As I begin this post, I'm astounded I haven't posted for five weeks. So why the weird title? Our time with family in San Jose was extended by a health care issue for Jerry. When you're 64 and 71, health care can be an issue, but fortunately nothing has stopped us in our tracks. One of our friends joked we should start a travel guide to heath care since we have had some things crop up in the last two years. This last incident was another cancer scare blessed by a miracle. Jerry's bladder tumor was removed, given a healthy dose of chemo the same day, and it was determined to be low grade / non-invasive. What that really means is we are on the road again, headed north to Oregon and Washington before we head east for our annual visit in Elkhart, IN.
We've learned a thing or two about health care traveling full time in the Whale. First, we quite griping about the premiums we pay for our insurance. This is no place to cut corners in our opinion, and we've tested that multiple times. Jerry has Medicare with an Anthem Plan F supplement. What Medicare does not cover, Anthem does. It's worth every penny. I am still on my school system's insurance which will change next year when I turn 65. I will subscribe to the same combo Jerry has.
We've also learned if a care giver is not immediately tuned into our "mobile" life style, we need to go somewhere else. When Jerry first knew there was an issue with the bladder, we went to the emergency room at Kaiser in San Jose. That's part of our throw-a-dart strategy. They first made sure Jerry was not near death. Then they patted him on the head, sent us on our way and did not follow up with a call from the urology clinic as promised. We are certain this is because Jerry was not in the Kaiser system with Kaiser insurance. I'm sure Kaiser is a fine facility, but we don't have time for that kind of silliness. We called Stanford when we realized the problem was not just going away. Excellent! All the way around from diagnosis to surgery. Jerry received the good news call from the surgeon in record time. We've learned going to a research / teaching facility is our best bet since we don't seem to attract simple illnesses.
While marching through the health issue, we moved the Whale from the San Jose Elks to the Fremont Elks Lodge #2121. We were anticipating I might have to handle things solo for awhile. The rate was lower, and the dump station was easier to get into. If I have to dump the tanks, I need lots of room. While still in Fremont, we were so fortunate to have Linda, Peter, and their dogs Tino and Taxi (Italian Greyhounds) as our neighbors. The first evening they pulled in (beautiful Prevost bus), we were celebrating Jerry's good news with Stan and Jan friends from Texas who we visited at Lake Turlok. We invited Peter and Linda to join us for dinner and had a most excellent time. As neighbors we were able to spend time together including taking Tino, Taxi and Maci to a really nice dog park in Fremont complete with fence and astro-turf. There's nothing more fun than watching dogs at play.
Also, while on our extended stay we were able to see grandsons Miles and Donovan rock climb, compete in a splash and dash and triathlon and two different music programs. We were able to be apart of their daily lives, picking them up from school with frequent stops at Dairy Queen. They were able to do overnights with Grandma and Grandpa. We even got to experience the Easter egg hunt with over 200 plastic eggs in the front and back yard. I think they are still finding plastic eggs. Talk about quality time with the grandsons!
So with a great deal of sadness to leave family and new friends in San Jose / Fremont and a great deal of excitement to be on the road again, we pulled out early this morning, June 14, 20014 to continue our journey. We made it all of two hours to Petaluma, CA where we will spend two nights. Right now we are squeezed into a car wash to get the Whale detailed. Thanks to the ap Linda showed me, I've already located a fenced dog park for Maci to play. There is a popular historic downtown area we plan to explore. It feels good to be wandering again.
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