Randy had his bladder cancer re-check today and it went well. The doctor said “That’s a good looking bladder.”   We are very thankful!

The second part of today’s exam was a urine cytology which we will hear on next week. His maintenance treatments are schedule for three consecutive Fridays beginning  August 25.

Barring something changing after the cytology results, our plan is to be in the Boise area until September 15 after which we are free to travel until his next check up on December 7th.    Before I work on plans for the next trip, lets look back at some random facts on the last one!

Boise to Elkhart and back — 4102 miles

Truck miles driven: 5348                   Fuel: 456 gallons,   11.7 mpg

Days on the road: 36

• Three night stops: 3
• Two night stops: 11
• One night stops: 5

We visited 10 states and earned three new state stickers – Iowa, Kansas and Missouri 

Repairs on the Truck:  Two unplanned, one planned

First, the exhaust manifold repair left us Diverted and Delayed in Wyoming.  Fortunately the repair was relatively quick and successful.

A semi-related second issue has arisen that has our truck sounding like it has flatulence.  It isn’t a required repair but is way too embarrassing to live with.   That repair is pending.

We have a significantly cracked windshield but purposely waited until after this trip to install a new one.  That is scheduled.

Repairs on the Trailer:

The reason for the trip! One planned repair successfully completed in Elkhart, IN –  Independent suspension and new tires. Randy is very happy with both!

One unplanned repair in process: We developed a cracked shower pan. Even though it was tempting for Randy to replace it himself, the costs just didn’t justify that decision.  The shower pan was reasonable at $235 but the $350 shipping fee wasn’t.    We are in the process of an extended warranty repair. The shower pan has been ordered and the day long installation should happen before we leave Boise mid September.  Meanwhile, Handy-Randy did a temporary fix.

One self-inflicted – unplanned repair in process – our Missouri Oops!  The new ladder has been ordered and Randy will install it when it gets here.  He is working on getting my bike wheel repaired or replaced. He has begun research on a new bike rack and bike for himself.

Even with some unplanned events to manage, it was a great trip! We enjoyed seeing friends and family along the way. We saw some great places and learned interesting things.  It was very nice to be away from the medical stuff for a while!

After all the money we spent on and as a result of this trip, we got an interesting surprise when we picked up five weeks of mail at the UPS store that is our mailing address. We got a check from Norcold!

There has been a class action lawsuit against Norcold claiming a design flaw in their RV refrigerators which cause an increased risk of fire. It has been going on for years. We qualified to join the lawsuit and did. (In the meantime Randy completed two fixes which minimize our risk for a refrigerator fire.)

A settlement was reached last fall and we were told we’d get some money eventually. Eventually was almost a year later!  When we returned we had a check for $228.90 It was the first of four installments which will total $927.75!

Whoo-hoo! It won’t begin to pay for this trip, but it more than paid for Handy-Randy’s refrigerator fixes!