Just before we returned to Panama after a great time with our children and grandchildren who live in New Braunfels, Texas I hurt my back during packing of all the parts we purchased for Island Girl. It did not help that I had to carry all the 4 bags each weighing 49.5 lbs. to the rental car into the boat etc. I planned to keep it easy the first days back on the boat, but then the macerator pump failed and I had to replace it with the new one we brought from the USA. During this project I pulled my back again and that was the end, I could not move anymore and I spent 4 days in bed. Just when I started to move again towards the end of the 4th day I started to feel a very pinching pain in my anal area. The pain became so severe that I could only lie on my side in bed; walking and sitting were almost unbearable. Two days in a row we took the 6:30 AM bus to Sabanitas which takes about 2 hours to visit a doctors’ clinic where I received an antibiotic shot and some pain medication. Both did not help at all, which was later confirmed by the doctor in Houston and the pain only became worse. I also had fever. Adam Baitel, the marina manager took to an emergency clinic in Porto Belo on Friday afternoon where they gave me a pain medication with an IV and that reduced the pain tremendously and for the first time in 2 weeks I could sleep through the entire night. A doctor in Colon first offered to operate on me to drain the abscess but at the last moment advised me to fly to the USA instead. Neither phone nor internet in Linton Bay Marina so I called Heather my daughter-in-law Heather using my satellite phone who made a reservation for me on the Sunday flight to Houston.

Adam Baitel drove me in a five hour trip via Colon where we picked up pain killers prescribed by the surgeon to the Airport Hotel in Panama City and the next morning I flew to Houston. My daughter Dominique was waiting for me at the airport in Houston and drove me to the emergency clinic of the nearest Hospital. After the initial examination I received IV strong pain killers and antibiotics, was admitted to the hospital and a surgery to drain the abscess was planned for the following day. The nurse requested a urine sample and then I realized that I had not gone to the bathroom for one and a half day and my bladder was dangerously overfilled. The abscess had blocked my urinary tract. A catheter was inserted and more urine came out than container could hold.

The next day on Monday June 18, 2016 I underwent surgery and the surgeon told me that the abscess was as big as an orange and was about 3 ½ inches deep. Because of the size the wound needed to be packed and the packing had to be changed every other day. The surgeon estimated that the total healing time would be between 2 and 3 months and that during this period I needed to be close to a healthcare facility, get home health care for the first couple of weeks or I needed to go to a skilled nursing facility. Dominique generously offered for me to stay in her house; however, since Dorothy and I already spent 1 month in Robert and Heather’s home, I decided to take the option to go to the skilled nursing home facility. Big mistake and I should have known that we were on the wrong path by choosing New Braunfels the city were our children live. For a real skilled nursing facility you need to go to a larger city like San Antonio.

The care I received in the hospital was at an unbelievably high standard, the staff was great, friendly but very professional; the food was really good and was served with a friendly smile. Since I received IV painkillers and antibiotics that needed to be replenished every 4 hours, my vital signs were constantly checked which made sleeping difficult. Dominique stayed in a hotel close to the hospital and spent nearly all daylight hours in my hospital room. So the supposed “care” at the nursing home in New Braunfels came as a real shock after the 4 ½ days in the hospital. The staff was completely unprepared to treat my wound and it was very depressing to be in a place where older people are waiting out the last years of their lives. The staff treats everyone as being incapable of taking care of themselves and unable to make their own decisions. So instead of talking to me they called my children and when I took a walk on Saturday morning with my son he was called to ask if he gave me permission to be outside. This was the last straw and after an internet search I went to a camping store together with my son and bought a 34 ft. travel trailer that we could pick up at 5 o’clock that Saturday afternoon. I made a reservation for 2 months on a campground in New Braunfels close to where our children live. My grandson Jack who just turned 17 last Sunday July 31, 2016 took his dad’s truck and delivered the travel trailer at the camp ground.

After some hasty household purchases I had a place to sleep, but no wound care. I called our friend Jim who works for the Texas Med Clinic after he sold his private health practice and visited him on Sunday morning. He cleaned and packed my wound and made a referral to a Colon and Rectal Surgeon who I visited the following day. This doctor gave me a clear picture about the aftercare and things that need to be done in the near future besides the wound care. One of the first steps was an MRI and results were inconclusive except for the fact that it showed a pocket of puss. So I needed another surgery to further investigation, to remove the trapped puss pocket and to widen the outside part of the wound so it should be easier to pack the wound. On Friday August 12, 2016 I had my second surgery.

We made the decision for me to fly back to the USA in minutes and had made no arrangements for our boat Island Girl. So it was clear that Dorothy had to stay behind and take care of the boat during my absence. When it was clear that I would not return to Panama soon Dorothy started making preparations to leave the boat behind. Linton Bay Marina is relatively inexpensive and with the heavy daily rain, high humidity and the need for intensive preparations for a boat on the hard, we decided to leave the boat in the water with a bi-weekly visit of a cleaning lady and a system check including running both the main engine and the generator by a mechanic. The storage area on land is close to a dense tree cover that allows all kind of critters to enter the boat and offer less ventilation which will result in molding inside the boat. We made a reservation for Dorothy to fly back to the USA and it was like the best day of my life when she finaly arrived in San Antonio on July 26, 2016. Together we purchased many household items to make our RV a home for the next couple of months.

The enormous amount of antibiotics I have to take and the light pain caused by the wound reduce my desire for a lot of activities. Due to the injuries caused by his biking accident my son had to give up his very strict training regimen for the Australian Iron Man. Instead he takes a very nice walk every morning through the historic “City of Gruene”. This walk takes about 1 hour and we do this every morning as a family event together with my son, his wife, his mother-in-law and two of the dogs.

About Gruene
German farmers became in the mid-1840s, the first settlers of what is now known as Gruene, Texas. Ernst Gruene, a German immigrant, his bride Antoinette, and their two sons purchased land just down river from New Braunfels, and Ernst built the first home in Gruene in early fachwerk style. His second son, Henry D. Gruene, built his home (now Gruene Mansion Inn) and planted his surrounding land with cotton. Having become the number one cash crop, the cotton business soon brought 20 to 30 families to Henry D. Gruene's lands.

In 1974, Chip Kaufman, an architecture student at UT Austin working with the Texas Historical Commission and an avid kayaker floated down a little further on the Guadalupe River than usual, to the southern most public takeout known as The Gruene Crossing where he discovered numerous late 1800’s and early 1900’s buildings, some with architectural layering, he immediately realized their significance and requested permission from the Texas Historical Commission to inventory the buildings for their records, which they approved. He found out that developer had purchased the last 200+ acres of the Gruene Estate, including all the historic buildings, and planned a housing development which included razing the old structures to build condominiums on the river bluff. Kaufman convinced the developers of the significance of the buildings in Texas history and with their blessing Kaufman worked to place Gruene on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975 as an entire district. The developers further agreed to let Kaufman find new owners interested in the old buildings for new commercial ventures which would provide a core for their new housing development. Pat Molak was among the first of the new owners and he worked to preserve the authentic, turn-of-the-century look and feel of Gruene by purchasing and repairing several of the town's most notable structures and transforming them into thriving businesses. These developments seemed to rekindle the spark of Gruene, and soon the town's familiar charm began to shine again. Gruene itself has been added to the National Register of Historic Places, and many of the buildings that were rescued have been awarded a Texas medallion from the Texas Historical Commission. It has also been recognized by the Texas travel industry as a premiere attraction for visitors, which is no surprise to its merchants and guests.

New Braunfels
As I mentioned before my children live in New Braunfels at one time the 4th largest city in Texas. New Braunfels is the starting location for a large German immigration in the mid-1840’s. Up to today the German culture is celebrated with an annual festival in November called the “Wurstfest”. Every December, the town celebrates “Wassailfest” in the historic downtown. Old German is still spoken by older people living in this area.

New Braunfels draws a large number of tourists, particularly in the summer because of the cold-spring rivers that run through the city. Many generations of families and college students return every summer to tube for miles down the Guadalupe and Comal rivers. New Braunfels is the site of the original water park, the “Schlitterbahn Water Park Resort” where our granddaughter Kristin works as a lifeguard in the summer.

New Braunfels was established in 1845 by Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels, Commissioner General of the Adelsverein, also known as the Noblemen's Society (in German: Mainzer Adelsverein). Prince Solms named the settlement in honor of his home of Solms-Braunfels, Germany. The Adelsverein organized hundreds of people in Germany to settle in Texas. Immigrants from Germany began arriving at Galveston in July 1844. The immigrants traveled inlands along the Guadalupe River and stopped near the Comal Springs. Prince Solms bought two leagues of land from Rafael Garza and Maria Antonio Veramendi Garza for $1,111.00. The land was located northeast of San Antonio on El Camino Real de los Tejas and had the strong freshwater from the Comal Springs. The city is situated along the Balcones Fault, where the Texas Hill Country meets rolling prairie land. Along the fault in the city, a string of artesian springs known as Comal Springs give rise to the Comal River, which is known as one of the shortest rivers in the world, as it winds only 3 miles through the city before meeting the Guadalupe River.

The Guadalupe River
Our campground is along the Guadalupe River and every weekend it attracts many visitors who make yearly reservations or months before they arrive. The Guadalupe River runs from Kerr County, Texas to San Antonio Bay on the Gulf of Mexico. It is a popular destination for rafting, fly fishing, and canoeing. Larger cities along it include Kerrville, New Braunfels, Seguin, Gonzales, Cuero, and Victoria. It has several dams along its length, the most notable of which, Canyon Dam which forms Canyon Lake northwest of New Braunfels. The lower part begins at the outlet of Canyon Lake, near New Braunfels. The section between Canyon Dam and New Braunfels is the most heavily used in terms of recreation. It is a popular destination for whitewater rafters, canoeists, kayakers, and tubing. When the water is flowing at less than 1,000 cubic feet per second there could be hundreds if not thousands of tubes on this stretch of it. At flows greater than 1,000 cubic feet per second, there should be very few tubes on the water. Flows greater than 1,000 cubic feet per second and less than 2,500 cubic feet per second are ideal for rafting and paddling. The flow is controlled by the Canyon Dam, and by the amount of rainfall the area has received.

The river's conditions can change rapidly. Its flow is set by the dam at Canyon Lake and operated by the Army Corps of Engineers. It is highly regulated and well maintained to ensure safety. It is, however, prone to severe flooding. During the rainy seasons the water can reach well above the banks and exceed "normal" levels, in which case it can become life threateningly dangerous due to swift currents. If the flow gauge exceeds 1,000 cubic feet per second at the Sattler Gage, it is generally considered by local authorities as too dangerous for recreational purposes for all except expert kayakers and/or whitewater rafters. On October 31, 2013, the part in New Braunfels rose from 74 cubic feet per second to 33,500 cubic feet per second in one hour and fifteen minutes due to locally heavy rainfall.

The river gained national attention on July 17, 1987 when a sudden flash flood swept a bus full of children away at a low water crossing. The tragedy occurred near the town of Comfort, Texas, which lies about 50 miles northwest of San Antonio. While most of the buses evacuating 300 children managed to make it across, one bus was swept away with 4 adults and 39 children, ranging in age from 8 to 17. Rescuers from the Texas Department of Public Safety and the US Army's 507th Medical Division managed to save all 4 adults and 29 of the children via helicopters. The body of a 17-year-old boy was never found.

The camp ground we are on was evacuated in middle of May this year which is not uncommon with heavy rain. On 3 locations in the camp ground water meters are placed to measure water level with a siren if water flows over the ground. We hope that this will not happen during the remainder of the summer so we can concentrate on getting healthy again and return to “Island Girl” to continue our Caribbean adventures.