Well, 2016 is well underway and I'm a little, actually quite a bit, late on posting so I'm going to try to bring our blog as current as possible with whatever time I have to do so. This year has been pretty busy so I've been remiss in posting. For that, I apologize. To begin with, 2016 saw us purchasing another property in Arizona where we usually spend our winter months, arriving around Thanksgiving or Christmas and getting back on the road in March or so. This gives us some time to get our annual physicals done, teeth cleaned, pet health checked etc. Anyway, I saw this property for sale a couple years ago and it came back on the market so I negotiated a deal that was accepted and we became the new owners. Because the previous owners had committed to renting it the first three months, we honored their commitment so we could not take possession until March. We decided to sell the property we owned as we didn't want two rentals. Obviously I was setting myself up for some really busy months, but I was ok with that. Unfortunately my knee, which has been steadily failing for the past couple years finally gave out. A visit to the doctor meant I was in for a total knee replacement. Those that have experienced this event know what's to come, but for those that have not...it's a relatively easy surgery where they sever the bones above and below the knee, drill thru those bones and cement an artificial knee in it's place. Stitch it all back together and away you go. While the procedure is simple the recovery is a bear. Lots of pain, lots of meds and a tremendous commitment to the rehab process. The rehab process is usually 60-90 days. I went under the knife March 1st and was released from rehab on May 15th. I am pleased with the results. I was able to trash the brace I've had to wear for the past several years and I am mostly pain free. Every surgery is not without it's negatives however. Knee surgery is no different. With a "fake" knee, my running/jogging days are over. Also, I am not supposed to do any jumping although I did try it a couple times with no apparent problems. I have pictures but I'm electing not to post them on here on the advice of my darling wife. Anyone wanting to see them, contact me and I'm happy to share.
As you can see, 2016 started out with a bang. We adjusted our schedule to fit everything we had in front of us. Then our youngest daughter let us know we were going to grandparents again in June. Happy days for sure, as this is their first. This compressed everything we had to accomplish into a few short months. It also necessitated us finding a place to call home for a couple months to help with the new grandbaby. Fortunately we had been in discussions with the California State Parks regarding a camp host position and when they called in March asking us if we were still interested, we gave them an enthusiastic yes! We offered to come June 1st, pending my doctor's release and stay thru the Labor Day weekend. We could not stay longer as we also have to renew our driver's licenses this year. South Dakota requires an overnight stay in their State in order to renew and we wanted to get in and out before any snow fell.
That's it for now. On the following pages, I'll post pictures and a narrative relative to our camp host experience, pictures of the grand-baby and our continued trip up to South Dakota and eastward. Stay tuned.....Dennis and Debi
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