Brush Creek Ranch, Saratoga WY. 9/12/2015 Sa

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.

Delphi Club, Abaco 1/17/2019 Th

This is the last post from the January Delphi trip that I didn’t fully post.

No pictures of eggs for you this morning. You must be sick of them by now. Here are some lovely flowers. I have never seen any guest put flowers in their hair. Don’t even try to get me guessing if a flower behind your right or left ear means you are single, married or on the prowl.

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.

There is a book in the lodge that has maps and information of the various tourist sights. Did we take it? No. Did Steve think he knew where the blue hole was? Yes. Did Steve even know there was a book that had the information? No. Did Linda bother to inquire if Steve might want to bring the book with us? No. Did Linda think that Steve knew what he was doing? Yes. Was Linda wrong? Stay with me and you will find out. Did Steve think they were going to find Blue Holes? No. Did Linda think they were going to find Blue Holes? Yes.

Quick update: For those quivering with anticipation, as if there was any other way to be; Steve and Linda remain happily married.

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.

After much discussion it turns out that there was a massive communication error about this adventure. I thought we were going to look for Blue Holes. Steve thought we were going to look at the caves. So he was correct in what he was driving to. I was incorrect as I was not paying attention to what he was telling me we were going to see!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!

While at the airport I got an e-mail from S. Did I know of any good restaurants in the Florida Keys? I live to serve, so I looked up a number of restaurants on Yelp. I hope they turn out okay. I do hate to disappoint my fans!

One thing I have just realized is that I should have asked S from Scotland to dance with me. Or at least pretend to dance as there was no occasion to dance while at Delphi. If I had, then I could have claimed to have danced with a man who had danced with the Queen!

No questions today. No one ever seems to answer them. Nor are enough of you liking my blog posts. You get them in your mail box, or stumble upon them somehow. Please take the effort to like them. It is pretty simple. Just click on the like button at the bottom of the post. For those of you who are liking them, thank you from the bottom of my heart. Now, let’s see if my like numbers increase! For the truly adventurous you can even add a comment! It’s really not hard to do!

Another update: Steve and I are going to England in May to see visit with Peter and Jane (Peter ran the Delphi Club for years). Guess who we are going to see there? V and her husband J! I keep telling you that we meet people again! In fact, J described us to Peter as “delightful”!

Tomorrow continues our trip to South America in 2017. I will however end up taking another break of that trip as we are going to Argentina again Saturday night!

Delphi Club, Abaco Friday December 7, 2018

Today was our last full day. Sob. But also happy to be home as I hate the travel days. 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.

Our second night at Delphi this year we had the concierge and a coworker from Winding Bay (a private villa community, formerly the Ritz Carlton) at dinner. I talked with them about the possibility of going there for a massage. They were going to get back to me, but never did. She had warned me that the spa was not open to the public, and that I could buy a membership that would give me discounts on golf and spa. Well, paying $15,000 for a membership to save 20% on my massage is not my idea of a good deal. 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!

Speaking of fish, here is a picture of J from the UK. We have often seen J when we are at Delphi as he usually comes the same week we do in December. This fish is a barracuda. They have some teeth! 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!

Anyway this was the last morning for J at Delphi. He is single, and as you can see, very attractive once you take the schmatte from his head. He must make good coin as he goes fishing all over the world. If you are interested forward me your curriculum vitae. He did tell me he was looking for someone like me – lets their husband go off fishing without complaint, needn’t wear a bag over her head most of the day, laughs at jokes, and can follow a conversation. Hopefully he was looking for a younger version. If you go by the appropriate age of couple metric, (half your age plus seven) he would have to be 38 to be eligible for me. I think he is younger than 38. So Steve needn’t worry about me straying. At least to be with J. Ha Ha Steve! 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.

Are you in the market for a significant other?

Linda’s Excellent Dating Service aims to please.

I also offer proposal services.

Don’t you think the proper serving of cookies is three? Then you can stop at two, and feel superior that you didn’t give into temptation?

Tuesday December 4, 2018 The Delphi Club, Abaco, Bahamas

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.

Steve’s day fishing was very successful. He went to a secret spot and caught a barracuda and six bone fish. Here is a picture of one of them held by Steve’s guide Robin.

Do you prefer salsa or guacamole?

Do you prefer creme fraiche or whipped cream.

Do you even know what a barracuda looks like?

Monday December 3, 2018 The Delphi Club, Abaco Bahamas

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.

Do you read crime novels or romance?

Do you make fruit and vegetable table decorations?

Are you on Instagram?

September 2, 2011. Brush Creek Ranch, Saratoga Wyoming

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!

Usually Steve got up early in the morning and went off fishing. I would be by myself for breakfast and lunch. It was sometimes lonely, with most couples and families staying together. However, as I don’t like to fish all day, in fact I only like to fish for about 30 minutes, we each do our own thing.

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.

Do you ride Western or English?

How old is the oldest item in your closet that you still wear?

Do you still have your wedding dress in your closet even though it is 39 years old?

Tuesday March 6, 2018 Arroyo Verde, Argentina

As I have caught up on all my more recent adventures it is time that I finish up on our trip to Argentina. As you recall Steve and I traveled to Argentina in February and March. His goal continues to be to catch a fish each month until he drops dead or can’t jerk anymore fish lips; whichever comes first. Steve is off fishing every day and I am reading and blogging. You need to recall that due to my being on blood thinners due to a clot in February 2017 I didn’t do any horseback riding at Arroyo Verde as the nearest hospital is over two hours away. If I were to fall and hurt myself, well it might be “Goodbye-Linda” and my loyal fans would not like that. Or at least I hope they would not like that! For the superstitious I have just knocked wood and spat three times. I started my day with my normal breakfast of scrambled eggs with two slices of bacon. Steve opted with his usual mushroom omelette.

We said good bye at breakfast to my friends from South in the United States. They were a lot of fun, and the guys caught some great fish. The Crazy Male Argentinians contingent was still going to be here for a few days, and a wife and daughter would be coming Wednesday. I was looking forward to meeting them.

I was also excited as new guests were arriving late in the day. A Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Hmm. Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Now even I can recognize a fake name. Who might our new guests be? Hollywood royalty like Brad Pitt and a girlfriend? You will have to wait until dinner time for the answer to that question!

There was a lot of talk at meal time about a beautiful fishing spot near Kilometer 9. The road from the gate to the estancia was ten kilometers, so this marker was only about a kilo from where we were staying.

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.

Ready for a little Zen? This is what Steve sees and hears when he is out fishing.
I don’t see any fish do you? The water was quite warm, a little too warm for the fish to be happy. Many of them were in the lake as it was late summer, equivalent to just before Labor Day. We were told that the time to come for the big fish was April. Next time!

We had spied Dennis, one of the other guests, and his guide on the way to look at the stream. They had started to pack up and look for another spot to fish at, as the fish were not biting here. Dennis loved looking the part of an Argentine angler with his cap. The cap has a special name, I don’t think it is just called a beret! 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!

I think in my next life I am going to come back as a hostess of a lodge. I love meeting people and entertaining. Unfortunately it’s not all fun and games. You rarely have time off, and sometimes there are difficult guests that need to be entertained or subtlety told to shut up. And sometimes their checks bounce.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.

As a reminder, at Arroyo Verde we had breakfast at about 8:30, and then the anglers would go out for the first fishing session. They would return and then we would have a full lunch at 2:30, followed by a siesta. Around 5:00 the anglers would go out again, and then return at 9 or so. Each evening we had a full dinner at candlelight, with fine china and linens. Those guests who did not fish could hike, ride, read or nap. I did a lot of blogging and reading, with some walking. 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!

Now to tell you about Mr. and Mrs. Smith. I was waiting all day to find out if they were someone truly worthy of their own LindaExcellentAdventure post. Well, they ended up with a paragraph. Our mystery guests arrived after I returned from my afternoon walk.

Mr. And Mrs. Smith, were actually the Smiths. They were not famous, just regular people. He had recently retired form the government and they had homes in South Carolina and in Washington State where their adult daughter lived. Mrs. Smith was an executive recruiter. Of course I googled her, and she had about ten jobs in the last seven years. I think people found her difficult to work with. The Smith’s did not like Donald Trump, and alternated between making the sign of the cross, shaking their heads and spitting if the President’s name was mentioned. Not really, they just pouted.

Their financial advisor told them they didn’t have to work anymore and could retire and travel. Sounds like they had listened to Dean Witter years ago! He was an angler, she was not. She was going to go out with a bird guide the next day. Steve thought they were nice, I did not like them at all. She was a bit snooty for me.

They loved South America and were looking forward to renting an apartment in Buenos Aires next spring for six weeks. They felt that you needed that long to truly see the city. That sounded like a lot of walking and museum touring for me. Not exactly my cup of tea. I prefer a little of this and a lot of people watching. The Smith’s were planning on inviting their friends to stay with them in Argentina for a week or two next year.

At this point I started laughing to myself. Remember my post about Tipiliuke and the house by the river? I was entranced by that house along the Chimehuin that was for sale. 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.

Do you like cheesecake?

Are you retired?

Are you snooty?

Saturday April 7, 2018 Delphi, Abaco Bahamas

After a miserable night itching, and bruising my body like crazy from the scratching I decided on going back on prednisone to stop my immune system from going into overload. Going on prednisone makes you feel wonderful for a while, but it does some incredible damage to the body with longtime high doses. Just like any medication, there are the pros and cons.

After my usual breakfast I resumed my position of book on lap, and body on couch. I alternate between the white couch and the orange flower couch. 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 one point in our life I wanted a pool in our back yard. Steve said “Go ahead and get an estimate, but just remember that it will only be a really expensive painting because you won’t use it.” We did get an estimate, and it was very expensive. Of course it would have been cheaper if i didn’t want a waterfall, infinity edge, retracting cover, pool lights, saltwater, fountains and beach style entrance. They don’t call me “lemme lemme upgrade Linda” for nothing!

We do have a small pool at Lake George. It came with the house, so there were no options to consider. It does have magic lights, that we can turn on at night, however we usually have the solar pool cover on we don’t turn them on. I tried to turn them on last year, and we found out that a bulb was out. Our pool service lady, a wonderful woman named Joan, The Swim Pool Maiden found a bulb for me. It was only $100 dollars! We did upgrade the pool by getting a heater two years ago. I have decided this year that I will turn the heater up and use it more often, so I will actually go in the pool instead of just looking at it. Steve was correct, pools are really only paintings to me! Very expensive paintings.

An hour after I took the prednisone I started to feel wonderful and thought, “oh, I will only need to be on this one day!” By eleven I started to get itchy again and took some more Benadryl, soon my desire to itch began to fade. It seemed that I was not quite over the hump. At lunch I stylishly wore shoes with socks tucked into my pant legs. I looked like I was out gardening in the Hudson River Valley, trying to protect myself from deer ticks!

Lunch was out on the deck facing the ocean again. This week there are lots of wives who don’t fish, so I was not lonely at lunch at all. One couple was leaving later in the day, so the husband joined us for lunch also. He was fascinated by my keyboard that I use with my ipad, and was going to order one for himself. I told him how much the keyboard has helped me with my blog. I do have a MacBook but have not used that at all on vacation since I got the IPad last year. Now that I have the keyboard, I don’t know if I will ever use the MacBook again!

I had the green salad with roasted vegetables and French fries. Since I started the prednisone I didn’t have any wine.

After lunch I sat and read again. 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.

Steve met me at the pool. He had a decent day fishing, he caught five fish. He didn’t have as good a day as another guest who is from Minnesota, he caught 27 and had the largest fish of the day! Well done, Peter from Minnesota!

We went back in to watch the Masters and met some new guests. One of the guys was from South Carolina. He has a house on the beach and recommended some bug sprays. He said to order two kinds and mix them up. Quick as a bunny I ordered them on Amazon and they will be waiting for me when we get back home on Tuesday! If they work I’ll have to make my own business selling “Linda’s Excellent Anti-Insect Concoction! I won’t tell you what sprays I bought, no sense you beating me to the door of fame and riches!

Our first canapé was artichoke fritters with lemon dill mayo.

Next up were quail eggs with celery salt. The celery salt was really salty. I did not like that!

Our soup was shellfish and pumpkin bisque. It was top notch!

Steve had the wahoo. Unfortunately it was overdone, and wahoo is not forgiving. We had a big crowd at dinner last night, 24 people, so perhaps that was a bad choice with that many people. You have to be very careful with fish, a minute too long, and the fish is tough.

I had the beef tenderloin, cooked rare. It was perfect!

Dessert was white chocolate pannacotta with raspberry coulis. Very refreshing!

Steve and I had some chamomile tea and then it was off to bed. Steve had another day to fish, and I had another day to laze!

Since no one is answering my questions, I will skip them for today!

Thursday April 5, 2018 Delphi Club Abaco

I woke up Thursday morning and Steve left to fish. I usually wait until he is out the door before I get ready to start my day. I don’t want to get in his way while he is double checking his pockets to make sure he has everything that he needs, and applying his sunscreen and bug spray. 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!

While Anne and Jane were out swimming, I took a walk on the driveway that leads to the main road. It’s a big circle, with one side of the circle less traveled than the other. The less traveled side was supposed to be used for guest traffic, but it was bumpier. Margaret, the taxi driver that the lodge uses, refuses to risk her undercarriage on the guest route. I was going to walk for 15 minutes and then turn around, but somehow convinced myself to just go a little bit further to where the two halves of the circle meet near the turn off to the main highway. Unfortunately that spot met at 19:45 seconds on my stop watch. So the whole walk was a miserable 40 minutes in the sun. I thankfully had a hat on, but foolishly brought no water. I finally made it to the lodge, collapsed on the bed and said “Well Done, Linda!”

I came upstairs to get ice water and checked my email. Lo and behold I had gotten an email from Peter that Steve had caught a beautiful bonefish!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!

There were lots of sand flies nipping on my ankles at lunch. I was not smart and had not put on bug spray. Jane brought out her Avon Skin so Soft and I applied some, but it was too late. I was beginning to get the itchies. So after lunch I added insult to injury and did something especially stupid. As it was raining by the pool I brought one of the chaise lounge cushions to the lounger by our patio. I was out of the rain, and stupidly thought that I was safe from the sand flies as I was wearing a flyfishing shirt that is impregnated with insecticide. I wrapped a towel around my ankles thinking that I would outsmart the bugs. Alas, I think I was actually screaming “Attend the free banquet everyone!Finally Steve came back from his great day fishing and I went inside so he could tell me all about his day. I put some cortisone cream on thinking all was well.

Earlier in the morning I had worked on Wednesday’s post, but going between different wifi zones I accidentally lost my post and had to redo it. So between my crankiness over the bug bites and my lost post, I was in a bit of a bad mood. Steve had the much better day, In fact while he was fishing he thought”Oh, how wonderful life is” and then felt some kind of strange current go through his body. I routinely thank God for all my blessings, especially when things are going well. I don’t want a tragedy to strike and then think that I had never really appreciated all the wonderful things that I have going for me. I will have to ask Steve when he returns later if he had the weird feeling before or after he caught the fish! 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.

My questions of the day:

Do you fish?

How do you like your eggs?

Is it “Once is enough”, or “Once is never enough”?

Wednesday April 4, 2018 Delphi Club in Abaco

I messed up big time today. First I realized that yesterday’s post was really Wednesday, not Tuesday, but that was easy to correct. The real bummer is that I labored over an hour for a post that disappeared when I moved from one wifi zone to another waiting for Steve to come back. Well, I will just have to make this post as good or better than the one I was working on this morning. But I must admit that it was really good!

I left you yesterday with a visit to our room. We are in room number four again. Steve and I thankfully have no bad memories in this room!

After we unpacked we went upstairs for lunch on the veranda. Originally I was seated to Steve’s right, but “lemme lemme upgrade Linda”, saw some guests vacating and plopped herself down almost across from Steve. I got to look at the ocean, and Steve got the esteemed pleasure of looking at me. Ha Ha, not really, Steve just hates to move once he is seated. For my birthday I have candle lit dinner parties. I have place cards for everyone and after every course people have to jump up grab their napkins and wine glass and sit someplace else. Steve, as host doesn’t have to move. There is always minor grumbling by the guests about moving. However, as sometime you might be seated next to someone boring, I think that secretly everyone likes the change of dinner companions.

Here is a close up of lunch. We both had chicken Caesar salads.

After lunch we went back to the room. Steve wanted to go fishing, and I wanted to sit by the pool and read. So off he went, and off I went. Unlike Steve, I didn’t put any sunscreen on as I was going to sit under an umbrella in the shade. I bet you think I am going to tell you that I got a horrible sunburn, but no, I didn’t. I finished up the first of the eight books that I have brought along. I have decided to restart the Black Dagger Brotherhood series by J.R. Ward, Dark Lover. It was as good as the last time I read it. She had written three new books in the series that I haven’t gotten around to reading. I figured this was a great time to start up all over again.

This was the view of the pool. We don’t have a direct view of the ocean from the pool patio as the wind is too strong, but you do get to hear the roar of the surf. It’s even better than a mood machine!

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.

Our canapes at dinner started with a fried wahoo, and dipping sauces. I skipped the fish, as I am still observing Passover. I have had them in the past and they are really good!

Next were beet slices, topped with goat cheese on a rice cracker. There was much discussion about guests not liking beets!

While the other guests were enjoying their canapés and drinks I noticed other guests admiring the double rainbow. The one on the left was merely a sliver of light, while the really beautiful one was on the right!

Here is everyone gathered for dinner. We have been at Delphi when we were the only guests, and at times when there are many. Steve thinks of Delphi as his own home, and doesn’t like it so much when there are a lot of people here. I think he is getting a trifle possessive! Tonight there were sixteen guests, Max, the manager, and Peter-the creator of all this wonderful madness. Jane, Peter’s wife was here also, as I told you yesterday.

First course was tomatoes with fresh mozzarella, basil, a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar. It was nice and light.

For dinner Steve and I each had the Osso Bucco. I just skipped the polenta on the bottom on the plate. Steve and I both agreed that although tasty, mine is better. I don’t have an original recipe, I follow the one from Marcella Hazan’s wonderful cookbook!

Dessert was pot de creme de chocolate, and of course, you can’t beat a chocolate dessert. I will have problems if there are cakes or brownies between now and Friday night! I have been abstaining from wine, also. Let’s hope I don’t get really ripped Friday night with a Delphi Punch and wine at dinner!

Now is the time for my pet peeve. I have actually had some of you dear readers ask me “Who is David Gandy?” I fear that I may have to put some kind of vetting process for those of you who are not meeting my minimum standards of knowledge.

David Gandy is the top male model in the world. He’s British. He was one of the first of the male models who has a real body, he was not one of those wimpy skinny guys. He has a campaign for Dolce and Gabbana, he is usually posing shirtless and there is often a babe at his side. He has a very intense look in his eyes. Yeah, that look that the heroes in all my romance novels have! He also poses by himself, his shirt ripped open, his six pack showing along with further down….enough, you can google him yourself! In googling him myself for this blog post I found an article called “you can look like David Gandy also”. The article showed how some people actually go through plastic surgery to get his smoldering good looks. No Steve doesn’t have to worry, there is no comparison. David Gandy is not 61. Steve is.

Now for my questions of the day:

Do you like to travel south during the winter?

Have you ever thought of gettin butt injections to look like Kim K?

Do you close your eyes when you kiss your husband and imagine David Gandy?

I am sure that Steve is giving me the stink eye now!