Live Your Dream!

If you are not doing so, I request that right now, you start thinking about how you can and begin the planning for taking it on and making it happen. I have had no greater sense of peace and fulfillment then the experience I am having right now.

We have been in the Florida Keys since Friday the 25th. It is beautiful here! The weather has been just perfect.

Between the air, the temps, the real lack of crowds, plus the additional benefit of the serene, yet life filled waters of the Gulf and the absolute glory of the Atlantic, I fell alive.

We went to go fish on the docks the first morning here and Flipper swam past about 25' in front of us. Jazz almost pee'd himself! He caught a fish later in the day and ran full speed back to the camp, poor fish still dangling from the line extended from the pole of a happy boy. It felt like I was looking at Huck Finn!

Later that day a Bald Eagle landed in the Norfolk Pine 75' from our camp site. See if you can find him at the top of the tree.
I think you can enlarge the picture by clicking on it, if you like!






Yesterday we spent the day in Key West and had the pleasure of sharing the phenomenal street performers with a wide eyed and captured Jasper who sees magic thru his 9 year old eyes. We stood at the end of Route 1 - Mile ZERO with a sunburned and tired of walking kid ....

and also at the Southern Most Point in the Continential US and ate the Southern Most Delicious Ice Cream (Flamingo Crossing) at the south end of Duval Street. If you get the chance, partake, its worth the calories (they also have non fat yogurt) but go for the ice cream.

We saw the "ZENN" car - Zero Emission No Noise parked in the driveway of the southern most house and then I get the treat of the day and saw Castro and some woman he is hanging with these days standing at the south point of the US. I think he heard that Bush was going to speak on Monday and was looking for a way back to his country to avoid the BS if possible.

Here are some pictures of the past Couple of Days. I hope you enjoy just a bit!

Today we took a glass bottom boat tour to the great Coastal Reef that lies 6 miles off the shores of Florida in US territorial waters and it was simply magnificent and filled with life. I was humbled by this living creature and all of the eco and bio systems it supports.

Tomorrow Jazz and I will spend the entire day on a tourist trap all inclusive water sports boat off of Key West. Meg will get the day off at the camp while we play with the toys.
He Can Hardly Wait!!! This WAS BULLCRAP~ We drove all the way to Key West (2 hours) and they decided they weren't doing the trip before we got there and never called us to tell us. AH!

**The Reservation without a Reservation**

Tuesday, 1/25/08 we pulled into the reservation that we were aiming for the night before. It was 3/4 full of other campers and most of them are retired returners from previous years. All of them are really nice people. This is their home for the winter and although it is sort of our temporary home for a few days for the winter we are really the anomaly in the crowd. We are certainly as accepted in as we want to be but most just want to know what we are up to.

Jasper was completely ready for this place. You see the natives have a motocross park here and they are in the process of expanding and building the tracks and I do mean tracks, like multiples of them in to the most expansive and best in the US. Jazz has bugged us every day to ride his dirt bike. We have had some issues like finding legal places for him to ride and then it just kept not running right. Well we found the place for him to ride and aside from wanting to experience life on this reservation we wanted to bring him here so that he could ride. It took him less than 10 minutes to get all hooked up for riding.

He got on his pedal bike within minutes of unloading it. He headed off while we were setting up the mobile house. Within 10 minutes he was back at the site telling us he had met someone who was going to drive him and his bike to the track so he could ride. What!!! Who is it, where is he from, what does he look like???????

Jazz tried as best as he could to muster answers to our many questions while he was jumping around with sheer excitement and trying to get his riding gear on all in the same motion. "He said he would be here in 10 minutes," he told us. "You can ask him then." So I went about getting his bike off the rack while he got dressed and within 10 minutes Jasper's friendly manifestation appeared. In the form of a 30 something motocross rider from Hartford who has been here for the past 5 weeks riding 4 days a week. He was more than happy to transport Jasper's bike in his trailer the three miles to the track. We hurriedly put Jasper in the car and headed over to the track and paid his entry fee.

Within one hour of our arrival Jazz was on his bike and ready to ride the beginning riders motocross track. (much to his mothers hesitation and she stands and watches dirt bikes and their riders flying 40 - 50' in the air right next to where we were parked) Now a problem arises from the dust. The damn bike is still not running right.

We had just had it repaired again in Port St. Lucy and it was running fine when we left there, but, now it isn't. Jasper's new friend comes over and starts messing with it to try to solve it but I insist that he go and ride and not spend his time working on this bike. To say the least, Jazz is disappointed. As much as I do not like working on carburetors I asked his friend if I could use his tools and in I went. I was dreading it but there I was. The gods were watching over me/us that day because as soon as I figured out how the hell to get it off the bike and take to the bowl off of the bottom of it I saw what I hope was the problem. There was a small brass bolt lying in the bottom of the bowl. Even I know that it wasn't the right place for it so I looked for the obvious and found were it belonged and screwed it back in. I did not know how tight it was supposed to go on so I just cranked it in. I put all the pieces back together and installed it back on the bike and low and friggin behold in ran like it was brand new. I was psyched (and covered with gas) but Jazz was enthralled.

He stayed and rode for the next four hours. Came home and convinced us to stay until Thursday, which was the next day they would be open, so that he could ride again. We agreed and on Thursday, his/our new friend picked him and his bike up and Jazz stayed from 1 till 6 at the track. We went over once to check on him and the friend delivered him home as the place closed. Good for Japser and good for us as this was the first day we have had any individual time since we left home one month ago. It was refreshing!

Take a look at the photos below and you will see a kid living a dream! Enjoy!

Seminole Reservation, Going Once!

We left the Everglades on Monday morning, January 21 after having deciding to stay the night in order to allow us to leave with ease during the daylight instead of pulling up stakes in the dark of night and attack of the mosquito’s. We pulled out of our site, as we had anticipated, at around 8:30 AM. The plan was to attempt to get to the next place along fluctuating route during the daylight and also with time to actually see the place and get acquainted with our new surroundings and also as usual to avoid the bugs. We have gotten quite adept at pulling up and putting down at this point but still it is quote a bit easier to do it when you can see what you are doing.
Initially, we moved our selves only a short piece up the road on the way out of the park. The idea was to park in the general parking lot to have our breakfast by the waters of the Florida bay and then head out towards the north a little with the idea of getting to the Seminole Reservation by noon. We have only our general ideas and intended direction as we leave one place and shoot towards another but they don’t seem to make much difference in regards to where we actually end up or our carry much weight for long in our decision making process.
Jasper had received a workbook upon entering the Glades from the ranger where we came into the park. It had many age appropriate projects and questions specific to the Everglades that he could complete or answer in order to earn a coveted Junior Ranger Badge. The goal of earning the badge was the prize for taking the time to learn about the place we were in. It also included sections for the Biscayne National Park and the Big Cypress National Preserve. If he (we) were to complete all three sections and earn all three badges then he could send in his completed book, signed by rangers in the parks and receive a patch like the one the rangers wear on their uniforms. The prize was enough to keep Jasper (somewhat) entertained and interested and interesting and educational enough for us to pursue it and use it as an educational tool for all of us. It is really amazing the things you can learn by doing these booklets with the kid. Do you know what periphyton is? I suspect most of his classmates back in school don’t either.
I secretly (up to this moment) hope that what we are offering him on this trip has him keep pace or exceed what he would have gained by staying in the school system. I am certain, experientially, this will be unsurpassable. We also worry that having nothing stable in place or people may be a detriment to him personally but. If it is I guess we will not find out for years to come and then only he or we assign blame to this trip. It’s all made up.
He completed the section for the Everglades mostly with Megan’s assistance and on the way out of the park we stopped in at the Coe Visitor’s Center. He went to the ranger at the info desk in to hand in his pages and have them reviewed by the ranger on duty. They spend about 10 minutes with him and look at the work he has done, ask him specific questions about what he has answered and throw in bits of interesting comment and other info and are just really sweet, understanding and nurturing of this seemingly budding environmental scientist, naturalist who loves learning about this stuff. He is then sworn in, which they do over the intercom system for everyone in the place to hear. They make a big deal of it. I was in another room when I heard the ranger announce that they were going to swear him. I came running to catch him just beginning the ceremony. He has to raise his right hand and repeat an oath that is centered around environmentalism in general and aimed specifically at his pledge to care for and maintain that particular park. He earned his first Junior Ranger badge and he loved and process of being sworn in and getting that prize. It was very cool to experience him in it. I can’t help but wonder where this child based activity will lead him.
We changed direction early on in the trip which in light of the fact that we are road schooling him gave us all another opportunity to work on some real life science, geography, history, botany and biology, with him, while we were here. It actually only started on our way out of the park, as the events of the days, previous to today, were filled with the activities of being here rather than specifically working in the book. So we all took it on to get it complete and feel as if we knew the park to a degree before we parted. Do you think that the everglades are a swamp? I did, but, that is not correct. It is a slow moving river traveling ¼ mile per day from up near the Okeechobee Lake towards the Florida Bay. This info may have no place in your daily life but when you are here in the park and it is your home and you want to know about where you live, this is pertinent info. A trivia piece that I will probably always remember
Inside the visitors center they had hung half of 58 extraordinary, large format, photos of a shared exhibit aptly named “America’s Best Idea.” The photos were taken by Stan Jorstad. http://www.nps.gov/ever/parknews/americas-best-idea-photo-exhibit.htm
He is one of the few people that have traveled to and even fewer who have professionally photographed all of the 58 National Parks and 391 designated National Preserves and Areas through out the country. His work is stunning and beautifully produced. I was honored to have been able to be present to the showing and was inspired, beyond our original calling, to take on seeing all of them myself and exploring all of the wilds of our country particularly our designated parks. We live on an amazingly beautiful place.
From this point we headed east, to Biscayne National Park. This would completely blow the concept of getting to our next living site during the daylight and the whole theory of getting acquainted with our surroundings, out of the water. But, it was worth it. Biscayne is just south of Miami and is an underwater national park. The winds were blowing 15 – 30 mph this day, so we did not get to experience the underwater portion via glass bottom boat, but, the beautiful visitors center offers 4 movies (we watched 2) and is designed and laid out in such a way that the outside is brought inside. We spent several hours there and completed Jasper’s second park portion of the book. The ranger there, who has been in this park for about 12 years, was even more animated and interested in Jaspers experience then Jasper was.
This portion of the booklet was much more complicated to find the answers for and a large section was completed by going thru the exhibit and searching out the answers. Once all the sections were finished, he was brought over to a specific area in the center, the ranger placed an official ranger cap on him and swore him in regarding Biscayne National Park and gave him his 2nd badge. Jazz asked if he could keep the hat.
With that we were ready to head to our next sight in the Seminole Reservation. But, not before we met a couple from Middletown. He used to work for Aetna and was very active in the development of the building there and thus in the politics of our city. We hit it, off he was a liberal and we lamented the political scene of Middletown and did a bunch of if only’s. It didn’t change anything in the moment but our intentions were positive for our city. You know, a Butterfly’s wings flapping.
We made it to somewhere between Miami and the reservation when we decided to stay in a Wal-mart lot again for the night. It was past 7 PM, dark and we had not had any supper. We plugged them into the GPS went to two of them and a Sam’s club and were rejected all 3 times by order of local city ordinance. We tried one local camp park but they didn’t have the pull thru site we needed to not have to undo our car which requires us taking the dirt bike off its rack and so on, so we got back of the highway and aimed, yet again towards the reservation. We never made it. To our good fortune once again, we came upon a great rest area that also had a boat launch area in a slightly off location to the parking for the regular rest stop area. This entire area was security patrolled thru out the night, we came to find as we asked the security guy for permission to stay over night. He told us that it was permissible. Now the good part! When you stay in a rest area, as I am sure you all know, from having done this so many times before, trucks taking a break there (which we have to park next to because of our size and inability to maneuver thru any other portion of the parking lot) keep there very loud, when you are trying to sleep, diesel engines running while they are on said break and they only stay for a short while so they are loudly coming and going more often than one would like whilst trying to nap. In short, it is not the best sleeping place. Not to mention, all of the very bright overhead lights that attempt to make it like day when it is really night. But, I had the somewhat scary but ultimately brilliant idea to drive over to the boat launch parking area to see if it was more remote and legal to park there. Guess what? It was much more remote, it was legal to park and sleep there over night) according to the security guard who was sitting in the lot talking on his cell phone securing a date or a pizza for later), there were no overhead lights at all and there was no one else there. It was as if they built it for us for that moment in history. We extended the slide out, pulled the front shades over the massive front windows, opened the side door and windows to the screen position, called the reservation and told them we would see them in the morning, got out the provisions for our supper, cooked it, had a beer and settled in to have a comfortable quite nights sleep??? Yes, no one even pulled into that lot until after 7 AM the next morning. Not even the security guard!

Love Those Glades and other funny experiences!

We spent Thursday late night (Jan 17th) thru Monday mid morning

(Jan 21st) in The Everglades National Park. We celebrated the completion of our first month on the road on the 19th in the Everglades. If you have not been here and you are interested in experiencing on of the most amazing natural phenomenons on our planet, you should plan to visit and to be taken back by this huge, ornate and complex biosphere. It is by far one of the most magical and interesting places in the world I have visited and it is virtually in our back yard. It, like the glaciers of our continent, are effected by the natural evolution of the planet but are most impacted by the well intentioned landscape design and utilization of us humans in some manner. It is fragile and in need of oversight protection and on going care to see that it continues to exist. It is very evident in the south tropical areas of Florida that we, as inhabitants in combination with the altering weather patterns, can and are dramatically impacting our own existence in what could be considered the simple everyday usage and disposal of used water.

Living in this moving home has given us a very intimate look at how we use and dispose of our personal water. We have to look for it regularly as we can only carry about 50 - 60 gallons comfortably with us on board and we can only store up to 80 gallons of used water before we would have to find a place to dispose of it. (We really don’t have the option of waiting that long for other reasons pertinent to traveling around the country with sloshing waste water) So we find inventive ways to conserve in the usage of what is very precious fresh, potable water and we are becoming experts at discovering the dump sites required to live comfortably on this machine. What we simply pay for the treatment of, as it goes down the drain at our stationary home and don’t really think about as we use it or flush it, becomes a necessity here on the road. We have an intimate relationship with fresh water and what a plumber friend once described to me as “the juice of life.” Knowing that Americans are said to use up to 80 to 100 gallons of water per day per person in our homes we have very significantly reduced our water consumption out here traveling around. If only we had a fuel cell RV!
The park borders Homestead, FL. We camped in Flamingo, FL which is inside the park and is the southern most point of the mainland of the US. I didn’t realize that point, about Flamingo, until I got there and we read it from one of the travel brochures available at the park.

The picture is of the Saw Grass Prarrie that exists in plentitude thruout the glades. Enlarge it if you can, by clicking on the photo! you will see the Dwarf Cypress trees on the right. This shot is at the beginning of a Dwarf Cypress forest. Elev. 4' above sea level.

This may not be of any real significance to anyone in the world except maybe to me. But, now I realized that it is possible that we will be able, on this trip, to reach the other two extreme directional points in the US and possibly North America, that we have not visited to date. This would complete our, previously undiscovered and unknown to us, personal mission of doing so.
Two years back we stood on the Eastern most point of mainland North America in New Foundland. There we were the closest that you can get to Europe via Great Britain on quasi dry land. The same can be said for Flamingo, FL, except we would be talking about South America. We will have to determine the most Western Point in the US as soon as I have reliable internet access to se if I or we have already been there and then when we visit Alaska later in the summer this year I think we will have visited as far north in North America as these explorers can travel via our vehicle with our personnel. We met up with someone from Anchorage in the Everglades and they notified us that our hope of getting to Anchorage to see the start of the Iditarod on March 1st this year would not be possible. The roads would still be impassible by all practical means for an RV. So with much disappointment for me and Jasper we have had to adjust our itinerary and plan on a mid to late June arrival there.

The Everglades are host to thousands of Alligators and they, although startling at first, become quite common place after a while because they are in such abundance. I’m not sure if commonplace is the correct adjective by you sort of get used to seeing them. Snakes are said to be in abundance as well and thankfully we did not have the opportunity to become as accustomed to them as we did the alligators. The American Crocodile, (endangered) which exists here in the brackish waters along the Florida Bay and are also, with some tools of discernment, available for our viewing amazement. There are tropical and subtropical birds galore. Some are endangered and others like the Black Vulture, I believe, are taking over the planet. The endangered Florida Panther lives here in the glades, but, it is very rare to see them because of their limited numbers and their hunting and roaming patterns. (It would have been a pleasure). There is so much to know about this place and it is a very interesting look at evolution as you review how it came to be the only place on earth like it.

On this trip, I had the distinct pleasure of meeting a couple of the non endangered park's rangers, up close and personal, after having been stopped for speeding in the park on dark evening just before 8 PM. The citing officer was very polite, friendly and helpfully suggestive in attempt to resolve my RV issue that I explained to her upon her request, as to hopefully discern the elusive answer to the question, "why I was speeding." (You see my RV batteries had become so weak that we were in danger of losing all of our food in the fridge and freezer if I did not get them changes out with the new ones I had just purchased in town because it was almost 8 PM and you can’t run your generator, which would have helped keep things cool, after 8. Can’t you see the bind I am in and can’t you just give me a quick warning and let me get on with this very important task at hand) As she completed handed me my speeding ticket she told me how and where I could go to run my generator for a few hours to help alleviate the immediate issue at hand. Now the other thing that is very prevalent in the glades is mosquito’s which, as usual, wait until after the sun goes down to mount their attack on carbon monoxide emitting creatures like humans. They are not the worst here that we have seen them but they are plentiful and if I were her, there is no way in hell that I would be getting out of my vehicle after dark to give some schmuck a ticket on a basically deserted, any time, but certainly after dark, 38 mile stretch of unlit pavement, where, as she so aptly warns me, as one of the reasons for giving me the ticket, that if I hit one of the plentiful alligators on this road (HELLO, there are alligators on and actively crossing this road) we would be in big trouble and personal danger. (By the way as she went back to her car to write the ticket, she told me to stay in the car until she returned….) No SHIT!, we were in personal danger just being there and I was none to happy being stopped and looking like a stationary meal for one or more of these creatures who don’t seem at all particular as to what they eat. (We watched one eat a friggin rock, thinking it was the fish that its neighbor, on the left, had already eaten).

Anyway, all went well with the fridge and battery stuff. I saw her the next day helping out another visitor to the park. In that process Megan heard her mention that she had only been stationed here in the Everglades for two weeks. That explains a lot about why I got a ticket and she wasn’t off having coffee and somewhere where the natural element wasn’t so profuse. When she was done assisting the other person, I asked her, to verify, if she was the person that gave me my ticket last night. She confirmed. I then asked her why she asked me why I was speeding and if anyone’s story would actually make a difference in whether they got a ticket or not. She answered in reverse order saying, “NO and that she just wants to know if she can be of service to the person and help them solve the problem that they are having as she did with her suggestion to me.” She then asked me a question “Did you save the things in your refrigerator last night?” I told her that we did and that (although we had already thought of it) we took her suggestion and uprooted the RV to a remote, to the campsites) parking lot and ran the generator for a couple of hours to get the fridge cold again. She seemed pleased as she told me that she thought about us and our situation just before she went to sleep that night.

The picture to the left was taken in Mahogany Hammock inside the park. It was hard for me to imagine that there were actually harwood trees in this place. Their roots spread way wide but only about 5" deep as there is nothing for them to root down into. The picture is of the largest and oldest mahogany tree in the US as I was standing on a boardwalk underneath it. Notice the air plants growing piggy back off of the tree.

The Everglades and Smiles!

Thursday we head for the Everglades National Park. We will camp in the wilderness for the rest of the week. I will include some of the photos we get there on one of the next postings
We will visit with a friend there who happens to be in Miami for the day and had a hankering to see the Everglades with his teen/college age daughter before they head home to the cold of Western Mass.
We are very excited to get to do this part of our trip. We hope to leave the RV there for a few more days after that time spent specifically for the Glades and head on over to Key West during the day and continue to sleep in the national park at night.
One of my paternal grandmothers sisters has just passed away last Tuesday in my old home town of Jupiter, FL where she lived for the past few years. She died from the complications of Alzheimer's. I suppose it is better in many respects that she has passed.
For me it offers a unique opportunity to meet up with one of her daughters, then only surviving family member and my second cousin who I so enjoyed being with when I was in the single digit age bracket of my life. I haven;t seen her since and very much look forward to seeing her again.
My Mom and Dad will be passing thru where we are here in Florida and we will have a short visit tomorrow night and Thursday morn before we head to the deep south of FLA.
This ST Lucy visit has been very great, educational and strange. Sometimes simultaneously and sometimes independent of one another and sometimes those affects even occur on different days (not very often).
I got a smile for the first time today from Megan's grandfather. As I came in this AM to the house, he was stuck sitting on the toilet. I was the only one in the house at the time. As a result of his own Alzheimer's, even though I have been here for the past three days he really doesn't know who I am. I am certain that if you are stuck on the toilet, not able to get up, that it just doesn't matter who is there to help. So he called for me, or whomever to get him up. I did and I think the momentary intimacy created a bond that may last for however long it does. The smile may not have had anything to do with that event and honestly it doesn't matter to me one bit. For the first time since being here, I felt as though it was OK for me to be in his house and that just maybe he remembered my face for a moment. His smile for that two seconds, it felt good to me. And for that instant, I did not feel like a stranger to the man I have know for 15 years.
Thanks POP

Going to the Island!

January 9, 2008
We are here in The Dominican Republic or accurately stated Republica Domincana. We have been here since Saturday the 5th. We flew from Miami very early Saturday morning to arrive here at around 3:50 PM. We left Orlando and the rest of the kids on Friday night around 10:30 PM on a sort of an unintended but crazy fast paced tour by default trip to get to Miami on time to make the plane and just barely made it.
From Orlando that night, we drove to Port Saint Lucy, Florida, to Megan’s Grandfathers house and arrived there around 1 AM. It had been rainy, off and on, on the ride down but had stopped for a moment when we arrived there. We had not packed our stuff into bags yet for the trip to RD because we had spent every last available minute with the kids at Disney’s Animal Kingdom on a Safari (like I always promised Meg we would go on, spare no expense – what a guy) for her birthday celebration together. After the day at the park, which was insanely crowded, but an enjoyable being together all the same, we headed off to a Japanese style Hibachi restaurant for the birthday and final meal, of the trip, together in Florida. We enjoyed our time there and the food and entertainment were great.
We dropped them all off at the resort we were staying at and began the process of packing up all of our belongings that had been uploaded to the condos for the stay in Florida, back to the RV and loading the car on the dolly for the trip south. We were soon complete with the reload and our good byes and on the road. After the 2+ hour drive to Pop’s house, where Meg attempted to put together what she could as we rolled down the highway (which is challenging at best), we jumped out of the RV and began unloading the car from the dolly to take to Miami. The kids (Sara and Jasper) were sleeping in the RV while this all went on. Once the car was removed, we put the dolly in the yard and backed the RV into its parking space for the week and plugged it in so that the fridge would stay on while we were away and got on with the hurried business of packing our clothes for the island week. During that process it started to rain again and Bud (Meg’s uncle) came out of the house to say hi and greet us (2:15 AM). After completing the clothes packing, we packed the sleeping beauties into the car and started off to Miami.
We were rolling at 2:45 and after a long drive for me, as the Megan and the kids slept, we arrived at the airport at about 5:20 AM with the gas gauge flashing empty. (I didn’t want to stop for gas because we were just about going to make it as it was. I figured it could sit on empty in the parking lot while we were gone). When we got there the airport parking lot was damn near empty and it gave me the impression that we were fine with time so I went back out and got gas anyway. This in affect, unbeknownst to me, would really put us in jeopardy of missing the flight to San Juan, Puerto Rico, the first leg of our trip. We went inside the airport adjacent to the parking garage entrance where the posted signs told us to park for American Airlines. Well, this was just about as far away from where we needed to go as we could have gotten. As we entered the empty airport terminal, we had no idea where to go and there was no one around to ask at that hour. We read the signs, trying to figure out where we were supposed to be, went up and down the escalator a few times and then just started walking in the direction of the other end of the airport. There seemed to be no one at our end of the building, so we may as well just start walking, dragging our luggage behind us, getting later and later….
We finally got to the open AA terminal where there were hundreds of standing/mulling, sleepy but anxious people waiting around doing what we all do when we are waiting for the process to happen, try to get thru the BS and onto the plane. In addition to what we normally do though, many people flying home to the various islands, serviced through Miami, are usually checking in many added bags and parcels that they are bringing back to there island homelands. Things that they cannot get where they are from based on cost or lack of availability, making the line process that much more complicated and congested with the added locations for people to stand around as they attempt to process thru pulling their weighted and awkward parcels behind or in front of them or otherwise somehow attached to their persons. And let’s not forget the added interesting aspect of airline officials speaking and directing them (and us) in Spanglish.
We now have to attempt checking in and checking our baggage at the ticket counter, once we determined where we were supposed to be with a little poignant help from the agents on the floor. Once we arrived at the end of our line, we remained standing there, waiting in that line, watching others from other lines head to the ticket agents until I told the woman agent blocking the exit point of our line, that we were supposed to be on a plane at 6:25 to San Juan and it is now 5:55. I got her attention and somehow my sentence spoke to her need or ability to do her job to help process people like us. She told another (barking) agent with obvious authority (she had the look and the two way radio) who was walking backwards, in place, in the apparent authoritarian open space in front of all the desperately seeking agents people, that we had to get to the San Juan flight at 6:25. The authoritarian gal looked at me for a second or two and then made an angry general comment skyward about, you people need to get here earlier, you are not going to make your flight, I just took care of the last bunch that were already late, now what am I supposed to do (sigh, frown).
The line blocking agent seeing the obvious place for her to fit in a do what she was supposed to do (her job) released and directed us to an open agent at the left end of the long and very busy, beehive like, counter. We bolted out of the starting gate, toting our luggage and carryon’s forward to our next important position, made our way through the tangle of other bags, bodies and crisscrossing people and landed in front of a polite yet nonchalant/overwhelmed ticket agent. He looked at our passports, typed in our names, looked at the screen and seemingly (to me) started moving a little faster when he realized what flight we were on. We began, at his direction, bending down to slide our bags, one at a time, under the obtrusive, belt height counter, onto the scale to weigh them for transport to our destination. (even one pound over 50 lbs. equals a $100 charge for over weight) Sara’s was over weight! So, we had to shift stuff (a few pairs of high heels, blow dryer, curling iron and make up bags) from her bag to my hiking pack to get it to fly. Success!
After making it thru this part of the process, with increasing anxiety, we ran as fast as we could thru the pre-established slalom of mostly Spanish speaking people. Completing this course with agility, grace and as much patience as we could muster, we had speedily meandered our way to an abrupt stop.
There we stood, in a long fishtailing line designed to get us thru the security check point. In front of me happened to be an agent of the security detail. She was sent into the line to accurately discern, in advance of the actual check point (as she later explained to me as “I’m doing my job” after I asked her why she, with obvious uniform and assumed clout, was standing in this line) if their were any infidels or drug traffickers’ in the security line that would have to deal with when they got to the check point. I asked her if there was any line for the people like us who were late and at risk of missing their flight. She politely said, “No Sir!” I have asked this question a few times before, as you can imagine. I usually ask, not only because we are running late a lot, but you never know when someone will be willing to assist or pull rank or strings to make it work for you. This has never occurred! Also I have never actually had an agent or whatever they are called standing in front of me in line. A few minutes passed and she then turned to me and asked me what time my flight was. I told her 6:25 and she looked at her watch to see what time it was. She turned back to me and said, “You will make it, you have plenty of time, this line moves fast and they are just about to add new agents and check points.” She then asked me, “What is your gate number?” I told her it was 35 and she explained, that that gate was the second one, on the left, after the check point and that we would make it with ease. I relaxed, as much as I could, coming from the check in procedure and jog through the terminal and tried to pass on my new found confidence to my family standing behind me.
We started munching, lazily, on fruit from our bags that they would not let through the check points and began seeing ourselves on the plane heading to San Juan. We got thru the check point without any stops or hesitations. We even had just enough time, for those of us in need, to hit the bathroom and get some Starbucks staples [at the mere cost of a newborn child) (yet only a mere pitence of the costs soon to to come in the Island airports]before sitting on the assigned seats of the expansive 757 that would take us to Puerto Rico. While sitting on the plane we called a friend in PR who excitedly agreed to meet us at the airport and take us on a quick (island time, nothing is quick here like in American terms) tour of the island and have lunch with us. We arrived on time in PR at 9:50 AM, 85 degrees and sunny, met our friend Hilda and set off to spin around the island for a bit.

Republica Dominicana 08'

As you read this, please remember that beauty is in the eye of he who perceives and that I have not completely worked out why this place impacted me the way it did. I hope that this writing will help clear some of that for me.

Although the terrain looks very intriguing and undeveloped as you fly into the Puerta Plata Airport, I found myself immediately uncomfortable and restless as we landed. I am not certain if it that I hadn't fully decided if I really wanted to be there or not or if being on this trip at all seemed important or relevant to me. I kept trying to resolve that and am not sure that I really did. I certainly came to an understanding that I was there and could deal with it and would look for the good in being here, but it was a real struggle.

Although it is an island and has a lot of the ambiance of an island it was quickly obscured by the rest of the details, feel and look of the place from the minute I got off the plane. We had to wait for a while to disembark from the small plane that flew us over form Puerto Rico to the Republic. This is a typical understanding of island life, it seems. No one is in a hurry to do anything at a specific time. (this may not be true but it was the way I experienced it from the get go). Once down the stairs and off the plane we were off on a guided 1/8 mile walk across the tarmac towards the terminal. Once in the terminal you are directed to a line. This part is not a typical when visiting a foreign country as you might expect. We have to go thru customs so there must be some order to the process. This line however was not for customs but it turned out to be the line for each person to buy a $10 US dollar visitor pass. After being directed by and asked to form two separate side by side lines by the armed line agent, waiting and meandering thru the line that takes about 15 minutes, you step up to one of two people collecting funds in what would appear to be a quickly constructed plywood cubical with a door, a framed open window like opening and no ceiling.

Although the set up was rather rinky dink by what we are accustomed to from the states, (perhaps we would at least get a colorful carpeted kiosk with electric and phones for the extraction of funds booth) the plywood box constructed specifically for collecting the money and handing over the small, printed card stock, pass was sort of what you would expect from a developing country and fits in quite well as I would come to find. Actually it may have been one of the finer stand alone structures we would run across for the rest of the trip, that wasn't included in some resort property on the island.

The housing is large enough for two people to sit on stools inside and collect the requisite monies from the tourist, put it into a metal cash box sitting right there on the plywood shelf between you and the receiver. Don't worry about anyone grabbing the money and running or trying to avoid paying the dues and getting your pass, we are still in the first staging area of your entrance into the country and there is no obvious way out without going thru the customs lines and then a single entrance to the baggage claim area and the rest of the airport or to run back out thru the entrance from the landing area from which you came (past the first armed guard). Besides everyone has a gun of some sort (here) in this area and as we would soon find out thru out the island.

After getting your travelers chit, you are somewhat confusingly moved on to the next person in the maze, who is actually standing about 100 feet away down near the customs lines on the exact opposite end of this enclosed area. Now this only makes sense if you think about staging many people at one time so there would be much room between the visitor pass area and the custom agent area, but only then would it not feel like I was just traversing the airport area like I had just joined the Army and you were doing this just because they said so. This person directs you to the appropriate customs agent based, I think on where you are from or was it how many of you there are in your party and trying to keep the lines moving. We actually did move fast then and surprisingly we were thru customs in a matter of a minute.

Buying the pass was much more time consuming, like 10 - 15 fold, then getting thru customs. And this is the beginning of and sets the stage for what is the most important or at least most prevalent part of being in this country, the releasing of, asking for or otherwise devising ways to get money from my pocket into the hands of the people that live here in and unending stream of ways. Some of them fall under the category of we have to (like eating and if you rent a car like we did, having fuel) and others are completely unwarranted or desired. I will address them later to, I'm sure, the degree of boredom and them I will quit for you will have certainly gotten the point by then.

I apologize in advance. I am a person who does look for what is great in any place or setting I find myself in. This will, for me, turn into an understanding and compassion for the happy and very friendly people of this country (especially the children). But it was not what I had expected for a winter time Caribbean Island vacation. It felt more like I was supposed to be doing charity work and it was not time for me to do that. This is all good and turns out fine but just another place for me to look at how I process thru these weird spots in my thoughts.

I don't think that I gave it enough thought before coming here regarding the aspect of this island being a Developing Country.

A very cool New Year Celebration and Wish!

We hope for all of our friends and family a new calendar year on which to mark the accomplishments of discovering or rediscovering your passions and living them out in your daily lives.

We spent the day and the midnight transformational second to 2008 at The Walt Disney - Magic Kingdom with some 85,000 other people. It was by far the most dramatic fireworks display experience I have ever witnessed.

Their motto is :

"Where Dreams Come True"

We hope yours do!

Happy New Year "2008"

Megan, Bill and our entire family