Finishing February

Thursday February 22-28, 201                                                       Most Recent Posts:
Quail Run RV Park                                                                           Another BIG Bump in the Road
Wesley Chapel, Florida                                                                    Exciting Wildlife Encounter at Oscar Scherer

I think rather than call this situation another big bump in the road I should have called it another huge hole we fell in since that’s how it feels.  We were moving right along inspite of the medical difficulties and then we just fell into a hole.

We’ve been here at Quail Run since February 7.  Seems like a Very long time.

So what did we do during David’s first week out of the hospital?  Mostly he slept and did what walking he could.  He did some reading and his breathing and other exercises. 

The Home Health Care nurse has been here twice and says she will come twice more.  The Physcial Therapist  has been here and says David’s breathing and mobility is great so he doesn’t need PT; that he can move into Cardiac Rehab as soon as his Cardiologist approves.

Other than reading, I’m  walking, cooking, grocery shopping, reading and filing books in the Park library. 

I’m out most mornings at dawn.  The skies are lovely,  what I can see of them over the wall separating us from the I-75 interstate over which the sun rises.

This picture, taken from up the road looking back toward Winnona on the left, is about as much of a sunrise as I get.

Over the course of these weeks I’ve done my usual 10,000+ steps daily around and around the park.  David built up to walking for 2.4 miles and 6365 steps one day by the end of his first week back. He’s been a little less determined since then so his mileage and steps have been fewer.  He says it’s too cold out.  HA!  Otherwise his recovery seems to be on track to this point.  Follow up cardiac appointments are in March.

Quail Run has about 300 sites and two different looking sections.  The “old” section has many lovely Live Oak Trees which provide wonderful shade as I walk up and down the streets over and over.

Here’s the map of my daily travels. Before I explain, notice the pink star at the pond on the right.  I’ll refer to that later.

As for my route,  I set out from Winnona.  She’s the Blue Star upper right near the yellow number 1.  I head along the red path.  Up and down each tree  lined street until I get to the “top” .  There I cross over to the “new section”, with fewer trees, at yellow #2  and head up and down the red path.  When I get to the Green Arrow at Yellow #3, I start back going up and down and up and down the other way. 

I follow the green arrows to #4, then to  #5 and then back to # 2.  I cross over to the old section and the take same route backwards to Winnona where I turn around and .  do from #1 to #2 again and from #2 to #1 again.  By the time I’m back at the Blue star and Winnona I’ve done 4 times up and down the streets in the old section between numbers 1 and 2 and twice in the new section.   Confused?  All that, and it still isn’t 10000 K steps.  But you can see why I get pretty sick of it.

Here’s some of what I see in the older tree lined streets between #1 and #2.  The trees are beautiful and much appreciated when that sun starts beating down.

We were on a street like this when we were here in 2012 dealing with David’s stem cell transplant and boy was it a good thing since we were here in July and August.  Having the shade kept our electric bills from going through the roof. 

Looking up Quail Run’s main street.  The old section is on the right and the new is on the left.

Here’s the new section with its much smaller trees.  No dirt, no sand, no gravel but I still don’t  like it as well.

Quail run advertises “No rig too big” and clearly in the new section there are some huge ones with giant tractors.

Giant rig, tiny toad.

This cab has a plaque of Jesus in the center of the dashboard windshield.  He follows you with his eyes as you walk by.

Not a great picture but the best I could do with my phone which was all I had at the time.  It’s actually kind of spooky.

The only really big tree in the new section.  It’s a beauty.

Remember the pink star I mentioned earlier when I was talking about the map?  Well this is what that “pond” looks like.  When we were here 6 years ago it was a real pond.  Not sure what’s happened.  As you can see it’s right on the edge of the interstate fence.

But the Sandhill Cranes don’t seem to care about either of those things.   I hear them nearly every morning flying over and calling.  I don’t always see them on the ground but when I do they are hands down the highlight of my walk.

When I get to this point on my last loop, I can hardly wait to be finished.  Only one more street down and one more up.   Winnona is there on the left just across from the white truck on the right parked in front of the laundromat.

Thank goodness there is Winnona to come home to.