06/13/2024
Day 6 & 7: A Place (Formally) Called Home-Tarpon Springs FL
…The second half of Day 5, after we watched the Blue Angels fly about, was our longest planned travel day on the road. We drove the 7hrs south from Pensecola down the coast to Tarpon Springs FL. Which of course meant it would probably lead to another late night set up around 1030p, again… after dark! Ugh Boy, I remember why I refused to plan such long travel days on this year’s summer trip- 7hrs always turns into 10 when you stop for gas, food, and potty breaks!
Although we had lots of other ‘fun’ things planned for our Clearwater/Palm Harbor visit- another surprise showed it’s ugly head when I was helping Charlotte brush her teeth on Monday night. It seemed by visual inspection that maybe she was getting a larger cavity coming in on one of her back molar. So the proactive mom in me was like- “hey, I know what I can do- since we’ll be back in our old home town area, maybe her old dentist there can get her in for an evaluation and take care of this problem before it gets worse on the road!”Haha… Well, here’s how all that turned out:
I have to admit- I’m Very greatful we had a dentist who was more than willing to help us out on our Very short and tight timeframe!! They were able to see her first thing on Wednesday morning. And, after a quick set of X-rays- not only did she have a cavity where I had seen it- she also had multiple others!🫣😭 With that, we got a game plan together and they began treatment right away!
When I shared the news with Ryan, he of course was like, “wow, wonder what might be hiding with Gavin too?” Haha.. so sure enough… (as we’re bleeding $$ anyways) why not get Gavin evaluated also! And like that- another appt, X-rays , and there was Gavin in the chair getting some of his cavities fixed too! 😬
Now let me preface with this: I’m usually very good about preventative care- we’ve always had dental insurance and we always booked and did our 6-Month follow ups. (This is actually why I was able to get my kids into this pediatric dentist so soon- this was one of their prior dentist when we lived in Fl.) However, when we moved back to Ky the dentist we had seen for 10+yrs before we moved to Fl had stopped taking our insurance by the time we moved back. Needless to say, finding a new dentist at that point sort of took a back seat for a bit longer than I had planned. Finally, we did book appointments for the kids at our new practice in Ky just a few months back. Yet, the practice necessarily weren’t ‘built’ for children and they couldn’t take X-rays at their last visit. So, cleanings and a visual inspection were all they could really offer. And- both came back with an all clear! Well, seems something’s were NOT all clear after all!
Fast forward… Two days of dental visits for both kiddos, and I’m happy to report, they’re about 80-90% fixed of all dental woes!! I’ll take that as a win!
We did finally also get the chance to squeeze in a nice family dinner with my brother’s family too- so that’s an upside!! And with that- it was just about time to pack up and head out onto our next stop!!
A few other ‘honorable’ mentions over the last 48hrs are:
-We found a dog’s name tag at a rest stop on the way south on Tuesday and I reached out to the owners! They were happy we found it and I happily placed it in an envelope and mailed back to them this morning!! (Funny, it doesn’t have to travel too far either… actually just to where we’re headed- Orlando!)
-Then, as we were setting up to leave our site this afternoon, one more walk around inspection yielded the find of another FLAT TIRE! Kid you not!! We did what we could to use our portable air compressor to go from 20psi to a meager 50psi. We crossed our fingers as we pulled out we could find a tire shop with a more powerful professional compressor that could take us up to our rated 100-110psi!! Well, actually that was not an easy feat at all!! 4+phone calls later, we did yield one tire shop not too far from us who did have the ability to inspect the tire and give us the air we needed. So we carefully headed that way!
There was maybe a small concern that the valve stem might not be good on the new tire, but after inspection- there was a greater chance that it wasn’t the stem, but possibly the valve covers! The BMPro monitors we had been using have been notorious for also allowing small leaks to happen if not seated right; and why it took 3 days and sitting at the campsite for 2 days to have the tire slowly deflate! Needless to say- all is fixed, AGAIN- and we are back on the road- finally… headed to Disney!
…Fort Wilderness we will see ya’ real soon!🤩
🌟Roll with those tides ya’ll!! Learn to pivot!!🌟
