Murder and Mayhem in the Bahamas

We arrrived late Monday evening and discovered droppings all over the power boat Dirty Girl. I don't mean a few here and there, about a million inside and out. A hundred rats and/or lizards must have moved in, or so we thought. Lizards because nothing was chewed up, rats because that's what you usually think it is. We cleaned up enough so we weren't stomping through the mess and called it a night. Next morning more cleaning taking time out to watch the shark (about 5' long) lazily swimming circles around the boat. Poor thing has a fishing line wrapped around it's tail, barely visible in the photo.

Nurse shark

On Tuesday cleaning soon became boring and we said “screw it, we're going to the beach.” It was so hot we spent most of the time in the water, watching a sea turtle touring the bay.

Wednesday is fish fry night down the road but I elected to stay behind in the freshly cleaned boat. So I'm sitting in the main salon when I noticed movement on the floor – a rat had just strolled in from the front of the boat. It didn't even see me until I moved and it scurried behind a table in the corner. For the next 1.5 hours I kept watch, scaring it back until Chris and Gerry came home, more than a little inebriated. Chris thought she could catch it by putting a bucket over it if it ran out and Gerry put a trap down thinking it would wander out on its own across the trap. The rat fooled them both and dashed across the room, disappearing behind the couch. We jammed mats under our bedroom doors and went to bed, thinking we had it trapped in the salon and we'll deal with it in the morning.

Thursday morning we found it had chewed its way under Chris's door so Chris and I (Gerry was at coffee club) tore the room apart, and found that our rat is a she, mother of 6, or she was – the young 'uns ended up in the canal (murder) and we're patiently waiting for dear mommy to fall into a trap. 

It's now Thursday evening, no sign of her, nor have we seen any more droppings, perhaps she's left the boat, hope so.

Guess there was no mayhem -- yet.


Update:

Friday, 5:00 a.m. mayhem struck. We had set traps in the side berth and salon. Chris opted to sleep on the couch so she'd have more room to run if the rat showed up, and show up she did, stepping on the sticky pad and running around like mad, with Chris standing on the couch shouting for Gerry to save her - was really funny (from my point of view). Gerry shoved it into a garbage can and tossed her and the sticky pad overboard. We woke both Richard and Gary, hopefully not the new neighbours.  For the bleeding hearts out there, the rat escaped and was last seen swimming for shore (minus the sticky pad) where I'm sure she's getting a posse together. I'm hoping she's smart enough to not venture back on board - we have more traps.

Chris standing on the couch, waiting to be rescued - the typical scene of a woman and mouse/rat.

Update: Saturday morning, October 13, no sign of Alice the rat.

Disney

Disney World is mostly how I remember it, except for the new attractions and I don't remember ever being as sore and tired - guess I'm not getting any younger. We stayed right on the grounds at one of the "value" resorts and had a quick service dining plan - quite handy since park food prices are high. We arrived hours before check-in but they give you your Key to the World and send you a text when your room is ready so you can go to the parks (if you want). Your key card is your room key, food plan, admission to the parks and credit card (purchases delivered to your room). So all you need to carry is that and maybe a water bottle, what could be easier?

Highs and Lows

Hollywood Studios: loved Star Tours, went on it 3 times the first day, went back on day 5 and rode it another 6 times - the ride was different every time. At the insistence of Chris's so-called friends we went on the Tower of Terror - never, never again. Toy Story, the Stunt Show and Beauty & the Beast were great.  Fantasmic (fireworks and water show), was too long, difficult to see, boring, and only had a few seconds of fireworks - a colossal waste of money - cut the budget and lower the park ticket prices. According to Wikipedia it costs $45,000 per show and sometimes it's shown twice a night.

Star Tours, our favourite ride

Animal Kingdom:  safari ride was great, walking trails interesting. The Everest roller coaster gave me a headache, will never ride that one again. Our favourite, was Kali River Rapids. We were fortunate to be directed to the wheelchair entrance. Why? Because after the ride we all begged to go around again and because no one in a wheelchair was waiting, they let us. Good thing it was hot, we were all dripping wet by the time we got off.

On safari

Everest

Kali River Rapids, our favourite - notice how wet that guy is?

We too were eventually that wet (drying in front of the fan)

In front of the Living Seas

 Day 3 was supposed to be the Magic Kingdom but it seemed the entire hotel was lined up at the bus stop so we went to Epcot - good choice we got on every ride with hardly any wait time (except Soarin' which we rode twice). Mission Space was interesting - you're in a centrifuge that creates forces up to 2.4g (Chris chickened out). The Land and the Sea pavilions were interesting, as usual. We didn't get to see much of IllumiNations. We were tired and wanted to beat the crowd out of the park but the fireworks we could see as we walked out were amazing - extra long because it was Epcot's 30th anniversary and our 3rd. We only took 2 pictures here!



Magic Kingdom: thought we had saved the best for last but we didn't enjoy it as much as other times, not sure why. The Pirates and the Jungle Cruise seemed lame, Monsters Inc and Mickeys Philharmonic were great, Stitch's Great Escape was the worst, - dark, stupid and painful. The bars to keep you seated kept hitting our shoulders, and not gently. Story was idiotic, Disney what were you thinking? The fireworks (and Tinkerbell ziplining overhead) were totally awesome. We accidentally ran into the light parade on our way out, was impressive as well.

Halloween decorations were everywhere.

Marvellous light parade

Disney does a great job - everything was clean, ride wait times weren't too bad, never had to wait long for a bus, room was good, staff (oops, Cast) were helpful and friendly, bathrooms and water fountains plentiful, food was good (portions too large). The meal plan gets you 2 meals (incl dessert and beverage) and 1 snack per person per day. We soon discovered sharing 2 meals could feed the 3 of us and we were hard pressed to use up the snacks. You also get a mug that you can refill endlessly at your resort. The meal plan can be used anywhere. Twice we drove to the upscale hotel down the road to have their (better) breakfast and Gerry could get something printed.

We wore a lot of these - good look isn't it?

Lego Land at Downtown Disney

 We're all Disney'd out, no plans in going back in the near future - next time will probably be with the grandkids. Sally has agreed to push me around the parks in a wheelchair.

All Star Music Cafeteria

Mickey waffle, everyone needs to eat at least one.

Our building is the one with the blue guy on white background.

Our last afternoon, we stayed inside and used up our meal plan before hitting the road.

Travelling in Ontario then to Florida

In August we took a wee tour up around Peterborough and dropped in on their famous locks.

Top of lock

Bottom of lock

Also, the St. Marys Cement factory had an open house complete with tours and hot dogs and contests. I won a gift certificate to the bookstore in town by guessing how much cement they make in one day. Most interesting was the experimental building which housed large vats of algae that were being fed by the waste products of the plant. A successful model of making bio fuel.

September 28

We (Chris, Gerry and I) left Ontario on Wednesday and have arrived in St. Augustine FL today, Friday. One must assume that I'm the better driver because I got all the best bits: driving through the pouring rain, up, down and around mountains, and when the highway was a hundred lanes wide, through cities with a million cars on the road. I hear no dissension so it must be true (mind you they're both asleep as I write this).  One of the few times I was in the back seat I decided to replace the too-short straps of my sundress, while wearing it. I cut off the useless back ties, cut off the original straps and attached the longer ones. One went on without a hitch but I soon discovered I had stitched the 2nd one around my seatbelt!!  I either had to cut it or the seatbelt - I chose the strap. I guess I'm the better driver and the comic relief.

We had one interesting stop -  the New River Gorge, West Virginia. On Bridge Day in October they close the bridge to all traffic and do base jumping. This year they're going to catapult a few people off it - silly creatures.

New River Gorge

New River Bridge

Scenery taken by Gerry from the opposite side of the back seat.

Paid a short visit to historic St. Augustine - quite an interesting town.  Had dinner out a very long pier where they had little doors you were supposed to throw food out to the fish but Gerry stuck his hand out and fed the stupid pigeons.

Catfish, and plenty of them.

Seagulls

Bridge over intra-coastal waterway

Instead of going back to a dull motel room we took a Ghost Tour. Was pretty mediocre until we got to the jail. The actor playing an inmate (dead of course) was really entertaining.

"The Bird Cage"

the stocks

Jail bird

Tomorrow we look at a boat Chris is interested in.
Update: boat was too small, on to Disney World!

August 18, 2012 - Best Wedding of the Century

We've flown out to Saskatoon to attend what turned out to be the best wedding we've ever been to. Sally and McKenzie outdid themselves in planning and executing the best day of their lives. The wedding was held in an old movie theatre, the Roxy, not a stuffy, pomp and circumstance affair - there was even popcorn and a'hottin' and a'hollerin'! The minister was serious and funny, the music was awesome, the brides beautiful and of course the kids were cute.

Check out the billboard

and of course there's a movie poster

Inside the Roxy

McKenzie's 93 year old Grandmother did a reading and brother Sam was the best man, hmm he seems to be the only man.

Ring bearer and Abby the flower girl

The reception was at Agar's farm just outside of town - the weather was perfect.

Head table

Cake pops seem to be the latest rage and they were yummy!

Dancing the night away.

The extremely happy couple!

'tis the season (for sailing)

June 16 - Race Day

First race of the season and we didn't do too well - must have been the unreliable wind, couldn't have been the captain or crew!

Maybe we should change the name of the boat from Blazing Matilda to Not-so-Blazing Matilda. Perhaps we should officially christen her, although the on-board party would be considerably smaller than on Dirty Girl.

Rounding the first buoy

 

Was a fairly good wind for a change

Captain Gerry

Why am I always hauling in the sheets and jumping from one side of the boat to the other?
At least I remembered to wear my gloves whichmade tacking easier and being ballast is something
I'm used to.

July in Wildwood

Once again didn't place in the Rum Runner race in July and missed the Wildwood Cup all together - went camping, what's that all about? Of course after a sweltering July (I spent more time than usual with the A/C) the one weekend we choose to sleep outside it's freezing and rainy. Sailing season has finally started.

Wildwood and Trailer - May 2012

Finally got the trailer all done up real pretty inside and outside, while Gerry sweated to death in the Bahamas.

a few special touches

dug in edging

power-washed deck

stained

temporary fix for awning leg

dug giant hole to plant this post for the awning

May 20 Back to Wildwood Lake

Step 1, clean the boat - yes, that is Gerry doing 98% of the work.

Step 2, launch said boat

Step 3, sail

Shenanigans have started again - no one admits to placing this on our dock.