Louisiana to Minnesota...Repeat

Our spot at Country Camping

Time sure seems to fly these days. How did July get here so quickly?!

We've been in Minnesota the entire month of June, and it's been a very productive stay, but it's hard to believe June is gone already. 

For starters, we were able to get into our dentist for our annual checkups soon after arriving in Isanti. In addition, Mark and I both had medical issues to resolve-- cataract surgery for him and physical therapy for me.

After my fall in December, the bone healed up well, but my shoulder joint ended up "frozen" due to lack of use. I expected to heal up quickly, and when the shoulder instead kept getting worse, I was afraid I had some muscle or tendon damage and was afraid to push past the pain for fear of making things worse yet. So I arranged for some physical therapy (something I should have done while I was in Georgia for a month), and discovered that my fears were unfounded. In three short weeks, I've gone from barely able to move my arm to nearly a full range of motion. I'm not back to normal quite yet, but getting there.

Mark finally had his cataract surgery this week and he's doing well. We were grateful that the place where he had his surgery, Allina Medical Center in Cambridge, allowed me to sit with him during prep and recovery--considering most hospitals are still not allowing family members in hospital rooms.

Waiting for cataract surgery

One-eyed man recovering

Today was his 24-hour follow-up visit and he's already able to see out of the eye. Amazing! The best part is he probably won't need prescription glasses anymore. We picked up some cheap drugstore reading glasses for him today and they seem to be doing just fine.

Tomorrow we wind up our stay at Country Camping in Isanti and head south. We'll be spending the Fourth of July weekend back in Kasota with Mark's kids and then we'll be making an unscheduled trip back to Louisiana for more work on the coach.

About two weeks ago, our central air stopped working. Again!

We had it serviced before we came north, and what a mess it was. Ronnie, our ace mechanic, cleaned 17 years of dirt off of it, replaced a condenser, and fixed some faulty wiring on it that was evidently bad from the factory.

After Mark had done his best to figure out what was wrong with it, he contacted Ronnie to help him troubleshoot the problem. It turns out the thing probably has a bad fan.

Ronnie also convinced us to install a roof air conditioner in the front of the coach, considering how flakey and unreliable that AC unit has been. So we're making the very long, arduous trip back to Louisiana to get these necessary things done.

There is a bright side to the whole thing. When we're done with the repairs, we'll get one more short visit in with Mark's kids (the Hoffmans) who are moving from Georgia to Shreveport, and a short visit with my sister in Mississippi. Then, on our way back to Minnesota, we are stopping at the Ark Encounter in Kentucky, which was closed (for COVID) the first time we intended to see it.

And yes, we must return to Minnesota for Mark's final eye checkup. Otherwise we would just head west to South Dakota after the repairs, which is our next scheduled stop. But that part of our trip is still unplanned for now. We're discovering this year, more than ever it seems, that long-term planning is generally a waste of time. (I've also learned to plan my calendar in pencil.)

God bless, and may July be better than June!

Safe travels!