Day: 81- 84
Date: 22/06 – 25/06
City: Modesto, California
Miles ridden: 0
Cumulative miles: 6897

I had a doctor’s appointment in the morning. I got the stiches removed (ouch!) and an x-ray taken. The doctor was happy with the outcome but I shouldn’t lift anything heavy with the left hand, and I should avoid being pillion for at least the next two weeks. *sigh*
That means that we will have to rent a car again which will stretch our budget. The doc said that I could ride the motorbike again about 6-8 weeks  after the operation.
Well at least I finally got a cast fitted. I could pick a colour, cool! I picked fluorescent pink, so that at least cars and trucks could see me at night 😛
The colour on the package was fluorescent pink; the final colour was unfortunately slightly less bright.

After the appointment we dropped off the car and met up with Tony, Pat and Keith in the afternoon. Tony is a friend of Pat and Keith, and Pat was the Ambulance driver who ensured that Sigrid could follow the ambulance at night to the second hospital. She hooked us up with Tony, since Tony is also rides motorcycles and has good connections to the motor cycle community in the valley. So we met in the hotel lobby and talked about our and Tony’s adventures, and about what happened with the bike at the accident. Tony is a riding instructor and Keith is a motorbike mechanic, so we had a lot to talk about. We were picking Tony’s brain, since he frequently went on motorcycle holidays in Mexico. The evening ended when Pat had to go to work. I really enjoyed the evening, thank you SO MUCH guys!

(above, Bjoern, Sigrid, Pat, Tony and Keith)

The next couple of days were relatively relaxing. We did our planning for the next four weeks and looked at multiple options for the rest of the trip. It looks like we are renting a car for the next eleven days, go back to Bryce Canyon and see if we get accommodation booked at the Grand Canyon. If the accommodation doesn’t work out, then we have a look at all the other parks around.
On Sunday at 14:00 we were invited to a Native American Flute circle by Pat. Below is a group picture, with Pats help we got the names of the people present

From left to right:

Jeffrey “Zone” McFarland Johnson Cellist, Cal and Cheryl Haupt of the blues band Rhythm Deluxe, Michele “Two Feathers” Turpin, resident artist Katrina, the newest member Larry “Moon Rider” Burns with ukelele Lynn Wrench, an original member and potter Dan “Noisy Bear” Ricketts, founder, instructor, board of directors for the Flute Portal Rex Gideon, my tech advisor and frequent YouTube performer Pat, off duty paramedic at the keyboard

The music was a mixture out of Indian flutes, keyboard, ukulele, cello and drums. In the beginning two of the flute players each played one particular song casually with the keyboard played by Pat providing the background music. The music group was joined a bit later by Jeffrey,the cello player when the rehearsal took on an even better sound. After a short interval filled with conversation, cookies and fruit, a jam session started with players drifting in and out. For me that was the first time that I was listening live to such an impromptu performance. It was amazing!! During the last song a woman started singing. I couldn’t get over it, she was just sitting there and singing casually but the whole room was filled with her voice. That, together with the flutes and the piano was ready for a stage performance! All of the musicians were a joy to listen to, Sigrid and I enjoyed it very much.

Thanks everyone for playing and special thanks Pat for inviting us!