From Northern Florida March 17, 2008

Since my last posting we have moved from the Lake Worth area in Southern Florida to Northern Florida. We have not had many adventures – doing more mundane things such as getting our yearly physical at the Mayo Clinic, with the usual attendant collection of body fluids, poking and scanning, and waiting for the next appointment. (The Mayo Clinic is a little unusual in that they try to get you your full range of exams – actual physical exam, blood collection, X-ray and CAT scan if needed; eye exam and heavens know what else, within a few days.) Anyway, the final reading seems to be that as we get older, parts wear out, and more pills are needed to compensate. Still, all in all, we seem to be pretty healthy – feeling good, with just a few things that need to be periodically monitored.
Before going to Jacksonville to the Mayo Clinic, we stopped off at Lazy Days RV Park near Tampa, and refreshed our driving skills with a driving lesson. We had taken one there several years ago, but seem to be a little hazy on how to best set the mirrors and how most easily to back into parking spots. We had a nice session. The 40 foot coach we now have seems to handle differently from the 37 foot coach we had before. I believe the wheel base is longer. At any rate, things we had learned to do instinctively on the shorter coach do not work so well on our present coach.
We are now at an RV park near Bushnell, FL. This park is owned and operated by Escapees, our RV club. This makes the daily fee less, and means we are surrounded by friendly, full time Rivers like us. We are also only about 30 miles from my sister, so we are getting a chance to get lots of visiting in.
While here, we had a chance to visit my cousin, who I have not seen for nearly 60 years. It was quite interesting because he has the same deafness syndrome that I have. He recently got a cochlear implant, and is doing quite well with it.
Soon it will be time to start on our journey west. The price of diesel fuel here is about $4.00/gallon; if we get 8 miles/gallon that is 50cents a mile. Well, you can be sure we will start driving a little more slowly, to increase our miles per gallon. The cost of fuel is manageable, but for sure, the basic costs of our life style has sky rocketed this last year – prices for fuel, campground fees, and food have greatly increased in a period of less than a year.

When we leave Florida, we plan to head for Texas. I want to visit Big Bend Park, We have always wanted to do some four wheeling there, and we now have a vehicle that can do it. The trick will be to get there before it gets too hot. Probably it will be nice in April. From there we will probably head to Arizona. We have to be in Phoenix for a day or two around the first of June. The other firm plans are a trip to Gillett, WY around the last of June to attend an Escapee RV Club get together, and then to Colorado in July for a family reunion.No big adventure yet, but this will give you an idea about what we are doing.Since my last posting we have moved from the Lake Worth area in Southern Florida to Northern Florida. We have not had many adventures – doing more mundane things such as getting our yearly physical at the Mayo Clinic, with the usual attendant collection of body fluids, poking and scanning, and waiting for the next appointment. (The Mayo Clinic is a little unusual in that they try to get you your full range of exams – actual physical exam, blood collection, X-ray and CAT scan if needed; eye exam and heavens know what else, within a few days.) Anyway, the final reading seems to be that as we get older, parts wear out, and more pills are needed to compensate. Still, all in all, we seem to be pretty healthy – feeling good, with just a few things that need to be periodically monitored.
Before going to Jacksonville to the Mayo Clinic, we stopped off at Lazy Days RV Park near Tampa, and refreshed our driving skills with a driving lesson. We had taken one there several years ago, but seem to be a little hazy on how to best set the mirrors and how most easily to back into parking spots. We had a nice session. The 40 foot coach we now have seems to handle differently from the 37 foot coach we had before. I believe the wheel base is longer. At any rate, things we had learned to do instinctively on the shorter coach do not work so well on our present coach.