Internet! Sweet Abundant Internet!

Yea!!!!!! I have forgotten how nice it is to have Internet at your every beck and call. I thought about posting and was able to do it. Crazy!

In addition to having Internet I am enjoying a nice visit home. I have missed everyone so much and I am glad to be back for a little while. Sadly though I am hard to please...Now I miss Ryan, Sissy and the boat. Sigh. It's a hard life.

I will be home for a little while longer so you should look me up while I'm in town if you want a visit. I don't have a phone and I am trying to make the rounds but if I haven't made it to you yet, you can reach me at Mom's or send me an email with a phone number.

Not much going on here just saying hi to everyone. Maybe I will get some pictures on here in a couple days of the family. I can't believe how big all the kiddos have gotten.

Luperon is a Groovy place

Ryan and a few other musicians have began getting together for a little bit of “jam time”. The band is very diverse in it’s skills as well as it’s instruments of choice, but still sounds great. The boaters and locals have come together once more and blended the two into a one of a kind experience. The selection is eclectic to say the least, they play anything from Rock and Roll, to oldies, some country or Dominican Love songs. You never know what the next song will be. Not only is Ryan playing right along with everyone he is picking up a few pointers here and there and getting better as he goes. This week he decided to pick up the guitar and try to learn that as well.  I didn’t get pictures from last nights session but they had about 10 musicians; several guitar players, a couple banjos, a harmonica, a flute, drums, a squeeze box, and many talented people. And there were several people missing! Great job to everyone that made it I look forward to the next show.

Just getting warmed up.

(This is a picture from their first night out. They have played several times since and the “band” gets bigger each time.)

Look out Jimmy Buffett, Ryan is on the rise!

Luperon Road Trip

We rented a car for a week and traveled the D.R.

The most interesting part was the motorcycles and scooters. They put EVERYTHING on them. It became a game trying to get pictures of the crazy things that they carry.

This scooter has a big bag of feed and two people. The guy in the back is sitting on top of the feed, swinging his feet. This one has 3 people and the back 2 are drinking beer.

There is a scooter under there somewhere.

Later we had to wait for the cattle to travel through town so we could continue on our trip. This was one of the places that we stayed the night at. It was right on the beach and owned by a French guy. The view from our room. Another night we had trouble finding a room, we ended up staying here. They had a little garages attached to your room. And a guy would come and open the door for you. Later we found out that they rent the rooms by the hour and the garages are to hide your cars. Interesting to say the least. We didn’t sleep well either. But as Ryan aptly put it “ Your not supposed to sleep in a whore house.”  

The entire trip was memorable. None of us speak very good Spanish. And we had no idea where we were going. But we still managed to see some interesting things and have some fun.

The salt mines.Motorcycle Ferry.Road side cafes.And ever changing scenery.

It was a beautiful trip but we were glad to get back home.

A Day in Luperon

This is an older entry that I wrote and then didn’t post. I am working on one about our road trip and will post it as soon as I get pictures off Marilyn’s Camera.

Things are good here in the DR. The town is a little, okay, a lot more primitive than we thought it would be, but we are adapting to it quickly, learning to do without a lot of things and make due with others. For instance we no longer go to the grocery store. Mainly because they don't really have one; at least not in the same sense as we are use to. So we A) eat our meals at Steve's place for a whopping 100 pesos each (That is about $2.73) or B) we get supplies from Steve's to cook on the boat.  The last is a little more involved and it’s still cheaper to just eat in the restaurant. The plates are big plates and I never leave hungry, plus I don’t have to clean the dirty dishes! The other day Marilyn and I were craving sweets and found a bakery. The directions were: Go down the street until you get to the green door. And that’s the bakery.

I got a dozen “donut holes” they were very yummy. We may have to make another trip.

Once again we are without a gen set so Ryan caved today and bought a portable Honda. Hopefully I can turn on a light without the power nazi shutting it off halfway through a project.

I think we may have a movie night to celebrate our independence.

Otherwise things are quiet here we are still enjoying ourselves and the company of all our new friends.

Another Year Older

Yesterday was Ryan’s Birthday. To celebrate Marilyn and I agreed to do whatever Ryan felt like doing for the day. We started the day by sleeping in. Then when everyone was up we dinghied over to the other side of the bay where Marilyn and Ryan had seen a staircase leading up the hillside. I don’t know how they spotted the stairs from the water because I knew we were looking for stairs and almost didn’t see them. At the top of the stair case was a large overgrown trail leading to the blow holes on the ocean side of the island. It was a nice hike with a beautiful view.Then after exploring the woods we headed back to Luperon.

Ryan decided that he wanted to spend the rest of his birthday at Shaggy’s singing and playing music.

It was quite the performance and I think that the birthday boy enjoyed his day.

Happy Birthday, Ryan!