We are in Alabama and drinking “sweeeet Tea”

We are sitting in the RV with the weather at 44 degrees outside.  We aren’t in Florida but not far from it in Alabama!  So no more sunshine state – maybe a sunshine state of mind!  Now, we aren’t complaining (too much) because we know many of you are dealing with lots of snow and much colder weather.

We spent 3 days more than expected in Jacksonville, FL getting work done on the RV.  We were hopeful that the awning over the slide would take a day.  Well, while there we decided to do a “leak” test and it was found that we had 12 leaks around windows, doors, roof and the front of the RV.  Needless to say, we had to get this repaired and it took longer than one day. Jane’s cousin Joan lives in Jacksonville, so we had dinner with her while there and did some catching up. It was great to see her.  We dropped off the RV on Tuesday and stayed in a hotel for 3 nights.  A large repair bill later we headed for Topsail Preserve on Friday, November 16th.  Topsail Hill State Preserve was awesome. We spent time walking the trails, bike riding to the beach and of course geocaching.   

As many of you know our Codey Bo was diagnosed with Laryngeal Paralysis (Lar Par) about a year or so ago. While in Topsail we took him to a local vet as we noticed he was getting worse and having more difficulty breathing. The local vet was fantastic and referred us to the  Auburn University vet school (she is an alumni).  When it’s hot and humid and when he gets excited he struggles to get breath in (as if he is breathing through an opening as small as a straw). We found that we couldn’t take him for long walks or hikes which we miss so much (and so does he).   

On November 20th we left Topsail and headed to Gulf Shores, AL to stay at the Luxury RV Park for 30 days.  Jane’s sister and niece live in Mobile, AL so we are spending the holidays with them.  The RV park is very nice and it’s 3 blocks from the beach.  We have been taking walks to see the sunset which is absolutely beautiful.  We spent Thanksgiving with Jane’s niece Whitney and family.  Jane’s mother flew down to spend a week with her sister so we all hung out and thankfully didn’t get into enough trouble to need bail money!  We decorated the RV (as best as we could). Our Christmas tree is about 8 inches high and sits on the dining table, but at least it’s a tree.  

We took Codey Bo to Auburn Vet Clinic Tuesday, December 4th to be evaluated for surgery for the Lar Par. Well, that was quite the experience.  We met with a 4th year vet student, a vet intern and the clinical director.  They did a thorough exam on him which took about 2.5 hours.  We were getting quite nervous waiting to know what was happening.  Finally when they came out to talk with us, we were informed that Codey has lots of lumps and dumps that had them very concerned.  They didn’t say the “C” word (cancer) but strongly implied it. The vet gave us several options on how to proceed and we chose to do the needle biopsies on all the lumps to make sure they were okay. Bless his heart, Codey had a hard day.  They biopsied 11 lumps, did x-rays of his abdomen and chest and an ultra-sound of his abdomen.  God blessed us with good news – all the labs came out negative for cancer!  We firmly believe this surprised the vets big time!  So, we take him back this Thursday the 13th for a surgical consult on surgery to fix the Lar Par.  If he is approved we are hopeful they can do the surgery on Friday.  It’s a 3.5 hour drive from Mobile to Auburn and sitting and waiting sucks!  For now he is taking medication to keep him calm (trazadone) so he doesn’t get anxious and cause his breathing to be difficult.  He isn’t himself which is hard on him and us.  We pray all goes well at the next appointments.  As you can see by the picture below, Vets need to stick with medicine and not shaving.  His belly looks funny!

Jane’s sister came and spent a couple of nights with us at the RV.  We went to a couple of Christmas Markets and the movies.  Gulf Shores has a Christmas parade every year and the parade goes right down the road in front of the RV park.  We saw the parade up close and personal.  As you can imagine, most of the floats were made from boats – after all we are at the beach.  There was candy, frisbees and beads being thrown.  And our personal favorite was from the sanitation  department float – they threw rolls of toilet paper!!  My sister was able to stock up from this float.  We wish they would have thrown toilet paper we could use in the RV, but no such luck. 

Well, we have rambled on for awhile now and need to finish up.  We move to Meaher State Park on December 20th which is closer to Mobile (in Spanish Fort, AL) and will spend Christmas with the Mobile family.  We will be in Mobile, AL until January 3rd and then head to New Orleans, LA for 3 days, then on the Texas in various locations.  We’ll report more about that in later blog posts.  We didn’t do a Christmas letter this year, but we are sending out a card with the blog address which gives a good update of our adventures. 

Oh, we are officially Florida residents now.  We have secured a RV mail box in Crestview, FL and have FL driver’s license and will be registering our vehicles soon.  It’s a less expensive place to “live”.  

Until next time… Happy Holidays and God’s blessings to you all!  Love and miss you!!