Everything is falling in place

Just a short update.  Received a call this morning that my MH was finished.  Picked it up and ran down and had the propane tank filled.  The wind was horrible!  Had gusts up to 50 mph.  So glad I'm not traveling today.

I'm now ready to pack.  I've locked down my departure date to Monday, December 2nd, after all the holiday traffic has died down.

After studying the maps, I have decided to head straight south on I-55 and spend the first night somewhere near Memphis, TN.  They are calling for a nice sunny day and only a low of 34 for the night.

The second day will get me to Tyler, TX in the evening to meet friends and spend the night there.  After that I'm not sure what happens.  Will plan that later.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  I'm thankful that George is feeling better, eating better and enjoying a beer.

See you later.

Blood Test Results and MH in the Shop

Received the anticipated blood test results and all the bad results I had in May are gone.  The main result I was happy about was the glucose level.  In May my A1C was 6.9.  Anything over 6 is considered diabetic.
  
My doctor told me before considering medication, I should exercise and go on a low carb diet to see if I could reverse the upward trend.  

I religiously stayed on a low carb diet for six months, eliminating all breads, potatoes, ice cream, cookies, donuts... everything I liked.  It worked thanks to my wife Dolly's great cooking and my test results came back at 5.7, the best I've had since 2015.

I'm still in the pre-diabetes range because my daily fasting sugar level is 116 and should be under 100.  I can live with that.

My plans are to leave right after Thanksgiving, so the other day I went out to the MH to take it down to fill with propane, but it would not start.  The engine turned over but would not start.  Either no gas or no spark.

Tried on and off all day with no luck.  Finally, I called my son-in-law, Evan to take a look.  We both tried starting it and listening for fuel pump noises, but still wouldn't start.  Finally, Evan tried it one last time before giving up and it started right up.

Not wanting to head out without knowing the problem, I made a call Thursday morning to a car shop and they said they would take a look so I took it in right away.

Friday morning got a call.  They found the gas filter was inhibiting the gas flow and they recommended a tune-up with new plugs.  Never had that done, so sounded good.  

They promised to have it done by Wednesday so I can stay on schedule.  Not imperative I leave next weekend, but it would be nice.  

The weather has been very wintry this Fall, with cold cloudy days and several snow events.  I will be glad to move towards warmer and sunnier weather, that's for sure.

As I prepare for my journey, my thoughts turn to George and Suzie.

See you later.

Indianapolis Monumental Marathon

November 10, 2019

Just like clockwork, each year there is another Marathon in Indianapolis and Steve has to attend.  Reason why is because he has attended every one of them since the inception.  This is the twelfth year.

Friday around noon, Dolly and I along with Steve and his son Nick jumped into Kristi's (my daughter) car and drove the 2 1/2 hours to Indianapolis.  We took Fergie along but left Yuma with Kristi's daughter, Erin.

Stayed at the same hotel as we do every year and had dinner at the hotel's restaurant, Nicolinos.  Went to bed early in preparation of the big day.  Of course I had to watch Gold Rush.

The race started at 8 o'clock so we were up early in the 26 degree temperature.  The day called for sunny and 46 later in the day, but for the race  it was downright cold for us spectators.

After the ceremonies, Steve left first with the 26.3 mile marathoners.  

 Half hour later Kristi and Nick took off with the 5K runners.  Dolly and I are proud of them for doing this each year.

Steve's goal was to break 3 hours as he did several years ago, but it wasn't to be.  He hit a brick wall near the end and came in with a 3 hours, three minutes and 6 seconds time.  So close.  It was his second best time ever.  I can't comprehend running 26 miles at an average of 7 minutes a mile.  Congratulations to Steve!

Kristi had a goal of 39:59 at 49.  She wanted a time of 39 minutes and 59 seconds at age 49.  Not to be.   Her time came in at 40:12.  So close.  Congratulations to Kristi!

Nick also ran the 5K but he had practiced every day and his time was 22:17.  He beat his previous best by 2 minutes. Congratulations to Nick!  

Here they are with their medals.

My oldest son and his family live in Lebanon, IN not far from Indy, so we stopped for a couple hour visit.  Great to see Ben, his family and an old family friend John, just happened to be in town so had a nice visit with him also.

After a stop at McDonalds, we got home around 5:30.  Long day, but a fun time with family.

See you later.

We have WIFI

Today has been cool with a high of 47, but at least it was sunny.  

Loved our large TVs in the den and bedroom.  We had another surprise today.  For years we have had no internet service at our house except for our Verizon cell phones and a Verizon hotspot.

We're now in the twenty-first century with Frontier internet service.  Not fast but better than just cell service.  The reason we weren't able to get service was that Frontier didn't have enough lines for our area so nothing was available.  The installer today, ran a wire above ground from the highway to the connector and added a line for us.  

However, since the line is just running along the road it will probably get ripped by a mower or any number of things and we will go dead.  Frontier is near bankruptcy so they don't have the money to do it properly by burying it.  We'll just have to see how it goes.

See you later.

New TV

Another fairly nice partly sunny day with a little wind to keep it feeling cool.  Again, not much happening today, but about 5 o'clock we got a knock at the door and it was the FedEx man delivering our TV.  We were surprised because we didn't expect it till Tuesday.

Dolly and I immediately opened the box and put the legs on it.  Then we unhooked the 55" TV in the den and put it in the bedroom, removed that 32" TV and took it into the kitchen.  Then we hooked up the new 55" TV in the den and went through the setup and it worked immediately.  Not bad for two old electronic illerates.  All done by 5:30 and ready for dinner and some football!

After dinner I replaced the 23" TV in the kitchen with the 32" TV from the bedroom and with a few problems, got it going.  

Tomorrow, I will take the 23" TV out to the RV and see if the amps are low enough to replace my old 12" bedroom TV.

Enough excitement for one night.  See you later.

Another slow day

Not much of a blog tonight.  Turned out to be a beautiful day with the high around 55 degrees.  Normally, that would be cold but with the sun it just felt nice.

We were expecting to receive delivery of our new 55 inch Visio TV on Saturday, but it wasn't delivered.  Checked online with FedEx and it won't be delivered till Tuesday sometime.  Luckily we didn't move TVs around to prepare early. Pays to procrastinate sometimes.

With the time change, I'm ready for bed but it is only 7 o'clock; too early for bed.  I'm hoping to have more energy once I get to the southwest and start hiking more often.  Looking back, I notice the first weeks of my trips, I talk about being tired, but as the days go by, the feeling must disappear because I no longer mention being tired.

Spent some time this evening going over my Trip Check List so I don't forget anything when I leave.  Before I know it, I will be rushing around trying to get things done before I can leave.

Back to watching some football.  See you later.

Leaves are falling

One of the benefits of living in the country on Halloween, is you don't get any trick or treaters stopping by.  They would rather go where the houses are closer together for maximum candy per hour.  Our one grandson of this age did not go out in the freezing cold except for just a couple of houses nearby, so no grandparent duties for us.

As you can see, the leaves fell in droves this morning after the 23 degree night we had.  It was a shock for the first freeze of the fall.

It was sunny and warmer today.  43 degrees for a high with very little wind.  Should be in the low 40s for the next week.  Not going to hit 58, the normal high for quite a few days.  Stuck my head out the door for a few pictures of the falling leaves and then the remainder of the day was inside watching TV once again.

Dolly has been wanting a larger TV in our bedroom.  Currently, there is a 32 inch TV I received as a retirement gift in 2007.  Time for it to retire now.  We have a 55 inch Visio TV in our Den that is our main TV.  It is getting a little older but still a wonderful TV.  I ordered a new55 inch Visio to replace the one in the Den and will place the older one in our bedroom.  Should fill the bill for a larger TV.  The new one is scheduled for delivery tomorrow, Saturday morning.  Looking forward to the change.

I'm now officially in the month of departure.  The countdown is underway now.

See you later.