Lest anyone think that we haven't adapted well to our new environment, here's a brief description of JimBob's Thanksgiving dinner. Oops, dinner? We spent all day at the beach below our new lot. We had the place completely to ourselves. Jim knitted, Bob drank wine. Anyway, it was a wonderful day and we did not watch football games. Since Thanksgiving dinner is usually in the afternoon, we extended afternoon to be six o'clock. Remember, island time! So we get home (which is now a temporary Condo in Cruz Bay) about seven. Here we are at the kitchen table. Hey, where's dinner? Oh yes, we need to cook something. Where's the turkey? No turkey, Jim?
         Ok, Jim begins to prepare the official Thanksgiving feast. Let's see. Oh yes it's about eight o'clock. Bob, get your hands off that wine glass! Save some to go with the meal. As for the said meal, we have bought two lobsters and sundry fixings to accompany them. The lobsters get plunged into boiling water for one minute, then rushed out to the grill for a few minutes on each side. They are filled with herbed butter. Yum.
          Now it's about 9:30 PM. Still cooking. Jim has made a beautiful citrus, nut, spinach salad. There is wild rice on the stove and asparagus steaming away.
Off we go to the dinner table. Salad, lobster right off the grill. What more could you ask for?

Here's the completed dinner plate as presented by master chef Jim. Everything was fantastic.
Hey, what's for desert? Well, it was a lovely pecan pie with ice cream. Where's it's picture?
Come on, it was almost midnight. I ate it and went to bed. No picture!

Three thousand miles, three thousand dollars.

The Jeep be in de islands, mon. It got de coloful plates with de fish and flowers. Apparently the Jeep had a nice, safe trip south while Jim and Bob had to deal with hurricane Sandy. Then there is the story of picking up the Jeep and getting it to St. John.

     Bob took an early morning ferry from St. John to St. Thomas to pick up said vehicle. The ride over was beautiful. (what did you expect, we're in de islands) Bob hops into a cab for the short ride to the transporters office. But the cab driver can't find it. So Bob gets left off by the side of the road and heads for the waterfront on foot. Finding a bar, Bob borrows a cell phone from a friendly (drinking in de morning) native and calls the office. Can barely understand, but it sounds like a short stroll to the office. An hour later, and less ten pounds of sweat, Bob arrives. The friendly transport agent takes Bob to the bank to get money to pay for the 'road' tax. Then off they go to the DMV. The lady at the payment window is out for lunch, but she "will be back in ten minutes". An hour later the payments are made and we have license plates! Now back to the waterfront where our happy Jeep is sitting in a holding area. Wait half an hour to find someone to open the gate. Whatever. On go the plates, and off goes Bob with the Jeep. Finally!
     Once onboard the car barge Bob orders a rum punch to celebrate. Yum. Bob meets a nice young fellow traveling over to St. John and they pass the trip with conversation and rum drinks. Here's a photo of the Jeep on the ferry. Cool huh?
     The best news is that the Jeep looks great. No scratches, no dents, nothing. And the car cover hidden beneath the back seats is still there. By the time Bob gets back home it's after six in the evening. Where is Jim to make dinner? Oh yes, Jim is in Boston.
     Hey, look. The Jeep has a garage. What more could you ask?

We be on de island again.

 Well it took over ten hours to make the trip, but we are back on St. John. I suppose a five hour lay-over in San Juan didn't help. Then once we got on the ferry to St. John it started to rain. Thankfully our rental Jeep was ready and waiting for us near the dock. Then we drove way out to the east end of the island where Tropical Manor is located. 

The drive up to the house was a little scary. Especially since it was pitch black by the time we were making it. But the caretaker had left all the lights on, so we settled in quickly. At the left are a few photos I took the next morning. First is the gate from the road that leads down to the entrance. Next is the courtyard just inside. Then, of course, our new view. Amazing.
The house is even nicer than we expected. Four bedrooms and full baths to match. A hot tub. No pool, but there are plans in the works to add one. We made a trip to the post office to get mail, then stopped by our storage locker to pick up a few boxes. Everything survived the summer in great condition. Tomorrow our Jeep arrives. It seems the ship was delayed because of the storms up north.
Jim is making his first trip off-island to Boston tomorrow. Didn't we just get here? Anyway, it's a quick one and he will be home for the weekend.
The tradewinds are blowing a nice gentle breeze. The sky is spotted with puffy white clouds. The temperature is around eighty-five degrees. Are we missing Connecticut?   Not!
Stay turned for new adventures to come. Did you notice we changed the masthead photo? The new one is taken from our lot....
house planning and building plans are next on the agenda. We can't wait.
A big 'thank you' to everyone who helped us out as we were packing to leave. Please come visit us! Your wine glass is waiting!

We're outta here!

When we decided to pull up roots and move to St John, little did we know we'd have help with the root pulling. Thanks to hurricane Sandy—that bitch.
Back last summer we took the first step booking plane tickets for our return to Paradise on November first. Then we sold the house—Whooppee! As we were packing boxes and Bob was purging the garage of 20 years worth of knick knacks and bric-a-brac while Jim was filling boxes for Goodwill with clothes...and more clothes, we got the word that Frankenstorm was coming just in time for Halloween.
We spent Sunday moving the first floor furniture to the second floor and a garage full of packed boxes on top of the relocated lawn furniture—oh, our aching backs—then went to the local fire station to fill sand bags, which was a heartwarming experience. We found a huge pile of sand surrounded by volunteers helping potential victims fill bags and load their cars. Next, Jim sealed the outside of the doors with gaffer's taped and piled up the sand bags. Then we climbed in a window, packed an overnight bag and went to bed with visions of destruction in our heads. Monday we evacuated to a neighbor's house on higher ground. The day was spent watching the weather service track Sandy, and watching an assortment of movies. The wind howled, trees began to snap and fall everywhere, sewers backed up and the streets flooded. We knew the biggest danger was not rain, but the 90 mph wind and a perilous storm surge. While the weather service predicted a 12' to 15' surge along our coast of the Long Island Sound at high tide (thanks to the dual demons of a full moon and little ole Sandy), our house is only 11' above the high tide. We agonized. We considered nail biting. We had bouts of nervous diarrhea. About 9:30pm, 3 hours before the peak of the tide, we braved the flooded streets dodging fallen trees (water up to the bumpers) and slowly drove to view our house. What we saw in the headlights as the wind slammed us was a small lake which covered our cul de sac and lawn. After that we tried to sleep—ha, ha, ha!
At 7:30 the next morning we returned to discover the house's fate. There were huge trees across streets and mud, sweeps of sand and debris everywhere. The lawn was covered in tree branches, a giant one blocked the driveway. Bob climbed in the window and discovered a miracle—the house was dry. We walked around the property. Not a bit of damage. We didn't miss the irony in the fact that just 3 days before we're scheduled to head for a place known for annual hurricanes we get slammed by a hurricane. The night before our host showed the movie, The Perfect Storm. It turned out to be perfect for the occasion—all the stars of the movie drown. I was reminded that houses are replaceable, but lives aren't. That my life doesn't revolve around an escrow, but rather a guy named Bob. I hugged him tight and fell asleep. After discovering the miracle of the next morning, we were especially silly all day long. I'm certain it was not because the house was safe, but because we're safe. Living in each other.