Trudy Myers's Blog, page 13

Cave Dwellers

How would you feel about the prospect of living the rest of your life in a cave? There are a number of things that brought this question to my mind this week:

·         My husband has been sick since October; the only time he leaves the house is to go to another doctor's appointment. The house has windows, of course, but most of them have the blinds pulled shut. He has started to lament that he never leaves 'the cave' any more. He is too sick to do much more than sit in front of the tv most of the day, watching whatever he can find.

·         To keep him company, I sit in the evenings and watch whatever strikes his fancy that evening. Last night, we watched a documentary-type you tube episode about Martian colonists settling into Martian volcano flow tunnels, to protect them from a number of dangers that could happen on the Martian surface.

·         And finally, I recently read an article on the internet about a man in Turkey who was renovating his basement, took down a wall, and found himself at the end of a vast network of tunnels and chambers that had been carved into the rock thousands of years ago. Apparently, this vast underground village was started way back when, and was expanded over many generations. All the entrances were 'hidden' by boulders or vegetation, so you had to know how to get in. And there were stone doors in many of the tunnels that could be rolled shut to keep any invaders from getting in.

Personally, I find caves rather spooky, especially the dark parts. Even in the lit areas, it can be difficult to both watch your head so you don't plow into a section of low ceiling, and your feet, so you don't turn an ankle or lose your balance on the uneven floor. I also have this never-ending dread that the top of the mountain will fall in on me. I don't find them terribly comfortable places to be.

However, if I were a Martian colonist, I think I would prefer living in a cave in order to avoid:

·         Being fried by solar radiation.

·         Being frozen by the surface temperature.

·         Being exploded by lack of air pressure.

·         Being shredded by a dust storm.

·         Being hit by a crashing meteor.

Suddenly, living in a cave seems vastly preferable. Plus, the way the you tube episode showed it, the tunnel habitats would still be a collection of domes and fat, sausage-like tubes connected by a network of smaller tubes to enable people to get from one place to another. Even in the Martian tunnels, our habitats would need to be air-tight. There could be crop fields and parks, and your living quarters would look more like an apartment than a cave. I can imagine a 'native-born' Martian could spend their entire life inside the habitat, and never have to don a space suit to go out into the tunnel. Or to the surface of the planet, for that matter.

It definitely gives me food for thought. In case I ever decide to write a story about a Martian colony. Again. Because I wasn't thinking about building habitats in volcanic tunnels when I wrote my last story about colonizing Mars.

What do you think? Would you be up to living in a cave on Mars?

 

My First Book Festival, Part 3

Saturday. The big day.

My room was cold when I got up. I checked the thermostat. It was set for 74, but the actual temperature was 64. I checked the unit under the window, and it said it was set for heat, to the temperature of 64. I tried to bump it up to 74, but it immediately went back to 64. I didn't have time to mess with it. I went downstairs to get some breakfast. I chose some oatmeal, bacon and orange juice, since I don't drink coffee. The breakfast lounge was humming with people.

When it came time to go to the festival site, I had to scrape frost off all my car windows. Well, actually, I turned on the car, set the defrost to high and scraped the side windows. By the time I got that done, the windshield and rear windows were clear. I wasn't sure we still had an ice scraper in my car, so I had originally had visions of trying to clear my windows with a credit card. Thank goodness I didn't need to do that.

It was a 15-minute drive to the site, and then waiting in line to unload of about the same amount of time. An aide showed up with a cart, and I unloaded my 5 boxes. She went to park the cart in the lobby while I took my car to 'the grassy area' and walked back to the building. It was probably 8:45 or so when I got my books transferred to our table, and the aide came to take the cart away so it could be used again.

The festival opened to the public at 10 am, and I had our table all set up by 9:30, so I pulled out my phone and my square reader and tried to figure out how to use it. I couldn't get it to connect to the church's wifi, no matter how hard I tried. Consequently, every time I opened the square app, it had a bright red banner across the top saying I wasn't connected to the internet. I got up and consulted with a couple other authors to see if they were having problems, but they weren't.

In sheer desperation, I called one of my sons to see if he had any suggestions. And it was sheer desperation, because he doesn't use the square app, so he was making things up as he went along. Eventually, he and his wife were going out for breakfast, so I knew I was on my own with my problem. But something he said made me look in my settings, and my data connection wasn't turned on. I turned it on, and opened my square app... and I no longer had that bright red banner about not being connected to the internet.

I breathed a sigh of relief and tried to figure out how to navigate the square app. It was a lesson in frustration, because it seemed to open to a different page each time I opened it, leaving me with no idea where I was at in the app, and even less of an idea how to get where I wanted to go. Thankfully, I only needed to use it once that entire day. A young man wanted to buy 2 books, so I discounted the price. I got the amount put in the app, but when I ran his card through the reader... it didn't register, and therefore didn't charge him. But I didn't realize that until later.

I now have a new chore on my 'to do' list: Practice with the square app.

It was not a tremendously busy day. They had 150 authors in attendance. They may or may not have had that many people come in and shop. Our table was in the 'science fiction' section, but there were no signs to indicate what section had what kind of books. When customers were scarce, I pulled myself away from our table to go network with other authors. That was actually kind of fun. I always started the conversation the same way; "What type of books do you write?"

And I talked to people who walked by, usually starting with, "What type of book do you like to read?" Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't, but at least I wasn't just sitting there like a bump on a log. My husband would have been proud of me.

About 4:45, they announced it was time to start packing up what books we had left and leave. I hadn't sold that many books, and I was trying to pack them away in the same boxes they came in, so it was about 5:30 before I found a cart, loaded up my boxes and went to get my car. A helpful person saw me pushing the cart towards my car, and helped me transfer the boxes into the trunk. She was very helpful, and upon hearing where I was from, she got my phone number and sent me the contact information for the 'book festival' being held in Orlando. I thanked her profusely and went back to the hotel.

All I'd had for 'lunch' was some pumpkin seeds and a bottle of pop I had bought from the hotel before I had left that morning. There were supposed to be food trucks at the festival site for most of the day, but they never announced that they had arrived, and I didn't have my husband there to watch the table, so I ate my seeds and was glad to have them. By the time I got back to the hotel, nearly 6 pm, I was hungry, so I went to bar and ordered loaded nachoes and a piece of cheesecake. I should have forgotten about the cheesecake, because there were enough nachoes on that plate to feed 2 of me. But I finished most of them, and the cheesecake, then I went to my room and watched tv to let my nerves settle down.

The whole experience had been so-o-o-o far outside my comfort zone! Even going for supper was uncomfortable, because I was by myself, the bar was busy and noisy. I was pretty desperate for some solitude by the time I reached my room.

The room was still cold. I had neglected to bring a jacket or sweater with me, so I climbed into bed and watched tv.

At one point, my youngest son called me. He had signed up for an online class on IT, one that would 'probably' take him 6 months to finish. He had finished it in 3 weeks, and he wanted to crow a little bit about it. I understood the feeling, I wanted to crow a little too, about how well I had handled the book festival. So we talked a little bit, and then I promised to call him back on Sunday afternoon, after I got home.

So, about 11 (I'm usually up until midnight), I turned off the tv and the lights, pulled the blankets up to my ears to keep the chill air away, and went to sleep.

My First Book Festival, Part 2

So there it was, Friday, and at some point, I needed to leave for the 1 ½ to 2 hour drive to Gainesville. At first, I thought I’d leave at 1 pm. I put my 5 small boxes of books in the trunk of my car. I put my suitcase in the back seat. I filled a grocery sack with snacks and a 6-pack cooler with drinks, and about 2 o’clock, I stopped procrastinating and pulled out of the driveway.

After I filled the tank, I meandered through some back roads to get to the turnpike. Before I got on that, I had to stop and find my sunpass box, which had popped off the windshield. I tried to get it to stick to the windshield, but it kept popping off, so I placed it on the dashboard and hoped it would work. When I took the entrance to the turnpike, the machines recognized my sunpass, so I breathed a sigh of relief. It wouldn’t have been a disaster if it hadn’t recognized my sunpass, but it would have been more expensive.

I reached the service plaza on the turnpike and pulled in for a few minutes. I very seldom drive on highways anymore, and had been having problems keeping my speed fairly consistent. The speed limit was 70, and it seemed the fastest I was comfortable going was 60, and even that wasn’t consistent. After about 10 minutes, I got on the road again.

About an hour later, I pulled off at a rest stop to eat a little snack and drink some pop. My speed still wasn’t very consistent, but at least it was fluctuating between 60 and 70. Again, after about 10 minutes, I got back on the road.

I was still having trouble keeping my speed steady, but now I kept finding it veering toward 80. And then we approached the Gainesville exits, and the right hand lane, where I was, came to a dead stop, as the exit lane was backed up that far. Having come to a stop, traffic was heavy enough that I could not pull over into the next lane to continue. Eventually, the exit lane moved forward enough that I could move past the exit and continue on my way.

The Gainesville exit I need was the most northern one, naturally, since I was coming from the south. But I found it, successfully got off, and drove right by the street leading to the hotel. I had to turn around and come back to it. The hotel was busy with people checking in, but I got checked in with no problem, and got my stuff up to my room.

Now the nerves really started to bother me, thinking about that 'meet and greet' I was supposed to go to from 7 to 9. I got myself ready by 7, memorized the route to the site, and took off. It was dark, since it was the end of January, and I was trying to keep an eye on the street names so I didn't miss my turns. I did not keep up with the speed limit, and thankfully, I did not need to change lanes. I thought there would be signs on the church campus to direct us to the correct building, but there weren't. I parked my car and headed for the building that had lights on.

I had the right building, as evidenced by the Sunshine State Book Festival sign that stood outside the doors, but I hadn't seen that from the road or parking lot. I walked inside, and found there was some confusion going on at the registration table, where we were to claim our name badges. The registration person had stepped away for some reason, and 3 or 4 people (myself included) were going through the badges, trying to find ours. Instead of being arranged alphabetically, they were arranged by table number. I found the badge for Table 45, but it wasn't my name on it. When the registration person got back, I asked if possibly my table number was 145, and sure enough, there my name was. Which meant John's name badge was 146.

I wandered into the large inner room, where lots of tables and chairs were set up, just like for a dealer's room. I found my way to the refreshments, and realized I hadn't bothered to eat any supper. Not that there was an awful lot to choose from. There were a few pinwheel sandwiches, but I didn't know what was in them, so I skipped those. I selected a couple cookies, a few pieces of vegetables, fruit and cheese, and a glass of lemonade to drink, since I don't drink coffee.

I had worn one of my MoonPhaze shirts, with the MoonPhaze logo on the back, and 'Author' on the front. I received 3 or 4 comments on that shirt, all thinking it was a good idea. One lady said she had done something similar, but had put the front of her book on her shirt, which is also a good idea. Most of the authors were already gathered in small groups, talking, but several paused to exchange pleasantries as they wandered from 1 group to another.

After I finished my refreshments, I noticed a man sitting at a table alone, staring at his phone. So I decided to REALLY step outside my comfort zone and start talking to him. Turns out he's not an author, he's a computer geek, but he was there to support his wife, who is an author. Pretty soon, our little group of 2 people grew to 5 people, and we were having a nice little chat about nothing in particular. About that time, the organizers announced it was time for us to leave, so we all said good-bye and I went out to my car.

Having memorized the route to get there, I only had to follow it backwards to get to the hotel. That only took me 15 minutes, but I didn't feel like going to the sports bar restaurant attached to the hotel for supper, so I just ate some more of my snacks in my room before climbing into bed. I had to get up early in the morning to have breakfast and get to the site by 8:00.

My First Book Festival, Part 1

I had been looking forward to this for months. Months, I tell you! I had paid for memberships in the writer’s organization that organized the Sunshine State Book Festival in Gainesville FL, and then, I paid for and reserved a full table at their book festival, held on Jan 28, 2023. I read all their emails, trying to figure out how this would be different from having a table at a Midwest sf convention, either literary or media. Because that was where I had sharpened my teeth, so to speak, trying to sell our books.

It would only be 1 day long, not like those Midwest cons, which were almost always 3 days long. Okay, okay, there would be a ‘Meet and Greet’ for 2 hours on Friday night, which might be analogous to a sf con’s con suite on Friday night, but it was only for 2 hours. Surely I could manage that, couldn’t I? Let’s face it, when it comes to sitting and not speaking to anyone, I was one of the best.

Saturday would be the actual book festival. It would be one big dealer’s room, to compare it to sf cons, with each author getting half a table from which to sell their books. There would be no wall of t-shirts, games, or other things being sold, only books. I’ve done 3 and even 5 days sitting behind a table and trying to sell things, so 1 day can’t be too bad. I could do that. Besides, my husband, who is a natural talker, would be there to start conversations and hopefully whet the appetite of potential customers for the books we were selling. Piece of cake.

There would also be ‘panels’, although in the case of this book festival, they were a limited number of readings scheduled throughout the day. I put both our names in as willing to read, but neither of us was selected. Well, pooh. But really, was there a difference between not being selected to read and giving a reading to an empty room?

So I was ready, at least mentally, to go and see how many books we could sell.

And then things kind of fell apart. Or seemed to.

The writer’s group suggested bringing 10 copies of each book to sell. I normally only take 5 or 6 copies each when I go to a convention. But I dutifully set about packing up 10 copies each… only to find I had several books that I didn’t have 10 copies of. With less than a week before the festival, I didn’t have time to order any more. I’d just have to deal with the numbers I had.

I had recently upgraded my old android phone to an old iphone, and I suddenly discovered my square card reader would not plug into my apple phone. Luckily, my son came to my rescue, ordered a new card reader that would plug into my apple from Amazon, which delivered it on Sunday. One disaster averted.

My husband was sick with a sinus infection, which he’d been waiting for 2 months to see the sinus specialist, so he was getting pretty blasted sick. I didn’t want to leave him alone for 2 ½ days, so we planned on him going to Gainsville with me, but staying in the hotel room if he wasn’t up to going to the festival. Another disaster averted.

Or was it? He managed to sleep pretty decently the day before I was to drive to Gainesville, and decided he would just stay home while I went. I wasn’t exactly happy with that plan, but the alternative was that I stayed home with him, which would be throwing away all the money I had spent on this endeavor. So I filled the frig up with food that required little work to get ready to eat. And when it came time to drive off, I went. Maybe next year, I can get him to come with me.

Prehistoric Steppe Bison

The more the frozen bits of Earth thaw, the more stuff from prehistoric times gets found in what used to be frozen.

Around 100,000 years ago, an ice age engulfed most of the northern hemisphere of the globe. Although fatal for many animals, other species continued to live, including the musk ox, the woolly mammoth, and the steppe bison. One of these steppe bison (scientifically called the 'bison priscus') has been found in Siberia's snow and ice.

This specimen is called the 'Yukagir bison', and is very well preserved, the most complete specimen known to date. It is so well preserved that scientists can observe its brain, heart, some blood vessels and all of its digestive system. Because there is a lack of fat around the abdomen, scientists assume the animal may have died of starvation.

Now extinct, the steppe bison was once found from the British Isles, through Europe, northern and central Asia, Beringia and central North America, from northwest Canada to Mexico. This species is ancestral to several later bison species, including the North American bison.

The steppe bison resembled the modern bison species, particularly the American wood bison, only it was taller and more massive. Standing over 6 ft 7 in tall (2 meters) at the withers (the highest point on its back, generally around its shoulders), it could reach a ton (900 kg) in weight. Its horns were each over half a meter long, and their upward-pointing tips were a meter apart.

I don't think I'd like to meet one of those in a dark alley somewhere.

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/techno...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steppe_...

Pluto's Heart

If you paid attention to the data sent back by New Horizons when it zipped by Pluto and Charon, you know that Pluto has a heart-shaped region, which is known as the Tombaugh Regio. The western lobe of the heart-shaped regio was originally named Sputnik Planum but is now known as Sputnik Planitia. It lies mostly in the northern hemisphere, but does extend southward beyond the equator.

The surface of the Sputnik Planitia consists mostly of irregular polygons separated by troughs. The polygons average about 21 miles (33 km) across. The surface also has what appear to be wind streaks, with evidence of sublimation, which is the rapid change from solid to vapor form. Sublimation also appears to be the cause of pits found in the planitia. No craters were detectable by New Horizons, implying the surface is less than 10 million years old.

Most of the ice in this basin is thought to be primarily nitrogen ice, with small fractions of carbon monoxide and methane ices. At Pluto's ambient temperature of 38°K, nitrogen and carbon monoxide ices are much less rigid than water ice, making glacial-like flows possible.

This basin likely originated when something about 125 miles across hit the area. The subsequent hole would have subsequently collected volatile ices. The nature of Pluto's atmosphere means that a topographic depression becomes a cold trap.

Nitrogen ice is denser than water ice, and the accumulation of this much dense nitrogen ice has created a higher level of gravity associated with this area. This gravity anomal may have caused Pluto to reorient itself to put the planitia near the Pluto-Charon tidal axis. Currently, Pluto and Charon always keep their same faces towards each other, and Sputnik Planitia is presently close to the anti-Charon point on Pluto, which has a less than 5% probability of happening by chance.

Contrary to popular belief, Charon does not orbit Pluto. Both Charon and Pluto orbit the same point, which is located between the two of them. Some scientists believe Charon and Pluto are a binary dwarf planet. That's what I think.

I also think there is a case to call Earth and its moon a binary planet, but that's a little harder to convince people, because the point being orbited is within Earth's diameter. What do you think on the subject?

 

 

Astronomy, March 2017, Page 13, "Pluto's Slusky Heart Contains a Large Ocean.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sputnik...

Last Day at Sea & Getting Off the Ship

 

Thursday, 11/17 - Last Day at Sea

We got up about 7:30 and went to breakfast. John wasn't feeling quite right. I didn't feel like biking in the morning, thought I might do it later on, but never got around to it. John went to deck 8 to read. I went to the Atrium bar on deck 6 to write. Late in the morning, we got in line to settle our account with the ship and went to lunch.

I was hoping we could go to the hot tub, but John wanted to get packing done, and we didn't want to pack wet swimsuits and water shoes, so we went back to the cabin and packed. Despite our 'souvenirs' (4 bottles of rum, a towel and a dress), we still had room in the suitcases. Afterwards, we both went to deck 8 for the rest of the afternoon. John was feeling better by 4:00 and had a mojito, then did some walking.

I don't remember where we had supper, but since we were getting off with our luggage (supposedly at 7:30 AM), we went to bed a little earlier than we usually did.

 

Friday, 11/18 - Getting Off the Ship

Note: Friday, 11/18 - Getting Home has already been ranted about in the blog titled A Rude Return Home, posted on 11/24. I won't repeat the getting home part of the day, but the Getting off the Ship was also an adventure in frustration, so I'll go through that here.

We decided to get off the ship with our luggage with us. We thought we would save some time that way, as well as avoiding the frustration of waiting until our color of luggage tags was called. Little did we know...

We got up at 6 and went to breakfast. We had wanted to go to O'Sheehan's for our last breakfast, but for some reason, it wasn't open that morning. So we probably had breakfast at the buffet.

According to the instructions handed out the night before, those of us carrying our own luggage off got to start leaving the ship at 7:30. What none of the passengers knew was that the ship was late getting into the port, and didn't yet have approval to unload passengers at 7:30. So we—and a whole bunch of other people with their luggage—got caught in a traffic jam that had previously been known as the forward elevator lobby. None of the elevators would go to deck 7, which was where the gangplank was at. The stairs were roped off, so you couldn't walk to deck 7. All the forward elevators were stuffed with people and their luggage, plus (we heard) all the forward elevator lobbies were just as stuffed. Wall to wall people and luggage, and all the crew members were doing were telling us to leave a walkway so people could get through. How? Are we supposed to climb on top of each other until there's room for a walkway? And who's going to use the walkway, when nobody can get anywhere anyway?

Frustration simmered. It might have been easier to wait if SOMEbody had made an announcement that they had hit a snag (pulling into port late) and nobody could get off yet. But nobody had the guts to make that announcement, so frustration simmered, getting hotter and hotter.

Then random crew members started to arrange us in a long line leading away from the elevator lobby, heading aft. Before too long, we met a long line heading our way from the other direction. Now what?

Finally, and still with no announcement as to who was allowed to get off at that time, a crew member removed several chairs that were blocking the entrance to O'Sheehan's and started urging the line to go in there. I thought they were just corraling us up for some reason, but they led the line through the side door to the restaurant, into the theater lobby, and from there we could go out on deck, move a bit to the right, and get on the gangplank to leave. There were at least 3 levels of gangplank before we entered the building. It was kind of like being in the middle of a stampede. John and I got separated, and didn't see each other again until I pulled over to the side as I entered the building, and waited for him.

Not everybody who was getting off with us had their luggage with them, so others must have joined the fray when it was 'time' for them to get off. Again, it might have been more orderly, if somebody had made any timely announcements about that.

When we finally got to the bottom floor, they were yelling instructions about where to pick up your luggage. You were supposed to go to the opposite end of the building, claim your luggage, and come back and get into line. Thankfully, we had our luggage with us.

Before that day, I had thought our luggage was great. Almost too big, for they were pretty heavy once we got them packed (and we still had more room!) They're the kind that has any-direction rollers, and you 'push' them along by holding onto the handle and keeping the suitcase upright. But on that hurried walk down the gangplank, mine seemed to have a mind of its own, and it kept wanting to veer, either towards me or away from me. It almost tripped me several times. I wonder if we had its load lop-sided, with more weight on one side than the other.

Anyway, we got through the line, through customs, and out of the building. And that's when I start narrating what happened to us in A Rude Return Home on 11/24.

Dominican Republic

 

Wednesday, 11/16 - Dominican Republic

We got up at 6:00 and went to the buffet for breakfast. After that, it was a looooong walk down the pier to find our shore excursion, Puerto Plata Culture, History and Heritage. Puerto Plata is either a city, or an area that has a city in it, I'm not sure which.

I had read the tickets wrong, and we arrived at the duty-free shops about an hour early. I remembered being at this particular group of shops at least twice before, but we have been on several Caribbean cruises, so it wasn't that surprising. John looked around at the shops while I sat in what shade I could find to gather my energy after yesterday's 'forced march'.

Thank goodness it was a bus tour, but I think most all the shore excursions here were, since the port was some 25 miles from the city.

The first stop on the tour was a rum factory, where we got to taste several versions of rum. I still think 9:30 AM is too early in the day for rum tasting. The tour started with a room full of rum casks. It was totally dark, except for small lines of lights outlining the path to follow to get to the exit. Then a small theater that could only seat about half the people who were on the tour. (I think there were 2 buses there at the same time.) After a movie about the history of this rum company, we were taken to another room, where they had some historical artifacts having to do with the rum-making process. It was here that they passed out little sample glasses, and gave us samples of about 8 tastes of their rum. The factory store was across the street. But we had already bought 4 bottles of rum during this cruise, so we decided we didn't need any more.

Next we were taken to a jewelry shop that specialized in amber and larimer jewelry. Larimer is only found on this island. We were sent inside for a chance to buy jewelry, but learning the price of one piece was enough to dissuade me from buying anything. I had a lot of trouble persuading the sales person I really wasn't interested in anything. When we came back out and got on the bus, we almost left behind a couple who had been paying for their purchase!

Somebody asked why there had been police there to steer us into and out of the store, and the tour guide said it was to make sure the pan-handlers and peddlers didn't bother us. The police presence left us with a strange, 'you are watched' kind of feeling.

Next, we went to the amber museum, which also has a permanent display on the art of making cigars. Of course there was a gift shop, and John bought... a pound of coffee!

Back on the street, I was wearing down, so I climbed back on the bus with a couple other people to wait. The rest of the group walked a few blocks to see 'Umbrella Street. After about 20 minutes, the bus went to pick up the others, and we started back for the pier. I caught a brief glimpse of Umbrella Street, and they had dozens of open umbrellas suspended over the street.

The Dominican Republic is the only port I remember where as we approached the gate to the port, a guard came aboard the bus and had to see everybody's ship-board card. To prove we had a reason for coming to the port, I suppose.

We reached the duty-free shops with about 37 minutes before we had to be on the ship. John wanted to buy me a Caribbean shirt that would fit me. He knew exactly what store had them. I didn't want another shirt, but to his surprise, I chose a Caribbean-style dress. (He was surprised. I was shocked! I swore off dresses decades ago!) Then we had that loooong walk back to the ship, which took us 7-8 minutes (I timed it). It was a very long pier.

We went to O'Sheehan's for a late lunch, then spent some time in the hot tub. About 7, we went to the theater for a dance show. This was our 'big night' on the ship, so I wore my new dress. The show was okay, the dancing was good, but I had trouble with the plot. I'm not sure it had one.

We left a few minutes before the end of the show to go to the other end of the ship, to the restaurant Cagney's, where we had dinner reservations. John was dragging on the way there, and had a little trouble understanding the menu. (It was past his usual bed time.) Since we were dining on a package plan, certain items on the menu were not available to us. We had a very nice dinner, and as we were walking out, we came across a couple who had been on the kayaking shore excursion with us, so we exchanged a few pleasantries with them. Then off to the cabin for the night.

Puerto Rico

Tuesday, 11/15 - Puerto Rico

It was raining when we went to deck 15 for breakfast. We had to try to run between the raindrops to get to the buffet. Of course that didn't work very well, so we got somewhat wet. And again when we went back to our cabin. But the rain didn't last long.

Our excursion today was the Mofongo and Mojito Experience. The group was large, so it got broken into 2 groups, and our group had to wait around for 15 minutes to let the first group get ahead of us. I was disappointed to learn it was a walking tour of the city, but I bravely set out with them, and was able to keep up for a while. Just as I (and John) were thinking we couldn't possibly keep up the pace much longer, we were led up to the 2nd floor of a 'cultural lounge', where we were seated around tables. Among talking about the history of their rum-making, they gave us appetizers and a mojito (which we hadn't liked on the ship, but these were good). Then they passed out big wooden mortars to everybody. Each had some cassava and a plantain chip in it. They gave us each a pestle and taught us how to grind the cassava and plantain chip into mush. Then they added a small ladle of chicken stew to the mush, and a fork to eat with. This was the mofongo, and it was quite tasty and very filling.

After lunch, they expected us to continue walking! I wanted a siesta. But I tried to keep up with the others. At one point we had to walk 2 blocks up a steep hill. I had to stop 3 times to catch my breath before I caught up to the others, who had stopped to wait for me.

Eventually, we came out on a hilltop near the bay, and we could see our ship sitting at the dock. It looked very far away. I was really dragging, but had no choice but to keep walking. The tour guide was worried about the time, so every time I caught up to the group, she immediately started off again. I didn't have a chance to catch my breath again. The closer we got to the ship, the further ahead the group got, and I didn't care. I didn't stop walking, even though my stomach got to feeling a little sick.

We finally made it to the dock, and John even had time to stop at the duty-free shop and buy a souvenir towel he had noticed earlier. I was wiped, and went to our cabin to lay down. After an hour, we went to deck 6 for cokes, then John went to deck 8 to read, while I returned to the cabin to lay down again.

About 5, we went to the main dining room for supper. Afterwards, we went to the mojito bar on deck 8 to try a couple flavored mojitos. We liked the spicy passion fruit mojito, but not so much the raspberry guava one, which seemed a little heavy on the alcohol.

Then we went to the theater for a comedy show. I thought there would be 2 comedians again, but there was only one. Back to our cabin for the night. I found I had walked 10,522 steps on this day. We went to bed at 8:30, but at 9:30, I got up to plug in my phone to recharge. At 10:00, I got up to take a tylenol, my legs were aching so much. Then up at 10:45 for another tylenol, and I could finally fall asleep.

Rum Factory Tour & St Maarteen's

Sunday, 11/13 - Rum Factory Tour and Tasting

We went to the Savor for breakfast, which was good, but not great. I went back to our cabin and laid down for about 1/2 an hour, and got up feeling much more awake. Meanwhile, John went off to do some walking. Our excursion started at 9:30. I don't remember what island this was, but the roads were the pits.

First, we went to a famous woodcarver's workshop and store. It was beautiful work, but I'm not into abstract or primitive artwork, so we didn't buy anything.

On to see Marigot Bay, which is only accessible by water taxi. We got to 'see' it from a wide spot in the road at the top of a hill. Surprisingly, it looked amazingly like a beach.

Then we were on to a rum factory for a tour and some taste testing. The factory tour consisted of a 2-minute audio tape, an 8-minute video tape, and then a walk to an open room in the factory, where we got a 10-to-15-minute lecture on their process of making rum. Unfortunately, the tour guide did not have a microphone, and they had combined 2 busloads into one tour, so it was very hard to hear her. Then our busload was sent through a labyrinth of colorful carnival characters and into the tasting room. They had about a dozen different varieties out, and we could taste as many of them as we wanted. Those of us who wanted to buy some were shunted off to the factory store, where, unfortunately, the card reader wasn't working. Since we don't carry much cash, we couldn't buy anything. Back to the bus to return to the ship.

The driver and tour guide wanted to show off their new way into town, called the Millennium Hiway. It seemed in even worse shape than the regular roads, until we got into the tunnel, where it smoothed out a bit.

The bus dropped us off at the duty-free shops at the pier. John wanted a pair of water shoes, but he got distracted by a liquor store, where he bought the 2 bottles of flavored rum he'd wanted to get at the factory. I went on to other stores to look for water shoes in his size, and when he finally caught up to me, he approved of the pair I'd found, and we bought those. The only pair I'd found in his size.

We dropped things off at the cabin, then went to a bar on deck 8 to get cokes. John finished his walking for the day. Then we hung out for a while, him reading and me writing. We had dinner in the main dining room. It had very few customers when we got there. It filled up some as we ate, but was still not full when we left about 6:30.

Our excursion for the next day had been cancelled, due to technical difficulties with the boat we would have been using. We went to see if some other excursion appealed to us. Nothing did, so we decided to stay on the ship.

 

Monday, 11/14 - St Maarteen

We got up and had breakfast as usual, but we didn't have any excursion today, as we'd been informed the day before. Since we aren't big on buying souvenirs, we decided to stay aboard and see what we could find to do. After breakfast, we started with some exercise, John doing his walking, and I going to the gym for a bike ride. John was still walking, so I took my notebook and pen to the deck 6 atrium bar for a coke and to write.

Fairly late in the morning, Arts & Crafts set up a table on the dance floor and handed out journal kits for those who wanted to make them. The instructions came in the form of a 16-page booklet of pictures and text explaining how to 'sew' the journal together. They did warn us that it would take us longer than a half hour, which was all the time allotted for Arts and Crafts. I sat at the bar, sipping my coke, and got it done in about an hour. It was fun and not difficult. It reminded me of lacing leather pieces together, particularly in one of the more challenging designs, like Mexican Basketweave. But I didn't have to worry about the lacing getting twisted, because I was using embroidery thread.

John found me, and we went for a light lunch at O'Sheehans. It wasn't as noisy as usual, because we were in port, and the casino wasn't open. Then we went to deck 8 so John could finish his walking - it takes time to walk 10,000 steps! But the bar I sat at to write didn't open until 3:45 or 4:00, so I couldn't have a coke until then.

We went to the noodle station for supper. This is a complimentary restaurant, only open for lunch and dinner. They have a limited number of seats, and once those are all filled, they turn away everybody else, so you have to get in line for it well before it actually opens. The food was good, but it seemed like a madhouse. People closest to the kitchen were getting their desserts before the ones further from the kitchen were getting their appetizers.

After supper, we went to the comedy club, where we could not get a waiter's attention to get anything to drink. The show was good, although we'd heard pieces of it before, when we attended the comedy show in the theater. And then John was tired, so we called it a night.