By Barry Zander, Edited by Monique Zander, the Never-Bored RVers
We’ve been high-tailing it across America diagonally from the Northeast to Southern California, taking in a few sights along the way, like Niagara Falls and Montezuma’s
Montezuma isn't home at the moment
Castle in Arizona. We’ve done about half-and-half, interstates and hundreds of miles of surprisingly smooth back roads. I still promise to write more about our travels in the Canadian Maritime Provinces, but for now, here are some comments to recent blogs.
From Mary Jane Cookingham — I was delighted to read you are at the Ozark RV Park. I spend every September and October there. The big draw for me is the music. With all the other wonderful music down on the Square and at the Ozark Folk Center you may not realize you are in a town that is a mecca of mountain dulcimer music. Go into the Ozark RV Park office in the morning and you will probably meet Jack Giger. He and his wife, Mary Giger, are the nationally known dulcimer group Red Dog Jam. If you miss him there, head over to The Dulcimer Shoppe.
Monday is Dulcimer Night at Ozark RV Park. You'll also see autoharps, guitars, mandolins and others joining in the music-making.
You’ll probably catch Jack there, plus Mary works there. Judy Klinkhammer, another terrific nationally known dulcimer musician, also works there. The Dulcimer Shoppe is owned by Jim and Betty Woods and is where McSpadden Dulcimers are built. Any time you drop by there will probably be people strumming in the dulcimer nook as well as people eager to show you how to play the dulcimer. Mountain View is the best!
From Ozzie in the Ozarks – Glad to know how much you appreciate God’s Country, Mountain View. There is more than one Pickin’ Shed in town and lots of other places to hear local musicians. Visit the city park to see some impressive stone work … And there are quite a few choices of where to park an RV. Lots to see and do around here.
From Joyce & butterbean Carpenter — We love The Ozarks, too, except for the trails they call highways and the ‘local’ driving habits’; i.e. passing on u-curves, etc.
I wished y’all had bought a place in ‘MUSIC-COUNTRY,’ then we could come to see y’all … You’re right about the folks being friendly and cheerful; they have to work hard for such as they get, but are thankful to God for it
From Dennis Smith – [things to do in Vermont]
Barre, Vermont — Great exhibit on granite quarries. Can’t remember the name of the cemetery in Barre with beautiful granite carvings. w Burlington-Lake Champlain “6th Great Lake”, only one that flows North! Maritime Museum. w Shelburne-Shelburne Museum, Huge exhibit includes a reconstructed lighthouse and the last steam driven ferry, The Ticonderoga brought by rail laid from Lake Champlain to the museum.
Fort Ticonderoga, N.Y., accessible by the last cable driven ferry in the U.S. wMontpelier- gold leaf state capitol dome. Morse Farms, best real Maple Creamies in the U.S. Lots of stuff that is local folk art. w Barre-Montpelier Rd The Wayside Restaurant. Piles of food at good prices, and where else has a Salt Pork and Milk Gravy night?
O.K. So I live in Vermont. If David is a Good Sam member, remind him a Standby Sam may have suggestions! Dennis Smith, Retired…except from snowboarding, sailing, RVing, SCUBA diving, fishing, and a few other things!
From Laura Lavallee — Hi don’t have specific info on the disease. I have a friend who has COPD and who travels with a breathing machine. He has increased his battery bank and added an inverter. They do not boondock very often. He is ok with short stays without hook-ups. He carries Oxygen but does not have to use it all the time. Not sure if this is helpful, hope so. Here is a link to your subject (http://copdforum.portalone.us/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1380 )
Best of luck
From Mina Greenlee — I read your newsletter where someone asked about traveling with COPD. My husband was diagnosed with COPD 15 + years ago. Emphysema is the base of his disease. There are many different aspects of COPD. So I can only relate how it affects us and our full-time travel going on 5 years.
Where to start? I would truly recommend Respiratory therapy before traveling very far. My husband finally did it after 2 years and it has made a world of difference in the confidence of our travel decisions.
Elevation and air quality plus exertion will define the enjoyment of traveling.
Being informed takes a lot of the unknown away. My husband has coped with his treatment with inhalers. There was a bit of trial and error, but not much. Breathing treatment machines were not a part of his treatment plans. (He seemed to think he would not need them until it was too late and then the ER room was his only option. That happened a few times and then he learned how far he could go before he needed to use his course of treatment.) This last time he was able to qualify for oxygen to be used as needed. So now we travel with portable and a condenser in the trailer. The portable is in the truck.
His first hospital and ambulance ride was in San Jose, Ca. A pulmonary specialist became his doctor that gave him the best advise. No steroids if possible. They cause him to be more susceptible to bronchial infections.
One very important thing to remember is to tell any health care person you come in contact with is to tell them immediately you are COPD. Different treatment of oxygen treatments for first responders. All this is assuming you will have the correct health info with you.
By the way, Lincare is nationwide and is familiar with RV full-timers or long timers. Please feel free to write back any questions if needed.
From Ray Shoemake — We are not due to go full timing for another two years but I do know something about COPD. I do not have it, but I do have a lung condition that causes me to cough a lot and have breathing problems. My doctor prescribed Spiriva for my condition since the then current medication, Combivent, depleted the potassium in my blood stream. One of the side effects of Spiriva is Dry Mouth. That might sound relatively benign, but after 3 weeks I had cottonmouth 24 hours a day. I stopped the Spiriva and started taking a Potassium supplement and went back to Combivent. That problem solved. (except after 4 weeks, I am still experiencing dry mouth several times a day.) I hope it stops sometime. Good news is I am drinking a lot more water.
Back to COPD, a close friend of mine has it and has been taking Spiriva for years. He says it works well for him. Good Luck and keep the news coming.
Thanks for all the comments. I had to add the photo below from last Wednesday, the day I was ready to defenestrate Camille [translation: throw our GPS out the window]. She advised us, “Turn right 100 feet,” which would have given us an exciting ride over a cliff. And a few minutes later, I argued with her when she wouldn’t get us on the road to the out-of-the-way town we programmed.
"Turn Right 100 Feet"
From the “Never-Bored RVers,” We’ll see you on down the road.
© All photos by Barry Zander. All rights reserved
Because of the numerous Spam comments on this site, the comments section has been deactivated. Please email us at neverboredrvers@gmail.com and I will pass along your comments. Learn about Alaska and see travel photos at ontopoftheworld.bz (and much more to come when time allows).