GeorgeLesley

The good news is that all is well here. Lesley's 91 year old mum is doing well and still driving and living alone. While Lesley was there this spring she got mum set up with many benefits she was entitled to. New Zealand does a very good job of helping seniors stay in their homes as long as possible. Just a few of the benefits are extra money for getting her lawn mowed each week, two hours a day with a real person to get her up, showered, go shopping, clean house, etc. Also has a life alert type system available and a few other things. More good news: Lesley and I are both doing very well. My knee surgery is a distant memory, all is well there. The trip to Ohio to get the motor home modified is over and we are most happy with the results. We are planning our trip to Kansas in September and from there we are planning to go to Utah or wherever the road leads. My physical health is good. I have started exercising again after the knee healed up. I now do more reps and more weight than I could pre-stroke! I now lift my canoe easier than I have in many years. Fishing this summer has been good indeed. Now the sad news. A 82 year old local man has gone missing in the wilderness just about 25 miles north of us. He went out to pick blueberries in an area he knew well and has picked in many times before. It is a very remote and rugged area. Lots of brush and cliffs. He grew up here and never left. Very fit. He just never came home. The search team found a few bits of his gear and then called off the search after 4 days. We locals are outraged by the short search and a volunteer group is out looking as I write this. Lesley is one of the volunteers. She herself has picked berries in the same area many times. She said "That could have been me" since she had planned on picking berries there this week. I go out in the woods alone often. It could have been me as well. I offered to go as well, but Lesley would not hear of it. With my balance issues, I might have needed rescue myself, so here I sit dog watching. The lady heading up the volunteer group has closed her restaurant until he is found and is paying her staff to help in the search. This in the busiest time of the year for her business. Now that is the type of person you want on your team. Lesley and I agreed that if either of us was looking for the other we would want the help as well. Anyway, the weather is great, fishing good, health is good, dogs happy, and nothing personal to complain about. The coffee cup is empty but will stay that way until tomorrow. I just don't feel like any now. A bit sad at the moment

Hey Fred, come up here to Northern Minnesota if the heat is getting to you. Our daytime highs have been in the 60's and night time lows in the 40's. We saw 41 the other morning. Lovely sleeping wx!

Thanks to all for the nice replies. And Fred, once the motor home bug bites, there is no known cure. The freedom to go where you want when you want and to be able to stop and do anything you want, is unbeatable. We travel state and US hwys, not interstates, because you actually see the country and meet people that way. Our new class "B" motor home is absolutely perfect for us now. Lesley loves to drive it, I do too when she lets me! We stay at a lot of National Forest campgrounds and Corp of Engineers and a as a disabled vet we and you get 1/2 price. We now carry proof of the VA disability, it often comes in handy. We plan on about 250 miles a day max. I usually drive in the morning, my focus is better then, and Lesley afternoons because I can navigate better and make sure we actually get to the place we plan to spend the night at! . See you on the road!

Anyone ever have two competing small voices in the mind each trying to make it's point? Speaking of point I'll get to mine. During the recovery from my recent knee surgery, exercise was not possible. OK, now that the recovery from the surgery is done I decided it is time to start exercising again. You would not believe the reasons the voice in my mind came up with to put it off. I started today expecting lots of strength loss because of the layoff of 2 months. Happily not much loss, but one voice tells me that means I was not working hard enough before the surgery. You guessed it, the other voice tells me not losing much strength tells me I really don't need to exercise anymore and I will be OK. Which voice to listen to? Well I have opted to listen to the first voice and get back to exercising regularly again, and will soon add some more weight and work myself a bit harder. Why am I doing this you ask? Simple. As I have written here before I believe in seasons in life. Lesley and I are in a good season at the moment. I want it to last as long as possible. Most of the future is not in my control. One thing that I have some control over is my conditioning level. The longer I am fit and able to do things, the longer our good season may last. Lesley and I just completed a 2300 mile trip to Ohio and back in our motor home. We saw some Amish country thanks to some help from this forum (thanks wiremanranch). Met many new people, saw many new places and roads mostly in Ohio and Michigan that we had never been on before, and in general had a blast. We were reminded how fleeting life can be when we met two lovely couples, one married 40+ years and the other 55 years, and both women are fighting life threatening illness. We met another couple just both retired. Our advice to them was that whatever is on their "bucket" list, they need to get on with doing it now. I want to do this travel as long as I and Lesley are able. Exercising is the least I can do to help make it happen. Time for some coffee.

No actually it is a Winnebago made in Iowa. But Advanced RV in Willoughby, OH makes a sprinter chassis based RV and will install the screen doors on any sprinter based van. We are looking for things to do for the three days the modifications will take, so any advice is appreciated. I think you told me once where you are located, but I forgot!

I finally got the pic's downloaded and published. It is a very complex procedure here, at least it is to me. I nearly gave up but finally got it done, don't ask me how. Anyway, not many pic's but enough for you to get the idea. We are planning next years trip already. Great new friend. We are off to Cleveland, OH for modifications to our motor home. About a ten day trip. I did get the portable satellite working a few days ago, now when we are on long trips we can watch TV if we choose to. Mainly for me to watch college football in the fall. Not much else interests either of us. I somehow bit the inside of my cheek and had a devil of a time stopping it. Of course I am on blood thinners like most readers here. It happened while I was out fishing alone yesterday and I just put up with the bleeding for a few hours until I got home. When Lesley saw it she being a retired ER nurse immediately stuffed that side of my mouth with gauze and after about an hour the bleeding stopped. Today all is well. Well just a short update. time for some more coffee.

I just got back from the week in the wilderness I had mentioned before doing tent camping and canoeing. I was very concerned the knee surgery would cause me problems, but all was fine. No pain, swelling or soreness from the knee. All I noted was a general loss of strength due to 6 weeks of no exercise. I was able however to carry the canoe and my share of the back packs and other gear. The portages, which is what the land between the lakes is called were not long or particularly difficult. The longest one was only about 800 ft and mostly flat although a bit rocky and tree root covered. We only had six to do the entire trip. Bugs were non existent and that is always a concern here in MN in June. Weather was perfect, fishing great and the food Lesley had packed for us also great. I was afraid that sleeping on the ground again would be a problem and had my sleeping pills along just in case, but slept like a baby. Getting up in the morning was a challenge due to the afore mentioned general weakness, but once up all was well. Fortunately I brought along a small fold up chair which I used in the tent. Without it I really don't know how I would have gotten dressed. My tripping partner was a fellow I had never met or spoken to in person, about my age and has a list of medical problems longer than mine. But between us, we got it done. We paddled the canoe like we had practiced together for years. It was a joy to work with him. He is from St. Louis, MO and only had the week up here. We spent the first two nights around a campfire til 11:00 PM just talking and getting to know each other. I have a long standing tradition that the first evening of such trips we eat brats cooked over the campfire. Man were they good! We have agreed that all future trips shall continue the tradition. We are already planning next years trip, destination not yet set, but we are thinking of a somewhat more remote area in Canada. The highlight of the trip was a walk to a place called Johnson Falls. It is a 20 ft waterfall out in the middle of a wilderness area and was a 3 mile round trip hike from where we were camped. Not easy hiking either, narrow, hilly, rocky, single wide trail. I did find a stick I used as a walking stick. It was worth the effort to get there. Now I must get back to doing some exercise and regain my fitness. We came back to a strawberry/rhubarb pie and venison stew that Lesley had made for us. Wow, after a week of freeze dried and dehydrated food (except for the fresh caught fish), her meal sure tasted good! The shower also felt good after a week without one. Next week Lesley and I are off to Cleveland, OH with our motorhome to get some screens installed on the entry doors, and a slide out pantry for the galley area. Then in September we are planning a trip to Kansas for a few days to go to a rally of similar motorhomes to ours, then not sure, but it looks like we will head west to Utah and maybe California until winter forces us to hurry home to Minnesota. Well I guess that is about it for now, I will try to post a few pics when my friend gets them downloaded.

I don't recall the exact year it was but about a 2006. The cost of new ones these days makes repair usually not worth it. We would up buying a Best Buy house brand 42" for $400 bucks and love it BTW, the sales clerk said when I complained about the Samsung only lasting 5 years said that is the normal lifespan of these things today. So, considering the good price I got the TV for I did buy the extended warranty even though I usually don't buy them. At least I know I have a good TV for 5 years. I would suggest you beat up on Samsung and whomever you bought it from while it is under warranty, then plan on a new one.

Julie, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but we had a Samsung TV that did exactly the same thing. It finally died completely. After some research I found out this is not all that uncommon, and the cost of repair makes it not an option. My advice is to pursue it with a vengence while it is still under warranty. Once that expires they will forget your name and you will be buying a new TV like we did.

Fred, As a retired car mechanic I would say your A/C problem might just be the vacuum hose distribution system usually behind the dash in the center of the controls for the various air and heat controls. $600 sounds quite steep to me, but the labor can run into a few hours to fix such and they don't give parts away these days. Good luck

Well the shake down trip in the new motor home is completed. About 1100 miles and Lesley drove every inch. It was about 550 miles each way and we took two days, stopping and camping one night each way. We got 20MPG on the diesel and it has lots of power and was smooth and quiet. We love the new machine. It is a bit longer than our old one, 24ft vs 20ft for the old one, but most importantly it is the same width which makes it easy to drive in traffic. It is no wider that our truck. Lesley also hooked up the power, we just used our on board water and tanks for waste. I have a website with thousands of cheap campgrounds listed. We paid $10 each night and had electric, water and dumping station available, and the camp grounds were nearly empty. We went to a national rally of units similar in size to ours. I must brag and say ours was the star of the show. We had a steady stream of people wanting to look inside at the floor plan. Several said that if our model had been available when they bought theirs they would have bought it rather than what they bought. We plan to have a screen door added to the side sliding door and screening added to the rear doors since we live in mosquito heaven. It was most frustrating for me to be in a wheel chair whenever I was outside the motor home. I am still on a no weight bearing restriction on my right knee. I tried crutches but could not use them since they require my left stroke side leg to carry all the weight and balance. It could not do it and when I tried it ended badly. Inside the motor home a walker used sideways and hopping along on my left leg worked fine Fortunately my upper body strengthening I have done the past few years gave me enough strength in the arms to lift my body weight with the two hands on the walker. Outside I was at Lesley's mercy in the wheelchair because most of the time we were on dirt or grass. We got to reconnect with some old friends and make some new ones. I suspect the new RV will be on the road a lot in the future. Lesley is already talking about taking a girl friend on biking trails around our state and into Canada. I have my eye on some fishing holes I know where over night camping is a good idea. I go Thursday the 24th for stitch removal and evaluation with the knee surgeon. I expect a few more weeks of no weight bearing. Ugh! This is no fun. So here I sit watching the news about the tragedy in OK. I am so blessed. As hard as I try, I find I really have nothing to complain about. Well, maybe I could complain to Lesley that my coffee cup is empty.

Nancy, As a former car mechanic I can tell you that Toyota makes great cars and you will not go wrong getting one. I must also say that the Honda we bought just after my stroke has been a winner. One reason we love it is because the doors open wider than any other car we have ever seen. It made my access in and out during rehab much easier.