RV Adventures

This is just a quick blog post to let everyone know how our summer is going. If you recall, we got home from the West Coast in June, moving Callie Goeke PhD back to Rochester to start a new job. In addition, Jim had two dates with an orthopedic surgeon to get both knee joints replaced.

Callie is now a full time employee at the University of Rochester Medical Center as a member of the Sobolweski Lab. Click on this link to see a description of what she is doing. A new job, new car, new apartment…life is good.

Before Jim’s first surgery, we squeezed in taking the Blue Flame back to the ShowHauler factory to have a broken weld on our slide-out fixed. The repair was a success. BUT…on the way back home, someone decided to be unkind. We were motoring down the Ohio Turnpike (RV pulling the Jeep of course) when Jim saw the Jeep swinging out from behind the RV. What??? It’s supposed to track right behind the RV. Jim drove us carefully out of the construction zone we were in and pulled onto the shoulder of the road. Inspecting our tow bar setup, one of the two pins that holds the Jeep to the tow bar was missing. Again…what??? We replaced the pin (yes, we carry spares) and got back underway.

We stopped at the next available pull out to try and figure out what happened. Swivel handle pins just don’t come out on their own. It was then that we noticed our magnetic “Car in Tow” sign on the back on the Jeep was missing. That is just too much of a coincidence. Mulling it over, we are thinking that while having breakfast at a truck stop, some idiot decided to have some “fun” with us. They took our magnetic sign and flipped the swivel lock on the pin into the unlocked position. All it took was a few miles down the road and the pin vibrated out, causing the Jeep to swing into the neighboring lane of traffic.

We have heard of incidents like this, but you never think it can happen to you. Someone could have been seriously hurt by our wandering car. You can bet we aren’t going to let this happen again. We now inspect the RV/Jeep after any stops. Also, Jim has rigged up a new set of tow pins that will take a safe cracker to unlock.

Back to knees….Jim had his left knee replaced on June 25th. Things went smoothly. Our life for more than a few weeks consisted of creating spreadsheets to keep track of Jim’s medicines (we left the hospital with TEN prescriptions!) and updating the calendar to keep track of the Visiting Nurse, In-home Physical Therapy, and in-home blood draws.

Recovering from a full joint replacement is not fun. But Jim is very determined to get better as soon as he can. He religiously did all the exercises assigned to him and ended up off the walker and using a cane by the end of a week. After three weeks, he was well enough to go to outpatient Physical Therapy where the therapist was able to manipulate his muscles such that he was able to get off the pain meds. Life was getting back to normal at that point.

By August, life had gotten back to normal enough that we pulled the RV out of storage and headed up to Maine to see our friends Paul and Kay. They are fulltime RVers who are beginning to build a house on land they own. Their property had enough room to hold their RV, our RV and all the lumber Paul has been cutting. It was great to see them again, especially since we probably won’t see them this winter.

We still had a few days before the Labor Day weekend craziness started, so we made a stop for a few days at Robert Moses State Park – Thousand Islands in Massena, New York. The park is right on the Eisenhower Locks of the St. Lawrence Seaway, so we were able to watch lake freighters go through the locks to our heart’s content.

It’s now September and the RV is back in storage until January. Jim had his right knee replaced on September 4th. We thought the first knee recovery went fairly well, this knee has been so much easier! We aren’t sure why. Doing all the physical therapy exercises on both legs while healing from the first surgery probably had the second knee strengthened enough that recovery has been easier. Again, after 1 week, Jim was off the walker and using only a cane. We are currently 3.5 weeks post-op and Jim is able to take walks along the Erie Canal. The pain has also been much less. Jim is glad the second knee was easier than the first and not the other way around!

That’s where things stand now. We will stay put until Jim is mostly healed. I say “mostly” because it can take up to a year until all the swelling is gone. But Jim has noticed that when he moves his knees now, they don’t make noise! Come January, we are on the road again, heading to the southwest and warmer weather.