Trippin' with Susan Straley

It is nice to be in one place.  No days spent packing up and driving to the next place.     Physical Training   I have mapped out a nice nine-mile route that I ride my bike on several mornings a week.  Eventually I will add weight and practice the hilly route loaded.     I am training my body for the 300 plus mile tour I will be doing in September with friend Joan.  We will be riding the Allegheny Gap Trail and the C&O trail.  The C&O Trail has some very rough surfaces, so I am training on my two-wheel bicycle.  Since I arrived in Rhinelander, Wisconsin, I have not even removed my recumbent tricycle from the van! I set some physical goals for myself and went to meet with a personal trainer at Anytime Fitness.  Sydney is a slim young woman with a physical training degree and a cheerleader inside her.   I told her I wanted to be able to jump up onto something.  I told her that I was afraid to even jump onto a rug for fear of catching my toe.  Well, I guess that was negative self-

 If I don't journal every day, I forget the order of things.  In fact, I have to look at a calendar when I am traveling to figure out what is the day of the week.  The regular schedule that I have in Florida is gone.  No more biking on Tuesdays and Thursdays, yoga on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. I am telling you this because the report of what I did the rest of my time at Brigham County Park may not be in order.  Of course, you don't know that, but those I visited or called, may remember it differently. Let me just start by saying I have gotten to visit with my son and his wife much more than I did last year.  They were both so ill last year and COVID was so scary.  So this year's visit has been awesome and it is not over yet!  My next campsite is about an hour to the east of their home, so I will be attending Mel's birthday celebration on Saturday. I took a picture of my heater so those of you in little spaces can see.  This little guy works all night sometimes an

Greetings from Inverness, Florida.   I am back home and very much enjoying springtime in Florida.  My garden is happy, the monarchs are fluttering around the milkweed and laying their eggs.  The collard greens and parsley are prolific.   And the most amazing thing is happening...bit by bit, friends are gathering, still at a distance, but with less fear.  The COVID vaccines seem to be working to reduce hospitalization, death, and even infection rates in the United States.  Though we still have a long way to go to be back to normal, hope is blooming along with the spring flowers. Before I get into the stories around me, I would like to share with you a podcast interview that I was part of.  It was launched on March 15, 2021.  Author Marianne Sciucco interviewed me this summer while I was camping in Rhinelander, WI, for the AlzAuthors' Podcast for caregivers .   *** The last time I wrote to you I was at Hart Springs Campground which is near Chiefland, Florida and the Nature Coast Rai