Present, Past and In-Between

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Because it took me awhile to blog about our cruise, other important events have been occurring as we speak. I need to share them with you in case you couldn’t be with us at the time. You all have such busy schedules, it becoming difficult to get everyone together with such limited notice. So just pretend you are in a broken time machine that doesn’t know where or when to stop. Lulu is shaking her head (best she can). She thinks I should be doing a better job with organizing these blogs. She’s so critical sometimes.

Highlight event: on February 13th, Cory had his first cataract surgery. The eye doctor has his office in Celebration (the town that Disney built) which is just a couple blocks down route 192 from our RV Park. Handy Dandy. However, he does his surgeries in Davenport, Florida at a building with an ASU. It is about 25 miles away. We have to travel on I-4 to get there. That is a mega highway with trillions of vehicles traveling it everyday, 24/7. Yikes! His surgery was scheduled for 9:00 AM but we had to be there earlier for registration, check-in and Pre-op Care. Having done this ritual last year with my eyes, we were familiar with the location and routine. Everything went smoothly, from beginning to end. He doesn’t like it when I speak for him but sometimes I have to. I told the anesthesiologist to give him lots of drugs. Cory said he could hear them talking throughout the procedure but felt nothing. That’s how it should be. I told the eye doctor about the irreversible damage done to his sister, Gail, eye when she reacted to the antibiotic she received with her cataract surgery. Being on the safe side, he switched Cory’s antibiotic even though it wasn’t the same drug that was given to his sister but in the same family. Once in surgery, it goes so quickly....amazing. Now for the trauma! No...not Cory’s...mine! Of course, my job was to drive us home. OMG! Note: I haven’t driven in Florida at all! Too nervous! But, now I was being put to the test. I just made up my mind I could do it. Gag! OMG! It’s raining! I’m now hyperventilating but I tell myself again “ You Can Do It”! Puke & Hurl. With shaking legs and white knuckles and heavy breathing, I got behind the wheel and started our journey home. Any of you backseat drivers can take over the driving whenever you want. No volunteers??? OK... I must continue on. From Davenport, I have to make my way to the treachous, killing, horrible I-4 Highway. Yikes! Cory is quite calm from the drugs. Me....I’m a mess and we have just begun. Cory had said he hoped I wouldn’t drive back at 40 mph cause you get ticketed for going TOO slow on this wicked road. Gag! Please Jesus - Take The Wheel! Oh, Lordy. I’m in luck. Thank you, God! It’s bumper to bumper traffic on I-4 as I carefully merged into this gridlock. My head was twirling like the projectile puking girl in The Exorcist making sure I was plenty clear in every direction. Now I could drive at 10-20 mph. Perfect! I was beginning to relax and breathe. Sometimes, we even just came to a stop. Beautiful. No problems here. So what if it takes us 6 hours to get home. I’m happy. Rats.....all good things must come to an end! Rats! The traffic was picking up. Faster and faster we go. Nooooooo. Now I’m going 60 mph in the far outside lane. I’m not moving from that lane no matter what. Vehicles move in and out and all around me. Go away! Get! Just let me drive us safely home. As we draw closer to Kissimmee, I know we have to exit and merge onto another highway. Eeeeek! Cory & my communication faulted a little here and I had to make a quick jerk of the wheel to make it right. HELP! Whew! Made it! Now we are on 192 and I’m feeling quite comfy in my new Uber role. I continue to put the pedal to the medal best I could. We still have to go to the drugstore and get his eye drops. Mission accomplished there. But not so fast, lady! Apollo we have a problem! They only had one of his drops. The pharmacist called a couple more places....nope! Finally he locates some at a drugstore at The Loop (shopping area)....about 10 miles from where we were. I can do this! I don’t want to but I can and I will. We’ve traveled this route many times so I was familiar with it. However, I had to pass through the small stanchion for our SunPass. I wanted to close my eyes but I didn’t. We made it okay. Got the drops and headed home. Yippee. We were back safe and sound. With his big, black, wrap around glasses on, I looked like Miss Daisy driving Ray Charles around. Cory is doing fine. I have had to put on my Nurse Ratched face to remind him he can’t lift heavy objects nor bend!! I’ve threatened to call the doctor and report him! He doesn’t believe me when I tell him his eye will pop right out of his head! Two more weeks and we’ll do this all over again for his other eye. That will be a snap. Cory knows the routine and I’m a confident driver now. I could probably drive on the L.A. freeways.....nah!

A month or so ago, we ordered 4 new levelers for our RV. For the past couple years, we have had problems with them and have struggled to get them to work. Ah, Life on the Road! Our RV is a 2008 and we just found out that our crumby levelers had been discontinued. Eeeek! Then we discovered that Tiffin had requested a limited, special order of new ones to be made again. We jumped on the bandwagon and ordered some before we would be plain out of luck. I think I told you about their delivery. The UPS Freight truck couldn’t get down the narrow road to our park so Cory drove our golf cart up and met him in the area of Old Town. They came strapped to a big wooden pallet. They are super heavy! Tons & Tons. Cory got them off the pallet and one by one, got them piled on the golf cart and back to our site. Now what? We are planning on going to Red Bay, Alabama (where the factory is that built our RV) when we leave here in late April and hopefully get them to put there levelers on. Our RV park has many wonderful people with many skills. Everyone is willing to help another. It’s like a utopia here. Jon Gibson & Dave Berry both said they would take off our old levelers and put the new ones on. We are taking a huge undertaking.....a major job! They both took turns storing these four mega weight posts for us. At some point, Dave noted a piece of tape on the bottom of one that read “Bad Motor!” Whaaaaaat! Are you kidding?? Rats! Cory called Tiffin and sent pictures. They said they would order us another new one and send it down to us (in a month plus). Oh, well....what is..is. We were now in a holding pattern. The other day, Dave was checking them and tested all the motors. They ALL worked!....even the “bad” one. Huh? Dave said he was going to put them on since they all were fine. Jon had gone home to PA. for awhile. Dave came up with our levelers loaded on his golf cart. Dressed up in his mechanic’s overalls, he was ready for business. He is so smart and talented! He has helped us before with other issues as well as many, many other folks in our park. He is “the to go to man” for problems with your motor home. And his always willing and generous with his knowledge and skills to help anyone out. We should put up a shrine for him so we can worship him as he deserves to be revered. The job was horrible. He had to get on the cement ground and squeeze himself under each corner near each wheel. He had to unscrew rusted bolts and jockey the old, filthy, HEAVY leveler out from under the RV. He had to do this in a very tight space with his arms up holding heavy drills, etc and of course, the monster leveler......4 Times!!! And then, he had to do it all again putting the new ones on.....4 Times! We asked George Catherwood if he would lend a hand cause there was Cory: helpless like a kitten. He couldn’t lift or bend because of his eye surgery. He was so frustrated. It was killing him not being right down there doing what he could. All day, Dave worked away. He was truly determined to finish this horrendous job. George was right there doing what he could to assist. Bless their hearts! What good men they are....what great friends they are! We are blessed. George had to leave after many hours of work while Dave continued on to completion. Unbelievable. We felt bad that we had taken Dave away from his lovely wife, Linda. It was Valentines Day! Forgive us, Linda, but thank YOU ever so much for sharing your marvelous husband with us. You both are the best! Okay.....levelers all on. Now the test. See how our leveling system works. OMG! We have a “failure to launch!” Nooooooooooo! It doesn’t work! It turns on but goes into a error mode. How disappointing. We have our guide books out, YouTube on, plus I wrote for suggestions on our Tiffin Owner Internet site that we belong to. Dave tried everything....but nothing. Enough for tonight. It’s been a long day especially for Dave. We’ll try again in the morning. We are parked and not going anywhere for months so it will wait. Sure enough, our dedicated mechanic friend was right there in the morning to figure it out. He diligently worked away on it. Nothing. I called Tiffin to see if they could offer some guidance or suggestions. Yep! Dave had to go out and drill one of the levelers down 1” and then push different buttons on the console. Great. That got rid of the error mode and we could now manually work the levelers just fine. But the automatic leveling part wasn’t working. Hello...Tiffin? The tech talked Dave through the steps to reset the automatic system. Viola! It worked....everything was working! We were level! Dave has a different make RV than ours so much of this was different than what he is used to. He has a very good brain and is able to figure things out just by thinking about it. Einstein.....a relative, Dave??? How on earth do we compensate this great guy for a major job well done? How?? Obviously, pay him is the first choice but he refuses that. We can’t give him our “first born” cause she’s 54 years old now. I guess I could be their maid for a month (please refuse). Cory could be their Uber driver. Yeah! Dave said to just take them out to dinner. Easy Peasy! But that’s not enough.....maybe out to dinner for weeks. We have do something.....and something really good.....we’ll figure it out. Cory always comes up with a perfect idea so get busy, Bucky. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you so much Dave & George......and also Linda & Carole. “There are Good Ships and Wood Ships but the Best Ships are Friendships!”

Speaking of friendships, over the past few weeks we have seen some of our good friends we haven’t seen in awhile. We ran into Walter & Kim at Walmart. They looked great! A great gathering place for many because as we were leaving, we found Saray Schaffer waiting for her husband, Ray, at the exit. It’s always so nice to see her....she is so sweet! I wish you could meet her! Mike Boutet and Joe Galos came for a visit here at our RV. Sandy & Sam came over so they could be with them also. Boy, do we miss those guys! Lots of laughs and memories. Sandra & Jim Barrett came by bearing gifts. Sandy had crocheted 4 sets of a scarf and cap for us and Sandy & Sam. Such beautiful, perfect work she did making them. They are both such delightful friends. Jim always has a joke for you. They make others very happy. Next year, they are coming back to Tropical Palms. Hooray! This year they are staying across the road at Regal Oakes.

I guess I better close this infinite story now. It has become more wordy than I expected. So what’s new.....huh? There is so much yet to cover with you. It will be in the next blog or two so keep an eye out for them...if you are up to it that is. Hope to see you then.

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Photos

Dave ready to work on our levelers
You want me to do what??

Our new levelers
Dave drags a new leveler under our RV

Is that you Dave under there?
Sam becomes a second supervisor

George helping Dave
Supervisor Cory is limited in helping

Sandy, Joe, Cory, Mike, Sam
Great visit...great guys

Jim & Sandra Barrett
Cory & I wearing our new caps and scarves

Comments

[Kevin Palmiter]

cat tracks
What luck eh? I just got my eyes renovated as well. Everything went smooth and I hope it does for Cory as well. Hope to see you both in the spring

[Sandy and Cory]

Wonderful
Glad all went well with your eyes, Kevin, Hope we can SEE you in the spring, too. Right now we are picturing you going to the Maple Inn and enjoying their scrumptious food....even though we have NEVER been there. We are always here in Florida when they are open.