We've had fun designing our little site to suit us, planting flowers to attract butterflies, and gardening just a little.
We've watched our RV park grow in size and numbers of residents, and, from the first day we came, we have made many friends. In fact, our winter neighbors are more like family than friends!
As we have traveled back and forth between Texas and Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania, we have seen a lot of beautiful scenery, given thanks for safe travels, laughed and gasped at the antics of other drivers, and camped overnight in some memorable campgrounds. Over the years we have visited friends in Quebec City; Maine; Arkansas; Sault Ste. Marie, and the upper peninsula of Michigan; North Bay, Ontario; Minnesota; Door County, Wisconsin; Kansas; New Orleans, Louisiana; Nashville, Tennessee; the New England states; the Smokies. the Adirondacks and Appalachian mountains; and many lovely places in between. We have been richly blessed!
Several years ago, MarySue insisted we develop a Plan B for living arrangements for the inevitable day when we would have to give up traveling. We spent about two weeks researching Continuing Care Retirement Communities in the area of Columbus, Ohio. Our younger son lives just about a 90 minute drive from there; close enough to visit but far enough away to lead his own life!
This spring, a series of events prompted us to accept that NOW is the time for that move. Just as we were preparing to head north on our annual summer migration, some blood test results sent Bruce into a series of diagnostic tests that is not over yet. He has one more test to complete but, at this point, the doctor who scheduled the test says, "I'll do it because it was ordered by another doctor but, on the basis of the reports of the tests you've had already, I'd say you have nothing to worry about."
While all this was going on, our dentist discovered by X-ray that MarySue had another infected tooth. She had one removed about a year and a half ago and this new one was the next tooth, and the support of a bridge! So, while Bruce was keeping the doctors, labs, and radiology departments busy, MarySue was started on a round of dentists: an endodontist who attempted a root canal (which was not successful); an oral surgeon who extracted the infected tooth and the attached bridge and grafted in bone tissue into the gum in preparation for implants in the fall. She now has a big hole in her mouth but she is OK.
All of this put us at least six weeks behind the travel schedule we had planned on -- and it gets HOT in south Texas in June! We began to consider this a "wake-up call" that it might be time to consider Plan B! In the midst of this travel delay, the CCRC contacted us with the news that they had several apartments available that met our requested size -- and one had an outdoor patio! That hastened our decision!
Our plan at this time is to leave south Texas on June 18, drive to Ohio and take possession of our apartment in Westminster Thurber Retirement Community in early July. The facility is the one we had chosen in our previous research.
The apartment we have chosen is on the 7th floor of Thurber Tower (the high rise building in the center of the picture above) and has one of the center outside patios.
In the meantime, in ten days, we need to sell our RV site here in Texas. Then, as we travel toward Columbus, Ohio we will be making decisions about selling the RV and trading the truck for a smaller, more traffic friendly vehicle. There will be some furniture to buy because most of the furnishings in the RV are built in. We might be settled into our new location by the end of the year!
Your friendship has been so precious to us over the years that we wanted to keep you in touch with what is going on in our lives. When we know what our address will be, we'll let you know. Of course our e-mail addresses and phone numbers will remain the same. We invite you to visit, whether or not we are settled in! The "Welcome mat" is always out for our friends! We hope that your lives are as exciting and blessed as ours -- but more settled!
