April - June 2014 MD-ME

Tiger Swallowtail on Cintonia

Cherry Blossom Festival

Painted Trillium

Farmer Jenn at ToppNotch Farm

Pat spent most of April in York, PA with her father. He developed pneumonia and his condition continued to deteriorate.  His doctor recommended hospitalization, but based on our experience with my father, we continued home care with steroids treatment. Within a week he showed signs of improvement. Phil flew in to continue the home care after Pat left. While Pat was in York, I got an MRI and PT for my shoulder/neck problem. I am doing much better now. We did manage a trip to DC to see the cherry blossoms. We also went to ToppNotch Farm to give Farmer Jenn a hand for a day.

 

Rainbow Falls at Ausable Chasm

White Violets

Soldiers at Fort Ticonderoga

In May we headed to Lake Placid, NY where we had a timeshare for a week. Lake Placid is famous because our rag-tag amateur Olympic hockey team beat the professional hockey players from Russia.  Makes you wonder why we now use professionals who can’t bring home the Gold. We also spent a week camping at several state parks in the Adirondacks. The black flies and mosquitoes were a nuisance at times, but not bad - I’ve experienced much worse. Maybe the cold, long winter was tough on them too. In addition to lots of hiking, we visited the Ausable Chasm, Olympic Museum and the Adirondack Museum. At Fort Ticonderoga we learned what a hero and great military leader Benedict Arnold was, before he switched sides.

Old Mill at Jericho, VT

at

Notre-Dame Basilica of Montreal

Trapp Family Lodge

Spring Beauty

Gnome Home

Moss Glen Falls

Jack in the Pulpit

Shelf Fungus

Sunbow

Conestoga Wagon

Skull at Shelburne Museum

Bear Hangout

 Our next timeshare was at Smugglers Notch Resort near Stowe, VT. From here we had access to lots of hikes within walking distance of our unit. We took a one day bus trip to Montreal - beats driving the RV! I thought it was odd to find in the middle of this French city of Old Montreal, an entire square and a large monument dedicated to Lord Nelson, who soundly defeated the French Navy. I guess it was the English way of reminding the French that the English controlled Canada.  We spent an extra week in VT camping.  It took two days to cover most of the Shelburne Museum.  The largest exhibit was the Ticonderoga, a hundred year old, 220 feet, side-paddlewheel passenger steamboat. It took us two hours to tour this, the last commercially operating steamer on Lake Champlain. We learned about Vermont’s role with the Underground Railroad at the Rokeby Museum. After cruising on Lake Champlain, we took a history tour at the Trapp Family Lodge. Maria von Trapp sold the rights to her story (The Sound of Music) for $500. We did a self-guided tour of the state capital in Montpelier, which is very impressive. After some hiking in NH and Camden, ME, we finished with a rainy weekend at Acadia National Park.

Round Barn

Red Trillium

Vermont's State Capitol

Pink Lady Slipper

Feb and March 2014 FL

Sandhill Cranes

Rhesus Macaques Monkey

We left Ocala NF and moved to Silver River State Park. The State had recently taken over the operation of Silver Springs, complete with their Glass Bottom boats. The Silver River is a great canoeing trip, because in addition to floating over one of the largest springs in the world, at 550 M gal/day, you have the rare opportunity to see wild monkeys in FL.  In 1938, these monkeys were brought in to enhance the Jungle Cruise ride. My shoulder, neck and arm pain continued as a result of paddling so I saw an orthopedist. X-Rays indicated the problem may be stenosis in the neck. This put an end to my canoeing for a while, so we put the canoe in local storage.  Linda Erby returned to MD to see her Dad and friends.

Red Shouldered Hawk

Cool tiny house on wheels

We visited with our friends, Larry and Edi, when we were in the Brooksville area. Pat had a root canal done and temporary cap installed. We camped and hiked on our way down the Gulf coast and then to the Everglades. Everyone talks about the Burmese pythons in the Everglades. According to the Park Rangers in Shark Valley, it’s an ecological disaster.  At Flamingo, the Rangers say they don’t know the impact, because the problem has not been properly evaluated due to the inaccessibility of most of the Everglades. We saw two rattlesnakes, but no pythons.

Vizcaya Museum

Patty and Don

We started up the east coast and visited with Patty and Don in Hollywood, and my Aunt Bernie in Fort Lauderdale. We took the water taxi around Ft Lauderdale, on what became a very wet and stormy day. Yachts and mega houses lined both shores for miles.

Great Heron

Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake

Anhinga

Randy with his landscaping crew

We went up to our timeshare in Jupiter and Linda and Rick joined us. During the week we spent some time at Randy’s new house helping with the landscaping. We had to cross back to the west coast so Pat could get her permanent crown installed. (Queen Pat). We attended a Born Free Rally at the Lazy Days Campground and got some issues addressed with our RV. I had surgery to remove skin cancer on the back of my right hand. A skin graft from the neck was needed to repair the area.

Pileated Woodpecker

Spielberg's $200M Yacht

Homes of the rich and famous

Rick and Linda at Mets vs Marlins

Roseate Spoonbill

Spring in the swamp

Pat and Linda

Wood Storks sharing a meal with a gator

Barred Owl

Wildflower

Space Shuttle

We crossed back to the east coast to go to the Kennedy Space Center for a day, which was not enough time to see it all. Linda Erby rejoined us at the end of March, just before Pat flew north to spend a month with her father. I spent another week hiking with Linda, before taking the RV back to Lewisburg, WV and returning to MD for an MRI and further evaluation with my neurologist.

AH! The Golden Years!

Sundews

SEND MORE TOURISTS

Nov 2013-Jan 2014 MD - FL

Bridge to Newport

After my father’s 91^st birthday, we drove to York PA and met the latest addition to the Topper family, a Golden Lab pup named Sadie. We celebrated Pat’s father’s 86^th birthday. He is still doing well for his age.

Back in MD we winterized our RV and put our RV and trailer in storage at Susan and Windsor’s home. We moved in with Tom and Julie. Back to York for Thanksgiving at the Topper’s home and then we left for a week in a timeshare in Jamestown, RI. This was right across the bridge from Newport. It was not a great week weather wise, but we did have a great view from our unit of the bridge (see first photo).  We did go into Newport and tour a couple of the “summer homes”. I felt real bad that income tax put an end to this Gilded Age of  “conspicuous consumption”. We hiked several parks and visited a few forts. Ft Adams was so big, you could fit 3 normal forts of the same era inside its walls. I guess Newport is the Texas of New England.  On check out day, we raced back to MD, so we would not be caught in a major ice storm.

Pat at Gate to Breakers Mansion 

Breaker's Interior

Marble House Interior

Snowy Owl

Ft Adams

My father’s mobility problems got to the point that he needed considerable help. Helen’s daughter Elizabeth had been living with them since October and provided much needed assistance. It was obvious that the time had come to find an assisted living facility (ALF). Our friends Lois and Eldon had just completed a search for an ALF for Eldon’s mother. Their guidance helped me complete the task in a few weeks.  On Friday Dec. 13, Pat had outpatient surgery for neuroma excision on her foot. Concurrently, a RN for the ALF evaluated my father, as required, prior to admission to an ALF. She recommended that he be hospitalized due to a buildup of fluid in his chest. I took him to Franklin Square General Hospital that night and they determined that he had pneumonia and admitted him. I had him enrolled in an ALF the next day, so he would have a place to go when he was released from the hospital. I spent most of the next two weeks visiting my dad and getting his belongings pared down for his new studio apartment. Unfortunately his condition deteriorated, as he picked up two infections in the hospital, one causing severe diarrhea. Because he was aspirating, they inserted a feeding tube directly into his stomach. It looked like he might now need a nursing home after his time in rehab.

Of course this was the Christmas season so we tried to make a few parties. We were back in York for Christmas Eve and had Christmas breakfast at the Topper’s. We drove to Baltimore and had dinner with my family at my sister’s home. Afterwards we all went to the hospital and sang Christmas carols to my father.

Jacobs family

Potter Family

My Dad

On New Year’s Eve, I visited my father; he was feeling a lot of pain in his stomach while I was there. On my way back to Laurel, I got an emergency call from his doctor. He told me my dad was not able to breathe on his own. Pat and I met Barbara at the hospital and our father passed away a few hours later. Considering his condition, it was probably a blessing.

Brookgreen Gardens

Getting advice from a pelican

St Augustine Lighthouse

After the funeral, we delayed our departure south, so we could handle some of Dad’s affairs and get all his clothes and furnishings moved out of Helen’s house. By Jan 10, we were ready for a break. Apparently I had been a bit stressed out during the last month. We loaded the RV, headed down to Myrtle Beach and enjoyed a week in a timeshare. We spent a few extra days along the SC coast, before heading down to FL where we caught up with Linda Erby. We toured the NE coast of FL all the way down to St Augustine, which we spent several days exploring. By the end of the month we were in the Ocala NF. We paddled Juniper Springs and I aggravated my neck stenosis. This caused a lot of pain from my neck to my right hand.  

Castillo (Fort at St Augustine)

Don and Pat at Castillo

Flagler College

Don and Linda at Ft Menendez

Lightner Museum

Juniper Springs Mill

Linda on Juniper Springs

Juniper Springs