#197 Nomad Diary. 27 July-2 August 2024. Full Week Near Denton, Texas. Move from Studio Airbnb to Cottage House Airbnb. Darrell's Folks. Darrell's 1990 Potato Soup Recipe.

At Our Nice Studio Airbnb with a Stack of Darrell's Pancakes and a Picture of Dallas at Night.

My Green Smoothie Making Picture.

Darrell Relaxing in Our Studio Airbnb

On a Phone Call with Quinn and Jeremy. Quinn is Sitting Like His Dad Sits and Telling Us a Story.

At Cyndy's House with Her Newly Demolished Mailbox. This was a Mailbox Shared with the Neighbor. The Neighbor's Porch Camera Caught the FedEx Truck Backing Into It and It Collapsing!

Darrell's Parents in Their TV Room at Cyndy's House. Shirley and Donald.

Saturday. 27. A nice morning wake up in our studio airbnb. Regular exercise and breakfast.  Darrell does his Saturday Kenya mailing. We are sleeping well here. For dinner we go over to Cyndy’s house and take something to go with her main meal.

Sunday. 28. Cyndy has a fever today and texts to see if we can get mom and dad for church. We can. We slept in until almost 7am! We took a day off of our daily exercises. I was so encouraged by the Bible class lesson on Ephesians 3. We’ve come to visit mom and dad and their church family for many years. It’s been the last 4 years that we have stayed longer and longer during our visits. On these longer stays, we have gotten to know the people here and many of their life events and we’ve seen them grow spiritually between our visits. 

On Phone with Grandson Owen (2yrs+10mos) in Alabama

On Phone with Granddaughter Esther (11 mos) in Alabama

Darrell in Our Cottage Kitchen. Making Coffee in Our Big French Press.

Our Cottage Airbnb Living Room.

Our Airbnb Stocked Fridge.

At Our Texas Airbnb Back Porch with a Cardinal!

Lewisville Lake 1/2 Mile Walk From Our Cottage

Blooms Next to Lewisville Lake

Another Stage for Blooms Next to Lewisville Lake

At Lewisville Lake. 1/2 Mile from Our Airbnb Cottage

Monday. 29. Enjoy the morning at our nice studio airbnb: have breakfast, clean up, do a load of laundry, pack around 9am, load the truck about 10am, get a call from Eric and Owen. Owen likes watching grandpa load the truck during our call. We take a break and sit down while talking and Esther wakes up and we say hi to her too. We check out and go to Cyndy’s and have our standard salad for lunch. We hang out there visiting until about 2pm. We go about 1 ½ miles to our Cottage house airbnb. We arrive and our host is there. We meet and move in. We go grocery shopping and then return and make a salad to take over with Cyndy’s grilled salmon. Darrell cut potatoes and sweet potatoes for oven fries. We had a nice dinner with Cyndy, her daughter Kylie and Mom and Dad. I was tired and we came back to the house by 7pm. 

Tuesday. 30. Our first wake up in our cottage house airbnb. We slept good in the dark and quiet room. We had our weekly ab routine this morning. There is plenty of space in the living room for our mats and our routine workouts. Our kitchen here is working well. We had one of our standard breakfasts of over easy eggs and sourdough toast. Darrell has cheese slices and I have avocado all served with dark roast french press coffee. We sat out on our back patio after breakfast for a while. It’s shady and slightly breezy, in the 80’s and humid. We get used to to temperature and enjoy being outside now. It’s cooler now than later in the day. I go about 9am and get a haircut. I also went to a couple stores and get back around 11am hungry for lunch. I fixed our standard lunch salads while Darrell tells me about a Bible question article he’s writing. We have a nice lunch together. We decide to continue working on computers through the afternoon and plan for dinner with Cyndy through texting. Darrell calls his mom and lets her know our plans. She suggests having fajitas for dinner as a remake of left over chicken. I text Cyndy and she agrees. We go back to our computers.

Picture From Our Family Cookbook I Compiled in 1990.

Cutie Grandson Quinn (3yrs+10mos) in Brazil on Phone Call

Wednesday. 31. Darrell made potato soup for dinner. Kylie loved it! Mom and Cyndy loved it too! Darrell made his recipe for this when he was single and starting out his Army life around 1982. We have rewritten his original recipe and published it in our Friends and Family Cookbook I complied in 1990. The recipe combines two recipes from an old Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook. Now we follow the same basic recipe and vary similar ingredients as we want or have access to.  Singing night at church with Mom, Dad, Cyndy and Kylie.

Thursday. 1. Today Darrell is learning more information about memory care for his Dad. There are a lot of details for this that he is navigating now. He is the medical power of attorney for his parents and is beginning conversations with his mom and sister about possibilities and options. 

Friday. 2. Darrell, his sister Cyndy and I went in the morning and toured two close memory care facilities. It was a great thing for us to do and to learn about what is available and the cost of living at a place as a single or with a spouse. After we finished our tours Darrell said that now he knows that cruises cost more than these assisted living places! We found the monthly prices between $5500-$11,000. I looked up month long cruises on vacationstogo.com and found discounted prices ranging from $6500(+tips,extras and excursions) to $48,000(!). Some prices could overlap within a range and person’s budget. It could be comparable to some arrangements of having a room and meals. Beyond that the comparison’s can be humorous. We learned some great things about levels of memory care assistance. A very helpful piece of information is that insurance covers for weekly home health assistance including showers and dressing.and for home physical therapy visits. The doctor writes a script for these and then Cyndy can submit them to her chosen business to fulfill the script. The nurses reassess every 3 months for a new script to continue the service. Getting started with this benefit will really help out the load of needs for Dad and assist both Mom and Cyndy.  . 

Nomad Notes. 

Travel Recovery:

I’m feeling so much more rested this week, and that translates into feeling better. It’s only been 2 weeks on Tuesday since we left Brazil. We have covered a lot of ground and recovered while continuing to move. It feels luxurious to think of being in this current airbnb for 3 weeks.

My Personal Bible Reading Speed:

I have fallen behind on my daily Bible reading schedule. I am slower than the schedule. I tell myself it’s ok, and I know it’s ok. I’ve imposed an expectation on myself and I can let it go and go at my speed. 

My Sleep Apnea:

I’ve had to keep up my sleep apnea breathing exercises because they are helping a lot! I’m beginning my 4th week with Sleep Apnea Solution. I expect that I will continue these exercises from now on. It is hard to add in a new routine. It is a complete change of what’s expected. This nomad life is all about having some routine and then having new experiences often! I’m constantly learning and adjusting to this flow of nomad living. Thursday night this week I had slept 10pm-6am! The longest stretch of sleep I’ve had in a long time!

My haircut:

My hair has gotten shorter during my nomad life. I got a haircut this week. Traveling around without a regular person doing my hair can be challenging. Luckily, I’m quite flexible and able to go with the flow! This week’s haircut is a bit shorter than I wanted and expected. It’s ok though. It’s already growing out. I went 7 weeks between cuts.

Sirius Radio:

We left Madison, Alabama just over a week ago; drove one day to Natchez, Mississippi for a 3 night stay. It was on this 6 hour drive that Darrell quickly looked into getting Sirius Radio again. He canceled our subscription when we left the country for several months. It’s turned out to be wonderful! The music channels bring a nice background filler for our travel! I enjoyed having the Escape channel easy listening while I’ve been out shopping. Now in our Shady Shores Cottage We’ve been wanting some music as background. He’s got the music going and is using my old Bose mini speaker. It’s a wonderful stress-reliever! Ahhh. 

Calls with my friends and kids:

Are a big part of my social life. I continue to do occasional sessions of EPT trades and some for friends and family.