We got up fairly early for a travel day, but we had things to do. After my normal breakfast, I plugged in the electricity so we could run our Dyson DC24 vacuum. J vacuumed the floors then I vacuumed/dusted everything else. It was nice to suck up all of the dust we had been accumulating. We could have run our generator to get enough electricity to run the vacuum cleaner while boondocking, but neither of us likes vacuuming when it's hot like it had been. It was nice and cool up in the mountains this morning. I called my mother, and while I had her on the phone so I could get all of her information, I went to the online Apple Sore and ordered her an iPad 3G, iPad Camera Connection Kit, Apple Wireless Keyboard, and AppleCare for the iPad. She was thrilled! After we were done, I went into the gallery to get the schedule so I could set up dates to sit and the inventory book so see what I've sold recently. Then we prepped the RV to move. J left in the Jeep to go to McDonald's for take-away, and I left in the RV round 9:45 to go ...

To City Park in Idaho Springs to use their dump station. Because the parking area slopes significantly, I got out our two ramps made from Lynx Levelers tie-wrapped in place and that's when things got exciting. I got out the first ramp and placed it on the curb around the dump drain. Then I got out the other ramp and placed it on top of the first. Because the stack was going to be precariously balanced on the curb, I reached down with my right hand to stabilize the stack. As I was putting down the second ramp and reaching down, the ramp unexpectedly rebounded and smashed into my right thumb. I was shocked, and my thumb hurt like crazy. I didn't know if it got jammed, got overextended, or got dislocated — it all happened so fast. I put out the ramps, leveled the RV as best as I could, then dumped, all more or less one handed. Then I put away the ramps and hooked up the Jeep to tow. By the time I was done all that, my right hand had swollen up significantly and the pain wasn't going away, so J looked into an urgent care facility where we could go We stopped at McDonald's on the way out of town so we could pick up some crushed ice, then got underway around 10:30.

We headed east on I-70.

We went to the St. Anthony Health Center in Evergreen at 10:50. J filled out the paperwork because my right hand was virtually useless and I'm right-handed. We waited for a while, then an assistant took me back to get my vitals, then I waited in an examination room with J. After quite a while, a very good physician's assistant came in and carefully, and with minimal discomfort, determined where I had damage my thumb — around the first metacarpal bone. She scheduled an X-ray to see if it was broken, and I waited. I also thought that it might be easier to amputate my thumb than to have a damaged one that was so painful. I got the X-ray taken, then waited for the results. Amputation started to sound like a great option. J went out to the RV to get my water bottle and some Clif Bars around 1:25. The physician's assistant came while J was out, said my thumb wasn't broken, then showed me the X-rays. The bones did in fact look intact. So, I just had a bad sprain, with an emphasis on "bad." I ate the Clif Bars while waiting for a nurse to bring in some braces for me to try. One of the braces wasn't too bad and two others would have been like torture devices had I tried them on completely. I decided to go without a brace — the most comfortable option. We returned to the RV and J helped me wrap my hand in ice, and we finally left around 2:10!

We continued heading east on I-70.

We went to the King Soopers in Denver at Sheridan and 38th St around 2:50. I went in to pick out a few things then returned to the RV to wait while J finished shopping. After she finished, we filled up the RV at $2.569/gal using a 3¢/gal discount — we hadn't quite bought the requisite $100 worth of groceries so we'd qualify for a 10¢/gal discount. :( We left around 3:40.

We took I-25 north.

We went to RV America in Loveland at 4:40 to pick up some cord to fix our shades. We also picked up a new umbilical cord and some Unique RV Digest-It bacterial holding tank treatment. We left around 4:55.

We went to Johnson's Corner, a truck stop practically next door, to load up on fresh water for the RV. We left around 5:20.

We stopped at the WalMart in Timneth around 5:35. It's a nice new store very convenient to the interstate! We left around 6:20.

We got on CO-14 heading east, and the strong wind from the north was a mess.

We entered the Pawnee National Grassland and took some county roads to a boondocking spot not too far from where we had photographed some Swift Foxes in 2007. We set up camp and had a decent Verizon Broadband internet access signal.

We had dinner around 7:55 of leftover (frozen) salmon, long grain and wild rice, green beans, and fresh strawberries. It was tasty, and eating left handed wasn't too bad. J did the dishes and I iced my hand some more.

I had some Asbach Uralt, and a little more than usual for medicinal purposes, while checking email and doing some work online.