What has the new year brought?

Now that my medical problems have more or less settled down, at least modern medicine has done all it can to make things more normal again. I am sure that lots of prayers had even more to do with it, and I thank everyone for that. Anyway, at the urging of several doctors I am back to exercising and a renewed effort at watching how much and what we eat. We joined the gym, at the CMC Wellness Center in town where they have a good group of trainers, nutrition counselors, and a system of monitoring progress as to weight loss. So I get in about one to one and a half hours of exercise per day about four days a week. Surprisingly I can start off with that old out of breath feeling but can continue until I can walk about 2 miles and still manage to do a few upper body exercises before running out of steam. I tried to follow the Weight Watchers guide to eating along with Arlene, but I confess she has the will power to do it and I don't. I have made a commitment to be more careful what kinds of food I eat, a lot more fish and chicken and vegetables, but desserts are still my weakness. Hopefully the time in the gym will counter the effects of my craving for daily sweets.

All last fall we were leery of getting very far from home although we did venture out to MO and CO with my cardiologist's approval (after the procedure at Vanderbilt University Hospital). Arlene had towed our 34' trailer a very few miles and didn't really feel comfortable, although she thought she could get us off the road in an emergency. We decided that she wouldn't want to be the full-time driver towing an Airstream travel trailer and I was not sure when or if I would be approved to drive long distance. Hooking up and setting up the trailer was also something 

1436 begins the journey to CA

that I was having trouble doing as my medical problems got worse. So we reluctantly sold our fourth and last Airstream. A nice lady from CA was very excited to take it and begin her Airstream adventure so we knew the Trade Winds would be in good hands. We stood in the driveway and said our quiet goodbyes as the trailer turned onto the street and disappeared around the corner. We had about 16 years of camping in travel trailers, all of them Airstreams. Our very first one was a little single axle 1967 Caravel bought in 1993 and followed by our only new purchase, a beautiful 30' 1993 bought that December. We started traveling and living full time in an RV in 1999 and by 2001 we were in need of more space so that March we traded for another 1993 model, but a 34' three axle that we towed from south FL to VT, and to SD although we spent most of our summers in TN. After we decided to settle down in TN in 2007 we no longer had a need for the big trailer and that winter we sold it and bought the 1975 Trade Winds, a vintage trailer.

 Things are progressing to the point where we have started a serious search for a small motor home that either of us can drive. We still have the desire to do some short trips and I envision it might be used to camp over at some of the bluegrass festivals we like to attend. They are usually not that far but it would be nice to have a place to get out of the heat, or dreaded rain and it would save driving home late at night. I hope it might finally let us attend a few festivals a little farther away like Rosine, KY.