New House Blog: Episode LXXX - Fun With The Sun

Our sun is a burning, boiling, bubbling, boundless ball of brilliant beneficence.  It provides heat, light, greatly influences our planet's surface temperature, and it now creates electricity for our New House.  Yes folks, we're talking about solar panels on our roof converting free abundant California sunshine into free abundant California electricity.  We benefit, PG&E benefits, the grid benefits, and our planet benefits slightly (ever so slightly).  But more on that later.  First up in this Episode is cat-proofing, followed by some solar stuff, then a Daisy update, then more solar, then a Clippy Update, and solar at the end.  There may even be a bonus item at the very very end.  And sprinkled somewhere in the middle might be a cute picture of Miles.

Cat-proofing

Our cats are pretty smart, curious, and somewhat mischievous.  Ever since we moved into our New House in the summer of '012 they have been getting into our lower kitchen cabinets quite freely whenever they so desired.  This includes the cabinet directly under the kitchen sink, which houses some potentially dangerous-to-kitties items.  Like I said, they're pretty smart, and for a couple of years their cabinet exploring didn't cause any problems - they don't get into cleaning supplies or climb on plumbing pipes or such-like.  Mostly it was just bothersome noises from them messing with supplies in other cabinets (pots and pans and such), but Edgar Kitten changed everything.  It turns out that he is a plastic bag eater.  Yes, an eater and not just a chewer.  It doesn't seem to bother his little digestive system, but it can't be good for him, and it's bothersome for us when he does it, so we've had to rearrange and change where and how we store some items. Under the kitchen sink we keep our supply of garbage bags (made of plastic) and plastic shopping bags (also made of plastic), and he discovered this one day not too long ago.  D'oh!  Fortunately, we happen to be smarter than all of the cats combined, so it wasn't difficult to figure out a solution - child-proof cabinet latches. So far we have installed the latches only on the kitchen sink cabinet doors and one other cabinet we don't want them getting into.

It's just a plain, ordinary child-proof cabinet latch, and so far it's working fine.

Some of the cats tried to get into these cabinets after installation, but they gave up after doing nothing more than making a racket with the cabinet doors.

This is the other cabinet we don't want them in.  Among other things it's where we keep our foil, plastic wrap, and small plastic baggies.
















Solar Part One

It was a good day to be a door-to-door salesperson calling at our New House. There was a knock on our door, and a nice lady asked if we might be interested in learning about a solar energy system for our New House (Who knew that solar energy systems are sold door-to-door?).  We said yes, we'd like to hear more information about solar energy systems, and we eventually set up an appointment with a representative of Future Energy Savers.  The gentleman showed us a lot of good information and copies of other people's PG&E bills, and it all made sense to us so we said that we would like to go ahead and buy a solar energy system from Future Energy Savers.  Talk about an easy sale!  Maybe we're just weird that way - we sometime say yes to door-to-door salespeople.  In fact, the frozen meat salesman came by again just the other day (did I not tell you about the frozen meat salesman yet?), and for the second time in a row we bought meat from him.  And it's good quality meat, too - steaks, fillets, chicken, and more.  He's asking for referrals, so if any of you want to buy frozen steaks from a guy in a white Toyota pickup please let me know.

Anyway, back to the solar energy system.  Like I said above, the numbers all just make sense to us.  The initial cost is high, but the system should pay for itself in about 10 years.  There are other solar energy companies in the area offering 20% to 60% savings on bills, but Future Energy Savers offered us up to 100%+ savings.  The other companies offer their pithy savings by leasing the equipment to homeowners at a fixed monthly cost, and the company gets all of the benefits. Future Energy Savers sells solar energy systems and the homeowner gets all of the benefits.  Sadly, the government tax credit benefit is ended as of December 31, 2014.

Back to the 100%+ potential energy savings for us: now that we have a solar energy system on our New House PG&E considers us to be a power generating station, so any excess energy we generate goes into the grid for PG&E to use as they see fit, and we get those excess kilowatt hours credited to us.  Billing is annual, and if/when our annual energy generation exceeds our annual usage we can get money back instead of having to pay.  Since we don't use a ton of electricity between the two of us (and four cats) we expect good news at the end of the billing year.

Daisy Update

Daisy is still mostly confined to my office, but she gets to roam around the house sometimes when Edgar is confined in another part of the house, and it's quite convenient that we can close off the entire upper floor by closing just one door.

Daisy has her own food and water supply, litter box, and climbing and scratching apparatus.  She is quite happy and cat-like, but she would like to get out of the office more. We hope to begin re-introducing Edgar and Daisy soon.

To provide a little extra mental stimulation, and cut down on Daisy's eating, we got her a puzzle bowl, so now she has to work a little for her food.  It took about two days for her to master it.

Solar Part Two

On to the actual install.  We signed the papers and scheduled the work and the people from Future Energy Savers got started right quick.  The first guy to come out was the engineer.  He went up on the roof and measured actual sunlight, surface area, roof angle, and he designed the system.  We have 2kW, eleven panel system that are guaranteed for 25 years.  The second guy to come out was the electrician who inspected our electrical panels.  For our solar energy system we needed to upgrade our main panel.  After our panel upgrade, and permits from the city, our solar panels were installed and connected to our main panel.

 This is our new main panel and solar energy system connection.  As you can see there was some stucco work involved.

We prefer the painted look to the raw stucco look, so we painted the wall.  We used the same viejo white paint mentioned in this Episode.  As you can see, it's a pretty good match for one or two of the other colors on the wall.

Conduit on the roof.

More roof conduit.  It was nice of them to paint it.

And just over that rise is the actual solar array.  We are quite happy with our system, and with the workmanship and professionalism of the people from Future Energy Savers. We also get a bonus for referrals, of if you talk to Future Energy Savers be sure to mention our names.











Cute Picture Of Miles

Clippy Update

You may recall from this Episode that we found Clippy in the 'Mposter a few months back, quite rusty and corroded and not at all pleasant-looking.  Here are some pictures to jog your memory.

This was Clippy when new.

This was Clippy after a few months in the 'Mposter.  We finally got around to cleaning up Clippy to see if there was still any usefulness remaining.

This is Clippy after filing off the surface rust and lubricating the pivot.  As you can see, the actual metal from which Clippy is made is quite pitted, and the blade edges are no longer smooth or useful.  Despite Clippy's clipping motion being restored, Clippy is no longer useful for cutting grass, and so Clippy has been put in the recycling.  There may yet be some good metal under all of that pitting and corrosion.







Solar Part Three

After the solar energy system was installed and connected, and after the city signed off on everything, we had to wait for PG&E to flip some switch in their system that would activate our status as a power generating station.  Until said switch flipping they got to use our excess electricity for free without crediting us. Because of this PG&E likes to wait about 45 days to flip that switch.  They finally did flip the switch, and now we are officially a power generating station.  But I know what you're waiting to see, so here it is in all its beauty - our solar panel array.

There ya go - all eleven panels soaking up and converting sunlight.

Isn't that a beautiful sight? Our roof faces kind of southwest, and it gets at least some sun almost all day long.

As an added bonus the panel installers installed this ring for hooking safety harnesses onto.









In addition to installing the array, a new main panel, and the connection to our new main panel, Future Energy Savers installed this device for real-time energy production monitoring.

The unit is connected to our wireless home network and it shows our power output in real-time, the total power output to date, and how many of the panels are producing energy.


Reading the display from left to right we see on the top row: this unit's IP address and its status of Web+, which means it is connected to the internet.  The second row shows: instantaneous power output, total power output, and the fact that all eleven panels are producing.

Since this unit is connected to the internet, via our home wireless network, we can monitor our energy production from any web browser, or via the iOS app.

This is a typical readout from the web interface. Bright blue means more energy production, and darker blue means less energy production. Our system was installed in December, the time of year with the least sunlight, and we've been delighted to watch our power production climb as we get more sun and fewer cloudy days.  Our highest one-day output to date is 11.9kWh.  We're really looking forward to seeing what we can crank our in the summer.

Bonus Item One

For your edification and consideration: consider this monstrous accursed clover that I extracted from from between the branches and leaves of one of our sweetpea bushes.

Look how tall this monster is. Despite my malevolent feelings toward the accursed clovers, I have to respect how determined they are to get to the sunlight.

Of course, this monster had to go, so I pulled it up.  Check out the size of this beast.  It was easily three feet long from root to flower.  It's the longest one We've pulled up so far.














Bonus Item Two

Also for your enjoyment is this bonus bonus item - the first poppies of spring.  I know it's still February in most of the country, but over here on the left coast the plants think it's spring.

We didn't even plant poppies this year, or last year.  All of our poppies (even the ones across the sidewalk) are descended form the orignal poppies we planted when we moved into our New House. They're poppin' up all over now, of their own accord.  It's a good thing we/I love poppies.

How many times can I say Future Energy Savers?
       bIsh

The R's Of Barbados

As has apparently become an annual tradition, we must deviate from the New House Blog in order to bring you this exciting account of our time in Barbados during the recent Christmas season.  We left our New House on Tuesday, December 23, 2014, and headed to San Jose International Airport.  We returned to San Jose International Airport on Monday, December 29, 2014, and drove home to our New House.  In between these two dates we went through a total of 6 different airports (some of them twice), rode a total 6 different airplanes, watched 7 different movies, and discovered the R's of the beautiful island nation of Barbados.

The first R is for the roads in Barbados.  In a word, they are pretty bad - at least in most of the areas where we drove.  We actually broke our rental car on the first day due to the bad roads - more on that later.

The second R is for the Round House Inn, our hotel during our stay in Barbados.  The Round House is a historic, old inn and restaurant (think of a bed and breakfast) built from the abundant coral rocks of Barbados.  The walls of the Round House Inn are quite thick - our window sills were two feet wide in some cases.

The Round House Inn

The third R is for rum.  As in Puerto Rico, rum is a big deal in Barbados.  The national brand is Mount Gay, established way back in 1703.

The fourth R is for the abundant coral rock that seems to be a primary building material in Barbados.  Everywhere we went houses and hotels and cliffsides were built from the stuff.

The fifth R is for rust.  Just about everywhere we went we noticed some amount of rust.  This is not surprising when you consider that most of our trip was spent near the ocean, and salt water is quite corrosive to metal.  Usually it was just small things - window latches, a few nails here and there.

There are more R's scattered throughout this narrative - R's that you can discover and uncover as you read our chronological account of our visit to Barbados.

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

R is for Routing.

Our trip commenced in the evening at the San Jose International Airport.  The first flight took us to Sea-Tac airport (which you all know is in a direct line between San Jose and Barbados) for a connecting flight to Miami.  While awaiting our connecting flight to Miami we enjoyed a delicious meal from the airport's Ivar's counter.  Their salmon chowder was so delicious that I saved some for the flight to Miami.  We arrived at the humungous Miami International Airport on Wednesday morning, the 24th, and had to ride an in-airport train to reach the gate for our final flight to Barbados.  

Wednesday, December 24, 2014 - Christmas Eve

R is for Rental.

We arrived at Grantley Adams International Airport in Bridgetown, Barbados, in the afternoon of the 24th, and after speeding through immigration and customs we headed to another of Barbados' R's - our rental car.  Our ride for the week was a base-model Kia Picanto, a model not sold in the U.S.  Sizewise it seems to slot somewhere between the Smart car and the Honda Fit, which is a good size for a car in Barbados to be.  Despite its diminutive size, it had four doors and room for the two of us and our luggage.  I'd like to say that it was a tough little car that capably handled whatever we threw at it, but I can't say that.  It broke on the first day as we were driving to our hotel.  Included with the rental car was an island map with all of the major roads and town areas.  The rental agent was very helpful, and he showed us exactly what roads to take to get to our hotel, which is on the other side of the island from the airport. 

Our first real adventure in Barbados was the drive from the airport to the hotel.  At first all was smooth as we left the airport and successfully navigated the first roundabout as per the directions from the rental agent.  And Becky was quite comfortable with driving on the left side of the road.  As the trip progressed, however, three things became apparent quite soon - the roads are rather narrow, there is no center stripe on most of the roads, and the roads are poorly marked (if marked at all).  Later on we discovered that, due to the poor roads and numerous potholes, driving on the right is in many areas more of a suggestion than a hard rule.  Sometimes you have to just drive where the road is the least bad and hope no one is coming the other way.  In Barbados, street signs are very few and very far between, and the signs do not show the street names - the few signs at intersections say, for example, "Atlantis Hotel," and they point down the road that will take you in that direction - >Atlantis Hotel> (If we had known that the Atlantis Hotel is just down the street from the Round House Inn we could have just followed those signs and saved ourselves a lot of trouble).  Add to this the fact that some of the intersections and turn-offs don't look the same on the map as they do on the ground, and we had to navigate by dead reckoning, trying to match the shapes of the roads with the shapes on the map, asking strangers for directions, and heading in the general direction we wanted to go.  I don't know how many wrong turns we made, but we ended up at one point on a dirt driveway into some kind of agricultural establishment.  We turned around from there and headed back in the direction we started from.  Then the car broke.

It happened something like this: after exiting from the dirt driveway we were heading downhill (the terrain is quite hilly on the east side of the island) on winding narrow roads.  Becky was keeping to the far left of the road and the left front tire slammed into a huge crater.  The impact could be felt through the entire frame of the little car, and through the entire frame of me.  It felt bad, and the front left tire suddenly was making a new noise - a noise it might make if it was flat.  Becky slowed the car and crept downhill for a couple of more curves and we encountered some local men on the left side of the road.  They assured us that the tire was flat and we could pull off the road to change the tire.  We pulled off and I commenced to take off the flat tire and put on the spare.  As I was doing this the men were most encouraging - one or two of them reminded us to put rocks in front of the tires so the car didn't roll downhill.  Did I mention that the crater impact dented the rim?  I got the first three lug nuts off with no problems, but the fourth didn't want to let go.  As I was battling the fourth lug nut a younger man came up the road from a nearby house and offered to help.  I explained the situation and he took over battling the stubborn lug nut.  I'm not sure who won the battle.  On the one hand the lug nut never did give up its grip on the stud, but on the other hand the stud itself sheered off entirely and the lug nut was no longer an issue.  You read that right - the lug nut was holding on to the stud so tightly that the stud sheered off entirely, leaving us with only three working lug nuts on the left front wheel.  We thought the young man would merely remove the tire for us, but he also put on the spare for us without us asking him to do so.  The Bajan people we encountered were all like that - very nice and very helpful.  One lady actually - well you'll read about that later.  With three lug nuts we could limp to the hotel. On the way we made at least one more wrong turn and I had to ask directions from some men at a table in someone's front yard.  They were quite helpful, and their directions were like this, "You go back to the intersection and turn right.  Then you go along this road (pointing to map) and you will go down a big hill, then up a big hill.  At the top of the hill turn right and you will go down another hill.  Then follow the road and you will get there.  When you get there bring us back some beer."  I thanked them and we went on our way.  We only made two more wrong turns after that before we got to the Round House Inn.  We never did get any beer for those guys.  Some of you might be wondering why we didn't simply use Google Maps on our phones to navigate.  The answer is money - data use in a foreign country can be expensive, and we didn't want to pay for it.  We didn't even use our phones to call anyone for the same reason - money.  We had our phone with us basically for emergency use, and playing games and taking pictures.  There were a couple of times I almost resorted to phone navigation, but we never quite got that lost.

The proprietors of the Round House Inn were happy to see us and quite sympathetic to our plight.  We got checked into our room (room #3) and called the rental company to explain the situation.

The view from room #3

While we were waiting for the mechanic from Stoutes Car Rental we took in our surroundings.  One of the first things I noticed was the lack of glass in all of the windows of our room.  It turned out to not be a problem - the ocean breezes blowing through the windows was very nice, and it kept the bugs away.  There were shutters for keeping out birds, bats, and prying eyes.  There are no TVs and no phones in any of the rooms at the Round House Inn, but there is a free Wifi signal that varies in strength from one spot to another.  When the Stoutes mechanic arrived (it was after dark at this point) he told us that we could drive with only three lug nuts on that wheel, but we insisted that we needed either another car or this car repaired.  He called the company, the company talked to me, and we agreed that whatever happened would have to happen tomorrow, on the 25th.  They also charged us for the wheel and tire replacement.  We had insurance on the car, but it didn't cover the wheels and tires, which makes sense in a country with such lousy roads.  We had a delicious meal in the outdoor section of the inn's restaurant.  I had the flying fish cou cou, and Becky had a different flying fish dish, possibly the flying fish sandwich.  Flying fish is a staple in Barbados, and we consumed our fair share while we were there.  While we were waiting for our food to arrive another man from Stoutes arrived at the inn with a replacement car for us.  We weren't expecting anything to be done that night, but this man drove in the dark over some pretty awful roads to bring us a replacement car.  And he had to drive our broken car across the island back to the airport.  Did I mention that he did this on Christmas Eve?  That's some great customer service, and we can recommend Stoutes if you are ever in Barbados.  The replacement car, also a Kia Picanto, was a tough little car, and it ably handled all we threw at it.

Thursday, December 25, 2014 - Christmas Day

R is for Resort.

Our day started out when we woke up in room #3 of the Round House Inn, with sunlight filtering through the shutters and sea breezes gently wafting about us.  While breakfasting in the inn's restaurant, which has glass in the windows, we were informed by the proprietors that they would need to move us to room #2, because they had mistakenly put us in room #3 when we arrived - they would take care of the move while we were out for the day (there are only 4 guest rooms at the Round House Inn).  After breakfasting in the inn's restaurant we decided to head out for the day in the general direction of the Crane Resort, where we had our lunch reservation.  On the way to the Crane we stopped at a convenience store and picked up, among other things, a soda that eventually proved to be quite a challenge for me - a Frutee brand Ginger Beer with a particularly stubborn cap.  We had no trouble navigating to the Crane Resort, and we were early for lunch so we strolled around for a while and viewed the vista of the beach and ocean.

The beach below the Crane Resort

The Christmas lunch buffet at the Crane Resort's restaurant is apparently well-known to, and well-loved by, the locals.  We were among the few diners dressed casually - most of the diners were in their Sunday best.  Our belief is that this was their big Christmas dinner, and they wanted it to be a special occasion.  And it was certainly a special occasion for us, and a big Christmas meal.  The buffet was well-stocked with a wide variety of well-cooked foods, including the ubiquitous flying fish.  We lunched quite well, and we desserted quite well.  After lunch and dessert we went down to the beach and enjoyed the sun, water, cliffs, and people-watching.

Among the people we watched was a young girl who kept saying that she was going to jump off the rocks into the water, as her friends had done earlier before they abandoned her.  Yup.  Really gonna jump this time.  Okay.  Now I'm really going to jump in.  For sure this time.  I'm really jumping in.  Etc.  Not surprisingly, she never did jump in, but ended up walking back down the rocks to the beach.  Neither Becky nor I jumped into the water.

Our next adventure was a search for the famous Project HARP guns.  Sometime in the past someone thought it would be a good idea to try to launch payloads into space by using really big guns.  The guns were built in southern Barbados, just south of what is now Grantley Adams International Airport.  The project never lived up to the hopes of the creators, and it was abandoned.  Today the guns are slowly rusting away and gathering local foliage about them.  After leaving the Crane we drove around in search of the area where we could search for the HARP guns.  By a combination of poor navigation and sheer luck we managed to find the exact spot at the end of a road, near a cow field, that is the starting point for those who wish to visit the HARP guns.  

The cow field

After tramping through the knee-high (and sometimes waist-high) grasses toward the coast for a while we found nothing and Becky returned to the car while I soldiered on.

I'm sure they're here somewhere.

Getting closer...

Success at last!!!

 I eventually found one of the HARP guns, just south of the airport, but due to time (and Becky waiting for me in the car) I only got within about 500 yards of the HARP guns.  Next time I'm in the area I'll know where to go to get down to them to see them up close.  After returning to the car we successfully navigated our way back to our inn and settled into room #2.  It turns out that Room #2 is a bit smaller than room #3, and the sea breezes are not as strong as they are room #3.  Also, one of the windows (no glass, remember) looks out over the spot where the proprietors like to hang out and smoke at night.  Although the smoking was a bit annoying, it wasn't a huge deal, and the inn shut down every night at 10pm, which meant the nights were nice and quiet.

The view from room #2

 For dinner on Christmas night we walked about a mile down the road, along the beach, to the Atlantis Hotel, where we had made dinner reservations.  It was a pleasant walk, and it was the only restaurant we encountered that had a dress code (casual elegance, I think they called it).  I had the lobster meal, and Becky had the pasta with flying fish.  After dinner we walked back to the Round House Inn and room #2, and I battled with the stubborn pop bottle cap for a while before bed.

Friday, December 26,2014 - Boxing Day

R is for Reef and Rum.

We woke up early on Boxing Day to head across the island to the Bridgetown waterfront for a catamaran cruise.  We didn't have time to eat breakfast at the inn, so I had breakfast in the car - various munchies that we picked up at a convenience store on the way across the island.  Navigating to Bridgetown was a breeze - it was basically straight across the island on one road for most of the way.  Looking back on it now, I think it was a combination of directional instinct and luck that got us to the waterfront after we entered Bridgetown.  I say this because our map of Bridgetown only showed a few streets near the waterfront area.  This caused us a bit of trouble when we were trying to leave Bridgetown later in the day.

On to the cruise.  We chose to sail with Elegance Catamaran Cruises for two main reasons - they have a maximum guest load of 14 passengers, and they specifically target people who don't want a party boat.  The boat was manned by a crew of three friendly guides who kept us hydrated, relaxed, and informed about local history.  Among the other passengers was: a family consisting of two grandparents (who winter in Barbados and have taken this particular cruise several times) and their son and his family (wife and two or three young kids); a family consisting of two retired parents and their daughter who were cruise ship passengers just in Barbados for a day or two; and two or three other random people who seemed to be together.  I was really looking forward to the snorkeling, and Becky was happy to remain on the boat soaking up sun at our snorkeling stops.  At our first snorkeling stop we were issued masks and snorkels, but not fins.  The captain said that the fins would upset the turtles (he said that the turtles would be jealous of our fins).  I used my handy waterproof disposable camera at this dive site, and I think I got a lot of good pictures of sea turtles, but I'm not sure because I haven't gotten the film developed yet.  In fact, I'm still trying to find a place that does film development.  In addition to snapping pics of turtles, I got to pet a few of them, and I even put my feet on at least one of them.  Back on the boat and a quick hop to the next dive site - a reefy  area with three shipwrecks.  At this site we were issued masks, snorkels, and fins (no turtles to offend), and we dove in.  Before we dove in, however, the captain warned us to stay off the wrecks to avoid injury.  This did not stop one of the boat crew from diving down into the first wreck and mingling with the fishies.  I used my regular digital camera inside a special waterproof camera bag.  The setup worked great, except for me not making sure the camera had a fully-charged battery, and I got a lot of really good photos.  Sadly, they don't convey the full beauty of the underwater world as I saw it in-person.  The first wreck was a French tramp steamer that was scuttled about 100 years ago when the crew didn't want to leave the island.  The curving thing you see in the the pictures is part of the waterproof camera bag.

The French tramp steamer

A crewman with the fishies

The second wreck, the Bajan Queen, used to be Barbados' first tugboat, then it had a short life as a party boat, then it was intentionally sunk to create an artificial reef for the fishies.

Bajan Queen and a floating crewman

The third wreck was once a drug boat that was seized by the authorities and intentionally sunk to create an artificial reef for the fishies.  Sadly, I don't have any pictures of this third wreck because of the not fully-charged batter mentioned above.  When I got back on the boat I noticed that Becky had an orangy-pinky drink of some sort.  I inquired and found out that it was the company's signature drink, called an elegant sunrise, and it was a mix of fruit juices, coconut, and a splash of rum.  Being the rum afficcionado that I am I had to have one, and it was really tasty.  Becky informed me that with a properly mixed drink you don't taste the alcohol, and such was the case here - I didn't taste the alcohol, nor did I feel any effects.

After a sumptuous lunch, which included flying fish, among other things, I took another swim - this time sans goggles, fins, snorkel, and camera.  It was nice just being in the water and swimming around the boat.  Back on the boat and the cruise toward home.  I decided that since I enjoyed the elegant sunrise I had earlier that I could use another one.  As we were sailing home one of the crewmen explained a bit about Barbados' sugar exportation.

After debarkation we walked around the waterfront area for a bit, but most of the shops and businesses were closed up for the holiday.  Despite this mass closure, we found some ice cream (in a bar) and had a nice late afternoon snack in the shade of a waterfront park area.  Time for the drive home, and an unplanned adventure (and not the fun kind of adventure).  We asked the boat crew how we could get back on the main road, and he gave us typical Bajan directions that went something like, "Go straight down this street, then you come to a stop light.  Go straight through the light, then at the roundabout to left.  When you pass the hospital go left and that will take you to the road you want."  The only problem was that going straight didn't take us to the stop light, we never did find the roundabout or the hospital, and our map of Bridgetown only consisted of the few streets right by the waterfront area.  We tried following the scant map, but ended up going in a loop because the map and the actual streets didn't match up.  Then we drove around seemingly at random for a while (I didn't want to admit that it was mostly at random, hoping we would hit a main road that was on our Barbados map), and somehow ended up going through the same neighborhood twice, in opposite directions.  We stopped and asked a lady for directions, and she basically said we should follow the bus signs that lead out of town.  The problem is that they lead in different directions out of town.  We somehow found ourselves back at the waterfront and in our original loop again (kind of like when Winnie the Pooh was lost in the forest and kept finding the same sand pit over and over again).  It sounds funny now, but we were not having fun at the time.  Things had almost gotten desperate enough for me to turn on my phone's data and use Google Maps, but Becky decided to stop again and ask for directions.  Praise the Lord that she did (and I mean that literally).  The lady she asked was glad to help, and she started going back and forth with another lady about how we should get to our road.  "You go down to the light, then through the roundabout.  No, they can't go that way.  You're just going to confuse them.  So you go left at the roundabout.  Yes, it's left.  Stop confusing these people.  You know what, I'll get in my car and lead you to the road you want."  That's right, this lady, a total stranger, took about 15 minutes out of her afternoon to get in her car and lead us through the city to the road we were trying to reach.  Incredible!  I've never experience this before, and it was just incredible.  And that was our experience with all of the Bajan people we met - they are nice.  They are a kind and helpful society.  After we reached the main road across the island it was an easy trip back to the inn for the night.

We had planned to eat dinner at the inn's restaurant, but they apparently close early on Fridays so that the proprietors and their employees can spend time with their families.  So we walked about half a mile along the beach to a little eatery right on the beach.  It wasn't quite a full restaurant, and it was more than a food stand and it had outdoor tables.  The food was quite delicious.  We both had the flying fish entrees, and after dinner we walked back to inn for the night.

The End

R is for Really Red Hot Mad at Blogspot and Google.

There was a lot more to our awesome trip, and a lot more R's, and I spent several hour over several days typing up the rest of this great narrative, but Blogspot did not save my work, despite me hitting the "Save" button several times.  I spent a lot of time on this, and it's all gone, and while I remember a lot of what I typed up, I'm not going to re-type the rest.  Thanks a lot, Blogspot.

Here's a link to the rest of the photos not shown here.  Picasa photo link.

Maybe I should move this blog over to another host, like Wordpress.
bIsh