What's Your Nickname?

I am pretty tired, but figured I'd better get something posted before I forget it all. I got my motorhome door fixed, the 30 amp plug rewired and a leaky water drain valve fixed before making the trip into the park. A wonderful law enforcement ranger gave me an escort up the mountains and down into the Chisos Basin campground. Yikes! I could only manage 35 mph up the hill so things are not looking too good for any Rocky Mountain trips in the future. I was not scared at all after I began the drive but even though I used the lowest gear to wend my way down into the Basin the brakes still smelled really hot.

My cohosts, Steve & Stephanie are absolutely wonderful! When they arrived here 6 weeks ago there was no one here to show them the ropes and they learned the job from the manual and paperwork left by the previous hosts. Steve has been living in pain all that time. He was injured on the trip to Big Bend and, unfortunately, they will be going home this Friday. But they have started a fun tradition that I intend to carry on! The most memorable campers automatically get a nickname! They have christened Bob Marley, Drunk & Drunker, Drunk & Drunker 2, Stinky, Home School, Ricky Gervaise, Carol King, and The Hippies.

Stephanie is incredibly quick witted so it challenges me to sharpen mine. Friday night some of our campers were very noisy so I spent extra time going around and shushing folks. I knew I was going to have problems with a young couple on site 17 as she pretty much ignored me when I asked them to keep their voices down. I was in the shower a little after 10:30, trying to sleep by 11:00 and debating whether I should put on my uniform again and trek up the hill to ask #17 to pipe down again. I didn't do that, lay there praying that people in the next campsites would say something, and was eventually thankful when, at 11:32 peace and quiet finally fell over the campground.

Still awake at 12:15 a.m. I was startled to hear a woman's voice ,"No!", "Oh!". My first thought was, "Gosh, not a domestic dispute at this time of night! What will I do?" In a moment the utterances turned into rapturous, LOUD moans of delight and I knew we had a domestic event of a more pleasurable nature, so to speak. And AGAIN at 12:23 a.m. Then once again, peace and quiet until morning. It took me a few moments, but I dubbed the woman on #17 Meg Ryan. ("Ahem, waiter? I'll have what she's having!" from Sleepless in Seattle.)

Bless her little heart! (We ARE in Texas so that phrase is appropriate.) She did not realize that the acoustics on that site amplify every little sound emanating from there and bounce the sound clear across the campground.

Besides the down-side of the job - having to bird-dog folks to follow the rules - it is very enjoyable. The people who come to Big Bend regularly have wonderful stories to tell and love chatting with us camphosts. I only worked 3 days so far but met many young people who were here for the wedding of a couple who had met and fell in love here and were now being married at the amphitheater this weekend.

I also spent a lot of time listening to the stories of a couple who had raised 5 girls and 5 boys and always brought them here. They were sitting at "their" campsite and she told me of the day her husband had taken all but the youngest child on a hike and while she stayed back at camp with the baby. Within moments of the family's departure, mom was clearing the picnic table of breakfast dishes and preparing to wash them when baby became excited and pointing for mama to look. So look she did! And as a big rattlesnake slithered up under the picnic table, mama grabbed the baby and jumped up onto the table. There she waited all day long, no rangers came by, the rattlesnake resting peacefully under the table until almost dark when the rest of the family returned to rescue her.

On my day off yesterday several of us had a fun lunch at the home of park people who live up in the Terlingua Ranch Area. David and Reine live way up the side of a big hill and they have been building their home bit by bit. It has grown so much since I last saw it and they had even installed a big bubble tub this last week. So much fun to visit with them and enjoy brisket, everybody's special pot luck dishes, magnificent views of the desert, and cooling breezes on their big front porch.

Today I hiked the Window Trail and a portion of the Oak Springs Trail. I was out for 4.5 hours and took many breaks to rest my back. I make real good use of my trekking poles to support myself. It irks me somewhat that I cannot go at the pace I used to but the hike was sure nice despite all that. (By the way, I am so glad I had the surgery to remove the neuromas last September! My feet are almost as good as new!)

Birdie, don't eat the poop on the rock! Oops, too late. She nibbled.

Back in the hiking mode!

A white, fuzzy spidery creature, about 1/2" long that I cannot find a match for online.

The Window - where the ancient caldera that is the Basin opens up onto the surrounding desert.

Even though this photo and the next are not great, you may get a sense of the huge drop in elevation from the Window. The little white smudge is the water tanks that store water pumped to the Basin. The green smudge above and to the right of the white tanks is Oak Spring I believe.

This is the Chisos Basin, with the campground in the center. The "V" is the Window.

This and the next photo are sunset Thursday night.

Tighe cracked me up the other day as he just laid his body down and stuck his face in the food bowl. Pretty lazy that morning!

Back On the Road!

It has been almost 10 months since I last blogged, so I feel a little rusty. Looking back makes me incredibly sad about Ross being gone. Everything else is going pretty well, though. Mom is happy at the Timbers and has such an active social life it is hard to catch her at home in the apartment. Ruth his recovering slowly but well after her back surgery and can't wait to get back to her job at Little Friends. It was great to be with all my friends & family in Illinois and life goes on. The call of life on the road beckons!

So now I am in Marathon, Texas at the Marathon Motel which has RV camping, too. Moving into the Chisos Basin at Big Bend National Park Tuesday to be camphost there, followed by jobs as camphost at Castalon and backcountry in the East District again. Lots of park employees and some volunteers have moved on but that means new friends and experiences!

On the way to Big Bend I stayed at Camelot RV in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, Still Meadow RV Park in Mt. Vernon, Texas, and La Hacienda RV park in Austin, Texas. I had wanted to see Jep and Renae in Arkadelphia, Arkansas but a scare with the air conditioner not working forced me to move on to anywhere with RV services. (More about that later.)

In Austin my friend from our teen years, Laurie, met me so we could catch up on old (and new!) times. She recently retired and is dipping her toes into traveling by her first month-long gig as a cat sitter in Austin. It doesn't pay anything, but she has a free place to stay for a month while she explores the area. Very cool! Her next trip is to Panama for 3 months the first of the new year. Her husband has started and absolutely loves his career/business in massage therapy so he is waiting to travel with her until he retires. Maybe someday an RV for her too. . .

We had a lovely, long dinner Friday night at the Black Walnut Cafe and went there again on Saturday morning for a delicious breakfast. Overnight the heat and humidity magically dissipated and we enjoyed perfect weather Saturday morning. I was staying at the most ridiculously expensive RV resort park ever in an interesting area around Taylor Lake. Interesting because really run-down homes were next to some magnificent mansions built high to have water views. Besides talking and enjoying people-watching at the cafe the next best part of the day was hanging out by the lake.

Laurie & me at the Black Walnut Cafe

Laurie on our bench at Taylor Lake.

Cone flowers in front of our bench.

Everyone going out partying on their party boats. :-)

One of the mansions overlooking the lake.

These boys saw me carrying my camera and asked to have their picture taken! We laughed and they were so charming! In case they actually check this blog - here you are, young men! Hope you had a great time water skiing!

After Laurie and I parted, the kitties and I drove from noon until getting fully settled in here in Marathon at 9:30 Saturday night. The hill country of Texas was beautiful and I have never seen so many wineries one right after the other! I think they even had shuttles driving the tourists from one tasting room to the next. Probably prevents a lot of DUI's!

This morning I was still pretty tired from all the driving so I decided to see the sights in Marathon and later went to nearby (31 miles away) Alpine to do a little shopping. I am so glad I decided to sight-see because it was a beautiful day and there are some great things to visit here. My camera batteries died early in the day so I'm only going to show some "teaser" photos. The rest everyone will have to discover on their own!  This first set are all from the Marathon Motel grounds & the RV is mine.

The next photos are from the Gage Hotel. The hotel was built in 1927 and has always been an exclusive place for ranchers and business people to entertain their guests.

This stuffed bobcat is on the wall of the hotel. I forgot to mention that driving down from Ft. Stockton last evening a bobcat zoomed across the road in front of me. I also saw a bunny, coyote, owl, quail and several mule deer.

After visiting 2-3 gift shops and galleries I drove about 5 blocks over to the Gage Gardens. Wow! What an oasis and even more spectacular than the pretty gardens at the Marathon Motel!

I love this painting to denote the ladies' room and the one below for the men's room.

This is where my camera batteries died. So I went back to the RV to get them recharged and drove over to Alpine. When I returned from Alpine I got pretty bummed out by the RV situation. The door opened but I could NOT get it closed! I guess I was kind of ignoring the fact that I was having to slam it a little recently to get it to close, but today with condensate from the air conditioner dripping on it I think something went out of whack and it staged a revolution.

I did some internet research and it sounds like the door will have to be removed and have part of the wood frame replaced, then it should be as good as new. Fortunately there is an RV repair person here in Marathon and he is going to come by tomorrow morning. I am so glad I made friends with he and his gal a couple of years ago. I've passed out many of his business cards in my time at Big Bend and now perhaps he can help me.

By the way, if anyone remembers me lamenting the air conditioner not working on the way down here, I figured out what is wrong. Or at least I know how to make it work! The on/off switch on the thermostat needs to be pushed in slightly to make all systems GO! I am sure that means a new thermostat down the road. I'll get one on order as soon as I have a shipping address in Big Bend! I have now spent as much money on repairs as I originally paid for it. :-(

3 Weeks in IL + Thanksgiving in SD

It has been a very emotional last 3 weeks. At the end of October Ross was still in RML Specialty Hospital in Hinsdale, but we knew that he would not be allowed to stay there forever. In a big way, that turned out to be a good thing. RML seemed to be very afraid to let Ross move around because of the halo he wore. Ross was really anxious to begin moving around and recover so he could come home to live. Besides recovering from a C2 fracture, he was receiving dialysis three times per week in his bed.

On Tuesday, October 28th he was transferred to the Parc Nursing Home in Joliet. Ruth, mom and I were very nervous about nursing homes in general because through mom and others we've had some not-so-good experiences. Especially when someone is as helpless to fend for themselves as was Ross one prays constantly for the skill, knowledge and dedication of the nursing home staff and God's grace to pave the way.

As it turns out, Ross was so disoriented and, coupled with his incredibly active restless leg syndrome, he fell out of bed in the early morning hours of his first night. The nursing home called Ruth at about 6:00 a.m. and told him that he "kinda' sorta' fell out of bed this morning". No worries, they said, they had put him back in bed and he was fine. Ruth (rightfully) went ballistic and told them that they should NEVER move someone with a spinal fracture and they should have called 911 to have him transported to the hospital to be checked over. Since they had not done the right thing, she called 911 and had him taken to Presence St. Joe's. Ross was re-xrayed and all was well. Ross was taken back to the Parc and Ruth had a long discussion with the nursing home director about putting up bed rails to prevent this from happening again.

After such a good discussion we felt reassured that Ross would be in good hands from then on. Imagine our horror when Ruth received a phone call a little before 4:00 a.m. that Ross had once again fallen out of bed!! They had already had Ross taken to the hospital. Ruth was so groggy that she could not immediately drive to the hospital and was at the end of her emotional rope. So she called me to come home. I was packed and driving by 6:30 a.m.

The first two weeks at home were a nightmare of worry. Ruth refused to let Ross go back to the Parc. God seemed to be working things out for the best - in the hospital it was discovered that RML's orders for Ross to lay still were horrible as Ross had developed a purulent infection in his left heel and a bad sore on his right heel, too, as well as other bedsores. Ross had debridement surgery with Dr. Easley and his hospitalist eventually met with us and tried prescribing medication to quell Ross's restless leg syndrome. The hospital did not want Ross to stay very long, so I helped the social worker by running around trying to find a suitable nursing home to no avail. The nursing homes refused to take him because a) he has a halo, or, after the halo was removed, because b) he had a neck brace, or c) they had no bariatric beds, or d) they were unwilling to transport him to offsite dialysis, or  . . . . the excuses were numerous. Every nursing home was reluctant to take him because in general he was medically fragile.

We have learned to live with the fact that in Illinois nursing homes cannot use full bed rails because they are considered a "restraint". This irks us no end because to prevent Ross from falling out of bed when he is so tired and disoriented puts him at risk for re-fracturing his neck. Grrrrr!

Eventually, Ross was transferred to the Villa Franciscan nursing home, a subsidiary of the Presence hospital system. The nurses and staff there are phenomenally dedicated and professional! They give the best care and we can relax knowing that he is in great hands. I try to make home-baked cookies and things for them every week. They do such a great job! As of this writing he has been in the Villa for just over two weeks and his first "care meeting" is scheduled for December 8th (one month after he arrived there). He goes to Da Vita every Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoon for dialysis. He has almost no stamina and sometimes collapses during physical therapy. We're not sure why, but dialysis causes great fatigue in some patients, but Ross also has atrial fibrillation and is tired from pain medications used to alleviate the pain from the foot sore, too. Hopefully, he will retain some stamina as time goes on. In the meantime most days he cracks jokes with all the staff and very much appreciates everything they do for him.

On the other side of town at the Alden-Shorewood rehab nursing home, mom is approaching the end of her time there. Either 90-100 Medicare days depending on the decision-makers. By mid-December she will be moving out - probably for 2 weeks of respite care at Willow Falls. There, she will be evaluated and become accustomed with the facilities and options there - either the appropriate level of assisted living or independent living. All decisions on what to keep from the house depend on where she stays. Then comes preparing the house for sale and getting it on the market. God Bless my friends Roy and Cindy who will help with the sale.

Ruth is over-the-moon happy with her new apartment! She has a soaker tub, washer/dryer in the apartment, onsite workout room, swimming pool, close to work and Naperville amenities, etc.

Meanwhile, back at the SD ranch . . .even though Zuni may miss her cat cousins, she seemed very happy to be home in our apartment! When I left so suddenly I had forgotten that Zuni's new cat tree was due to be delivered. My neighbor, Curt, helped by taking delivery. Then a week later, near-zero weather set in and he helped out by turning on the heat so pipes would not freeze. Of course, that meant overnighting my key so he could get into the apartment!

Our heating system is electric baseboard so I am a little worried about sky-high bills.

When I saw Zuni curled up with her nose tucked in for warmth, I knew I was keeping the apartment too cool and upped the heat to 68! Now she sleeps a little more comfortably.

Zuni curled up on my duffel bag as if to say, "You are NOT leaving me here alone!" the morning that I was packing to drive to Illinois.

Yikes! About a million parts to the cat tree!

Video above - Zuni destroying the cat tree box. Like most "kids" probably a more cherished toy than the cat tree itself!

Zuni chewing up the box!

Giant cat tree - almost like decorating a Christmas tree, huh!

Putting on the finishing touches - the strings of all but ONE toy were bitten off within 3 minutes of their installation. Oh, well. Strings confiscated to prevent choking and other GI problems!

Exploring the new tree!

I will be spending Thanksgiving with Helen and her family and friends in Sioux Falls. Ruth will be dining with Mom at a special dinner at Alden and probably visiting Ross at the Villa. So many blessings to be thankful for!