My First Half Marathon with Rocky's Rescues on My Mind

Hey family and friends,
As probably you all know I have been working my butt off at training for a half marathon. My run is in 2 weeks!!!! yey!

I am dedicating my run, all 13.1 miles, to an awesome animal rescue called Rocky’s Rescues... who recently was in the paper for their animal rescue/education efforts:
http://galvestondailynews.com/story/210718)

They are an amazing rescue organization where I have found another love of my life, Sadie.

Our new dog Sadie was is terrible condition, pregnant, sick, heartworm, emaciated, and probably worst of all, without anyone to love. She was rescued by a man named Tom English (a rescuer) and a woman named Sarah Mann (a foster mom). These people dedicate their lives to saving animals, spreading the work about spaying and neutering, spending thier own money on treatment, nurturing them back to health and to an adoptable condition, and then finally finding these desperate animals a safe and loving home. I have come to know these people through phone conversations and emails.

Becaused we rescued Sadie, Sarah now had room to rescue another dog they named Babe. Her story is very similar to Sadie’s. Pregnant, no food or shelter, emaciated, heartworm, and no love. Yet they are the sweetest dogs around. I have copied an email and picture below of Sarah’s recent email to me. She was very attached to Sadie but let her go to me because she knew there was another Sadie around the corner to be rescued.

Anyway, by this time you are probably considering I am going to ask for a donation, and you are right. : )

And if you need more of a reason, check out this video made by Tom (video is not for kids). The first dog in the video is Sadie. :(

Please consider sponsoring me on my run. All the money I collect will go to Rocky’s Rescues. They are a non-profit organization; where no one gets paid, they are all volunteers, they do this in their spare time, and all the medical care is paid for by donations!

Seriously any bit helps, even $1. And I mean that with all my heart.

Thank you all! And thanks so much for your words of encouragment in my training. I am still amazed that I can run! : ) And a big big thanks to Celeste for inspiring me to run and for believing in me! I am so happy that you are going to be running by my side, even though you could be at the finish line by now!

If you want to donate, you can make a check out to me or directly to “Animal Alliance of Galveston County — Rocky’s Rescues Account”.

I thank you and dogs just like Sadie thank you!!!

And Saber thanks you for his new friend, which he is so happy to have now. Even the cats like her now!

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From: rockysrescues@aol.com
Sent: Tuesday, March 08, 2011 2:42 PM
To: amycclark@comcast.net
Subject: I've got you - "Babe"

Hi Amy,
Thanks again for the sweet updates on Sadie girl. I miss her tremendously but I smile big every time I see her face in a photo!

Miss Sadie getting adopted allowed us the opportunity to go rescue another dog yesterday. We have named her "Babe".
.
.
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A day in the life of a San Leon/Bacliff dog on Monday March 7, 2011.

The difference one can make by simply caring enough to stop & render help to the helpless.

Tom & Sarah -Pulling up to a house in San Leon/Bacliff on 10th street March 7, 2011 @ 4:00 PM

Living in dirt, no food, no water & tied up.


A beautiful female dog who recently had her 3rd or 4th litter of puppies found emaciated & full distention in tummy.


Tom approaches to make a new friend - Nice big thick chain around her skinny neck.


He assures her - everything will be alright.


Tom gives her Frontline flea prev.


Worms her & vaccinates her.


Tom checks her gums. They are white - she is anemic.
Most likely her bloated tummy is from heart failure to do heart worm disease



We just can't leave her behind for certain death to come.
We take her back to my house to help her.
( Owner admits he hasn't got enough money to feed Mama & puppies, but he himself looks like he hasn't missed a meal.)


Tom gives some much needed reassurance- Help is here. Tom names her "Babe"


Tom draws blood for panel screening & hw test -
He knows she is hw pos. before the results have even come back.


Look at this mug - Beautiful girl will now receive love & medical care.
She will leave her old life behind for good.


She say's thank you Sarah - "Got some food ?" I'm hungry!


She is in a warm comfortable bed.
Eating boiled chicken breast & rice to put over delicious kibble, she eats it all up &
say's Thank you. We are waiting for all blood work to come back to see the plan of action to get her health back.

Thank you sister Sadie for making room for me to get help, soon I will be dancing & wagging my tail.

P.S We rescued all her puppies also. The owners of this dog should be in jail.

DAY 5 – St. Lucia

So I consider myself pretty good at directions, following a map, knowing which way is north, etc. (although I am pretty sure after this trip, Dave might not share that same confidence). But really people… no street signs outside the city… really???

The day started with a long wait for our car rental agent to show up Costless (I now know how they get their name). We finally meet up with our Costless agent and she informs us that the car we rented is not a 4x4 like we requested, rather it is a small sedan. They do give us a $2 cost break. Wow, aren’t we lucky. We stand out in the parking lot for about 20 minutes filling out paper work (which I had filled out online, per their request to make things go faster). None of that information was transferred to our paperwork. Not impressed.

So we finally head out of the pier area. Our goal for the day was to see the pitons located in the southwestern side of the island. We think we are heading out of the city but instead we make our way down a narrow road (btw, all the roads are narrow) to a dead end, looking straight at a parade. In hindsight, I wish we had parked and watched but we were Piton bound. So it is all kind of a blur but I do remember that I was so excited to finally find a street sign, still too far away to read, but as we get closer to the sign, I am anticipating the excitement as I can finally pint point us on the map. Approaching the sign the rest of the gang erupt in laughter as they read the “street” sign. It says “Shine for Jesus”. Damn it I say.


Forgoing the detail of getting out of this mess, the next half hour involves, Dave (the hero driver in this story) backing up a narrow road, hitting another car with his side mirror (which must happen a lot there), lots of honking (not the St. Thomas kind of honking), following a guy in a van (who leads us out of the chaos), pulling up his whole vehicle on a city sidewalk, Dave doing the same, getting directions from this guy who is going well out of his way to help us and even declines money from Dave,


following a taxi full of tourists who look like they are going south on the only main road in St. Lucia, realizing we are likely not going to where we though, finding ourselves on some sort of school campus,



not seeing any road signs… until 2 hours later a sign!!!

We are located about 10 minutes north of the pier. ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!


Deep breath.


I am not sure why we still decided to pursue the Pitons. In hindsight, I wish we stayed at Gros Islet. I hear they have nice beaches. But this time through the city we are pretty sure we can stay on the one main road (which is not named) that heads south to Soufriere. So we go back by the pier and back by the sidewalk we parked on. This time, we head south… as best we can.

On our 2 hour very winding steep narrow drive, we don’t get lost but we do meet… Dr. Twist, Rescue, and Bird Man. All who are trying to sell us something. Some art, some jewelry, some birds, and some other “things” that will make us feel better.

I did buy a turtle from Dr. Twist and Ian did buy a coconut carved bird for $1 (I refused to pay the $5 that he thought it was worth) and Ian talked Rescue down to $5 for a necklace. In hindsight… maybe we should have reconsidered the other item he had for sale.

We finally made it to the Pitons.


We are starving (American style). We grabbed lunch at a local place with a beautiful view of the Pitons. We all wanted to try local food so we each ordered a Roti… ugh. It is basically a burrito filled with potatoes and some yellow sauce.

Not a big fan. The fried plantains were good as well as the tamarind juice.

The waitress came out with a fresh tamarind for us to try. It is a sour thing for sure.


After lunch we had all of 20 minutes for us to enjoy the pitons. Ideally we would have taken a water taxi to view them and in between the pitons there is a beach to enjoy. But we did not have time. On the way back there were either controlled burns going on or the island was on fire.

Either way, the smoke was a bit bothersome but Dave did an amazing job driving. He was definitely in some kind of zone.

We made it back to the pier area and decided to stop at some local shops.



And finally it happens… a meltdown. It is not from Dave who has been driving all day, or Shannon who is car sick in general not to mention the 6 hours of winding steep smoky driving, or even me who is frustrated that I still haven’t seen a freakin’ street sign all day, but it is Ian.


The heat was slowly putting him over the edge all day. Signs of it came early in the day when he had enough of being lost and when we drove by the boat the second time was debating whether to jump car or not. But he waits for the day to be over when Dave pulls the car over for shopping which it is clear Dave, Shannon and I all want to do.

But Ian shouts, to Dave’s somewhat rhetorical question of “Does anyone want to shop?”, “No, I emphatically do NOT want to shop!” This is worth blogging about because this story comes up several times throughout the rest of our cruise. Probably on average 5 times per remaining day. The Farrs got a big kick out of Ian’s fit. I kindly remind Ian that he can wait in the car and he responds: “I am not waiting in the fucking car in the 97 degree Caribbean heat!” I kindly let him know we have AC and he can rest there but Ian is on a mission. A mission to get on the f’n boat. So he, in tantrum form, shouts “No! I want my backpack and I am walking back to the boat!” And off he goes. He doesn’t look back. He probably had a 15 minute hike in the Caribbean heat back to the boat but it was his mission and he is now the one in the zone. When we left the shopping, we did keep our eyes open for his dehydrated body which we half expected to be slumped over on a park bench or something but upon return to the cruise ship he was spread out like a towel animal on our bed. Safe, sound, showered, rested and no longer grumpy.

And here are some random boat pictures I took throughout the day:









Services:
Costless - Recommendation, spend more, don’t rent from these guys. 5.
St. Lucia Department of Transportation – lack of road signs. -10.

Overall score for the day: 7 still a decent day, but only for the stories.
Ian’s tantrum bumped it up from a 6 to a 7.

DAY 4 – Barbados

Shasa is her name and a beautiful catamaran she is.


We spent a day at sea on a catamaran captained by Jason O'Neal. Because we booked a tour with Shasa Catamaran Cruises, we didn’t see much of the island but whomever was our taxi driver, he sure did pack a lot of history in one short drive. Great guy, wish I knew his name to give him a shout out, but he made our land portion very informative.

When we arrived at Shasa we met Jason and his sea partner, who apparently has only been sailing with Jason for a week, but you would never know it. Already on board were two other very friendly New York couples that were staying together on the island.

We headed out immediately to hopefully snorkel with some turtles… and sure there were no disappointments there. There was another boat already there with a few other folks snorkeling and there were sea turtles every where. This was one of my highlights of the whole trip. Just knowing that these turtles are wild (although they certainly love the treats the captains are tossing them) made my day. Thanks to Shannon I have some great turtle shots to share.









Then we headed to snorkel a reef, but this is where my fun ended. I was sea sick. I think Dave and Shannon felt like me. Not terribly sea sick, but enough to make me focus on not throwing up at sea. I couldn’t tell what was worse, being on the boat moving up and down or swimming on the swells themselves. I tried both. Both made me nauseous. Ian tells me the snorkeling was pretty good.

The day ended with some shopping at some cute shops near the port. That night Shannon and I enjoy the hot tub and later that evening… the infamous late night Mexican Buffet. Which was basically eating in the middle of the night when you are not hungry. I am not sure why I participated but really…. Why can Carnival serve my favorite food at lunch time! J


Services: Shasa Catamaran Cruises, good day, aside from being sea sick. Score: 8+

The captain, Jason, was a really nice guy, fun and professional. I actually would have liked to get to know him better. I bet he was full of more information about Barbados, the turtles, etc. Drinks were great, if only I could have enjoyed them!

On an interesting note: He stated that he ignores online reviews, and I don’t blame him, but what Shannon and I thought was funny was that in one breath he said: You just give people what you tell them and don’t worry about reviews. And in the other breath he mentions that we are not going to do the shipwreck stop since it will be crowed and it is a bit corny anyhow. Hummm…. interesting. I actually believe him that it was probably not the greatest stop but why advertise a place that is really nothing worth seeing. Frankly, I didn’t really care. But I did find the comment or tactic an interesting one.

Still, great boat, great captain, good drinks, and the turtles exceeded my expectations so I was happy… even if half my day was wishing I was on land (or on a really big cruise ship!).

Overall score for the day: 8+ (probably would have been a 9+ if I wasn’t sick)

DAY 3 – Dominica

The morning starts off with Shannon swearing that she shall never drink again, at least on the cruise. We have a hike to conquer today and it is not clear if Shannon will make it. But it only takes her the morning to shake it off.

Our tour was with Bumpiing (yes with two ii’s) Tours and our guide is Levi (aka: Bumpiing) himself. We are in a small group of 8 people.

We hiked Middleham Falls, explored Titou Gorge, and visited Trafalgar Falls… oh and a special stop for Shannon to the squished bus.

Middleham Falls was so worth the trek. There was a little (or maybe a lot!) of complaining the next day about calf muscles being sore but everyone agreed that it was so worth it. The flora was incredible and there was an incredible waterfall at the top We swam in the natural quarry like pool at the bottom of the falls and some adventurous people (Shannon and Dave) jumped from the cliffs into the pool. What a tour.







Titou Gorge was a relaxing spot.

It is also a spot where part of Pirates of the Caibbean 2 was filmed. This place was really neat. You essentially jump into this cold but fresh water and swim into these caves. The caves open up and in there you have this waterfall. If you have the strength (like Dave and Ian) you could climb up a cliff and see another waterfall around the bend. I was content to just float about in the cave.


Trafalgar Falls was an easy hike to view a couple of amazing waterfalls. And we ended the tour with a nice soak in a hot mineral bath… ahhhh.


Services:
Bumpiing Tours, arguably the best tour of the week, highly recommended. 10+

Levi is an awesome tour guide! Really this guy is awesome. Not only is he handsome, muscular, and fit, but friendly, supportive (to those that fell a little behind on the hike), and very informative. You learn a lot about the island and although I did not take the carnival version of this tour, we did see them on the hike and there were about 30 people! I prefer the small setting and there is no way Levi will let you miss the boat so there were no worries there.


Overall score for the day: 10+

DAY 2 – St. Thomas/St. John

Our first cruise stop is Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas.
Our plans are to take a taxi to the ferry and head over to Trunk Bay in St. John for some snorkeling but when we wake, it is still rainy. Ian and I decided to get off the boat just the same. We sat under an awning at a restaurant while we decided if we really wanted to do this. It was raining pretty hard but not pouring. Rather than a $20 taxi ride to Red Hook for the ferry, we decided to try to catch a local bus which was only going to cost $2. After asking several friendly people, we finally figured out which direction we wanted to go and how to get on the bus. Should be easy, but there was no actually bus stop, you just wave at this safari looking truck that says taxi on it (go figure!) and it stops and picks you up. They have dedicated stops too but apparently you don’t actually need to be standing at one of them.

Anyhow, this was a great way to see St. Thomas, or at least the non-touristy places in St. Thomas, and I love the way they say good morning to everyone when they get on the bus and although it takes some getting used to, they give a friendly beep at everyone! Beep beep, hello. Beep beep, good morning. Beep beep, I am passing you. Beep beep, have a good day. Much different than the USA horn!

So we end up taking the ferry over and by this time, it is lightly raining and the sky is changing from gray to gray blue. I’ll take it. We met a really nice couple from NH on the ferry and the woman was co-workers with our cruise companion Shannon! Small world.

We made it to Trunk Bay.


It is in a national park and although they let us enter, the snorkeling trail was closed.

Bummer but they at least didn’t charge us to enter the park. Although, now that I think of it, we should have donated some money just to support the park; but we didn’t. By this time, it had stopped raining and the sky was cloudy but blue. The weather was still warm and not one time during our stay in San Juan or in St. Thomas/John did the rain make me cold.

Ian enjoyed our stay at Trunk Bay.


It was still beautiful, not crowded whatsoever because of the weather, and a pelican landed right next to us while we were swimming and searched for fish. Very neat.



We left before noon and grabbed a bite to eat at some place near the ferry at Cruz Bay. Can’t remember the name of it but it wasn’t that great, pricy, and took a long time to get our food. But we were seated outside and the sun was fully out by then and it was a nice to be enjoying the outside. We poked around a few shops while waiting for the ferry back.

These beautiful flowers were everywhere. I love them!


Our return to the boat was easy, as well as grabbing the bus back.




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That evening… drinks. Lots and lots of drinks! You know what they say about Vegas… well this isn’t Vegas so here is my photo journal of the night. Fun times!





There was also a dance contest that Shannon should have won with her fancy slide move, an elderly man who we danced with (some of us remember him, some of us don't!), a piano bar, and a friendly couple from Texas (Melanie and Chris).

Fun night!!!

Services:
St. Thomas Local Bus: 10, take this over a taxi if you can. Much more enjoyable.

St. John taxi service: it is all government regulated, so no hassling over prices… that I am aware of.

Red Hook to Cruz bay (and back) Ferries: I think this is too standard to grade. But sure it was nice, no complaints.

Overall score for the day: 8+, nice day but with better weather, I am sure there is so much more here.

DAY 1 – Victory leaves San Juan

The following morning was still rainy, which apparently is not normal Puerto Rico weather. We had planned on visiting El Yunque, a rain forest in the Caribbean National Forest. But it was raining and we decided not to go. Actually, we were just tired, tired of driving in circles, and at this point we just wanted on the boat. So we wandered into Old San Juan for lunch, ended up at La Bombonera, which apparently was featured on one of Rachael Ray’s shows. The food was good, not super great, but definitely good. I did order a half a pineapple and it was so fresh… mmmm!


Dave & Shannon enjoying their La Bombonera lunch:


We also did some window shopping and enjoyed a free trolley ride around the “town”. That was enough for us, by 1pm we were on the boat.


Embarkation was very fast, smooth, and had some nice cocktail taste testing we enjoyed. Mmmm… Apple Rum. I also love that you are greeted with that Carnival friendliness. Just love that first smile and welcome. You have that feeling of… ahhhh…. I am on vacation and these people are going to take care of me for a whole week.



Dinner on the boat:


Ian and I practicing our Muster cry that evening...



See you San Juan:



Services:
United Airlines: smooth flight, no issues. 7 (airlines can’t possibly score any higher, so this is actually a decent rating).

Charlie’s Car Rental: 9…. The people weren’t overly friendly but nice enough. The service was prompt, car was as expected, would have been nice to be given a map and directions to our drop off place, but the perks were that you could pick up at the airport and then drop off near the port. They then gave you a free shuttle to the pier. I would rent again from them and I would recommend them to others.

Howard Johnson’s Cardiovascular Center Hotel: 7 --> 7+. Decent room actually. Desk guy was nice. But finding the place sucked, it is not marked, there is limited parking, and the fire alarm apparently goes off frequently. I moved it up to a 7+ because if you suffer a heart attack during your stay, there is really no better place to be.

El Morro: 10+. This place is a MUST see. Incredible. If it weren’t dreary out, I imagine the views are stunning. The staff was very friendly. And be sure to use the bathrooms there, because you will not get a better view from a bathroom… no seriously.

Overall score for the two days in Puerto Rico: 8 (this is all relative… the day was still good, I mean “It’s Puerto Rico” for goodness sake!).