Retired Nomads: Savannas Recreation Area & Campground

Dec 11 - 19

Not much exciting to report as we are just catching up on routine things like doctors and dentists etc.

I really like my new doctor. He listened and interacted (unlike my previous one). I think he might be from Haiti and occasionally I needed to have him repeat something due to not following his accent. He did call me at home twice and it was harder over the phone to understand him. He gets points for calling me at home about a medication issue I was having. I had requested my “welcome to Medicare” visit, but it turned out to be a “meet your new doctor visit”. So, I go back in early January for that.

Once we get the kinks worked out with my new mail away pharmacy and using a local pharmacy, things can go back to “normal”. Medicare doesn’t cover one of my meds and we are better off NOT using our RX plan and just buying it as if we had no insurance. Yeah, that makes sense……

We took the coach in and are currently in a hotel again. We got a pleasant surprise that they upgraded us to a suite. The extra room is appreciated. Though don’t get too excited about the word suite as it is a Fairfield. (nice, but not grandiose)

Greg had oral surgery. (bone graft) and he has just about gotten over his cold. He goes back after the first of the year to get the sutures removed.

We actually had a decent experience with La Mesa RV’s service department this time. Both of the guys we dealt with during the 10 weeks of “our worst nightmare” are now gone. A woman was our Service Advisor this time and she actually answers her phone and returns calls. They had it fixed in the promised 3 days and other than the Whirlpool part, went well. Time will tell if all goes well with all the fixes…… Yes, we are skeptical. She did say that they are booked well into January for a service department, but if there are any issues she will work us in. (update...so far so good. Everything appears to actually have been fixed correctly this time)

We had already paid for the extra night in the hotel, so we picked up the coach on Thursday and got it set up back at the park and then went back to the hotel and checked out the next morning. We had our dermatology appointments (annual skin cancer check). I was fine again and Greg just had a small area on his neck frozen off. (he’s not having a good month)

I had another ‘bad” hair appointment. The cut was fine, but despite the long conversation about more gold less ash, I came out really dark and ashy. I could tell when she was cutting my hair and it was hitting the cape and it was dark brown. She laughed it off and said it’ll fade after you wash it. I went back the next day and the owner lightened it for me and told me to ask for her next time. It came out much nicer.

We were having no luck finding a place to store the coach while we are gone for 60 days, every place Greg called had a long waiting list. One place sounded perfect as it was indoors and had electric to keep it plugged in while we are gone, until the owner said he had a waiting list and the guy at the top of the list has been waiting for 2 years and is still waiting. We are headed to Silver Palms in the Lake Okeechobee area where we already had the month before the cruise booked and so Greg asked if we could leave it there. They had availability, so he grabbed it. It’s the full monthly rate plus utilities and our car can stay there too. Not the cheapest way to store it, but it will be very convenient and they have availability and we can leave it plugged in. It will need to be winterized since it does get a bit cold in the middle of the state, but it definitely gave us some peace of mind for leaving it there while we are gone, plus when we get back it will be all set up with very little to do after we return. We hope to get on the road with it about a week or so after we return so we can cram in as much as we can in our last year in it.

We celebrated my birthday on the 18^th since we are moving sites on the 19^th. I wanted Bonefish Grill for dinner and Killer Cake from TooJay's . We stopped to get the cake first and after the guy took the order for 2 pieces went on to do everything except get Killer Cake. He goes back up to Greg like he just got there and asked if he could help him. When he said 2 pieces of Killer Cake, a light came on and the guys realized he had forgotten. To make up for it he tossed in a 3rd piece of the cake.

Dinner was good at Bonefish, I just love their coconut shrimp with Thai chili sauce. We both had checked to see what their special dessert was as we both love their dark chocolate crème brulee with Grand Mariner. It wasn't listed so that's why we got the Killer Cake. They only have it around once a year, but we were too full to get any and we had a ton of Killer Cake to ruin our diets with.

Earlier in the day I had gone to get my bloodwork done and that went well. (I have difficult veins) She got it the first time and 5 tubes later I was done. I went back later to return my urine sample and she just happened to come around the corner and she was all excited to see me. She said I was just getting ready to call you, I need to get one more tube of blood. Again, she got it first time.

Martin Health is on the ball. On the drive to bring back my sample they called with the results of everything else.

We arrived at Silver Palms RV Resort yesterday and it's a nice place with a lot of amenities.

I want to thank everyone for their birthday wishes! Such great friends and family!

I'll leave you with some final photos from Savannas. They did open up the nice walking path and it took us several hours to do that. Beautiful walk.