In Between Hurricanes

September 29, 2010

Hey Bruce and Deb, on vacation in Port-u-gall,



Our weather in Abaco was PERFECT and, as Bruce predicted, HOT.





The only day I dried off with a towel from the shower on the deck was the early morning that we left. Before Spell-check did you also believe that you were a good speller? Well, dried is a complicated word.

We had no problems whatsoever except for nearly missing our connection in Newark. It's in New Jersey.



It's so much nicer in the Bahamas, where they load and unload on the tarmac -- so much better than those enclosed connectors!







We have our photos back today. Sandy has a perfect one of your house, late in the day, with the moon in the background. I am sure that Sandy will mail you some.



I have picked out my favorites and will ask Kezia to put them in a blog that I will send to you and the whole world probably next week.


Above, Gumbo Limbo is the name of a type of tree. Ted Williams had them on his property in Florida.

Tomorrow Kezia and Chris will be married for 10 years and Sandy and I for 43. So we are busy. Sandy and I met 50 years ago so it is really longer for us. Sandy says it feels way longer than that. I think she means that in a good way.

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There was a full moon when we were there on Thursday.

Only saw one person the whole week on the beach. But we did see her twice. The ocean water had to be in the high 80s, approaching 90. I know water temperature from being in the swimming pool business for 40 years. We have rated the beach "the best white and pink sand beach we have ever seen."





















You can see the next cay south, Scotland Cay, in this picture:



Sleeping at night with the wind blowing through the bedrooms was a real treat. We didn't even turn on the fans until Hurricane Igor calmed down with the wind and waves he was creating on his way to Bermuda. We never used the AC.

We listened nearly every morning at 8:15 over that walkie talkie-type telephone, to all the news of the day. We ourselves had a plan of the day (an old Navy term), which never really developed into anything exciting, except we did clean the beach a few times.



Oh yah, and our sand castles were pretty astounding.



Well to us they were. Okay to me they were.

Sunday was Talk Like A Pirate Day and they sure had fun with that, Matey. Arrrrrrrr! Well, shiver me timbers.











We loved the lobster and mahi mahi, until we found out that it was dolphin. My $22 dollar pizza at Grabbers was almost worth it. Love the local KALIK beer and even the Sands Beer, a bargain at $60.00 per case. Wow!



I wish I could have brought back some of Ruthie’s Hot Sauce. The guy in front of me at customs in Marsh Harbor lost his -- and his bottle of rum and his three bottles of sun tan lotion. Do you know the size bomb you can make with Ruthie’s and the sun tan lotion alone? Just Ruthie’s and one shoe could be powerful.


The above photo was taken at Roll's store, the only shop at the Marsh Harbor airport. The airport building itself is not that much bigger.

We cooked in way more than we thought we would, because only Nippers was open all week and the wind from Igor was blowing the lettuce off of our salads. It really was.







We always ate on the screened-in porch, which was lovely and cool.



The bartender at Nippers was married to a girl from Denmark and quit his job. It was a pirate wedding the Saturday that we arrived. This pirate was the groom.



Jackie and her daughter were nice enough to leave the wedding long enough to drive us by golf cart to your hideaway.



The hammica actually had instructions. In all my years in Mexico, I never knew you were supposed to lie sideways, as I am doing correctly in this photo.


Check out the old Panama ship life preserver!

I enjoyed the hammica and tried not to touch any poisonwood trees.



Thanks for the warning.

On the wall, by itself, is a large turtle shell, probably 5 feet long. It must have a story.



The people there are really warm and friendly, but some of the white ones look alike and not in a good way. I talked to at least five black Bahamians and asked them about their family history, which has to be good stuff compared to mine. Only Roll -- at the only place to shop at Marsh Harbor Airport -- knew further back than his grandmother and grandfather. He knew that his great grandparents were slaves and that they came from Africa. I did speak to Sampson, a Haitian who has been there for seven years and knows how very lucky he is to be there.

The couple of hundred black and white feral cats living all over the island all looked the same, and that was spooky.

We have hundreds of questions about how you built the house over a five-year period. The work is impeccable and the house is perfect. REALLY PERFECT.

Where are the shore birds? The frigates weren't flocking. Where were the seagulls, the pelicanos, or the black birds that land on restaurant tables -- like on Isla Mujeres, where they open and eat the white sugar packets but never the azul Nutri-Sweet ones. We did see one plover. We saw one on another day, but I know it was the same one.


Could this be a heron?

I read a book from one of your bookshelves that your Dad gave you in 1983 -- on the Bahamas. Other than a week spent, years ago, in Eleuthera, Harbor Island and Spanish Wells, I knew no history at all and really nothing about the 1,000 or so other islands of your Bahamas. It was an interesting history, especially about one of the cays, Man-O-War Cay, that listed among its vocations ship building, cotton and DRUG RUNNING.

While there, Sandy and I both read a book written by Paul Newman's best friend. Did you know that they both visited Guana Cay -- I mean Key? We enjoyed your library.

We read and napped a lot.



I started to read the biography of the writer from Columbia who wrote 1,000 Years of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez) and was loving it until we had to leave for home.But I did manage to purchase myself a copy for $4.95 from my bookseller in Connecticut.

Any potential renters can call us, and we will praise it to the hilt. What is a hilt? Glad we missed all the rain (5-10 inches on September 29), and NO I don't think that there was a hurricane along with it.

Thank you for renting it to me and my pirate crew: Sea Urchin Sandy, Honest Eileen, Terrible Tom, and meself, Bahama Bob. Arrrrrrrr!









By Bob Bacon

I Love the V.A.

When you think of the Veteran's Administration of the United States of America you don't get a warm and fuzzy feeling, do you?

I do.

My first time there, in Brockton Massachusetts:

"What's your name?”

“Last four of your Soash?"

“Huh?” Social Security number!

I was weighed. "Same weight as 1963?" And then asked a battery of around 100 questions.

“When did you serve?”
“Where did you serve?”
“What branch?”
“Did you see combat?”
“How much alcohol do you drink daily?”
“More than 5?”
“Do you use drugs?”
“Have you ever been sexually assaulted?”
“Any mental problems?”

Then I had a complete physical. And I mean complete. Up to floor #4 for eight (my favorite number) for 8 . . . hmmm . . . xrays. Down to floor #2 for urine and blood samples. Floor #1 for photo ID and I am at liberty to leave -- but not before hearing at every step of the way, "Thank you for serving."

The whole process took two hours and 15 minutes. I wait that long for my regular primary care physician for one appointment.

I love going there. They do not talk on cell phones. Everyone wears a service ball cap, NONE OF THEM BACKWARDS, showing which branch of the armed services they were part of -- Marines, Air Force, Navy, Navy Seals, Green Berets, Seabees, Army, Army Paratroopers.

Speaking of paratroopers – yah, they jump out of moving airplanes -- my friend Rich Busa, who was a paratrooper in Korea, just had his cataract surgery. At 81 years old he now has 20/20 vision. He was the one who first turned me on to the VA.

With my VA card I save 10% at Lowe’s and Home Depot. We are working on BJ's. Any prescription for one month costs $9. They went up from $8 recently. I overheard one vet say his prescriptions were costing him $210 per month. The VA person responded, "Well now they will cost you $9.00 per month. And you can get 3 months at a time by mail, no big deal.”

I have high blood pressure BUT PERFECT CHOLESTEROL and they are treating me with pills which are creating side effects. My wife Sandy was recently cured of her high blood pressure by acupuncture. I asked if I could be treated with acupuncture. The VA submitted my “outside of the VA” request and now I have 8 . . . hmmm . . . acupuncture treatments scheduled outside of the VA. I love the VA!

Faith restored.
Bacon Robert F. CEW2 USN Seabee's 693-10-63

My service number.
10 signifies the month.
63 signifies the year that I joined up.
It was October 1963, right before President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Where were you? In college?
Personally, I had NO idea what to do with my own life.
Were you in Viet Nam already? You had already served in Korea or even WWII? In high school or not even born yet? Possibly not even thought of yet?

Did I mention that they ALWAYS say, "Thanks for serving?"

The Inn (La Posada)

One of Sandy’s clients was visiting The Southwest for two weeks. She and her husband were attending a seminar in Santa Fe, and then going down to the three Hopi mesas in Arizona to visit a friend who works on the reservation.




Hopi

The client knew that we had been to this area many times, and asked Sandy what they should do and see, and where to eat.



On their own, they found La Fonda Hotel, Loreto Chapel, Taos, El Morro and Acoma Pueblo. Sandy said, among many other things, "Have lunch at La Posada Hotel in Winslow, Arizona -- and sleep over." Emphasis on SLEEP OVER.



Yes it is the same “Winslow, Arizona” that the Eagles sing about. Experienced travelers to this area always stay a night at La Posada.


Apache

The wife drove while the husband complained about traveling so far out of the way for lunch at a hotel in some small western town. But you guessed it. They were both blown away by the hotel and the food. The husband had to be pulled away to the next destination. They will go back.



Kathy and Charles of Albuquerque, thank you again for taking us to this treasure so long ago. Sandy and I have been back a number of times, and Kezia and Chris, and Tom and Eileen, have been there since. When you go, Bob's World Reader, let us know how much you loved it.

p.s. Santa Fe had a big festival going on, and the travelers kept trying to get into Tia Sophia's for lunch, but the line was always long down San Francisco Street. But did they get to Jackalope? Next time.



Also go to Canyon de Chelly. The Spaniard asked the Navajo "What's the name of this beautiful place?" The Navajo replied, "Chelly (pronounced "shay")," which means "canyon" in Navajo. So the Spanish named it Canyon de Chelly, or in English, "Canyon the Canyon."


Canyon de Chelly. Look closely for petroglyphs of Spanish Conquistadors.