Author Archives: Sparky
CV1 Day 3: Roatan, Honduras
I have always liked Roatan. Jett and I visited here at least twice and were even considering buying a vacation home here. That never happened, but the fond memories remain. On those earlier cruises we docked in town. This time we docked at Mahogany Bay, a new port on the south side of the island. … Continue reading
CV1 Day 2: At sea
This was mostly a casino day but it also included an elegant dinner and a show on the ship. We spent a LOT of time in the casino. I lost $55 (down 175). But that loss was in spite of three separate slot machine bonuses of over $200 each. So on three spins I won … Continue reading
CV1 Day 1: Hop 1, Lehigh Acres FL to Tampa FL
We had to drive to Tampa to get on the Carnival Paradise for the first 6 days of this short vacation. We had to be on board by 3pm and we had to park the car and take a shuttle to the ship. But we couldn’t drive there directly from Lehigh Acres FL; we had … Continue reading
Carnival cruise/auto combo vacation (CV1) preview
Yes, Marlene and I will be embarking on another cruise in just over a week. This is a 6-night cruise on the Carnival Paradise, going to several ports in the western Caribbean Sea, including Belize. We plan to take a rare shore excursion in Belize to do some tubing through caves. The three ports are: … Continue reading
“Split Second” by David Baldacci
Copyright 2003 by Columbus Rose Ltd. Published by Warner Books, New York. This is the first of the series (currently numbering 6) of Baldacci novels featuring Sean King and Michelle Maxwell, two former Secret Service agents who left the agency in disgrace – King for having his minor presidential candidate assassinated and Maxwell for having … Continue reading
“Trojan Odyssey” by Clive Cussler
Copyright 2003 by Sandecker RILLP. Published by GP Putnam & Sons, New York. This is #17 (of 27) in the series of adventure/fantasy novels by Clive Cussler featuring Dirk Pitt, Special Activities Director of NUMA, the National Underwater Marine Administration. I was surprised that there are 10 to follow this one because (spoiler alert) in … Continue reading
Four nights in Kissimmee
In case you don’t know Kissimmee is a town very close to Orlando. You might consider it a suburb of Orlando. And it is very close to Disney World and Universal Studios. We spent four nights there. Why? Because we got a “free” stay in a timeshare resort. Yes, we had to sit through a … Continue reading
Three festivals
There are two big annual festivals in south central Florida: the Swamp Cabbage Festival in Labelle in February and the Sugar Festival in Clewiston in March. They are similar in that they have a lot of food trucks and vendors of a variety of goods and trinkets and they both have some really fine live … Continue reading
“Separation of Power” by Vince Flynn
Copyright 2001 by Vince Flynn. Published by Pocket Books, a division of Simon & Schuster Inc, New York. This is the 5th in the series of books by Vince Flynn that features Mitch Rapp, a CIA assassin. Yes, a CIA assassin. I am not so naive to believe that our government never kills anyone, but, … Continue reading
A laptop death in the family
My laptop died 4 days ago. It was working fine, with about half the battery time remaining. I closed the top and put it on the charger. An hour later I took it off the charger and tried to start it. Nothing. Put it back on the charger but the light indicating that it was … Continue reading »