Category: Uncategorized

Dealing with internet issues is becoming a real drag….. almost seems like it’s getting worse as each day goes by. I keep trying more and more things, rebooting, trying different hot spots….. I don’t know if it’s me changing things up or just the internet being the mysterious little creature it is. I guess little is not the right word…. probably one of the biggest ‘things’ on the planet any more…… Any how, most of the time that I don’t post anything is because of internet issues. Seems like I catch small ‘bursts’ in it once in a while and I can actually get something to work (like right now).

Didn’t get a heckva lot done today other than find out that the local Credit Union will not let me pull money out of my account through them (from my account in the states)….. and they don’t have any ATM’s – so I must use local ATM’s and pay their handy dandy access fees. It’s only 3 bucks – but these crafty little beggars here have it set up, so you can only pull $200 at a time…. you can pull that $200 as many times as you want – but (you guessed it) you have to pay another $3 fee every time you do. Enterprising little so and so’s~~ I had gotten quite used to having very little cash on me, but here on the island – many places of business are having the same internet woes I am…… and when they don’t have internet, their card machines do not work, so you have to have cash on you just in case……. another handy little lesson you learn pretty quick. I have even seen them just shut down the Post Office, because of no internet~!

After we finally got some cash, we lit out for a small BBQ chicken stand I heard about. After a wee bit of exploring we stumbled across it. Stopped for a drink and to try out their fare…… We each got a Crown and Coke in a slightly larger than normal plastic cup. $24.00 please…… Ouch….. I had to ask again – I thought I misunderstood her….. I figured that must be some pretty special Crown [or Coke] right there…. but NOOooooooo…… wow…… we paid the lady and walked over to look at the menu …. not an impressive menu and the prices went right along with their drink prices… figuring if the drink was that unimpressive – the food was going to be to – so we finished our very unimpressive drink and headed for the bus. We wound up at Blues Backyard BBQ again….. that place just feels like home~ We each had a pulled pork BBQ sammich with creamy coleslaw on top. I don’t particularly like coleslaw on top of my BBQ (on a sammich) but since that’s how my Queen ordered hers, that’s how mine showed up. One of the other specials for the day was gumbo. Hell yeah I had to try it~! Sammiches were excellent and while the gumbo was not Louisiana quality (but then, what is?) – it was pretty darn good~! We stayed and chatted with some friends we’ve made there and each had 3-4 drinks – total was $52…… another reason we like that place….. good food, good drinks, good people and it’s dang reasonable~!

Well – thankx for checking in and bear with me while I work toward more reliable internet. Good night ya’ll~!

 

Trying to keep last nights post under novel length, I left out the part about a beautiful little beach we found on the way out to Point Udall yesterday. It looks like at one point it may have been a state operated facility, but it now looks like Maria had her way with the place, and it has been left to the wayside – at least for now. About a 1/2 mile of gorgeous sand beach with a beautiful view of Buck Island National park. A couple of pictures below that I took while we stood and admired the view. That is just one of the things I’m looking forward to discovering this island. Hidden little beaches like that, that you can have pretty much to yourself whenever you. It will be fun to be able to take family and friends who visit us to those kind of beaches, so they can have the entire beach to themselves if they want.

Buck Island National park is another area I am looking forward to exploring and getting to know. I have read a lot about it, but now want to romp and climb around on it and see it first hand. We have a lot of different places and attractions to check out as we begin to explore our new home. As I said earlier – it looks a lot like Southern Indiana in some spots – grass yards and pastures and many trees like the kind back in Indiana, it’s just these apparently never loose their leaves. Another tidbit of information I need to confirm.

Still haven’t made it into the water yet, snorkeling or SCUBA – but that’s coming soon enough. Still focusing mostly on finding a permanent place to live. That and getting over this damn cough. Locals are telling us “everybody” on the island has that cough now. They say it is a week or so to get over it. We had one local tell us about local remedy. I had to try it~! It is called Honeyman – Ingredients are: Honey, Bee pollen, Turmeric, Cayenne Pepper, Garlic, Ginger and cloves.  It actually does a pretty good job. You take a spoonful whenever coughing kicks back in (usually after about 2-3 hours) Only thing is – you have to take it……. and forcing it into your mouth becomes a challenge sometimes. It’s not quite thick enough to chew and just thick enough that swallowing it is a challenge, but swallowing it is definitely the least distasteful way to take it. A small bottle of it is $26.00 – but so far worth every penny…..

Super Bowl Sunday tomorrow. I have not watched a football game all season – not even a news clip.  I’ve been arguing with myself about watching the Super Bowl. I haven’t missed any Super Bowl games other than a couple of times in the military when I didn’t get to watch it because of an assignment. Decided that I would turn the game on and if any of those !@#$%^&*  take a knee during the Anthem – I’ll turn the game off or I’ll watch something else. To hell with them. (provided I get a signal strong enough to even get the game)

Good night ya’ll — thankx for stopping in~~~

Buck Island

Buck Island

Slept in yesterday after a busy day of shopping and running around, followed up by a whole set of cocktails after we got home. Watched a movie last night called Fences with Denzel Washington, that turned out to be nothing like we was expecting, but an interesting movie none the less. Had a nice hearty breakfast and ran out to finish up a couple of odds and ends from yesterday and decided we would once again see if we could find Point Udall. I had my handy compass pulled up this time so felt confident we would find it and away we went. Just as we were getting good and started, we saw a fun looking little place and decided we needed a drink and cigarette before we got fully underway. ‘Miriams’ .. a small Mexican place that smelled heavenly and had a nice looking bar. We ordered a drink and got into a conversation with a young lady there at the bar and were soon taking about places to live. She said she had a friend that had a place and would give her our number…. fingers crossed~! Halfway through the second drink, we met some visitors to the island (it’s nice to be able to say that) – and talked about how we up and sold everything and moved to St. Croix. Third drink and a couple more cigarettes and we decided we needed to move on down the road.

Jumped into the bus and away we went. Drove straight to it this time. Wow. Point Udall. Eastern most end of the U.S. Territories. Beautiful location on the [obviously] eastern end of the island, perched high on a hill top, mostly surrounded by some of the most beautiful blue water you ever saw. There is still some visible hurricane damage, but for the most part – they have it cleaned up pretty nice. I noticed right way, that there was not flag on the flagpole which saddened me (also thought the flag pole should be about twice as big a the one there) I found out later, there is no flag, because people keep stealing it and they can’t afford to keep replacing it. The place is remotely located enough that police patrol is not realistic to keep an eye on it. Also, sadly, evidence of sloppy humans was quite evident with trash being thrown over the sides of the walls. It’s sickening that people these days have no more respect for anything, than to do that kind of stuff. Still a beautiful place and well worth the drive to go see it. I’ll definitely return.

Took a nice leisurely drive back to the center of the island, stopping by a condo complex that has a place we really want, Pelican Cove (they’re holding it for FEMA people). Nice looking place – really hope we can get in. It also happens to be very close to our new favorite drinking place, Blues Backyard BBQ – so we HAD to stop and have a drink…….. woo-wee…… that turned into a couple of hours, but we had a really good time and met a lot more good folks. I have to give this island credit, it has some of the friendliest people I have ever met – anywhere. Which is a nice change from the last 2-3 islands we have been at.

Sorry for the gaps in posts – but internet service here [right now] is horrible – so if you know a fun little way to boost a hot spot – please share. I’m gonna TRY and load some pictures for you now…….Thankx for reading………..

Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us.

Spent the bulk of the day today spending money like we had it……. Started with the AT & T store — wound up buying a portable hotspot and was assured, with the right data plan – we would have no more internet worries so we jumped on it, ran our plan back up to an obscene amount it used to be and left ‘secure’ in the knowledge we would able to stay in touch with the rest of the world. Well, our little piece of the world anyways. Left there and drove out to the big Kmart on the West end of the island – and picked up a bunch of household stuff to make our lives in our new little nest a bit more homelike and enjoyable. Loaded everything into the bus and headed back to the middle of the island to unload all of our stuff. Stopped at the local Cinema that has a small restaurant/deli thing inside for a bite to eat — That turned out to be not a good idea….. I think those folks better stick to making popcorn. Got everything finally hauled back to the apartment, tested and put away and lit back out for groceries. Ya gotta eat…… An hour in that store and finally back to the apartment for the evening…… Hooked up my new super-duper hot spot with anticipation of screaming around on the internet……… there was some screaming – but it wasn’t blazing internet speed……… Hooked up our new little TV – I thought while at least we’ll finally have TV – Uh – no. Dammit Emmit~!

Not going to bore you with a bunch of the details….. but to get about anything to work worth a crap – I have to use my phone hot spot…… now ain’t that a kick in the shorts – but at least we can now stream from my Amazon Prime account and actually get to watch some movies. We wound up watching Megan Leavy — if you have not seen it- I highly recommend it. Based on a true story.

My Queen, feeling queasy from that Cinema sammich has already wondered off to bed. As soon as I get this finished… I’m gonna shower and shave and head that way as well. Been a big day for both of us. Not sure what tomorrow brings…..

Thankx for checking in………… good night ya’ll~!!

Between two evils, I always pick the one I never tried before.

Part of the view to our back yard

Part of the view to our back yard

Small palm in under our porch

Greetings and salutations from Sion Farms, St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands~! The rain forecast, sadly was dead on the money – and it pi$$ed and poured almost all of the day today – but I can happily say we are now in our new place — Got a little more moving around space….. only 1 bedroom 1 bath, so the Queen will have to go back to sharing ‘potty’ space with me for a little bit – but this is just a means to an end…. until we get the space we’re waiting for…… trying to stay positive about the fact we’ll finally get what we really want. But hey – we’re happily and comfortably retired, we’re living on St. Croix and doing pretty much whatever we feel like doing – whenever we feel like doing it….. so we’re there~!! It’s only gonna get better so when our friends and family come to see us — we’ll be able to accommodate them in proper fashion.  🙂

No internet here, but I got schooled today by a young man at an electronics store (who I later found out didn’t even work there) about this handle little item called a hot spot on my phone~!  who knew?!?!?     Yea, yea, yea, I know,   I was probably the last dinosaur on the planet that didn’t know about hot spots~! [insert more eye rolling]    But that’s how I’m able to get this out tonight. We made a trip to the local AT&T store — but they had already locked the doors (an hour before closing time)….. turns out when they have as many people as they can process before closing time – they just lock the doors and you have to come back later — Apparently here on the island – anybody that handles anything to do with Internet or Television service is still VERY busy…… so we’ll be back at 08:30 tomorrow when they open, because as I also learned….. streaming stuff uses up a lot of data (sound plumb tech savvy now don’t I ??)  😉    Anyhow – I have to make sure I have a big enough data plan for my hot spot and streaming and such as I do know that if you go over your data plan – it gets very expensive – very quick…..

By the time we got ran off from the AT&T store, stopped and bought a small TV, stopped and bought a bottle of hooch, stopped and got a bit to eat – it was dark and still raining – so no new pictures for tonight. Not sure if my hot spot internet is strong enough to let me load pictures or not – but it seems like it is actually a little better than the last place we were in – so we’ll see. Plus I might get even more educated tomorrow at the AT&T store [if I can get in].

Thankx for checking in….. Good Night ya’ll~!

(Slowly getting better – cough is still there, not as hard or persistent – but hanging on)

 

Back on here, for a bit anyway. Between whatever the hell got a hold of me and this two-bit internet we have here…. getting something up here has been a challenge to say the least. Not sure what has got into me – but it is about as aggravating as anything I have put up with in quite a while. Started out as a persistent cough, then morphed into chills with a fever and still with the cough. Not really a cold – definitely not the flu — fever lasted about 12 hours, chills less than 8 hours….. they’re gone – but the damn cough won’t quit…… not so bad when I’m up and about, but the second I lay down – bam~! Gonna keep hammering it with aspirin and Actifed – about the only thing that helps….. stay tuned.

On the island front – this is our last night in this place. Giving up that gorgeous view you’ve seen from here for a place a LOT more affordable…… won’t have the beach at our footsteps, but is costs less than half of what this place does. I think we’re gonna have the same amenities issue as we have here (no TV and crappy internet), but I am going another path to resolve that once we’re in there. I always thought I wouldn’t miss TV – but I’m going to admit I do – if nothing else, keeping up on the news. Most of the time, internet here won’t even load my Explorer page, which is where I have been trying to keep up with news. First stop after we get moved in tomorrow, is at AT&T store and then the local electronics expert to see what I can come up with. Going to break down and finally try to understand what Fire Sticks and ROKU are all about. Hells-bells – I even broke down and tried streaming (but I found out you gotta have fairly decent internet for that)  Oh the fun things an old guy learns when he’s forced to  😉

From what I can tell, it’s supposed to rain tomorrow – oh yay, that always makes moving more fun…. but we’ll get ‘er done, one way or the other and hopefully get a more civilized access to internet – so we can get back to romping around and taking pictures of our adventures to share with you……

Thankx for checking in~~

I don’t want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve it through not dying.

 

Bombarding ourselves with OTC medicine seems to be helping (me anyways)….. coughing has fell off considerably and sneezing and running noses seemed to have subsided a skosh….. a damn site better than yesterday anyways…. feel mostly human. Still looking for places to live, we decided to run out to a place our agent was talking about. Holey Moley is this place nice~! (pix below) We are however, running into the same thing we have been running into everywhere else…. FEMA…… Owners are getting 2 – 3 times the amount for a place they would normally get, because Uncle Sugar is footing the bill. While it may be short term, 1-2 months – they are making 2-3 times what they normally would in that time span, so they are not renting to long term people, in hopes of getting a FEMA person in there. Seems a tad bit short sighted to me – but I don’t have a place to rent out…… and what makes it even worse – is that the few people that are willing to rent long term now, have jacked their rates up to just plain ole goddamn  ridiculous rates, which is just blowing our ‘plan’ right out of the water…… DAMMIT Emmit~!

Anyhow – went out to check out one ‘possible maybe’…. Wow – not real shot in the ass about it’s location on the island – but everything else is just WOW. Waiting to see if owner will opt for a long term rental or not. The place we really want is still on the market, but the owner is holding out for a FEMA rental….. I swear – I am sick to death of hearing that word~!! Trying to work on my “Island Time” and patience – but as most of you know – patience was never a strong suit of mine…. yea, yea, yea….. I can almost hear the eye rolling from here — bite me   😉     So – it’s hurry up and wait – kinda like being back in the military~~~ In the meantime – we still have 83° or better every day, palm trees and that beautiful blue water — thinking maybe tomorrow, let the realtor do her thing – and I’ll just go snorkeling and see what kind of fishes we have swimming around out side our back porch~!

Thankx for checking in~~~

Older people shouldn’t eat health food, they need all the preservatives they can get. 

 

 

 

Gentle Wind condo’s

Gentle Wind condo’s

 

 

Somewhere in my brain, although not fully processed…. I always thought, it wouldn’t be as bad to be sick while you’re in the Caribbean. I was wrong. Don’t misunderstand me – it’s nice to have swaying palm trees and that gorgeous blue water to look at…. and the constantly warm sunny weather – versus cold, wet nasty everything dead weather…. but being sick here still sucks as bad here as it did in Indiana……. I ain’t gonna go into another tale of snot and coughing – I think you got the gist of it last night.

On-line and on the phone most of the day today again with prospective house renters and realtors. Did get one hit that sounds mighty intriguing, just waiting to see if we can get a showing, not much, but better than nothing~!

In the meantime, I feel like a$$ and not in the mood to ramble tonight — so I’m gonna try and load the handful of pictures that didn’t make it last night and a couple I snapped off of our patio today.  Thankx for stopping in…..

You can’t direct the wind, but you can adjust your sails.

 

Woke to the day today excited about possibly getting to go look at a couple of potential homes for us~!! Boy was that a punch to the gut….. spent the day being shot down by realtors, coughing and blowing noses. My Queen has finally admitted that she thinks she has come down with something….. and to parlay it – just in the last couple of hours, MY throat is starting to burn and I’m starting to cough. Dammit Emmit.  I thought it was sweet though earlier,  that she put ‘her’ water bottle in a secluded spot in the fridge (so we wouldn’t spread germs) – but then walks over and gives me a kiss good night…..  😉

Didn’t do a lot today- looked at a bunch of places [that we didn’t like] on-line, coughed, sneezed – looked at more places that we did like – but way to friggin’ expensive, coughed and sneezed some more. Did managed to get the place we’re staying at extended for a while – so at least we don’t have to sleep in the bus. So technically did get something done today.

About 2:00 0’clock – both agreed we were hungry since we didn’t feel like eating all day….. so we jumped in the bus and ran up to our local Mickey D’s…… definitely on island time there….. 18 minutes to get through the drive through.. Woo-Hooo~! But – we had a wonderfully delicious meal that we didn’t have to cook and we’re back in our condo in under 6 minutes…. so I could wash down my Double-Quarter pounder with cheese with an ice cold beer~  Yay~!

When my Queen finally admitted she was coming down with something – she asked me to run to the store and ‘get some stuff’…… so away I went. We are now well stocked to combat what ever type of cough or sniffle we have managed to get, so should be back on our feet and out traveling again in no time~!

I did get to see what I was told was the International Space Station pass by,  I don’t know if that what is actually was – but whatever it was, it was movin~!

Didn’t get to take any pictures today, but still have a bunch from yesterday that I didn’t put up – so here ya go~!

We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.

Angry Nate’s

Fort Christiansted

Fort Christiansted

Caption on bottom reads: “You’re it” Playtime in the Great Abyss    St. Croix VI

A couple of young fishermen

A whole lot more went on today – Yay~! Started out by going into the big city of Christiansted (capitol of St. Croix) to the fine establishment of Angry Nate’s…. not sure what Nate is angry about, but sure we’ll find out in due time. Had us some breakfast – pretty standard fare breakfast – tasty but not noteworthy. We finished up our breakfast and finally got to walk the boardwalk along the Christiansted waterfront. There is a live web cam there that we have watched for the past couple of years (at: http://www.earthcam.com/usa/virginislands/stcroix/?cam=mmstcroix_hd ) and today – we actually got to be there and was on camera for a tiny bit~!  Scenery almost too pretty to describe. Course, it may have seemed prettier to us than most, because we have planned and waited so long to get to see it. We moseyed around the shops just being touristy and looking at things. Fort Christiansted is right there, and once we’re settled – I’m looking forward to doing the tour of it. It looks awesome from the outside~!

Finished up with our walking tour of the harbor and jumped in the bus, with plans to drive out to the East end of the island to see Point Udall — the Eastern most point of the United States. I have been as far North, South, and West as you can go in the U.S. – I just need this one to round it off. Drove along some of the most gorgeous shoreline you’ll ever want to gander at. Took lots of pictures…. just hope I can get them to load. Hopefully, you noticed I said made plans to go to Point Udall……because I must have missed a turn some where and we wound up damn near on the other end of the island….without even realizing it. It’s a good thing we went to Frederiksted the other day, or we might not have even realized we on the ‘wrong’ end of the island~! I hate when that happens~~  It was a fun enjoyable drive none-the-less.

Back at the condo now, hopefully get some sleep….My Queen has started coughing again….. We stopped by the local pharmacy trying to find something for it – but this place isn’t stocked as well as what we’re used to – and apparently there is no CVS on the island… There is a Mickey D’s a Wendy’s and KFC though~!

Hopefully tomorrow Angie is feeling better and we get bombarded with phone calls to go look at places to possibly move into. We have a small army of folks looking for us and a couple possible leads already – so keep your fingers crossed~!

I’m going to try now and get some pictures loaded for you — Good night ya’ll~!

things may come to those who wait. But only the things left by those who hustle.

Apparently named it for his wife  😉

Fort Christiansted

Fort Christiansted

Hotel on the Cay