View Quest

For those of you who don't get it: my title is a reference to several series of old video games. In the King's Quest series you were questing on king related issues. Hero's Quest games had you out to become a hero. I'm sure you get the idea. Well, this morning I ended up on a View Quest. It certainly didn't start out that way, though.

I woke up at around 4AM. We had run out of electricity (we have to prepay) and I somehow noticed that our bedroom fan had stopped spinning. This got my mind to spinning on this subject and that. For one thing, I was considering that I should have bought electricity before our meter looked like this.


I had forgotten to buy it Saturday and couldn't buy it Sunday (I thought it was BECAUSE it was Sunday, but found out later I was wrong.) So, around 2AM we ran out of power and everything shut down. I know that's what time it was because Ben was still up, lol. Anyways, I lay there thinking about how fortunate it was that the night was cool enough not to need a fan and what have you until I realized I wasn't going to get back to sleep.

I got up and played a game on one of the Kindles until it was light enough to read. Then I boiled some water, made a cup of coffee and read for about an hour. Around 7AM I grabbed the camera and some money and walked across the street to see if the place where I buy power was open. They weren't. Well, I decided to go take a look up a trail that I had left off exploring earlier.


That's a mango tree that's been blown over and is still alive and well. They're all over around here :)


Slightly raised water levels and other blown over plants showed that a storm had been through recently. Anyway, shortly after that I was on the trail.


This morning was the first time I ran up on one of those in the wild. I wish the photo quality was better. He didn't want to let me get close and I didn't want to try. Again, I need a better camera.


Those segment markers show you how far along you are. As I was progressing I kept thinking “This has to lead to some kind of view. The national trail can't always be in the woods.”


Obviously, I got some picture of some rest spots and well as a little more wildlife. There was more to see, but not to photograph with my current camera. Most birds and lizards won't let me get close enough to get good pictures.


Eventually I reached the top and found a view.


In fact I found several.


Can you see the rainbow? Also, when I say “top” I mean the top of the mountain that trail lead across.


Yep, that's the Atlantic :)


The flower just happened to catch my attention before I headed back. On the way I decided to take those other two shots of Soufriere. Unfortunately on about my third or forth step back down the trail I hurt my leg. Well, I should say my leg “got hurt”. My hip will occasionally do something real weird and I end up limping the rest of the day.

I hobbled down the mountain to find the store where I buy power still closed. I limped into the house grabbed a bake and limped back to the store intent on knocking on the door. In the five minutes since I had last passed by they had opened. It was then that I found out that they hadn't been able to sell me power yesterday, not because it was Sunday, but because they were “out”... Yep, they buy it just like me. Except, of course, that they buy in bulk. Either way, as it turns out the Mini-mart sells power and I could have just bought it from them as my other supplier was out. In fact, that's what I had to do in the end.

So, I had gotten up very early, sat in the dark, went for a walk to kill the time and, as a result, blown out my leg all because I didn't plan to buy electricity far enough in advance. It's a lesson learned. Of course, the house in Pont Casse is hooked up where they just bill you, so I'm not sure how useful the lesson will prove, lol.

Anyways, my blown out leg led us to the sea early.


Rachel took most of the kids for a sea bath with Dilian while I walked over to the warmer water at bubble beach where Josian was. I soaked my leg for a few minutes and then we headed home. After I got home I got about enough work done to fill a match box before I called it a day. After waking up early and hurting my leg I just didn't feel up to work. Of course, now I'm chaffing at the bit to get to it tomorrow. I can't be out of work long :) I have high hopes for tomorrow.

I wrap up with a couple of pictures of one of the chicks sneaking into the house. They're getting fairly used to us.


I guess I should say that Rachel is still sick and several of the kids aren't 100% yet either. Lord willing, we'll all wake up tomorrow feeling great. I've got a lot I want to get done and time is ticking away between now and August. In fact, we have to start working on our extension next week. As of tomorrow we'll have been here eight weeks. It's wild how time flies...

By the time all these pictures have uploaded it's going to be TV time. So, I'll take the opportunity to wish you all a very good night from Dominica!