Hello! Hi! While I'm excited to be writing this post, it also feels extremely overwhelming. I honestly don't know where these two years have gone. Having a brain injury doesn't help, so referring to my overload of photos helps to recall memories! Where have we been? Philadelphia, in a sticks & bricks, with puppies, a Mama and good city food. Because, Jai has never lived in a city, this was exciting as heck for her. Myself, I was born in the so called city of brotherly love. Top things I was excited for were being close to my Mama, an authentic Philly cheesesteak, 76ers games, walking as my main source of transport and just seeing my wife happy.
The big thing to inform you about is Ashe. Ashe is our newest addition to our little family. While we still had our spirit of adventure, we were in North Carolina. A cold, COLD snowy night in which we were JUST about to sit down and have dinner, I am scrolling through the facebook and two big brown eyes catch my attention. I feel her. GUS. A baby boston who needs to be rehomed. My wife set asides dinner and we jump in the truck to go meet her. We arrive at the door and its as if she said "Mama, you're here"She came to my arms and instantly was at peace. There's no way of knowing if you'll ever be ready for another love, the moment just comes to you. Ashe has all of the qualities of Gus and the all the qualities Gus the service dog was not allowed to have (and I'm ok with that). Ashe was born 11 days after Gus passed, which means she's a Halloween baby. Her namesake is Asheville, NC and loves being outside. Ashe unfortunately had an accident this past July and lost her left eye. I think it was more awful for me than her. She's now know as Monster Ashe, your friendly neighborhood pirate.
Back to our time in Philly, Jai rejoined the Crossfit community, ironically enough at the same one I started out at many years ago. Since she is a certified Crossfit instructor, she was hired as a coach. She began to work full time as a doctor as well. We have (yes, still have) a beautiful home, new build in an up and coming area. However, over time the transition from RV living to house living is much harder than one would think, for both of us humans and our puppies. My heart, and mind was always on the move! Jai's as well, she's just more of a strategic planner, where I am a live on the edge, we will figure it out as we go type. Jai gave me five, four...no three, OK TWO years until we ended up at the Hershey RV show. Although I spend hours researching on whatever the topic may be for that day, she spent countless hours reading about RV's. With their impeccable customer service, raving customer reviews, and just about perfect layouts, Alliance won her over. We purchased at the show, and although it hasn't been the smoothest of rides getting here, we are here! We are in our new home! We call her barks of valor. Why? She's the Alliance Valor 42V13. The true definition of valor meaning a trait fit for a hero. Valor comes from the Latin valorem for "strength, moral worth," with the sense of courage. Our pups have exactly that. We are at a campground in New Jersey while Jai is finishing up with work, and putting our house on the market. Positive vibrations that it sells fairly quick. I need some treatments back in Florida at the VA so that's the first plan of business. Although sticks & bricks wasn't for us, we still made the best of it. We explored all things Philly. Friends came to visit. Jai took me to Aruba to celebrate my 40th plus 1 birthday. You know since that pandemic thing we weren't able to do much for the actual 40th. Jai saw her first broadway show (Lion King) courtesy of Mama. She also got to experience Philly sports, ok the fan for who we truly are. Both the Eagles and the Phillies went to their respective Championship games. While we embraced all of the good things, there were some not so pleasant things to happen. Jai was hospitalized for a month last February! What an awful time. I took her out of hospital #1 after two weeks and admitted her into hospital #2 for another 2 weeks. With no definitive diagnosis, she was back to herself after 6 months or so.
Days came, went and so here we are back to RV living. I started this post in the midst of winter and now, well it's a blistering 98 degrees and we are on island time in beautiful Key West, FL. We just got back from an 8 day cruise to kick off Mama’s 70th birthday year and here we are in the keys celebrating mine.
We will check in soon to update you on our next half of 2024.
Feed the people. Travel the world.
Love my Girls💛