Camping trip, FIHA Pow Wow, and Health Update

I am so glad I took a short camping trip, it’s nice to get away and have a change of scenery and an adventure. I never know what experiences I will have during my travels, or who I will meet. I planned on being away for about three weeks, however, I returned after two weeks because of an issue I had with a battery. I wrote about it further in the story. I posted an album with pictures I took on this trip.

I arrived in Fort Pierce on Wednesday afternoon, March 25th, the pow wow was beginning on Friday. Thursday afternoon the wind picked up, the sky got dark, and all of a sudden it started pouring torrential rain, it was lightning and thundering, and there was lots of pea sized hail. It was really scary, my camper was “rockin and rollin.” It also rained on Friday afternoon but it did not get as stormy as it was on Thursday afternoon. Saturday and Sunday were beautiful days for the Pow Wow, other than being a bit windy, it was beautiful weather.

IMG_7721IMG_7730 IMG_7722

The Fort Pierce Police and Fire Departments were displaying their SWAT vehicles and fire trucks. The children really love these vehicles. There was also someone there that brought baby gators and tortoises that people could feed or pet, and info was given out for educational purposes regarding these animals. The sand hill cranes that seem to live in this marshy area were very visible and vocal.

IMG_7715 IMG_7719 IMG_7720

As always, attending these pow wows gives me an opportunity to visit with friends I have made over the years that are vendors, I also watch their booths if they need me to so they can take a break or get something to eat. It’s really great to see the younger generation getting involved in learning the various dances. There are two young boys that always go into the dance arena with their fathers and they try to do the same dance steps that he does. It’s so cute. Passing on traditions is extremely important.

boys pow wow IMG_7726 IMG_7734IMG_7732 IMG_7743 IMG_7745

IMG_7752Walking around the campground, I met a couple from Germany who brought over their camper on a ship, they are spending five months in the United States traveling around the country. I told them about my website and gave them suggestions of places to visit where they are heading. A few spots away from where I was parked I saw a van with really cool graphics. I have seen a similar van, I think it was in one of the National Park campgrounds. I went over to the van and introduced myself. This couple is from Holland and they rented this van for a month while they are traveling around the country. It was nice to share stories with other campers and especially when they are from other countries.

Last October when I was in Albuquerque I bought new auxiliary batteries for my camper, and had a new converter installed, I thought everything would be okay for about a year, that’s what I get for thinking. About 3:30 Saturday morning I was woken up by a sound like a smoke detector going off. It was this carbon monoxide detector in my camper. It seems that one of new auxiliary batteries is defective and it was overheating and boiling and the gas or fumes it leaked set off the alarm. This happened a few years ago so I guessed what the problem was. I’m hoping that it did not ruin my new converter that I had installed in October.

When we narrowed down what the problem was and realized which battery was overheating we disconnected it and let it cool off so my camper only was using only one auxiliary battery. The morning after it happened, I noticed that the acid was leaving a white reside on the batteries and tray so I poured baking soda on it to neutralize the acid. Thankfully I had a box of it in the camper. Saturday I poured lots of water on the batteries and tray but evidently it didn’t wash away the acid. When I arrived at the campground at Manatee Hammock in Titusville on Monday afternoon, Richard, the man in the campsite next to me, helped me and we took the batteries out of the compartment and put water on the baking soda to neutralize the acid. We added water and made a paste and rinsed it some and left a paste of baking soda and water on the tray around the batteries hoping to prevent more damage from the acid. The damage the acid did eating away the paint on the battery tray and throughout the battery compartment was very evident. And as careful as I was, the acid got on numerous places on my jeans and made at least a dozen holes in them. Now, I will have to get some patches to iron on and then decide how to decorate my jeans to disguise the holes. These are jeans that fit me well that I like. Thankfully they are not my new jeans that I recently bought.

After we finished working with the batteries, I was talking to Richard and his wife Marie about my travels and it seems they are going to be traveling to the western states where I was in 2011 and I was able to share stories with them and tell them places to visit. I also told them about my website so that they could look at the pictures and stories and see if some of the places I went to are some they might want to explore.

The problem I have now is due to the fact that when my other batteries went bad during my time in Albuquerque last October, the only place I could find the size batteries I needed was at Costco and it seems that even though they are Interstate brand batteries they have to be returned only to Costco. I wanted to return the batteries to Costco and buy them from a regular Interstate battery dealer because then I can exchange them anywhere in the country if they go bad or when they no longer hold a charge. There are not always Costco’s close to where I am camping and traveling so that’s not a very good option for me to buy batteries at Costco. However, several men I spoke with told me to only exchange the bad battery at Costco and then if it goes bad again we know it’s something other than the battery causing the problem. The Costco battery is about $40 less than if I buy it at a dealer that sells Interstate batteries. I’m willing to pay the difference but several people told me just exchange this one battery so I listened to their advice and exchanged it when I returned home.

I stayed in Manatee Hammock campground for two nights. This was a good stopping point, and this way I was able to visit with Beverly and her husband Jim who spend three months there every winter. We met two years ago when we were both camped there at the same time. When I was walking by a campsite there was a squirrel hopping around on a bicycle. I wished it would stay still long enough for me to get some good pictures. At different times it was sitting on the seat of the bike, on the handlebars, the tire, etc. This is the best photo I was able to get that was not blurry, the squirrel is on top of the back tire.

IMG_7753 IMG_7756 squirrel on bike

 

 

I also met a couple, Bill and Pam, who were by the pool when Beverly and I were sitting there. They have been married about 20 years and had no children. They decided they wanted to be foster parents and now, since October, they have three brothers that lived in separate foster homes for almost all of their life. They range from about three to seven. Now, they are together and learning what it’s like to be brothers that are loved, fed, cuddled, and they are also learning to trust. They are learning there will always be food for them to eat and parents that will be there for them. It was such a touching story that Bill told me about these boys and the life they had with their mother who is a drug addict and the foster homes the boys lived in separately from each other. Bill said he and Pam are going to adopt the boys. It turns out they live in Chattanooga, Tennessee not too far from my friend Helen. They graciously said they would bring her the bag of paperback books I had in my camper that I was going to mail to her. I thanked them very much and it will be a nice surprise for Helen… that is if she gets the books before she reads this post.

msvfdOn Wednesday morning, April 1st, I headed north to Georgia to see the volunteer firefighters in Southeast Georgia by Jesup, Odum, and Madray Springs. They wanted me to come visit them again. Here is the story when they drove about 900 miles round trip to Florida to visit me in July 2013. After I arrived, Chief Kevin Altman and Caleb came to the station to say hello and visit for a while. I explained what happened with my auxiliary battery and they cleaned out the battery compartment and washed the batteries so there would not be any more acid leaking. They also greased the tracks so the battery tray slides out more easily. Chief Altman also washed my camper for me, and Chief Dent gave me a reflective decal for the back of the camper with the Madray Springs fire department logo on it.

I noticed that the fire department got a new bulletin board and I was looking at all of the articles and photos on it. There are numerous articles with them and me regarding the donations I gave to their department and they also hung the poster of me they made last year during my visit. On Friday night we had a cookout at the fire station. It was great to visit with everyone and I got to see Murphy who was born when I was there last year. It’s hard to believe it was a year ago that I visited them.  Chief Truman from Ludowici came over to visit me the day after I got there. He recently got a new vehicle and he was showing it to Chief Dent and I. When the back compartment was open I saw his fire helmet, it was the one that I signed when they came to visit in July 2013. It still touches my heart and spirit that the three chiefs and several of the firefighters drove 900 miles in one day to meet me. Chief Dent showed Chief Truman the thermal imaging camera they won in a contest, which many of my readers helped them to win by voting in the contest. Thank you so much.

IMG_7761 IMG_7764 IMG_7769

IMG_7771 IMG_7772 IMG_7773 IMG_7775 IMG_7777 IMG_7778 IMG_7780 IMG_7785IMG_7783

If you have been reading my posts for some time you know that I often write about the importance of cherishing every day that we never know when it will be our last. Chief Truman told us that a week or so ago his 25 year old niece was driving with her boyfriend as a passenger and she had her 19 month old and 5 year old children in the car with them. It was a rainy  night and evidently a drunk driver came into her lane and hit her vehicle head on and the drunk driver received some cuts and bruises. However, in the car he hit with Chief Truman’s niece, the airbags did not deploy for some reason. The boyfriend was not wearing a seatbelt and he hit the windshield and had injuries that caused his death. Chief Truman’s niece who was driving has 9 broken ribs, her jaw hit the steering wheel and bent it and broke her jaw, the femur bone in her left leg is broken, and so is her right ankle. The 19 month old had a brain bleed that thankfully stopped, and the 5 year old has crossed eyes from the head injury. I saw photos of the cars after the accident. Both cars look like tin cans that are crushed. The hood of the nieces car is pushed up into the windshield. Looking at the accident pictures it amazing anyone lived.

Being at the Madray Springs fire station put me about 450 miles away from home so I had plenty of time to visit and I had a leisurely drive south with a day stopover to see my frind Cindy in North Florida. We even went to a movie. I can’t remember how many years it’s been since I went to a movie. On my trip last year I lost 2 hubcaps and I have not been able to find any to match. The place they were purchased here went out of business and other hubcaps I tried did not fit. Cindy’s boyfriend Byron has an old van and I noticed that it had a couple of hubcaps that matched mine. He graciously said I could have them and he put them on my camper before I left.

Monday, March 30th, was the first day in 7 weeks I was told by the hand specialist that I could take the splint off my finger. I am to take it off one hour a day for 3 days, then increase it one hour every three days for three days. When I removed the splint my finger still wanted to bend backwards like it’s not healed at all. It really was sad and frustrating. All those weeks in a splint and it’s as if it wasn’t. I’m hoping it does get some sort of normal function. It was not easy typing without using my right index finger. On my phone I used the voice to text feature which really was frustrating because it didn’t recognize the words and messages came out all messed up. Trying to write stories on my website without using that finger almost doubled the time to write the story because I had to backspace often to correct incorrect letters in words. Hunt and peck typing is not fun or easy. Even now, without the splint on, I can’t even get my right index finger to work on my phone or tablet very well. I’m hoping gradually as I wean off the splint and start using my finger more it will get its memory and feeling back. Maybe needs to be retrained. It could be be worse, so I’m doing my best to think positive.

2015-04-13 13.32.20 2015-04-13 13.32.25 2015-04-13 13.33.44

I’m enjoying not wearing the splint for periods of time each day. I can get my hands wet to wash dishes, take a shower, wash my hair, type this story, etc. Otherwise, when I wear the splint I have to wear disposable gloves when doing these things because the splinted finger has to stay clean and dry. I’m just going to have to get used to my finger being bent at an angle and having it seem as if the first part of my finger tip is only connected to the rest of my finger by skin. Thankfully it doesn’t hurt.

When I arrived home after my trip I unpacked the camper and took a few days to put everything away. I did get to read a few books while I was on my trip, I hadn’t been reading when I was home but now that I’m back I am starting to read again. Yesterday afternoon TJ and his wife Janet hosted a fundraiser for our Relay For Life event which is on Saturday, April 18th. I baked a carrot cake to bring and my friend Nona picked me up so I wouldn’t have to drive. There were several musicians playing during the four hours and there was food and snacks. It was a fun event and money was raised to help the fight against Cancer. In their kitchen above their hutch, they have antique ice cream scoops hung on the wall. I find it interesting to look at the various shaped scoops and handles.

2015-04-12 14.19.28 2015-04-12 14.19.37 2015-04-12 14.19.47

As for my health, not much change since my last update. My tumor still seems to be growing. It’s really sore to touch parts of it, even lightly, and my left foot and leg is continuing to be more numb and have more intermittent pain. As I wrote previously, I’m glad it’s not my right foot and leg. I’m still able to eat, however, my abdominal area is more sensitive to touch and more painful. The sharp pains are not quite as bad but it’s hard to describe but it feels like more pressure on my organs because they are all more tender to touch. It’s like I want to stretch out but there is no room for it to happen. I can’t eat much food at a time due to the compression of my stomach I am guessing. I still have so much to be grateful for. My left eardrum which I punctured by accident last September is giving me a few new things to deal but it’s okay.

I’m still planning on leaving in early July on another trip, and hopefully being away until sometime in December. That’s my plan, I will see what God’s plan is… maybe it’s the same as mine… Maybe it’s different, or a partial trip. I have no idea and I won’t know until the time comes… and then it’s like it is now… a day at a time.

This entry was posted in 2021 Trip. Bookmark the permalink.

2 Responses to Camping trip, FIHA Pow Wow, and Health Update

  1. marie davis says:

    I have had a chance to look at some of your posts from your 2011 trip to yellowstone. They are going to be very helpful. Thanks for your help. Hope you make it home safely.

  2. Karen Vanasse says:

    Welcome home, Carol! Will we see you at Pompano relay on Saturday? Hope so?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *