OLA: Taking Much Needed Breaks!

Bill, waiting to be moved to the Operating Room

My children say I am wearing Bill out and think we need to take a break from all this travelling!  Sure enough, even the RV needed a break!  M’A ‘turn had been having problems with its front A/C system since we took it out of storage upon our arrival from Asia and begin this trek southeast.   During this sizzling summer even at our northern locations, the heat sometimes became unbearable and we have definitely needed a tip-top cooling system in place!

there's a leak!

It was Camping World in Council Bluffs, Iowa that first looked at the RV problem.    Our contention was that the roofing system they put in in the Fife, Washington branch before we left for Asia messed up the circuit board. They finally replaced the circuit board but the problem persisted.  The branch in Island Lake, Illinois eventually installed a new system. But while camping in the White Oaks Resort at Monticello, Indiana, days of rain and constantly running the A/C revealed leaks around the unit! We brought her to the Greenwood, Indiana Camping World.  They easily fixed that problem.

The Christ Hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio

But my kids are right…it is Bill that needed the real break! We went to The Christ Hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio just 2 hours away to have Bill’s right knee checked out by Dr. Marc Schneider.   It had been bothering him well before we went to the Philippines and his family doctor in Washington recommended that he see an orthopedic surgeon.   They provided the test results and indeed Bill was scheduled for arthroscopic surgery in 3 days!   We quickly checked in at the Indian Lakes Resort in Batesville, Indiana, 45 minutes away from the hospital! 

Dr. Schneider making preliminary checks

We scheduled ourselves to stay in Indian Lakes for 3 weeks (the maximum stay given our platinum membership at the Thousand Trails network of campgrounds) and then for another 3 weeks at the Wilmington Resort in Wilmington, Ohio, also 45 minutes away from the hospital.   We had considered having the procedure done in Florida where we will be staying for 3 months this winter but this is something that was long overdue!

I had barely sat down in the Waiting Area, fiddling with my computer when they called out…’Colborn family’!   My heart jumped, ‘Did they need me for some decision?’ It turned out that the procedure was done, also in a jiffy! The doctor talked to me

already at work in the recovery room

that all went well and soon I was at Bill’s bedside in the Recovery Room. That afternoon Bill was walking about and didn’t much need the crutches we had bought.   The biggest problem we had was actually of a very different nature!

I have been deathly afraid of American roads (except inside campgrounds) since the day I got here in March of 2004!  Actually I bought a Honda Civic in 2007, got a drivers’ license (without taking a road test, just a written one), and got involved in 3 separate crashes within 3 months…all in the garage area: destroying my son-in-law’s garage, denting my daughter’s car, and bumping into the landscaper’s truck!   Bill finally decided…there would beabsolutely be no more driving for me.

ready to go home

In the Philippines the roads are narrow, traffic slow (mostly unmoving), and I almost always had a driver. But now, I had to drive from the hospital to Indian Lakes after the surgery.   Bill and I spent looooong hours studying our Road Atlas to look for back roads I can use.   The day before the surgery we practiced a route that took me 2 ½ hours to navigate and gave me oodles of stress!   One time I almost drifted totally to the fields on the right when Bill was trying to discuss something with me.

While Bill was recovering, I took another look -- this time at Google Maps -- to find a shorter, easier route.   Eureka, I found one!   With only 2 stops to ask for directions (since I did not have the benefit of practice time), it took me 1 ½ hours and the fastest I had to drive was 50 mph!  Bill is now in Dreamland:   his knee is getting healed, he will be able to do more of his fave strenuous activities, and he will have much needed breaks from driving…for that day…driver Carol was born! 

the new me!

Next Stop: Standing at the Crossroads of America: Indiana