It's now the 9th of February (yeah, Super Bowl Sunday), and we've been at Barrington Hills for just a couple weeks. When we originally made reservations to be in Florida, it was still August 2024, and we reserved two months in Palm Harbor, and two months in Hudson, both cities RIGHT on the Gulf of Mexico, slightly north and a bit west of the Tampa Bay, and Saint Petersburg area. Of course, at that time, hurricanes Helene and Milton were yet to make their mark. After they passed through, we were concerned whether or not either park even still existed. A few phone calls in mid-October after both storms had passed, suggested both parks were doing just fine. We were a little bit flabbergasted with those reports, as each one is less than a mile inland from the Gulf waters. We would come to find that even though each park got a lot of water, rain and wind, damage to any structures in both RV parks were extremely rare.

As of this final typing, February 11, 2025, we've been in the area for 2 1/2 months, and we will probably stay for around another 2 1/2 before heading north toward Washington DC, and New York City. We are still tremendously enjoying each other, the Florida climate through the winter, our big Rottweiler puppies, and of course, all three seasons of Ted Lasso, which we are guessing we've watched at least 30 times now.

Gloria is off in Seattle as I type this, and has been for a little over a week. She's visiting our daughter, Jennifer, and our grandson, Aiden, and also following up with her dental implant procedure, which initiated last August. Her orders were to wait at least three months, for all the swelling to go down and healing to be essentially done, so that they can properly fit her new teeth. We waited seven months instead, and she got her temporary last week, and will get the permanent with a return trip to the northwest next month.

Meanwhile, not to be ignored in the Medical-challenge arena, I apparently had a heart attack five weeks ago. I was not in cardiac arrest, but I guess my symptoms and condition were enough to satisfy the definition of a heart attack. I've had atrial fibrillation off and on for a number of years (around 30 best guess), and although infrequent anymore, they normally would pass in an hour or two. They can be grossly uncomfortable, and my symptoms have been medium or more pain and burning in the chest, and a pressure on the sternum that can be pretty frightening. I had a really bad one on Sunday night, January 5, and it was intense enough that I asked Gloria to call 911. They arrived in just a couple minutes at our RV site, and I was transported to Countryside Hospital in Palm Harbor, where I was admitted for about three days of observation, testing and medication. My a-fib discomfort subsided within the first few hours of being at the hospital, and I felt fairly normal for my entire stay. I was released after three days, only to be remitted two days after that, as my heart rate skyrocketed again during another episode of atrial fibrillation. My cardiologist had suggested adding amiodarone, an anti-arrhythmic medication, just the day before, but apparently it needs some time to build up in the system, and that just hadn't happened yet. I was put on an amiodarone drip in the hospital, and normal rhythm and no further a-fib episodes were present while they observed me for two additional days. I've been out with a normal life for about the last four weeks, and cardio rehab physical therapy has begun and is a good thing! I had three stents put in my coronary arteries in 2012, and one of them was severely blocked. They opened that one up and put in a new one during my stay. The other two were left alone. I have a follow up with the local cardiologist here on March 4, and I expect to have no further updates needed on this subject!!

Our plans to spend Thanksgiving and the rest of the Holiday Season in this area were fully realized, as we had Thanksgiving and Christmas time at our son, daughter-in-law's and grandson's in Trinity, Florida, just about a 25 minute ride from our RV park. We continue to visit with them regularly, and it's been great to have that regular normal part of life back!

Other than that, not much of substance to report, except that for about the last half of January, it was EXTREMELY unseasonably cold down here. Areas around New Orleans, and southern Mississippi, Alabama, and the Florida panhandle reported snow of as much as 9 inches in some places, and we did see freezing temperatures in Palm Harbor overnight on one night. Highs were commonly in the mid 40s, and mid 30s overnight remained for what seemed like several weeks! More than one jacket AND long-johns were needed for one morning ride on the motorcycle that I took to stay on my heart-challenge follow up regimen.

As I type these keystrokes, it is still February 11, it's 74° outside, barely a cloud in the sky, and it's probably mid-80s in the sun! We are still near Tampa, Florida in a suburb called Hudson. It is Super Bowl Sunday, and I have my favorite picked out. Kickoff is still a couple hours away, and I normally would root for Kansas City as a family of dear friends in the Puget Sound area have followed them for years. BUT we made numerous new friendships at the Palm Harbor RV spot in Palm Harbor during December and January, and numerous of those folks are for Philadelphia. As you might expect, very few Washingtonians are here in Florida. Like us, most folks are only here for a few months a year, but they're from East Coast origins primarily. A lot of New Yorkers, Pennsylvania, Delaware, that area. So now I'm torn!

Anyway, it feels good to get this caught up again, we love and miss you all, and send well and warm wishes from down here in the southeast. For the record, Florida is a wonderful place to be if it is December, January, or February. We probably won't leave until the middle of April, and I bet it's gonna get pretty warm long before then…! Since we have a Harley motorcycle now, I am tremendously looking forward to crossing another item off my bucket list this summer. We have reservations to be in Sturgis South Dakota for the motorcycle rally that this year spans August 1st through August 10. We plan to arrive a week before the festivities begin, on July 23, and already have reservations for that whole 21 days until we depart on August 13. We have numerous folks to thank for that early-arrival recommendation, as apparently very little is yet going on, and we can enjoy the local area, including the Black Hills, Mount Rushmore, and other surrounding sites before the mayhem begins the following week. August in Sturgis, South Dakota… I hope the daytime highs are under 100°! In between Florida and South Dakota, we plan to head up the East Coast and then turn west to arrive dead-on for our reservation on July 23. It's all mapped out in between, with primarily 250 mile drives to 14 different locations at which will stay around a week, except maybe two weeks close to New York City. So far, only New York City is reserved, but I'm guessing we'll have plenty of good choices at numerous RV parks along our route, since nearly all 14 stops are somewhat near medium or larger population centers. Yeah, that was intentional!

So we likely will not make it to the Puget Sound region this year. By the time Sturgis is done on August 10, coming up to the Northwest looks unrealistic, as it's almost 1100 miles. Our normal drives of 250 miles, and then stay a week at a time, would have us arriving in the middle of September. Not very realistic if we plan to be gone for another year, plus or minus, and begin that venture just as Autumn sets into the area. Those details are still to iron out, as I would like to satisfy a couple of annual medical schedules of my own before 2025 gets much later than that.

Physically present or otherwise, we wish all of our family and friends in the Seattle-and Eastside area a superb rest of 2025.