Free At Last

Hopefully, the anchor will not be stuck and easily come loose when we get ready to roll.  It’s been in place here in South Carolina for way longer than we ever anticipated.

The reason we spent so much time in or close to South Carolina was for dealing with the Veterans Administration (VA) Regional Office in Columbia, SC for issues concerning injuries I received while on active duty with the Coast Guard.

There were many appointments, tests and interviews that I had to do, and I had no control over when they would pop up with little or no warning.  I sometimes had a week’s notice, but one time, on a car trip to visit our granddaughters in Missouri I received a phone call indicating an appointment in two day’s time.  Since we had already driven more than halfway of the 700 mile trip, we continued all the way there. I then had to catch a plane from St. Louis back to SC, and rent a car to make the appointment.  Several hundred dollars later, I made the appointment.

When you’ve applied for a disability claim with the VA, you don’t want to miss an appointment, or your claim gets put on the bottom of the huge pile of backlog cases.  It’s bad enough of a wait, even when everything is done on time.

I received a notice in the mail that my disability claim has now been resolved and the results are way better than I could have anticipated.  It opens up a whole range of lifetime VA benefits for me, for which I am very pleased and thankful.

In the end, looking at the big picture, the result was worth the 29 month wait.  We now have additional peace of mind.  I will continue to use the VA for my routine medical checkups, but now, further appointments I can make for myself, when I want or need them.

We are free at last, free to travel without the worry of potentially missing an appointment.  We are making plans now for the rest of the year and even next year.  We will be departing our home of six months at J. Strom Thurmond COE the end of March, it was a great place to stay, lots of enjoyable people, fun tasks and a campsite that was one of the nicest we’ve had this side of Disney World’s Fort Wilderness.

Two “incoming” granddaughters are the first priority, one in Missouri in April and one in New Jersey in July.  We’re now looking to fit in a cruise (our first).  A trip to the Winnebago factory in Iowa early May for some maintenance on the Journey, late May to Branson, MO with my dad, possibly a Disney World trip in June (and hopefully another Disney World trip in September) as well as a visit to Marti’s sister in Rhode Island in August. 

We might even return to J. Strom Thurmond for October through December (yeah, we like this place) before a long overdue visit of the great American West in 2015 for some Arizona fun in the sun.

Or not. 

Our motto is:  Semper Gumby (Always Flexible).

Thanks for visiting (and hanging in there with us).  Feel free to leave a comment.