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Published: February 19th 2012
Thursday February 16, 2012
Thousand Trails Wauchula, FL
I haven’t said this in a long time, if ever to date on this trip. I slept with the windows open last night! It was warm!
Ginnie got a phone call early from the Vet. George was fine and he would call back when he had the results of his blood test. He told her not to worry (yeah, right).
I went to the rec hall and finally was able to post a few days blog and make some reservations at SC state parks for my last week on the road. If all goes well, Tim, Gret, Lilly & Ben will join me at Huntington Beach SP for my last weekend, and I am very excited. It’s a great campground on the beach and the kids will have fun. It is very near Gretchen’s mother’s house, and if the weather is bad they will have an alternate place to stay.
A fruit and vegetable vendor was here this morning, and I got some gorgeous tomatoes, $3!
We decided to visit the Lipizzan Stallion winter quarters, about 20 miles away. On the way, A. Fleet the vet called.
As Ginnie was driving and couldn’t pull over, and I with my albeit old (but I still read a lot) medical background spoke to him. George’s hematocrit went up to 12, certainly an improvement from yesterday’s 8, but nowhere near the normal 40. His platelets are still low. He is now getting prednisone on general principals, and a drug to stop gastric/intestinal bleeding. His stool is still black, but is it because he is still bleeding, or because it is still working it’s way thru? He doesn’t know. There are several reasons his platelets could be low, and he needs to do some more blood work to rule some things out; George will be there for the day and night and he will call in the morning. In the meantime, George has endeared everyone at the place, walking around like he owns it, and all love him. Cool, George, really cool.
The best part of the conversation is I am now convinced A. Fleet thinks Ginnie and I are married. He asked me if Ginnie or I kept Coumadin around our house; that’s one of the things that could have caused the bleeding. It was funny, and I had
no comeback, other than, No we did not keep Coumadin at our houses emphasis on the houses. We had fun the rest of the day trying to figure out some way to break it to A. Fleet when we next see him that we both like men.
The winter quarters of the Hermann Royall Lipizzaner horses is in Myakka, FL, south and west of where we are, half way to Sarasota/Bradenton.
Plagiarized from their website: Founded in the 16
th century for the exclusive use of the Hapsburg Royal family of Austria, the Royal Lipizzans are the most aristocratic breed of horses in the world. The pride of the Hapsburg empire, the Lipizzan breed was first established by Archduke Charles at Lipizza/Yugoslavia. Only a few hundred have ever existed at any one time. It is a miracle of sorts that this bloodline is not extinct, having barely been saved by General George Patton from the Russian advance. (This story was recounted in the Disney move, “Miracle of the White Stallions.” Patton was assisted by Colonel Herrmann, riding at night and hiding by day. The Colonel, joined by two subsequent generations of Herrmanns, maintain a 200 acre ranch in Florida
to ensure the propagation of the breed. These horses perform the airs above the ground moves derived from defensive horsemanship created for war horses to create terror in the foot soldiers.
Colonel Herrmann has now passed, and the work of training these horses is in the hands of his daughter, Gabrielle, and other relatives. Gabrielle is magnificent in the saddle, and it is clear she loves these horses and they love her. She started today’s show in tears, as she recounted briefly the sadness of having to put some of their very old horses down yesterday. It is unfortunate that there are no men riders at the present. None of the family men ‘received the calling,’ but, we saw some young boys riding and they were family members.
What we saw today was a training session. Some of these horses have not appeared in shows. There were first time riders today as well. There were stops and starts in the maneuvers, and lots of correction and praise, but we did get to see them in the air which is breathtaking. After the training session we got to tour the stable area and pet the more gentle horses. The
mares are kept all together in a separate corral, but the stallions cannot be mixed together – something about too many men in the same area….creates friction….imagine that. The lipizzans are born black and fade to white at about age 10, so you can tell how old a horse is by how black his tail and mane are. The females are bred only 4 times in their lives. They are capable of performing these same maneuvers, but they aren’t afforded the training – only the males perform. One of their females is brown!!! She seemed to be the alpha female, pushing all the others away from the photo opportunities at the fence, but when it was time to eat, she submitted to a white.
There was no admission charge, but they asked for a minimum of $5 donation. We gave $10, just because. This facility is mostly run on donations, volunteers, and a snack bar with some souvenirs. They sell some of the older horses, they give riding lessons, and are always looking for new riders. (Their signs say, “riders wanted – must love to travel.” I have included lots of pictures, no really great ones, but some good
ones. Gabrielle was magnificent in the saddle, a pleasure to watch. Better not tell A. Fleet about those thoughts, huh….
Winston seemed fine when I got back to the rig, my neighbor said he didn’t hear him and I shouldn’t worry about it, he doesn’t care, and still no neighbors in the sandy site next door. Happy hour and dinner at my house, I had made a crock pot soup from a mix I bought the other day at Fresh Market, added shrimp. It was ok, nothing to rave about, but passable. As we were eating, a huge Class A stopped in front of the campsite next door. Uh oh. It is damn dark. The 3 of us tried to encourage him to go down the road to the overflow – he didn’t know what that was, and as he had never been here before, he was reluctant to do it. He…..we did not see any one else with him. I hate to admit it, but he did a pretty god job of getting that big bus out of the street and into the campsite. He told us he was going leave it just off the road until he
could see in the daylight. His electric cord reached the pole, but his water and sewer lines didn’t, so he needs some adjustment. Then, and only then did he realize that he was in 8 inches of loose sand. We will see what tomorrow brings.
Friday February 17, 2012
Gosh, I only have 2 more weeks on the road. I just don’t like that feeling. While I will be glad to get home, heavy hangs over my head, my NJ house must sell, and that will be my priority when I get back to NC. Until then, I pray hard that someone comes along soon and saves me some anxiety.
I was reminded this morning how long it has been since I have seen a sandhill crane when I heard them squawking as they flew overhead. I think this place must be a little densely populated for them to be comfortable – and too many dogs.
George update: His blood work was the same as yesterday, and A. Fleet was hoping for a slight improvement. His stool was more normal looking, but still had some blood in it. More tests today for lyme disease and other
bacterial infections were negative. He continues to eat well, and grinned today. George will stay with them one more day; we expect since they are closed at noon on Saturday we will pick him up sometime in the morning.
A very lazy day today, none of us did much of anything. I played with some pictures, crocheted, read, played with more pictures, walked around some, and crocheted some more – another baby blanket for my stash, baby yellow and white ripple pattern. It’s mindless and is working up quickly. Not a favorite, but a good addition.
I did see Russ and Ann from Orlando TT and their 25 y/o Airstream. There are lots of familiar faces here in Wauchula, I guess I am becoming a regular.
I saw Roy today. He decided Loners on Wheels was not for him. He didn’t like the first page of the website that says you cannot arrive at a camp out with a member of the opposite sex in your rig. That says to him, if you’re gay and arrive with your same sex partner in your rig you will be welcome; he feels that is discriminatory or the organization favors
gays. I told him that wording had been an issue with some of the people I talk to, and if he was going to let that keep him away from a potentially good time, that was his decision. I told him it is a club for single people. If you become a couple, there are other clubs for you, but LOWs is strictly a club for singles.
We went to Paul’s in Wauchula for dinner, and at least half the people there are from the campground. Paul’s is definitely a local hangout, large menu, decent food. I had smothered (onions/cheese) sirloin. Kathy E had broiled grouper and Ginnie had broiled seafood combo. The combo she ordered had salmon, and her plate was missing the salmon. Instead of just bringing the salmon, the waitress returned with a full new dinner…on the house. Of course she couldn’t eat all that food. Each dinner was served with soup of the day (chili) if desired. (Is chili soup??), salad, bread, potato of choice, rice and mixed veggies. Yes, potato of choice and rice. The mixed veggies looked like all the left over vegetables from the week got mixed together with some very salty
gravy added. In our bowls were: peas, carrots, mushrooms, black eyed peas, okra, broccoli, corn, red peppers, water chestnuts, and a few others I must be missing. It was too salty to eat. So, at the end of the meal the waitress brought 2 take home trays. One was filled with all the rice, Ginnie’s baked potato, NO veggies, sour cream, and butter spread. The other was filled with the entire second grilled fish meal. Guess where I am eating dinner tomorrow night!! Kathy ordered strawberry bundt cake for desert to go which we ate at Ginnie’s rig with pumpkin decaf coffee, yummy. Thank you Ginnie for treating us!!!! You shouldn’t have, but oh so nice of you to do it.
My new next-door-neighbor-in-the-sand was out all day. I expected that he would move his rig just a little bit, to get it further back from the road, nearer the sewer connection, but he didn’t. When he was home this morning he puttered around, just like he was checking out a new rig. Most notable task was turning on his generator. The wind was blowing in just the right direction to put the exhaust into my windows and door,
both of which I had to close. I thought he might have gone to the store to buy another sewer hose extension, but he didn’t do that either.
We lose Kathy E tomorrow, and it will be sad to see her go. She is travelling north to Manatee Springs State Park, then some other FL state parks in the Panhandle before heading home early March. We have had a great time. She surely will enjoy the manatees! But we will miss her. Ginnie leaves on Sunday, shuffling back to Thousand Trails Orlando for the next 2 weeks, and I leave on Monday for Southern Palms RV Resort in Eustis for 6 nights. Yes, sad my trip is coming to an end. Bittersweet. I can’t wait to go on to my next adventure, but hate to have this wonderful trip come to an end.
Saturday February 18, 2012
Let’s call this one George’s day.
I took Winston for a long walk. While I didn’t run, I did lots of leg kicks and knee lifts, and then lots of work with weights once back at my rig, and lots of stretches. Just as I was done, Ginnie called
and she was sobbing.
I did get my run as Winston and I trotted to her rig. She had just heard from the vet. The daily blood count showed a marked decrease in the hematocrit, down to 6 from 8 (remember normal should be 40.) When he palpated his abdomen it was hard, rather than the soft it should be. He did an abdominal XRay and saw a large mass near his liver/stomach/pancreas. He deemed it inoperable. It was time for George to be put to sleep. He told us not to start out just yet as the fog was intense and it would be too dangerous for us to drive the 50+ miles, wait until 10 and see what it was like. Ginnie had to say goodbye before he was put down, and I prayed that he would hold on long enough for us to get there. The fog here was awful, I could see only about 10 rigs down before the rigs were hidden in the mist. I went back to my rig, turned on my hot water and waited 15 minutes for it to heat, showered, and was ready by 9:30. The fog had lifted somewhat.
I asked my next door neighbor to walk Winston if we were not home by 3, and he was very gracious in offering any help we needed. I drove, and other than bucking in first gear when starting out, I did fine. I was at the speed limit the whole way, but it seemed to take forever. I held onto Linus while Ginnie went in to speak to Dr. Ryland (I will dispense with the A. Fleet today, he deserves a lot of respect from me now.) Ginnie called me and Linus in to say our goodbyes as George had passed with a lot of help from Dr. Ryland. His circulation was so poor he required a double dose to stop his heart, and that’s all I am going to say about that. Dr. Ryland asked if he could perform an autopsy, as he really had to know what had happened to George, and I knew that Ginnie would want to know as well; she agreed. As best as he now thinks, George’s tumor was attached to his stomach and ‘eroded’ thru, causing the bleeding. He deemed it inoperable from the minute he got it. I am thinking that he
has had it since October, when he first started to fail, and even if any vet had discovered it then, it still would have been inoperable. Ginnie got 4 more months with him that she might not have had if it had been found earlier. Dr. Ryland said he did give him a weak grin this morning.
They will take care of cremating him there at their facility, and she can pick up his remains around Thursday, or on her next doing the Wauchula/Orlando shuffle as their location is half way between the two.
George was 4 years old. Ginnie adopted him from a Doberman rescue association in Philadelphia when he was about 18 months old. He had been called Shorty, but she gave him the strong name of George in honor of her father and other strong and long lived animals she had over the years. He came from an Amish puppy mill in Lancaster where the owner/breeder did not realize he was a dwarf. He relinquished him after some months and he spent 8+ months with Doberman rescue until Ginnie heard about him. She has only had him about 3.5 years. He was a trained and
licensed, if those are the correct terms, Therapy Dog, and Ginnie took him to hospitals and nursing homes to share the love he had to offer. We all know George had a wonderful life with her, much better than he had up to the point she first saw him, that’s for sure. George, rest in peace and may you always have green grass between your toes and a squirrel to chase. You will be missed by all who knew you.
Today was Kathy E’s day to leave and head for Manatee Springs State Park, west of Gainesville, another FL state park with a spring that manatees congregate at in winter. She was with us until we left, thanks for your support, Kathy. When I talked to her on the phone, she had ‘tapped’ a truck while trying to park her rig at the nearby Ace Hardware in her quest to get propane in her RV – and they lost their RV adapter, so they couldn’t even fill her tank! I talked to her as she was passing thru Kathleen – wonder if she got a picture……..Happy Trails, Kathy, I will miss traveling with you and hope the rest of
your trip is uneventful and beautiful. Can’t wait to read your blog and see your pictures.
Ginnie leaves for Orlando tomorrow. She heard from her friend there, Marilyn, that the dog park has been completed and the dedication is at 11:00 tomorrow. I know she wants to be there for that. I will get to the Rec Hall in the (tomorrow/Sunday) morning to post this. I do not know the internet situation at my new park in Eustis, FL, but will write when I can.
Kat out
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