Category: Uncategorized

Linda and I woke up early for breakfast. Last night was an early night. There isn’t a ton of nightlife here though. The bar closes at 10 pm. We got on the EZ Diver boat for our dive. Our dive master is David. The first site we dove at was the Valley of Kings. There is a coral formation that is supposed to look like a Sphinx. It has two feet and a head.

It felt great to be diving in such a beautiful location. While we were diving I took some pictures with my underwater camera. However it seems the housing let some water in and the camera got fried. Luckily the SD card was not damaged. Linda got sick on the boat. We had to wait and ride out the waves while the others were finishing their dives. If we did the second dive, we would have had to wait even longer for our surface interval.

Instead, we went back to the dock because they were concerned about Linda being sick. David took Linda and I separate for our orientation dive alone. When you dive from shore, you walk out to a platform where you put on your fins. Then you swim following some floats under water towards the safety stop bouy. From there, you can either go left towards Coco View Wall. Or, you can go straight to the Prince Albert.

The Prince Albert is a wreck that they suck in the front yard for divers to enjoy. You can proceed past the wreck, following the markers, and find Numan’s Wall. Linda and I did two dives today on our own after the orientation dive. The first dive we saw the wreck and Numan’s Wall. We used up a fair amount of air by the time we got to the wall. So we didn’t see a ton of it.

I am hoping that Numan’s Wall will be better if we have more air to see it. We turned around a little early. We also used up a decent amount of air at the Prince Albert. The second dive we went to Coco View Wall. That wall was amazing. There were tons of coral formations. The wall goes very deep. Although Linda told me to lead both dives, I wound up following her both times. When we at Coco View Wall, Linda had trouble trying to maintain depth. We had ascended pretty deep. I saw some pretty cool coral far up the wall on our right on the way back. I wanted to go up and check it out.

I should have told Linda to add air to her BC. We have had a lot of learning experiences. At any rate we went back. On our way back Linda started heading towards the Prince Albert. After that, she started going down Numan’s Wall. We talked earlier about not deviating from the plan. I was also concerned about the amount of air we had used. It wasn’t clear to me that Linda knew which way she was going. So at that point I had us turn around and call it a successful dive.

After dinner we attempted a night dive. We bought two under water flashlights for $140 each. We intended to do a few night dives and tonight would be our first. On our way out. we fought the current. The wind had picked up a lot at night. We didn’t realize how much of a factor the current was. The bouys pick up a little bit past the platform. I managed to get to the bouys. At that point I realized Linda was behind me thinking I was going the wrong direction. I went back to her to recollect ourselves. Now we were down current and had to fight to get back to the bouys. The whole experience was pretty nerve wracking. Personally I was fine. However I am taller so I could stand in some of the water we were in. Also, I am a stronger swimmer than Linda.

So I was mainly concerned about her safety. Utimately we aborted the dive and went back in. We will try again another night.

We saw a lot of interesting fish diving today. By Coco View Wall, we saw a large fish that may have been a shark. However we weren’t close enough to get a good look at it. I am pretty sure we saw a berracuda. That fish’s teeth freaked out Linda. We saw a hermit crab under water by the Prince Albert. I saw a trumpet fish in the sea grass on my way back to the platform from the safety stop. That reminded me a lot of AB’s Mr Seahorse book. I also saw a fish that digs into the sand, it’s camoflaged so you can barely see it. Linda saw it earlier on a prior dive and was trying to point it out to me. We must have seen 20-50 squid swimming in a school near the safety stop. That was awesome. They are so intelligent and curious.

We woke up this morning and left our hotel to head to the airport. Today we had hope that we would make it to Roatan. Only once we landed would we actually believe it. When our plane took off, and again when it landed, everyone erupted in cheers.

Chloe met us at the airport. A driver took us to Coco View. We were in a 12 passenger bus of some sort. We drove for some time on the island. Then a boat took us the rest of the way to the resort. The resort is actually on an island of it’s own. Linda and I are staying in Bungalow A. Our accommodation is fairly private. The bungalow is built on stilts above the water. We share a single wall with one neighbor. Other rooms here often have two neighbors.

We have a dive locker for our gear near the boat we would dive on. The boat goes out twice a day. Each boat trip they do two dives. One is at a dive site. The second dive is a drop off dive. Tomorrow we will do a dive at a moored site. Then we will do a drop off dive with the dive master for our orientation dive.

We ate dinner and did a debriefing regarding diving at Coco View. A couple other guests cautioned us that the food isn’t good. I can see why someone would be disappointed in the food for the cost of the resort. But that being said it’s actually pretty good. The resort is a lot smaller than I imagined. I am guessing their capacity may be 50 guests. Although it certainly is less right now. Some people gave up trying to get here due to the two cancelled flights.

Linda and I played pool at the bar. They have a pool table that’s free, which is nice. No one else seemed interested in playing pool.

We caught a shuttle to the airport this morning. Our flight was once again cancelled. They made a special flight Monday for us. We planned to take our chances again tomorrow and spend another day in Dallas.

We went to see The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza. The landmark here is the location where Lee Harvey Oswald shot JFK. We did the tour at the museum although we didn’t have enough time to see everything. It was an eye opening experience for the defining moment of our parents’ generation. For us the moment would have been 911.

We saw the window where Oswald was sitting when he fired the fatal bullet. We saw photos of the motorcade. They had a replica of the rifle he used, which was a 6.5×52mm Carcano Model 38. A lot of background for Kennedy’s life and presidency was documented in the museum. We went outside to see the grassy knoll where people thought a second shooter may have been. The street was marked with an X where each of the bullets hit JFK.

We left to see a couple more attractions. One was the Cattle Drive sculptures by Robert Summers. The cattle were crossing a stream in the park where they were located. I bought a Popsicle from a vendor here. We followed the line of cattle up a hill. On top we saw a sculpture of a cowboy on a horse. Words inscribed in a rock indicated that the cowboy was the trail boss responsible for leading the cattle. I got a kick out of this because one of the smokeless powders I use for reduced loads and revolver loads is actually called Trail Boss. The powder was intended for cowboy action shooting.

We left to see the Giant Eyeball. While we were downtown we saw a lot of people going by on dirt bikes and 4x4s making lots of noise. I can only assume that’s a Texas thing. They also had some sort of community non-police security patrolling downtown. I believe they have a similar team in San Francisco.

Linda and I have plans to fly through DFW on our way to Roatan this week. We’re staying at CoCo View Resort. The resort is on a reef. Linda always get motion sick. So I wanted to take her scuba diving somewhere that we could walk right into the ocean and dive from shore. CoCo View is supposed to be the best place to do it.

Well, we flew into DFW on Friday and stayed over night at a hotel for our Saturday flight. On Saturday we never made it out. Turns out that there is a fire in Honduras on the mainland. They were burning sugar cane. The smoke prevented the plane from making a landing.

We decided to book another night at our hotel. We took a ride share into Dallas to see the Dallas Museum of Art. The museum is free aside from a couple paid exhibits. We didn’t see these however. We walked around taking in the rest of the artwork. I was really hoping to see if they had any Picaso pieces. On our way through the European exhibit I saw a painting and said “That looks like a Monet”. I had enjoyed his work at the Beyond Monet exhibit in Milwaukee. I was correct. They did have some Picaso work.

Back in Madison they have a Picaso but it’s just the start of a drawing that was never finished. While the DMA had several pieces, a few were in a similar state. After the art museum, we went to see the Nasher Sculpture Garden nearby. I was most interested in the sculpture garden outside. They also had work inside as well as a band. We caught a couple songs before heading out.

Klyde Warren Park is right there. They had a bunch of food trucks. We stopped there to split some sliders and cuban rolls. After that we caught another Lyft to Fort Worth. Our plan for the night was to see our first rodeo. Beforehand we saw a train turntable. We weren’t sure what it was at first. Once I realized it I got a kick out of it. Collecting Lionel trains in my youth, my younger self would have been proud to finally have seen one in person.

We saw a cattle drive. There were less than a dozen cows. They had a few people on horses to lead the cattle. The whole thing was very touristy. The Fort Worth Stockyards was definitely a tourist trap. It was still pretty cool to see, seems like something that’s very “Texas”. We ate dinner at the H3 Ranch which was a pretty nice restaurant attached to a hotel. We split burnt ends and a full rack of ribs. The food was delicious, and definitely seemed like what we should be eating in that environment.

The rodeo was fun but a little painful to see the animals get tied. That day they were doing rookie of the year. So all the top rookies were competing for the best spot. Our favorite act was probably when the women riding the horse would rope a steer but not drop it. A guy at the end of the night was hurt pretty bad by a bull. That was hard to watch too.

Linda, Annabelle and I took a road trip for our friends’ wedding. They got married at the The Omni Grove Park Inn in Ashville, NC. We left Thursday October 4. I drove through the night. AB kept me company while I drove. She got a kick out of Chicago. First she was surprised at all the traffic. She also loved to see the train and the platform for the train. Chicago had a horrible smell to it that Annabelle didn’t like one bit. We stopped at a motel parking lot to sleep about an hour outside Ashville.

We had some time to kill before our check in. So we stopped by the North Carolina Arboretum. They were getting set up for their Christmas lights display while we visited. We saw their bonsai collection. By far these were the most amazing bonsai trees I have ever seen. I suspect it’s attributed to the fact that they are cared for professionally. Because it was fall, the leaves were turning colors in Ashville. The leaves on several of the bonsai trees were also turning colors. I thought that was awesome. While we were at the arboretum, we hiked about five miles. Annabelle was a trooper on the hike. Linda walks a bit slower than I do. At first I would wait for her or try to walk her pace. Eventually I realized that AB would hustle to keep up with me. Some of the trails we walked were flat, while another one went up a ridge. It was a beautiful fall hike.

After our hike, we stopped at Papa’s & Beer Mexican Restaurant. We dined in for lunch. Prices were reasonable and portions were fairly large. When we arrived at Omni I quickly realized this was not the type of hotel we would typically patronize. The hotel had a view of the smokey mountains from it’s backside. There was a lot of history behind it. An older part of the hotel used to have horse drawn carriages come through it. A fair number of guests were dressed very well, fancy dresses and suits. I spent a couple late nights at their piano bar.

On our way home, we took a slight detour to see my sister Kristen in Columbus OH. She lives in a funky neighborhood called German Village. We stayed at the Hampton Inn Columbus-South. In the morning, we took Annabelle to play at Schiller Park. We stopped for some pastries at Fox In The Snow Cafe. Later that day we drove home. It was a nice trip, short but sweet.

I was able to transcribe our entries from Prague in the Czech Republic. I created a category specific to the trip. So now you can view the entries under the trip.

https://waywardrambling.com/category/abroad/european-honeymoon/

I’m Andy and my wife is Linda. Wayward Rambling will serve as our travel journal. Our original travel journal was a hard copy. It was gifted to us when we were married back in summer of 2014. We made it through that first journal. Filled all the pages. We since started our second journal. Lately it seems that writing is a bit cumbersome. I suggested moving our journal to a weblog.

I intend to transcribe the original entries onto the weblog.