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!