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Louisville

We continue learning the lessons of life on the road. This lesson: don’t do
things out of order, or at a forced pace. Of course we already know this,
we just learned it again. This time, after three days at the RV repair shop, we were anxious to leave.
They knew we were anxious to leave and were trying to help. They drove the
motorhome out front, with the tow car right behind. The guy in the tow car
was trying to line it up so he could hook it up. He was unfamiliar with the
gear, so it wasn’t going all that well. In fact, his efforts to help were
hindering, so I got him to just shut everything off and go away. I didn’t
notice that when he got out of the Jeep, he pulled on the emergency brake.
We were parked on a level parking lot and one side of the tow gear was
already hooked up. The Jeep wasn’t going to go anywhere. We never pull the
emergency brake on, so I didn’t even think to look. I methodically went through the remainder of the hookup ritual and off we
went. Our discovery? With the Bounder, you can tow a Jeep, even if the
emergency brake is on. In fact, you can tow it at seventy-five miles an
hour down the freeway for forty miles without knowing that the emergency
brake is on. Judy drove behind me in the Honda. Apparently the emergency
brake wasn’t all the way on. The wheels were turning. There was no smoke.
There was an awful sound when we stopped, however. Now the rear brakes of the Jeep need some work. Oh well. Life on the road. Don’t tow with the emergency brake on.

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Louisville

Seriously good news. Been to the doctor. Done all the tests. The heart scan six months ago
described my condition as “advanced coronary heart disease. They put me in
the 90th percentile; meaning only 10 percent of American males my age had
hearts in worse condition than mine. I think I reported it as 80th
percentile earlier, but I looked at the results again, and it’s 90th
percentile. That sounds pretty crummy. Well, the good news is, I did the Thallium Treadmill Torture Test again, to
define function, and the results are absolutely unqualified. I have full
function with no flow restrictions. My heart goes to the calculated maximum
of 160 and I can hold it there for the three minutes they need to do their
tests. I have no idea how they can describe my arteriosclerosis as so
severe, yet there is no impairment of the flexibility and flow. No matter. Judy expressed her concern that the first symptom of heart disease is often
sudden death. They assured her that I didn’t fall in that category at all.
When it is time for me to have symptoms, it will most likely be exercise
induced chest pain. If I will stop exercising when that happens and go see
a doctor, they’ll just find the restriction, put in a stent to restore the
flow, and send me on my way. How cool is that???? I’ll take that over a
trip to the morgue every time!!!! And there is more. Progress on the medication front. I am such a
medication weenie that I struggle with everything. Several years ago, I
gave up taking blood pressure medicine and managed to get my blood pressure
down without medication. I haven’t had a blood pressure pill in a couple
years. That left me with a cholesterol issue still to deal with. Again,
the medication weenie couldn’t deal with the prescription drugs and gave up
on them. I looked for every possible food to eat that might lower
cholesterol and put them into my diet. I found some herbal supplements from
New Zealand, started fish oil and garlic tablets, put almonds back in my
diet, eat the occasional piece of dark chocolate, and drink an occasional
glass of red wine, or drink a little grape juice with dinner. I eliminated ice cream, cheese, and hamburger meat. I had already
eliminated most bread. Cholesterol dropped from 240 to 204. Exercise keeps the HDL strong. My
risk ratios have dropped out of the danger range. Unmedicated. No energy
compromises. It’s all good.

Posted on

Louisville

Bad news! Ever since we got the Bounder, we’ve been wondering if there is any other
rig we’d rather have, anything else to lust after. We keep looking at other
motorhomes and they just don’t feel the same. Price seems to matter. The
more expensive they are, the less they are like the home we want. Well, bad
news. We found the next one. It’s a Beaver, Monterey, Laguna, quad slide.
A four-season motorhome with extra insulation in the floors and slides, so
it would be more comfortable to work in all winter long. Hot water and
interior heat is provided by a hydro-hot system. Unlimited hot water, you
can’t run it out. Fluid interior heating instead of forced air, barely any
fan noise at all, driven by diesel generated heat. A thirty-five gallon
propane tank that is only used for the refrigerator and stovetop. Might
have to fill that up once or twice a year. Heavier coach, more power, more
sophisticated suspension, nicer furnishings, wide screen LCD TV, surround
sound, digital readouts for all engine functions and tanks.

Posted on

Louisville

_____________________________________________
From: Steve Taylor [mailto:spt@thetaylorcompany.net]
Sent: Thursday, June 16, 2005 10:17 PM
To: Bill Taylor (E-mail); David Taylor (E-mail); Tom Taylor (E-mail)
Subject: Louisville Good news! The annual motorhome service includes tire rotation. It’s not a small
project to rotate these tires. Each one comes off, gets rebalanced, then
put back in a new place. We had to take it to the truck tire shop to get it
done. While we were there, talking about truck tires, I expressed my
trepidation about the prospect of replacing these things. Car tires are
expensive. Motorhome tires are more. Big motorhome tires have to be more
than that. I have never actually asked for a number. So I still don’t know what it will cost to replace six tires, but I asked
when I should expect to have to do it. That’s the good news! He said we
should get at least one hundred twenty thousand miles off this set! Wow.
It’ll be years and years before we have to deal with that.