UPDATES

December 2, 2007:

Just wanted to let y'all know that we did indeed make it back to the Houston area, as planned, for our annual medical checkups and other appointments. Of course, the trip wasn't without some incidents, like the awning and the right front jack deciding that they weren't going to work anymore. We are in the process of getting those remedied.

On our trip back, we again visited my mom in Turlock, attended my 45th high school reunion in Salinas, and visited the girls in SoCal. From there, we scooted east to Albuquerque, NM for the annual Balloon Fiesta, an event that is always so spectacular.

At the moment, I am in the process of writing our annual newsletter that I've been snail mailing to friends and relatives since we started on this wonderful adventure some seven years ago. I will post it on the website once I finish with it.

Now, with the medical stuff behind us, and with everything just fine, we will again be heading down to Rockport very soon for the holidays. As usual, we hope to get our fill of shrimp and other seafood that is so plentiful in that area. As for after the first of the year, we still haven't made any firm plans, but we are hoping to head east and then north along the eastern seaboard after the warmer weather comes. We'll see!!!!

Happy holidays, and thanks so much for your support.......Donna

August 28, 2007:

After Ron's checkup in January, we headed west, and now, after 7 months, Ron is doing just fine.......knock on wood!!!! Fortunately, we have spent all this time in the southwest, during the winter, and the northwest, all summer, where we have experienced some really wonderful weather!!!!

Now, I have finally taken the time to write and edit our travel articles about the places that we have visited in these last 7 months. I've just posted them on the website, and I would love to hear any feedback.

On the downside, we have spent a month, off and on, at Guaranty RV in Junction City, OR, trying to get some warranty issues resolved. Those weeks during May through August, for the most part, have not been a pleasant experience. Maybe later, I will write an article about that, but we still have one more stop there after Labor Day. Then, it's down to California for another visit with my mom, my high school reunion in Salinas, visits with the girls in SoCal, and our start back to Texas for medical checkups.

Thanks so much for your support..........Donna

February 21, 2007:

We are very sorry to report that we had to put down our yellow Lab, Cassie, last Friday. Her health had been deteriorating over the past year and half or so, and watching her fade away in front of our eyes just got to be too much for us both. Needless to say, this was a very tough decision, but we know that she's somewhere swimming in a river or chasing tennis balls, things that she hasn't been able to do for quite some time. Half of her life was spent on the road with us, and she truly loved it.

We are missing her very much............Donna

December 30, 2006:

Happy New Year!!!!

I apologize for being so lax in keeping y'all up-to-date with our activities. With the New Year upon us, I figured that I better set things straight before I get really behind.

First of all, in my last update email, I said that we were "resting and recuperating in South Carolina" and anticipated starting our departure on Friday, September 8. What I didn't say was that Ron had already been to an ER about some sort of infection in his system. What I didn't know was that we would end up in Chattanooga, TN for 10 days with Ron in the hospital. Unfortunately, after all that time, there still was no exact diagnosis, so we insisted on heading back to Texas for a scheduled appointment with his regular doctor.

After more labs and that appointment, Ron was in the hospital again for 5 days. By this time, whatever was in his system had run its course, with the help of antibiotics, and he was feeling much better. However, we are still in south Texas, waiting for follow-up appointments during the first week in January, as final clearance to head west.

One more thing, in late October, I posted an article about our travel in August 2006, but I totally forgot about sending out the update emails. You can find that on the website under "2006 Travels".

Also, to be found on the website are our yearly newsletters, something that we send out by snail mail at the end of each year to our "computer challenged" friends and relatives. These are basically a synopsis of where we have gone and what we have done during the year. Along with the 2006 Newsletter, all of our previous yearly "Newsletters" are now the website.

Again, I apologize for not keeping y'all promptly up-to-date!!! I will try to do better in the coming year.

Take care, and travel safe............Donna

September 6, 2006:

I just updated our "2006 Travels" on the website with three more segments with lots of pictures. These segments cover the last half of July. All of this took me a month to do for a couple of reasons. First of all, I took a spill and landed on my tailbone, so I couldn't sit in my chair for more than a few minutes at a time. Now, a month later, my backside is still sore, but much, much better. Believe me, a small pillow on my chair and in the car helps immensely. Second, we were very, very worn out with the rally activities, despite my problem, and still experiencing some very, very warm and humid temperatures.

Right now, we are resting and recuperating in South Carolina before we start our trip back to Texas for our checkups. Our mail forward arrived today, and Ron's one overnight RX shipment should be here tomorrow, so maybe we'll leave on Friday.

The next segments about our travels will be about "NASCAR adventures" while at our rallies. We visited a number of garages and museums, including Richard Childress Racing and Museum, Dale Earnhardt Inc., and Penske, along with Memory Lane Museum and Dale Earnhardt's hometown of Kannapolis, NC. Believe me, I took lots of pictures!!!!

More later............Donna

August 3, 2006:

I've updated "2006 Travels" on our website with the #4 entry, up to July 16, and I've added pictures to the first three. Hopefully, I will be able to get completely up-to-date while we are here in North Carolina.

Until about a week ago, we have had mid-80 temperatures, but now it is unbearably hot and humid, just like so many parts of the country. Fortunately, we have had excellent 50A power, so we, and Cassie, are keeping cool. Hopefully, this will all move on very soon!!!!

In the next couple of weeks, we will be involved in a couple of rallies in this area. But, because the Atlantic Ocean and the beach are "calling" us, and they are only about 200 miles away, we'll probably head there before starting west again.

Stay tuned............Donna

July 9, 2006:

I have finally put another "chapter" on our website called "2006 Updates", where I put the email that I sent to y'all a few weeks ago, and I added an update today. I will try to post something more when we have an internet connection as we move east toward North Carolina. As for photos......well, that will take a bit more time!!!! I will get to that as soon as I can.

Thanks for your support and understanding............Donna

June 20, 2006:

I'm sure that by now all of you on my website update lists are wondering if we are still out there enjoying the fulltime lifestyle. Yes, we are, but after all that we've been through with the medical issues, I was a little burned out with the writing. Now, we are back out on the road, albeit slowly traveling. so I really do have plenty of time to write little tidbits about where we are and what we're doing.

For now, to bring you up-to-date with us, on January 1, 2006, we again went out to Arizona and California to attend a couple of rallies, as well as visit family and friends, some of whom we hadn't seen for some 30 to 40 years. After returning to Texas, this time to San Antonio, in early April, we visited with some internet friends, toured San Jose Mission, and enjoyed dinner and the boat ride on the Riverwalk. From there, we spent 2 weeks in Rockport, on the Texas Gulf Coast and then 2 weeks in Conroe to take care of medical checkups.

We are now "liberated" from the medical stuff, at least for the time being!!!! On May 8, we started out on a new adventure, this time at our own pace and on our own schedule. The general plan was to head north through Arkansas, Missouri, and into Iowa. From there, we would head east to Charlotte, NC for the FMCA Rally in mid-August. So far, we've pretty much stuck with that, but right now, some 6 weeks into this trip, we've only gone as far as southern Illinois.

I will detail where we've been in another email, but there's one thing that I must comment about. We have stayed at Corps of Engineers (COE) campgrounds for nearly half of those 6 weeks. These are some of THE most beautiful parks that we have ever seen!!!! They accommodate all sizes of RVs, even big rigs, and while most of them do not have a sewer connection, most of them have at least water and 30A electric. To our surprise, we're finding more and more of them have 50A!!!! What's more, the sites are extra large, well-spaced, and usually with huge, mature trees, and lots of grass!!!! On top of that, since Ron has his Golden Age Passport, these campsites are half-price for us. What a savings!!!!!

One more thing.......to all of you who have supported us during these almost 6 years, through our travels and medical issues......thank you so very much!!!! We'd love to hear from you about any travel suggestions for our new adventure!!!

More later............Donna

October 30, 2005:

Since I haven't posted anything to our website since last May, I just wanted to let y'all know that Ron and I are doing just fine. I've had a few emails wondering about that, hence this email.

We did leave the Houston area toward the end of April, and we did head west, as planned. Our trip took us to Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico, Sedona in Arizona, the scenic coast of Oregon, and Mount St. Helens in Washington, as well as many other places in between. After almost five months on the road, we returned to Texas for our planned medical checkups, but we definitely got more than we bargained for!!!!

First, Ron was diagnosed with an incisional hernia, followed the next day with an evacuation from Hurricane Rita that lasted for a week. Later, we moved to the park south of Houston where we stayed after the transplant surgery, and he had the hernia surgery a few days later. Now, he's doing well and feeling much better.

At this point, we're going to stay put until at least early December because of followup medical appointments and fuel prices. Hopefully, we will be able to head west to Quartzsite, in January, for an Alpine Coach rally. We've wanted to attend one of these rallies since we moved into the motorhome earlier this year.

For the time being, I'm going to work on redoing and updating our website. After 5 years of fulltiming, I really think that it needs a complete revamping!!!! Wish me luck on this huge task!!!!

Thanks for your continuing interest............Donna