How to travel before time runs out?

Done.Disregard the Alturas info,wrong town on rant,OOPS,Ive got it confused with the Yreka area.

BooBoo

Hey Kenneth, just had an idea. I did this in the late 70s. Bought a 1965 school bus and converted it into a nice big RV. In the mid 80s I ended up giving it away to a friend, and he still lives in it to this day.

Even though some campgrounds don't allow converted school bus RVs, you can always find places to park for the night. There's lots of forestry land where you can camp for free, like at buck creek, ect. With solar panels you won't need to plug in. There are systems that can be built to incinerate the waste, negating the need to have greywater and blackwater dump sites.

Bus to RV conversions are very doable and can be done pretty darn cheaply. Not only that, they are very roomy, so they can be set up to be very comfortable for people with health problems or handicaps.

If you need RV appliances, I stripped out that old RV out front that I turned into a henhouse, and I kept what was worth saving. I would be glad to help you out with the conversion, and I can even help you locate a used bus real cheap.

As you may remember from when you were here, I have 2 of them parked out back. One I bought for a premium because it had a new engine installed before I bought it. The latest one was obtained for free, I just had to get it towed here. The place I picked it up from has about half a dozen more they would like to get rid of.

I also know where they can be bought from school boards for a couple hundred dollars or less. I've seen them as low as $25.

Bob

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"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."
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Ken, may I suggest that you see a naturopathic physician?

We're praying for you.

Ron and Carla

BobBoyce Funny you should mention that. I received an e-mail suggesting almost the same thing. Hmmmm Yes I did remember that you have a couple buses out back

Boy Lasix doesn't give much warning. On any trip a bathroom is going to be a must. Lost 5 pounds since 8:a.m. yesterday. So lasix must be working.

I want to THANK ALL OF YOU for your support (Keep it coming) If not for my internet family I might have sunk into a depression. I am investigating CHF and alternative remedies. Thanks again.

Kenneth in NC

Hey Ken,
Your situation is not a good one. Sometimes you just have to say "what the F". Maybe you should just go and do what you really want to do for yourself and your daughter. You're in poor health and in debt now. The trip might improve your health and your attitude and what's a little more debt?

__________________
"Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self confidence"
Robert Frost

Beeman That is the attitude I feel like taking but the "responsibility" bug installed by dad is deep rooted and seems to short circuit the "F" it all attitude.

We are selling off a lot of stuff and making plans for "a trip" just as soon as school let's out this year.

We are exploring travel options and places to visit as well as considreing the genreous offers I've got from members here to "drop by" and visit a spell with them.

My daughters made a list of places she'd like to go. Now we will have to pare it down, otherwise we'd be traveling for the next 12 months.

My wife is ready to drive and make the trip where ever it may be. So the whole family is pulling together.

Kenneth in NC

Any one know where I could find a van like this...cheap?
http://www.4wdonline.com/Dodge/Camper.html

Any ideas?

Kenneth in NC

I second all of what Mightybooboo has said. Diagnosis of CHF is pretty straight forward. Echocardiogram, Chest X-ray and a Brain naturetic peptide level (blood test). If you have an enlarged heart and fluid backing up into your lungs, you essentially have congestive heart failure. Management is key. I don't think the doctor was telling you were going to die in a year. But if you don't do what your supposed to, then you could be wishing for it to happen. Take your meds, watch your weigh daily (same time each day, 3 lbs in either direction-call the MD), and don't load up with salty foods. Sometimes heart transplants are a viable option. Check into it.

I'll first put in my 2 coins on the travel thing. me and the ex gf do and have taken trips all over several routes, we have done it by high MPG mini PU and camped out, we saved the most that way, cooking our own meals and camping in state parks. thats a high labor route, but cheap.
we have take the jeep & camp route, at 9 MPG for a fully loaded down jeep, and camping we nearly went broke. Gas by far is the #1 factor.
we rented a really nice car once, we clocked this NEW (900 milee on it when we left) car getting 28 to 30 MPG's and we stayed in some good hotels and a few nights we camped out. Hotels are over villanized, if its a good one pack a plastic fiutted sheet and a couple good sheet and blankets&pillows of yoyur own if it bugs you, and spray the nmatress with a nice smelling disinfectant before making it if you really need to relax.
Now using this method we spent about as much as we did cheap gypsy PU camping. the campgrounds cost @ 20 or 30 a night (sometimnes cheaper) and the gas you save with the effecent rental will about cover the @100 a night for a room, BUT if you join AAA you can get bette rates, we stayed in some very nice clean hotels for 40 to 80 a night, and we had to search em out. oddly enough the little mom and pop no tell motels were often the cleaner pick.
check the room first, they dont care, if you find it grubby, leave. sometimes they will give you an better room thats fine for the same price so they wont lose a customer.
you have your matress condom (lol) your own sheets and pilows, dont sweat it.

when we crunched the numbers later, the gas we spent at 9MPG &camping would have been almost the same as the rental cost, the good MPG and the hotel. a long term remtal deal you can get a deal deal deal and unlimited milage sometimes.
you have a diet issue, (healthwise) so this is a good time to keep on a tight diet plan.

so for the travel, a motor home costs MPG$, parking $$ dumping fees and $$$ to rent it. for the same cost you can pinch a few pennies and rent a high MPG car and use nice hotels packing your own bedding for comfort issues. the cost will be compreable to an RV.

I will highly recoomend independant bed and breakfast inns, they are small and VERY clean. As our economy is in the pooper right now the rates will be low to attract people. Some of them even inclide breakfast and dinner in the cost of the room they are REALLY nice if you can find them.

ok the diabetic issue...
my mom sister and brother all have it, my brother is on shots my mother is on pills and my sister has a weird form they have to tinker with her horemones to control.
the insulin shouldnt make you gain weight, tif anything the diet and insulin should make you lose weight. my sister was gaining massive amounts of weght and it was a hormone problem on top of the diabetes amking that happen but it isnt a female deal it was (sorry I dont really know details here) some thing to do with metabolic regulation that wasnt the diabeties but made it al worse. once they stabilized that, the diet and pills has her dropping weight pretty well.
my brother was a big guy, he is almost a skeleton (in a good way) from just the diet.
my mother dropped weight froim the diet and drugs also.
You might have another condition complicting everything so if I was you I would find a new doc.
a doctor who informs you you will be dying in a year in front of ANYONE but you in private is a QUACK.

my bro had a hard time regualting his sugar too, he had to adjust the insulin a lot till he got the right time and amount and foods all lined up.
I'll guess maybe part of it is you need to get the drug the food and the time regulated to your tune.
if my bro gets careless and sloppy he starts getting water retention and chest pains. its a real crappy disease and as I see it differewnt for every patient.
If you can get the weight off, you will feel much better, thats the tale from any diabetic I have taled to.

I have to absorb all this because as you see, not many family members dont have it, and I am so far OK, but I know it will get me sooner or later.
or I might luck out like my great grandmother, she lived till a few days before her 99th as heathy as a water bufffalo. her heart kinda just stopped they never did say why.

find a doc, or 2, and plan some short trips with your loved ones, you dont have to do it all in one run.

every year some new science pops up to fix things, hang in there and dont let the docs do all the work, do your research and tell em what you found and ask questions. if they dont like it the suck as a doctor, fine one that will work with you not on you!

[QUOTE=Kenneth in NC]Beeman That is the attitude I feel like taking but the "responsibility" bug installed by dad is deep rooted and seems to short circuit the "F" it all attitude.



I've got a case of the responsibility thing too so I wasn't talking about just walking away from it all. But on the other hand if you do feel that time is short maybe you'd be better off. Waiting too long to make this trip might be a wrong choice.

__________________
"Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self confidence"
Robert Frost

OK all 3 (DW,DD and me) agree that the vehicle needs a bathroom preferably a normal size toilet. At least one full (or queen) size bed. 3 comfortable captain chairs, A/C. After reading the other post many times I think you guys are right So instead of trying to get a RV that only gets 6-8 mpg were opting for a comfortable "Exploration" vehicle that can get 15-25 mpg (hopefully) and stay at Motel 6 or Super 8's every other night or so.

We inventoried our camping supplies and found that we still have my old Coleman double burner propane stove, Coleman lantern, Our mess kits and outdoor cook set, cast iron frying pan, DD has a single burner butane stove, sleeping bags, 12-Volt cooler, 50qt ice chest on wheels, assorted battery powered lanterns and lights, first aid kit, fire extinguisher. These may help outfit the "Exploration" vehicle.

comfortablynumb- I have been researching a hour or so each day on CHF. Diabetes is hard to control. My grandmother had it and so does my mom. My mom had her leg amputated last year from getting a piece of glass in her foot. She couldn't feel it and gangreen set in.

My biggest enemy other than lack of cash flow is stress. The weight hurts but stress kills. Slowly were making changes and hoping for a decent summer trip.

If nothing else maybe I can find a small pull behind travel trailer

Kenneth in NC

Hey Ken! I'm diabetic too, so I do know what most of the meds they give you do to you. Did they tell you to do that "constant carbohydrate" diet? I was on that at first and it was HORRIBLE! Sugars ran high and would spike, I was bloated, sick to my stomach most of the time and constantly starving.

Started hanging online with some other diabetics and they told me about high protein/low carb diet. Tried that and life improved drastically! No more starving or bloating, sugar lowered by 200 points, blood pressure went normal, cholesterol improved...normal range at last test. Exercise...weightlifting and walking...for 30 minutes each day lower the sugar another 30 points. It was odd because exercising 20 minutes a day didn't do anything...HAD to be 30 minutes.

Has your doctor told you to be sure to drink your eight (or more) glasses of water a day? What dr told me was that diabetics tend to dehydrate very easily. Because you're dehydrated, your blood gets "sticky". "Sticky" blood more easily causes heart attack or stroke because it clots more easily. So, drink your water! I know you retain water, so I'm sure doctor told you to cut out/down on the salt. Hard to cut down on salt, easier to just cut it out. Substitute garlic powder (NOT garlic salt!) for salt. Sure, you're gonna feel strange the first time you put garlic on your breakfast eggs, but it's not bad...make pepper your BEST friend, right alongside garlic. They're healthful, too!

As for the travel thing....have you ever heard of workcamping? Sometimes working as a campground host, sometimes just being present in a campground. Basically, an exchange of services to the campground for which you receive a free hook-up, or free hook-up and hourly pay for a certain amount of work. If you check out the Open Roads Forum or the Escapees Forum you could find out about it in more detail. Could be one way to see the country at a reduced rate.

Oh, and if you decide you'd like to hang with some really "sweet people" check out the diabetes forum at about.com

Good luck!

Mon

thats a great option, a pop up trailer. lots of room and light to tow.

It is absolutely imperative that you get a sleep study done and get a CPAP machine to help you breathe and sleep. Your heart will thank you, your brain will thank you, your wife will thank you, and you will feel better!!!

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Alice
* * *
"No great thing is created suddenly." ~Epictitus

Screw the doctors, the health insurance companies, and the prescription drug lords. Live life the way you want to, get right with the Lord, and make any preparations you can to die with dignity when your time comes. Just my ever so humble opinion

Oh Thank you Rose! A CPAP machine, Ken that's what I was telling you about but I called it a CPAC--knew that was wrong somehow LOL

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Kenneth, I can't talk about diabetes - that's the one thing I don't have, even though I have all the risk factors.

However, I have been diagnosed with congestive heart failure. There's a huge range of things under that label. Mine simply meant I was sufficiently overweight (I'm just a tad taller than you although not over six foot, and do you think I resented being 5'11¾' - oh,no - not much; and within spitting distance of you on weight) that there was too much body for the heart to push fluid around efficiently. The fluid more-or-less stagnated, and the lower limbs got "swampy", to echo one doctors graphic technical description. I got oedema, you could push a finger into the flesh round the ankles and the hole would still be there ten minutes later, and you'd still see a dent half-an-hour later. Or two hours, come to that.

Answer to that was fourfold - lose weight, lose fluid, wear pressure stockings so the fluid wouldn't pool in the extremities, spend time with the legs elevated so the fluid spread out rather than pooling down there. I thing the stockings could be real important to you, since losing legs to gangrene and ulcers (ulcers are a problem for me) is kind of one of the nasty side-effects of diabetes. Stockings are bleeding expensive - I call them my seventy-dollar socks (although that's Australian dollars). However, they've got to be cheaper than losing legs.

I also have sleep apnoeae. You have probably become used to being continually too tired - for anything. Believe me, the CPAP machine works wonders. It is just so nice to be awake during the day. To not be falling asleep, nodding off, in the middle of conversations, meetings, drivings down the road at 60 mph, that kind of thing. Also, the fact that you are barely breathing during most of the night puts an enormous extra strain on your heart - the CPAP machine relieves that. People worry about the noise of the machine gently blowing a bit of air, but the fact is that with a CPAP machine going a sleep apnoeae sufferer no longer snores. A sleep apnoeae sufferer snores like a Cat D-9 on heavy work - you're quieter with the machine - by a lot. It will also mean you have enough energy you may be able to start taking a gentle walk now and then as exercise - and believe me I know the chicken-and-egg trap of being unable to exercise so can't take off weight so ... GET A CPAP MACHINE - IT WILL SAVE YOUR LIFE.

Travel - on-site vans or cabins at caravan parks are much cheaper than motel rooms. You need your own bedding, but you're saving maybe half the cost or more. I've travelled a lot, alternating tent-camping one night with a cabin or on-site van the next. But spend the money on a CPAP machine and pressure stockings (if appropriate) first. If they work, you're no longer talking less-than-a-year - you've got decades to enjoy it. Maybe spend some money to pick up one of those air-walkers (suspended foot-pads - zero impact). They are nowhere near the miracle that they were promoted to be, but for people like us, whose limbs and maybe even backs can't sustain jarring exercise, they're a good way to start if you can get them at the right price.

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Grandad, tell us a story about the olden days, when you were young and men could walk on the moon.

Don Armstrong on-site vans or cabins at caravan parks are much cheaper than motel rooms. You need your own bedding,

I haven't seen this option available at campgrounds I've visited here in the US. Cabin rentals I have saw and took advantage of and in all but one case they were 1000% better than motel rooms.


frogmammy have you ever heard of workcamping? Sometimes working as a campground host, sometimes just being present in a campground. Basically, an exchange of services to the campground for which you receive a free hook-up, or free hook-up and hourly pay for a certain amount of work. If you check out the Open Roads Forum or the Escapees Forum you could find out about it in more detail. Could be one way to see the country at a reduced rate.

Yes I've heard of workamping but don't have any experience with it first hand. I've visited Open Roads forum many times. We were member of Good Sams for a long time.

Kenneth in NC

Kenneth, I forgot to say that, when they put me in a hospital bed (this could have been done at home voluntarily if I hadn't got infected ulcers) - when they put me to bed with my feet up, I lost 10KG (that's 22 pounds) in four days. It wasn't a RESTFUL four days, you understand - I was up and down a lot, for some reason - but the weight sure went somewhere else in a hurry, and I could see the bones in my ankles again. With the pressure stockings, and a nap with my feet up for an hour or two each afternoon, the weight stayed off too.

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ô¿ô Don Armstrong,Terra Australis

Grandad, tell us a story about the olden days, when you were young and men could walk on the moon.

LOL it seems that CHF is pretty popular among homesteaders! I wonder what other maladys many of us share? Perhaps we should make a list, "list your ails" and see what happens. Point is, that as we age, we all have parts of our bodies that tend to fall apart. For me the message is simple...it is not how long I live, it is how well I live with the time the Lord had alloted for me. I know I probably wont live to be very elderly but I am sure gonna have fun by living and loving much along the way! We are each given a fairly standard body and then we proceed to do what we want with it and so cannot complain when it begins to breakdown from our use of it!

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