Tallahassee Area Mensa
Welcome to the home page of Tallahassee Area Mensa!
Tallahassee Area Mensa a local chapter of the High IQ Society, American Mensa. The Tallahassee
area serves Florida from the Apalachicola River east through Taylor County including part of
Madison County and even a bit of Dixie County. Our area is also the only area in all of Florida,
Region 10 of American Mensa, to include a portion of Georgia. For a full view of the area we
cover, visit our map.
Interested in joining Mensa? The only qualification for membership is a score at or above the
98th percentile on an approved IQ test. There are two different ways you can join. One is by
submitting evidence of scores from any of a number of approved intelligence tests that you have
already taken, or you can take the Mensa Admission Test. For more information about qualifying
to join, visit the Join Mensa page.
Robin's Roost - rest your feathers!
April turned out to be far more adventurous than I expected, and given that we had a cross-country trip planned, it was already going to be pretty adventurous!
We headed out in early April and our oldest dog died on our first day of travel. She was 15 and had been declining for some time, but we did not know her death was
imminent. Ray had had her since she was found as an abandoned puppy, soaking wet and tiny. Her death hit us both hard but was especially hard on Ray. We made
arrangements to have her cremated and shipped home once we got to Texas. But the very next day, as we crossed the Mississippi River, we had a breakdown. The belt
tensioner froze up, which caused the belt to brake and suddenly we had no power brakes, power steering, water pump, etc. There was a pull-off at the bottom of the
bridge and Ray, standing on the brake pedal, managed to get us stopped without colliding into the semi that was already there. We called AAA, and they left us sitting
on the side of the road for SEVEN HOURS while they called all over creation trying to find a lowball offer. We learned this when the tow driver who finally agreed to
the job (because he didn't feel he could "leave these poor people at the side of the road all night") told us they had called him 4 times trying to get a lower price.
The fact that they left us there in a seriously dangerous place for all that time has left me not liking AAA at all, particularly since we still had to pay nearly $800
out of pocket for the tow! I have no idea what AAA paid. We were towed to a shop (by then it was nearly midnight) and the owner let us sleep in the RV in his gated lot.
They took care of the repair first thing the next morning and we found a crematorium less than a mile away where we took our sweet little dog.
We were on our way by afternoon and made our way into Texas but not all the way to my sister's. As a result, we only had one night with them instead of two.
After a lovely visit there, we went to San Antonio for the eclipse. While there we tried to see the Alamo and the Riverwalk, but it was their second most crowded
day ever and we couldn't see much. Tours were sold out, audio devices were sold out, and mostly we saw the backs of people's heads. We also missed the eclipse
because the weather did not cooperate AT ALL and it was heavily overcast. We got the dark-in-the-day effect, but that was all, we could not see the sun or totality
or anything else. Very disappointing. From there we headed to the Grand Canyon and when we arrived there 2 days later, our slide out quit working. This meant we lost
18" of space inside, which doesn't seem like a lot, but is a LOT of space for walking, not to mention it made it impossible to open the closet or the drawers! So the car
became our closet and drawers after Ray contorted himself into improbable shapes to get everything out of the closet and drawers in the RV's bedroom. We decided to skip
Vegas and the Hoover Dam until another trip and instead enjoy more time at the Grand Canyon. It was wonderful! We also went down for a day in Sedona with my cousin,
which was incredibly beautiful!
While we were enjoying these various adventures, a friend of mine here in Tallahassee suffered a tree falling on her house that also totaled her car when it
landed. She is dealing with cancer and going through chemo, and suddenly she was homeless and without a car. I told her to move into my house while they got things
straightened out. So while we were traveling and dealing with our dramas, my friend was back home dealing with a whole host of other dramas. We made it to
California and saw my 96-year-old aunt, which was wonderful. On the return trip, I had a medical situation that necessitated a 90-minute drive to the closest
hospital - in Phoenix, AZ, and we were in the ER from 10:15 p.m. until 9 the next morning. We still got to Carlsbad Caverns, which was amazing! We got home on
April 29 to chaos at home. My friend had taken a serious turn for the worse and the day after we got home, she was taken to the ER and hospitalized, and she is
still there. She was very close to death. She is slowly getting better, and her daughter is working with the insurance company to try and get the temporary housing
in place, but nothing happens quickly. So we are facing some serious issues with friends, some serious repairs needed on the RV, and trying to restore normalcy to
our lives. A crazy busy month! Hope to see everyone at the PIG*SIG this month!
Stay safe and healthy, everyone!
Robin
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