Retirement and Promotion

We left the Finger Lakes and drove back down to Richmond, Virginia, to join our son-in-law and family for his retirement from the USMC.  Anthony retired after 29 years in the Marine Corps and traveled all over the world including a stint in Afghanistan.  He is retiring as a Colonel and the whole family is very proud of him and his dedicated service to our country.  

Anthony with our daughter, Lynn, during the ceremony.  

Anthony gave a nice speech thanking many who had been with him throughout his career and a big "Thank You" to his wife and family for all they had sacrificed during his career.  

I was sitting next to Anthony's mom and we both received a lovely bouquet of flowers.

After the ceremony there was a lovely celebration in one of the halls on the base.

Granddaughter Katelyn with her husband Cole joined us.

Brett' s sisters, Debra and Cindy, and niece, Amy, joined us along with other members from their family.

After the ceremony many of the people present went to the Capitol Alehouse in downtown Richmond and we continued the celebration there.  The youngsters played darts while all the adults drank beer and ate more food and we all had a great time.

Anthony's retirement was on a Monday so we stayed in Richmond and spent the rest of the week helping our daughter and family get ready to move to their new home in Warrington, PA.  On Friday we drove up to Washington, DC, to enjoy the promotion of our niece, Sarah Eccleston, to Lt. Colonel in the US Army.  Our granddaughter, Katelyn, drove back up to Richmond to join us on the trip to DC.  

Sarah decided to have her promotion on a boat while cruising the Potomac River.


Waiting to get on the boat.

Sarah is a nurse with the United States Army, a mother of four, and married to Russell Anderson.   Sarah's brother-in-law, Lt  Col Spencer Anderson, performed the ceremony.  He recently  retired from the US Army after a long career.  They were the only two in uniform for the ceremony and it was really hot.  

Sarah's husband, Russ Anderson, emceed the ceremony and had everyone laughing.  There was lots of food and drink and as soon as the promotion ended Sarah and Sterling got out of their hot uniforms to enjoy the rest of the boat ride.  The boat was crowded with family and friends and the Potomac River was beautiful.  You couldn't have asked for a nicer day.

We also got to see many wonderful views from the Potomac River.

Katelyn and Lt Colonel Sarah Eccleston

Two old folks who were invited.

Back in Richmond we continued to help Lynn get ready for the move to PA.  She has some nice artwork, china, and other valuables that she was concerned about being shipped commercially and didn't think there would be enough room in their cars to carry it.  So the Captain suggested we take those valuables in our rig back to Lugoff, SC, leave some of it there until later in the year, and bring the rest back up with us to their new home.  It also gave him the opportunity to drop off a few cases of wine we had purchased while in New York :)  So we jumped into the rig, drove all the way home, dropped off the necessary items, had dinner in the rig with our daughter, Beth, and grandson, Lee, spent the night in the rig and then left early the next morning to drive back up to the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia.  What parents do for their kids.....

We found a nice campground in the Shenandoah Valley and stayed there for a week to enjoy the scenic area. While there, our black lab, Desi, stopped eating and drinking water and became very listless.  We took him into a local vet and they ran blood work but found nothing.  Since he was dehydrated they gave him subcutaneous fluid and an antibiotic to see if he would improve. Two days later we were back with him and they ran an x-ray which showed his spleen was enlarged and they saw several lumps that looked suspicious.  Once again they gave him fluids for dehydration.  This continued but with us giving him the fluids over the next few days.  They recommended he have an ultrasound to try and determine what they were seeing in his stomach but they didn't have the equipment necessary to do the test.  Since we were traveling to Warrington to meet up with our daughter and family we decided to find a doctor there.  

Our sick puppy getting fluids in the rig.

Eventually we visited two different doctors with Desi.  The one doctor did the ultrasound but it did not show any cancerous tumors so they thought it might be an autoimmune problem. That led us to the last doctor who was a specialist in internal medicine with animals.  He looked at the xrays and ultrasound and suggested we have another more complex blood test for Desi.   He also recommended an IDEXX 4dx snap blood test which checks for tick borne diseases.  I mentioned Desi had always been on monthly heartworm and flea and tick medicine but decided it wouldn't hurt since he was a southern dog where those diseases are so prevalent.  The 4dx test only takes a few minutes and it came back positive for Ehrlichia which is a tick borne disease.  We were very surprised but the vet said he had probably been carrying it in a sub-clinical stage where there are no outward signs. He felt something physiological caused the disease to flare up.  We got the results of the more complex drug test the next day and it definitely pointed to Ehrlichia.  So Desi is on Doxycycline for 30 days and when we get home we will take him into our vet for another 4dx test to see if he has cleared the disease.  He is now happy and healthy again, enjoying his food and walks, and being our sweet pup.

Our daughter and family moved to Warrington and we went to their house each day and painted many rooms before the movers brought in their furniture.  After a week we left and went to a quiet park for rest and relaxation before we continued on our trip east to Johnstown, PA.  My father was born and raised there so I wanted to see the old house.  The city is also known for the Johnstown Flood and we wanted to learn more about that.  It was an interesting place that I will share with you in the next blog. Peace!