Europe with the whole Family (almost)

One of the mysteries of the universe to me is how does a trip idea spark into reality.  I decided, it usually starts with people talking smack.   Bantering back and forth, upgrading to one-up-man-ship, general family stuff.   Then there is that nanosecond that one person says something meaningful and the concept of “I bet we could do that” appears. A spark! then it is just a logistic puzzle.

Chase, our first graduating grandson had been told many times he could travel when he was older and when he had a destination in mind.  At one family gathering, he opined that he would like to see how cars (fast cars of course) were created.  That, to him, was a worthy reason to travel.   Some internet research showed Maserati, Ferrari, BMW, Porcha had factory tours . . .   wow, I bet we could do that; go to Germany and Italy.   

The dinner included Jonathan and Janet, who joined the car banter and one-up to join the with a full family destination.  We would fly through London  or maybe Paris.  Houses on Airbnb are reasonable, if we timed it properly, we could leave following Chases’ graduation.  A rough budget was concocted, and they said, I bet we can do that.  And spark! It was all done except the logistics.

Yes, there were a lot of logistics.  The only unbeatable one, however, is the unforeseen cancer diagnosis that David faced and the associated chemotherapy.   The doctors, STRENOUSLY, said no travel, no foreign adventures, no – don’t think about it, just no.    Janet’s mother, Evelyn, decided to join.   We wouldn’t want to waste the senior citizen tickets to all these juicy destinations. 

We opted for a house just outside Paris.  It did require a 30-minute commute into the city each day, but it also allowed us to get to know a small town, the French bakery on the corner, the pizza place by the train station and many trips to the grocery store for our daily provisions.   Our first day we started with a Seine River Cruise to get the view of the whole city and we had our first of many crepes.  Paris is, after all, one of the most appealing, glamorous, and romantic of all the cities.   The Eiffel Tower was a must; the view from the top is spectacular. The Eiffel Tower at night is another must because of the golden light. Our mistake was that we forgot to notice the train stopped running at 11, and it was a long taxi ride home.  

The Arc De Triomphe, Versailles, the d’Orsay, Moulin Rouge and Palace of Versailles are some of Paris’ other famous landmarks. Paris is loaded with interesting and attractive sights.  Paris, France: truly a memorable experience. 

The Chunnel to London, the Eurostar high speed train, is certainly speedy; the journey took 2 and a half hours.

Every city has some history.  London possesses more than 2,000 years but yet it is totally modern.  Walking down the street brings you face to face with icons: the Thames, landmarks like Big Ben, theTower of London, and St Paul’s Cathedral. 

There are the distinctive cabs, shopping at Harrods (Versace), enjoying high tea in Notting Hill.    A day trip to Windsor to watch the changing of the guard and the best of all Trooping of the Colors (the Queen’s birthday) at Buckingham Palace. 

London has the best theatre scene in the world, we saw The Lion King at the West End the first professional theatre event for the grandkids!   What a place for your first experience.  

But this trip began with need for speed and fast cars.  Stuttgart, Munich and Marella, Italy are home to some of the best car companies in the world.  Car production lines have two components:  the body assembly and the power train assembly.  Eventually “they marry” and voila you have a car.    Each company does things different, some consolidate the clients’ accessory choices in a moveable rack that accompanies the car through the assembly process, they have various automation or robotic technology Lamborghini makes their entire care by hand.  All had a museum highlighting the history of the company and their classic cars.  And every single day, Chase smiled more than I have ever seen.  A spark!   I’m so glad we did that.

Cancer Diagnosis

March 4, 2019, David underwent surgery to remove his right upper lung lobe.  The lobe contained a 1/2 ” nodule, first diagnosed in 2016, has doubled in size.  During that surgery, the nodule and 16 lymph nodes were removed.  The nodule and 2 lymph nodes were positive for cancer.  David has been diagnosed with Stage 3A lung cancer. Two weeks after surgery he was riding over 50 miles a week on his bicycle and walking 4 miles.  

Treatment plan included: 4 Chemo treatments starting in April and concluding in June.  Once Chemo treatments were completed he started 5 weeks (25 sessions) of radiation treatments.  Great news – Subsequent PET scan showed no cancer remaining.  

August 14, David completed all treatments and rang the special bell.  David “rang the bell” at Mayo Clinic’s Radiation Oncology department in  Jacksonville, FL.  The plaque above the bell, states victory never felt so sweet.  

Great News! November 2019, David completed his three month CT scan and follow up consultation appointments with his doctors. Good news – cancer did not show up in this scan. He will continue CT scans every three months for two years.

2018 Colorado Christmas

We had a great time visiting family at our son’s house in Colorado for Christmas 2018. Karen had a special gift for each family member, a Grossman Family photo book.

We reminisced family events through this book, bringing laughter and tears to each of us. We had a great time at the Glenwood Springs Vaudeville Holiday Show. Sitting around the dining table we made ginger bread houses and played Uno. Being Floridians, ‘Baby Its Cold Outside’.

Full Time Travel and Beyond………

Full time travel is an incredible journey, and if it’s something you want to do, I highly recommend joining the band of travelers who sell everything they own to travel the world.

Travel is a personal journey and an individual experience, so it really doesn’t matter where your travel style falls in the whole tourist vs traveler debate. There is no right or wrong way to travel, as long as you’re happy with the way you’re experiencing the world, it doesn’t matter if you travel full time, or come home to a permanent base.

That said, we recently committed to a permanent base. In May, we moved to Florida, drained our savings account; and bought a house!

For all the advantages of full time travel, after multiple years on the road there are certain comforts of home you begin to crave. Small things like having neighbors come over for a bbq, or to watch the sunset. Living in something bigger than a hotel room or a 350 sq foot trailer. Ironically enough, you begin to crave the mundane things you were trying to escape: a schedule, possessions (like a comfortable couch), extra bedrooms, enough to invite people to your house.

Time to get excited about a trip, and time to reflect and appreciate the experience upon return. Half the fun of travel is the build up and anticipation, but when you’re experiencing one destination after the next, there’s not a lot of time for that. Nor is there time to sit and reminisce or organize your photos when you’re already taking new shots of the next.

When you’re traveling in rapid succession, it can be difficult to not compare everything you’ve seen to something you saw the week before, and when you’re so exhausted from jet-lag and transit it’s difficult to stay enthused. There’s no right or wrong way to travel, and what’s right for one person will always be completely different from the next.

The period of our life dedicated nomadic travel was a remarkable one, and allowed us to see so much more of the world than we would have otherwise. Full time travel was a blast, but everything in life is but a chapter.

The new digs are located in “The Villages” – about an hour Northwest of Orlando – is the largest retirement community for ages 55 and up in the nation. At any given time, multiple groups are gathered throughout the community’s more than 50 recreation centers participating in anything from arts and crafts to zumba and pickleball.

Our new digs are located in a lock and leave community. We wanted something other than a maintenance-heavy home. Amenities, like pools and recreation courts are ours to enjoy (without their upkeep), are an advantage of the lock and leave lifestyle. I guess we were ready to simplify our life while still maintaining the ability to catch a flight from a major airport (Orlando) and to enjoy the RV for trips long and short. There is an RV club here, perhaps we can join other groups. When we are HOME (oh) it is a short jaunt to great restaurants, shops, cultural outlets, and nightlife.

The community, geographically larger than Manhattan, features more than 40 golf courses, a polo arena and special events throughout the year. Most of the more than 123,000 residents travel via golf cart on the more than 90 miles of shared golf cart/bicycle trails. At night, villagers crowd into the community’s three town squares – one of which has a likeness to Disney – and listen to live bands, and With endless opportunities to remain active, many of the residents repeat one of The Villages’ unofficial mottos: “If you’re bored, it’s your own fault.” This growing old thing, looks far different than it did 10 years ago.

Family visited checking out the new digs one month after moving in.  We had a great time, including going on a family cruise.  Jonathan, our son, loves Siesta Key Beach and Siesta Key’s lobster pot restaurant’s lobster bisque.

All this talk about creating a permanent base has inspired us to take another RV trip. (We will never be bored!). Camp casa came over to meet his permanent brother, as it was loaded and away we go toward Maine and the Atlantic Maritime.

The Lost Year

If every scar tells a story, we wrote a book.

Sometimes, this traveling stuff is bloody hard work. Pulling power cords, hefting baskets filled with equipment, lifting kayaks into the bed of the truck, carrying bicycles thru tunnels in European train stations, loading the bikes on the train (along with luggage) in less than a minute.

So we have wear and tear . . . Worn arthritic joints, his and her torn rotator cuffs (plural), hernias. Our annual physicals were dismal. After resting for an extraordinary long time, and hoping things would get better on their own, we ultimately gave up; planned for medical care back home (Denver) where we are both known by our docs and loved by our families and friends.

We think Florida is a possible retirement option. We both have family and friends within a few hours, and we play well there: we kayaked and bicycled with family, flying with a sport airplane club, and shared the sunshine with visitors. A great airport nearby meant we could fly to visit folks in other places too. New York City for pre-Christmas lights, to and from Denver on a great deal, Boston and West Palm Beach for once in a lifetime family events and a warm birthday party in Mexico with dear Denver friends.

By May, our stuff went into storage, made a cross country car trip and found a great rental house. In the space of 4 months, David had a hip replacement followed by a complete dislocation and finally better again. Karen had multiple surgeries on both shoulders, a hernia repair and an unexpected case of pneumonia which landed her in the hospital.

We attended our grand daughters Kindergarten graduation, a vow renewal with our kids Jonathan and Janet. Took the grandkids on a mini vacation around Colorado and Utah. And then enjoyed Denver. Dinner out or BBQ’s with friends, even a biking for David — once he got past the initial sit still phase. The museum was hosting a Viking exhibit, and we can always find a park with a live concert in the summertime. We took Chase to an Air Force Academy football game. Doctor appointments and physical therapy was part of the regular routine, but it was the path to a complete healing and we found very capable providers.

We limped away by September and traveled back to our storage space via a different route, and more people to see. Spent 3 weeks in the rig, on Myrtle Beach, enjoying the hard packed sand and all there is to do in that area. Myrtle Beach is a fun place, with shows, shopping, and sea views we were constantly busy.

And then back to Florida. Our quest for a retirement destination has taken us to a new place in Florida. Near Orlando, it has great airport access, lots of sunshine, lots of things to do and people to do it with. We rented another house in the village (on a lake), to see if the community is one where we could see ourselves actually living there! The real revelation is that the full time travel might be coming to an end; or at least the homeless part.

Oh did I mention there are a few more surgeries scheduled? More scars, more stories!

My Little Girl – Megan Elise

How your life can change in an instant. Life changed for me exactly one month ago, September 20, 2015

Shortly after her birth on November 7, 1979, Megan moved to a foster home in Denver. She lived in a foster home while social services searched for an adoptive home. She was a little over two years old when she was introduced to Deborah and I.   It was love at first sight between Megan and her new adoptive to-be parents; we felt a true connection. We met several times; each meeting was longer, and included our taking Megan to the Denver Zoo. What a feeling we had, embracing potential, becoming parents, becoming a family!

We knew from that first day. Megan would be ours. The Miracle of Adoption was successful as we adopted her in early 1982. She was 2 ½ years old.

As Megan became a young lady, she had a great talent to write poetry and her desire to help anyone in need. She always had a great smile and that eager to help.

On September 20, 2015, the lord took her from us: her family; her friends; all those she loved; and those that loved her. As we reflect on her short amazing life, we will miss her smile and kindness.

Megan Elise – November 7, 1979 – September 20, 2015.

You will be missed and I will always love you,

Dad