I’m back! Did you miss me? I am continuing our road trip west.
Today would be our last day at Brush Creek Ranch. As usual I had breakfast by myself. Steve would be off fishing. I would do some riding. Buffets always yield unattractive plating!
Here is Steve’s guide checking out the water. You can tell that he is the guide as he has the net. Also if the guide were taking the picture he would either have the sport centered in the picture or on the left of the frame looking toward the river. I should stop complaining, and just be thankful that I have a picture of the beautiful stream!
While Steve fished I rode. I bought two shirts and one pair of jeans to wear while I rode. This shirt is a white buffalo plaid. Buffalo plaids are usually red and black. A new fun fact for you!
Below us you see the Artist Colony and some of the creek side cabins. We stayed in one of the Creekside cabins on one of our stays. Brush Creek invites artists (musicians, composers, photographers, painters) to stay for the season and create.
Now would be a great time to talk about the couple from last night, S and R. They live in the Denver area. She had an absolutely magic voice. Very cultured, with a very interesting accent. While we were waiting to start our ride I told her to keep her eyes out for one of the other guests as she had a three carat diamond. I was very impressed with the ring. I love diamonds. Even larger diamonds on someone else’s hand. There is a joke that a diamond can only be too big if it is on some else’s hand!
She smiled and told me that the ring was nice, but that the ring from her first husband was a 6 carat flawless stone. At that, I shut up but of course the wheels in my head started to spin. How would I be able so get the background story out of her? What was the backstory? Why would she dump him? Did he cheat on her? Did she find out he liked to play with the members of the other team? Was he dead?
I pondered this all afternoon on my next ride. I did lots of pondering as you can imagine!
Here is a beautiful fish from Steve’s fishing.
This is a rainbow trout. I think that it is a close up of the same fish, but who knows? Only Steve and his guide know! Steve caught 46 fish that day!
On my afternoon ride I found this beautiful deer shed. I am happy that we were going to drive back home as I don’t think that I would have been able to fit it in my suitcase!
Steve and I met back for dinner. This was my entree. It looks like it was polenta with elk tenderloin. It could be something else entirely also!
Dessert was a berry crumble.
So we met my new friends from my ride at the saloon before dinner. I asked them to join us for dinner. I have scrambled their faces to preserve their privacy. We met a new couple also. The couple at the far end of the table run a travel agency that specializes in hunting trips. Brush Creek has much to offer for those that like to shoot and hunt. The ranch used to have bison that were available to hunt , but the bison kept escaping and got in the neighbor’s fields. The neighbors were not very happy at that as the fences were ruined and the cattle were bothered. Bothered cattle do not bring happy cattle prices. So that very pricey hunting option had to be scrapped. The couple on the right, S are the couple that we met last night and I went on the ride with today. S is the owner of the six carat diamond.
Now for the tale of S and R. (Which I found out about during cocktail hour at the saloon, this was not something that was discussed at dinner. Who discusses their ex-husband during dinner?) R, the husband, was a senior Vice President for a very large mining, gas and oil development company. They live in the Denver area. He has traveled all around the world managing projects. S was studying to get her degree in social work. She was not in her twenties so this must have been a second career for her.
Now for the story. You will notice that I kind of jump right into my questions. That’s me! Some might think I am brusque, but I prefer to call it an efficient strategy.
“So how did you get a 6 carat flawless engagement ring? Was it a family heirloom?”
“My first husband was a Saudi Prince.”
“Oh.”
Yes, even I can be rendered speechless.
No, I did not ask if she was wife number 1, 2, or 3. Remember I do not ask every question I might want to know the answer to! Nor did I ask which Saudi Prince she had been married to. There happen to be 15,000!
Somehow the answers to some of my divorce questions came out (I did not ask what caused the divorce! It appears that not all of the Arab sheikh style of Harlequin romances have a happy ending in real life!) S lived in Switzerland for two years while the divorce was finalized. That is where her accent came from. It was a combination of upper crust English and a European component. I don’t know why it took two years, but the divorce did. As someone who has been happily married for over 40 years I don’t know nothing about divorces!
S kept all of the jewelry, and keeps it in the vault. She takes it out when she goes to black tie events. As the jewels are not from her current husband she is uncomfortable wearing them on her normal activities. I remarked that S might have been married to a prince, but now she is married to the Real Prince in her life! Isn’t that a romantic phrase? Perhaps I should write romance novels afterall!
Thus endeth our stay at Brush Creek Ranch. Remember how I mentioned previously that I stay in touch with some of the people we meet on our trips? On a trip years later, Steve and I did meet up with R and S!
Do you have any buffalo plaid shirts in your house?
Are you married to a Saudi Prince?
Instead of a third question I thought I would show you what a six carat diamond looks like! This was not her ring, I found it on the internet. You might be wondering what the price point for a 6 carat, D colored internally flawless diamond is…about $550,000. Now I don’t know if her diamond was internally flawless or not. That is still some hunk of change for a ring.
This is the last post from the January Delphi trip that I didn’t fully post.
Today was our last day. As such, Steve was not going to go fishing. We decided that we would go on an adventure and try to find a Blue Hole. Blue holes are deep holes in the limestone bedrock filled with fresh water. The slightly acidic fresh water has dissolved the limestone to create drainage holes. V decided to tag along with us. Would it be a good or bad decision? Well, stay with me and you will find out.
First picture is one of the guide boats. The guide sits in the back and drives the boat. When he gets to the fishing spot, he can climb up on the back platform and look for fish while using a long pole to push the boat. There is no electric motor on these boats. If the guide starts getting old he will sit on the platform and not stand on it. I don’t blame him, I don’t like heights and being up there would make me nervous. However, the guide has a better view if he is at the higher spot. The sport sits on the seats until the boat arrives at the fishing spot. Then he will stand up on the front platform. He can lean against the metal bar for support. That long pole on the left of the picture is the pole to push the boat along. If I were to tag along with Steve all day, I would be sitting in that chair the whole long day. No where to get out of the sun, no place to get out and stretch your legs. Basically trapped the whole day. Now if I remain at the lodge, like I usually do, I can go a nice bathroom anytime, soak my feet in the pool, jump from couch to porch swing, or to bed in the room. 
We are in the Bahamas so we Steve got to drive on the left side of the road. The steering wheel was on the left. 
Steve came this way nearly every morning on the way to the boat launch. This is the parking spot for the guides. They have already launched their boats. 
This is the launch spot. Not particularly scenic is it? 
I should have known that we were on a fool’s errand as the sign was directing us to caves and not holes. We decided to look for Nancy’s Cave first. No, I did not find out who Dan, Nancy, or Ralph were. Nor, if have they been found. 
Well, we never did find Nancy’s cave. The road looked like it was beginning to end, so we turned around. There were small trees growing in the dirt road, it looked like not many people had been this way recently. 
This looked more like a place where a cave might be found. We either have a sign post waiting to happen, or a sign post ready to be removed.
This is where you might have your picnic before or after you visited the cave. We did not bring any food with us. Since you are reading this, you know that we safely returned from the adventure. Look how slim and trim Steve is in this picture, it looks like he didn’t gain any weight on this vacation at all! When Steve reviewed my post for editing he scoffed at my comment that he is slim and trim. I will say that he is trim then. 
Well, this looks promising. Come along, won’t you? 
Here is V, she was such a good sport to come along with us. 
This is the interior of the cave. It was not very tall, We all took a peek and then retreated. We could hear all sorts of gurgling and sloshing noises from the area. On the way back I thought “Oh, let me return and take a little video of the exciting sounds!” Of course, when I got back to the mouth of the cave, SILENCE!
On our way to our last cave. You might think that Steve was our fearless leader, but my now I am sure you all know, that Linda is always in the lead. I was already on my way back, as I thought this trail was a bust. 
Last cave. You can see the water has a bit of an blue tint to it. 
Well, that was the end of our adventure. I wanted you to see some of the bark of the trees in the forest. There are fires and a lot of the vegetation is destroyed.
Back at the lodge, safe and sound we all had lunch on the veranda overlooking the ocean. I should probably let Steve get the ocean view, but I am greedy, and like to look at the ocean. When he is out fishing all day, he can look at the water all he wants. You can tell it is a travel day, as he is wearing one of his plaid shirts. One of these days I will count how many plaid shirts he owns! 
I had the mahi mahi on romaine. 
Steve had the chicken with Chinese noodles and vegetables on a green salad. 
We all had ice cream bars for dessert. E from DC didn’t care for hers, so J, her husband ate two. He reminded her that when you are off the coast of Africa for nine months on a naval boat, you vowed never to decline ice cream in the future. 
Steve had remarked at dinner one night about this poem in one of the bathrooms off the great room. 
I think most females never even notice it. After all, why would we? It is on the wrong wall! 
Then it was off to the airport where we waited for our flight to Fort Lauderdale. 
This is a picture of Marsh Harbour International Airport. Currently it is closed at night as the runway lights are out. They had better get that fixed soon! The building on the right is the old airport. I can’t even remember what that looked like, it was very small though! 
Back at Fort Lauderdale airport we had a long layover. Better a long layover than missing your flight due to bad weather. We ate at the Jack Nicklaus restaurant. Steve had the chicken with fettuccini.
I ordered the grilled cheese with tomato soup. I also ordered ice tea with lemonade to drink. “You mean an Arnold Palmer?”, the waitress asked? “I thought you weren’t allowed to ask for that in this restaurant.”, I said. She looked at me as if I were nuts. Now don’t tell me I was the first person to say that. Now that could be the case, as I often am the only person to say something awkward!
That scary arrangement was still on the breakfast board. I think today will be its last day. 
Here are the delicious blueberry muffins. They are small, so I get to have two. 
More fried eggs and bacon. I do love bacon. They make it just right here. Nice and crisp. Some places serve bacon undercooked. There is nothing worse, because then you have to nibble around the underdone pieces. Heaven forbid, you abstain. You just pray that you don’t get ptomaine poisoning. 
Lunch was just me again. Good thing I like myself. 
The same blue corn chips with the trio of condiments. And you thought condiment only referred to ketchup! 
I had the mahi mahi on greens. I liked the orange slices with it. I do not eat olives, so I ignored them as best as I could. When my sisters and I were growing up my little sister liked to put the black olives on her finger, and then wave them around! It was very amusing! 
I did get two cookies as I was the only one at lunch. Yesterday I said I was eating by myself, but we did get some incoming guests today, so I ate with them. Today they took off in the car and I ate by myself again.
While I was busy eating, reading and generally just laying about Steve was busy fishing. This is a picture of one of the fish that Steve caught on Friday. On his lower lip you can see the fly that Steve used. The hook was well set, that fish was going nowhere but into Steve’s arms! 
Here is the side view. That is some fish! J has as his goal to catch a permit. Some people say that it takes about 1000 attempts to land a permit. That means not only just casting willy nilly, but to actually see and cast at the fish. So far J is nil on catching a permit. Steve was so inspired after he caught his December fish to try to catch one also. Steve is now also nil at catching permit. In fact, the next day, Steve went right back to fishing for bonefish. 
Here is a picture of someone from somewhere who was lucky enough to catch a permit. The man looks happy, the fish less so. I don’t want to think about the poor soul who gets to wash those pants of his! What a mess!
First canapé was tuna poke. 
Then we had these very out of focus conch fritters. 
Our first course was a delightful quail broth. It seems to be out of focus also. No need to adjust your screen controls. 
I had the hogfish with risotto. 
Steve had the duo of Cornish hens. 
We had a cheese plate again, so I asked for ice cream. 
This is a picture of Jason, the chef. You can see the cheese course next to him.
Another day, another view of the breakfast sideboard. 
Breakfast today was two eggs, but I went outside of my comfort range and had them poached! Instead of an English muffin, I just had a slice of bread toasted. Watch out, I am beginning to walk on the wild side! 
Another lunch by myself, but the table was placed at an angle. Staff must have sensed that I was going to be adventurous for the day! 
More yummy chips, salsa, and sour cream. For some reason no guacamole. 
I had the chicken Caesar salad again. 
Surprise, surprise I also ordered fries!
This is the view of another beautiful sunset that we had. 
First canapé was quail eggs. I didn’t have my reading glasses on and thought the dish had a brown dip in it. Instead it was celery salt! Quite the surprise. One of the guides raises quail for bird shooting and he sells some of the eggs. 
Here is the trio of Dutches County residents. No names, but his initials are TB. I am holding someone else’s drink as I don’t drink regular martinis! 
We also had beef tartare on toast. 
We had a small group at dinner tonight. Sometimes there are over 20 at dinner! The young man at the end was on his first bone fishing trip. As Max, the manager was off for the night, I filled in the spot as host/hostess for the evening. I sat at the other end of the table. LH was just accepted into William and Mary Law School, so we made a toast in his honor also! 
Our starter was grilled peaches and goat cheese. I love peaches and Steve doesn’t really care for fruit so I got to have a double portion of peaches! Yay! 
Steve and I both had the Osso Bucco. It was good but not as good as the Osso Bucco that I make! Steve says no one makes it as well as I do. I follow the Marcella Hazan recipe.
The evening’s dessert was pot au chocolate with tangerine creme fraiche. I prefer whipped cream, as I don’t like the sourness of creme fraiche.
Another day and another breakfast. I love this arrangement of melons and pineapple.
I decided that I would find out when low tide was and I would take a walk on the beach. 
The water was warm, and if I were a good swimmer I would have gone swimming. But alas, I was by myself, and I am not a strong swimmer, so instead I walked along the beach, looking for nonexistent shells. 
You can see how private the beach is. Only one house shares our stretch of shoreline. 
Then it was back up the hill, huffing and puffing as I went along. I am lazy and would rather not walk back up the hill, so I rarely go down to the beach when we stay here. I prefer to just look at it once in awhile and then continue my reading a book from the stack of romance novels that I brought with me on vacation. 
As everyone else was off fishing, the table was set up for just me. Ipad, book and view in hand I enjoyed my lunch. 
Lunch was grilled chicken, greens, vegetables and Chinese cellophane noodles. 
A proper size cup of cappuccino and a leftover mini banana muffin for dessert. 
First of the two canapés was conch fritters with a dipping sauce. 
This was followed by hummus on a cracker. 
We were served crab and pumpkin bisque as our starter. 
Steve and I both had the mahi mahi with vegetables. It was Jason, the chef’s night off and the breakfast cook made dinner. 
Dessert was Tiramisu. It was very sweet and I couldn’t finish all of it. 
Steve decided to hunt for permit today at Sandy Point. He saw four, but the fish did not take his fly. Permit are notoriously hard to catch. They are hard fighters and can weigh over 25 pounds! Steve caught two bonefish for the day. This is a picture of one of last years fish, that I had posted on instagram. Steve looks like a bank robber here, he is just trying to prevent sun damage.
This is the type of picture you get from an iPhone 4 shooting into the sun. Not very good. But it will have to do, as it is all I’ve got. You can see Steve’s waders and fishing rods on the ground along with his boots. You are correct if you wonder if his socks always make it to the laundry basket. They don’t! But this blog is devoted to my excellent adventures with my heaping hunk of handsomeness-aka Steve, so let’s ignore the laundry issue. There are lovely rocking chairs on the deck. I think i might have rocked twenty minutes on them. 
Of course Steve went off fishing again. He caught 14 fish for the day including two 18 inchers. This was done while wading the North Platte River. Those beautiful fish from yesterday were an inch smaller than today’s big fish!
In the late afternoon we did go for a ride. Here I am being instructed on how to hold the reins of the horse. I was taught to hold them like an ice cream cone. Most people on the East Coast where we are located, ride Western. As I don’t ride at home, only on vacations, I didn’t have to unlearn much.
Don’t I look sharp? Shoulders back, and trying to look relaxed. The horse doesn’t look very happy does he, or is he really a she? 
The wrangler we were with looked like Sam Elliott. No, don’t worry he was happily married as was I. Plus, how much successful flirting can you do with the wrangler when your husband is riding behind you? 
I am not sure If you remember but in the past I have suffered from asthma. And altitude sickness. After lunch today I got a bit winded going up the slight hill to our cabin. I mentioned it to staff and look what was delivered to our cabin for me to ride around in! My very own RAZR! This one was new, as the windshield was still there! 
Dinner tonight was at Creekside. I still happen to have that top also! 
We also had a little combo play music for us during dinner. After dinner you could grill your own marshmallows for s’mores.
I started my day with my normal breakfast of scrambled eggs with two slices of bacon. 
Steve opted with his usual mushroom omelette.
Here is my guide, of course I have forgotten his name. He is from France, and had a delicious accent. You can see here how big the rocks were that we had to scramble over. 
In the spring time the water levels really rise, you can see some of the sticks and brush that have accumulated up the banks of the river.
It was very interesting to see the erosion of the rocks due to water over thousands of years.
This is a close up of the fly box the guide had. And Steve will tell us what the flies are when he edits this post for me. Jump in here Steve! editors note: clockwise from upper left : Zonker, Foam Beetle, Fat Albert, Prince nymph, Parachute Adams, Argentine mystery fly.
I had enough traipsing over the rocks by now, and I suggested we head back to the Estancia. 
Soon it was time to have lunch and look at another pretty place setting. Looks like ham rolled around some kind of spread, with fresh tomatoes. 
Katrina had to go into town to get her Toyota truck an oil change and service. I was granted the honor to push the button to notify the wait staff that we were ready for the next course! You can only imagine how thrilled I was to push the button. I am being serious here. Those that know me, know that I am thrilled by the simplest things in life. I may like to go to exotic places and meet interesting people, but give me a chance to be the hostess and push a button -Whoa!
Here is a picture of our lunch. I can identify the salad, carrots, a grilled onion, and what appears to be a piece of mystery meat.
This was a great place to sit and blog and read. 
After Steve went fishing in the late afternoon the dogs joined me on a walk. They were very protective of me.
We went over a stream and guess what happened? 
Yes, The Labrador’s ditched me to go for a swim! 
Soon it was time for me to return to our suite. This is where all the trucks are parked when the guides are back from fishing. No one is back but me! 
Soon it was evening and time for some canapés. These little hot dogs were difficult to skewer! 
These guys were much easier to pick up and eat!
Soon it was time to sit down for another elegant meal. By this time Katrina had returned and I lost my spot taking care of the buzzer! 
Here is a closeup of the first plate, it shows flies used to catch the fish here.
This is the dinner plate. They were all hand painted and were from 1953!
Dinner is served! Looks like we had potatoes, salad, tomatoes and salmon. 
We needed a scrumptious dessert, and here it is! 
Cheesecake with strawberries!
I was also envisioning buying it and inviting our friends down to stay for a week next year. Then I came to my senses, as Steve and I have problems getting our friends to visit us in Lake George. How in the world are we going to get them to take a 10 hour plus flight from NYC to BA, plus another flight to Tipiluike? No way that was going to happen. Well, I wish Mr. and Mrs. Smith good luck on their adventure next year. Perhaps, they may have friends visit them after all.
Every once in a while i would do a lap up the stairs, or around the deck of the building. 
Part of the prednisone protocol is to avoid sunlight, so no suntanning for me. Since I enjoy sitting and reading it was not too much of a hardship. I remind myself that I will be able to sit outside and enjoy the pool other days.
At four I went to the pool for a dip. Hoping the chlorine in the cool pool would soothe me skin. I actually stayed in the pool for a good 30 minutes. It felt absolutely wonderful.
I trotted up stairs a little after 8 to enjoy my two eggs over medium, bacon and fresh fruit. I love dragon fruit, and was excited to see it on the side board.
One of the guests at the lodge is practicing for a swim in Naples Florida. She is going to swim for about four hours. Her husband (one of the three Steves here!) is going to be handing her power bars, and water during the race from a kayak. Wile Hubby was off fishing Anne asked Max to help her practice. For an hour she swam practicing her food and water bottle grabs. Anne is not allowed to touch the kayak at any point in her swim. You can only see Max in this picture, as Anne is on the other side of the kayak. I am not a swimmer, and just can’t imagine how anyone could think that this would be a fun thing to do! Jane decided to go for a swim also, but she has denied any interest in joining this long distance swim club. Wise choice Jane!
It was a nine pounder! Steve’s biggest fish so far at Delphi was at least 6.5 pounds, possibly 7. So this was quite the catch! The fish ran into Steve’s backing four times. This means that the fish ran and used all of his line four times! Steve would bring the fish in, and then the fish would take off again.That’s a big and strong fish! Steve was blind casting, meaning that he threw the fly out willy nilly, hoping that it was in a spot where a fish might be cruising by. He told me later that had he fished directly to this fish, he probably would have never either hooked the fish or landed it as he would have been too nervous!
Soon it was 12:30 and time for lunch. I had the roasted vegetable salad with corn and jerk chicken. I also had a side order of French fries. We had a fun debate on whether or not sweet potato French fries were healthier than regular French fries! No cookies or wine for me today, but I am counting the hours until Friday night!
After Steve showered we went upstairs to the TV room and Steve watched coverage of the Masters while I redid my post. I got a few chuckles from my friends, so I hope it was as amusing as I thought it was! Our first canapé was fried rice balls with dip. 
Next was some kind of gloppy cream on a toast round. I skipped both, so I can’t give you a tasting report! 
Here is a picture of the dinner table. 
Can you see who is Head of the Table? Yes! It’s our Steve, with the biggest fish of the day! Well done, Steve! I should have made him give a retelling of the story to amaze the table, but thought better of it. Maybe I should have had him give me a toast, for finding Delphi? Well, I did that once. And as they say “Once is enough!” Or is it “Once is never enough!”? I can never get my quotations correct, so we’ll have to leave it as it was. Steve spoke with Jane on his left at dinner, and me on his right. He did talk to Peter and Margaret who were next to Jane and I. 
The first course was a peach salad. I love fresh peaches, and this salad at Delphi is always one of my favorites! 
Next was our main, Hogfish. It is a very tasty fish, with a lousy name. 
For dessert I think that we had a tiramisu. I didn’t realize until I hit the bottom of the dish, that there was cake on the bottom. I thought about not eating anymore, or even just eating the top, but ate the whole thing! Oh well, I did a pretty good job keeping Passover.
After awhile I went back to the room, here is a picture of one of the lovely flowers by the pool. A little bit of spring, for those back home in the northeast! Steve did catch a fish while I was reading, his first ever Triggerfish. I posted a picture yesterday of one. 
