Medical Transport

I have had questions as to why we might need medical transport on our journeys. Some of you obviously haven't kept up with the Marge and Lilla exploits over the years, so I'll catch you up to speed.



Marge and I have gone on many adventures together over the years and each one has its own unique qualities and stories that accompany. Like everyone's favorite: "The parking lot kiss OR How to protect yourself in a dark, scary, parking lot." Oh, I'll save that one for another time.


In case no one has noticed, Marge and I are getting older (not old, just better) and with the aging process comes some physical and medical challenges. A few years ago, Jim went on his first adventure with us and his specifications for the trip turned out to be - he would do all the driving BUT Marge and I had to sit in the back seat. This was to keep us from talking from the front seat to the back seat and as he puts it "yelling in his ear." As my arthritis progressed and Marge had knee surgery it became increasingly difficult to maneuver in the back seat and after long hours of travel and immobility our knees, ankles, and feet didn't want to function at warp speed. It was often quite difficult to extract ourselves from the back seat: Jim would reach in the back door, offering me his hand to hoist me out, all the while Marge waited for me to get out so she could literally turn and lay down in the seat in order to swing her legs around and make contact with the ground. So, being the humorous guy Jim is, he started saying he was the medical aid and that he was running a medical transport. You can only imagine two older women, stuck in the back seat for long hours, stopping at a rest stop already on the brink of emergency, trying to get out and get moving, and then Jim comes out with "I'm just the medical transport" (loud enough for everyone close by to hear) - well, I nearly didn't need the rest stop any longer. And to add to all of this, one year Jim nearly broke his leg just before we left on our trip and traveled with crutches propped in the front seat. Now if that wasn't a sight - all three of us gimping through the rest area. We weren't sure who the medic was that year. All I can say is Jim is truly very thoughtful, puts up with us, and takes very good care of us in all our travels.

Roughing it is...

We have acquired a 17' Travel Trailer. It belonged to my mother and father and I had been talking to them about borrowing the trailer for a trip or two and after awhile we wound up making a deal so that we could just acquire the trailer and make it our own.

So now we have the option of camping in the RV or the tent. I have been asked the question (more than once and by more than one person) "what happened to your idea that roughing it was black and white TV at the Holiday Inn"? Well, it's kind of a long story...

When I was a kid our family tent camped. Well, we started out using the back of the cattle truck as our camper. I wish I had a picture of that because we were our own version of the Clampets with a quilt for the door over the back of the truck and an old green, canvas tarp for the roof. On one of our trips it started to rain. Daddy stopped and came out of a little gas station with a sack full of bubble gum - now that was a vacation - Daddy never bought us bubble gum. He told us to chew it all but not to throw it away. Later we found out why - Daddy took two pieces of the chewed gum and put one piece on the bottom of the tarp and one of the top - to stop the leaks! We started out this way because Daddy wanted to see if he would like camping. He didn't think he would - he said he had enough camping during the war. As it turned out, he enjoyed camping and we eventually graduated to a tent and all the fixings. We had many memorable trips and we all seem to remember the same ones and pretty much in the same way, so I figure those were the true highlight trips. One was a trip to Apalachicola's State Park. The road to the park was loooooooooooooooong and when we arrived discovered we were the only ones in this huge park. Most people used it during hunting season. After we set up camp we went down to the lake and prepared our supper at the picnic area. While there, a car drove in and Daddy admonished us not to say anything to anyone about our camping there just in case they were up to mischief. Well that scared me! That night, wild hogs rooted around our tent almost all night long. I lay awake asking over and over - Susan, are you awake (no answer), Marty, are you awake (no answer). I guess I finally went to sleep. What I didn't find out until much later in my life was that Daddy was awake listening to me but didn't answer because he knew if he did I would wind up in the bed with him and Mama and that wouldn't have been comfortable at all. (Of course much later in my life I understood that Daddy was always watching out for us whether we knew it or not.) But we all agree the best camping trip was in our own back pasture. That year Daddy had several young cows penned he was feeding for market. They had to be fed morning and night and so we couldn't go away. We took all the camping paraphernalia down behind the house to the edge of the swamp and set up camp. No one could see us from the house and it became a real game to sneak up to the house, feed the animals, and return to camp without being seen by anyone. Even though we lived on a dead end road with our closest neighbor being about 1/4 mile away, people were always coming and going at our house so we really did have to be careful. We had the campfire every night, roasted marshmallows, hot dogs, all the usual camp fair. Mama had two special dishes for the camp: campfire stew (none of us can remember the recipe) and she always made a jelly cake to take on the camp. So I really enjoyed camping as a kid. Then I got married and started camping with my first husband. I'm not sure what about that experience turned me off to camping but the pleasure sure got sucked out it somehow. That's when I developed my famous saying "roughing it is black and white TV at the Holiday Inn." As time progressed my first husband really got into the primitive camp scene and ultimately went Mountain Man. That was way too much for me - especially when I found out I would have to eat grasshoppers! After the divorce he would take Tiffany camping and I believe she enjoyed that and several times Tiffany and I were invited on camp trips with some special friends. Those were fun also. And every year Mama and Daddy would take the grandchildren camping and sometimes I would go with them, which was always fun too. But it was never anything I set out as my first choice. After Jim and I married he tried to get me to go camping with him and I really didn't want to and he didn't force the issue, but he did keep asking and talking to me about what my objections really were. As it turns out my objection was all the work to prepare to go, all the work while in the camp, the cooking, the cleaning, and then all the work to pack to come home, unpack and clean up at home. That's just way too much work for a "vacation." After we had worked for months anticipating a vacation, I wanted something a little more on the "do nothing at all - have someone wait on me" - side of things and camping just didn't seem to fit that description. Well Jim convinced me it didn't have to be all work and no relaxation so when the opportunity came to observe our first Sukkot, which meant tent camping, I agreed to try. What a blast! Jim was right, there is work involved in camping, but if you plan it just right there is a good mix of work and relaxation AND to be back outside was the bonus. I love to be outside, I love to see the stars at night, I love to see whatever wildlife I can spot during the day, I love the fresh air, I love the freedom of outside! I rediscovered camping can provide all those things.

So that's what happened to "roughing it is..." I am enjoying camping and the great outdoors!

Virginia Trip November 2008

Marge, Jim and I set off for Viriginia during the middle of November. The purpose of this trip was a vacation for Marge, another trip for the retirees, and a special visit with our friends Ginger and Frank Bell. While we were there IT SNOWED! Marge kept saying "It never snows until after the 1st of the year..." and the second day we were there she kept saying "That sure looks like a rain cloud, I didn't know it was going to rain..." and then it snowed instead! We of course were very excited and the residents weren't. We say it snowed - the locals say it was a "dusting." The snow didn't stay unless it fell in a shadow so it really wasn't much where we were located. However, up the mountain the snow stayed and we got to see a lot of that. Deer everywhere, just feeding along side of the road or out in the pastures or on the mountain side. They were beautiful. Of course, I never had my camera with me and so no pictures on this trip. We dined at the Peaks of Otter resort for breakfast (thanks Marge!), we visited an apple orchard, Jim and I had a date to a local steak house, Marge and I shopped at local stores (never even made it to Wal Mart), visited Ginger's business (Ginger Bell's House of Mini Shops), Marge, Ginger, and Frank enjoyed their church's annual Thanksgiving dinner, we stayed up half the night talking almost every night, and we were treated to dinner at Pete and Donna's house. Pete and Donna are friends of Ginger and Frank and now our friends as well. Donna prepared a fabulous home cooked turkey, dressing, fresh cranberry salad, green beans, stewed tomatoes, dinner with coffee, pound cake and blueberry cheesecake ice cream for dessert. (Ginger provided the ice cream).


It was a great trip. Of course! - Marge and I rode in the back seat with our personal chauffeur (James) or our medical transport (Jim), depending on circumstances, doing all the driving.

Cooking and Birthday

"When I retire I can cook." One of my famous statements about retirement. So since I have retired, I have cooked. The key to the first sentence is you need to know how to cook before you retire in order to have much success after you retire. Cooking has never been one of my strong suites and as Jim is experiencing....it still isn't. Mama always said I had too much fun outside to want to spend much time inside trying to learn all the "domestic" duties of a good wife. And now, I have too much fun doing everything else to spend much time trying to learn all the "domestic" duties.

During September I ordered Jim a shofar for his birthday. Wanted to give it plenty of time to arrive since it was coming from Israel. Seven days later it arrived forcing me to keep a secret far longer than I wanted. I had been contemplating giving it to him early because all the Fall observances would be over by his birthday and besides I was itching to give it to him but needed a really good excuse not to wait until his birthday. Then he asked if I could borrow Merle's shofar and I had my excuse. About a week later he asked if I had talked to Debbie about borrowing the shofar and I told him I had it covered and the day before Feast of Trumpets (Yom Teruah) I gave it to him. So he had it for the trip to Kentucky, too.

At various times during the year Jim will start a campaign trying to get me to make a "home made" coconut cake. I usually do the cooking by purchasing a Pepperidge Farm coconut cake. (They are very good by the way.) And when that is gone he renews his campaign for "home made." Now I have time - I can cook and so......I tried my hand at "home made" coconut cake. I bought cake flour, coconut milk and flavoring, and even shred coconut for the icing. When the big day arrived I spent the morning preparing the cake:

It looked just like I made it. A Charlie Brown cake. It tasted pretty good but still not Pepperridge Farm quality.

We returned from our Kentucky trip the Friday before Jim's birthday and with the cold he had contracted he didn't feel like celebrating so we put it off for a week. He then requested COOKED (not instant-doesn't he ever learn?), chocolate pudding for his birthday celebration. Now one week later I am back in the kitchen...cooking pudding this time. I learned a very valuable lesson this day.....you can boil milk on a medium stove setting. Who knew? My motto has always been...Only cowards cook on low....but pudding calls for medium and low temperatures (of course it seemed to take all day). But I was determined to follow the manufacturers directions. Surprisingly the pudding turned out quite nice.

Since then I have made a couple of main course dishes, cooking low, that have been quite tasty. I'm getting it - the secret is low and slow and now that I have time maybe I can cook... (Jim says don't be hasty or too excited yet!)

Kentucky Trip 2008

Our second trip of retirement. This trip had been planned all year anyway so when I retired it just became easy to take our time. We were gone a total of thirteen days, nine of which we spent in our tent. The main purpose of this trip was to observe Sukkot (booths) or the Feast of Tabernacles (Numbers 29:12-40; Leviticus 23: 33-44), temporary dwellings, and so we tent camp. We met the Houtz family (our hosts) several years ago through a teaching Frank gave on-line and then he and Jim started an e-mail correspondence, then phone and when Frank told us he was hosting a Sukkot last September (2007) we packed our bags and went to meet these people. Frank and Mary have five, very well accomplished, children. Several families we met last year were back this year and as always met a lot of new people. There were probably 50-75 people in camp at any one time. There was a communal meal each evening followed by fellowship, singing and dancing. Several evenings we ate in the communal sukka (booth), however, it did get really cold while we were there and so some of the eating and fellowship took place inside. Frank teaches a Bible Study Techniques course and even though we had taken the course last year we went again. You always are reminded of stuff you forgot and then learn something new to boot. Below are pictures of the communal sukka and then our sukka:

As predicted, the leaves were spectacular, the weather perfect, and the wildlife flourishing. There was a flock of about 100 Canadian Geese that would fly in every afternoon just about sunset. They would land in the corn field next to our camp. Noisy but beautiful. For a few nights they camped in the cornfield and would fly out early the next morning (noisy but beautiful). The last few nights they flew into the cornfield at sunset, fed for a little while and then flew to a different location to spend the night so we didn't get to see them fly out in the mornings. We think the coyotes were bothering them since we could hear the coyotes running and howling at night. There were a lot of them by the sounds of their howling. We could also hear hunting dogs during the night and you could always tell when the lead dog tree'ed whatever they were after. He would start baying and you could hear the balance of the pack behind him just a yappin' and then the change back to the pack all together baying at their game. We never saw the coyotes or the hunting dogs but the sounds made pictures enough.

I did not try to take pictures of the leaves or the mountains. Cameras never can produce the depth or dimension needed to capture the grandeur. I did take some sunset pictures (because I just had to try) and it didn't turn out too bad:

There is a project in Kentucky putting quilt squares on the ends of barns. This is an interesting project and imparts a lot of the heritage of the area. The squares are built of wood and are 4 x 8 in size. I have found out the project is popular in North Carolina, Tennessee, Indiana, as well as Kentucky. Most likely other states too. I am going to download some additional information and keep it handy as we travel to other areas and for when we go back to Kentucky. Check it out at Kentucky Arts Council website. Follow the links for the Quilt Trail. They have other states listed also.

The weather! When we first arrived it was a very warm middle to high 70's and this lasted a couple of days.....................And Then.............. the cold front moved in with a rainy day and the temperatures began to drop. The lowest night was 32 degrees and the second lowest was 37 degrees. Days were windy and so the wind chill kept the 60 degree weather feeling pretty chilly. For the most part we were toasty warm in our tent and under our covers or with our coats and sweaters. I did wind up buying a head scarf. I have found out Florida winter clothes are quite different to other states winter clothes requirements. A couple of nights Jim got chilled and you know when you are camping there just doesn't seem to be anyway to get warm after you catch a chill. One of the nights he sat in the car with the heater on for a while and that helped. So of course he came home with a terrible cold and now I have it too. For those of you who know me well you know I don't do colds gracefully and I am not pleased that after my successfully avoiding all the germs at work all those years - I retire and almost immediately get sick. What's fair about this? I let my guard down about all those germs out there - I must remain vigilant, they're everywhere!

Our next trip is to Virginia to visit our long time friends, Ginger and Frank Bell. Marge will go with us on this trip and that is always a hoot! Jim will again be our chauffeur or medical transport driver depending on the condition at any given moment. Jim and his friend Michael will do a Two Guys camp trip for a week towards the end of November. They've never been able to go for an extended stay and so they have decided to head to GA to the Stephen Foster Campgrounds. Then we plan to hang it up for a while and get some projects caught up around the house!

Matched Luggage

As I packed to go on our trip to KY I was looking around for ways to pack lots of stuff for the camp and of course the trusty Wal Mart bag came to mind. After I had packed a few items in the Wal Mart bags it suddenly dawned on me I now had "reuseable" Wal Mart bags (not that I ever remember to take them in the store, but thats another whole story). So out to the car I go and retrieve the reuseable bags (they have to stay in the car so I remember to take them in to the store - HA!!) and as suspected they worked marveously. Now I am at camp and unpacking the supplies and setting up the camp (what we affectionately call nesting) and as I unpack the Wal Mart bags I am reminded of Lennie. Lennie was a friend of the family - a cantankerous old coot -but he had an affection for our family and in his own way looked out for all of us even though we sometimes deemed it an intrusion. One day Lennie told us he had a set of matched luggage he used for all his travels and then revealed the matched luggage was actually two plastic Wal Mart bags:

This old joke never failed to bring tremendous delight and laughter to Lennie and subsequently to all of us.

So as I unpacked my "reuseable" Wal Mart Bags I thought of Lennie and what a fancy set of matched luggage he could now have if he were still with us. These are the "Samsonite" of the "matched luggage" industry:

Rest in peace Lennie - you still make us laugh.

Greetings from Retirement Land

OK - I have decided to give blogging a try. This will be my first post and for some of you a duplication of an e-mail previously sent. Sorry for the duplication. My first focus will be to keep you all updated on the fact that We are still alive and well and gloat a little about the retirement gig.

Our first retirement trip was to North Carolina thanks to our friends Aldene and Lamar who so generously shared their RV for a weeks stay. The picture at the top is the name of the campground where their RV is parked and the road name - which is "No Name Rd." We thought this was a hoot. The manager and all the residents were very friendly. And by the way - Aldene says the RV is for sale if any one is interested. They are embarking on a new adventure that requires traveling about rather than being stationary. Thanks guys!!

As way of background: Jim does not especially care to do the classic tourist thing, so traveling can sometimes be a challenge for ME - "you're gonna have fun if it's the last thing I do" type conversations. Then of course Jim answers in that oh so patient way - what makes you think I'm not having fun? Then I plop him wherever he chooses to "have fun" and then I go about my merry, touristy way, checking back in with him periodically to be sure he's still "having fun" sitting on that bench, by the stream, back at camp, or wherever.

Well, this time one of the things high on my list of tourist things to do was to gem mine. I experienced gem mining about 20 years ago when Tiffany and I went to North Carolina with the Hauff's and have been wanting to go back ever since. So when I saw the chance, since we were staying in the middle of gem mining country anyway, I mentioned this to Jim as one of my "list of things to do on this trip." He decided this might be something interesting to check out and agreed to go ONCE..............WELL - we went back two more times before we had to leave and come home. He's got the bug. So our new names, to be engraved on the redwood shingle that will hang on the RV or tent, will be: Jim and Lilla, the 49ers, Lake Panasoffkee, FL.

I have attached several pictures (just like an ole retiree). Of course the views were always spectacular. It was too early for leaf change although we were seeing a lot of the reds pop. Middle of October will be better for leaf change. We had a blast!

Next trip will be for Sukkot to Winchester, KY, leaving middle of October. We should really see some leaf change on this trip. I'll bore you with an update and pictures after our return.