Checking Out The VA in Tuscaloosa

Since FabGrandpa is a veteran from the Viet Nam era, he is elegible for health care through the VA.  It can be a little bit of a hassle, because every time we move to a new location, he has to be "enrolled" at the facility in the new area before he can be see by a doctor. He needs to have surgery for a cataract this winter so, at the very first opportunity I had after we got here, I called the VA Medical Center in Tuscaloosa. The person I talked to told me that someone would come out to our house and help us fill out the paperwork involved in the enrollment. 

I was very surprised by this, as we have dealt with the VA on several occasions, in Maryland, Georgia, and Arizona, and this was the first time anyone offered such personalized service. The day the nice young man was supposed to come, Tropical Storm Ida was pouring buckets of rain on us. He called to reschedule, and showed up at the appointed time, here in the middle of no-where, as promised.

The guy told us that it would take a few days to get the enrollment done after he took the paperwork in, but we would hear from them to set up the initial appointment for a physical and lab work.  FabGrandpa has been sick with what he thought was a cold since we got to Alabama on November 1.  Thursday, he got up and told me he felt like he needed to go to a doctor. Since he NEVER says that, I thought it would be prudent to find one. 

We drove up to Tuscaloosa to the VA Medical Center. We walked in and requested that he be seen by a doctor. He was taken right up to the first floor. The nurse on duty up there sent him for lab work and a chest X-ray, and told us to be back as soon as possible. She said they had made him an appointment for 3:45, but if we got back sooner, they might be able to see him sooner than that. 

So, off we went for the lab--it took all of 5 mintues. Then, we went to X-ray, another 5 minutes. Since it was 12:30, we went down to the cafeteria to eat some lunch. We got back up to the first floor at 1:45. As soon as we walked up to the check in desk, the guy told us they were ready to see FabGrandpa! 

Turns out, he has pneumonia and bronchitis. They gave him a prescription for Ciprofloxasin and one for a strong cough medicine. We'll go back in week for them to check him again.  In the meantime, he is a cranky patient. I threatened to get a stick last night if he didn't straighten up, but I filled him up with fried chicken and ice cream. And it wasn't gluten free.

Becky and the Parents, Day Four: The Grand Canyon

After our whirlwind trip around southern Utah and northern Arizona, we were back home at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. We took Becky on a tour of  Cape Royal and Point Imperial. We stopped on the way up to Cape Royal and took a short hike over to Greenland Lake. The lake was dried up this late in the season, but the hike was still gorgeous!

 

 

Becky on the trail to Greenland Lake

 

That's the lake, all dried up this late.

The next stop was Cape Royal, at Wedding Point. There are Becky and FabGrandpa near the edge. The day was very windy but sunny and nice. 

 

The view from Wedding Point.

 

Looking over the edge--it's a long way down there!

 

Gorgeous, as usual!

 

 

Walhalla Overlook--that light brown crescent near the center of this photo is the Colorado River.

 

  

This is Mount Hayden, at Point Imperial. 

 

Another view from Point Imperial

 

That night we had reservations for dinner at the restaurant at the lodge. The view from there at sunset is awesome!

 

This view is from the veranda at the rear of the lodge, at sunset. Oooooooo, Ahhhhhhh, awesome!

 

That was our last night with Becky. She left the next day around noon, headed for Las Vegas to spend the night before returning to Atlanta.  We all shed tears as we said our good byes. We really enjoyed our visit, and all the sights we saw.   

A Visit To Geogypsy, Part I

FabGrandpa had an appointment at the Veteran's Adminisiration Medical Center in Prescott for his yearly physical and bloodwork. Yarnell, where our friend Gaelyn lives, is about half way between where we live and where we were going, so we drove up there the day before his appointment and spent the night.

Before I get into the story of our visit, I will take a moment here to say that everything checked out ok for the Fab guy--his TSH for his thyroid was very good, his blood pressure was good so still no need for blood pressure meds (Dr. Singh, his endocrinologist in Atlanta, told me last year his bp was "borderline" and told me not feed him so much sausage, so we have cut down on it a lot!), no sign of that pesky cancer AT ALL. The did make an appoinment with an optamologist for them to look at his eye, because he has been having some trouble with it, but we think it is because of all the dust in the air out here in the desert. He had the same problem with in Texas. I'll update on that after we see that doc on Thursday.


Ok, where was I? Oh yeah:

The road to Yarnell goes right over that mountain:


At times, it looks like you are going to drive off into the sky:


The two directions of the road go on different paths, with the southbound down the mountain lanes on the upper road, and the northbound up the mountain lanes on the lower road.


This is looking out the window on the passenger side, at the road where we have been. I am glad I don't get car sick:


At the top of the mountain is Yarnell. It is like a littel paradise in the middle of Arizona. After seeing it I can understand why Gaelyn wants to live here in the winter months, even if they get snow from time to time. It is gorgeus. This is the yard between Gaelyn's 5th wheel and Berta's house:


This is the "Little House" where FabGrandpa and I spent the night. It was cozy and very comfortable. Thanks Gaelyn! and Thanks Berta! We really enjoyed our stay, our visit, and the company. We felt so special!


Gaelyn took us on the Grand Tour of Yarnell. This is the yard of one of their neighbors. He has lots of metal sculpture animals there.


One local attraction is the Shrine of St. Joseph. It has several statues of Jesus set amongst the huge rocks. It is a place for quiet meditation. Lots of people visit it.

There are several stone paths and stairways here that you can climb. Or you can just sit in the garden on a bench.

But, the best was yet to come! Check in tomorrow for Noah's Ark....

Book Em', Dano!

After sitting here in the desert with not much to do since the end of December, things are starting to hop here at the Fab household. This week, I received my paperwork from the dream job to fill out for going back to work. I also had to go to Parker, a 100 mile round trip, to get fingerprinted. I had to do this last year, too, and I think it is too funny that I, a gray haired old grandma, has to go to the sheriff's office to get fingerprinted for this job. But off we went to take care of business. While we were there, I also stopped in at the DMV to get the date of birth corrected on my drivers license. So, now after only 40 years, I have a correct drivers license. Yay!

We have booked a room in Imperial Beach for our long awaited vacation at the beach. Yeah, we live in a travel trailer, and camp all the time, so when we do take an "official" vacation, we stay at a motel. This particular place, The Seacoast Inn, is a special place for us. It is where we stayed for our first vacation together in 1994.

We still lived in a house in Georgia at that time, and I was still working at a "real" job. I took 17 days off, and we drove from Atlanta to San Diego and back, spending 5 days at the beach. Our reservation was for a swanky hotel in La Jolla, that said in their brochure that they had a "beach view". Well, they did, IF you stood on your tip toes and leaned over as far to the left as you could, you could see a little bit of sand from the room. I was so disappointed with that.

The first day we were there, we drove down to Imperial Beach, which is where FabGrandpa grew up. And right there on the beach where he spent his childhood, was this incredible little inn, very intimate looking, and quaint. They had been closed for renovations and had just re-opened that day when we showed up. We booked a room there for the remainder of our stay, went back to that crap hole in La Jolla, and moved down there. It was so nice. All I had to do was open my patio door and put my feet into the Pacific sand. This is one of the highlights of our first trip there. I took this picture from our patio:



Then, in 2004, ten years later, we went back for our summer vacation. We emailed all the kids, and gave them a link to the inn's website, and told them, "If you want to come and meet us there, here is the website and the dates we'll be there." Three out of the four of them showed up, and we had so much fun! We went to Old Towne, the San Diego Zoo, downtown San Diego, Tijuana, and just relaxed on the beach. The grunion were running while we were there, and our grandson, Michael, who was 7 at the time, had a blast staying up til 3 in the morning, chasing little fish on the beach with a flashlight. This is my favorite picture from that vacation. It's Michael holding a lobster he and his Dad caught on the pier:


The sad part is, this will probably be the last time we get to stay there. They are tearing it down after this summer, and building a new hotel. I don't know if they are going to rebuild in the same style of little suites with kitchenettes, or not, but I hope so.

Then, as soon as we get back from San Diego, we will be moving. I have made a reservation for a month at a campground on the other side of Wickenburg from where we are now, about umm, maybe 85 miles east of here. The rent is a little cheaper than it is here, and the electricity rate is 11 cents per khw, as opposed to being 18 cents per kwh here. And it is beginning to be hot here: today was 90 degrees. We'll need to run the air conditioner more, so that difference in the electric rate will make a big difference.

We'll also be closer to town. We have enjoyed being in a remote area, but I am ready to be closer in. Being 85 miles from Wal-Mart and 55 miles from a decent grocery store saves you when you need to stay on a budget, but it can get pretty old. Yeah, I said it! I am tired of this place!

Another "booking" I have made is an appointment for FabGrandpa to get his annual physical at the VA Medical Center in Prescott. And to answer the question I know must be on The Original FabGrandpa's, my father-in-law's, mind at this point is "No, there is nothing wrong, he just needs to get his bloodwork done for his thyroid medication." We usually do this at the doctor in Atlanta, but since we didn't go to Atlanta this year, he is going to the VA to take care of that. And because he has never been to this particular VA facility, they are going to do the in depth "intake" physical. Everything from looking down his throat to a finger in the Whooo Hoooo! He should have a lot of fun that day.

So, Prescott is about a two hour drive from where we will be at the time of his appointment. We'll go up and spend the night with Gaelyn of Geogypsy, then go for the day in Prescott. There is a health food store there where I can find some of the things I can eat, as well as my dishwashing liquid.

This last month before starting back to work is going to be busy. I'll probably also do my annual cleaning out of things we don't need. I hate to do it, but it has got to be done. Everything that comes in weighs us down, and we sure don't need too much weight when we go back over those mountains towards Flagstaff!

Oh Say Can You See...

(click on the pictures to see them larger)

When we got up this morning we had two items on our plan for the day. We had to go to Hagerstown for Jim’s lab appointment at the VA Clinic, to test his TSH level; and I had to go to the bank. You would think that going to the bank would be a simple thing, but Bank of America, my bank of choice, does not have any branches in Pennsylvania. There is also not a branch in Hagerstown, Maryland, a town with a total urban population of more than 120,000 people. Hell, they have a VA Clinic but no Bank of America.

So, after Jim was done at the VA, we took a leisurely drive over to Thurmont, MD, where they do have a Bank of America, even though the population is less than 6,000. We took Maryland 64 north to 77, which goes east over Catoctin Mountain. The bank, in downtown Thurmont, was in one of those old bank buildings that you often see in downtowns around the country that have been converted to beauty shops or thrift stores, but this one was still serving as a bank. And it was beautiful. I don’t know why I didn’t take a picture of it.

Then, after I got my banking business accomplished, we looked at our map of Maryland to find a route home that we have not taken before, just to see what we could see. And right there on the map, right off of Maryland 77, were the words, “Keysville, The birthplace of Francis Scott Key.” Off we went to find the home of that famous American.

On our way, we passed through a tiny town called Detour, Maryland. It was just a blink, but who could resist taking a detour through Detour?

(looking back to see Detour)

And so, we drove on. We found the little place called Keysville, but there was no sign, no placard, no monument, no nothing. I felt a little let down that even though the great state of Maryland was proud enough of Mr. Key to put a little blurb about Keysville being his place of birth on their map, that they were not proud enough to put at least a little marker to show us where he took his first breath, in preparation of singing that great national anthem. You know, the one that starts out “Oh say can you see?” Apparently not his birthplace…

However, if you ever get to this area, it is worth the drive because it is so scenic. The pictures I have here don’t really show how beautiful it is.