2025 A Year of Jiggling

 January 1-December 31, 2025

What a year it’s been, as I’ve been known to say since joining the RV lifestyle ranks is you’ve got to jiggle with the Jello. And boy, have we jiggled this year.

We enjoyed the beginning of the year at our place in Port Aransas, Dave fished and fished, and fished. I enjoyed some alone time, visiting with my neighborhood girlfriends, we tried to get out to lunch together once a week, and when the weather cooperated, we all enjoyed water aerobics. Dave and I enjoyed getting together with my brother and sister in law once a week, game playing, great food, and always lots of laughter. Our friends Cindy and Paul were just down the road from us. Thursday nights, we got together with them, good friends, more great food, and laughter made for fun evenings.

Sunrise 

Dave with a 36" drum fish

All too soon, it was time to head north on March 23. We said our goodbyes and headed out on our 245-mile ride. As has been our habit lately, we stopped in Tomball, TX at Spring Creek Park, for a visit with Dave’s uncle and aunt. Great restaurants, a visit to Old Town Spring, awesome family time, and more fun game time. All too soon our 3 days there were up.

A 288-mile ride found us arriving at Rocky Point COE in Queen City, TX, on the southwest side of Texarkana. 4 nights there gave Dave the chance to have 3 crawfish meals, otherwise, it was a quiet stop, watching the weather and making a game plan to avoid the bad weather.

Site D03

Sunday’s drive was a short one, 169 miles, so we didn’t hurry to leave. A safe and uneventful ride found us arriving at Willow Beach COE, southeast side of Little Rock, for a one-night stay.

Site F-09

Our next drive was 216 miles to Redman Creek COE in Wappapello MO. We were last here in 10/2014 in this same east side area. The campground just reopened, all the sites have been redone and most, if not all, have FHU’s. Our site wasn't very level, and many were worse. With bad weather, high winds and we were on a ridge, heading our way we only stayed one night.

Site 73

With the okay from our lead at Lake Shelbyville we headed to Forrest W Bo Woods in Sullivan IL. On 4/3 after an uneventful 270-mile drive we were home for the summer.

 In April, I then Dave in June, turned 65, Medicare seems to be working out for us.

May 1^st, we celebrated 12 years of full-time RV living. Little did we know what the summer had in store for us as we entered our 13^th year.

Bo Woods has been our summer campground for many years. During our first week there, we got our site set up, we volunteered for a few days, and went to lunch with my folks. Less than a week after arriving, my mother took a fall and broke her collarbone. She was released, and home health care was established, with my father as her primary caregiver. A month later as she was getting ready to go see her doctor, as she was preparing, she suffered a mild stroke. Long story short, about a week later, she was released to a nursing home in their hometown. A week or so later, my father was admitted to the hospital, he’s battling, among other things, an unknown blood loss, and his hemoglobin count was running 7.5. After numerous tests, he was released to the same nursing home as my mother, one room between them. As a result, Dave and I were making numerous trips to their house, taking them to doctors’ appointments, having visits and conversations with Andy and Kati, we kids were coming to the realization, though my parents weren’t, that a change was needed.

Knowing that my mother has a long-term care insurance policy was, is, great comfort. When my folks went into the nursing home, Dave and I started visiting the local assisted living facilities and learning all I could about what’s entailed with assisted living and long-term care insurance. While visiting the different facilities, we found one that we thought would be the best fit for my folks. Once I had gathered as many facts and figures together as I could, and when my brother was visiting, Andy and I presented my parents with what we found out. A few weeks of my folks asking questions, and processing things, we had the okay to sign them up for an apartment. 

We chose The Villas of Hollybrook in Effingham, IL. They have  2 bedrooms, a bathroom, a living room, and a kitchen without a stove or dishwasher. I learned a lot, and am thankful our process went smoothly. On July 10^th, they moved into their new home.

Meanwhile, on our own front, we had received the okay to only volunteer one day a week, life was still just crazy. Between doctors, lawyers, insurance, and various other entities, we hardly had any downtime. Once the decision had been reached and my folks were not moving back to the house, Dave and I jiggled. On July 12^th, we moved our Solitude to their drive and moved into my folks' house, now referred to as our house. Within a few weeks we were able to find a replacement for our volunteer position. The house has a 30-amp outlet, so we plugged in and started unloading. It amazed me how stuffed the RV was, so we emptied everything out and settled into a house without wheels. If any of our RV friends are ever in the area, we do have space for you with 30 amp and water.. 

The last year or so we’ve been circling the coming off the road thought. We knew before we got here this would be our last summer volunteering at Lake Shelbyville. Our current circumstances made now the right time. It took me a bit longer than Dave to fully accept the change, but I knew when I ordered a Kitchen Aid mixer I was coming to acceptance. When we bought the king size Nectar adjustable bed, I knew I had accepted the change.

Our life since moving into the house had been busy, my folks took what they wanted and could fit in their 2-bedroom apartment, now it’s been trying to make heads or tails of so much. We’ve been going through the house, taking things in an order that gave us some living space. Piles of mail, my folks didn’t believe in getting rid of anything, letters, books, photos and negatives, my mom’s Hallmark and my dad’s extensive train/trolly collections, and so much more has been gone through. We’ve emptied out the RV, who knew you could so much in there, our storage unit and have everything of ours here at the house. As time passed, we’ve had a garage sale, made numerous trips to Goodwill, sold both of my parent’s collections, of course after them keeping what pieces they wanted, we continue to whittle what they need to go through moving it to one room.

Mom's Hallmark all boxed up

Just a bit of Dad's train collection

So, the house we’ve moved into is 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, living room, library room, eat-in kitchen, dining room, laundry room, foyer and 2 car garage. We’ve gone from 350 to 2100 square feet. We’ve had to buy furniture, though there is some here we’ll keep. We have room for guests, hint, hint. We’re here till they are ready to sale the house. We’ve been busy supporting local business; yards and gardens cleaned and landscaped, dying trees removed, a new front sidewalk, and new windows.

Before

After

We made a short trip to see our son Tom, in Colorado Springs. There were things he and his fiancée picked out of my folks’ stuff, and it was easier to deliver than ship the suff. We enjoyed a few days with them and then it was off to Camp Wandering Camels in Clifton TN. 

Our TN property has been moving forward; our open pole barn is almost done. Our contractor’s wife had some very serious medical issues this past summer so he’s behind but with our change in circumstances it’s all working out. We’ll take the Solitude down in the spring and next summer we hope to make some memories there. By the end of the trip, I realized I didn’t mind staying in hotels, and it was easier to travel without 16,000 pounds behind you.

Our long-range plans are to keep both RV properties, and to figure out where we want our next stationary home. With the Solitude going to TN, we’ll be looking into putting something permanent on our TX lot.  

We will be in IL at least through this winter, we’ll continue as we’ve been doing the last few months. We’ve seen snow accumulation in the yard, thankfully a couple of days later and it was all gone.  

I started this blog so my parents, who don’t use social media, could keep up with our travels. It was to be a journal of our RV full-time life, since that’s now over I’m not sure what will happen to the blog. I may post once in a long while, when something exciting happens. 

Our dream in retirement was to travel, I think we've accomplished that. We met so many people, saw so many places, we tasted so much delicious food, Dave drank so many great beers, we hiked so many great trails, had lunches in the most beautiful places, "camped" in some spectacular places, and so much more. 

Thank you to all who have followed the blog. Because of blogging, we’ve made many friends, and for that we are thankful forever. 

So, until next time.........................................