LOVERN'S SURGERY IN THE ROCKIES

It was hard to find a good park in or near Denver. We finally found one south of Denver in Englewood. The spinal clinic and hospital were north of Denver, fourteen miles. The doctor discovered that the openings in my lower vertebrae were too small and pressing on nerves. Reluctantly, I agreed to surgery for ‘decompression’. This involved an incision in my back and cleaning out the openings that turned out to have a lot of arthritis. I was only in the hospital overnight but cannot bend, lift (over ten pounds) or twist for five weeks. I have been slowly regaining strength and have gone from a shuffle to a stride. It is already better than before the operation.

We had a three-day reservation at a condo in Aspen and tickets to the music festival there only three days after the operation. I was determined to keep them. Less than a third of the way there, though, I had to admit I couldn’t make it and we had to turn around and return to Breckenridge.

We stayed a week at a beautiful park in Breckenridge, CO but got itchy tires and decided to head for the Sacramento Delta to look at used live-aboard houseboats. We have looked at all kinds of places hoping to find a place by water and realized that if we were in a houseboat would be right on the water. The plan is to a few months in the houseboat on the Delta and winters back in Arizona in our rig. We can still take our usual spring, summer and fall trips in the rig as well.

Our rig got a good test in mountains in CO, climbing to over 11,000 feet. The trip across Utah and Colorado was beautiful with rosy cliffs and awesome canyons. A rare road sign stated, “Eagles on Road”. You don’t see that every day.

We are headed back to Charlie’s Service near Ogden for a couple more additions to the rig. Then it’s off toward Reno and the Sacramento Delta.