Intresting Threads on the USVI Relocation Board

So for those of you thinking about bailing out and moving down here are some interesting insights to island life in these two threads. Believe it or not its not all Rum drinks and beach chairs down here.
Jay

Top 10 list: It's hard living in the Vi Because

top 10 reasons I love living in the VI

Road to Neltjeberg

Ok, let me tell you that you definitely need 4-wheel drive to safely get to Neltjeberg. It was a crazy drive! There are sections that are poured concrete but the biggest part is a rough dirt road with boulders, ruts, drop offs, you name it. And to me, it wasn't that great of a beach to be worth the drive down. There are beaches that are much more beautiful and have easy access. I wasn't too crazy about the permanent shelters that were set up with people sleeping in them. And the sand was dirty, it had black stuff in it so after walking down the beach your feet are covered in black sand. The plus is that overall it is a pretty beach, and you have it pretty much to yourself (except for the people sleeping in the shelters). So, I'm glad I went and I would go again if someone offered to take me in a big monster truck but not my top pick of St. Thomas beaches.

More Neltjeberg

Camps on the beach

looking at Inner Brass

Neltjeberg

Silvia and I decided to be adventurous today and find Neltjeberg. We had some people tell us that you need a hummer to get down there and others said it's not that bad and well worth it. So we decided to give it a try in Silvia's little Suzuki Aerio. Not a four wheeling type of car but what the heck.

First we took the wrong road down the hill and had to call a coworker for directions. She gave us some details on how to find the road that included looking for a sign that says "private property thief will be shot"...nice. There is also a car port with junk cars with tarps over them and a ratty house with flags. So were not getting a warn fuzzy feeling about finding this place. But we go for it anyway.

So we find the right road and start heading down. It's not that bad at first so we continue. Then there is a section that's paved so we thought this is going to be easy. Then the rough part starts. Rough road with huge rocks protruding, trenches, drop offs, you name it. We kept saying what in the heck have we got ourselves into. Then we'd hit another section of paved road so we thought we were in the clear. So this repeats several times but we finally make it to the beach...,whew!

It is a pretty beach but don't think I'll go through that again unless we have a big monster truck! All i know is I hope we can get back up the road when it's time to leave. If it rains we're screwed! I'll report back once we make it back up the hill....keep your fingers crossed!

Friday Beach Picture

Well MaryBeth was down a couple of weeks ago so we have all kinds of new pictures to "borrow". This one is of Hawksnest Beach on St John.
Jay

One Car Family Again AKA Island Car is Gone

Old Car

New Car

So we sold the Island Car yesterday. For those of you taking notes there is a saying that free boats are never free. Well cheap cars are never cheap. As you know our original plan was to buy a "cheap" car for cash when we got here and not have a car payment and keep tings simple. Well that just didn't work out to well. The car cost more per month to keep running than the payment on the new car. The new car also came with the added benefit of not having to spend my time off changing alternators and wheel bearings and batteries and transmission solenoids, well you get the picture. So what we have learned is that we lost more money on this cheap car than I did on my first boat. If you know anything about boats this tells you something. So lesson learned is that if we had it to do over again we would have bought a new or newer car when we got here or we should have taken advantage of our contacts in the states and bought and shipped a late model SUV prior to moving.

Jay

PS the new car has been great. The only time we have had it back to the dealer was to pick up the tags.

Hurricane Preparedness

It's that time of year again to start gathering all the items necessary for your hurricane preparedness kit. The University is having a town hall meeting tomorrow to discuss thier plan and help you get your plan put together. I'm definitely going to the meeting, the more information the better. We don't have a generator at our new place so that sucks. Maybe we should start looking for a good deal on a used one to have just in case.

Update: the meeting has been changed to Friday, June 5 at 10:00 am.