Summer 2013, Prologue

Summer 2013 Travel Blog

Prologue:  First, let me fill in the gap(s) since my last blog posting of August 15, 2012.  A lot has happened this past winter and I am going to try and recap it in less than two paragraphs. 

Here goes… 

Our summer trip last year ended August 15 when we rolled into Dolores, Colorado and parked in our driveway once again.  Since our house is still rented we were only going to be there for a short time.  We stayed about a week then I headed for Tucson and Mike stayed with friends, or as I like to tease him, he “slept around.”  He stayed at our house in the guest bedroom downstairs for a couple of days (Thank you, Kathy!), he stayed with Lee in Cortez for a couple of days and he stayed with Mike & Marie in Dolores for several days.  He joined me in Tucson on September 10, one day earlier than the year before. 

The 2012/2013 winter season was a different kind of season at Far Horizons RV Resort in Tucson.  It was unusually cold most of the season so “patio parties” were few and far between or were very cold, the flu and colds ran rampant throughout the resort and I was diagnosed with anal cancer.  Fortunately, it was caught early and the team at the Univ. of AZ Medical Center took very good care of me even if they did try to “kill” me with the treatments!!   I have now experienced 27 radiation treatments and two rounds of 96 hour chemo treatments first hand and I hope I NEVER have to go through that again!  The prognosis is excellent and the doctors are so confident they got it all that my port for the chemo infusions was removed on April 8, my niece Brittany’s birthday.  I have to give special recognition to my loving spouse Mike, or as I learned to call him, Nurse Ratchett, for making sure I followed doctors orders and didn't over do it.  Interestingly enough, while everyone else in the resort was sick Mike and I did not catch even a slight cold!  That’s what quarantine will do for you!  Thank you Mike for helping me cope with my “social isolation.”  It was a tough season.

This is a pic of Cassie (on the left) and Danielle (on the right), my Radiology Techs.  They helped me get through all 27 treatments.  Cassie has a special place in my heart...

Prologue, part 2:  I picked the date of April 23 at random to leave Tucson.  Not sure why, I guess it was a birthday present for Doris V. and Lasell B.  The plan was to visit family and friends in the SE states where we are from.  This includes Florida, Georgia, Alabama and Texas.  FL & GA would be my family, AL is where Mike’s family lives and our friends Darrell & Frank live in Houston, TX.  We also wanted to check out South Padre Island in Texas since we have heard so much about it.  In total we would be on the road for about two months, returning to Tucson on June 21 or 22.  I have follow up doctor appointments and a PET/CT scan scheduled for the last week of June.  After that we will go home to Colorado for the rest of the summer and fall. 

Mike had been working diligently on our itinerary during the winter and had it mapped out to go to Houston, South Padre Island, Florida, Georgia, and Alabama and then return to Tucson.  Two things changed our plans, our friend Darrell in Houston was going to Florida the same dates we were to visit him and we got the word my niece would be graduating from the Physical Therapy Assistant program at St. Petersburg College on Saturday, May 4^th.  Mike easily adjusted our itinerary to go to Florida first then GA, AL and then Houston before going to South Padre.  And as all things in life are fluid so are our plans for this trip.  We have now decided to skip South Padre and head back to Tucson after stopping in Houston and then in Dallas to see Ann & Evan.  Shh, we haven’t told them we’re coming for a visit yet.