What to Do in Colorado River Thousand Trails RV Park?

Columbus, TX.   Highs: mid to high seventies   Lows: 40's to 60's

 Site: E-78 new section    AT&T: download 363 (!) upload 48.1.  T-Mobile: download 262, upload 25.2

Colorado River is located in Columbus, TX, population around 3,000 people, so not a lot to do there. Small HEB grocery store, next to a small Walmart neighborhood shopping store. There are a couple of decent restaurants for dining, a decent Mexican restaurant, a Whataburger, and even a steakhouse, which we've never tried. Colorado River is a nice stop to rest, catch your breath, and just chill for a few days. If you like lots to do, then you might find this location a little on the boring side. You could always watch the vultures. With a lot of game in the area, they seem to hang around here a lot! (There are several exotic game ranches in the area.)

Colorado River has a new section of level gravel sites and two other older sections, one up on a hill...with trees for some shade....

and the other down by the Colorado River bank.  

The river is almost dried up in this section by the campground, and the riverbank is super steep, so not a very good view even if you are down by the river. You can't see the river from your site except for a couple of sites further down. So much for a river site, lol. The handicap sites are concrete pads, which is nice. Staff is friendly and helpful....the pool is very small and so is the laundry room. 

There are walking trails, although some uneven, all around the park. Since the new section has been paved, you can ride a bike all around on the newly paved parts and get about 5 miles in for a daily ride if you go around a couple of times. 

new section viewed from up on the hill above

This is the start of a hiking trail, it gets narrower, rockier, but the deer like to mosey around in the woods around it.

Sparky saw several different deer riding the hiking trail today. (It's like a mountain bike trail so you can go through it on a bike.) The deer are quite used to people so they don't immediately take off. This one's ribs are showing quite a bit, hope he or she is not sick!

Another one further into the woods on the hiking trail.....

You can get mail at the park, but they charge you 5.00 per package, so that will put the kibosh on Sparky getting more craft supplies...haha. (Whew! says Eldo. That's a good thing! We are running out of space in the rig!)

One thing you CAN do at this park, while staying here in Columbus, TX, is go see the beautiful painted churches tour. Sparky did this tour on her own a couple of years ago, when Covid was much more prevalent, but the churches were still open at that time for viewing. There are TWENTY painted churches scattered throughout central Texas, but there are about 4-6 of them within an hour's drive from Colorado River TT campground near Schulenberg, TX. They are all inscribed in the National Register of Historic Places and are of European German and Czech influence from the late 1800's to the early 1900's. The immigrants who built these churches didn't have the money of their forebears, so they used paint and plaster and tromp l'oeil ("fool the eye") decorations to mimic marble and gold and other fancy architectural features such as cornices.

St. John the Baptist Church

Here is a link to some of the churches Sparky visited last year. https://whereseldo.blogspot.com/2021/01/the-jaw-droppingly-beautiful-painted.html...The tour if you choose to have a guided one, which is now available after Covid, costs a 50.00 deposit which becomes the guide's fee once you show up. The way Sparky understands it, there is an additional charge depending on how many churches you want to go see with the guide. One of the options was the guide would travel with you in your car. The price was too expensive for the budget, so Sparky decided to forego the tour this time. If you want to go explore on your own, you can do that and there are maps online to guide you. You can buy a map of the churches for 5.00 from the Schulenberg Chamber of Commerce. To see these churches is truly something not to be missed whether you go with a guide or go on your own.

St. Mary's in High Hill, TX

Here is another fantastically beautiful one, another St. Mary's, only this one is in Praha, TX.

Here is St Mary's of the Assumption, in Flatonia, TX.

See? You really do need to take a tour of these amazing churches while you are at Colorado River in Columbus, TX....And as the week draws to a close, we are planning our journey north and west thru Texas to head towards Tucson. (You mean I'M planning the journey! exclaims E.) Yes sir, that's Eldy's job because he's the travel logistician in the family. He does a great job of planning how far to travel each day and where we are going to stop. He researches the parks using the RV Parky app. It's a great app and covers almost all the different types of campgrounds from KOA, to state parks, to Corps of Engineer, to Thousand Trails....Lots of good stuff in the app, check it out! 

It's getting more and more expensive to stay outside our membership parks when we travel, and the average cost is now over 50.00-70.00 a night as opposed to $25-30 when we were traveling full time the last time, over 13 years ago. We look for bargains but decent parks, and that's very difficult to find these days. Since we don't have a generator and we do have a residential fridge that runs down our batteries if we were to try and stay somewhere all night without electrical power, we can't boondock (stay for free overnight) at Walmart or Cracker Barrel-- for now. We are thinking about getting a generator which would enable us to do that. At any rate, it's going to take us three days at least to drive through Texas. Yep, it is truly a HUGE state!  

And with that, we will see you down the road!

Cataract Surgery Update and Lots More

Lake Conroe, TX.  Highs: 70's to low 80's, Lows: 40's-60's

Well-l-l-l...Sparky finally got her glasses after 6 weeks from the second eye surgery date. The far vision has improved somewhat with the glasses, but it's still an effort to try and focus on cars on the road. Sparky's vision has improved from total separate double vision of cars in front of her to sort of a ghosting image of cars, still sometimes double. Her eyes still struggle to make things clearer. Near vision prescription is incorrect, darn it, but because we are long gone from Indiana where the surgery was done, Sparky will have to get into an optometrist for another eye exam to get her bifocal glasses RX fine tuned. We are guessing that Sparky's vision continued to change after the prescription was set up at the one month surgery date so the glasses finalization is not quite right. To top it off, the doctor spotted the beginning of a "capsule" behind the lens of her right eye which will cause vision to gradually "cloud" until it can be lasered off, but that's a very simple and quick office visit. She hopes! Capsule formations are very common after cataract surgery, so Sparky is not too worried about that. We will have to wait till spring till we are back in the Elkhart area to have it done. It's just discouraging to continue to have visual acuity problems! On a more positive note, Eldy's eyes and prescription glasses are just fine! Yay! And he's the one who's blind in one eye!

Here's a little info about Thousand Trails Lake Conroe..It's very close to shopping , breweries, great restaurants, etc. in Conroe and the Woodlands. Easy exit off I-45 to get there. Its a BIG park, gated, with security, and getting bigger. The staff is super nice and very friendly and helpful. The park is currently under construction for new sites for both park models and RV sites. At present there are over 300 sites that vary in suitability for rigs of varying sizes. It is definitely big rig friendly. Many sites are shaded, many are not. The new section up front has fairly level concrete pads, yet some of the back in sites have a steep short ramp up to get into the site, making it difficult to get a longer rig level with all 4 wheels (or more) on the ground and/or bottoming out the rear end of the RV. The older sites towards the middle and back of the park are very unlevel so it can be difficult to level your rig. There is a big section in the middle near the tennis courts that are pull thru, but they are the kind where you are so close to your neighbor that both you and your neighbor's living areas face each other, so very little privacy. The interior roads are TERRIBLE, but we were told that all the roads will be improved once all the construction is well underway to being completed. We sure hope so!

Shower houses and bathrooms are very nice, above average for a campground.

You are charged 3.00 a day for 50 amp electric. Most people prefer 50 amp if you have two air conditioner units on an RV. We do, so we pay the extra so we don't have to worry about tripping a breaker. Many parks say if you are a 50 amp coach, you have to hook up to 50 amp service. They do NOT allow doggone converters. Those converters allow you to "downsize" your electric needs from 50 amps to 30 amps. What makes it worse is they allow smaller rigs that use 30 amp to stay in 50 amp sites, giving you fewer choices when you come in if you are a big rig. There is a beautiful pool (unheated) with really pretty seating areas around it.

There's a relatively new large laundry room. It's definitely a family friendly park, as there are LOTS of families who choose this park for a weekend destination or seasonal camping because of the pool, lots of activities for kids at the activity center, a nice basketball court, tennis courts, pickle ball courts and a small beach fronting Lake Conroe. 

new sections being added near the lake

There are  "tiny home" park model sections of the park and they are building another new park model section as well. A completion date has not been mentioned. Did we mention there is mini golf, a very nice playground, and a dog park there, too?

Near the Lyric Center, Houston

One of the activities that happened while we were here, was a visit to the Nutcracker Ballet in Houston, a Christmas present from Sparky's daughter. The ballet was held at the Wortham Center in downtown Houston. No photos allowed of the ballet performance, but the center itself was amazingly beautiful. There are several fine arts/theaters in the area all within blocks of each other.

The outside of the center has several photo op possibilities, so naturally we had to take advantage of that!

Sparky had never been to the ballet before, so it was quite a treat! The inside of the theater was gorgeous as well as the outside. Here we are ready to go inside the Wortham Center. Impressive door handles!

The entire outside of the building is very impressive as well.....

We went inside and there were wonderful treats awaiting you if you wanted to get a bite to eat, visit the popup souvenir shop, or just sit awhile and enjoy the sights and people around you before the performance. It was great to see most everyone very dressed up for the special occasion. Sparky had to try a bulgogi bowl which was absolutely delicious! (Beef, rice, seasonings, and veggies with cilantro. Yum!) They had cook while you wait pasta buffet, too, along with sandwiches and all kinds of drinks, but no food or beverages inside the theater itself. 

A beautiful holiday tree was on display and the crowds lined up to have a photo taken in front of it.....

We checked out the curtain just before the performance was about to start. Incredibly beautiful, is it not?

After spending 12 days here in Lake Conroe, TX and visiting Sparky's family, we are headed to Colorado River in Columbus, TX for about ten days. This is an on-the-way destination, making our way towards Tucson where we will be spending the Christmas holiday. We will see you down the road!

A Pinterest Epic Fail but Still Fun

So Sparky got to spend a little time with her grandson while we were in Texas. She decided to use her crafty skills and spend some quality time with her grandson to make these adorable marshmallow snowmen. Easy, peasy, right? Here are the ingredients:

1. Regular sized marshmallows
2.M&M minis in red and green holiday colors
3. Twizzlers 
4. A tube of black icing
5. Some white frosting (canned is fine, the recipe said
6. Hershey's kisses
7. Pick out a few Reese's Pieces in orange

8. Sterilize a Phillips screwdriver shaft with boiling water. You're gonna poke holes in your marshmallows

9. Candy canes.

OK, here we go.....Break the curved part off the candy cane so you have a straight piece, save the leftovers for eating later. Dip the screwdriver in very hot water and then poke a hole through 3 marshmallows. Stick the candy cane through the three marshmallows but not all the way through the third one (the head). Take your white frosting (Sparky's was buttercream and it was yellow, wrong choice-- and dab it on the marshmallow so you can stick on your red and green M&M's for buttons, and dab a spot on the top of his head to stick on a Hershey's kiss for a hat. Take the black tube icing and dot two eyes. Cut an orange Reese's piece in half and use one half of it for a nose by dabbing some more icing to hold it on the snowman's face. Pull apart your Twizzlers and use single strands to wrap his scarf and tie a knot. Tada!

WHOA! Abrupt halt. STOP! Problem #1. After breaking the candy cane curves off, (Sparky should have bought straight candy canes. They do make those, right?) Our hands were very sticky. Then we started working with the marshmallows. They stuck to our hands like crazy.The hot screwdriver worked like a charm, but Sparky had to keep running over to the stove to dip it in the hot water. A screwdriver? Geez, why not a wooden skewer or something a little easier?...Don't ask...Sparky just follows directions. (SHE DOES?????? asks an incredulous Eldo.) Very funny, haha.

OK, we get the HUGE marshmallows skewered. Problem #2. They barely fit onto the candy cane stick. Sparky bought the biggest, most voluminous marshmallows because there were NO middle, regular sized ones, only the minis, and she knew that wouldn't work, but she thought the giant ones would. Nope. The little Hershey's kiss hat looked ridiculous. So then we decided to cut the whopper marshmallows in half. HA! That was ok, they just got a little squished but onward we went. (Did she mention she HATES to cook? asks Eldo.) Well, this is a CRAFT, not cooking, but hey....fun times, right?

Time to add the buttons. Dab a little frosting onto the middle marshmallow and stick an M&M button on it. Problem #3. Ever try to use a table knife to dab just a LITTLE frosting? It just smeared. Sparky was not in her own kitchen doing this, so she didn't think about toothpicks to apply frosting till much later.

Next, the scarf. Problem #4. Twizzlers are supposed to just pull apart into strings so you can wrap around the marshmallows neck and TIE A KNOT. Sparky thought Twizzlers were Twizzlers. Well, they are not all the same. You have to buy the PULL APART kind, which is the CHERRY kind, not the strawberry kind and although Sparky had strawberry Twizzlers that looked like pull apart ropes, they were not. So she had to sit and cut the Twizzlers lengthwise with a knife which was really slow going. Problem #5. Then we tried to glue the thick ropey piece of Twizzler to the neck, but it promptly fell off.

OK, now add the eyes. Problem #6. The icing in the little tube had some kind of reaction to the marshmallow and it immediately became a big, melty blob. It looked like the snowmen had mascara and eyeliner that ran badly and made them look like they had black eyes. Sigh....but grandson was having fun.

At that point, we abandoned trying to make them look like snowmen and went to town creating something a little different.....

All in all, we had fun. We nibbled candy along the way, Sparky got to enjoy doing something with her grandson, and it was quality time spent together. Daughter said, "Mom, why didn't you make those roll out cookies you used to make instead?" You mean, the spice cookie ones where it takes 4 cups of flour you have to work in the dough till your arms fall off, chill the dough, then roll out to a certain thickness, then cut them out with the cookie cutters and the dough sticks to the cutters unless you remember to flour them, and then you bunch up the scraps and re-roll the dough again?...and then you make the homemade buttercream icing? You mean those? Oh, right...Another time, sweetie.... Grandma got tired today.......But there sure are a lot of cute food crafts out there....maybe Rice Krispie reindeer treats for next time.....????

See you next time! But probably not at the crafting table, haha.....Bye for now......

On the Road Again....to TEXAS!

Breaux Bridge, LA., Cajun Palms RV Resort.  Site: 416

We left Elkhart this week on Thursday...We left this (on the left) and temperatures in the twenties....We have a four season rig, they say. It's a Jayco Pinnacle. It's suppose to withstand temperatures in the twenties down into the teens. It has insulated windows. It has heated underneath bays.  However, the water hoses can still freeze unless you have a heat tape hose leading into the rig. those are very expensive. We don't have one so we unhooked our water hose several nights in a row and used water from our onboard water tank. We sure tested all that out while we waited for Eldy's glasses to come in and Sparky's last eye appointments. Temperatures dropped nightly into the twenties and rarely got up past the freezing mark for a few days straight. Sparky enjoyed the snow thoroughly!

Here's what the slide outs looked like partially cleared, from a view on a ladder.

We thought we'd have problems with slide outs not wanting to come in and jacks not wanting to go up, but nope. We had a problem with the hitch mechanism in the truck. It froze partially and we could not get it to connect properly even after three tries, and trying to wiggle the ice out of it. 

To the rescue, Eldy's son, Brian. He got out his mini blowtorch and warmed up the metal hitch levers and then the rig popped right into place onto the hitch! Off we went.....Eldy hopes he doesn't see this again for a VERY long time.

Thursday night we landed in Diamond Caverns RV park in the dark, after over 350 miles of driving. It gets dark EARLY in Kentucky, around 4:30 their time, so we had to unhitch in the dark. Luckily, a nice park employee was on duty till fairly late in the evening, and he guided us into our spot. It's very disconcerting at night driving the RV into a park with trees and picnic tables every which way. We were very glad to have his help. And fortunately, our unhooking went uneventfully well.

Off we went the next morning and drove over 360 miles (Eldy reminds me HE drove, haha--he always does), to one of our favorite corps of engineer parks in Alabama, along the I-65 corridor, Gunter Hill. It's a beautiful campground with huge, spacious long concrete cement pads, nice fire pits and a large picnic area for each site. We scored a site backing up to the river leading to the Alabama Lakes corridor. Once again, we arrived after sunset and rapidly approaching dark. We really need to get better flashlights or one of those headlamp headbands, lol! Here's our view out our living room window the next morning, through the screen.

Those river back in sites are really difficult to get! After seeing how beautiful it was, we decided, hey, let's let Eldy take a break from driving and we will stay two nights. Nope--holiday week...the park was almost completely full so we couldn't nab another night without hooking up and moving to another spot. But isn't this a beautiful site? Such a contrast from Indiana, which by the way, is under a snowstorm advisory once again, and was in the TEENS for the Notre Dame football game today. Yikes!

Site 13 Catoma Loop

So regretfully, off we went again this morning.....Our goal was to drive 425 miles, a long haul for Eldy, but he can do it! to get to Breaux Bridge, Louisiana, where we have stayed at the Cajun Palms RV resort before. It's a very nice park but the concrete sites have poor drainage in many sections of the park. The rains drain off the grass edges and run onto the concrete pad. It rained most of the way there on our drive and was coming down hard when we arrived. Ugh. Hooking up in the rain is not fun. The first site we were given was flooded so we had to pick another site. All sites are concrete, they have a large pool/entertainment area, and in the summer time, it's super enjoyable and a very nice park. Staff is friendly and helpful, and since it's a newer park, all sites are 50 amp full hookup, as far as we know. The sites are not all that long however, and our 41 foot rig took up the whole concrete pad with no room to park the truck so we had to park in the spot next to us for one night. Time for Saturday night football and popcorn for a very tired driver!

Tomorrow is Sunday. We have a shorter drive of 261 miles to go to get to Lake Conroe, TX, where Sparky's daughter and grandson live in the area. We will rest our rig and ourselves for the next 2.5 weeks and spend some time visiting with family before heading out farther into Texas with our goal of eventually wintering in Arizona.

We wish you a very happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours.....

Some of Eldy's family and his grandchildren

 

The Eyes Tell More Than Words Could Ever Say.....

 November, 2022....Site: "mootchdocking" (family has hookups for the RV) in Elkhart, IN

Highs: 60's  Lows: 40's-50's

We-l-l-l-l-l...Sparky had her second cataract removed. It was almost as bad as the first one, (the left eye). It was also a brunescent cataract, having turned brown (like brunette, hence brunescent) and crusty behind the lens. The left eye is still swollen, but coming along, the second eye is not swelling as bad as the first. Two weeks after the first eye, one week after the second eye, and Sparky's far vision is suffering. She is seeing double, separate images when looking a ways ahead, like when we are driving down the road. If there is ONE car approaching, Sparky sees TWO of them--one in the other lane where it's supposed to be, and one coming right for us head on. Hard as she tries to make it one image, both eyes can't seem to bring it together. She can see things all around her, and in the distance, but they are just not crystal clear, just kind of fuzzy and a little blurry. She is using "readers" from the drugstore to read and do things close up. She is grateful to still be able to do her crafts and grateful to be able to at least see things all around her. It's just frustrating to have that double vision. Back to the doctor for another followup checkup. They say wait another two weeks, it should be better by then. If not, then glasses will probably have to try and correct the distance problem. Sigh....So hard to wait it out not knowing if it's going to get any better or not, even with glasses.

We love staying at Eldy's son's house. The rooster crows every morning pretty regularly at 7:45 but we're already up by then anyway. Fresh eggs every day if we want some, still warm in the coop when we collect them!

Eldy is trip planning...We have to decide whether we want to go back to Maine for a third summer or not. Not being beach resort town people, we are thinking a different destination this time for the summer. Stay tuned, it's up in the air right now!

Sparky is getting in the fall crafting mode with the cooler weather...Although her eyes are not functioning well for distance, they are fine with reader glasses for close up work. Her favorites are the ornament series from Ebeneezer Scrooge from the designer of the patterns at MMMCrafts, Larissa Holland. Actually, all the holiday ornaments are a favorite from this designer. Check out the little gingerbread house with a little surprise inside-completely hand sewn all the way through.

Besides crafting, there's always the Pumpkinvine Bike Trail available to hop on about 15 minutes from Brian's house, just a short drive to get on the trail at Abshire Park in Goshen, IN. Sparky got her cholesterol down this past year by a lot of bike riding, so she's going to keep that up. Dietary changes, too?  Not so much. Sparky loves her steak and dairy too much! 

Nothing like being passed on the bike trail by Amish on ELECTRIC bikes! But Sparky loves her traditional Trek bike and so she doesn't mind. The Amish are certainly loosening up their living standards a bit with electric bikes, solar panels, and more colorful clothes. Check out the laundry colors on the line at this Amish farmhouse.

The Pumpkinvine bike trail is beautiful no matter what time of year it is. The scenery changes from farms to horse pastures, to town riding, to county road riding, to heavily forested areas, then back out in the open again. Paved all the way, it's very well maintained, no potholes!

Sparky went out for a long ride today, and if you ride mid to late afternoon, you will see the Amish school kids outside at recess, playing baseball in their bare feet! You can also see a sculpture along the trail, depending on what section you ride.

It's so pretty even with most of the leaves gone....

Eldy took a tour of the MORryde plant. MORryde makes RV steps, the kingpin box for hitches, RV railings, chassis, sliding bay trays, battery trays, suspension systems, the drop down doors that are on the back of the big toy haulers (the ones that have patios on the back) , TV mounts, outdoor kitchens, and lots more. He didn't get any because he was so in awe of the factory and their quality and the cool robots were behind walls. Eldy's brother works in product research and development and led the tour this morning. MORryde uses a lot of robotics and Eldo was so impressed by their facilities, he couldn't stop talking about the plant tour when he got back. They have the latest and greatest equipment coming in, he said. (Eldy's brother was a key designer of the steps that are standard MORryde steps on so many RVs now and has been an integral part of the start of almost every new product). There are some really cool modifications to existing steps and railings, etc. and new products coming from MORryde in the near future.

Sparky stayed back and finished up an ornament request from one of her brothers. Mr. Marley....tada! This pattern is one of the Ebenezer Scrooge series from MMMCrafts mentioned previously.

Then on to a folded star Thanksgiving pot holder pattern from Shabby Fabrics for Sparky's Etsy shop, JeanBeanGifts.

We squeezed in a visit with Eldy's family at a great Mexican restaurant in Elkhart, called El Maguey. Eldy's sister and brother-in-law drove all the way from Kokomo to see us for dinner. It was great to visit with his brother and his wife, Shell, too, who live in this area.

Sparky squeezed in a couple of visits with her best friend, also named Jeannie, (who went RVing with us to Alaska) who has been a good friend for over 40 years. So great to reconnect with family and friends!

With all the doctor, dentist, eye doctor and physical therapy (for Sparky's sciatica) pretty much out of the way for now, we head towards Texas to spend Thanksgiving with Sparky's daughter and grandson. Happy fall, y'all!

American Sycamore Leaf It's HUGE!

"An apple a day keeps anyone away, if you throw it hard enough."--Stephen Colbert

Fall is here! Highs: 50's, Lows: low thirties   Site: C-48 pull thru

The trees are turning quickly. They are especially beautiful in Bristol, IN. There sure are some spectacular large trees with gorgeous color all around the area. 

Eldy is done with cataract surgery and all is well. For anyone younger who might not know, ) a cataract is a cloudy growth over your lens in your eye that occurs with old age. You don't start thinking about it or hearing about it until you get to be in your sixties and beyond most likely. Everybody eventually gets them. There comes a certain point where you need to get them removed and an artificial lens implanted called an intraocular lens or you might go blind eventually. There are many different types of lenses with different prescriptions they can put in and you get to choose which one you like based on your doctor's recommendations. As you age, you think your vision is just getting worse because of old age, but the clouding of the lens which occurs normally over a period of years, starts making things look like you are looking through a cloudy or dirty window. You also need to know that exposure to sunlight WITHOUT WEARING SUNGLASSES can speed up the development of cataracts. Sparky is TERRIBLE about not wearing sunglasses. We knew we were both close to being ready for surgery the past year, because each of us kept cleaning our glasses MANY times a day, thinking we had bad or dirty glasses and needed a new prescription. Other signs are: trouble with night vision, light and glare sensitivity (BIG halos around street lights and car lights at night), more frequent glasses prescription changes, double vision sometimes, or the sense of colors fading or yellowing. In addition, the cataracts have to be at a certain stage for insurance to pay for the surgery. This year it was time.

Eldy only has one good eye, so it was a little nerve wracking when the good eye was operated on. (He is legally blind in his left eye.) It's a quick operation, about 10-15 minutes and he was given an anesthetic. He says for the first eye he was totally out, he thought, but he really wasn't. He reports that for the second eye, the doctor talked to him and asked him to "look up," or "look to your left", things like that, so he felt he was much more aware of what was going on, but still couldn't feel anything. ( He just remembers the conversation the second time, haha.) Eldy was in and out of the surgery center for the whole check in and check out procedure in under two hours. He was given a special prescriptive eye drop medication to use 3 times a day at home for the first week, tapering off little by little the second week. He was to continue using over the counter Systane eye drops 4 times a day for two weeks and then that tapers off as well. A special medicinal implant was inserted in the eye to minimize infection at the time of surgery, and the purpose to lessen the amount of prescriptive eye drops needed. It gets gradually absorbed by the eye and you can't even tell it is there. He was amazed at how much improvement there was with both eyes. He still can't see very well out of his bad eye, but together using both eyes, he is thrilled to be able to see a lot of things without his glasses. Our Medicare plan covers the cost of replacement glasses because your vision changes quite a bit after surgery, so we are happy about that!

Sparky was up next. We both went to Boling Eye Care Center in Elkhart, IN, an excellent facility that has state of the art equipment and their own in house surgery site plus the optometry department. It's an interesting process, that's for sure. All measurements and pre-op are done now mostly with machines. We probably each went through a line of 6-8 machines to get ready for eye surgery. They measure your pupil reaction time to glare, they measure and map your cornea, they check your current eye prescriptions not only with "Is this better? One, or two? How about three? Or four?"  but with another machine as well. They also check your eye pressure before and after surgery. Increased eye pressure is common after surgery so they want to keep an eye on that. (Ooooohhhh, sorry about the bad pun. Sparky couldn't resist.)

Our Medicare plans pay for the entire surgeries ($5,000 per eye) IF we opt for scalpel removal of the cataracts and not laser, and IF we don't elect to pick special lenses that pretty much guarantee that you won't need glasses any more. That's a hefty out of pocket expense at maybe $3,000 per eye for special prescriptive lenses. Neither one of us minds still having to wear glasses, we've worn them pretty much all our lives. Eldy actually can see things without his glasses at all and now only needs a bit of prescription for closeup. So he's using cheater readers until his eyes finalize and work together optimally, about a month after the second surgery. Because he has only one good eye, he is going to keep wearing glasses all the time with a new prescription to protect the good eye. So for the both of us, Medicare covers the entire surgeries at zero cost to us by electing the "no frills" cataract surgery.

Sparky had trouble with her first eye, the left one. Apparently, a cataract that wasn't quite ready for Medicare coverage last year, rapidly developed into a dense cataract this year. Sparky had a brunescent cataract which is a dense cataract that has gotten "crusty", brittle and brown around the edges, and was much harder to remove. For every extra minute in eye surgery, the recovery time is an extra day or two longer, said the doctor. After three days, the blurriness was still bad. At the day after followup appointment, Sparky was told they "really had to dig it out". (!) Glad they told her that AFTER it was all done! Sparky worried and fretted as the week went on and the blurriness continued so back to the doctor for an extra consultation. The lens was good, there was no infection, but because the cataract was so hard to remove, there was more corneal swelling. Sparky was given ANOTHER set of eye drops, a sodium chloride solution to help reduce the swelling. That makes THREE sets of eye drops to keep track of, but Boling Eye Care Center gives you a little calendar for each eye with little boxes to check off by the names of the eye drops so you don't get mixed up. 

The second eye surgery was scheduled one week away. Sparky had a tough week trying to see with two VERY different eye prescriptive needs. She was still wearing her glasses with far and near prescription for the right eye, and nothing for the left eye. It's a waiting game between the first and the second surgeries, so it's like taking the training wheels off the first eye to make it start working differently. (They popped the left lens out after the first surgery, so Sparky's brain could start coordinating a new way to see things), but the week was tough, as the blurriness continued, and both eyes did not want to work together to see anything close up. Sparky is not great at being patient, she was hoping for results YESTERDAY! (Glad SHE said that and not me, says E.) If the eye is still blurry in three more days, Sparky is going to delay the second eye surgery for a week.

In addition to all the eye drops, we both had to wear a clear plastic eye "patch" with perforated holes taped around the surgical eye for three nights so we wouldn't rub our eye in our sleep or bump it. After surgery each of us experienced very little itchiness or achyness. That was the good part.

Good job, Eldy!

While waiting in between appointments and followup visits to the eye doctor, dentist and regular doctor checkups, we went visiting one of the fall apple orchards in the Elkhart area. There are several in Michigan, but we like the ability to "U-Pick" at Kercher's Apple Orchard in Goshen, IN. You can pick the low lying apples off the trees, or get the best ones at the top with a pole. Just stick the pole up into the branches, entrap the apple in the center of the basket, twist the pole handle a couple of times, and the apple comes right off. Eldo has the technique down pat!

Indian corn

Cool gourds!

They have all kinds of delectable fall goodies as well in the store--pumpkin whoopee pies, fruit pies, apple pies, candies, and really great cider! They also have heirloom gourds, Indian corn, and pumpkins, too. We really enjoyed the orchard the day we went! There is also Miller's Cider Mill in the area for an Amish cider making experience with a really old school cider press. You can even take your own apples to the mill to have super fresh cider made. Very cool! It's near the end of the season for apples, so glad we got a chance to go and pick some.

                                            Happy fall, y'all!