Got a call from our Quality Department none too pleased with our current level of output this month. My whines and excuses fell on deaf ears as they simply point up at the month quota goal sign while playing their tiniest violin. Even hitting the 21 mile day running milestone this week – a mere 3 miles from the peak training effort I need to hit prior to the Oct race, still held zero sway . Heartless I tell ya! Anyway, no worries (yet) as I have an “ace up my sleeve”…or rather a “Brad in my folder”! Been saving up his adventures for this very situation. Apologies in advance for my lack of comment responses – we be burning the candle on three ends ha,
Take it away Brad…
Having adult children with their own careers makes family travel a challenge sometimes, but all the more rewarding when schedules mesh. Jan and I found a moderate length cruise around the Caribbean in early March that would fit within the vacation time Allyson and Garrett had available to them. The cruise took us to five new countries (six for Garrett) including a partial Panama Canal transit. No, the ship didn’t sink part-way through. The ship only had enough time to go into the Canal Zone through the Atlantic set of NeoPanamax locks (the new larger set of locks completed in 2016), wait a couple hours on Gatun Lake for its turn to pass back through those same locks on the way back to the Caribbean. The new set of larger locks are one-way only, sort of like many tunnels through the mountains in the Black Hills: ships have to wait for on-coming traffic to clear before proceeding through the set of three locks in the opposite direction.
One of the stops on our recent Caribbean assignment was Curaçao (pronounced “kyer-uh-SAU” or “cure-uh-SOW” with the end rhyming with how or plow or now). Please do not pronounce the last syllable with a hard “c” which sounds like a “k” as in the word “cow” or they will definitely know you are from America, or have had a bit too much of the blue liqueur famously named for the island.
Jan and I were taking a tour of a local ostrich farm. Since the ostriches were captive, I can’t really count them, and I’m not. They are just a prop for this story. Our tour group of about 25 people had been broken up into two groups, because the local tour vehicle was a small minivan with iron pipe benches bolted into the bare metal interior. There were no glass windows in the “van” so we could freely take photos without odd reflections from the glass.
Now that looks like an interesting bird, hit the jump to learn more.
Continue reading Mexican Eagle…by Brad Marks
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