HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!

Today is my 66th birthday!  Here's what's been going on here in sunny Southwest Florida  the past seven weeks.  

On July 17 I had an arthroscopic rotator cuff repair on my left shoulder at the Florida Orthopedic Institute in Tampa.  The supraspinatus tendon had ruptured and the two ends retracted to their origin points.  I'm now 10 days post surgery and things are going well.  Mr. Wonderful has truly been a wonderful caregiver and I'm so blessed for that.  He's becoming quite domestic and is even cooking. 

I've been able to sleep all night in bed this past week, rather than in a recliner, which makes all the difference in the world.  We've been out and about every day which also lifts my spirits.  I also have an ice therapy machine that is so helpful in treating an achy shoulder.  It's a sort of cuff that fits over the shoulder and cold water is forced into a bladder on the cuff that massages as it cools.  It's great.  I've had some home health care, including home exercises that I'm doing twice a day.  I'll see the surgeon on August 2 in follow-up.


Meanwhile, Ralph has been doing all sorts of household stuff, including taking care of me.  He opened the house and hired someone to come in and clean for us.  He repaired the AC in my car, replaced the garage opener and garage door -- now hurricane strength resistant to winds up to 165 mph, tons of yard work and his major undertaking, taking care of me. :)

Here are a few of today's photos:

Dinner at Iguana Mia --mmmm quesadillos

Farmer's Market at Cape Harbour

If you celebrate your birthday at Iguana Mia, you get to wear the birthday sombrero

Blowing out the candle on the deep fried ice cream

There's No Place Like Home!!

We're home in Cape Coral now!   Many thanks to dear friends, Ken and Darla (and Molly, too), for loaning us a car for our varied and sundry errands, chauffeuring Ralph to the airport to pick up the rental car on a 90 degree Saturday morning, and helping us pack up and schlep all our dolls and dishes to the rental car and helping to load it.    We never could have done it without ya'll!!  Arf! Arf! to Molly who kept us all laughing with her antics.

We drove 380 miles in 6 hours from Jacksonville to Cape Coral.  Early this morning, we returned the rental car to the Ft. Myers Airport on our way to church.  It's just good to be home!

I won't be blogging regularly for a while.  We'll see the shoulder surgeon in Tampa on Thursday and I'll post updates as things progress.  We'd surely appreciate your prayers for successful surgery and for helping us cope with our sadness walking into the house without our Striper.  It was really difficult for both of us.  I guess it will take a long time to heal the void in our lives without her.

Here are a few photos from the past couple days:

Friday we had dinner at Picasso's with my dear friend from kindergarten days, Milanie Hatfield.

Ken managed to get every single thing we packed into that Chevy Traverse SUV

Say Good-Bye in her hurricane covered slip at Lamb's on the St. John River

Darla, Ken & Molly

Molly likes to bite Ken's ears -- he turned the tables on her!

Once on the road, we could relax a bit

A friendly warning...but there's a cop 4-1/2 miles ahead

Entering Cape Coral

Pelican Boulevard -- almost home

Home Sweet Home

A summer shower while Ralph checks out the little Mako

Jacksonville, FL

We've finally arrived in Jacksonville, FL!  We traveled 94 miles today for a total of 1,103 miles in 21 days from Atlantic City, NJ to Jacksonville, FL.  We're washing and cleaning the boat and offloading our stuff the next couple days and leaving Say Good-Bye in Jacksonville in a covered slip for hurricane season.

We were met by our friends, Ken and Darla  and their little pup, Molly, on "Mosey" who helped us tie up. It's been a long day and the next two days will be work days for us.

 

Here are a few photos of today's travels:

 

Low tide

Looks like a military base

Some odd type of tug

Ft. Clinch on the Amelia River

Along the Amelia River, the dividing line between GA and FL

Paper mill near Fernandina Beach, FL

 Fernandina Beach Marina

 

Low tide

This dolphin swam along our starboard side today

Dolphin swimming on our starboard side

Sister's Creek

Sister's Creek Bridge marks the entry to the St. Johns River

The red boat shape is our boat -- the red line is our route

Lots of tugs and commercial ships

A tug and a barge

JAX Port Authority

South on the St. Johns River to Jacksonville

Jacksonville Landing

Times Union Building

Ortega Bridge

Lamb's Marina is through the railroad bridge

Ken (seated) met us and introduced us to his dock friends

Ken's friend's shirt reads:  "Detroit where the weak are killed and eaten..."  he and his wife grew up in Detroit.  The shirt made me laugh.

 

Brunswick, GA

The entire east coast is experiencing rain today, it seems.  We traveled 70 miles through areas named Doboy Sound, Sapela Sound, Old Kettle Creek, Atlamah Sound, and Little Mud River.  Early afternoon the rain stopped, the sky cleared and we had sunshine.  

 

We arrived at Hidden Harbor Marina in Brunswick, GA late afternoon.  We had stopped here on our way north a few months ago.  It was nice to see Kevin and Judith again -- this marina is immaculately kept and the owners are helpful and hospitable, even offering to take us to the grocery store or the post office.  We've been the recipients of many kind folks in our travels and are most appreciative of that.

Mickey picked us up for dinner and we shared lots of stories and laughs over salad and hot fudge sundaes at Applebee's.  

Here are a few photos from today:

Dinner with Mickey

Some whitecaps today in the open water

One-and-a-half mannequins from Woolworth's

Skies turning blue

Tonight's back yard -- Hidden Harbor Marina, Brunswick, GA

Savannah, GA

Before I begin, let me say I had difficulty posting the blog today.  Google has now added a "Title" feature.  Unless the blogger posts a title for the day,  an error comes up and you  cannot publish it.  Therefore, my title today is Savannah, GA.  Not very creative, but... 

Secondly, the font size varies throughout my post today.  I don't know why and I've tried to make it consistent...it still varies.  I would be happy if the folks at Google would not tweak so much or, at least give us the option to accept the new tweak or reject it.  <off of soap box>

Today we traveled 63 miles from Port Royal, South Carolina to Savannah, Georgia (that's Joejah if you live here.)  This makes a total of 940 miles we've traveled since we left Atlantic City, NJ on June 15.  

The weather today was hot and humid with intermittent showers and overcast skies.  We arrived at the Delegal Creek Marina in the early afternoon under threatening skies and rolling thunder.  Lola helped us tie up and when Ralph registered, she offered him the key to a golf cart should we need transportation to get into town which she said is about 3 miles away.   She also provided her cell phone number should we need anything after the marina office closes.    

We had torrential rain for over an hour and when it started to clear, I was making dinner and Ralph was taking a nap when Lola knocked on the boat and asked if we intended to use the golf cart.  I said no and returned the key and she said she was headed to the grocery store and would be glad to pick up anything we might need.  We were completely out of bread and nearly out of milk and she graciously picked them up for us.  This is above and beyond and we so appreciated her going the extra mile for us.  

Here are a few of today's photos:

This sand bar is marked by a buoy

Today we passed a fellow M.T.O.A.er

This looks like a sailing class or camp -- dinghy races

One of several marinas along our route

I like this view of the trees

Delegal Creek Marina, Skidaway Island

Not sure if this is a Sea Raymanufacturing plant or a distributorship

Isn't this just the best little beach for moms and little ones??

Tonight's back yard