Masses rejoice! Another new and exciting episode of Rolling Through the Rest of Our Lives has dropped... big time. I won't get into the delays of this post. By now, you know the drill.
So, when we last left our over-the-road heroes they were making their way to the Dakotas to recover from low oxygen and high altitude. Joking aside, it was a concerning experience,what with my low lung volume and even lower O2 saturation levels. Although Colorado was an amazing experience, one that has solidified its place on our list of "Places to Settle Down", it will require some adjustment and the handy oxygen concentrator that I was lucky to have found, if we decide to venture back out there. Since we have left those picturesque Rockies, we have recovered from the high altitude for the most part. It was somewhat sad to leave behind such beauty, but with more of the state yet unexplored, we have lots of reasons to return. South Dakota and the rest of the west did give us more than enough experience with hail storms. It's no longer a wonder why we are required to carry hail damage insurance. Our first experience with North Dakota was another revealing adventure. It is just as boring a drive as its sister state, South Dakota. Although, North Dakota did give offer us a taste of a dust storm while we trekked through Theodore Roosevelt National Park. It was like white out conditions in New York except for the fact that it was brown and had plenty of cliffs and ravines to plunge into. Aside from the dangerous drives, North Dakota is a vast expanse of farmland and its own version of the badlands. It is not hard to discover what Teddy encountered when he explored the west and why he felt it so important to preserve so much of its beauty.
Amid our travels across the Dakotas, concerning news from home became our focal point. A family member was hospitalized unexpectedly and the lack of diagnosis was frustrating for all. Though our concerns were heavy, there was no imminent danger so we adjusted our plans to fast track to New York once appointments at the Minnesota VA were completed. We would arrive one month earlier to our home state and find that, as we briskly traveled back, the health concerns subsided and our immediate need to see family became more casual. Though casual was about to become more chaotic.
A bit of back story for some of you reading will be required before I continue with the current roller coaster ride that we're on. New York is where we were both born and raised. It is safe to say we have roots here. This is evidently so as my family's namesake adorned the community of Finch Hollow in the Town of Union, NY. For over 50 years we have enjoyed the beauty and reverence of upstate New York and considered it very much a part of our souls. It is not, however, without its downsides. The NY government makes living, working and owning business here extremely hard. Tez worked for the local Catholic hospital at a primary physician's office for many years. She had some of her best friendships formed there. She maintains relationships with some of the doctors and nurses today, even after many of them were ousted from their positions during the pandemic. I, on the other hand, bounced in and out of NY for 30 years while in college, the military and finally raising a family in Ohio. But my hometown was always on my radar and there were times when it seemed like I'd never left. When Tez and I decided to leave on this traveling adventure 4 years ago, we had both agreed that NY would not be a place we would settle back into again. Though deeply rooted, it was our goal to settle down in one of our favorite states and our hometown would become a place to visit from time to time.
So, with less than a month left to stay in NY, before we headed down towards Texas and Arizona, Tez got a call from one of her doctor friends about a coding issue she was having. Tez was happy to help and the doctor was happy to know that we were in the area and that Tez could stop by in person to assist her. This doctor and other professional medical staff were brought into a local practice after they were let go from the Catholic hospital. The doctor, Kristen, and her coding problems were easily fixed and Tez was able to point out several informative issues with the way they do coding. They also got to visit and plan a dinner for us and the old co-workers. At dinner, an offer was made to come to work at the local practice to code and improve the system. This was an offer that was very hard to resist, given the relationship that Tez and Kristen had before. An interview date was set and the ride was set in motion. One hundred questions began to filter into our thoughts. Will this be remote or fixed office work? Will this be a substantial increase in pay? Of course it will be a dream job with previous co-workers compared to the non-sense she's put up with over the last 4 years on the road. Where will we live? In New York? Will we rent or buy? How long will this take us away from the road? What will we do with Winne, our beloved motor home? What about our campground networks that we are currently still paying for? The questions were endless and so the climb to the top of the roller coaster began.
The Friday interview, with Julie, went great. It was a positive and exciting time for Tez, but with 5 days before our next destination was waiting. We cancelled our departure and started talking about a permanent residence in NY. Ugh, New York. For how long? 10 years or somewhere within retirement age. 10 years, ugh. Renting a home with 2 pets, one who is beyond the size limit for most landlords, is going to be difficult. Buying makes more sense, even if for only 5 years, which I can stomach better than 10 years. The real estate market here in this area of NY is intense because of the high number of buyers and low number of available homes. Do we buy a traditional home or a manufactured home? And why haven't we heard anything back about this interview? Questions were swirling and emotions were running on a steely edge as a response from the Julie, the interviewer came in. As exciting a prospect as it is to have a knowledgeable coder come in help us in the billing office, the owning practitioner didn't see the need for it.
And way down we go, screaming our heads off.
This owning practitioner had to be the stupidest smart person we'd ever met. Not only did nearly his entire staff see the need for a certified coder to repair and replace the coding deficiencies of the "outsourced to India" coding department, but even the practitioner himself couldn't deny the mysterious lack of profitability from bringing in Kristen and her primary medical staff. We had learned, during another visit to Kristen's office to fix more of her coding issues, that within the 18 months that she and her team were seeing patients, almost half of the coding to bill insurance companies were being kicked back. In other words, only half of the services provided were being paid for by patients and their insurance and this owning practitioner had the gawl to make the comment that "bringing in the primary care doctor and her staff was not very profitable." Well no shit Sherlock, you're letting half the profits walk out the door.
Again, emotions running high, tempers flaring, hearts breaking... it has been a wild ride for only a weeks time. Our immediate travel plans are cancelled and our cupboards and bays are stocked with every taste of New York we could pack in. So where do we go from here? (SIGH) A suggestion is made; "why don't we just 'pause' for a while? Let's just take a breath and regroup, reevaluate, and assess the future of our lives without all the traveling around and chaos." I'm sure everyone here reading has witnessed those roller coasters that bring you into the loading area after an exhilarating ride only to reverse course and thrill you, again, backwards and blind.
Let's go look at the housing market. No one will rent to us with a 60 pound dog and a cat. A Saturday visit to an available home starts the ride, again. The house not all that great even though it is in our presumed price range. Another search for a home leads us to a few manufactured homes for sale in a local community. An afternoon visit showed us six home in varying conditions. The last one was so new, that even the staging furniture remained set up in the home a was ready for purchase is so desired. These searches and daily outings lead to discussions about how much space was needed, how much money would we spend, how far outside of the family circle did we want to live and so on. Some discussions were heated. Some left us confused. Some begged the question, "Why don't we just buy a brand new manufactured home?" So another Sunday adventure out to look at model homes gave us watering mouths, suggested pricing sheets and more questions. It is now by this time that we involve the lenders. As a veteran of the Air Force, I decide to inquire about a VA loan and to no surprise, although I would be eligible, my tanked credit rating (due to an inconsiderate ex-wife) is preventing me from qualifying, and although Tez's great credit is extremely helpful, she can't do it alone. This fact we had learned even more when a visit to her bank, of over 50 years, wouldn't consider lending after looking over our financials.
The rails on this coaster take another turn. With much to do to recover our sanity and financial comfort zone, a door opens. As of the end of September, my daughter, Allison, vacated the apartment above my mother's house. She and her long distance boyfriend loaded up a U-Haul with her household possessions and a Subaru and headed out to the state of Idaho. Yes, the potato one. This left an opportunity and an arrangement was settled upon by my mother and the two of us to unload our motor home into the apartment while we smooth out our future plans. Over the course of three weeks, we slowly packed up our wares and transported them to Endicott. We used six moving boxes and made little trips over the three week time period. Each time doing a little cleaning, a little unpacking, a little traveling and repacking until the majority of our belongings had been transferred from the Winnebago to the apartment. There were sad days sitting inside the bus as is was slowly being dismantled. Our rolling home for four years served us well and what was to become of her after so dutifully traversing the United States in exploration of the unknown. With our lives now being reorganized in an apartment about three times the size of Winne, she now sits in storage facility, waiting to be combed over with brushes and cleaners to prepare her for her new future. Sitting idle was certainly not the intended purpose of this trusty steed and so it is our plan to find a new set of explorers to purchase our beloved Winne. It hardly seems fair for her to just sit while she has so much more life to offer.
As for us, we are trying, with some difficulty, to return back to the life of living in a sticks and bricks structure. Our desire to travel is still strong and we have so much more we want to see and revisit. For now though, we will regain our footing and look to our future. We shall see how long we will last sitting idle ourselves before we succumb to the desire of Rolling Through the Rest of Our Lives.
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