Back home in Florida

After the Native Rhythms Festival was over, I spent the night in Wickham Park and then Monday morning headed home. I started to unpack my camper van and knew it would take a few days. I made so many trips up and down the steps for two days, and that for a few days after that, I had trouble walking. Going up and down the steps was painful. For a few days, I had to limit my trips up and down the steps to two or three a day, I walked carefully in my apartment because my muscles hurt. I walked a lot of miles on my trip but going up and down stairs must use different muscles.

I took a week to adjust to being home, and then, started back to the gym and taking my yoga and cardio classes again. I am back up to taking between two and three classes a day.

Also, I am back in the groove of baking bread, and food from scratch. I am really enjoying using my new cookware that I bought earlier this year. Nothing sticks to it at all. If you want or need the best cookware ever, check out Curtis Stone cookware and his new bakeware. Lots of recipes are on his website.

I have also made numerous flavors of ice cream. It’s fun experimenting with what flavors to make. It sure tastes better than store bought ice cream and I know what is in it.

That’s about it for now, I feel so blessed that I was able to take another trip. It was about 4 months long, and lots of fun. Also, thankfully, as in previous trips, every year something happens and needs to be fixed. This year the major repair was when my transmission stopped working, with no warning, while I was driving through rural Mississippi the end of July shortly after I left home. I was able to find somewhere to get it repaired fairly easily. I wrote about it in an earlier story.

Definitely the fun and joy and experiences made this trip well worth it. I am so grateful that I once again ventured out on another expedition. Live Life… Don’t put things off. You may not have tomorrow. All each of us has is today. I have written about that numerous times. Also, I have several posts of Inspirational Poems and Stories that have helped me out over the years.

This post catches up the past four months of my trip. I did pretty good keeping it up until the Balloon Fiesta began in early October. I had no WiFi from then until I got home. And after getting home I have been busy. At first it was unpacking and putting things away, then grocery shopping and cooking, and I am still crocheting baby blankets and donating them to a local hospital for their premature babies.

I have too much “stuff” so I am working on downsizing again. Once I use up all of my yarn, I will start reading books again and then that will give me more space. I have already donated two bags of clothes and other items. It’s amazing how things multiply. I was down to not many possessions a few years ago and now after about four years in my apartment I have more “stuff.”

I’ve decided I would like to continue to travel and to include much more volunteer work. That would mean I would be home less time and it doesn’t seem wise for me to continue to keep my apartment and pay rent to be gone most of the time. I don’t really want to get a storage unit because the cost of what I would put in it costs less than the storage fees would be. I have my cookware and some kitchen gadgets I like, and some clothes and Balloon Fiesta jackets I got for volunteering, and my ostomy supplies. I need to find somewhere I can have a room or small apartment somewhere more centrally located so if I want to switch out clothes or get more medical supplies I can do it fairly easily. Or have a place near someone I know so they can mail something to me. Right now, if I need something from home it’s a two or three day trip each way to get here. Florida is a long state. It takes me a long time to drive across Texas, but Florida does too.

Truly blessed is how I feel. Every now and then I look at my website, and I go to my photo albums and look at pictures I have taken from all over the country. I have about 165 photo albums and more posts than that. Not every story has a photo album. I have visited and explored numerous National Parks, gone up in the Goodyear Blimp twice, went to several hot air balloon events and went for a ride four times, fed animals at my friend’s wildlife rehabilitation center, and so much more. How lucky and fortunate am I…??? Very. So much to be grateful for. Yes, I have health issues, and a tumor that wreaks havoc with my body at times, but many people have much worse health issues than I do. An Attitude of Gratitude is mandatory for me.

I still have my 5.9 acres of land in Tennessee that I would like to sell. I created an album of pictures showing the land in the spring and late fall. Here are a few pictures.

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