Up and running early this morning. Had to be over to the dentist office by 9:00 in order to get two of my 50+ year old fillings replaced, as well as have a new crown placed on one of my back molars. But sometimes life just doesn't go the way you might want it to. They wanted to do the crown first before doing anything else, so I hopped up in the chair and got tipped nearly upside down in it. When they went to fit the new piece in there though it seemed that one corner of it just wouldn't fit down on the old tooth the way it was suppose to. The dentist and her assistant both took it out multiple times and worked on it with some abrasive tools, but it just wasn't going to go on the way everybody, including me, wanted it to.
   So on to stage two. They took an additional impression of the remaining tooth and contacted the lab that they use to make them. They said they could be out to pick it up in less than an hour and have it done  by next Tuesday, Wednesday at the latest. So on that piece of the plan they will just wait and call me when it comes in, and then do it as soon as I can get there.
   They did manage to redo the two fillings however. They first numbed up both sides of my mouth and then went in and ground out all of the old filling. I guess they use to undercut the tooth enamel a bit when doing metal fillings in order to give it some additional mechanical leverage to hold it in. It must of worked as all of mine were done back when I was 6-8 years old, and these are the first two to fail in any way. Once done with the grinding the assistant went ahead and started laying in the new filling material. Not exactly sure what it is, but it comes out of a tube gun similar to caulk, but smaller, and then is hardened by exposure to visible light from this little dental flashlight thingy. A few layers of that stuff and then some final sanding and filing on them to even it all out.  No real problems over all because of the numbing shots they gave me prior to the work. It was quite humorous however when they asked me to go into the bathroom and use a cup to really rinse my mouth out and found out that my mouth no longer worked.
     So another couple of days here that I didn't plan on, but I am sure there will be things I can find to do to fill up my time. In the meantime I came home and took a nice long nap because the Novocaine, or what ever they use, was starting to wear off and it was making me sleepy. I was also discovering that all that noise and burning smell coming from my teeth while they ground away at them meant that they were actually doing something.... and now it was starting to hurt. A few aspirin and a couple hours of sleep, and I'm now up feeling much better.
    Finished up the rest of the river trip pictures this afternoon and evening and they are posted below. It really was a marvelous trip and if you haven't seen the rest of the pictures please feel free to go back to the previous 3 posts and check them out.

Green River Canoe Trip - Aug/Sept 2014 - Part 4

Early morning on the Green. It is already hot enough out that we all seek out the shady side of the river when there is one. The early morning light is rather magical.

The river was very high this year, more than 10 times what it has been on other trips. As a result of heavy rains upriver it was even more full of silt than usual, as well as been quite cold when you first get in. But with temps in the high 90's everyone went in on a regular basis. Playing in the mud was just an added benefit.

A new style of braid for Rima.

Already enough sun on the trip to give her hair natural highlights.

Once the sun dropped behind the cliffs and it cooled off a bit there was always time for reading, playing cards or what ever. We are after all on vacation.

Evening on the river.

Our last day of paddling on the river, we would actually be staying in the same campsite tomorrow, but this is it for canoeing. We have already passed the confluence of the Green and Colorado rivers about 3 miles up stream. We are headed for an area known as Spanish Bottoms. The last spot on the Colorado you can boat in open canoes before you hit Cataract Canyon. The formations on the top of the cliffs are part of what is known as the Doll House. It's a nice hike up to them from down here on the river, but no one did it this year, choosing instead to hike up another trail on the east side of the river where we camped.

Tom playing one of his flutes. He really is quite good at it these days, sounding, to my ear at least, as good as some of the professional players I've heard CD's of.

This is the morning view out of the tent. Can it get any better than this?

Looking down river from our last camp spot at Spanish Bottoms. At the next corner is the first real rapid of Cataract Canyon. You could hear it day and night from our camping spot.

 

While sitting on the bank the night before the wind started to blow. It only lasted a little while but it managed to blow sand into everything, including my camera. I have cleaned it up as well as I can now and it does still seem to work, but I don't think my one telephoto lens will ever work like it use to. Anyway; this is the pile I emptied out of the boat when we took everything out in preparation for being picked up by the jet boat.

 

All of our gear and canoes cleaned, consolidated and stacked in preparation for Tex's Waterways jet boat to pick us up. We do seem to have a lot of gear, but we always have it neatly stowed and ready to go.

While waiting for the boat 'Mud Puppy' Marge had to take one last float.

All cleaned up and no where to go.



On the boat with a bunch of other boaters Tex's picked up on the same day. We're doing about 35 mph at the moment.

We have about 48 miles of the Colorado River to boat back up. With their new engines in the boat that trip now takes less than two hours to do. The scenery is still pretty nice along the way.

Looking forward you can see that the canoes and other boats are all stowed on top of the boat while all of the gear is up in front of us all.

One stop along the way for people to get out and go potty. I always like this rock because it always has a new piece of driftwood up on it somewhere. Can you imagine how much additional water would be flowing in order to flood over the top of that rock.

Looking at some of the boats tied on at the back of the boat.

We take out at a place called Potash, about 18 miles from Moab. All the people get off here but the gear and boats stay on the jet boat until we get back into town. The whole thing is loaded onto this huge trailer and carted into town. The boat actually climbs up onto the trailer using it's engines and then it stays in gear and pushing until the truck actually pulls it up out of the water. I guess there was one time when the truck started to slide backwards into the river, so now they just make sure.

A look at the boat on the trailer.

My geekiness made me take a picture of the new engines they put in the boat last year. They made it faster, easier to turn and also they burn less fuel. Pretty cool stuff.

Back at the outfitters they have brought all of our vehicles out to the front and parked them for us. When the boat finally pulls in we all help unload it in the parking lot and start to load up our own cars. I really admire their system, it just works so well.

Packing up the truck so we can head out of there. Once packed we headed over to a local hotel for the night and for a much needed shower. At least 4 layers of my sun tan rinsed right down the drain with that first shower. But there was still plenty left there. After cleaning up we all headed to a local restaurant for food and cold beverages. Ice cold beer sure does taste good after nearly two weeks of merely cool drinks. The next day we headed back to Colorado and the end of a wonderful trip.

brk*