700 miles of corn

We were comfortably settled in for the winter and it began to dawn on us that we would be moving on before too long!

The winter seems to go on for ever and we love all the things, places and people we enjoy in Arizona but time flies when you are having fun.

We now had TWO park models to pack up and “Summerize”.

The new place in Casa Grande

Most RV’ers talk about “Winterizing” their rigs to prevent the water system freezing up.

We winterize ours by parking in where it doesn’t freeze – Arizona! But we leave the park models empty in the summer where the temperatures can be over 100 degree for 140 days in a row. Some days get over 120 degrees.

Strange things happen at those temperatures. Batteries in clocks and devices can leak and corrode the electronics. Spray cans can burst. Glue joints can come apart and strangely enough wood plank floors can expand and leave large gaps when the weather cools off again.

To stop these happening can involve leaving the ac on low all summer, putting reflective shades in windows and taking all the batteries out of devices so you can put them in the fridge with the spray cans!

We have now been on the road a month and wandered up to South Dakota to renew our drivers licenses.

Riding the 1880's train in South Dakota

I intended this to be a “Went there, Did that” kind of post but I never got into the mood so this might be a little strange one.

We finally got to Monument Valley

Barbara and I have occasionally talked about our future on the road. We have been traveling for 10 years and to be honest we are getting a little jaded.

We just met up with some great friends from 20 years ago back in Maryland. Ray and Cheryl rode Honda Goldwing motorcycles when we did and we had lots of fun.

Now they are fulltime in an RV too.

Having a blast with Ray and Cheryl

We saw on Facebook that they were going to be in Colorado about the same time we were passing thru so we messaged them and arranged a meet up.

It was supposed to be a couple of days but soon became a week as we all explored the area and Ray and I explored the breweries. Turns out we also share a taste for dark beer!

                                                            They like trains too.

It set us thinking.

Ray and Cheryl were out every day going to National Parks, local sights etc.

We kept saying “Thanks but we have been there” or “We don’t do many National Parks anymore, too many people”.

My vertigo and occasional walking problems didn’t help.

We had just a great time with them and it sounds like we will get to hang out with them again this winter as they intend to spend the winter in Phoenix.

All that set us thinking when we got to Rapid City.

We have seen a whole lot of this country and few things excite us anymore, BUT we do have a great time visiting with friends and go out of our way to meet them.

So do we continue to travel in the RV? Would we be better traveling by car and/or air and staying in hotels?

Would we like to have the RV on a semi permanent place up in the mountains around Phoenix or maybe Colorado so we can still get away from the summer heat without driving thousands of miles a year?

We have a list of things/places/people we might like to see if we are in a particular place and it dawned on us that the people are what we look forward to seeing.

Before it was places.

Maybe we just need to change our thinking rather than our methods?

Enough philosophy! Get back to the blog.

Rapid City is a pleasant place and we enjoy getting back there. There are enough places to visit within a reasonable distance and we really enjoy camping at the Elks Lodge.

Antelope

Buffalo in Custer State Park

The lodge owns the golf course and the bar/restaurant overlooks the first tee. Food is good, drink prices excellent, beer selection extensive and the price to camp exceptional!

We had been there a day or so and bumped into a couple who were walking across the campsite. As we chatted we found that they lived locally and were Elks too, we all really got along and we swapped contact information.

We had new friends! Rudi and Cici.

With Rudi and Cici on top of the Hotel Alex Johnson

They kindly invited us over for dinner and we discovered they were motorcyclists, had a camper, had been to many of the places we had been too. It seemed like we had known them for years!

Then we joined them for a music bingo evening at a local bar and later in the week they took us to an exclusive bar up on the roof of the historic Hotel Alex Johnson. Great people.

Our intended week got extended and extended until we were there for 3 weeks. We got a couple of things worked on that were broken on the rig (there is always something broken on an RV).

1880's train Keystone

Eventually we decided to head off to Iowa simply because our collection of Elks Lodge pins is short of pins from there! Really, no other reason.

We have been thru the edges of the state but just passing thru.

Sioux City was our first stop. It sits on the banks of the Missouri River and was on the route of the Lewis and Clarke expedition. There is a river boat there named after Sergeant Floyd a member of the expedition who died in the area. We never really enjoyed the city, it didn’t seem to have a center and although some cities have a “character” we didn’t find it in Sioux City so after 3 days we moved on.

The Sergeant Floyd riverboat

Des Moines was next and we found some really great places around there.

Iowa State Capital

The State Capitol building was beautiful and there was an area downtown with lots of eateries (and bars) we explored.

Salisbury House

There is also a large house called the Salisbury Mansion that was built in the 1920’s at the equivalent cost of 40 million dollars in todays money and furnished with antiques and artwork from all over Europe.

The Great Hall

On a whim I decided to drag Barbara to an airplane museum about 50 miles away. She puts up with my airplane fixation….

Barbara is delighted to see more airplanes!

As so often happens when we wander aimlessly across the country we happened across a little town called Winterset. Just a little place in the middle of farm country famous for one thing. It was the birthplace of John Wayne.

John Wayne Museum

You probably know that I get mistaken for John Wayne all the time, especially if I wear the hat I bought in Ireland that is modelled after the one he wore in the movie “The Quiet Man” or one of my cowboy hats.

The small house John Wayne was born in.

Anyway the museum was very interesting and I managed to avoid the many fans there.

It seems like every town in Iowa has a "Freedom Rock"

While watching PBS TV one evening a documentary came on about German prisoner of war camps in Minnesota. They kept showing clips from a museum in a little town called Algona in Iowa.

A little research showed it was about 150 miles North of where we were so we decided to go there for a few days.

In looking for somewhere to camp we stumbled across a thing called “The Grotto of Redemption” in the little town of West Bend, a fascinating place built over about 60 years by a priest and his helper from all kinds of stone, fossil trees, sea shells and parts of a cave in South Dakota.

Inside the Grotto, all hand made by 2 men.

From the Grotto across the lake is the campground.

Better yet they had a campground with 30 amp power, a dump station, water fill point and shower facilities for $20 a night! They even gave a discount for Passport America members that brought it down to $10 a night.

We explored the area and visited the museum in Algona before heading off again to Wisconsin.

The whole trip from Rapid City east was on backroads, all excellent roads with no traffic and miles and miles of farms growing almost exclusively corn.

700 miles of corn!!

Post cruise blues?

 

A mountain of laundry, doctors for Barbara, inches of dust around the house from a sand storm when we were away and restocking the empty fridge took up the rest of the week.

You only have to be home for a week before the memories of the last trip start to fade! We got back into our “Winter Season” here in Casa Grande with meals out with our friends and the warm friendly atmosphere soon had us enveloped.

3 weeks on the ship hadn’t really messed me up with my vertigo but strangely once on dry land it started bothering me again! Barbara meanwhile had borrowed a cane to help her try and walk.

For a short while poor Barb was using a walker

She called the doctor and made an appointment to get the knee X-Ray’d but by the time she got to see the specialist the knee was getting better on it’s own! They told her it was arthritis and eventually she may need a knee replacement. How long that might take is apparently in the lap of the gods!

Just to settle down for the rest of the winter we went on a trip!

Who would have thunk it!

The RV park was running a bus trip to Verde Canyon near Sedonna AZ to ride the train. Being suckers for a train ride we jumped in with both feet.

Somewhere between the cruise and the train ride we got together with the people selling the new “Park Model” we are buying and organized things a little more formally. Seems we will be moving in after our next little trip (Yes another one!) to Tucson for our old favorite Escapees Rally.

Up at O Dark 30 for the bus.
Great sunrise though!

The train ride was excellent, great scenery, a bar on board that served dark beer and Denis and RuthAnne for company. Unfortunately StarAnne and Ed couldn’t make it so we all had to have twice as much fun to make up for it.

Dennis and RuthAnn 

Pre boarding bird show

Scary owl!

Barb and RuthAnne

Lots of pictures there!

The bird theme included the locomotive

Great train pictures

The Verde River that created the canyon

The rest of the train

Stunning desert scenery

Panaroamic open air car

I had hoped that the fates would leave us alone after the last year of woes, but shortly after we got back I started sneezing. That developed into a chest cold, and what a nasty one too. Almost like Bronchitis. Shortly after Barbara came down with the same thing so misery had company for a couple of weeks.

The Motorhome meanwhile had been at the RV dealer since October!! I made the mistake of telling them there was no hurry and apparently they took me at my word! It was the end of January when they called me to pick it up!!

Then when I got there (Luckily its just around the corner) they realized that they forgot to fix the rear AC unit we had asked them to do, so that added another couple of weeks.

Finally we went to pick it up.

I wasn’t happy. They had left all the trash in the vehicle, it was coated inside with dust, they left off a cover plate in one of the basement storage areas, the drivers power seat didn’t work and neither did the turn signals!

This shop is usually pretty good, I guess they have had some staff turn over as there were several new faces. That happens with RV shops.

After I read the riot act they were extremely apologetic and promised to get on it right away, which they did. A day later everything was working again and clean.

We needed to get it sorted out for the Rally.

A trip to Panama

 

Christmas was coming soon, then New Years. The cruise was booked for Jan 6^th.

It suddenly became the week before we were due to leave. In the meantime we had discussed making changes at No 2 such as adding an “Arizona room”, walk in shower and new furniture.

We walked most mornings to help control my vertigo and one morning we passed a house that some friends had owned and saw it was for sale. It had everything we were talking of adding and it occurred to us that it might be cheaper to buy a place with all the changes made than to do them ourselves. At the same time we wouldn’t have to live with all the chaos during the construction.

We went by the park sales office and noted that there were several places that met our requirements. We made an appointment to see them.

Our next door neighbors mentioned that they had sold their place and we mentioned we were looking. They said the people buying their place were selling their existing place and that they had the key.

We went around and it was beautiful. Spacious, excellent furniture, step in shower and newly repainted.

We looked at several more places but none of them came close. We bought a new place! But we don’t close until March.

All very exciting but we also needed to get packing for the cruise so a great deal of sorting clothes, pre packing and laundry was combined with borrowing suit cases, returning those cases after we discovered that our existing suitcase was big enough, cancelling newspapers, sorting out spending money, tickets, airfares etc etc.

Then bang! We were on the flight to LA. We spent a night in a hotel not far from the cruise terminal and were rewarded for me being a member of the Holiday Day Inn club by being upgraded to a very nice suite!

Suite at the hotel.

While walking around the block we conveniently found a brew pub and while sampling their products met 2 Canadian couples who were on the same cruise as us!

Dark beer OOOHHH!

Next morning a short Uber ride took us to the pier in San Pedro where the Norwegian Joy was waiting for us.

Norwegian Joy

A huge ship with around 4000 passengers, it took some time to load everyone onboard and get the luggage delivered to the stateroom. The stateroom was a balcony one and quite nice. While we waited for the bags to get delivered we explored the many bars and restaurants on board.

We pre-purchased the beverage, premium dining and gratuities packages as I don’t like getting to the last day of the cruise and having to sort out all the extras on the bill. We booked a few shore excursions too but not too many as we prefer to go our own way when we get places.

We left San Pedro with a couple of days at sea before our first stop in Cabo San Lucas Mexico.

Leaving San Pedro

I was a little concerned about how my normal seasickness would affect my vertigo but a calm sea didn’t trouble me at all. In fact I didn’t feel queezy the whole trip!

We have been to Cabo before and weren’t impressed, so we stayed on board and enjoyed a quite day wandering around the ship. By this time we had experienced a few of the restaurants and although most were fairly good we learned not to get scrambled eggs as they were made with powdered eggs, and to stay away from the “American Diner” which was cold and draughty and the food not very good.

Next day we were in Mazatlan where we took an Uber along the seafront road (Promenade in UK) but even after nearly 20 miles we didn’t see much worth stopping for. We got another Uber to the Central Cathedral before going back to the ship.

Nothing special in Mazatlan

A quaint Cathedral

Puerto Vallerta was far better and we enjoyed lunch on the beach followed by a walk along the Malecon where troupes of acrobats were performing around a huge pole that must have been 75’ high. Barb’s knee had started to hurt and she limped along with an elastic bandage wrapped around it.

Lunch with the pelicans in Puerta Vallarta

Amazing acrobats

Having paid in advance for our booze we decided we had to drink a minimum of 4 drinks to draw even. We were well in pocket and sampled lots of cocktails, had Mimosas with breakfast, tried all the single malt scotches and took a few cans of beer back to the cabin each night too!

Day 6 was another at sea day and we had reservations for the Tepenyaki restaurant which was like a Beni Hanna chinese “Show” restaurant. Our UK readers might not know what that is but usually they involve some funny chefs cooking the meal at a big grill while juggling eggs and knives, throwing shrimp for people to catch in their mouths and producing sheets of flame from volcanoes made from sliced onions! You have to experience it for yourself, but its very entertaining, although because of shipboard fire regulations they couldn’t do the flaming volcano!

We went from there to a feature of this ship that reminded us of our Liverpool area roots, “The Cavern” which is a small bar dressed to very loosely resemble the real Cavern. There was a Beatles tribute band who played there a couple of times during the cruise and who played in the large theater several times too. They were very good and it was standing room only whenever they were performing.

The shipboard "Cavern Club"

Another day at sea then we landed in Antigua. Not the one in the Caribbean as we were still on the Pacific side. This one was in Guatemala and we took a bus trip to the “Jade Factory” to learn all about Guatemalan Jade from a lady who turned out to be from Yorkshire England where Barbara has many relatives!

The Jade Museum (and sale room)

Another day at sea and we discovered the “Brewhouse” bar where they had 50 draft beers but no dark beers except canned Guinness or Shiner Bock from Texas. I walked out of a weird magic/dancing show in the theater later that evening as it was poorly presented and quite boring.

Puerto Caldera in Costa Rica was OK with a trip to a small town with little kids dancing and a nice church.

Cute local kids dancing

Another day at sea and I was getting bored. A talk about the history of the Panama Canal in the evening helped take up some time. Unfortunately we went to another premium restaurant that evening. It was called the Q Smokehouse and the barbequed ribs were awful. There was no manager around and the waiter offered us another meal but we didn’t want another bad experience. We complained bitterly over the next 3 days but got nowhere with customer service and despite promises that the manager would contact us he never did.

Barbara resting up her knee

Next morning and we were at the entrance to the Panama Canal. Unfortunately Barbara’s knee was so bad that she could barely walk and I brought her breakfast to the cabin for several days. Fortunately we had the balcony and could sit out and watch the scenery drift by!

Pacific side of the Panama Canal

Thru the locks

These basins hold water for the locks to conserve the fresh water.

I have designed ships that had to meet the special Panama Rules. I was looking forward to the transit. I had the original canal in mind when I booked the trip but the Joy was so big she went thru the new canal. There isn’t much difference really just the three locks at each end, the rest is still the original route. It was a little disappointing but it was a great experience.

Beautiful statuary in the cathedral

Colon on the Atlantic side of the canal then Cartagena were not very interesting in our opinion and an 8 hour bus trip to take a 45 minute walk around the old city of Panama didn’t help. Barbara stayed on the bus because her knee hurt so badly. She was alternating cold and hot packs on it to try to ease the pain.

The only thing to watch in Cartegena

                                                                       was the pelicans

During the final 2 days at sea we hooked up with our Canadian friends from LA, ate at a couple more premium restaurants before arriving in Miami on day 17.

Norwegian's dock in Miami

Barbara and I decided to ask for a wheelchair to get her off the ship and we were whisked to the front of the disembarkation line, then to the front of the customs and immigration line and were in an Uber headed for the hotel we had reserved before we could blink!

After getting the same preferential treatment at the Miami and Phoenix airports we were on our way back to Casa Grande courtesy of our friend Ed who both dropped us at the airport on the way out and picked us up on the way back. Thanks Ed!

A mountain of laundry, doctors for Barbara, inches of dust around the house from a sand storm when we were away and restocking the empty fridge took up the rest of the week.

Last legs to home

So tune in next time to see how we do! 

Here’s what happened next! We drew a straight line on a map between Bangor and Casa Grande then looked for stops around 200 miles apart. 

We wandered thru Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Upstate New York staying at Elks Lodges at every stop. 

In Vermont the car wouldn’t start, the 6 month old battery was completely dead! We got it from Walmart but although I thought I had the receipt I couldn’t find it. Walmart said no receipt, no guarantee and without buying an extended warranty it was only covered for 3 months! We bought a new one (But not from Walmart). 

Outside Buffalo New York we let the fuel tank get down to 1/8 of a tank and when we stopped for fuel the engine wouldn’t restart. We cranked and cranked but no go. I went thru a routine for re-priming the engine where you turn the ignition on but don't start the engine, after 30 seconds the ignition is turned off. That’s repeated 6 times.

Well that didn’t work so we called the Geico roadside assistance and after a couple of hours messing about with them calling auto towing companies not RV towing ones, a BIG tow truck arrived and towed us to the Cummins dealer in Buffalo. 

That seems pretty unlucky but it was also lucky because they limit the free tow to 20 miles and it was 19 to the dealer!! The dealer also had a 50 amp hook up so we camped right there. 

 Next day they put it on the computer and they cranked it over, The fuel pressure was really low. They cranked it again and it started! After a few seconds the fuel pressure shot up to normal. It was suggested that the low fuel level let dirt in the bottom of the tank get drawn into the fuel filters so they recommended changing the filters, but they didn’t have any in stock so it would be another day before they could get to it. We had a spare set of filters! They used them and we were on our way. They worked on it about 4 hours but we only got charged for 2, a win in our books. 

Off again into Ohio (where we knock off the right rearview mirror at a very narrow toll booth), Indiana and Illinois and we started turning south. 

Mostly Elks Lodges again with the occasional commercial park to empty tanks and fill the water tank. It started getting hot! 

When it got too hot we stayed at a couple more commercial parks so we could plug into their power and run the AC without having to run the generator all night. (Which was working well until the rear AC died!) 

Missouri briefly, then Arkansas led us into Texas and onto our favorite road RT 82 that runs all along the Oklahoma State Line through Paris Texas and to Witchita Falls, which we have visited several times. 

Life was good at the Elks Lodge there but after setting off again we got to the little town of Seymore TX to fill up the rig. 

We have a discount fuel card that works in certain truck stops and the one in Seymore was listed on the app. After much messing around and driving a large RV with car in tow around the pumps they finally admitted that their pumps were broken and we couldn't get any fuel!

We then tried a regular gas station a block or two away and squeezed the rig around a tight turn to the diesel pump. Barbara came running up shouting “Stop, stop you’re losing the car!!”. I jumped out and found a guy on a motorcycle who pointed out that the whole front of the car was being pulled off by the tow bar! The motorcyclist said “You’re really lucky” and I agreed that we were as it could have happened going 70 mph in traffic with the car going off on its own into the oncoming traffic. 

He looked at me puzzled and said “No, I meant there’s a body shop right across the street!” and before we could blink the owner of the shop came over, said he could do the work and put us on the top of his list! 

Being Friday he couldn’t get to it before Monday but by Tuesday afternoon it was done and he had welded the broken tow bracket back together too! 

After the trauma of the bracket breaking (where it was bolted to the car chassis) we decided to try and ship the car back to AZ but we got all kinds of scammers calling about it. 

Peter and Donna Ward ship their car from Florida to Maine every year so we called them for advice. Their shipper didn’t do anything but East Coast but they suggested trying Uhaul for a trailer. We don’t know why we didn’t think of that ourselves but with all the stress we were experiencing perhaps it’s understandable. 

We called Uhaul and they had a trailer but then they suggested a tow dolly which was only $240 for 7 days. Problem solved right? 

Except as we left to pick up the thing our turn signals stopped working on the coach! 

Uhaul were reluctant to rent us equipment if we didn’t have turn signals but eventually let us go at out own risk and we set off with no turn signals and no right rear view mirror for the final 1500 miles!

We stayed in the right lane and were very careful when passing on-ramps! 

Mercifully we made it home after stops in Lubbock, Roswell, Las Cruces and Wilcox. 

Finally “Home” in Casa Grande and we parked the rig outside the house to unload before putting it into the storage lot at the park we stay in. 

Everything was just peachy, we made it back, put the stuff away. The cleaning crew we use had been in and made the place spotless, turned on the AC (It was 105 degrees daytime!) and we started to relax. What could go wrong now we were home? 

After a couple of hours it started to get warm in the house, then it got HOT in the house. The AC had died! I put in a call the AC guy everyone in the park uses and left a message. Luckily it cools off fast once the sun goes down and Leroy the AC guy showed up early the next morning and fixed everything in a couple of hours. 

Finally we had things under control and all we had to do was drive the rig down to the end of the block and put it in storage. 

Except that when I started it up the “Jacks Down” light and alarm started going off! I knew the jacks weren’t down so I hit the button that lifts them up just incase they had somehow dropped a little while the rig was parked. 

Nothing happened, the alarm still was going off, the light was still on. I got out to look at the position of the jacks and there was a big puddle of hydraulic fluid under the rig! A hose had burst. Luckily it was still driveable so we put it in storage and called to make an appointment at the local RV place (and they are pretty good too).

Absolutely floored by the run of bad luck we’d had we relaxed and set to get back to our winter routine, all that trouble was behind us. 

We had 2 cars at our disposal. The Ford Edge we’d towed all summer and the Cadillac Escapade I use to haul my RC planes around in. The Cadillac was parked under the car port and plugged into a trickle charger so it was ready to go when we got back. 

Except when I tried to start it it was dead. The trickle charger had died at some point and the battery had discharged itself. The battery was toast, $200 for a new one! 

Anyway we’ve been back since October. I don’t want to jinx things by saying that nothing has gone wrong since. The RV is in being worked on. Both cars seem to be working. The AC in the house is working and it cooled off into the 70’s during the day. Hopefully we are done with bad luck for a while.

Maine and trouble

 

There, we admit it and we loved it. All too soon we were on the road again to our final destination for this trip Maine.

Then things started to go wrong.

Leaving New Hampshire I started what I thought was the start of a cold or perhaps flu. That fuzzy, hot/cold just not right feeling most people have experienced.

By the time we got to Augusta Maine I had all the symptoms of the vertigo I had back in January. Not as extreme as then but I had a couple of spinning around events and I had difficulty walking. Driving was out of the question. Barbara was there to help of course Bless her.

I still had the physio exercises memorized from the last time but of course as the symptoms went away I had stopped doing them. I started them again and called my doctor back in Casa Grande for a referral to a Vestibular Physiotherapist in nearby Waterville ME at “Back in Motion”.

It was 2 weeks before I got an appointment but Kelly gave me a variation on the “Eppley Maneuver” I had been doing, and which wrecked my neck last time. She also gave me some exercises involving fixing my eyes on a point and moving my head in various directions. All of which helped.

No miracle cure though and we were forced to stay nearly 4 weeks in Augusta as I slowly improved. Taking short walks around the parking lot as often as I felt able.

Thank goodness we had chosen to stay at the Augusta Elks! Friendly people and camping with 50 amp electric when the weather was hot and sticky, so we could run the air conditioning, really saved us. They have a dump station and fresh water fill right there too which helped.

As I improved I managed to walk a little further so we made sure to get our Lobster addiction attended to! We even managed a couple of hours at the Maine Lobster Fest in Rockland but I was exhausted afterwards.

Maine Lobster Fest Entrance

Our favorite crustacean

By the fourth week I was fit to drive a little and we moved to the Waterville Elks about 25 miles up the road which was conveniently close to the Physiotherapist.

We had never been to Waterville and explored the local places and restaurants including a side trip to the Skowhegan State Fair which tested my walking ability. I was pretty happy that I managed to last 4 hours with stops along the way.

All the fun of the Fair

State Fairground Entrance

Pretty soon it was time to make a move to Bangor where we had reservations for 2 weeks at Pumpkin Patch RV Park.

You may remember this as where the Lobster Rally was held.

https://banbrv.blogspot.com/2016/08/lobster-fests.html

https://banbrv.blogspot.com/2021/08/the-objective-has-been-reached.html

Unfortunately the rally was discontinued when the local Escapees Chapter couldn’t find anyone to step up and lead it. Sad, but we see it happen more and more in the clubs and organizations we belong to.

Its still a great place to stay though and our friends Peter and Donna Ward who we met earlier this year in Florida spend their summers here. 

https://banbrv.blogspot.com/2024/05/start-of-new-adventure.html

Peter graciously took it on himself to drive us around and show us some of their favorite places, which naturally involved Lobsters!

Barb Donna and Peter

Peter and Donna were born and raised in Maine and although Donna likes Lobster, Peter doesn’t. We treated him to a steak while the other 3 of us pigged out on our favorite dish!

Peter enjoyed his steak

Donna set to enjoy you know what!

This was a 2lb model!

Just as things seemed to be going well we got a call from Peter and Donna. They had contracted COVID.

The next day I had symptoms and tested positive. Barbara didn’t!

It’s kind of difficult to isolate from your spouse in an RV! Barbara, bless her, volunteered to sleep on the long sofa in the living area whilst I got the bed!

We called our doctor in Casa Grande and they phoned a prescription for Paxlovid thru to the local Walmart. This is supposed to shorten the COVID symptoms and help in general.

After taking it for 5 days I felt great, like I’d never had COVID at all. The terrible weariness was gone and we went out (Suitably masked) and had an enjoyable day walking in the fresh air. A miracle cure!

Except the following morning I woke up as bad as I had been at the worst part of the infection. No energy, cough, feeling miserable.

After a couple of days we decided to go to a local Urgent Care center and they looked me over and X Rayed my chest (I thought I might have pneumonia I felt so weak). Then they told me about “Rebound COVID”.

Apparently about 20% of people taking Paxlovid have exactly the same experience as I had. After taking the last of the drug they get a day feeling great then plunge right back into the symptoms. I was one of the lucky 20%!

We established when I had finished the drugs, and that I had no fever. They told me that although I was still testing positive that I wasn’t infectious and I could start going out again.

Best news for Barbara is she could sleep in a bed again after almost 2 weeks!

All this had resulted in our 2 weeks at Pumpkin Patch lasting 4 weeks! They are such a great set of people, although we had to move a couple of times within the park, they found us a place for the 4 weeks and even penciled in a further week should we need it.

Every day one of the park people drove by in a golf cart and when we were out sitting in the sun they would stop and ask how I was feeling and hoping I would be feeling better soon.

Such warm and friendly people, this place has always been special to us and now it is even more so.

Eventually I got over the major symptoms of the COVID which just left the vertigo! I had felt so bad that I had stopped the physio which made my recovery from the vertigo take a couple of steps back.

So that’s the sad story of the last almost 8 weeks, only 2 of which we have really got to enjoy experiencing Maine. We have managed to make a serious dent in the lobster population however so we take that as a plus!

Monster Lobster Roll!

Time has come to start our return trip to Casa Grande. It’s going to be 2 weeks later than we had in mind when we arrived, but hopefully it’s not too late in the season to cause any problems.

We spent a couple of hours discussing a possible route back, taking a more direct line between Maine and Arizona. We also have limited our daily mileage for the first 7 or so stops until I find out how I do driving.

I’ve been driving the car and that seems to be OK so I’m not too concerned. The start of our route will be country roads for about 300 miles thru Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont and with the Autumn colors about to happen it may be a spectacular drive.

So tune in next time to see how we do!