Well I have had another day of looking at properties here in Puerto Rico. This time it was focused in Rincon. Something I found kind of surprising was that all the coffee shops are closed. Well, Surfs Up Coffee in Rincon was technically open there was no internet access and no coffee. I stopped in and it was pretty empty. I talked to the owner (Johnny Coffee as I’ve heard the surfers call him). He talked to me for 45 minutes and never asked me if I wanted something to drink…lol.
Anyhow he did give me some good info. This Puerto Rican Burger King has wifi. I forgot my wallet in San German this morning and had all of $5 in quarters on me. I bought 3 cheese burgers (Cassie would approve) and figured I’d make good use of the internets. It seems to work well here.
So I checked some things out and have a few pictures to upload. I am feeling positive today about a few of these. I had talked to Jeff and Katrina last night about their experience moving here and their thoughts on what Cassie and I are doing. It was a very good discussion and I appreciate all the advice. It is a tough decision on what path to follow and how to follow it. It is different for everyone. I have a different idea than Cassie and I think that would be true for most couples.
Being here again reminds me of how fricken warm it is. I was told by locals that it had been days of rain previous to me getting here but I’ll take that over snow at this point. It has been an emotional trip for me especially without Cassie by my side. It has given me some clarity to my own thoughts however. I am a little homesick at times (even after a few days!) but overall I do want to move to Puerto Rico. I don’t know if renting is the best idea, a large house in Rincon or a small house in the country. I hope that Cassie and I can come to some kind of decision and if not, we have time still! It has to be right for both of us. If it isn’t….we will wait until it is. The important thing is to never give up. If you give up, then you’re done. I won’t let that happen.
Thursday night we went to a poker memorial for my dad at Cattlemen’s Steakhouse in Greeley. He had talked about getting his poker group together along with us (his family) for months before he passed. He gave his best friend, Mory, some money to cover a nice meal and said to have a good time on him when he was gone. He was just that kind of guy. He loved poker and gambling and he loved his friends and family. It was a fitting tribute. And we felt him there that night.
The group at dinner
We had a large group come out. Most of his regular card crew came as well as their significant others. We all commented that we should have done this before. The wives had never met the other wives (it’s mostly a boys’ card club, but women are welcome), but they knew all the men from many, many years of rotating houses and fixing the food. So it was nice to fit the family with the card player. And we even had links we didn’t know were tied to Dad! (Greeley is a small world after all.)
Pre-dinner conversation
We had a nice meal that Dad would have approved of. He loved Cattlemen’s Restaurant here in Greeley and its western theme really fit with who he was. We toasted and told stories of his serious love of cards.
Then we got started with the poker. We had so much fun! We were laughing and joking and remembering his little sayings, like how Queens were Queeches, Kings were Cowboys, Twos were Deuces and other random fun stuff Dad taught us. I remember being four or five years old sitting on Dad’s lap playing cards with this and other groups. It was just a part of him. So this night was a perfect memorial. And he was so forward thinking to put this idea into motion even before he was gone.
The night was wonderful. I felt like I had had a second chance to be with Dad again. We even dealt him in a hand of seven-card no peek and the first card turned was…a Jack! But it also left me nostalgic and longing to really see him. To hear him laugh, hoot and holler, joke and bet. To see him slide the poker chips around in his hands. To watch him bluff -something I can never muster enough sneakiness to adequately pull off.
And with all these memories, my feelings of sadness and loss welled up by the end of the night. But I know that I only miss him so much because of what a great hole he has left. In me, my family, and even this great poker group.
Well, it has happened once again. The first snow of the season. A blanket of white drapes itself over our whole landscape. Colorado is so strange. This weekend we had 80 degree weather. You would think it was summer if not for the lack of leaves on the trees and the yellow coloring on those that remained. It was gorgeous and sunny. We went for a walk by the river and hung out outside. Then Tuesday we had our first taste of snow, but it didn’t stick around.
Brrr out back
Today I have the day off as it is Veteran’s Day. So I slept in, nice and cozy. Britton still had to work, so there was no rush in getting up. When I finally roll out of bed it is WHITE. Everywhere. Cold, fluffy and white. A winter wonderland in Greeley. Kitty was sitting at the back door and so my aunt Laura (who is staying with us) let him in. He is an outdoor cat, but we are not that “cold” and so we let him in if he is being good. And he is. He loves warm soft spots, just like me. And that’s where he ended up. On our bed curled up beside me.
Kitty Snuggling up next to me in bed
Schnoodle, on the other hand loves the snow. She presses and nuzzles all around and in it and just gets completely covered in snow clumps all over her fur.
Schnoodle in the Schnow 🙂
The chickens tolerate it, but they obviously don’t enjoy it. How can you peck and scratch when everything is wet and cold? So they keep to the side of the house where the overhang protects them from snow. We had thought about moving them and their coop into the greenhouse for their winter home, but just hadn’t done it yet. Maybe this weekend we’ll do that. It stays relatively warm in there and they have a dry area to walk around on.
Greenfoot avoiding the snow
It’s hard to believe that in just a few days Britton will be in Puerto Rico. No snow there. While it is certainly beautiful this shiny, shimmering snow, I think I could try a life without it in the tropics for at least a little while…
Where to start? Well, I guess I will start at the end of the Puerto Rico trip and work my way back to the few days that we missed in between. The reason for the lack of posts was that the internet was out at the house we were staying and that was about the only time we would have been able to update because we were so busy those last few days (but at least our server and router were working!).
View from the last house we saw on the trip -near another property we saw
Anyway, back to today and yesterday. We saw one final house in the Rincon area (up the hills) in the morning, but we were really pushing it for time, so we left directly from that showing to San Juan at about 10:30am. I was really not looking forward to coming back. It seemed too short of a trip and we really didn’t make any major decisions like we had hoped (more on that later).
On our way back from Puerto Rico to Colorado, we needed to be in San Juan by around 1pm, so you can see that we were pretty tight on time. The traffic was horrendous in Aguada and Aguadilla but once we got on the 22 (the main toll road/freeway) we went a lot faster.
Somehow once we got to San Juan we got turned around and ended up crossing a big bridge with a lot of US and Puerto Rican flags all over it. We needed to get to the car rental return place and knew we must be in the wrong area. We got to the cashier lady that changes money for the toll road and asked her if we were going the right way. She said, no we had to just turn around and go right back across the bridge to the first exit -oh and pay the toll of $3.00 each way!! So we paid the toll, turned around and paid the toll again.
We finally got to the car rental place and then to the airport, got our boarding passes, through screening and on to our flight. The flight to Chicago was uneventful but long. We had about a 45 minute layover and then our plane was supposed to leave. Well, they loaded us up a little late (about 8:15 instead of 7:50pm CST) and then over the intercom, the pilot says there may be a delay, and then that they were deciding whether or not to cancel the flight all together. They would tell us by 10pm.
Well, I was hungry, so Britton and I left the plane for some grub, and thank goodness we did! They canceled the flight at about 9:45pm because of the snow storm in Colorado. They were too backed up with de-icing so they stopped all incoming planes. Too bad we weren’t stranded in Puerto Rico!! 🙂
Why couldn’t we be stranded here!? This is my favorite picture I took at the beach in Anasco.
They issued partial discounts (about 25%) to area hotels and they rebooked us for a 6am flight back to Denver. That meant that if we went to a hotel, by the time we got there, spent the money (which would have been more than we paid for a whole week of sleeping in PR BTW), got settled, took a shower and so on, that we would only get about 3-4 hours sleep before we would have to come back and go through security all over again in the morning, so we decided to stake out a space at the airport…Ugh!
Let me tell you. I have never had to sleep in an airport, but it is not the most comfortable place to be. The fluorescent lights buzz, the intercom keeps reminding you not to leave your bag unattended or take rides from unauthorized vehicles and it is kind of cold! Luckily we were able to snag a few blankets and pillows from United.
We dozed in and out of “sleep” with a few other of our stranded castaways at Chicago O’Hare airport when suddenly we heard the cleaning lady vrrooom her vacuum between our legs, through the poles of the chairs, clink our seats and weave in between us. The babies started crying and it was altogether a hysterical situation. I just had to laugh and thought this should be on a Saturday Night Live skit.
One cowboy bullrider named Sean who had absolutely no optimism whatsoever kept yelling at her which only made it worse because she spoke no English. When she wouldn’t stop, he went over and unplugged her cord.
A Cool Walkway through Chicago O’Hare -we were like Tom Hanks in The Terminal!
Then some plane cleaners came at about 1:30am and each and every one had to swipe their ID card, beeeep in, then exit out the door toward the plane, slamming it and letting in freezing air as they went. It was a comedy scene. I seriously should write this skit, I just laugh at how ridiculous it was.
In a way it was kind of cool meeting our castaway friends while we were stuck there. It was kind of like a lock-in and we all were commiserating together. Besides, this is where good material comes from, right?
So finally we arrived back in Colorado (thanks Dad for waking up so early and picking us up in the crazy weather) and I immediately called into work to tell them I wasn’t going to be coming in after all and Britton was able to work from home. I took a shower and a little nap, and am feeling much more revived.
More about some Puerto Rico options/decisions and a few more pics and adventures in a post to come. Stay tuned…
