How's It Goin', Eldo?

Eldy is four weeks out of surgery....He is doing well with P.T. and has left the walker behind, and that's not Sparky, haha. He still uses the shower chair, as 90 degree precautions are in place for another month or two, (can't bend the leg over a 90 degree angle) so he is not supposed to lift his leg that high over our deep high sided tub to get in the shower. That shower chair is a pain to move in and out, (because Sparky is a tub gal) but it has to be used!  He is still using the toilet riser seat for the same reason. He is able to drive himself if he wants to go somewhere, and did that after three and a half weeks. He walks with a cane, sometimes without it around the house and is trying to retrain his awkward gait to a more normal one as he was compensating for a bad hip for a long time and that made him walk more like a penguin! Eldy doesn't enjoy walking, so to get him outdoors and moving for longer periods of time is a struggle.

It took him almost four weeks to go from sleeping in the recliner to a bed, because our bed is so high, but he wanted to wait till he could get himself off and on the bed easily before trying sleeping on it all night and having to get up to use the bathroom. He slept with NO PROBLEMS in that Lazy Boy recliner all that time! One worrisome development--Eldy had bloodwork done because of extreme fatigue and some other issues and his blood count numbers were not good. He was anemic and had something show up near his stomach on an Xray, a 3mm mass which they thought might be a kidney stone. Since then, his white and red cell numbers have improved on their own two weeks later. He is going to have a CT scan this week. (Update: Whatever there was that was on the scan before is not there now.) He has good days and bad days mentally and physically. He was expecting to bounce back pretty quickly like he did after major heart surgery. Heck, he was playing golf after one month after heart surgery. But this is major hip JOINT surgery and a whole different ball game (like hip ball and socket haha) as far as recovery of the muscles and tissues. Patience is not one of Eldy's virtues, so it's going to be a long haul before he can swing a golf club and bend over to pick something up. Three to six months before you don't have to worry about 90 degree precautions. Some days the hip hurts, and some days it doesn't. Some days he gets up out of his chair, limping with stiffness, and other times he says he feels perfectly normal and forgets to use his cane.

Over spring break, Sparky crafted up a storm between PT appointments. A fancy patriotic pin cushion, a pillow cover for the month of May, a rope bowl, a patriotic mini quilt to display on a stand, and a patriotic table runner. A sample....

Sparky is back to riding the Pumpkinvine Bike Trail in between cold, blustery spring days. She got a new bike! A Trek FX4, a performance fitness bike with a lightweight carbon frame...It's a beauty, much more lightweight than her last bike and one step closer to a road bike. At her age, this is probably the last bike, no road bike for Sparky! Trail riding is all she wants to do these days.

Virginia Spring Beauties lining the trail

As always, Sparky rides for the views as much as she rides to try and keep moving. The wildflowers are just starting to peek out this mid-April. The first to appear are the Virginia Spring Beauty, little low to the ground purple and white flowers in abundance. They line the trail in some sections as seen above. At the same time these appear, here come the beautiful trout lilies (at the left)...small clusters here and there, often just one or two spread out, their heads down as if they were a little shy. Sparky had to bend down and look up into this pretty little flower to see the details. Aren't the mottled leaves cool? So is the name....

yellow trout lily

And some hepaticas....

and cut-leaved toothwort....

Cut-leaved toothwort

Buggies on shopping day in Middlebury

One of Sparky's favorite things to do is head over to Shipshewanna on a Saturday to visit the meat market, and two fabric shops--Lolly's and Yoder's Department Store, which has a great shoe department besides clothing and fabrics. On the way to Shipsee, as the locals call it, Sparky likes to pass through Middlebury, where the Amish also do their Saturday shopping besides Shipesee. Something was going on this past dreary Saturday, as many buggies were in Middlebury, and almost none in Shipshewanna! A trip to Shipshewanna is not complete without a stop at JoJo's Pretzels, in the Davis Mercantile building, where pretzels are handmade  FRESH at a frenzied pace on a Saturday. Watch them make the pretzels while you wait in line! They are SO-O-O-O good! The pretzel shop is right across the aisle from Lolly's Fabrics, so you know where Sparky is headed. (And she didn't bring me one...W-A-A-N-H! fusses E. But in all fairness, I didn't want one, kids Eldo).

Pretzel making at Jo-Jo's

And with having reported the latest news, we say, see you later down the road, or down the street in our case. You might see us next at the South Side Soda Shop, a cool retro diner in Goshen, IN...... So bye for now....

Middlebury, IN  2024

Where's Eldo????

He's still in Indiana, mootchdocking at his son's house, with Sparky, of course.  What the heck have we been doing for the past month? Holy cow, Sparky didn't realize that much time had gone by since she last posted! OK...here we go, for a friend who asked if they should be concerned about us, nah, we're ok...Well sort of....We took this month to schedule doctor visits, get vaccinated with all kinds of things...flu, pneumonia, and THE booster shot. Sparky made the mistake of getting both the flu shot AND the pneumonia shot in the same arm. Why? Because the nurse asked her, do you want one sore arm or two? Sparky said two. Oy Vey! She had a terrible reaction and ended up trying to find an open Urgent Care medical center at 9:00 at night. Which we weren't able to, so we went back home and waited till the next day to see if 1) the big bad lump, 2) the terrible itching and 3) the elephant like swelling went down and they did. Whew!

Sparky has been having trouble with severe sciatic. It's so bad she has trouble walking after sitting for awhile. Then things straighten out a little better, but then it's waking her up at night and the pain goes down past the knee into the shin bone. Hmmmm, she remembers  writing about this maybe in the last year or so. Well, after chiropractic down in Florida, it WAS better for awhile, and now it's back with a vengeance. So-o-o-o.. Sparky has been going to therapy twice a week for a couple of weeks, but we have to leave at the end of this week, so she will continue to look for help in Texas and Arizona. She had X-rays done and she has anterolisthesis...It's where a vertebrae (L4 and L5) have a vertebrae in between that has slid forward a bit. It's not a slipped disk, but it sure sounds like it! They grade them from 1-4, (3-4 is probably back surgery) but so far Sparky is off the radar with no grade yet from the orthopedic doctor. She's got LOTS of stretches and core exercises to do, and she has endured ASTEM therapy which is grueling. They take an acrylic block shaped like a meat cleaver and rake your skin with it, HARD, back and forth or in one direction. It's supposed to release toxins and adhesions, and get fluids moving through the system to reduce the inflammation in the area. It hurts like hell when they do it, but afterwards, the blood rushes through the formerly "closed off" areas and it feels so much better...for a couple of days. The therapist can "see" the trouble spots because they turn bright red immediately. 

We've got all the tools-- a foam roller, a tennis ball, the STICK (a unique roller stick like a skinny skinny rolling pin, (from Amazon, photo at the left) a TENS unit, a Bob and Brad massage gun (THE  most famous physical therapists on the Internet--YouTube) and Lidocaine pain patches. Sparky is hoping for a turnaround soon. She has stopped the big long walks and the long bike rides for now, to let her body heal a bit. So what are we doing in the meantime?

EATING! Elkhart has some amazing breweries with EXCELLENT food besides craft beers. One is The Brass Elk in Elkhart near the river and riverwalk. OMG....the smashburgers are AMAZING! And Sparky has a new favorite, fried cheese curds! (Which is NOT good because she just found out she has high cholesterol, says E.) SHHHHHH! Cheese curds look just like fried mozzarella sticks, but man, they are SO-O-O-O much better! Yum!

The decor is wonderfully modern and check out this horn sculpture piece which is made of many different types of musical instrument bells. If you remember, Eldy used to buff the horns for the music industry. He worked for Blessings Musical Instrument company for 43.5 years! He personally buffed the herald horns for the Los Angelos Olympics and buffed instruments for some famous jazz musicians.

Heinnie's Back Barn is another old time Elkhart favorite. The steaks and mushrooms are fantastic! It's a very old place, over 65 years and running. It's so old that Gale Sayers, the Chicago Bears running back used to go there every Friday night on his way to his second home in Wakarusa, IN. But hey---It's an ordinary restaurant with very good food. The atmosphere is...meh....But they have really really good steaks.

Sparky has been crafting while waiting on all these doctor, dentist (had to get another crown) and PT appointments. But wait--An aside...(Sparky's ADHD is kicking in, explains Eldo.) While in the dentist chair, the hygienist says to Sparky, "Boy, you certainly have a lot of different crowns in there!" Well, yeah. Sparky could be the poster child for the HISTORY OF DENTAL CROWNS.  "In the upper right quadrant, here you have a porcelain fused to metal crown from the 70's. In the back upper quadrant, gold alloy fused to porcelain from the 80's. The front teeth are porcelain fused to metal from the late 50's. (Sparky lost her permanent front teeth in 1956 on the ice skating rink). And in the lower left quadrant...." See? She really could be! She thinks the dentist said this latest one is made from zirconium. !!!

OK, back to crafting...ornaments...Elves....

A clove scented mini hand embroidered pillow, or bowl filler....

A table runner for Eldy's son and wife for letting us stay at their house, use their washing machine and bathtub so Sparky can soak every night....(RV's don't have bathtubs, ya know...)

We love being so close to some of our family, but the time to head for warmer climates is soon at hand. Its in the 40's and low 50's during the day, and the TWENTIES at night!!! 

Sparky will ride one last ride this week..here is a photo above, from a delightful trail spur off the Pumpkinvine Bike Trail that goes past Das Essenhaus, another fine restaurant with great home cooked food and the best turkey dinner ever!

Sparky spotted this on the last Pumpkinvine Trail ride. It was a chilly day! Wonder how they missed their little person losing a shoe!

We are so glad we got to see the leaves change before we left. The trees just changed color in about the last week! Fall is Sparky's favorite time of year!

We had a big frost last night...Eldo worries about maintaining the heat in the bays and water connections freezing, but he does a great job watching the furnace controls and making sure we are keeping temperatures where they should be. We unhooked the hose from Brian's house for the rest of the week because night temperatures will be in the 20's! So we will use our inboard water tank. Sparky loves seeing the frost on the grass.. (Geesh! I'll be lucky to get her out of Indiana! fusses E.)

Sparky hopes to get back out on her bike soon! So she can take goofy photos like this one:

Thanks for reading and following along with us! See you later....

Bye, Bye Colorado River, Hello Lake Conroe and Leveling Problems

Weather--high 70, sunny, low 48                        Site G-71

After three weeks at Colorado River Thousand Trails Park, here's our take on it.... 

1. It's very peaceful and quiet...it seems to attract more retirees than families, probably because the amenities are very limited and more dated than many RV parks. There's not as much to do for families in the area. It's distant from any major town/shopping centers as well. But--we still enjoyed it very much.

2. There are herds of deer that wander the fields every day in the early morning and at dusk. They don't bother campers or intrude on the visitors, and they aren't fed by the campers, so they do their thing and you can just enjoy them when you encounter them. They are wary, but not afraid of you. We saw a couple of 8 pointer bucks while we were there!

3. The painted churches in the area are a must see. So beautiful and one friend said they reminded her of churches in Europe. They should as the Czech and German immigrants are the designers of these beautiful churches. (See January 19, 2021 post)

4. There is a shooting club nearby that practices on the weekends. Don't worry about that...you can safely hike the nature trail. It's a bunch of dudes who are interested in historical guns before 1916 (?), guy from the office explained, so the firepower is not to be nervous about. Sparky thought they were hunting very close by, but nope! Just target shooting on state inspected premises. Sparky walked the nature trail twice a day. You can get almost three miles in if you walk the entire perimeter and then in and out of the roads in the different sections. LOTS of bluebirds and warblers on the back side of the trail.

5. There are other interests in the area. There's the Stanzel Model Aircraft museum, the Texas Quilt Museum in LaGrange, the Texas Polka Museum, and the Texas Czech Heritage and Cultural Center.

6. Eating places? Not too many that we tried while we were here. Whataburger (in Columbus) has good burgers, Schobel's Restaurant (in Columbus) has good home cooked food, and we also tried Becky's in Columbus once. We didn't go back because staff was not wearing masks. Nice breakfast, though. Here are a couple more places that the locals recommend: Oakridge Smokehouse (how come we didn't try THAT one? wonders Eldo), the Red Vault Bistro (how come we didn't try THAT one, wonders Sparky). We did not discover these names until we came across a local brochure and we were at the end of our stay. NEXT time, says Sparky. OH! And there are THREE wineries here in the area. (Next time for SURE! says Sparky.) 

And off we went, back to Lake Conroe, TX, to the Thousand Trails park there, our second stay for the winter season. Our old site was open, but we found one closer to the pickle ball courts and laundry, so here we are for another three weeks. Sparky's grandson and daughter are 40 minutes away, so a chance to visit once again. AND--there's a new laundry house close by our site--TWENTY washing machines. When you don't have a washer/dryer onboard, that's great news!

So we drive in and check in at the gate house. They weren't able to tell us which sites were open, so we had to drive around looking for an open site with the big rig in tow. We chose G-71 and THOUGHT it looked level. Here's the site right next to us as an example. Looks pretty level, right? uh, NOPE! 

Not only was there a slope downhill, but a slope from side to side. You couldn't really tell by looking at it, but the automatic levelers knew it from attempt #1. On the first try, the center stabilizers would not engage and the red light came on, telling us there was a fault in the leveling system, meaning, try again, folks! We have a system of using nice thick wood blocks under the jacks and varying how many we put under the front jacks and then the center and rear jacks, and usually it works very well with one or two blocks under each jack. 

You have to access how far the jacks will be extending to decide how many blocks to set under each jack. There are no set numbers here, you just eyeball it and with each site experience, you learn what works and what doesn't.

Attempt #2, retract all the jacks and try again. This time we moved some blocks around and BOTH tires on the left side of the coach were raised off the ground. That is not something you want. You want as much ground contact as possible with chocked wheels and tire contact. It's dangerous to have any tires off the ground, certainly not two of them, so we had two options at this point: 1. find another site, or 2. move the rig on the site one way or another, side to side or forward or backwards so it's sitting on a more level part of the site. So we retract the jacks again, hook up the fifth wheel, back in and out a couple of times, and Eldy maneuvers the rig closer to the other side of the site.

Attempt #3, third time's the charm! It worked. By moving the rig just a little bit more side to side and hugging the site a little further away from the electric pedestal and water hookups, we took out the variable of the sloping lean on one side, and were able to level ourselves with just one tire slightly off the ground. Not perfect, but we wedged wood and lodged the tire so it was secure in place. The leveling test is --open the bathroom door (which is in the middle of the rig) and see if it swings open all the way (you're not as level as you wanted to be) or it opens and stays right where you opened it (You did it! You're level!) Whew! that only took about an hour. 

What was comforting to us is a big class A motorhome came in after us this afternoon right next door and had the very same problem with a tire off the ground despite trying their leveling system twice. Lake Conroe has a lot of sites that appear level, but fool you when you get situated into the site. 

We are happy to be back here and near civilization and shopping. (That means Sparky will be heading to Hobby Lobby or Michaels or Joanns soon, explains Eldo.) "Uh, honey, could you drive me to Hobby Lobby this afternoon?" sweetly asks Sparky.... (See, I told you!) Sparky is crafting for Valentine's Day and Easter now....a sample...tea origami pouches with honey crystals and tea. 

And some cute felt Easter egg ornaments.

That's it for now....settling in and ready for whatever comes our way...                                      

                                            See you later!