll ever be anywhere even in 3 weeks, let alone 4, and certainly not so I can go back to the place I got the 1st dose.  All of that just reaffirmed to me that the J&J vaccine is the only possible one I can get.  

And yea! I finally got the vaccination the same Saturday Dext had his vet appointment.  David found a Walgreen's that's vaguely in this general part of town that said they had the Johnson&Johnson version available.  And just that same day I saw a news article that the government was going to stop shipments of the J&J doses until they'd cleared the manufacturing plant of concerns about proper conditions.  I'd been running a low-grade fever all morning and not feeling very well, making me think they wouldn't let me get the shot.  But I was also afraid that, if I waited until I was wholly healthy again, the J&J wouldn't be available for who knew how long.  So I decided to chance it.

And I was surprised that the Walgreen's took my temp and didn't say anything, so either my temp had gone down or they thought it was within a normal range.  And I got the shot.  My only side effect was immediate: the person giving me the shot was definitely not a pain-free shooter.  Other than that, I've had no side effects at all.

I won't be covered until Saturday, the 29th.  And even then I won't stop wearing a mask or gloves, because I'm worried about the variants and because I have so little faith in my fellow citizens that I'm convinced lots of them are walking around unprotected both by masks and by vaccinations.  Which means they could be dangerous.

Actually, I don't understand why people are being so weird about wearing a mask.  Tough guys in the Wild West did.  And it means you don't have to worry about having spinach caught in your teeth.  Where's the problem?

Weather

This area is having an unusual amount of rainfall these days.  In fact, I think it's rained at least a little every day since I've been here.  A few of those days have included thunder, and Anna put Gracie's Thundershirt on for her, so I could learn how to do it right.

One day we had a tornado scare in the middle of the day.  Anna's and David's phones suddenly let off an alert about possible scary weather.  I put the dogs on their leashes, stuffed Lily in her crate (she was not happy about that and said so, often), Anna pulled a couple of dog beds into the hallway, we closed the doors and all hunkered down until the weather service (Anna had them on Facebook) said the danger had passed us.

It reminded me of doing the same thing in Waco in the '50s - Momma gathering us kids together in the hallway and closing the doors and waiting for tornadoes to pass.  I remember it being a little scary and a little fun - Momma tried to distract us with games and things.

This time it was my dogs that were nervous, because they knew we'd never done this before and they could tell we (the humans) were worried.  Lily was just displeased.  Very vocally.

So for now . . .

. . . we're all doing okay - even Gracie, who's getting better every day.  It's an adjustment being in a house instead of our little mobile home, but the dogs love having a back yard with grass and plants, and Lily likes having so much room to roam around in.  And I'm gradually getting past this infection and also feeling better knowing that I'm taking care of some of the things that have been on my mind.

. . . and then drove back to Texas

Hillsdale State Park, Paola KS

Thursday, 6 May 2021

Lake Eufala State Park, Checotah OK

Friday, 7 May 2021

David & Anna's house, Richardson TX

Saturday, 8 May 2021

I didn't take any notes during my drive south, because I wasn't feeling well and was almost solely focused on getting back to Texas safely.  So for this post, I'm relying solely on my memory.

Kansas

I know that we stayed at Hillsdale State Park during my month in Kansas, but things were a little different this time around: they would accept a reservation only in one section of the park, which wasn't the section I'd stayed in before.  For some reason I had a real problem understanding the park's website and finally just called the campground for help.  A very nice woman took the time to understand my concern (crowded campground and 2 bouncy lab mixes) and found a campsite that worked perfectly for us.  It backed up to a road, so all we had to do was walk across a small field and we could avoid other dogs (helpful because there were many nearby).  This section of the campground had unusually large campsites, so there was lots of space between ours and our neighbors - also helpful.

I'd forgotten that when I spent my month in Kansas, I bought a year pass to the state parks to help lower the price.  That applied only to a calendar year, and I tried a while back to remove the sticker from my windshield when it expired, but with no luck.  The campground host sold me a one-day pass, since I didn't figure I'd need one for the year, and he loaned me a razor to take off last year's sticker.  Nice of him.

It was beautiful when we got there, but then it got really cold at night, and there was a strong wind blowing, which made the temp seem even colder.  That's the same strong wind that had been blowing while we were driving from Iowa.  Google said it'd take me just over 4 hours to make the trip, but it actually took several hours longer because of stops.

Oklahoma

There's a section of highways in OK that gives me trouble every time I'm there.  Up in northeastern OK, several toll roads and several state and local roads all come together within a fairly small area.  When I'm driving through, I'm having to take all sorts of little roads to transfer from one state road to another while avoiding the toll roads, and every time I've gotten lost.  I've finally decided Google just can't handle it - my refusing to take a toll road - and it's muffing the directions on the local roads.

This trip was no exception.  I spent at least an extra hour driving back and forth on roads Google hadn't bothered to mention, trying to find the ones it did mention.  At one point I stopped in the driveway of someone's ranch and consulted the compass David and Anna gave me for Christmas.  And that was weird because it told me I was going east when I was absolutely certain I was going west.  For at least a minute I decided the compass was broken.  Then I came to my senses and decided to explore the idea that I wasn't where I thought I was.  So back down that road yet again, finally stopping in a partly empty parking lot and pulling out my trusty AAA map and figuring out where I really was.  That map was right.  

I didn't have a whole lot of spare energy, thanks to the continuing diarrhea and dehydration.  Once I'd gotten out of this scrambled highways mess I still had almost 2 hours of driving to go.  Google said today's drive would take me 5 hours, but of course it took much longer than that.

I've never stayed at Lake Eufala before, mostly because it's so popular it's hard to get a reservation.  I honestly don't know how we got this one on a Friday night.  And it turned out to be the absolutely perfect spot.  Most of the RV campsites seemed to be set up in pairs, with the utilities for each pair next to each other, which would have the RV pairs back to back, in a way.  Their cabin doors would open away from each other so they could have their picnics or whatever in separate areas.

My pair of spaces was almost a quarter of a mile away from all the others, and the other RV in my pair was owned by a couple about my age (without dogs) who were clearly not the wild-party type but instead had come out to enjoy the peace and quiet of nature.   This set-up let me walk my dogs around the area without worrying about other dogs, always a relief.  

And in the morning, it was a beautiful day with a pleasant temperature and a mild breeze and serious bird songs - I walked the dogs a couple of times but mostly just sat with the windows open enjoying the incredible peace and tranquility of the situation.  Google told me it'd be a 3-hour drive from there to David & Anna's house, which I figured meant a 5-hour drive, but that still gave me a chance to just relax and enjoy the wonderful dose of nature we had.  I think we didn't leave until nearly 10:00.  Given OK's roads and traffic on a Saturday, the tranquility didn't last long, but it was nice while I had it.

I took US 69 south to Atoka OK, where I ran into US 75, which runs right through Dallas and about 2 miles from my family.  Today too we had a hard time finding a place to stop for a break and a walk and some lunch, and I finally just pulled into a casino parking lot set aside for semis.  Lousy place to walk because of no grass, but at least we got a little bit of a break.

Texas

We pulled into the driveway in mid-afternoon, David and Anna helped me unload a bunch of stuff, including the critters, and I took the RV down the street and locked it.  Very odd to leave it, since for the last 40 months (nearly), we've spent every day living in it and every night sleeping in it.  So I was sick and disoriented and tired and sleepy, but here I wouldn't have to shoulder all my burdens alone, and that's worth a lot.

. . . and spent days in the campground . . .

Newton/Des Moines East KOA, Newton

Sunday, 2 - Wednesday, 5 May, 2021

Over the course of these days, I came to realize that I was once again the victim of that stomach flu I'd had in January.  I had terrible diarrhea, which left me dehydrated and low on sleep.  I had a low-grade fever, no energy, and little interest in food.  Walking the dogs took almost all my energy during the first few days.  I don't know why I keep getting this illness.  I wash my hands; I wash my food; I wash my dishes; I don't even kiss my pets, let alone let them lick me; I don't eat spoiled food.  And I don't actually remembering ever having this particular illness before 4 months ago.  And now, the 2nd time.  Yuck.

I did get a few things done.  I made and kept an appointment for Lily to have her claws clipped and her flea medicine applied.

I took my RV to a tire shop and had them check my right rear tire that looked too low - and it was too low.  They filled it with air and checked all the tires to be sure I was okay and didn't charge me a nickel.  Nice folks.

I called every RV place I could find in Iowa to find someone who could fix my cabin door.  Nobody was willing to even look at it for at least the next 2 weeks and, since they were all in the Des Moines area, I couldn't see how I could tour Iowa and still get the door fixed.  One of the places I called suggested I get in touch with the place where I'd bought it to find out if this was a problem under recall.  I called the dealer twice, left messages, and never got a return call.

The door flew open again, by the way, when I was driving back to the campground from my trip to town.  Luckily I was on a semi-residential road instead of a highway.  Clearly, it's not safe as it is.

And after days went by with my illness not really abating much and my door not looking like it was going to get fixed soon and feeling overwhelmed with it all, I threw in the towel.  I emailed David and Anna and asked if we could all come stay for a while while I got these problems tended to.  And generous people that they are, they agreed without hesitation.  This time, I suggested we do what they'd wanted me to do a year ago, which was to stay in the house with them and park the RV down the street in the neighborhood overflow parking lot.  We were all hoping it wouldn't be there long, that I'd be able to get it in to a repair shop and let it sit there instead.

So I planned a driving route back to Texas, made campground reservations, and got us ready to take another trip.  At least, this time I figured I'd be a safer driver than the last trip.

But this is why Iowa will not be my 30th state.  I'll have to put it off until later.  A real shame, because I've really been looking forward to seeing what Iowa has to offer.

I went to Iowa . . .

Newton/Des Moines East KOA, Newton 

Saturday, 1 May 2021

My plans to get an early start and see several places in Iowa before going to tonight's campground got torpedoed during the night.  It turned out that fever I had last night meant I was actually sick.  I slept until about midnight, then got up to deal with diarrhea, back to bed and slept until about 3:00, got up for more bathroom time and to walk the dogs, then back to bed and slept until 8:00 AM.  I never sleep that late, but I'd lost a lot of sleep during the night. 

By the time I decided I actually had to get up (not only did I already have a reservation in Iowa but also the campsite I was in had been reserved by someone else for tonight), I realized the most I'd be able to ask of myself was to simply drive straight to tonight's campground.  No sightseeing on the way.

today's route - sort of

I can't find a map of Iowa, so I'm using a close-up shot of this US map (dated 2009) I have.  The little box on US 36 east of St. Joseph in MO is about where Pershing State Park is, and I've boxed in Newton, east of Des Moines, where we'll stay tonight.

We finally got on the road at 9:30.  I drove northwest, mostly along miscellaneous MO highways (MO 145, MO Hwy B, MO Hwy N) until I got to I-35.  Given my somewhat precarious physical condition, I knew today wasn't the day to spurn interstates.  I-35, the highway that runs throughout the US from Texas to Minnesota, runs directly through Des Moines.

In northern MO, I saw more of those watch-out-for-Amish-buggies signs - and then I saw an actual Amish buggy along the road.  I also saw an Amish man using a team of horses to plow a field.

Princeton, pop. 1,166, claims to be the Birthplace of Calamity Jane.

I take notes as I drive, so I can remember later what I saw along the way.  My notes for this drive are right on the edge of illegible.  Partly that's because many of the roads I took weren't great, partly it's because we had a very strong wind today that blew us around, and partly it's because I wasn't feeling well and was having a hard time staying awake besides.  What a day.

Then I came to a sign: "The People of Iowa Welcome You."  I thought that was nice.

Soon after crossing the border, I stopped at the Iowa Welcome Center, which I was assured online was open.  It was open, but I was surprised at how strictly they enforced the mask-wearing rule.  While a welcome center worker was helping me, a man came in to join his wife who was already looking at brochures - and the man wasn't wearing a mask.  The worker who was helping me told him in no uncertain terms that he'd have to leave and put a mask on before coming back in.  He left and didn't come back.  Don't know what his problem was - his wife was wearing a mask.  

The worker was very helpful trying to figure out what I might want to see in Iowa.  I hadn't realized until she mentioned it that the "bridges of Madison County" are here in Iowa.  I did know that "Field of Dreams" is here.  I'm not sure how interested I am in either of those, but it's nice to know.  I came away with an armload of brochures to sort through.

I drove north on I-35 to Des Moines, then turned east on I-80 about 35 miles to Newton, home of tonight's campground.  

I was really sorry to miss the stops I'd planned for today's drive - the county courthouse in Mt. Ayr, the Freedom Rock in the neighboring town of Diagonal, the John Wayne Birthplace Museum in Winterset.  But I'd started so late it just wasn't possible.  What's more, my driving became more erratic as time went on, and I actually had drivers honk at me twice because I was having so much trouble staying in my lane.  I realize now I had no business being on the road because I kept falling asleep.  It was just luck, I guess, that kept disaster from happening.  I've driven when I was sleepy before, but it's never been like this.

We were also lucky that the campground wasn't nearly as full as I'd've expected for a Saturday night, so I was able to walk the dogs without any disasters there either.  Tonight was an early night.