Recovery, we believe is a process where everything with time heals all the wounds and you get a little better every day. The reality is more two steps forward and one step back or even one step forward and two steps back. Good days and bad days follow each other, but over time things start to improve. In my case the wound care was the big issue. After my second surgery the outside incision was enlarged so that the inside of the wound, about 3.5 inches deep, could be better packed. My family took care of my wound every other day, but then a wound center took over. It was great to be treated by these specialists and I felt a lot better once this part of the recovery was under control. After a couple of weeks the doctor was of the opinion that the wound was healing so well that Dorothy could take over the daily care. This worked fine until I got a major setback and the pain became again unbearable. My doctor was not available and a colleague in his practice gave me again a very heavy pain killer with my promise not to abuse it and advised to stop packing the wound as not to irritate the wound any further. After this episode the recovery went better and a couple of weeks later the doctor gave me even permission to start swimming again. During my last visit to the doctor he still found a small area where the wound did not want to heal and he irritated the area to stimulate the healing. I write this blog 3 days before our departure to Panama and I feel great and I am very excited to go back to Island Girl.

What else did we do during the close to 3 months stay in New Braunfels Texas? To be honest we did not do a lot of exciting things. The pain caused by the wound and the constant back pain reduced my desire for a lot of activities. But we took every morning a nice walk through the historic "City of Gruene". My son against all recommendations and advice started light training again and was very determined to go to the World Championship "Ironman 70.3" in Australia. We watched their house and four dogs and took two of them walking with us every morning. This walk takes about 1 hour and it became harder and harder for the oldest dog so we ended up walking only with one and to be honest our favorite called "Teddy". Teddy is a labradoodle, a crossbreed dog created by crossing the "Labrador Retriever" and the Standard, Miniature or Toy Poodle. So after I was allowed to start swimming again I had a busy morning program:
• 5:10 am waking up and driving to the swimming pool.
• 5:30 am swimming my 20 laps in Resolute Fitness Center
• 6:20 am arriving home and have some tea with a slice of "Mango Cranberry Almond Bread"
• 7:00 am start our walk to Gruene.
• 8:15 am shopping at HEB the largest Grocery Store chain in Texas.
• 9:00 am breakfast
Sounds boring, yes compared to the cruising life it may be, but we enjoyed it every morning and it helped me to regain some muscle strength.

Yes our son Robert went to Australia to participate in the World Championship Ironman 70.3. His bike was not repaired yet so we assumed he would only swim some distance and then bail out of the race. But no he bought a new bike in Australia for a price of $5.000.00 more than a KIA car displayed on the commercial of this bike and continued the race. He even completed the run and his total time far less than normal was 6:00:10 hours. He leaves on the same day as we will return to Panama for an Iron Man race in Hefei in China.

Like I always do on the boat and now on the RV I look for improvements and repairs. Two projects were very necessary with the extreme heat in the month of August in Texas. The A/C in the RV could not handle the daily 100 to 110 deg and around 4:00 in the afternoon it was 98 deg inside. So we bought two awnings for our slide-outs and our friends Kitty and Kurt did the installation. A professional installer installed a second A/C and I improved on the inside the insulation. These improvements took care of the temperature problems and living in our RV became very comfortable.
In my previous blog "Back in Texas" I wrote about our campsite along the Guadeloupe River. I wrote how dangerous the river can be when 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. This happened to us on the day our friends Kitty and Kurt installed our "Slide-out Toppers". At 11:00 in the evening we were awakened by the camp manager with the message from the police to evacuate the campground due to expected high water. With no truck to pull RV to higher ground and my son Robert with his truck on the coast, we called our friends Kitty and Kurt who came with their truck and pulled the RV to their property and after connecting it to water and electricity we went back to bed at 2:30 in the morning. We left the RV on their property until Robert and his family returned from Australia and went back to the campground. Summer season comes in the USA to an end after "Labor Day" the first Monday in September and we got a nice place on the campground for a reduced price.

My son Robert has on the Texas coast on the barrier island called "Mustang Island" in the city of "Port Aransas" a nice beach townhome, a 46 ft. deep water fishing boat and a Bass boat. Dorothy and I are not real fishing people but we love to spend time on the beach. We invited Kitty and Kurt to go with us for a couple of days and have a fishing trip offshore to the oil and gas rigs. Around these rigs is a great area for deep water fishing. Of course we took "Teddy" the labradoodle to join us for our morning beach walk and had a great time. It turned out that "Russell" Robert's captain of the deep water fishing boat is not only a good fishing captain but a great tour guide who entertained us daily with tours through the islands. Although it may not have been a great fishing success we all enjoyed the deep water fishing tour about 60 miles offshore in the area of a gas pump rig. We caught 2 large barracudas, but not a flying fish we all hoped for. On one of the old abandoned platforms Kitty and Kurt made a deep water dive, but the water was not as clear as we are used to in the Caribbean.

We made several trips in the Texas Hill Country and although we lived for over 21 years in Texas we are still overwhelmed by the beauty of the area. One of the major tourist attractions is Fredericksburg. Fredericksburg was founded in 1846 and named after Prince Frederick of Prussia. Old-time German residents often referred to Fredericksburg as Fritztown, a nickname that is still used in some businesses. The town is also notable as the home of Texas German, a dialect spoken by the first generations of German settlers who initially refused to learn English. Fredericksburg shares many cultural characteristics with New Braunfels, which had been established by Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels the previous year. Fredericksburg is the birthplace of Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz. On October 14, 1970, the Fredericksburg Historic District was added to the National Register of Historic Places in Texas.

Our grandchildren are growing fast and 2 of the 6 are already living independently and enjoying the lives of young adults. Our grandson Justin 23 years old now calls himself our "Grand Adult" instead of grandchild. Our grandson Jack 17 departed this week to the Philippines for a month to do some wake boarding with friends. Other trips are already planned for a year of fun before going to college. Kristin our 18-year-old granddaughter is in her senior year, has a part time job to be able to pay for the car Uncle Robert bought for her. Max attends middle school and started playing American Football and Dorothy and I went for the first time in our lives to an American Football game and saw Max scoring a touchdown. Our youngest granddaughter Katelynn 12 years is in the early stages of being a teenager and is a lot of fun to be with. These past 3 months were unique for us. We spend so much time with our children and grandchildren that this time saying goodbye will be very hard.

When I arrived in Houston from Panama on July 17 my daughter Dominique picked me up from the airport and took me to the hospital and stayed with me the entire time I was there. She took so good care of me. And now it is our turn to help her out. She fell last week and sustained a femoral head fracture spent 4 days in the hospital, needs to walk on crutches for at least 8 weeks. We needed to make some alterations in her bathroom at home to make it comfortable for her. She is doing better, but still has a lot of pain when she tries to do too much.

As good sailors we practiced to put the cover on our RV before leaving "a safe anchorage". On Monday our RV we call "Land Man" goes in Storage and we will return to "Island Girl". Instead of a paid storage facility "Land Man" will go to the property of a good friend and former co-worker Richard who has a ranch in St. Hedwig Texas. This town was founded by John Demmer in 1852 when he moved to the area from his native Silesia. In 1856 four more Silesians immigrated to the area and built the site's first Catholic Church, Annunciation. In 1860 a post office called Cottage Hill opened, but was later renamed St. Hedwig after the patron saint of Silesia. By 1868 the community had built a stone church, and in 1897 the town boasted 200 families mainly from Poland and Germany.

We are very anxious in which condition we will find "Island Girl" upon our return this week and we hope that she is in a good condition so we can continue our trip in the Caribbean and we will describe this in our next blog.