Another episode

Things had been status quo until this past Tuesday afternoon.  I noticed the all too familiar starting to slouch as she sat on the couch.  By evening, she was having another brain shut down episode.
Since then, we’ve been on daily nurse visits and she’s been confined to the bed.  She’s had a bad cough that manifests itself enough that she hasn’t been able to get that deep, solid sleep that usually helps the brain reset.
She’s tried to stand, but can’t even sit on the bed for a few minutes without eventually needing to lay down.
Her vitals have been OK.  She had a bit of gurgling in her lungs Wednesday that wasn’t evident yesterday (Thursday), which is good.  She’s not gained control of her right side, specifically her right hand and right leg, which isn’t good.
Bethany is coming to visit today.  Hospice nurse said she has a lot more "showed up too late" stories than "showed up too early".  It will be great to see her, and great for her to see her Mama.
That’s the update for now.  Thanks as always for those who have offered their help and their kind thoughts.

Lunch with old friends in the Flats

Fortunate today to meet up with our friends from Conneaut (and Bethany!) for a great lunch along the Cuyahoga River at Lindey's Lake House (formerly the Coastal Taco).

We met through boating in Ashtabula and used to be dock partners for a few years at Riverside Yacht Club.  They still have their boat at Conneaut Boat Club.  We had so many good times with these guys and watched both of our daughters grow up.

Had a great time catching up for the first time in a few years.

All Star Game in Cleveland

Fortunate to have a daughter who's a "big deal" in the Cleveland sports scene.  Her husband James was out of town, so she had an extra ticket to the MLB All Star Game in Cleveland.

Started out dropping Connie off to stay with Bethany's mother in law Linda, then Uber'd downtown to the Margaritaville in Cleveland.

Walked over to the big deal's digs at First Energy Stadium and got to see her new office.



Walked from there up to around Progressive Field to the old Alice Cooper Bar (not even sure what it's named now) to have a Daddy/Daughter dinner.



After that, we walked over to the Stadium for the game.  Had a great time with great seats.  Caught a T-shirt, and saw some really memorable events.

Back to TX -- the Ohio Leg

We left Timber Ridge Campground Monday to begin our journey back to Texas.  Really enjoyed our summer there.  Had lots of "Davis time" this summer and are so appreciative our their generosity over the summer.  Will miss those smiling faces.

Drove down to Columbus and stayed a night at the Cross Creek Camping Resort.  Since we were there last, they instituted a "no pet fence" policy which sucked, especially for Tangy.  We were going to go the ignorance route and put it up any way, but with just a one night, we figured we'd fight that battle on another stay.

We went to the Winking Lizard Westerville to meet with our friends Craig and Sandy, Dave and Jean and were surprised by Connie's cousin Lisa and her friend Wendy.  Had a great time, even though the Indians (a theme) lost AND I forgot to take a picture of our table.  Great catching up, they've been such good friends.

Tuesday, we headed to the hub of the universe, Wilmington, OH.  Stayed in our normal spot at Caesar Creek (saw a lot of deer!), went in to visit Connie's Dad Oz and his wife Betty.  Surprised them with a visit from Bethany and Kingsley.  Went out for pizza at Generations Pizza before retiring back to the rig and K's first overnight "camping" experience.  All went great except it rained hard around 3a and the vent window didn't automatically close when we went to bed.

Wednesday, we got moving slowly, but ended up at Frisch's for brunch with Oz and Betty, then back to the rig before Bethany and Kingsley had to take off for home.  A great time.

We headed out late Wednesday afternoon to check out an RV park for our Ohio Heartland Rally next August.  Looked like it's going to be a winner, and I hope to finish up details with the managers today.

Finally, it was off to the Little River Cafe in Oregonia.  It's owned by a Barb and Todd Holmes.  Barb and I were in homerooms together since Junior High, and Todd and I lived in each other's back yards.  Was a nice place with a live band, fireplace (which we needed!), and good food/drinks.  Met with Rich and Kim, Randy and Shelley, and even Barb made time to come out and see us.  Again, great catching up and experiencing their place.  Got home to watch the Indians lose.  😩

Today, we leave Ohio for the last time in 2017 and will make our way to Elizabethtown for an overnight, a couple of nights in Nashville before three nights along the mighty Mississippi.

Our kind of Mexican food

Connie had a treatment this past Friday.  We put a window air conditioner in their "in laws" loft which worked spectacularly!  Was nice to sleep in temperatures under, um, 80 something?

We had a great weekend in with Bethany and Kingsley while James was out of town, but we were wiped out afterwards.

Today, had to take the truck into Spitzer's for a recall and to have a TPMS changed.  Took awhile and they gave us a brand new 2018 Chevy Silverado as a loaner.  Well played, Spitzer's.  Well played.

Tonight, we made another in the long line of Mexican dishes that are only based in Mexican food.  Spend any time around Connie and I, and you'll know:  nothing spicy, nothing "hot".  Don't ask.  But, there are a great amount of Mexican dishes that we can leave out the "hot and spicy" items and make them Southwest (Ohio) dishes.  Tonight, I made Chicken Kinda Enchilladas.  Here's the recipe that it's based on.

I grilled two chicken breasts, then used my brand new Cave Tools meat shredders.  They were a little overkill, but shredding the chicken was the perfect call.

Connie and Sloopy waited patiently while I cooked. 

In a medium bowl, I mixed a can of Campbell's Cream of Chicken soup with a ½ cup of sour cream.  I pulled out 1 cup of that and put it with the shredded chicken, ½ cup of CoJack cheese and a healthy sprinkling of Fajita seasoning.  I mixed that all together and spooned it equally into 5 tortillas.  Roll the tortillas together, kind of tightly, then I put them in my greased stainless steel 8x8 pan.  (Love that thing).

I added just a splash of milk to the remaining soup/sour cream mixture, just enough to thin it a little.  I poured, spread that over the 5 tortillas.

I put that in my Brinkmann Table Top grill on indirect heat at about 375 degrees, turning it every 8 minutes for 40 minutes.  (Really love this grill, not sure how I'm going to replace it when it eventually leaves us.)

Really happy with the way they turned out.  Served with a little sour cream to dip.  Yummy.

Working at the Stadium and a visit from our daughter and Grand Daughter

Two of the last three Saturdays, I've had the opportunity to work at First Energy Stadium for my daughter, who's the General Manager in charge of merchandising.

On the 2nd of July, I worked the U2 concert.

 

This past Saturday, I worked the CONCACAF 2017 Gold Cup soccer game.

I really enjoyed working both events and, if anything, enjoyed working and watching my daughter Bethany do what she does.

Basically, I did anything the merchandise department needed.  Run merchandise to the booths, pick up money, help sort inventory, count, box up, etc. anything they needed.   Long days, not a whole lot of pay, but I still really enjoyed the experience.

Because of the late night, we stayed in at our daughter's house in Fairview Park.  Left in the morning and took a wonderful drive back along the lake (US 6).  Got into Lorain and suddenly realized we've never found (by land) the marina where we got weathered in back in our boating days.

Once, we were going back to Ashtabula from Cedar Point.  Our boat was such that our passenger seat could face the aft or rear of the boat.  Suddenly, my wife mentioned that I should take a look at the clouds she'd been watching for awhile.

Good Lord.  It was pitch black.  I knew we had to get off the lake.

Nearest point I could find at the time was Lorain, and Spitzer's Marina.  Like a lot of boating stories, what should have been awful turned out to be a great time.  We couldn't return to Ashtabula for 3 days because of the lake.  Where we ended up was just wonderful.  There was a crafty festival just south of the marina.  The Coast Guard dumped a car into the basin and then did a demonstration of how they would blow up inflatables and raise the car up to get out anyone in the submerged car.  Fascinating stuff.

Until today, we'd never "found it."  Crossed the tributary into Lake Erie and went looking.  Found Spitzer's Riverside Marina and something clicked that there were two marinas -- a Riverside and a Lakefront.  Found it.  Had a great time reliving those memories.

As we got home and were unpacking, Connie realized that we had left our toiletry bag at the Davis house in Fairview Park.  We do our laundry at our daughter's, my wife had put the bag in the dirties and I left the dirty bag at the Davis house.  Our daughter decided to bring it to us, and bring out her two dogs and daughter.

Had a great time, very relaxing.  Ate some smoked pork, a box mix of potatoes (Kingsley's new fave), some home made bread.  Baby K was also taught by Gammy that she could dip her bread into the sauce from the Au Gratin potatoes.

This is how Tangy learned to steal seats.  From Tucker.

Great weekend slowly coming to a close.

Growing Older But Not Up

Like most of us who full time RV, we meet friends along the way and really enjoy each other's company.  Thanks to Facebook, email and the like, we're now able to keep in touch even though we haven't actually "seen" each other in awhile.  Such is the case with Jim and Susan Lovay.  Married for 43 years, they're who Connie and I want to be when we grow up.  😉  Like Jimmy says, they're "growing older but not up."

We met at Pioneer RV Resort in Port Aransas, TX very haphazardly.  I noticed a Sparty "S" on the back of his jeep while walking our girls one day, mentioned something about their big game happening that day, and struck up a conversation about our Big Ten roots.  Turns out he's not a Spartan fan, he's an alumni.  Like I've told many people who call me an Ohio State "fan", there's a big difference.

Anyhoo, it just turned out to be one of the greatest wins in MSU history as Sparty picked up a mishandled punt and took it to the house for a game winning score.  I'm a Buckeye alum, but I'll root for anyone playing U of M.  Watched the video again.  Sean McDonough's call and the look on that Wolverine fan's face are both priceless.

Truth be told, I watched the whole game, gave up on Sparty, came back out and couldn't figure out why they were showing MSU players in the end zone celebrating.  I look down at Lovay's (they watch games outside like us), and they're all up celebrating.  A friendship was born.

It was a magical season for MSU as they beat OSU on the last play of the season (one of Jim's happier moments as we watched it together at Sting-Ray's) before getting flogged by Alabama in the playoffs.

They were like us, arrived at Pioneer for October, got November free then went to their winter destination (South Padre KOA).  We saw each other again the following April on their way back to the UP in Michigan, and that was the last time we saw them.  Until two days ago.

We were fortunate that the spot right across the road was available.

Jim and Susan would love to full time, but they're trying to sell their house in Manistique, MI which hasn't happened yet. We hope someone steps up and buys it from them.  Here's the link, contact their realtor soon! They were gracious enough to include us in their summer plans as they celebrated Canada Day, went to Niagara Falls, then looped around to our park.  

The girls just love Susan.  We tried (and failed miserably) to bring their new puppy Lacey, into the fence, but that went awful. 

The weather kind of cooperated for the couple of days they were here.  Was muggier than hell, but the rain stayed away enough for us to enjoy ourselves, especially at our favorite watering hole along the Vermilion River, Quaker Steak & Lube.

After coffee in the morning (Sloopy did what Sloopy does to Susan), we mapped out our day.

We went into Cleveland where we first went to First Energy Stadium home of the Browns, and where are daughter works.  She was nice enough to show us around.  Forgot to take pictures.  My bad.  Then, we went off the East Flats.  Only disappointing thing of the visit was the Rooftop Bar at Margaritaville Cleveland was closed because "it could rain".  

We moved down the river to Coastal Taco and enjoyed some appetizers, cold beverages and the view of the river which Jim reminded us maybe a dozen times that had once caught on fire.  Again, couldn't sit outside, but we were in the first level under cover.

 We decided to have a late lunch at one of our favorite places to eat, the Flat Iron Cafe.  It did not disappoint.  

Jim and Susan went old school and had a Stroh's.

They left this morning (after we had coffee together and Lacey explored the neighboring field).  Connie and I wish them safe travels, a buyer for their house, and that we see each other again soon.

Our long weekend in Cleveland

Here at our daughter's house for a long weekend.

We came in Thursday night for dinner, then Connie had her chemo treatment on Friday.

Saturday our daughter's town of Fairview Park (a suburb west of Cleveland) had their SummerFest.  We've always known about it, but we've never been able to get together to get there.  Until this year.

If you're going to SummerFest,
you've got to have Tubby Tails

We got to the park around noon, and walked through all the vendors, then had a snow cone.  Baby K loved hers.

Connie and Kingsley both had their chariots
ready for Fairview Park's SummerFest

Then it was in to uncharted waters.  Amusement Rides.  

Our daughter is an only child.  She LOVES rides, and this was the start to get Kingsley "into" the ride game.  Hopefully, a ride companion for Bethany for life.

We started by scouting.  She's over 30", but under 36" so there were some rides were OK by herself, some were OK with a rider under 56' and some were OK with riders of any size.

We started with the Merry Go Round.  That went OK -- for about one time around.  Then, it was time for Mommy to hold K.

Not off to a good start.

Next was the big slide with the humps and the burlap bag.

That went OK, I mean if you didn't look at K's face filled with terror.  

Then it was time to go solo.  The Wobble Worm.

Things were good.  Mom put her in the chair.  The Carny strapped her in with a bungee cord.  Mom came outside the fence.  Then, the realization hit K that she was in this green thing.  By herself.  And it was about to move.  She suddenly wanted zero part of the Wobble Worm.

We ended the afternoon with another trip down the slide.  No one heeded my call that Kingsley should try and throw some darts at the balloons, and our afternoon was over.