Dec. 31, 2015 - A year in review

When I last wrote on Dec. 28, 2014, Mike and I were very concerned about his health, but had no information to share.  The discovery phase and the resulting actions took up so much time I discontinued posting to this blog.  So here is a quick recap of 2015 so I can share the highlights.

First the good:

Good travel and visiting with family and friends......
We enjoyed our third year of full-time motor home living.  Jan - April we were camp hosts at South Carlsbad State Park.  Here is our campsite and a picture of Rod and Kathy - fellow camp hosts we met last October while camp hosting in Oregon - they were passing through on their way to Arizona, so stopped for a couple nights to visit.

During May we traveled to England to visit Curt ( more on that later ) with my sister-in-law Kelly, and stayed in the home of Moira Wilson for three weeks - here we are with Eric and Claudia, Kelly and Moira for dinner on the first night at Moira's house.

During June and July we floated around Southern CA and the Auburn area while attending to Mike's medical needs and the passing of my father. Here we are at a Thousand Trails Park in Riverside County - our first night out in the new motor home ( more on that later)

and visiting nephew Jimmy and Monique at their home in Palm Desert

and being visited by Curt at South Carlsbad State Beach where we stayed for a week "on the house" after our hosting duties were completed

and camping in a Thousand Trails park off I-80 near Donner Summit

and visiting with Eric, Claudia and curt after the passing of my Dad on July 12 ( more on that later)

We camp hosted at Martis Creek Lake US Army Corp of Engineers campground in Truckee from the beginning of  August until mid October - here we are having a pot-luck dinner with fellow campers and ranger Jacquie.

We left Truckee area just before it got cold and snowy and spent two weeks at Folsom Lake State Park where Mike's sister Chris came to visit us for four nights and we ran into fellow San Elijo State Beach camp host friends Pete and Patti - small world!

Next we spent November and half of December at Gold Country RV in Auburn CA

while we were in our home base area to visit with family and friends and take care of Mike's medical needs  While here, we got some motor home work done and spent a week with Laurie and Bob in Citrus Heights and another week with Jenny and Pat near Lake of the Pines.

In mid December, we traveled to the SF Bay Area and stayed in a Thousand Trails Park near Morgan Hill so we could spend Christmas with Kelly and her parents in San Jose.

All in all, it was a good travel year.

Good Wedding Party #1 - for Curt and Sarah....
Curt and Sarah got married on Oct 14, 2014 while the were in Thailand, 

and they hosted a party for family and friends on May 9, 2015 in Sarah's home town Sheffield, England.  We traveled with Kelly to Sheffield

                                                        to enjoy the wedding party,

                                      meet the parents and celebrate their wedding

                                               and be tourists for three weeks.

Good Wedding Party #1 - for Eric and Claudia....

We welcomed Claudia's family in early August to our new motor home ( more on that later) 

when they came to attend Eric and Claudia's wedding on Aug 11 

during a two night, three day group camp setting 

in Humboldt Redwoods State Park August Aug 10 - 12.

Good decision to upgrade the motorhome...

We both agreed we are enjoying our full-time motor home lifestyle and want to continue, but that we needed a bit more room, so we upgraded from our 28 foot Chateau Sport Class C to a 32 foot Class A southwind in June, at a dealer in Orange County where we went shopping during Jan - April while we were staying at South Carlsbad State Park

This upgrade was a good move - now we have time to host friends and family for dinner and overnight.... Mary stayed for a couple nights while we were in the Phoenix area in June an she was passing through from Austin to San Diego/Encinitas

Connie stayed three nights during the wedding trip to the Redwoods

Curt and Sarah came for dinner in October ( but I forgot to take a picture in the motor home so here we are at Connie's house the night she hosted dinner for us)

and Eric and Claudia stayed with us for a week during Thanksgiving before they left northern CA to return to Cancun for a while

We also hosted Kelly, Jim McMann and Jelly's parents Pat and Tom after Christmas when we were staying in Morgan Hill Thousand Trails ( but I forgot to take a picture)

Now for the not so good.....

My dad passed away in July about two weeks after suffering a stroke.

 He was well attended for the previous 2.5 years at a board and care facility and was mostly happy during this period of his life while he was visited by us when we were in town 

and by Connie almost daily

Finally, Mike was diagnosed with Progressive Supranuclear Palsy by an opthomologist Neurologist in Carlsbad in February.  You can google the disease for details, but I will say it has been a longer than 12 month period of concern, discovery, avoidance,disbelief and finally understanding, acceptance and reaction that has and will continue to change our life's direction.  Mike is completely unable to work and gained disability status effective January, 2015 when he went off Tomczak Business Consultants, LLC payroll.  I began winding down business operations as well, and have finally gotten free of business and client obligations to allow time for care giving, housekeeping and time to enjoy life as best we can under the circumstances.  Mike is still able to get around, but his vision has deteriorated severely over the last twelve months, so his "enjoyment of life" meter is affected negatively by his inability to see very well, and his poor balance and increasing difficulty swallowing.

We love and enjoy being with each other and are very happy about our decision to continue travelling for as long as possible, so I'll post the highlights going forward.

Life is good!