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Johanne & Ed's
Notes from the road

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We very excitedly traveled to Fort Lauderdale (by car) on Christmas eve. We had arranged to spend Christmas with brother Tom and friend Chris. We had a good time with them,
of course Tom cooked several good meals. We sat out on the jungle like patio and had grilled chicken and ribs in our short sleeves on Christmas eve.....oh ya!

    I spent some of my time there with Chris and his computer while he was trying to recover from a corrupt program, which he finally got working.
     But, about the jungle, after last years hurricane season the yard was nearly stripped with many plants damaged and bare, broken limbs and damaged foliage all seems to have recovered fully now.
     The power was out for several weeks in the area and cleanup took a great deal of time.

Here comes the real story: On Dec 26th, brother Tom said goodbye and left for work, Johanne and I packed up and said goodbye to Chris and hit the road for the four hour trip back to Bushnell.
     Less than an hour out I needed to stop for gas and there was a Denny's at the exit. I said "let's get something to eat". I got a Grand Slam breakfast even tho' it was about noon when we stopped. Bacon, sausage, eggs and hash browns....all greasy.   We got the gas and got back on I-95. Shortly we switched over to the Florida Tpke..traveling another couple hours until we exited the turnpike in the town of Clermont. By this time I had started to feel a little "unsettled" and thought a McDonalds milkshake would settle me. I then told Johanne I wasn't feeling to good and she offered to drive. We swapped seats and started for home. We were passing a hospital and Johanne asked if I wanted to go there. I said no. Very shortly I said I need to go to the bathroom. She pulled into Clermont's 2nd McD's, I rushed in and promptly vomited. By now the pain in the chest/abdomen was starting to get unbearable. I returned to the car and said
"HOSPITAL!" She turned around and headed back to the hospital. Now, the pain was so bad I could not breath, my hands and feet were tingling and I was unable to sit. Johanne rushed into the emergency room and told them I was having a heart attack.   Two nurses came out with a wheel chair and whisked me into an exam room, I don't know how much time passed before they finally gave me an intravenous shot and within seconds I was about a thousand feet up and flying high. Oh, the pain was about gone. The rest is vague in my memory, but X-ray and ultrasound and blood tests.
      As it turned out, the tests showed that I had a gall bladder attack. A number of gall stones with a large one stuck in the neck. Removal of the gall bladder is the recommended solution.
      All that in a little over two hours. Then it was home and a solid nights sleep.

      The next day was pack-up day as we were scheduled to make the move to Lady Lake on Dec 28th.

                                       More to come

     Christmas passed quietly. Tom made eggs Benedict, a tradition for him, but it was the first time that Jo and I ever had them. Most enjoyable.
      Later in the day the four of us went about 50 miles to Chris' brother and family's house. A very nice house with a pool and just beyond the pool is a lake. The above picture was taken there but none of the pictures taken of the pool and lake came out very good.
      We returned to Tom & Chris' shortly after dark and just as we arrived the rain started. This weather front had been coming all week and had dumped a lot of snow in the Rockies. But, as we watched the weather reports we saw that it spawned some tornados in central Florida....where our motorhome was parked.
      We crossed our fingers and hoped we would find our house intact when we returned.   We did....although the damaged areas were not that far away.

Chris, Johanne, Ed & Tom

   December 26th, Johanne's birthday. Tom served up a nice cake on the 25th as he had to go to work in the morning and we had to travel back home.
     We sang Happy Birthday to her and I gave her these roses       She got calls from the kids with their birthday wishes..

Happy Birthday Johanne

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