Just before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Ron and I had been living full time in our RV. We had just started getting into the groove of planning RV trips around medical, vision and dental appointments. Because we had a home base established at Scott’s house, we could also be home for family events and celebrations. We really thought we would eventually go on a mission for our church at one of their historical sites because we could take our RV to live in. After serving a mission, we thought, if our health remained good, we could spend a couple of years working as park hosts for one of the many state parks in Texas. Unfortunately, life has a way of not following the plans we make.
The first sign that we might need to reconsider our plans came with Ron’s health. He has been a diabetic for more years than I can count. He also has had high blood pressure, as well as back and knee pain. The diabetes lead to diabetic retinopathy, which started to effect Ron’s vision. Blood vessels in his eyes leaked, the blood would congeal, causing blind spots in his field of vision. You can’t really be driving a massive pickup truck with a 5th wheel attached when you are practically blind. Surgery to clean out the eye and seal blood vessels grounded us for a while; AND, revealed that Ron also has atrial fibrillation. But, after treatment and recovery, we carried on with less ambitious travel plans as I became our permanent driver.
The second sign that we needed to plot another course came totally by happenstance. We had been traveling through South Dakota when I needed to find an Army base to get a prescription for an antibiotic to treat a dental abscess. During the ER visit, a routine CT scan revealed I have a descending aortic aneurysm. After returning home and seeing a cardiologist, I found out that life style changes would limit how much I could do physically. I can’t lift, push or strain in order to not cause the aneurysm to rupture. Between the two of us, it started to look like we might need to skip the mission and park host decisions.
The final nail in the coffin came as the pandemic hit full force. RV parks were shutting down temporarily. Even state parks were closing down. Scott was adamant that we didn’t need to move; but, Ron and I both felt like we needed a more comfortable place to recover from our health setbacks. It is really a good thing we did because not long after moving in, Ron was diagnosed with congestive heart failure. We ended up staying in a townhouse we leased in Temple for 2 years.
During the time we spent in Temple, we came to accept the fact that any more trips in the RV would be less frequent and limited to inside Texas. Because we would no longer be traveling, we knew we needed to find something permanent. Neither one of us wanted the responsibility of care and upkeep on a house. But, leasing the townhouse taught us that we needed several things:
- 24 hour on call maintenance
- Relatively safe neighborhood
- Preferably rural setting
- 2 car garage
- Not income restricted
- Lawn care included
- No stairs
- In unit laundry hook ups
- Social activities
- Easy access to medical care
- Hospital within 15 minute drive
- HEB nearby
- Access to a military base
- Close to church services, to include a temple
- Less than 30 minutes from one of our kids
