Day 370, Year 6: Passage to New Mexico for Christmas
Date: Saturday, October 29, 2011
Weather: Totally Overcast, Rainy, Chilly, and VERY Windy
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
When we got home from the Captain Kidd this evening, we got on the computer and continued searching for the cheapest way to travel from here to New Mexico to visit with Justin, Jo, and Ziggy. We talked with them last night and decided that a Christmas visit would work for all. So we searched all day and then we searched all evening trying to find fares that we can afford. We actually ended up deciding to travel by bus instead of flying. That gives us the option of leaving Woods Hole on a bus and not having to worry about where to leave our car in Boston. And when we return, we can hop on a bus in Boston and be home in less than two hours. On our way out to New Mexico, the timing is such that we will be able to get off the bus in Albuquerque and then ride the New Mexico Road Runner train from Albuquerque to Santa Fe where Justin and Jo will pick us up for the last part of the journey. If we flew out, we would have to spend the night in a hotel in Boston in order to catch the 6 am flight out and we would have to spend the night in a hotel in Albuquerque waiting for the flight home. The bus will cost us just a little more than the flight for one of us. It will be slow, but we have convinced ourselves that it will be like being on passage. We’ll take our headlamps and at night we’ll use them to read, alternating with trying to sleep. This little venture will certainly give us a chance to see what the bus system is like in this country. It is a slow way to travel, but we definitely have more time than money, and it is certain to be an interesting trip.
We got the last of our computers and parts back from the computer shop today. The Sony Vaio went in because of a keyboard problem and it still has a keyboard problem. They installed a new one but found that it was really the connection of the keyboard to the mother board. Instead of spending $300 for a new mother board and $100 for installation, the computer shop recommendation is to buy an external keyboard that plugs into one of the USB hubs or just abandon this computer and buy a new one. The good news of the day was that they were able to obtain all the data from my old external hard drive that crashed. That doesn’t give me back the photo changes and writing of the past four months, but at least I have everything prior to July of this year. After checking with the drive recovery business the shop here recommended about my new external hard drive, we have decided that the minimum cost quoted of $700 and going up to $2800 to get the data off that drive is just not worth it. I have already started the rewriting and am going to start reorganizing the Year 1 photos today.
We spent the early part of the evening at the Captain Kidd having drinks with Victoria and Chad, the young couple we met last night on the dock. Both of them have traveled extensively and it was fun to share stories. They spent their honeymoon in Savusavu in Fiji and we both agreed that the people of Fiji just might be the friendliest in the world.
They are very interested in hearing more our travels, so we hope to get together with them at least one more time before we leave Woods Hole to go to our winter home at Fiddler’s Cove.
I don’t like it when the outside temperature is lower than my refrigerator temp, but that is the case tonight and it will continue to be the case through the next few months. Ouch! Once we get to our storage unit in New Hampshire and get appropriate clothing for the cold months I’m sure we’ll feel a bit better about this, but after spending most of the past six years in the tropics, the onset of winter is especially tough. Right now the winds are howling and the rain is pouring outside, but at least it is warm here inside Windbird.
