Travelin Shoes

I have always thought that a vacation to the Carolinas would be a great deal of fun. There is a lot of history that would appeal to my wife, and a lot of golf courses that would appeal to me. We have been looking into Hilton Head vacation rentals. The web site VLBO.com offers all sorts of options, but we are thinking of some affordable luxury in a two bedroom condo on Hilton Head Island, which is a large barrier island off the South Carolina coast. The condo is in a gated community with easy access after a day at the beach. Or the golf course.

this is a sponsored post 

Writing Down!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have been blogging on Writingup.com for more than a year. I have enjoyed it immensley, and made some good virtual friends in that blog community. The site has had all sorts of difficulties in the past few weeks, causing a migration away from the site by a number of the writers. One of them, known as Keywoman 1, has begun a new group on Myspace to try to recapture the magic of our community. It is called WritingDown! Here is a link to check it out. WritingDown

This submission was in response to the challenge by merryone to write a piece from the perspective of one of our favorite fictional characters. When you have read, you are supposed to guess the identity of the character. Thanks merryone, this was fun to do. (You may have to be an old guy to remember this character!) ****************************************************************

I don’t have much to say. I mostly keep my thoughts to myself. That is what a lonely man does. That is likely so he will not have to admit that inside he is empty, yearning to be needed. Dare I say loved? Nope, I don’t dare.

But I always accept a challenge. It is what a man does. When there is a need, a man takes care of it. Running away is never an option. That is the kind of lessons I am going to be teaching Johnny Lowe.

He has the makin’s of a strong man. He has the sand of his maw, Angie. He will not give in to fear. Even the Apache chief, Vittorio did not cause him to cry nor turn tail. His courage prob’ly saved his life and his maw’s life. And my life, truth be told. Vittorio took to the boy the way I did. Even took to callin’ him Small Warrior.

Angie is a woman to stand beside a man. Not behind him, but at his side, facin’ the struggles together. She deserved better’n that lowlife Ed. He was a coward. I did not want the fight he brought to me. But now he’s dead, and Angie is a widow. I don’t think I will be as lonely any more. But I will keep all those thoughts to myself.

I don't remember what year was that it was announced that the Olympics would be held in Los Angeles in 1984. My wife and I decided that we would save our money and take our girls to see the Olympics. Sears was selected to be the company to organize the ticket purchase for the Olympics. More than a year before the Olympics were to begin, Sears produced and distributed a catalog of all the events and prices for tickets.

We got our copy of the catalog and went through in chose the events that we wanted to see. We filled out the order sheet with requests for tickets to the Opening Ceremonies, as well as requests for tickets to see gymnastics, swimming, track and field, basketball, volleyball, team handball, and of course baseball, which was to be an Olympic sport for the first time in 84. The ticket requests, and our money for the tickets had to be submitted one full year before the events were to be conducted.

The procedure was that if there were more requests for tickets to an event than there were seats available, the request would be put into a lottery, and selection would be random. If an event was not police described by the time of the original ticket submission, you would get the tickets you requested. For instance, the Coliseum in which the Opening Ceremonies were to be held at 108,000 seats, and 4 million requests. We did not get tickets to the Opening Ceremonies.

I have been traveling to the island of Dominica for over 25 years, at least once a year. It is a beautiful place. It is not easy to get to, as it has no international airport that can handle large carriers. American Eagle goes in once a day. Liat and Caribbean Sun have a few  small planes that make stops in Dominica on a daily basis. With so little competition it is not cheap to buy a ticket. So I was surprised that the schedule this year is much better than in the recent past and the airfare is significantly less than it was last year! I am not complaining.

My mother grew up in Bordentown, New Jersey. We lived in South Texas so it was pretty infrequent for us to get to  New Jersey , but we always had great fun when we got there. My grandfather left take us to the seashore, usually at Seaside Heights. But we saw a lot of the state, and the surrounding area, including Philadelphia and  New York City . These days when I see something about New Jersey, I usually stop and read it.

Today I found a website about  Jersey City. Details about the great restaurants in Jersey City, about the Hudson River Waterfront Walkway, and other attractions in around the city. If you're planning a trip to the northeast, take a look at DestinationJerseyCity.com. It might you some ideas of things you want to do and see.

On our trip to Cozumel, my wife and I went to see the Mayan ruins at Tulum. That was the last occupied city of the Mayans. The structures there are over 1500 years old and are still used for rituals on special days of the year. We were impressed by some of the things we learned about the Mayan’s culture and advancements they possessed. One of the temples appeared to be leaning a bit, but it has been that way since it was built. Its walls were built to mark the angle of the axis of the earth! That was a long time before a lot of civilizations realized the earth is round.

Their understanding of astronomy and medicine and mathematics was amazing. The part of the city that is still intact is within a wall of cut stone. The area is about 250 yards long and 65 yards wide. There is a 30 cliff that overlooks a gorgeous view of the sea that serves as the protection of one side. We were told that 400 lived in the walled city. They were the priests, the queen, and other elites of society. Outside the walls was home to over 4000 hunters, gatherers and others who served the elites.

The way the elites maintained control of those outside the walls was with their learning and abilities to predict the beginning of rainy seasons, and the time of the birth of children and such. It struck me that mankind has not changed much, still the elites in their “walled cities” like to keep control and power by secrets that only they know!

Civilization!

My bride and I just returned from our cruise to Cozumel. We were celebrating our fortieth anniversary, so we wanted to be treated well. The Carnival crew on the Ecstasy were very accommodating and we had a wonderful time. We ate so much, as on any cruise. We even skipped both midnight buffets.

Our shore excursion was to see the Mayan ruins at Tulum. That was an eye opening experience as to the culture and advancements the Mayans had made. There was a bit of walking that might put others off, and the trip feom the ship to the site required a ferry ride of half an hour, plus a bus ride of forty five minutes. That made it so we had less than three hours to take in the attractions of the archeological stie.

I won the trivia challenge on the ship. It was really a goofy little test, but I guess I know more stupid things than the others who participated!