It was the TV advertising that sold us on a European Viking River Cruise. That, and many friends who had been and had a wonderful time. Since we were going to be in Europe, we decided to do a 14-day Grand European Tour from Amsterdam, The Netherlands, to Budapest, Hungary.
In addition to the cruise, we added three nights in Amsterdam before the cruise, two nights in Budapest after the cruise, and a week in Zurich, Switzerland, since we were already in Europe.
The anticipation built up for two years before we boarded our cruise. A great deal of planning was involved, and numerous life-changing events led up to our departure.
During our three-month summer RV trip to the Canadian Rockies in 2024, the first of many stressful events occurred. We were at Fairmont Hot Springs RV Park in southeastern British Columbia when Bob's 88-year-old Mom, Louise, took a turn for the worse (pneumonia, intestinal infection, bladder infection, and dehydration).
Bob needed to fly to Las Vegas from Calgary, Canada. I drove him three hours to Calgary's international airport, dropped him off, and then drove back to our campsite at Fairmont Hot Springs (6-1/2 hours round-trip). The scenery was spectacular and I enjoyed the drive!
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| Fairmont Hot Springs RV Park, British Columbia. |
He was with his mom and sister in Las Vegas for four days, and then I returned to Calgary airport to pick him up. On the way back to our RV, we made a couple of stops for short hikes.
We were almost finished with our 2024 vacation, so we skipped one destination and headed to Las Vegas in our 5th wheel to be there for Laura and Louise. On our way home from Las Vegas, our Ford F350 broke down Saturday afternoon on the freeway 10 miles east of Gallup, New Mexico. The shop couldn't work on it until Monday morning.
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| This is where we broke down. We were able to limp off I-40 to this little turnout. |
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| Deuces Towing out of Gallup, NM, towed Rigamarole to Red Rock Park Campground. |
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| Deuces other truck got Beauty to our campsite. |
For insurance purposes, Coachnet would not cover towing over 10 miles. We found Red Rock Park Campground in Churchrock, NM, which was less than ten miles from where we broke down! We made the best of our time in Churchrock, New Mexico, hiking the Churchrock Trail (from the campground) in slick rock country.
Monday morning, our pickup truck tow from Churchrock to Gallup was also within the ten-mile tow limit. We were extremely lucky! Our truck was fixed first thing Monday morning, and we continued home to San Antonio.
When we returned home in October 2024, we got the heartbreaking news that my best friend, Susan Medlin, was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's syndrome (ALS). She had been misdiagnosed several times. By this time, they think she already had it for two years.
She deteriorated over the summer. My walking buddy could walk, but only with a walker. She could no longer do jigsaw puzzles.
In late October, Bob spent a week with his mom to give Laura a break from caregiving. I stayed home and spent as much time with Susan as I could.
Bob and I made a life-altering decision in November. Our plan had been to move to an Escapees Co-Op RV park in Sutherlin, Oregon, when our name got to the top of their list. At that time, we were #12 on the list.
We put our single-wide manufactured home on the market in mid-November and got a serious offer two weeks later. We thought we'd have until April or May 2025 to sell our home and move.
Jaimi signed the papers after Thanksgiving. However, Jaimi wanted to move in after Christmas! Yikes. That moved our butts to get the logistics in order. We convinced her to wait until after the holidays.
When the home inspection came back in early December, it was clear that the huge live oak hanging over our kitchen was diseased and needed to be removed. Jaimi wouldn't sign papers until the tree was taken out. It would take time to schedule the tree removal because the RV park needed to have approval for the project and a budget for the home office.
The RV park assured Jaimi that the tree would be taken down in the first quarter of 2025. That was good enough for her. All papers were signed, and we set her move-in date for January 14. That gave us time to pack. Whew.
In the meantime, my sister visited us for a week in San Antonio the first part of December. We rented a space at Travelers World across from our manufactured home. She stayed in our 5th wheel.
One day was spent at Six Flags Fiesta Texas, and we took her to the Christmas lights on the Riverwalk that night.
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| Six Flags Fiesta Texas, San Antonio. |
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| The fantastic Christmas show at Six Flags Fiesta Texas. |
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| Bexar County Courthouse, downtown San Antonio, Texas. |
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| Christmas Lights on the Riverwalk San Antonio, Texas. |
The next day, Jan and I hiked to the top of Enchanted Rock north of Fredericksburg, Texas. That night, we saw "Illuminate" at the San Antonio Botanical Garden.
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| Enchanted Rock Summit Trail. |
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| Janyce at the summit of Enchanted Rock. |
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| Janyce is on the trail. |
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| "Illuminate" at San Antonio Botanical Garden. |
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| "Illuminate" at San Antonio Botanical Garden. |
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| "Illuminate" at San Antonio Botanical Garden. |
In mid-December, Bob's mom passed away. He spent four days in Las Vegas with his sister.
Our packing was in high gear! While we packed, we thought we would be moving our 5th wheel to a co-op RV park. That meant putting all our belongings that wouldn't fit in the 5th wheel into storage. Then we started lamenting about our art and family photos that we didn't have room for in our 5th wheel or our single-wide manufactured home. We missed seeing them.
That led to a serious discussion about giving up our co-op RV spot in Sutherlin and moving to a double-wide manufactured home instead. This would be in Sutherlin or Roseburg, Oregon. Bob looked online for double-wide manufactured homes for sale. He found several possibilities.
Then, one night, he said, "I think I found a place you'll like." We looked at the photos, read the amenities, and I said, "I could see myself living there for the rest of my life." He loved it, too. This was in the middle of everything else that was going on in our lives. We were now at #5 on the list at the co-op park! We called Timber Valley SKPs Co-op Park in Sutherlin, Oregon, and relinquished our lot.
We spent as much time as possible with Susan and Darren. She loved football, so we went to their home to watch the games and keep them company. I also applied for the VA Companion Care program to help care for Susan in their home.
We could not consider buying a double-wide manufactured home without seeing it. That necessitated a weekend trip to Oregon and a realtor to show us properties.
We flew to Oregon on January 9, looked at six or seven manufactured homes, and flew home on January 11. We loved the one manufactured home that had enchanted us online. We made an offer.
All of our packing to move out of our single-wide manufactured home was done and moved into storage by January 14. Susan and Darren have an RV pad with full hook-ups next to their hangar on an airfield. They offered for us to stay there until our move to Oregon. That worked out perfectly for me to walk over to their house and care for Susan.
I became a VA Companion Caregiver on January 16. It allowed Darren, who was the sole caregiver, to have time off to take care of what he needed to do. I was a VA caregiver until Hospice took over in Oregon on January 31.
Another major stressor was thrown Bob's way when his sister-in-law, Rosemarie, passed away unexpectedly on January 21. They think she had a stroke while she was driving home from her volunteer job at the animal shelter near her home. She drifted across two lanes of traffic at 25 mph and crashed into a tree. She was incoherent when the EMTs arrived, and she passed away at the hospital. She named Bob as her executor and sole beneficiary. Bob had no idea, because she had never told him.
Soooo, Bob spent many days in Florida sorting out her papers, her will, and what to do with her mentally incompetent brother. She left money for her brother in a separate transaction, and housing was found. Thankfully, Rosemarie's cousin, Terri, was instrumental in communicating with authorities and finding a place for her nephew.
Bob had to make a few more trips to Florida to clear out the house, hire contractors to get it ready to sell, make sure her brother was okay, get a realtor, and sell the house. [Then, after we moved to Oregon, he and Darren moved all the belongings from storage in Florida to our new home in Oregon on the opposite side of our country!]
While all these things were going on, January is Bob's busiest season of the year for working with his accounting clients: year-end and end of quarter. I don't know how he did it. The only way I can describe it is, we both felt totally discombobulated. We had a lot of stress and tension for a few months, but we made it through.
In addition, my friend Susan was getting worse. She could no longer swallow, eat, talk, or walk. She had a feeding tube put in, had to use a walker or wheelchair, and had to suction all secretions from her mouth because she couldn't swallow them. Because she couldn't talk, she wrote notes to communicate. She had no desire to continue living.
Susan chose to go to Oregon for Death with Dignity. Darren and Susan asked me to go with them to help care for Susan. It was my honor! To qualify, Susan had to be in Oregon for three weeks for evaluation. She had to be seen by a physician, Hospice, and a psychologist. They wanted to make sure she understood what she was doing and that she was mentally competent to make her own decisions.
Darren rented an ADA-compliant, VRBO, three-bedroom, two-bath home with a large kitchen, living room, dining room, laundry room, and garage. It was awesome because all of Susan's family could come to visit.
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| Susan is surrounded by her family. |
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| Her kids made Valentine's Day like Christmas morning! It was lovely. |
Their kids stayed in the house. Her brothers and sister stayed in nearby hotels. I was gone from San Antonio from January 25 to February 19. Susan passed away on February 16.
While I was away, Bob was by himself at home dealing with all the stuff above. It was quite a harried time for all of us.
We already had a two-week trip planned to Kona, Hawaii, in mid-March.
We invited Darren to go with us. He also had been under extreme duress. When we got to Hawaii, and Bob asked Darren what he wanted to do, he said he didn't want to think about it. So we planned lots of activities.
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| Black Sand Beach, Big Island, Hawaii. |
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| Lava tube in Hawaiian Volcanoes National Park. |
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| We saw whales just offshore at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. |
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| We saw whales just offshore at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. |
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| Cliff jumping at South Point, Big Island, Hawaii. |
As if all that wasn't enough excitement for us, we decided to buy a new-to-us 5th wheel. Our 2003 Holiday Rambler Presidential 5th wheel, which has been in 49 states and four Canadian provinces, was falling apart. The day after we returned from Hawaii, we signed the paperwork for the 5th wheel.
From April 5 to 12, we moved our belongings out of storage in San Antonio and drove to Oregon. We put all our stuff in the house, but we weren't moving in yet. We drove back to Texas because we had more to do. Our 5th wheel was still at Darren's house, so we lived there for one more week.
Susan's Celebration of Life was April 17, and her military funeral at Ft Sam Houston was April 18.
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| Susan's military decorations. |
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| Susan enjoyed quilting, cross-stitching, and working with stained glass. |
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| She received the highest award from our walking club for her service. |
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| Susan's Celebration of Life. |
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| Susan's Celebration of Life. |
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| Susan & Darren's son, Travis. |
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| Brittney, Travis, Darren, Kyle, and Megan. |
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| Ft Sam Houston flag folding at Susan's funeral. |
On April 21, we started phase three of our move to Oregon. We hooked up the new 5th wheel to the truck, and I followed behind in the Jeep. We had a West Texas Trail Walkers reconnaissance in Ruidoso, New Mexico. The week would be spent hiking the trails we plan to use for our walking weekend in October 2025.
We arrived in Ruidoso two days early and met our friends Rick and Jan. We drove to Socorro, New Mexico, and did a 10 km walk, had lunch, and then drove to the Very Large Array satellite dishes. What a day! It was very enjoyable, but the driving distances were LONG!
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| Bob with our friends Rick and Jan at the start of our Socorro walk. |
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| Art in Socorro, New Mexico. |
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| Mural in Socorro, New Mexico. |
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| The Very Large Array (VLA) is west of Socorro, NM. |
After our reconnaissance week, we continued to Las Cruces, New Mexico, for AVA: America's Walking Club Convention. We were there from April 26 to May 3, 2026, and did walks or hikes every day for a week. I will write individual blogs on our travels when I get to them. This blog is only to give you an idea of what our lives were like leading up to our European vacation.
We continued our move to Oregon and arrived in Sutherlin on May 9! Yay, all of the moving is almost done. We can settle in for 3-1/2 weeks until Bob has to take off again. That will be Part 4 of our move to Oregon.
Bob flew to San Antonio on June 6. He and Darren drove to Florida to move the things that had been stored in Florida since Rosemarie's death in January. They arrived back in Sutherlin, Oregon, on June 12. It was a quick trip!
Now, we can think about our upcoming vacation! We fly out of Eugene, Oregon, on June 21. After a five-hour layover in Seattle, we will be on our way to Amsterdam.
My blogs on Europe will follow shortly. Geez, I should write a book!
