Early end to the 2016 summer tour

This was the proposed route for our 2016 summer tour

I'll be the first to admit I've been lucky when it comes to my health. I was never very good at healthy living. All through my earning years I worked long strange hours and didn't eat or sleep normally. The only thing good I can say about my routine is at least I didn't smoke. So when I started getting weird pains it was only natural for me to say to myself, Had I known I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself!

As we drove across Canada I started getting a strange sensation in my abdomen. My whole belly became tender. It didn't hurt when I pressed on it, the best way I can describe it was it felt as if my abdominal muscles were inflamed.

This came on gradually over several days and like I do with all my aches and pains (old guys are tough) I ignored it. One night when I laid down to sleep, pain started radiating out from my stomach, it went all the way through to my back. It kept intensifying until I finally got out of bed. The pain immediately started subsiding and I was able to go to sleep semi reclined on the sofa. Same thing happened for the next two nights.

Not being able to sleep with Millie, I was not able to keep my mysterious ailment a secret. Not being able to fall back on the old men's adage, if you ignore it long enough it will go away. I had to accept that something was wrong, the fact that a same age friend of mine died during this period put a big crack in my invincibility shield so we had to confront it.

It didn't appear to warrant an emergency room visit but looked like it was going to take some doctoring so we made the decision to go home.

Day one Sault Ste Marie to Lancaster Ohio

Day two Lancaster Ohio to Troutdale, Virginia

We were 1000 miles north of Myrtle Beach and just drove south for two days. The length of Michigan and south to Lancaster Ohio the first day and the rest of Ohio and thru West Virginia to Virginia the second. We stayed two nights at Grindstone campground in the Jefferson National Forest. Millie's sister lives nearby and we visited with them while resting from our two day driving marathon. Finally we drove the last 250+/- miles to our home in Myrtle Beach.

Virginia to Myrtle Beach

As it usually happens, all symptom's of my mysterious ailment completely disappeared. Two days later when I went to my doctor there was nothing for him to poke or prod. My GP is an internist so I gave him as detailed a report as I could in hopes he would know what was going on. His best guess is that I had a twisted intestine that fixed itself. Note: I have since spoken with a neighbor who is a nutritianist with a Master Degree. She had a different theory, but thinks I will be OK so I won't elaborate.

Yellow is the missed part of route, red line is our route home

We had completed about half of our original planned route before cutting the trip short. We will miss the Mall of America, the Winnebago Factory, Pikes peak and who knows what else we would have seen along the way. Most important is not visiting the grand kids in New Mexico, but Millie is already making plans to fly out to see them.

So that's the story, we'll be back on the road again and in the mean time we'll just make the best of it. The walks on the beach will help, so will the ocean view from our balcony. There's always the fall locals specials at the theaters down the road, the movies, walks on the boardwalk, Netflix's and even Walmart! Life is still good!