Let's see, where did we leave off. Oh yes, we were decommissioning Music and heading back to the states. We came back to California in mid-July and caught up with some friends and doctor's appointments. Lo and behold, John ended up needing rotator cuff surgery on his left shoulder. His shoulder had been bothering him, but he had been hauling our heavy (70 lb) sails around, climbing the mast, and doing other heavy lifting in order to get ready to leave Music in Mexico. So we were rather surprised with the MRI results. This has put a bit of a crimp in our plans in order to accomodate his 2x a week physical therapy. The surgery went well and he started physical therapy about 2 weeks ago. The first month was shoulder immobilization and now it's passive movement - which means he's not supposed to use his left arm to lift anything heavier than a cup of coffe and certainly not to raise the arm. Needless to say, he's going a bit crazy with not being able to do much.
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| m/v Nalu |
Before the surgery we were able to take a 10 day trip up the Delta with our friends Jim and Diana Jessie on their Grand Banks Alaska 52, m/v Nalu. The Delta is a series of waterways between the Sacramento and San Juaquin rivers. The weather was perfect and it was great to visit with friends. John spent much of his childhood vacations at the Delta, so he was excited to be able to see some new areas. One of our favorites was Steamboat Slough. It's one of the few waterways that still has the trees overhanging the water and you feel you are in the middle of nowhere. But there are roads on either side of the slough. It's called Steamboat Slough because you used to be able to hear the steamboats on the Sacramento River which is just around the bend.
The Jessie's were leading the Delta Cruise Out for the Oakland Yacht Club, so as we motored along to our various anchorages it was like the mother hen leading her chicks. We visited Decker Island, Steamboat Slough, had lunch at 'Al the Wop's' in Walnut Grove, on to Potato Slough, and Suisun City.
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| Chicks in a Row |
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| Swing Bridge |
We had a few bridges to navigate. When you are close, you call the bridge tender and he will stop traffic and open the bridge. Some were draw bridges and some were swing bridges.
It was a fun and relaxing trip. Then it was back to the Bay area for John's surgery. We were very lucky to be able to stay with a friend of mine from my Hewlett Packard days. A couple of weeks after John's surgery we headed to Salt Lake City, UT with a stop in Reno, NV to visit with John's son and to change our residency. We are now Nevadaites. Nevada doesn't have any state income tax and the car insurance is about half of California so we'll save a few $$.
After a few days in Reno, we headed to Salt Lake where my parents have a condo we'll be staying in for about 6 weeks. Or, I'll be staying in since John has to head back to CA for physical therapy. He'll be staying with his dive buddy Jeff. When he has a few extra days he comes out to SLC where we do the tourist thing. We went to Snowbird Ski Resort for Oktoberfest and visited the Kennecott Copper Mine.
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| The Pit |
Kennecott is the largest man-made excavation on earth - it can be seen from space. It's 2 3/4 miles across at the top and is 3/4 of a mile deep. The machinery is huge - notice the scale of the loader trucks compared to a full size pickup. The tires are over 12 ft tall and the truck drivers are 18 ft in the air. It's hard to get a full appreciation of the scale, but if you can see the small specks in the bottom of the mine - those are loader trucks. It was truely amazing.
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| Loader Trucks - note the scale compared to the pickup |
The current plan is in mid to late October when John's PT will be wrapped up, we'll start working our way south again and drive back to Mexico with a car load of boat supplies.
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