Happy Fourth of July

We have washed up in St. Joseph, Michigan, a smallish resort town in southwestern Michigan. By boat we are only 52 miles from Chicago, almost due west across Lake Michigan. Of course, nothing is easy in boating. You can't just head west and arrive in Chicago. You have to pick a weather window so Lake Michigan won't kick your butt. When we arrived in St. Joe the weather was not cooperating. The forecast looked bad for days to come, so we decided to rent a car and visit Jim's daughter and grandkids at their lake house in Monticello, IN, only 100 miles from here.  As soon as we picked up the car, the weather changed. Oh well.

After we got back from Monticello, we were treated to a full day of rain, which brought us to July 3. We could have left then for Michigan City, IN, but that would have had us arriving in Chicago on Thursday, July 4. If you've been reading along with this trip, you know that we generally don't like moving the boat on weekends. And we really don't like the combination of weekends, holidays, and large cities with lots and lots of watercraft of all sizes and descriptions.  So we decided to sit here through the holiday and start moving again at the start of next week.

This picture gives you some idea of why we don't like to travel on weekends. This was a not particularly nice weekend day in the entrance channel at St. Joseph, Michigan.

St. Joe weekend boaters

Just to spice things up a bit, I broke my hand last weekend. Going down a set of steps, I missed one. I threw out my hand to stabilize myself and ended up hitting something hard with the side of my hand. I broke the 5th (small finger) metacarpal (the bone between your knuckle and your wrist) in my left hand, and, yes, I am left-handed. I am entombed in a removable cast from two inches below my wrist all the way through to the tips of my last two fingers. Fortunately, I throw docking lines with my right hand, so the broken hand hasn't gotten in the way of boating. Eating, writing, etc., those are the challenging tasks.

My removable hand cast

I've only broken two bones in my life and both happened while we were on the boat in small towns where we knew no one. In both cases I got really lucky with the local medical options. With this last incident we were in South Haven, MI. There was a local cab service (not as common as you might think) to take us to the urgent care clinic run by the local hospital (also not all that common in these small towns). Turns out that this hospital is the regional center for orthopedic issues. Even better, when the nurse practitioner at the urgent care clinic wanted to send me to an orthopedic surgeon to evaluate the break (at 5:45 PM), it was the ortho doc's night to work until 7:00 PM. The whole process, from call the cab to return home in a cast took less than 3 hours.

Enjoy your barbecues and fireworks. When next you hear from us, we'll be through Chicago and headed to the Mississippi River.