DEPARTURE DATE IS SET

Sunday, September 13 – Everything is looking good for hitting the road early Tuesday, September 16. That should give us enough time to get to Augusta, GA, for the ALS Walkathon on Saturday, September 27.

If you are one of our regular blog readers, you read that Paul had a little health issue which delayed our departure. We thought we would be here in Ohio until mid-October as a result of this health issue, but we were able to speed things up and ended up leaving only a week later.

Paul wants to thank everyone for the thoughts and prayers. He's fine! Still driving Marsha nuts!!! Here's the story for those asking. He went for his regular colonscopy on August 25, only to find he was in A-fib and the procedure was cancelled. JEESH....after all that prep the day before...YIKES!! Well, he ended up being sent to the ER where tests verified his A-fib situation. He was sent home and instructed to see a cardiologist.

He visited his general practitioner the next day for further tests. After several frustrating delays of doctors not returning calls, he decided to go to the Cleveland Clinic – a leading heart hospital. He spent Friday, September 5, seeing a cardiologist at the Clinic and having additional test completed. These included an echo cardiogram and a 48-hour heart monitoring test.

On September 11, Paul reviewed the results of these tests with the doctor and was told everything appeared normal, and he could continue with his travel plans. The doctor decided to go ahead and do a 30-day heart monitor test (If you see me stay back, he may disrupt cell phone coverage...LOL) to see if any thing shows up. This test can be done while traveling.

So in summary, the cause of the A-fib problem is somewhat a mystery. It may have been a result of some difficulty Paul had with the colonscopy prep or influenced by a congenital bicuspid aorta valve. It sure would have been nice to have a definitive diagnosis. One where the doctor said you strained this so take this and you'll be fine.

Paul now knows what to watch for if the A-fib situation should return. He will see the doctor at the Cleveland Clinic when we return to Ohio in the spring. Yeah and he still needs to get that regular colonscopy, but it will wait until next summer.

So, we're off for our winter travels. Looks like Mother Nature is giving us a warning too. It was only 39 degrees this morning...brrrrrr

For all you asking about photos of Kelly and Dave’s wedding, below are a few of our favorites.

If you have enough of the wedding pictures, here is a link to a few photos of the ceremony. If you want to see more of the reception, click here.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!

THIRD ANNUAL WINE TASTING PARTY

Saturday, September 6 – Marsha, the party animal, had her third annual wine tasting party. This year's theme was TEXAS WINE COUNTRY. During our travels around Texas this past winter, we stopped at several Texas Wineries and purchased wine. We saved them until returning to Ohio this summer for Marsha's wine party.

The party animal and her entourage are ready to serve up some wine.
 

Of course, Marsha decorated with a Texas theme....right down to Texas boot tasting glasses. Many of attendees dressed in their cowboy duds.

Dave volunteers as the wine Sommelier with Kelly as his assistant. They do a great job describing the different wines and handing out the samples.

We had thirteen different wines to sample. We thought they were all Texas Wines, but the Sommelier discovered we had a couple Moab, UT wines included in the wine tasting event.

 

How did that beer can get in the picture?

We first picked a white wine winner and then a red wine winner.

After a final taste-off, Chenin Blanc of Castle Creek Winery, Moab, UT, was declared the winner! So in the end, a UT wine won the Texas Wine Country contest. WHAT?

Everyone enjoyed the rest of the evening with some interesting conversation, laughter, music, and the task of finishing quite a few partial bottles of wine left over from the tasting.

Thanks to everyone for your kind words, well wishes and prayers for Paul. We are still not sure when we will hit the road. He is feeling very good, but we will wait for all the test results to clarify what is going on.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!

WINE MAKING

Thursday, August 28 – If you read the blog regularly, you read that Paul decided to make some homemade wine. With wine making on mind, Paul decided to build a wine storage rack.  Now…where will that fit in the fifth wheel??? :-)

Paul uses his drill with a stirrer attached to add some flavoring to the grape juice.

The propeller end of the wine stirrer being inserted into the carboy

Paul sterilized thirty wine bottles.

The next step is to siphon the wine from the carboy to the bottles without stirring up any sediment that has settled to the bottom of the carboy.

 

Slowly but surely the bottles are filled.

This automatic filler makes filling the bottles a snap!

Once all the wine has been bottled, Paul uses a corker to insert the corks in the bottles. This is a fun and rewarding procedure!

 

Labels are then attached and shrink tops are installed over the corks.

 

Then Paul inverted the bottles on his new wine rack he built for storage.

This Green Apple Riesling is actually ready for drinking immediately. We gave it a taste.....yummy!

UPDATE ON TRAVEL PLANS: Our intentions were to pull out of our summer home here in Ohio on September 9, but health issues have caused us to delay them slightly. Follow-up doctor appointments for Paul has caused us to push back departure into October.....dang!

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!