After a three week hiatus, we are now back aboard Big Frisky and ready to move. We spent three weeks in Cleveland for my son’s open heart surgery and release from the Cleveland Clinic.

The surgery resulted in a successful mitral valve re-replacement and implementation of a pacemaker for our 24 year old son, Cliff. Time at hospital was very stressful, but it was also a remarkable time together as a family. Fifteen Jaenicke-Anderson-Pyles hung out together in the surgical waiting room for eight hours until the surgery was complete and we were finally able to see Cliff. Recovery from open heart surgery is slow and painful but we are all inspired by Cliff’s positive attitude. Cliff’s prognosis is for 100% recovery and improvement even over his previous totally active lifestyle.

We divided our time in Cleveland between the hospital and our hotel room at La Quinta Inn. While I focused my time at the hospital, the Captain was at work getting ready for the next leg of our cruise, including putting together supplies for our off shore medical kit and ditch bag, including flares. He also took an online course in navigation. I admit to being not much help in any of this preparation, but I did review the list of medical supplies and suggested a few additional necessities.

As ready as we were to leave the hospital in Cleveland, getting out of town proved to be a challenge. We were in Erie Pennsylvania when Kurt turned to me and asked if I remembered to get the bonsai tree: our beloved piece of foliage from Big Frisky we brought with us to care for. The three week burden of stress and worry about the surgery and its outcome came to bear and I burst into tears. While I took a break at the rest stop the captain knew he was faced with a difficult decision; track back two hours to retrieve the bonsai tree and start over, or endure a weepy first mate for at least the next eleven hours back to Quebec. The bonsai tree was sitting right there on La Quinta Inn counter when we got there. They even watered it for us.

Big Frisky was in excellent condition when we arrived back. We immediately began to get ready for our departure with laundry, defrosting the fridge/freezer, provisioning and storing newly acquired medical and safety supplies.

We spent a good part of our drive back working on our French and we were determined to try it out every chance we got. Before we returned the rental car we went grocery shopping and visited Canadian Tire-which has everything! The “coup de gras” was when we went through the drive through at McDonalds where Kurt successfully ordered and paid for two fountain diet cokes completely in French! We will take our victories where we find them.