Phannie

Phannie
Photo taken near Monument Valley, Utah

Saturday, February 24, 2018

Surgery Success, More New Friends and a Blast From the Past

At Lake Conroe Thousand Trails, Willis, Texas...

I'm hoping that the successful outcome of the surgical repair of my meniscus will signal our nearing the end of the medical and dental issues that have confounded our travel plans this winter. In regard to this procedure on my knee, I wasn't prepared for the dramatic improvement just one day afterward. Houston is not my favorite city in my beloved state, but this place does have some fine physicians. In the photo below, it's easy to see my pleasure at the post-surgical checkup by Dr. Launikitis:



This guy knows what he's doing. I was expecting a much more invasive procedure, but he did the work through two small incisions in the knee, into one of which was inserted a camera, and the surgical instruments were manipulated through the other. All of the work was done by the surgeon and an assistant while looking at the camera's image on a screen above the operating table. The incisions (one of which was still covered) can be seen below. The indentations are from the  bandage wrapping that had just been removed:



I'll be getting the stitches out in about a week and, hopefully, that will be that.

I'll be heading to the dermatologist next to have my yearly face-freezing to remove the little pre-cancerous lesions that seem to plague some of us with very fair skin. As far as I know, that will finally be the end of all this medical falderol although, for a while, my face will look like I have leprosy or something.

We had the good fortune to run into friends Dick and Judy again while we are here at Thousand Trails. We took them to Vernon's in Conroe for some good catfish one evening, and we had lots of fun talking and carrying on:



Then Dick and Judy introduced us to new friends Richard and Karen, who joined us for pizza on another evening. We do enjoy meeting such fun and interesting people in this lifestyle:



Since my posts seem a little sparse when we're not traveling, I'm going to fool around with posting some 'blasts from the past.' I'm sure few readers go way back in this blog 13 years ago when we first started RVing, so I thought I would post a few pics from the earliest years forward and say a few things about them. This first photo is from the very first day of our very first RV trip on May 13, 2005:


We learned so many lessons during our first few years of RVing. This was a relatively inexpensive Jayco fifth wheel that we grew to despise because of its terrible floor plan and single air conditioner! In Texas! What were we thinking?! What is not shown is a Jayco bumper-pull trailer that lasted in our possession for one day! That's all it took for me to realize that it wasn't something I wanted to hitch up and pull with our Suburban. The next day, I took it back to the dealer and canceled the sale, swapping it for this fifth wheel. I also scurried around and bought a Dodge diesel truck to pull it. The Dodge truck I loved and eventually traded for a newer one.

During that trip--to Florida--we stayed at the tony Emerald Beach RV Resort in Panama City and thought we were in tall cotton! It was a beautiful park, and in the post I complained about how unbelievably expensive it was--$40 a night! How times have changed!


I also noticed on that post a comment from longtime RV blogger friends Gordon and Juanita that I believe to be our first contact with them. We ultimately met up and became good personal friends years later.

On our way back from Florida, we also toured the McIlhenny Tabasco factory on Avery Island, Louisiana:


This was a really interesting stop, and I would recommend it for everyone. (As I look at this photo, I realize that I still have in my closet that shirt from 13 years ago; I'm not sure what to say about that, but I will admit that it's getting a little faded nowadays. You might say that I'm not much of a shopper.)

Well, what do you think? Does this old stuff have any appeal? It's fun for us to look back through 500 blog posts over 13 years, but I'm not sure that would hold true for anyone else.

Thank you, Lord, for this wonderful life; 
please forgive me if I don't appreciate it as I should each day.

I had rather see the world and own little than to own the whole world and see little of it.  
--Alexander Sattler

24 comments:

  1. Sure happy to hear your knee surgery went well. Enjoyed your post.

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    1. Thank you, my friend. I'm always a little surprised when people seem to enjoy this stuff.

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  2. Dave's meniscus repair from over 10 years ago is still going strong. . .arthritis is what got him now. I'm sure yours will be just as successful. . .and yes, I would enjoy blasts from your's and Sandy's past. . . :)

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    1. Well, Dave's problem is that he's old. He was lucky to have married someone so much younger!

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  3. Glad your surgery went well and your are good to go again.
    So nice that you can look back on your blog and read about your travels
    Oh the memories of camping and rving I have over the last 50 years, not so many pictures until we started blogging in 2006 now over 3,000 postings that we can look back on.

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    1. Oh, my goodness, George; I'm just a piker compared to your prolific writings. But I enjoy your blog anyway.

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  4. Mike, I've only been reading your blog for the past year or two, so it was was fun for me to see your "blast from the past." Besides, talking about our past adventures and looking through photos from prior travels helps to keep those happy memories alive and well in our hearts - nothing wrong with that! Glad to hear your surgery went well and the improvement is already obvious.

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    1. Hi, Mary! Thanks for your input. And why am I just now finding your blog? It is very well done, and I'm putting it in my reader que right now.

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    2. You're welcome (and I can't believe I misspelled 'queue' above).

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  5. Great to hear your surgery went well, all the best with the next step.

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    1. Thanks, Bill. So glad we live in a time when this sort of medical wizardry is possible.

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  6. Wonderful news that your surgery went so well!
    Interesting picture of the old fifth wheel, we had one very similar, it was a Prowler 1997. :) We've had two-foot-itis every since!
    By the way, get rid of the shirt!

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    1. Ha! I can assure you that Sandy will toss that thing now that I have embarrassed her with this post. Thanks, Patsy, for your comment, as always.

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  7. Your "one A/C" comment reminds me of the time we camped on asphalt pavement. In Fort Hood. The first week of July. In a 30+' Airstream trailer with one A/C also. Were it not for the incentive of seeing our first-born grandchild we wouldn't have lasted an hour let alone three days! Definition of H O T.

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    1. Oh, I can see you've been there. It didn't take us long to get rid of that thing.

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  8. Your surgery looked very non-invasive. Impressive compared to others I've seen. We wish you a speedy recovery. We also picked up both gadgets from your previous post. Gotta keep up you know;-)

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    1. Hi, Dan! Good to hear from y'all! And thanks for your good wishes; I still amazed how well this turned out. I'm glad you like my gadgets; boys with their toys, you know...HaHa!

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  9. Glad your scoping went well.
    The Blast from the Past is always a fun way to look at things.
    I remember working up the RV Chain with Kathy. What I learned to do with the last two RVs was to improve them to our liking so they would better suite our needs.
    Be Safe and Enjoy!

    It's about time.

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    1. Thank you, Rick! Yeah, we were such babes in the woods when we began. I don't think anyone knew less about what they were doing that we did. But we got smarter pretty quickly when we actually started camping in our rigs. We learned about changes we would make with every one of them--even Phannie.

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  10. Mike, so glad surgery went well, and glad we got to visit and introduce you to new friends, too. I hope y'all are not floating away at TTLC. We have had almost 4" of rain today, and still pouring - and that is after over 6" at this park in East Texas on Thursday. I am so glad we moved on Friday, and looking forward to sunshine tomorrow - before the rains begin again on Tuesday. Tell Sandy hi and see ya!

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  11. Thanks, Judy! We loved hanging out with y'all and the Headleys. You guys were lucky to get out of here when you did. I'm thinking about getting me some flippers! See you 'round the bend; have a happy summer!

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  12. Our first fifth wheel was a 36' with a single air in Phx. Salesman said it would be fine ... lol. Had 2 window shakers and the single air running 24/7 just to survive. Hair on the cats had to go too. Love your Blog and really enjoy your blasts from the past! Doug Knudson

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    1. Thank you, Doug! I appreciate your feedback, so I guess I'll include some more blasts from the past. Thanks for tagging along!
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