Bruce's Travels

Hard to believe I've been back from the cruise a week already. Tempus fugit. This week I've been making arrangements for my trip to Lakeland, FL, for the NAWCC mid-winter regional watch/clock show, and visit with my friends, Gene and Pegg Johnson, in St. Pete Beach. My Powerpoint presentation is ready, and I've confirmed with the show chairman that computer and data projector will be there, so all I have to bring is a thumb drive with my program on it. Amazing. For accommodations, I've reserved an airbnb at a home in Lakeland with host "Melissah."  For the show, I'm just staying one night (Friday) and decided to drive to Lakeland on Friday morning direct to the show rather than staying over Thursday night and incurring another night's lodging expense. It's about a 2.5 hour drive from Ft. Myers to Lakeland, and my presentation is at 10:30 a.m.. So if I leave by 7 a.m., I should  be fine. I'll leave the show about noon Saturday and drive to S...

Friday Jan. 20 Phillipsburg St. Maarten Our last port of call. Up at 7 a.m. and breakfast in the 'Jammer of bran muffin, fresh fruit, yogurt, and coffee. Set out for Phillipsburg about 10 a.m. We are the only cruise ship in port today, so streets are open, but we are being accosted more frequently by vendors, especially since we are "marked" with wristbands for the water taxi to and from the ship. Julie and I head straight for "That Yoda Guy" museum on Front Street.  It was not open, so Julie and I split and I hung out at a kiosk bar for about an hour drinking three cold Heinekens. Returned to the museum and it was open. The place is run by Nick Maley  and his wife, Gloria. Nick has  created puppets and figures for approx. 50 movies, but is best known for creating the Yoda figure for Star Wars Episode Five. The place is regularly featured on Tripadvisor among the 10 top things to do in Phillipsburg. The Internet Movie Database (IMDB) notes that his last...

Jan. 18 After finishing my walk in Roseau St. Kitts (including buying a hula shirt), I went back to the ship and changed in swim suit and took a refreshing dip in the salt water pool. Lunch of roast beef sandwiches and lemonade in the Jammer. Reading “Reliquary”, then a nice little afternoon nap. Dinner of cilantro crusted cod was not the best …fish was OK, but had to scrape off the breading. Cherries Jubilee for dessert made up for it! Lost $50 in the casino tonight … DAMN! That's 3 losing nights in a row after a stellar 2-night winning streak for $150. Show tonight was a ventriloquist/comedian, and he was very funny! Read some more of my book in the stateroom then fell asleep. Jan. 19. Up at 7 a.m. and breakfast in the 'Jammer of corn beef hash with three over easy eggs. Left ship 10 a.m. for St. John's Antigua. Did a little walking tour with Julie, stopped at a bakery and had a sweet roll to sample some local pastry. OK, not great, and no coffee. Now s itting in “Chee...

rest of  Monday, Jan. 16: Found no fresh fish on Tortola yesterday. Weird. Lots of American food, Chinese food, and lots of chicken. Back to ship and had lunch at Windjammer. Found Julie in the Solarium and sat with her a while, then headed to stateroom for a shower (sweat and sunscreen ... yuck). Dinner of broiled pork chop, salad, and warm choc. lava cake for dessert ... my fave dessert so far! Also spent a little more of my $75 ship's credit and had a glass of pinot grigio with dinner. Lost $15 at the craps table, but still money ahead. Good show in the theater tonight of the two lead singers from the RC Singers doing a roster of their own hand-picked favorites. The female knocked it out of the park with Whitney Houston's "If I Don't Have You." Jan. 17 Here at Basseterre St. Kitts. Our ship had to port at the commercial dock because the cruise ship dock is already full with two other cruise ships, RC's "Jewel" and a Carnival ship. I'm here...

Friday Jan. 13 th   Off to a good start. We were processed in less than half hour at the cruiseport, and seated in a holding pen for another 30 minutes until RC had the ship ready for boarding. No access to our room for another hour, so we headed up to the Windjammer (Jammer) on Deck 11 for the welcome aboard buffet. A faulty sea-door on Deck 2 briefly delayed our arrival to cabin #2015. Julie explored while I took a brief nap. Spent the rest of afternoon reading and playing Wizard of Oz slot machine on my Kindle. Dinner at 6 p.m. in the Reflections dining room on Deck 5 was delicious. I had the sirloin steak while Julie had Atlantic salmon. We then headed to the theater for the comic musings of John Knight with a brief intro number by the RC Singers and Dancers. Never heard of Knight, but he was very funny with a deadpan style of delivery. The usual fare … farts, colonoscopies, and an airplane joke involving a blonde woman. He also had fun with some people in ...

Feeling kind of crappy as I write this latest blog entry. I've been in good health since arriving here Nov. 3, and wouldn't you know I'd get the crud just before my cruise which departs in four days. I think it's bronchitis, and it started Saturday 1/7. I think I'm over the hump, with Sunday being the worst. Been drinking lots of fluids, resting, and taking Mucinex in pill form to help loosen the cough. This a.m., I went out for breakfast after taking a nice long hot shower, got a couple shipments ready for the post office, and will plan/execute something for dinner for (sister) Dawn and I. That will be about it! The crud notwithstanding, it's been a good and productive past week. I re-opened my website on Jan. 2 for a limited time to showcase some consignments I received from one of my best customers. I was going to abstain from doing any business while down here, but this poor fellow is in desperate need of funds for medical expenses, so I agreed to help. I ...