What up?

Well, I've been neglecting my poor blog. No particular reason, have been busy, not riding alot. But also, for some reason I cannot access Blogger from Firefox, and I can't figure it out. In fact this moment, I have Firefox open with some other tabs, and IE open to this page so I can post. Surely there is some explanation, I can access other google sites and have changed my password but no luck on this site and while I haven't spent a lot of time trying to resolve, I have spent some time and research.

Anyway, on to other things, all has settled down post cruise, we had a great get-together the other night with the crew to refresh our memories and share pictures.

I did a 250 mile ride the other day as well with a group from Dr. Pepper in support of their United Way campaign. The weather was cloudy and threatening rain but it held off except for a small shower around Greenville on the way home. I planned the route and must say I enjoyed it and it will be worth doing again, maybe on a Saturday instead of a Sunday though, so that there may be more restaurant options...

Work has been quite busy, with a couple of projects taking a lot of focus, but its also frustrating. Everyone is working remote and being pulled in multiple directions. Busy is good, as is productive, and things appear to be settling down in the HP Enterprise so perhaps that is a good thing overall. We have to take our vacation before the end of the year and I have several days left. Everyone does it seems so that is starting to have impact. Of course this week is Thanksgiving, which is for the most part a lost cause, well, except for today which was a bit nuts.

Its also the time of year to think about family. I am grateful for my immediate famiy and friends that I spend time with, but find myself missing my family back home. As things settle down a bit more around here, its been a crazy year, I need to plan a trip home.

In the meantime however, here's a couple of more pictures from the cruise that bring a smile to my face!

Say hello to my little friend....

A hermit crab, just under 2 inches, crawling along a window ledge at facility in Labadee, Haiti.

Rafting on the Martha Brae

This is one of my favorite pictures from the trip. It's from our raft trip down the Martha Brae River in Jamaica. It was as peaceful as this picture looks.



These rafts are handmade by their captain owners. They are made from bamboo that grows along the river. The rafts last about 6 months at which time they are replaced with fresh bamboo. After about 3 months the bamboo starts to become waterlogged and by 6 they no longer float well.

Back on Dry Land

Back in the great state of Texas after a 7-day Cruise. We partook in the High Seas Rally, in the Western Caribbean, with 12 of our friends from AEHOG.. This is a 7 day cruise onboard the Royal Caribbean Freedom of the Seas. The rally has a completely separate agenda than the cruise although we were able to participate in any cruise activities we wanted to.

We arrived in Coco Beach Florida on Saturday in plenty of time to check out the beach and to attend the pre-cruise party, which had lots of great costumes, since it was Halloween night. Sunday we boarded the ship and sailed off on a big blue watery road. Monday was a full sailing day and we familiarized our selves with the ship, the places to eat (lots of them!) and the rally activities. Monday was fairly relaxed tih time spent on the deck relaxing.

After that we had stops at Labadee, Haiti; Ocho Rios, Jamaica; Georgetown, Grand Cayman; and finally Cozumel, Mexico. On Saturday we had a full sailing day. Friday and Saturday were a bit rough and wet, as we were about a day to a day and a half ahead of of a developing Hurricane Ida.

By Sunday it was time to come home. We had a lengthy day in the airport just waiting for our scheduled flight but got to hang out with our friends for most of the day as we all had different flight times for the most part. We got home late Sunday after an wonderful and memorable vacation.

I took over 1300 photos, so it will take a while to process and go through them all. There are plenty of duplicates, and bad shots (out of focus, no flash, etc) but will get some posted later this week to try to capture the essence of our trip.