Albuquerque, NM

Today is day two out of Las Vegas.  We spent the night last night in Williams, AZ.  Quite cold, but the coach kept us nice and warm!  Today we made it to Albuquerque and had a good day of traveling.  Only saw one wreck - looked like a truck took out a long length of guard rail and went over the edge!  Not sure where it happened other than it was in eastern Arizona.  They had a couple of huge crane type lifts to hook on to the truck and bring it back up.  Only one lane of traffic through that area, but if that would have been California traffic would have been backed up for miles.

Tomorrow the plans are to get to Amarillo, TX for an overnight stop.  After that we will be in Oklahoma City for a few days visiting friends.  Should be back in Arkansas by Sunday, Monday at the latest!

Thanksgiving Dinner

No, we did not opt out for one of the more expensive buffets here in Las Vegas.  In fact, we hit one of our favorite haunts - Sunset Station.  While the Station casinos are not expensive, they have good food at excellent prices.  Here is a picture of a the people standing with us in line waiting to get into the buffet.

 Before dinner, we took a quick trip to one of my favorite places in the U.S. - Bass Pro Shops.  If you haven't tried their clothes, they are very good quality, they last quite a while, and are reasonably priced for what one gets.  And yes, I did spend a couple of hundred dollars in there tonight.  By the way, for all of my retired and active duty military friends following this blog, Bass Pro also gives a 10% military discount.

Yesterday I became extremely disgusted with the Nellis, AFB famcamp wifi system.  They boosted their prices about a year and half ago so they could put in this new, fantastic, wifi system that doesn't work worth a darn.  Can't figure out why they can't get some sort of quality control on these systems.  I have written them up for the last 18 months and never received a single piece of feedback.  To end this long winded complaint, I went out to Target and purchased a T-mobile, mobile hotspot.  Here in Las Vegas it works like a champ.  I also received a 30 return policy from Target, so if it doesn't work I can return it.

Why T-mobile???  Because I can get 9GB of data for $50.00 per month and all the rest of the providers (AT&T, Verizon, etc) are almost half that amount of data for the same price.  Also, this is a pay-as-you-go system, so I don't have to pay for service while the coach is stored.  One other plus is that once the high speed data is used up, you can continue to use the system albeit on a much slower speed (thus - unlimited data usage if you can deal with the speed hit).  And one final plus is that there are no penalties for using more data than you pay for (as it is unlimited data, even though it could be much slower).

Las Vegas

We made it to Las Vegas this afternoon with no problems.  Traffic was slightly congested north of the city, but that was just the very beginning of rush hour traffic and to be expected.  The weather was excellent and traffic wasn't too bad (heavier than I would have imagined on a Monday).  We are staying at the Nellis AFB famcamp but it was very busy here this week, so we had to take a partial hookup.  Electricity, water, but no sewer.  Fortunately the shower facilities are not too far from the coach,  The internet here is not the best, very slooooow - So don't expect me to post pictures.  Our plans are to spend a week here, and then off on the continuation of our eastbound travels.

Bakersfield Here We Are

Well, because things didn't work out, we opted out of our trip to Pismo.  Instead we headed straight to Bakersfield - Orange Grove RV Park for the weekend.  On Monday we will tackle the Tehachapis and head towards Las Vegas.  Current plans are for a week in Las Vegas and the head East towards Arkansas.  Hope all of our fellow travelers out there are doing well and have smooth sailing.  May do another post before we leave, but after today's drive I am kind of wiped out.  Still trying to get my strength and endurance back after the last month's worth of medical treatments.

Heading to PIsmo

Currently prepping and loading the coach in order to get ready to hit the road again.  Not sure when we will begin the travels, but as soon as I recover from my last treatment (Friday 11/14) and can get some maintenance done around the CA house the trip begins.  Tried doing some weed abatement Saturday (11/15) and lost my balance on the hillside.  Sure found out that granite is a lot harder than I thought.  Got most of the spraying done though and will move on to other projects tomorrow.  Plan on going to Pismo Beach in order to see our son, daughter-in-law and two grand babies.  Newest grandson was born November 8, 2014.

MIcro-mini Reunion

Today I was able to finally meet up with John Roberts (a brother Chinese Linguist) and watch him showing the infamous Pablo!  First time that I have been able to meet with John in person - we've tried several times in our travels to end up in the same place at the same time.  Today was that day.

It was great to meet you John and hope we can get together again, only longer next time.  Pictures to follow!

Palo Alto VA Hospital Again

Done with all the testing, Finally!  We now know what I don't have; and I now have a suspected genetic defect that only about 1% of all Americans are proven to have - boy am I lucky!  In fact, I am very lucky as 10% of all Americans (of European descent) actually have this disease.  What of the other 9%?  They will eventually pass on at an early age with a misdiagnosed cause of death.  While I, at least will have a correct diagnosis, there is no telling what damage this disease has already done to my internal organs (only suspicions and it doesn't appear too bad).  If many have questions about this disease I guess I will have to open a new blog (as this doesn't really pertain to RV travels) just to cover this disease.  With this knowledge I now can incorporate how this will affect my RV travels.  We will be leaving Alameda Fairgrounds on Sunday 10/19/2014 to return to the Sierra.  It will also delay my Easterly travels by about a month, but other than that, it will not affect my family's RV travels.

Alameda Fairgrounds - Continued

Alameda Fairgrounds - Continued

Haven't updated this for a while as I said above I have been visiting the Palo Alto VA Hospital for continual testing.  Today ended the testing for now, and I have to wait a week to meet with the Hematologist to find out if the figured anything out.  Let me share some suggestions with everyone.  Testing started with blood draws, an sonogram of my stomach internals, an echo cardiogram, an EKG, and a DNA test.  So far so good and not too bad with the testing that took place other than I felt like a pin cushion with all of the different blood draws.  Let me back up a bit and explain what started this all - first of all slightly increased liver readings in my annual blood tests.  The doctor suspected anemia so I then had a B-12 test and found my iron levels through the ceiling!  And now you know what started it all.

Now for the tough stuff.  First I had an MRI on my stomach internals, did I mention I am slightly claustrophobic??  After spending over an hour in the MRI tube, I was never so glad to move on to the next test.  I went to a liver specialist and he did some sort of sonogram where the machine "thumped" my ribs and gave him a picture of what the liver looked like.  Not so bad, especially after the MRI, right??  Well, next came a bone marrow test and a sample of my bone.  I wouldn't wish this test on anyone, not even my worst enemy.  Two days rest and we come to today (October 10, 2014).  Back to the MRI tube for some more pictures of my liver - this one was easy; less than 30 minutes in the tube.  Once that was finished they started outfitting me with all kinds of heart sensors, the shoved me back in the tube (almost 90 minutes).  At the very end of the test the tube started feeling like it was getting smaller and smaller, and it was getting difficult to breathe (remember the claustrophobia?).  Toughed out the last few minutes and thankfully it was all over.  Now the waiting begins.  Next Friday (October 17th) I am hoping to find something out.  I now know what a weiner must feel like when covered by a hot dog bun!  You go completely inside the the tube shown below!

For those who do not know what

 an MRI machine looks like!

Oh, and not sure if I mentioned it, my beautiful wife (Cathy) has been on a 5 week vacation in Taiwan and I have been going through this with her support only via the telephone.  Thankfully I am going to be able to see her again next Wednesday (October 15th) and we can get together and go over everything that has happened to us during the last 5 weeks.  Just so everyone knows I am not the only one visiting doctors - Cathy took a tumble while walking our nephew's dog and she hit the ground face first and is full of "road rash".  So I think we both have had our fill of doctors.

On The Road Again!

On The Road Again!

Moved to Alameda County Fairgrounds RV park in order to be closer to the Palo Alto VA hospital.  Didn't cherish the 5 hour drive from Lake don Pedro to Palo Alto.  Enjoying the time at the RV just interacting with the "boys" (our pugs).  Not to enthusiastic to go out and do much else as once or twice per week I have to go in for health testing.  Hoping to meet up with some internet friends during the dog show that will be over here in a couple of weeks.  John, perhaps our paths will finally cross.

Continuing Travels

Cathy and I are currently in place at the Lake don Pedro home in California in order to complete some repairs and clean up.  We have just returned from a short trip to Pleasanton, CA where we stayed at the Alameda fairgrounds RV park.  While there we had the opportunity to visit with dear friends and relatives.  Soon we will once again hit the road for another short trip without the coach.  We are headed to Pismo Beach, CA to get some dental work accomplished.  After that short trip we will be heading back to the Lake don Pedro home and preparing for Cathy's trip back to to Taipei, Taiwan to visit relatives and friends.  She intends to spend a month there and upon her return we will be busy loading the RV and closing up the house so we can head East to the Hot Springs Village, AR home.