February has been a busy month. Larry had a kidney doctor appointment on Feb. 7, 2013, so we packed up the camper and headed toward Antioch, CA. We got a late start on Feb. 1, so we decided to find the Needles, CA, Elks’ Club. It gave us a 100 miles start on our 620 miles trip back to the SF Bay Area. We never know what the club offers to traveling Elks, but at a bare minimum, we have a safe place to spend the night dry-camping.
We were delighted to find a full-service campground for $18 a night.
The following night we stopped at our regular travel spot--the Bakersfield Elks’ Club—which offers over-night parking with electricity and a RV dump for a $10 donation.
It is located downtown and doesn’t offer a full-hook-up site, but we are delighted to have a place to spend travel nights—with electricity which is required during the HOT summer months.
Using Elks’ Club RV parking option is nice; inexpensive parking and helps support the clubs--a win-win situation. These two show the differences available.
We spent 8 days at the Contra Costa Fairground campground in Antioch, CA.
It isn’t fancy (for $17 a night), but the location works while we do the doctor visits and lab work. One disadvantage is we are allowed 14 days in a six-month period which creates issues if we need to be in the area for longer visits.
The doctors’ visits weren’t as reassuring as we had hoped. Larry’s kidney function is not doing as well as before. If he doesn’t get his albumin levels up by April lab tests, our traveling days may be curtailed for a while. Plus he had three biopsies done on his scalp and wrist when we visited our GP.
We headed back to Quartzsite, AZ, with plans to work on increasing his nutrition levels to bring the albumin level back up over the next 5 weeks. I planned on cooking yummy dishes to tease his appetite and increase his nutrition. We did about 300 miles each day to get back in two days. We arrived Tuesday, Feb. 12, very glad to be back in the quiet desert—and tired!
Alas, our five weeks were not to be. We received a call the next morning from the dermatologist. She had some good news that the two spots on his head were fine; however, the one from his wrist is “squamous” cell cancer and he needed to return to have a consultation with a surgeon to have more of the area removed. We asked for the six weeks at Q before returning—NOPE! We agreed on March 15th at the latest! This kind of skin cancer can spread.
The surgeon’s office called later that day—we were still in shock from hearing two batches of not-so-great news. We made an appointment for March 5th and then called the next day to move it closer. Larry will see the surgeon Feb. 25th and then we hope to have a surgery date prior to March 15th! So, yesterday we packed up our stuff and headed to CA—21 days after the last trip west.
We called our favorite RV Resort--Sugar Barge Resort to see if they could fit us in one of our favorite sites for the next 30-60 days. Tracy came through for us—AGAIN. They are fantastic! We will be in Site 113 until both the wrist surgery and April labs are completed.
The other thing taking up so much of my time is illustrated below. I feel like I have been immersed in a new language course for the past 30-plus days. So much to learn—so few fresh brain cells left to train!
Yes, it has taken both books to try to learn how to make the phone work for me! I must say, I love the phone! It is a small computer on steroids! I can hear people’s voices and the phone doesn’t garble to sounds like my Razor phone did! I think it could do handstands on its own!
In closing this episode, I want to share some of the beautiful jewelry my sister makes along with one final photo from Q—showing why we love the area:
Isn’t she talented? We took some photos for her website.
And finally, Good-bye Q—until next year. We will miss your beautiful colors!
Check back to see what the Jennings will be doing as they wait out the next five or six weeks! We feel blessed to have been able to travel and explore the country even with Larry’s health issues. We hope things shake out so we can continue. Prayers for Larry’s continued health are welcome!
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