Chasing 70 (degrees…not years).

Corinne Family, National Parks & Monuments 1 Comment

Let’s first start with the good news. Following up on the E. Coli knee infection from last August, Jim had a tele-medicine with the infectious disease doctor back in Rochester a few days ago. All his blood infection markers look good (he’s been getting blood drawn while on the road). After 6 months of oral antibiotics, Jim just needs to finish up the current supply (about a week’s worth) and then he is off the Cipro and hopefully cured! He is still suffering some quad tendonitis and stamina issues. But we are hoping his system can return to normal post-antibiotics. We have to take notice if he gets chills, a fever, knee swelling, etc. which could indicate the infection was not fully eradicated. But I’m being hopefully optimistic. Let’s put that chapter of our lives behind us.

Now on to the blog…..

“Chasing 70” is a term used by RVers. It means you move your home-on-wheels as needed to stay in a 70 degree climate. I feel we have been doing that to a certain extent.

When we last left you, we were stuck in the sand in western Texas. After that excitement, we headed to Las Cruces to visit our building lot / future home.

Our lot was still there! Duh, it’s not as if it was going anywhere. The view is still there too. Our construction plans should be done this week and permits done in 30 days. Fingers crossed we can break ground soon!

Since we weren’t needed in Las Cruces, we headed over to one of our favorite places, Rusty’s RV Ranch in Rodeo, New Mexico. It’s like going home. We had five days of R&R and managed to meet Jim’s Minnesota-based cousin Dennis and his wife Jeanne for dinner one evening in a neighboring town.

Obligatory hot tub picture. Rusty’s has a pool now too, but it the water was a tad too chilly to use it. But the hot tub was just dandy.
We took a drive through the Chiricahua National Monument ….
….and had to share the road at times. The National Monument is also an open cattle range.
On one of the back roads, we came across these friendly minions. I guess that is what one does with old tanks.

Next we traveled up to Albuquerque to see my Dad (all is well!) and my brother Jim and family for a family weekend. Then it was back to Las Cruces to meet with the builder again. We were certainly seeing a lot of southern New Mexico. BUT…cold weather was moving in. The though of sitting in an RV in a few inches of snow in Las Cruces did not seem ideal. We were not needed in the area by our builder, so we decided to “Chase 70.” It was time to head westward towards sunny Arizona.

Mount Graham just east of Safford, Arizona was snow covered and shrouded in clouds as we passed through. Brrr…we are not stopping there!

We had been in touch with RVing friends Wade and Debi and thought we wouldn’t be able to meet up with them until March. These are the same friends we were with when Jim took ill last July in Bend, Oregon. We reached out to them and found they were in a nice RV Park in Mesa, AZ (just east of Phoenix). Debi wandered down to the RV office and got us a spot for a week. Woohoo! Thanks Debi.

The Monte Vista RV Village feels almost like adult summer camp. In addition to the many pools and hot tubs, they had tennis and pickle ball courts, a softball field with an active league, and more activities that you can imagine.

We spent a very enjoyable week in 70 degree weather hanging with Wade and Debi. It was all morning coffee hours, dinners, and happy hours. Life felt almost normal!

Wade and Debi treated us to a rib dinner done on their Traeger Smoker.
This flag was spotted outside an RV…this place is definitely “summer camp for adults”.
A highlight for me was riding my bike (see my shadow?)! This was the first time I had been on a moving bike since my knee replacement. I had tried last April, but that was too soon after my knee replacement…and I didn’t have another chance after that. Yippee! I can ride again!!!!

Our seven nights in Mesa turned into nine, we were enjoying ourselves that much. But we had to get back to Las Cruces. We wanted to touch base with the builder again and I had a plane to catch.

Welcome to Miami!

Dr. Janelle Goeke, our youngest, accepted a post-doctoral fellowship at Florida International University in North Miami. She has been there since mid January, but only recently found an apartment (NOT EASY in the hot real estate market of south Florida), so I decided to fly out and help her get settled in her new place.

Welcome to Miami! The adventures of Chicken and their girlfriend continue. If this makes no sense to you, don’t worry….this is Janelle’s story to tell. It all started here last June….. https://twitter.com/TrophicTopics/status/1404579005093797892
This is my first impression of the Miami/Fort Lauderdale area. Traffic…lots and lots of traffic.
Janelle’s new home, an eight unit apartment building in Hollywood, Florida (sandwiched between Fort Lauderdale and Miami). She had to overbid on the rent to get the apartment. It’s totally crazy here.
This is controlled chaos. It’s been a tiring week…I’m not as young as I used to be. I took this picture one evening with me sipping wine after a long day unpacking. Janelle spent the days working, so she unpacked in the evenings dealing with stuff I had no idea what to do with.
After 6 days of unpacking boxes and buying necessary furnishings, groceries, etc, the apartment is in pretty good shape. We took an evening off and went to a trendy outdoor restaurant called Bartaco. If you don’t have a smart phone, don’t bother showing up…it was a cashless/contact-less restaurant. You had to order and pay via your smart phone. I felt so hip…sort of. The people watching was excellent!

I fly back to Las Cruces tomorrow to join back up with Jim. We need to stick around Las Cruces for a few days, but then we are off on another adventure. It does feel good to be seeing some new sights.

, ,

One thought on “Chasing 70 (degrees…not years).”

  1. dominiquefeather

    Glad to hear that Jim is doing well — hope that it continues!!! And that you are getting back to some “normal” things like riding your bike. Your trip this winter has sure started out to be a busy one — nice that you have been able to fit in some “down” time and enjoy the nice weather. When I looked out my bedroom window this morning — I couldn’t see anything but white — like a blizzard. Has slowed down some.

Leave a Reply

Translate ยป