It’s been a month and a half since the last post. We’ve been really busy, first with Dr appointments and more recently getting the house ready for rental. The medical appointments all went well except for the fact that the colonoscopy and heart monitor did not happen. The butt doctors in the USA are not the best for getting things done. They require an office visit for a consultation before you can get scheduled for a procedure. I’ve tried to force a procedure schedule but so far it hasn’t helped. The scheme they use is that it takes 1-3 months to get a consultation, and then they will schedule a procedure. Problem is they tell you the scheduler will call in 1-3 weeks to get the procedure scheduled, which can take another several months. And when they don’t call, it is nearly impossible to get an appointment. I called and called and left messages and never received a call-back to get checked. Unfortunately the consultation appointment was paid and I have no recourse other than giving them a poor review in Google and on the United Healthcare app. It’s going to be great with the coming of robotics and AI as that will remove most of these roadblocks the butt doctors have in place.
The same seemed to be true with the cardiologist, although they did call back with an appointment at the end of December when we will be out of country. All of this was noted to them when I set up the appointments at the end of September/early October. I am still impressed with the Alaska Heart Institute, as they managed to get all the testing done and worked through our travel schedule. It took several trips back to Anchorage, but they had a proper management system.
So other than that, all of my bloodwork, tests, and health checks look great. Kathy also managed to get tons done and has a clean bill of health. We are stocked up on meds and ready for round 2. The house looks amazing and I’m sure renters will love it. Here’s a photo of the completed patio ceiling (the last part not completed).
I took a bit of time trying to figure out how to “have it all” with travel and keep the house unrented, but in the end I realized it’s not good fiscal policy to pay a mortgage on a place we will not reside in for a while (thanks Kathy for that deep dive). So beginning in November we packed up the house, cleaned it, finished some work on the patio, repainted, and hired a company to manage it. Crossing our fingers it rents quickly and we get great, responsible tenants. Some great friends offered a space in their old home to store our stuff so that helps with the travel budget (thanks Tim and Donna). We hope we can get them down to Mexico or Central America during our travels. My brother Rick and his wife Terry are also helping with storage of my FJ and our 5th wheel.
We left “home” again and moved back in to Howie on November 25 and traveled to Willcox to drop off the bike and tailgate at my brother’s house. We had a quick visit with Rick and Terry and my parents and then today headed south. I was planning to cross in Nogales so we can get a TIP for the truck, but that route was 120 miles longer than going through Lukeville. We will be traveling in Baja, Baja Sud, and some of Sonora and a TIP is not required there. Plus we can try the Banjercito in Tecate, Ensenada, or even La Paz when we get there. We managed to navigate the Mexico visa paperwork and have paid our visitor fees and have paperwork to be stamped at the border. So tonight we camped on BLM land just north of the Oregon Pipe National Monument and will head to the border in the morning.
Thanks for following our journey. Thanks to Garret for suggesting a sway bar for the truck as that improves the ride with Howie immensely. Thank you Tim and Donna for housing our stuff and Kathy’s car. Thanks Beau and Makensie for watching our place and pulling the mail. Thank you Rick and Terry for storing our big camper and FJ. We hope to see you soon somewhere on our travels.
