Sunday July
18
We
lucked out.
Last
night in bed I watched the weather radar on my Droid for the Des Moines
area, where we had just left. They had 70 mph winds over a wide area
and
are still trying to restore power to many areas. But we are now in
eastern
Iowa so the storms missed us. So glad we moved on when we did as
I watched the expanding red tornado warning boxes on the radar
image.
So
for today it is sunny, hot and humid but the the roofing project must
go
on.

Breaks
were common to get water and analyze the situation. Strips are going on
and leveled so the tin can be placed on top.

The truth
be known when they
were working I got the chair to supervise (I mean watch). I was more
like
the water boy.
A job I can
handle. I may
get pulled more into the action as it will be just Terry, his dad, and
I on Monday as the other two have
to go to their
day jobs.
His dad should not get on the roof as he is in his 80's. I wish I
was as active as he still is.
Saturday
July 17
Have
moved on
to eastern Iowa.
Terry
likes to see his parents before we head back out west so we try to stop
in for a few days each year in Summer. This time his brother wants help
reroofing a chicken house on the homestead. No they don't do chickens
in
it anymore. Ya they do a have few running around for eggs but that's
all.
We
got the 5er ready for the raod in the morning heat. Not a breath of a
breeze.
Went only from like Des Moine to the Cedar Rapids area.
They
had a place all ready for us... all moved for our personl
campsite.
The
best part is the center grain bin has a 30 amp power for us to plug
into.
Now
that is what is needed in this heat.

Right back
of the 5er is
a sweet corn patch. Our so called job is to watch for raccoons and try
to keep them from eating the corn.
It should be
prime corn
eating in just a couple of days. Think there are some tomatoes about
ready
also.
A shot from
the last time
we were here when they all pre surveyed the roofing job.
Cover the old
with new tin
and it shold look nice again.

Today after
were set up it
was determined it's just to damn hot to start anything today. I

Kind of
strange right next
to the roofing project is a snow blower. Now that is a big one for a
farm.
It attaches to the power take off on one of their big John Deere
tractors.
The only thing is you have to drive in reverse to run it.
Terry's
brother got this
last winter right after they had to get Terry's mother to the hospital
during a huge blizzard.
The A/C is
running full blast
and we are all set for the evening. Terry is making apple cresp form
fresh
off the tree apples. But also watching the weather for storm watches
that
we hope don't blow up later tonight. The stroms so far are north of
here.

We are in
east central Iowa
about where teh X is at . View at
7
PM
Thursday
July 15
Terry
gets to
keep his eyes and we have In Network Health Ins again.
We
went to
the famed Wolf Eye Clinic today.
I got
online late this morning to check out our United Health Care status.
They
got us back In Network now that my old employer has notified them. I
called
and got transferred over to their Resolution Dept. They had to
determine
which claims needed to be run back through the system so they would be
processed correctly. Saving us big bucks. That went well and was told I
could see the new claim results online in about 10 days. We shall see
if
this goes without a hitch. We are talking about Health Ins. here.So teh
bottom line is we were classifed Options PPO and now Choice Plus. What
a little name change can make.
In
No Network we had $450 deductible and 80% coverage on most
everything.
Now In Network CoPays of $25 in office and 90% after $250 deductible
for
ER room stuff. Max $1000. We do pay $202 a month for this coverage.
Next
off to Terry's appointment with the specialist for his eyes.
After
getting back blood tests, muscle disease was ruled out. But doctor said
he should have a eye operation to correct the muscle functions for his
double vision (Diplopia). But that will wait till spring when we are
back
in Iowa. It is a 30 min. operation and according to him no big deal. We
could get it done in AZ this winter but this way the doctor here has
the
records and can do the follow up down the road so to speak. (Did you
like
that line). We like that idea and the doctor so that is what
we
will do. Terry has a temporary lens attachment on his glasses to force
his eye to focus correctly. A gift of modern medicine that this can be
corrected.

Ron
here... I carry a
Man Bag but a dress is so not me...
Just try to
find clip art
on Diplopia (double vision).
Monday July
12
Updating
Health
Ins. issues and our travel plans.
I did
a rant last
week about our Health Ins. coverage.
Remember
I got placed in No Network and when we went in for all our appointments
the bills came back that we had to pay them out of our deductible
before
coverage cut in. . Well after calls to service centers and doing an
appeal
I was changed back to In Network where I had always been in the
past.
Now just have to get this change from my former employers benefits
center
to UnitedHealth Ins. who administrates their self insurance. That
should
happen by the end of the week, they now tell me, and then all the old
June
claims can be run through the system under the new plan. Should
save
us about $1000 in pending charges. I didn't pay anything waiting for
the
change of coverage notice. Can you imagine how hard it would be to get
money back from several medical providers if I had paid them direct
instead
of the Ins coverage.
We
went full bore with checkups, tests, heart scans, colonoscopy,
eye
clinic for double vision, etc. So we have been hitting the medical
trail
pretty hard.

Speaking of pulling out my
hair... I don't
have any to spare.
A couple of
years ago it
took about a year to get a single $113 charge canceled that a hospital
said I owed. The Ins. company said they kept telling them I didn't owe
them anything, but the hospital said they never received any of the
notices...
over and over for a year. At last I did get them talking and in the end
the hospital said Yes I didn't owe them anything. Didn't want to go
through
that again.
Now for our plans... We are
ready to get
out of here, as in Iowa, and get our butts back out west.

Now we need
to get through
Terry's eye doctor clinic appointment on Thursday. If you forgot he was
having double vision issues. He has been doing his eye exercises and we
hope it has helped. They will redo specialized tests to see if things
are
improving.
If not, eye
surgery may
be needed. If he is on the right track, we will head on over to eastern
Iowa to his family's farm for a few days.

We want to
spend time with
his parents and help his brother work on a old chicken house he wants
to
reroof. Not used for birds anymore as you can see by the new door. Now
a woodworking hobby building.
We also
want to visit old
friends in the area. Say Hi Steve and Jan.
I grew up
east of Cedar Rapids
Iowa in Cedar county, and after spreading my wings by going to school
in
Chicago and working in the Washington DC area came back to work for
twenty
years in the Telco industry here and later in Des Moines for the rest
of
my 33 years in Telco. Met Terry while in Cedar Rapids.
I
digress... our next
RV road trip is off to Idaho to explore the state from the southeast
lower
Snake River around Swan Valley
and up to West
Yellowstone
and the Henry's Fork River.

Want to
stop at Red Rock
RV Park to touch base with the people who summer at this gem of an RV
park.
We
follow Seeing
the USA in our Chevrolet blog.

Will move
on in a week, or
month from this place to move northwest to explore Lolo Pass and the
Locha
River. That is down from Missoula and on Highway 12 and is a must see
scenic
route over to Lewiston. Then down HW 95 in western Idaho.
We have in
the past gone
from Island Park and down and back up across to Challis, Stanley and on
to Lowman and on west.
You do know
you should NEVER
try to pull a trailer south from Lowman to Idaho City don't you. Do
Google
that road.

After we
did this route that
year we went on to OR and the coast. We had many great day trips and
good
fishing in central Idaho on our last time in these parts. We knew we
wanted
to return, so now a few years later, we want to explore much more of
Idaho.
To get to some of northern Idaho we will have to (OMG go through
southwest
Montana). Sounds good to me... We are going to just explore as we go...
after all we are not on vacation and only want to be in Quartzsite in
late
October. Me thinks that is what this lifestyle is all about. After a
couple
of months in Iowa it's time to get back into it again. There is a big
wide
country out there, we have seen some of it, but have so much more to
explore.
I need to get out there and and do our own thing. Go west young man..
go
west...
Tuesday
July 6
Now
for info you
can use if you have an RV.
I
know you love my
rants... Sure You do. The last one below was about Health Ins. an
issue you might need to know about.
This
post is a little
more down to earth that you can use IF you have an RV.
I saw
this psot on
RV.NET forums.
Getting
ready
for my favorite job of the summer--waxing my fiver. I have an 07 Jayco
Designer 37 ft so it is a BIG job. Was curious what wax you all have
found
to be the best. I have used Turtle Wax Ice and it is really labor
intensive,
but does a good job. Please give me you best advice.

Terry doing
his thing
My
reply post...
With
whatever you
use you need to pay attention how the product affects the decals on
your
unit. Some products instruct you to wipe your decals with denatured
alcohol
to remove any wax applied to them or around their edges. A big cause of
decal curl up is that wax was applied over them. We use Wizards Supreme
Seal formulated for fiberglass gelcoat and safe for strips and decals.
We get it at our local auto parts supplier. The product link to the
sealer
we use is Supreme
Seal . Web main site for Wizards
Products
Our last
5er oxidized
and it was a pain to go through the fine sanding etc. to get it back in
shape. We just didn't take care of it. It was this needs to be waxed?
Now
this time around we wanted the best so we have no problems done the
road.
Now you know we have no connection to this product. We screwed up on
our
last RV so we did the research. Please use a good product, if not this
one, something else that will not do damage to your pride and joy.
Monday July
5
As
promised a
rant about Health Insurance coverage.

It makes
a difference
where you declare your domiclie when you go fulltime.
Insurance,
like so
may things to watch out for, even if you think you are covered you may
not be.
When I retired with company
paid Health
Ins. I changed my domicile to SD. I later found out my new address in
SD
was not In Network. It had been that way till I found out on the next
Open
Enrollment when they let me declare I would go out of area to a In
Network
doctor for service. So then I was out of area but allowed to op into In
Network for service. It was an official option to choose. If I lived in
SD there would be no In Network locations but since we are fulltimers
that
is not a problem. I keep my old doctor in my old home state (see him
once
or twice a year and he keeps up on my meds) and are covered at any in
network
location around the country. We have UnitedHealthCare administered for
my (retired from) company who is self insured.
Well
it came back
to bite me in the ass again. I got placed back in No Network due to no
fault of my own.

I went to make a claim this
June and found
they had me listed as No Network again. So after several phone calls I
was told my only option was to do an appeal. Here is the letter
with
personal details xxxx left out.
Attn: xxxxx Medical Insurance
Appeal
June 30, 2010
Appeal to Opt in to PPO Choice Plus
Member ID:
GP # Plan #
SSN
Case Ref:
I am retired xxxxx occupational, and have been in xxxxx
UHC Choice Plus
Pos In Network for about 5 years since I retired. Now in June 2010 when
I had my first claim for the year I found I had been placed in No
Network.
I thought I was very careful to choose correctly in the annual signup
as I have done for the last (5) years by declaring to stay with my
current
plan. The first year I did have to opt in to Choice Plus. In the
last five years I have always been placed in Choice Plus POS or now
called
PPO Choice Plus by declaring to stay with the same plan. All
claims
had been paid as In Network.
My domicile address has not changed during this time and is in a no
network area. I agreed to opt in to Choice Plus to obtain medical
services
by going only to In Network providers. We travel fulltime in an RV so
are
able to do this. I have been with the same In Network PCP for over 15
years.
I checked the Health and Life Benefits xxxxx site several times in
January 2010 to make sure I was signed up correctly. It showed Choice
Plus.
I also received my UnitedHealthcare member card showing UHC Options PPO
and also on the www.myuhc.com site I am listed as PPO. So
determined
I must be signed up correctly.
My first claim for the year (Date of Service 06/16/2010
Claim #
Billed Amount $XXX.XX) was applied as No Network.
Now checking the xxxxx Benefits site it shows No Network
BUT I am still
listed Options PPO in the UHC site.
I have been told by xxxxx benefits at 800 xxx xxxx (I
talked to Supervisor
xxxx who was very helpful) I must Appeal to be returned to PPO Choice
which
I am now doing.
And that I must call and request every year to be
paced in this
category even though I have not had to do this for the last several
years.
I appeal to be placed in PPO Choice Plus In Network back
dated to cover
my June 2010 claims. Feel free to call me at the below number for any
further
information.
Name...
...Address...
...city..., SD xxxxx
Cell
Attached: Copies of 2009 and 2010 UHC member
cards.
We shall see how this all
works out. In
the meantime we still have insurance, No Network each pay up to $450
deductible
before coverage kicks in at 80% instead of In Network only co-pays and
90% coverage. Both plans have max. of $1000 out of pocket and monthly
of
$202.
Still not bad compared to
what so many
have to pay to get coverage to go fulltime. If they can even get
Insurance.
I feel strongly my appeal will be accepted as they didn't play fair, me
thinks.
 

Sunday
July 4
So
did you get
out to a local celebration and parade?
We are just hanging out at
our 5er in our
full hookup site at Terry's sisters acreage here in central Iowa
watching
the corn grow. Terry has a full shop in their huge pole building right
next to us. He has a metal and wood lathe, etc. so he can play to his
hearts
content. So why go anyhwere else. But I am getting Hitch Itch to be
sure
so have been investigation the South Snake River in Idaho. More on that
later.

This weekend is for the
locals to get out
and enjoy the local campgrounds. It has been a long winter and they are
out in force to blow off some steam camping out on this holiday. We
will
take a drive on Sunday to view the campers in the local county and COE
cmapgrounds in the area. Sort has become a family outing for us to do.
We got a new Weber Q 100
portable grill
and plan to do baby back ribs if the rain predicted doesn't nip that in
the bud. The porcelain enameled cast-iron cooking grates sold us on
this
one. Unlike the grill of the below unit.

We have been fans of the
Olympian RV 4100
grill (below) and have had a couple of them. But this time we, like so
many others opted for the Weber. It is larger and harder to store for
travel
but it is a nice unit. I told Terry he has to throw out some of his
stuff
to make room for this.

Our old standby 12 volt fan
has been getting
more and more noisy. We mounted this on a wood base and has served us
well.
But as time went on it became so noisy we just had to get rid of it and
look for somthing else.
I went to the Pilot truck stop
and bought
another one and it was so noisy we had to take it back.

We found this AC powered fan
at Walmart.

Model No.:
HT-900
And it moves
much more air
even in the low setting than the above fan and is so quiet. This is a
keeper.
Variable tilt
fan head pivots
for use as an air circulator
It works
well with a very
small inverter I had using 12 volts to power it when we are off
line.
This tiny
inverter is also
low noise. Tiny fan you can't even hear.
CyberPower
120W DC-to-AC
Power Inverter.

Stay tuned for a rant I am
getting ready
to post about my Health Ins policy situation.
If you are knowledgeable about
Health
Insurance you know about In Network and No Network.
Well, I found out after five
years being
In Network, while having a SD domicle address I was this year placed in
No Network. Now I have to appeal to get my policy back to In
Network.
Much more later as to how this could happen and why you should be
careful
when declaring your domicile as South Dakota. Stay tuned... I
will
explain in detail...
Thursday
July 1
You
may be asking
what could they be doing all this time in Iowa.
Well... The rain and storms
have stopped
and the last few days have been perfect weather events. Hold on as it
will
revert to hot and muggy in short order. But for now the rain
which
has been about 10 - 15 inches in June is producing flooding. The big
COE
dams here are again having water go over their spillways. Des Moines is
again bracing for flooding.

This is what Saylorville
Lake looks like
at full level. The bridge is a mile long structure and it is now only a
few feet above the lake level. The area is full of campgrounds as
it is a COE project, but all boat ramps are closed for the 4th of July
weekend. In Iowa you only get to use your big bad boat a few weekends a
year and now all the ramps are closed. You can bet a lot of people are
upset. Not as much as the people below the dam who are worried about
getting
flooded out, me thinks.
A shot as they were lowering
the extended
flood gates on the dam spillway.

(local news station)
These gates will lower six
feet and send
a surge down river of uncontrolled water.
Below is the river in
downtown Des Moines
as we did a family outing today. Terry was looking for a bearing for a
idler wheel for a belt grinder that he is building to be used for
a rock club project.
He had called to confirm they
had the
part he wanted but when we got there they didn't have it. So much for
customer
service.
Now back to what we found
in downtown Des
Moines on our day trip toady...

High water to be sure...
normally it flows
down and over this dam. Now it just rumbles over it all.

The new Principle Financial
River Walk
bridge over the river.
A work of art along with a
resurgence
of walkways along the river. Now a great place to watch the high
water.

Now looking below...
This was constructed as a
tribute to past
Iowa Gov. Robert D Ray as he brought southeast Asia refugees for
relocation to Iowa. In 1975 Ray was alarmed by the plight of thousands
of refugees from the Vietnam War, many of whom were allies of the U.S.,
who had been expelled or were fleeing from Vietnam and living in
temporary
refugee camps. Ray initiated programs to allow Vietnamese refugees to
live
in the United States and eventually obtain citizenship. Many were
able to came to Iowa. Read more about it at Iowa
pathways.

Now back a couple weeks ago
in time as
we visited Terry's family when we visited the family farm in eastern
Iowa,
and the guys spent time analyzing how to reroof the old chicken
house.
From left nephew Bobby, Terry,
brother
Gary, and father Robert.

We all know how we hate
seeing family pictures
of grandkids etc. on travel blogs. But these guys are wll past
that
age. Robert, Terry's father is in his 80's and doing great. We
should
be so lucky.
Now this last week we had
more doctor appointments.
I had a cardiologist
appointment. I missed
seeing them last fall so had to get my butt in this spring. I
have
AFib events from time to time and take pills for my heart so this was a
needed visit. I have been feeling better this last year (lower blood
pressure,
110 over 60 with meds) and and my last Afib event was in early March. I
don't worry about having one so much, so me thnks that helps in not
having
one. I found out my A1C came down so I'm happy about that.
If you are tired about all
this med stuff
just a bit more...
As you know we all need to
get a colonoscopy
every few years as we get older. Colon cancer is very preventable
if you get checked. I know not much fun in the preparation with getting
yourself cleaned out for the procedure, but when done, and you get a
clean
report (so to speak) you know it was all worth it. We do it as it as
polyps
and colon cancer runs in both our families so we are faithful about our
checkups. This year it was Terry's turn to get probed.
The waiting room got old as I
waited for
Terry but they had WiFi so I could use my Droid Incredible. I did
have to endure watching the Wimblegon Tennis tournaments on their big
screen
TV. And I thought soccer was boring...

Doesn't Terry look cute
recovering from
his procedure.
He did have two polyps so he
will have
to be rechecked again in 3 years instead of 5.

Don't get the wrong idea
from the picture
he was doing fine. Just dozed of for a minute.
Just one of the few times I
cought him
in a druged stupor. When he is at his best...
Today we went for a drive
and stopped at
Menard's Building Center and I took pictures of their patio
display.

I was looking for ideas if
we buy a lot
in Quartzsite, AZ and how me might develop it patio wise.


Now a last picture from a
day or so ago
about life as we know it, back in our 5er.

See
where we are at right now. DataStormUsers
map ID 98
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