The patient...21 day post surgery update

At this writing, Friday, February 23 Karen is cooking in the kitchen, with no walker and no cane. Pretty amazing to think she had her right hip replaced 3 weeks ago to the day. Her last appointment for physical therapy will be on Monday, February 26 before we leave Bushnell, Florida. She has printouts of all the exercises she needs to continue to do daily. My only observation is a continued high right hip posture, but I think much of that is just habit from almost three years of dealing with the chronic hip and knee pain she dealt with prior to the hip being replaced. One more Post Op exam with the orthopedic office is scheduled for March 18 before we leave the state.

Monday we travel back to KARS Park, Merritt Island, Kennedy Space Center, FL for at least two weeks this time. We were there last year on April 17, 2023 for seven days to visit the area. This park is for NASA employees, their families and active/retired military personnel and their families. Located on the Banana River, it has great views of the launch pads across the water. The RV park has 20 sites right on the water for only $30/night; all other sites are $20. There's no sewer service on any site but they have a central dump station. They are also re-doing the main bathrooms and showers. I was eligible because I'm a member of the US Coast Guard Auxiliary.

While we are there, on March 1 at 12:04 AM, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch a Crew Dragon spacecraft on the program’s 13th flight with astronauts. The Falcon 9’s first stage booster will return to land at Landing Zone 1 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, and Jeanette Epps along with Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin will launch on this Crew Dragon spacecraft to begin a six-month expedition on the International Space Station. The Crew Dragon will pick up an earlier crew who have been living at the Space Station and return to a splashdown at sea off the coast of Florida. This mission has been delayed from Feb. 22 and 28.

We are hoping to see a beautiful night launch and landing of the Falcon 9 first stage booster while we are camping. We look forward to more time exploring Cape Canaveral/Cocoa Beach and the surrounding area including a day trip up to St. Augustine. We are staying in this part of Florida until March 19 so I can get a dental filling in Melrose before we travel to Eglin Air Force Base for three nights. March 22 we will celebrate Karen's birthday in the Florida panhandle. Hopefully her cousin Gary, who lives nearby, can join us.

From Florida we will travel Interstate 10 through Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana back to Texas just in time for April 8, 2024, when a total solar eclipse will cross North America, passing over Mexico, the United States, and Canada.