July 31, 2018 - Doctors, Doctors; Lunch at FD's Grill; Sam's; Visiting Friends; Getting Ready to Leave Branson; Visting with More Friends

July 31, 2018 - Doctors, Doctors; Lunch at FD's Grill; Sam's; Visiting Friends; Getting Ready to Leave Branson; Visiting More Friends

Today is Dean's appointment with his urologist at 12:50  He will have a PSA test prior to seeing him and we will get the results when we meet with him a short time later.  It's the day we've been waiting for and we know it's going to be all good!  We left Treasure Lake in Branson at 11:15 and arrived shortly after 12:00 at the building where Dr. Anderson's office is located.  Dean was directed to the lab and was finished in about 10 minutes.  We went on upstairs to check in at the receptionist for his appointment.  Our longest wait was standing in line to get registered.  We barely set down and they called us back to a room to wait for the doctor.  Within 10 minutes he was there.  He asked how Dean was doing and then he gave us the results of the PSA test - it was undetectable - NO CANCER!  Praise God is all we can say!  He has been with us every step of the way through this journey and we cannot say enough about his goodness and mercy, nor thank him enough for what he's done!  

Dean will need to have follow up PSA tests every 3 months for the first year, every six months the second year, then annually after that.  The doctor said we were good to travel, he could resume all activities (including golf), and he has no lifting restrictions.  This is what he wanted to hear!

Before we left we needed to obtain copies of charges from Dr. Anderson for all of the office visits and procedures he provided, in order to submit these to a secondary insurance.  His office staff provided the pathology report, but we needed to obtain the charges from another office.  Unfortunately, the individual handling that was at lunch.  We'll return for those, after we have lunch.

We had lunch at FD's Grillhouse, not too far from the hospital/office complex.  We ate here with friends Mike & Mary Ann several weeks ago.  We enjoyed it so much, we wanted to go back.  Dean had shrimp and fried catfish.  It came with fries and cole slaw.  I chose the lunch plate of salmon with lemon butter, rice, stick vegetables and opted for a tossed salad rather than the baked potato.  My meal was delicious.  Dean liked his but was disappointed he only got 3 shrimp.  The fish was good but he was not crazy about the coating - it was heavier than he likes, but all in all he said the meal was good.  

We returned to Dr. Anderson's office building and fortunately the gentleman we needed to speak with was in, and he was able to print out the forms for us pretty quickly.  We've already requested the same information from the hospital so hopefully we can submit the necessary paperwork once we arrive at Matt's - where we will have our mail forwarded around the middle of next week.

We made a quick stop at Sam's, where we buy Dean's breakfast cereal.  We typically buy 2 large double bag boxes.  They last for at least 3-4 weeks, depending on how often we have something else for breakfast.  I also picked up a rotisserie chicken for my friend Joyce.  I've been telling her how nice they are.  I buy at least 2 each month for $10 and I can get at least 9-13 meals out of those two chickens.  I use them for lettuce salads, making chicken salad, and casserole dishes.  While at Sam's we decided to get diesel for the truck.  Unfortunately, we had not paid attention to recent prices and paid $3.07/gallon.  Imagine our surprise when we saw prices of $2.79/gallon at a few convenience stores not long after we left.  Can't believe that between the two of us, we didn't check other prices first.  Typically Sam's is one of the lowest prices we find - but not today!  Hope that's a lesson learned for us!

We left Springfield between 3:30-4:00..  We took Highway 13 south through Nixa, then 248  back to Branson.  We returned shortly before I needed to be at my chiropractic appointment.  It's the last one I'll be able to have before we leave tomorrow.  My back started hurting when I got up this morning and has not been cooperative all day, so I'm thankful to get this last treatment in before we leave. 

Once we returned to Treasure Lake, we stopped by Frank and Joyce's to drop their chicken off and we visited for 15-20 minutes before going back to Bentley.

The first thing I needed to do after we returned was find a couple of campgrounds where we can stay for the next 4 nights.  I use RV Parky for preparing our routes and finding campgrounds.  While most parks are listed, not all are - so I also check Passport America; Corps of Engineers Parks and US Campgrounds.  I was able to find a Passport America park for our first two nights near Bowling Green, MO.  I wasn't quite that lucky in finding low rates for the second stop near Burlington, IL, but we did find a place that sounded really nice.  It was too late to call this evening, so I'll check with them in the morning.

After having a sandwich and some cantaloupe for dinner, I did one more load of laundry, and then got busy packing/putting away items that I could; leaving out only the things we would need in the morning.  I was just finishing up when there was a knock at our door.  We had opened the door earlier because it was so nice outside this evening.  When I looked out, there was Carol and Chuck, the couple we met a few nights ago.  I had left one of our cards at their house a few days ago because I had been unable to catch them at their rig.  We were busy while the kids were here and they had things going on, so I was really glad they stopped by before we left.  They are such a nice couple and we visited for quite awhile.  They also go to South Texas for the winter.  Carol gave me one of their cards so we can reach out to each other when we are there.  Dean enjoyed visiting with Chuck as much as I enjoyed my visit with Carol.  One of the things I love about this life is the wonderful people we meet.  I am a people person.  I enjoy hearing their stories, learning from them, etc.  Dean is not a person to typically reach out to others, but he's enjoys meeting RVer's almost as much as I do.  We all have the one common theme - traveling in our RV's, so there is always something to talk about and believe me, we can cover a lot of ground when we are together.

After Carol and Chuck left I found a few more things to do before telling Dean I was ready to go to bed.  It has been a long day.  We are excited about heading east tomorrow, getting our disc brakes/heavy duty shackles installed, looking for a few other things we want for the RV, as well as visiting with some Heartland friends while we are in the Elkhart/Goshen/ Shipshewana area of Indiana .  We will be there for four days.  Then we will be on the road two more days arriving at Matt & Megan's on August 11.

I don't think either one of us lasted more than a few minutes before we were sound asleep!



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