Hello again, welcome back to our story.
Our last chapter concluded on Saturday, May 18th, while we were
still in Pahrump, Nevada, our legal home of record. We were
originally going to stay here for a month, leaving last Tuesday, the
14th. However, when Jackie went to the doctor for her shortness of
breath he ordered some tests that seem to indicate she has some sort
of issue with her heart and he referred her to a cardiologist who
recommended an angiogram. With all of that going on we extended our
stay here at Wine Ridge RV Resort for another month. Jackie is
scheduled to go into Las Vegas on Monday for her angiogram, and
possibly other procedures.
Sunday, May 19th, we had a stay at home
day again. I went down to the store for the Sunday paper, but other
than that we just stayed at home and did some chores and relaxed.
Monday we were up at 6:00 a.m. getting ready to head down to Las
Vegas so Jackie could have here angiogram performed. She had to be
at the hospital by 8:30. We were literally getting ready to walk out
the door at 7:00 when her phone rang. The call said “Restricted”
and she almost didn't answer, but she did and it was the doctor that
was going to be doing the angiogram. He was calling to tell Jackie
that the hospital's only board certified cardiac surgeon was on
vacation. He said he could do the catheter and the diagnostic
portion of the procedure, the actual angiogram, but that if she
needed a stent or even surgical intervention, they couldn't do it
because hospital policy required a cardiac surgeon be available on
site. We thought about it briefly and decided to cancel and
reschedule. At least as far as we know Jackie's issues are not
critical, just concerning, and we didn't want her to have to go
through the catheterization process twice, not to mention that even
the catheterization has some risks and we didn't want to have to
worry. So, end of planned trip to Las Vegas. We ended up staying in
the rest of the day, getting a few things done and just relaxing.
Towards the end of the day the nurse called and said Jackie was
rescheduled for two weeks from today.
Tuesday, May 21st, we had a fairly
quiet day. We went out after lunch and spent some time at the
Escapee's RV park, surveying the various sites. Regular readers will
remember that last fall we put our name on the list to get one of the
nearly 200 spots at the park. The park is a co-op where you
basically lease your lot for as long as you want to stay there. To
get in you pay a base rate, around $8,000 plus the value of any
improvements. When you give up your lease you get all the up front
money back. There is also a modest co-op monthly fee of less than
$100. There are a number of Escapee parks around the country and the
waiting list varies for each. We have heard the waiting time here is
about two to three years. When someone gives up a lot they offer it
first to any existing residents who may want to move, then to the
next person up on the active list. You can take it or pass it, but
you are only allowed three passes before you go back to the bottom of
the list. Our goal today was to go through the park and list all of
the sites which would be a hard no if it was offered. This was
mostly a matter of the lots that had trees which might block our
satellite. We ended up with about a dozen of the lots that would not
be suitable. After our work at the RV park we did a Walmart run,
picked up our mail and then came home. We spent the rest of the
evening in the coach.
Wednesday, May 22nd, our plan was to go
out and do a little geocaching today, but just as we finished lunch
rain clouds moved off the mountains and into the valley and we got
rain. It was fairly light, but it went on for a couple of hours. In
addition it was cool, only in the low 60's. Later in the evening the
local weather guy was commenting that Las Vegas and the surrounding
area, meaning us, were experiencing record low daily high
temperatures. Apparently the weather gods are angry at Nevada. As a
result we stayed in for most of the day. We did go out after dinner,
about 6:30, and went to the VFW hall for karaoke. They have
remodeled the inside of the VFW and it is a lot more appealing, and
less smokey, than it used to be. Dick and Millie Duffin were there,
even though they don't sing they like to support their friends.
However, it was raining lightly when we left the coach and I think
the weather kept all our other friends away. It did make for a short
rotation of only six or seven singers, so I did get to do a half
dozen songs. And, Jackie got to play some slots because they have
gambling in the VFW. About 9:00 we left and went back to the coach,
watched a little TV and went to bed.
Thursday, May 23rd, the weather cleared
a bit. It was still cool and cloudy, but didn't look like it was
going to rain. We left the coach after lunch and drove about 20
miles northwest of town to do some geocaching. All of the caches in
and around town we have either already found, or they are out in the
desert on some of the ATV trails that we can't go on with the car.
We worked a series that runs alongside of a decent gravel road.
There are 47 caches in this series, most of them only a tenth of a
mile apart. They are also pretty easy, just pill bottles under a
pile of rocks just off the road a few feet. Not a lot of challenge,
but we are tired of not being able to cache, so we figured we would
just go out today for the numbers. In a couple of hours we had 21
new finds and are closing in on the 9,500 finds milestone. After
caching we stopped and picked up mail, then headed back to the coach.
About 6:30 we went down for poker. I had a decent night, only
loosing two dollars in regular play, however I won the high hand for
night with four sevens, so I won the fifteen dollars in the kitty for
that. Each player puts one dollar in the kitty when the games start
which goes to the high hand of the night. It's been a while since I
won high hand. Jackie was down about four dollars. After cards we
went home and watched a little TV before bed.
Friday, May 24th, we were out early,
about 10:30, heading into Las Vegas again. One of the things that
Pahrump does not have is a movie theater. We keep hearing that they
are planning to put one in the Spring Mountain Resort complex, but
nothing has come of those plans yet. We like going to movies and
decided that we wanted to see a movie even if it meant driving 50
miles into Vegas. We went to see A Dog's Journey, which is a sequel
to A Dog's Purpose, which we saw about a year ago. Like the first
movie, this one follows a dog's “spirit” as it moves forward in
time by being reincarnated as another dog each time it dies. There
is a narrator that voices the dog's thoughts and both of the movies
are entertaining, funny and heartwarming. This is a five tissue
movie, but very enjoyable. The dog's purpose in the first movie was
to continue to be in the life of his first owner, from when he was a
pre-teen to adulthood. In the sequel the dog's journey is to find
and then continue to be in the life of the original owner's
granddaughter. While we were in Vegas we stopped at Costco to get
some gas in the car and pick up another case of vodka. God forbid we
run out of vodka somewhere where there is no Costco and we have to
pay retail. We were on the road back to Pahrump by 3:00 and after we
got back we just stayed in the rest of the evening.
Saturday, May 25th, we left the coach
about 11:00 and drove to the southwest part of Pahrump to a new
housing development that was having an open house. We have no plans,
or even desire, to have a house, but it has been a while to see what
new houses have for features and price. The company was Lenar, which
is a major builder in the Western United States, and which has two or
three developments already in Pahrump. They only had two models to
look at, a large, 2,600+ square foot three bedroom unit with huge
rooms, and their version of a multi-generational house with three
bedrooms in the main unit and an adjoining “apartment” with a
bedroom, living room and bath. Although it had more bedrooms this
house was smaller at just under 2,300 square feet. The big house
started at $355K and the smaller one started at $339K. We didn't
really care for the layout of either house.
After touring the new houses we stopped
at the nearby Lakeside Casino for lunch, then went back to the coach
for a while. About 4:00 we left again and drove down to the
Escapee's RV Park for another Millie Duffin party. Dick and Millie
have been delayed going back to their home base in Utah by the weird
late winter weather, so Millie wanted to have one more party. Since
they moved into the SKP park last summer they now have access to the
Clubhouse at the park, so Millie got permission to put on a big party
with karaoke as the center piece. She asked me to do the karaoke and
I said OK. We got there early and got everything set up and working
and at 5:00 the party started with heavy snacks. Millie had invited
the usual batch of friends, many of whom are karaoke fans and
regularly sing at the Wine Ridge Resort. However, we also had a
large number of SKP residents because the rules of the park state
that any event in the clubhouse has to be open to any Escapee member.
We also had some friends from town, including an old friend of ours,
Phyllis, who used to be the manager of the Wine Ridge Resort and
still lives in Pahrump. She and her late husband Don were also big
karaoke fans. Her new husband doesn't sing, but he did come to the
party. At 6:00 we started singing and we had six singers in the
rotation, all of whom were regulars with our group. We did a couple
of other audience members to come up and do one or two songs, but
most of the singing was our little group. We sang until 9:00 when we
packed everything up and headed home. Everyone seemed to enjoy the
party, even the residents that were not with our group, which is good
because if we get into the park in the next couple years as we want
to, we will have to be around these people a lot. It's good to know
that at least some of them like to party. After we got home we
watched a little TV and then went to bed.
Sunday, May 26th, we had the Sunday
paper in the morning and then after lunch we went out and visited a
couple of the second hand stores in town. I was specifically looking
for a small side table for next to my chair, somewhere I can put the
TV remotes and a drink. We didn't find anything suitable, but it was
fun looking at all the stuff. On the way home we stopped and did a
Walmart run, then went back to the coach and spent the rest of the
day inside. Monday, Memorial Day. We had a stay at home day, just
relaxing and doing a few light chores. About 6:30 we went down to
the clubhouse for poker. I broke even and Jackie lost a dollar. Not
a bad night and we had a good time.
Tuesday, May 28th, we went out after
lunch to do a little more geocaching out in the desert. We went out
to the same area northwest of town and continued on the same series
of caches that we did last week. Within a couple of hours we had
another 20 new finds, and we also finally hit another milestone,
9,500 finds. Yea us. The weather started to get a little iffy and
we were five miles out in the desert on a dirt road, so about 3:00 we
quit and headed back out. We got a few rain drizzles on the way back
home, but nothing came to the RV park. After we got back we just
relaxed for the rest of the day. Wednesday was a quiet day. We went
out after lunch and did a Walmart run, then spent the rest of the day
in the coach.
Thursday, May 30th, we left the coach
about 10:15 and drove to Pahrump Dermatology for an appointment I had
to look at a suspicious spot on my shoulder. Ever since I had a
melanoma removed in late 2008 I have been very conscientious about
watching for any signs of skin cancers. I had a good dermatologist
in Rancho Mirage that I went to at least once a year for a skin check
and he was always freezing or cutting off minor stuff, basil cell or
squamis cell cancers, but nothing more serious. A few days ago I
noticed a spot on my shoulder that was black and bumpy and just
didn't look good. Since I couldn't go to my old dermatologist 400
miles away, and because we are getting new doctors up here in Pahrump
anyway, I made an appointment with one of the local dermatologists.
We got in and saw the nurse-practitioner, a very nice young guy, who
looked at the spot I saw and decided to cut it off, along with a
couple of other spots he didn't like. One was on my other shoulder,
the other on my upper back. He also froze a few things on my face.
We made a followup appointment for two weeks and will see what the
biopsies show. He didn't give any indication he was too worried
about them. After the doctor we went to lunch at the Terrible's
Roadhouse and then played video poker there for an hour or so. Both
of us lost our $20, but had fun. We then went back to the coach and
we stayed in for the rest of the afternoon. At 6:30 we went down to
Texas Hold'em at the clubhouse. Jackie had a good night, ending up
$10 in regular games and also winning the best hand of the night with
four kings. She walked out $24 ahead. I lost about $7, not such a
good night. We got back to the coach, watched a little TV and went
to bed.
Friday, May 31st, we went out after
lunch to do our laundry. We played our usual game of Skip-bo while
the clothes were washing and drying, but Jackie also spent a good
deal of time on the phone. As I wrote earlier, Jackie had been
scheduled to have an angiogram in Las Vegas almost two weeks ago, but
on the morning of the procedure it was canceled because the cardiac
surgeon at the hospital was on vacation. They rescheduled it for
this coming Monday, but at a different hospital, this one in
Southeast Las Vegas. This morning Jackie got a call from yet another
hospital, this one in central Las Vegas, saying that she was
scheduled for an angiogram and hadn't yet done the preregistration.
She had already done the preregistration for the hospital she had
been told was going to be where she went. She had to make several
other calls, finally getting through to the office of the doctor who
is supposed to do the procedure, only to learn that, in fact, it had
been moved to Sunrise Hospital. Everyone she talked to said they
thought someone else had made the notification to Jackie. She
finally confirmed her appointment at Sunrise and did the
preregistration there. Hopefully this will be the last confusion
about this thing. After the clothes were done we went back to the
coach and stayed in for the rest of the day.
Saturday, June 1st, official “calendar
summer” is here! We had a quiet, stay in day. We cooked a big
rack of pork spare ribs in the crock pot and just hung out all day.
We did spend a couple of hours in the afternoon watching the movie
Forrest Gump that we had recorded on the DVR. I was surprised at how
little of the movie I actually remembered after 25 years. A few of
the more famous scenes, but most of the movie was almost like brand
new. Sunday we had our usual beginnings of the Sunday paper, Sunday
Morning on CBS, and our coffee. After lunch we went out and did a
few errands. We visited briefly with Millie and Dick Duffin to see
how Millie was doing. Last week she had to go in for emergency
surgery to correct a spontaneous detachment of the retina in her left
eye. She is doing better, but has to keep her head face down for a
month! We then visited with Dick and Regina Rubinstein, who moved on
Saturday from Wine Ridge RV Resort, where we are, to another RV park
close to the Escapees park. The picture is of Regina singing at the party last weekend. After our visits we went to Walmart for
a few supplies, then went back to the coach and relaxed for the rest
of the day.
Monday, June 3rd, we were up and out of
the coach by 7:30, heading south to Las Vegas and Sunrise Hospital
for Jackie's angiogram. We got there about a half hour early,
despite running into heavy morning rush our traffic. Jackie got
registered and by 9:30 she was in the pre-op area getting prepped for
the procedure. They wheeled her out about 11:00 to go to the cath
lab, which left me with an hour or so to wait, so I had lunch at the
Subway in the hospital. After an hour or so the doctor came and
talked to me and said that the procedure went well and Jackie was
fine. He said that the test showed no significant blockages in the
arteries of her heart, so they didn't have to put in any stents nor
does she need any other heart surgery. He said the cardiologist
would likely recommend medications to reduce the small blockages they
did see, as well as dietary and weight loss suggestions. I got to
see Jackie briefly in the recovery room when she woke up from the
light anesthesia, but then had to leave and Jackie had to say in
recovery, lying down flat, for four hours to ensure that the femoral
artery which they opened up to use for the catheter was sufficiently
sealed to prevent bleeding. At 4:20 she was done, they wheeled her
out to the car and we were on our way back over the hill. We got
back home at about 6:00, had some KFC for dinner and then watched TV
until bedtime. The picture was taken on the drive back and is the new football stadium being built just off the Vegas Strip for what will be the Las Vegas Raiders once they move here from Oakland.
Tuesday, June 4th, the 14th anniversary
of the day we moved out of our house in the Coachella Valley and
moved into our new motor home. This 40 foot box has been our home
now for 14 years, wow! The picture was taken the day we picked up the coach. We had a quiet day because Jackie was
supposed to take it easy for at least a day to give the incision in
her groin, where they went in with the catheter, time to heal. After
all, you don't want the plug in your femoral artery to suddenly let
loose. I did a few errands and chores, but we basically had an easy
day. Wednesday we went out after lunch to run a couple of errands.
After shopping we stopped at the Pahrump Nugget and gamed for about a
while. We both lost our $20 after an hour or so. After the casino
we went back to the coach and stayed in the rest of the night.
Thursday, June 6th, the 75th
anniversary of the D-Day invasion. We had a stay at home day and got
a few chores done. We watched a movie we had recorded on the DVR,
The Shape of Water. We had seen this a couple years ago when it was
an Oscar contender, and thought it was a good movie, but a little
“out there” for us. Watching it again cleared up a few things,
but it is still a very deep movie with a lot of symbolism and
messages. After dinner we went down to the clubhouse for Texas
Hold'em. We had a decent night, I broke even, won a few, lost a few,
and Jackie ended up about $2 ahead. We went back to the coach after
cards, watched a little TV and went to bed. Friday was also a quiet
day. We ran a couple of errands after lunch, then relaxed at home
for the rest of the afternoon.
Saturday, June 8th, my brother Dennis'
birthday. He is number 2 in the family of five boys, 8 years younger
than me, which now makes him officially old! We had another quiet
day. We went out briefly in the afternoon for a quick Walmart run,
but mostly just stayed in the coach, relaxed and did a few light
chores. It has been about three weeks since our last posting, so I
think it is time to close this chapter and get it published. The
original plan was for us to leave Pahrump on the 14th, towards the
end of this week. However, we have decided to extend our stay
another 10 days to be sure that we have all our medical stuff
covered. That puts us here until the 24th, when we leave and head to
Santa Maria, California on the coast, where we hope to be a little
cooler. Until next time remember, you are only young once, but you
can be immature forever. See ya soon.
