Trafalgar Falls weekend

OOPS, video is 12 meg so didn't want to load...I'll try photos instead.

Travis (he's the man in green shirt) said that an egg will boil in about 5 minutes in this pool....and the pool smells like a boiled egg - go figure. What an amazing weekend; I'll try to give a list of sights, events, people but not necessarily in the order of occurrence. The trip from Portsmouth to Roseau ended up being tame in terms of speed compared to the return trip. Had a younger driver on the return, and I believe he was practicing his Formula One skills in a diesel minivan. They must place lead between the frame rails to keep the center of gravity low enough not to tip over. Just a clutch dumping, gear grinding, accelerator to the floor fun ol' time, punctuated with slamming on the brakes to allow passengers to get on/off.

Anyway, our Sunday meeting consisted of Andrew, Travis and his two kiddos Trenton and Taleah, Brian, and us 4. Afterwards a lunch of hot dogs and mac and cheese, very tasty and certainly a crowd pleaser among the kids. You know, those of us 40 and under!!! It was great to be in Travis's home, and he certainly made us feel welcome. Lanelle and I basically took over their kitchen a few times as Sasha, Travis's wife, is back in Alaska. Travis did a smashing job on some hamburger vegetable casserole though. A little while after lunch, we got dressed in swim trunks for a hike down and up to the hot springs baths. The kiddos had fun splashing around in the baths; the largest one was about the size of a normal hot tub and the smallest on only had room for 1 person. Quite interesting to see the rain falling when looking across the valley, hear it in the canopy above, but not get wet! The rain showers so far are just a mist with defined droplets...not rain and not mist either.

The trail down the hill to the river from Travis's is one of the really steep ones as is the one by the boiling cave. Standing on their deck you can hear the river below about a quarter of a mile away and several hundred feet elevation difference. (Wish I had my GPS handheld for getting some of those details...it's hard to describe). I didn't hear if the river is the one that flows from Trafalgar Falls, but land contours would lead me to believe that to be so. It's not a large river, perhaps smaller than the Washita near home, but loses elevation pretty quick and is strewn with many large boulders. Then up the other side is not hardly as steep where you walk about 1/2 mile to get to the hot springs. Along the way there is an exposed piece of rock/dirt that is spewing sulfur smell...wonderful. Somewhat straight ahead under a bamboo canopy that looks like a tunnel is the boiling springs that the video above shows. Left of all this and up a fairly steep rock road are the baths. At the intersection of these roads/trails, local vendors have shacks set up to sell souveniers; shacks that remind me of the peach stands in Stratford, OK only smaller...about 10' wide and 5' deep little bamboo framed, tin roofed shelters. On around the corner toward Woten Waven is a slow decline, a hairpin curve, then......boom the bottom falls out. It is at least a 45 degree decline and perhaps more; one car we met when climbing back out actually stopped and checked his emergency brake before rounding the hairpin curve. The decline is about 50 yards long and ends at another creek, up which the boiling cave can be seen high up on the creek bank. The the walk back down the road; Ethan made it up to about the last 50 yards then finally gave up. I was pretty amazed that he did that good seeing the steepness of the road in places; he had a little companion, Trenton, to hold his hand and keep him encouraged. That last 50 yards carrying him got my legs burning. To get an idea of the walking distances that we're covering sometimes, 10 miles Saturday and a little over 9 today according to Brians pedometer. Monday morning we were up at 5:30 to get ready to catch the bus back to Roseau (Rose Oh), on the bus at 6:30 and off for the winding steep drive. It's a fairly short walk from where that bus dropped us off and where we caught the next one for Portsmouth. Thankfully so since the boys weren't ready to be awake and I was packing a 40 pound duffle that had all 5 of our clothes in it. Then Formula One...I don't know if I'll ever get any coastline shots in the public bus. I literally several times dug my heel into the bottom of the seat to help me keep my balance...and that's setting down! We travelled with Andrew and was very glad for his knowledge of the streets in Roseau. Maps, if they can be found, of the town look neat, but the reality of the closeness of the houses/shops, narrowness of the streets, and general chaos going on around you, plus the fact that the streets aren't marked with very lettering can make you have the lost feeling pretty easily. At least some of the streets in Roseau have street name signs, quite different than Portsmouth.

Monday, Jan 5th found us back here in Glanvillia at the apartment. Lanelle had to finish up some of her work from last week plus get her hours in for today, too, so she camped out hooked to the ethernet wire! Logan and Ethan needed some "down time" after the busy weekend, so they stayed with Mom while Brian and I went to campus for me to get my laptop configured for their network and get a student ID. I did get the laptop job done, but the line for Student Services was about 50 yards long and moving somewhat at an amputated snails pace. I caught an upperclassman on the welcoming committee and he suggested we come back later. The third 1.5 mile one-way trip got my laptop back and my number at the 203rd spot on the list for getting ID. They were calling 79 about the time I left for the last time, so I figure by noon tomorrow they'll be glad to see one more heat stricken smiling face. Bet that photo will look worse than my drivers liscense and passport combined. After the final trip back, I found that Brian had ran the boys down to the beach to wear some stink off while Lanelle worked. She and I headed down that way to find them, along the way hollering out a greeting to Spesh when he toot tooted his horn at us. Brian, amazingly, had kept the boys out of the water and they were having a ball building sand castles. I decided I'd had enough walking for the day, I'd just swim awhile, so off with the shoes, shirt and various other distracting items and into the water I went followed closely by two rowdy Okies. The water feels somewhat cold when first getting in, but refreshing nonetheless. It gets up to my neck about 20 yards out, and the wave action that far out does not affect your ability to stand up; closer to shore, the larger swells will carry you in and turn around a wash you back out. Brian and Lanelle couldn't be convinced to come in yet though. Walked back and started making supper of steamed rice with fresh thyme, and two root based spices. Thanks for the seasonings, Spesh! Mixed some canned chicken in, sliced some fresh tomatoes, and called it good.

Our barrel came in today, so was very glad for the extra supplies. We got by quite lucky...import duty was only EC23! They have a handling fee at the airport for the carrier, and we owed the driver EC80 for the trip. Thanks, Ren Stevens! Quite a story...we met a 4th semester student and his wife, Dwayne and Rhoda, who gave us Ren's name and number and a great recommendation. I call him today and ask if he can take us to pick up the barrel...He's already at Melville Hall airport. I asked him if he could pick it up while there, he told me to call Amerijet and give authorization, Amerijet says they require the request to be in writing, so here I am thinking I'm done. Half hour later I call Ren and he's got it! We agree that he'll call when 15 minutes from apartment so I will be there...right on time he comes. Out steps Ren Stevens, we shake hands, our first time to meet in person!!! We get the barrel unloaded and into Leona's yard where we start transferring the goodies to a duffle bag for the trip up the stairs. We've put most of the items away now and it was good to have the supplies.

All for now.