How Far is Too Far?

We arrived in Milwaukee September 3, thinking that we’d be here 30 days, at worst 60 days.  Well, we will have spent 3-1/2 months here or 103 days by the time we think we’re leaving.  The way things are going in 29 days (as I sit here on Monday writing) we should be able to pull up jacks, retract slides and head South.

While we have been sitting here getting things done and waiting for my body to adjust to medicines one thing has not been happening. Like a lot of people, periods of time spent in flux seem to result in a failure to update one’s expectations. You sort of think you’re going on with your pre-event plans and that’s all there is to it.  Except we aren’t going on with our plans.  For one thing I need to adjust my level of activity to match my state of health.  For another — 2 1/2 months will have passed beyond the time we originally thought we’d be leaving.

I have been wanting to visit Bosque del Apache, and Quartzite, and Tucson and San Diego — but now that we are 2 1/2 months shorter on time it really doesn’t make sense to head that far West this Winter.  I don’t mind driving and covering great distances but  somehow the reward has got to exceed what I see as the cost and it looks like this year a trip West will not be in our play book. We talked about our Winter plan today and we agreed that Bosque-Tucson-Quartzite are better left for the winter of ’16-’17.

Our exact route South will most likely not be determined until the night before we leave.  But it’s fairly certain that we’ll drop straight South from here on I-57 / I-55 and head for the Gulf Coast. We have ideas about potential camp sites but I’m still researching that.  Whether we’ll get into Florida we haven’t decided.  It would be nice to catch up with some friends whom we know to be wintering in Florida but we’ll see how things progress.

We’re also quibbling about whether we’ll hang out here until Dec. 15, or consider leaving as soon as the final checkup visit has concluded.  We have been having warmer than average temps for most of November, but the blessing of better-than-average seems to be failing and if the temps dip consistently into the 20’s overnight we might just decide to have our meds shipped to meet us someplace further south.  If we weren’t talking about new meds this factor might not be quite so touchy.  I keep a slight excess of meds to allow for delays in mail; but the quantity of these new pills that I have on hand doesn’t allow for mail delays and it would just feel better to have them in hand before leaving.  Habit’s a strange thing.  I have gotten accustomed to the pharmacy shipping meds every 84 days.  After a couple cycles of getting 90 days meds every 84 days you get a few days ahead of your supply and making a move means that you have a few extra pills ‘just in case.’

Other RV’s (that are planning on wintering here) have long since put insulation in place to keep their basements warm.  Our impending departure has kept us from any investing much time or effort to insulate the basement of the RV — but extended cold will affect our choices.  I’m supposed to be restricting strenuous activity so it’s something to get used to; my days of just going out and doing it are over I guess.  So we find new ways of coping.

There you have it.  We’ll limit our winter travel this year and save new and exciting adventures for next year.  Thanks for stopping by and … what say we talk again tomorrow.