Good mornin', good mornin'... it's great to stay up late.

Good mornin', good mornin' to you!  

 Woke up early this morning considering it was after two last night when I finally made it to bed. Had just enough time to shower, get dressed and grab a bite to eat before heading back into town for the last bit of dancing.

    It started at 11:00 and 'rocked' until it was finally over at 2:00 this afternoon. Like most Sunday dances this was some of the best dancing of the weekend. The band was certainly hot playing some tunes that were certainly on the rock-jazz-blues side of things. They had one tune they played that I decided sounded like Louisiana 'Swamp' music, if there ever was such a thing. Very interesting tune and a whole lot of fun to dance to. My only regret is that I didn't get to dance with every one I really wanted to dance with. But that is normal for a dance weekend also.

   I should mention that both of our callers this weekend, Dana and Andy, did a remarkable job, especially on today's dances. They pulled out some real gems that weren't to difficult, (because we're all brain dead by this time), but still fun and interesting to dance too. Seems hard to believe that it is all over already. The hardest part is in knowing that I won't be seeing some of these people until I come back again next year. On the other hand, I already know that I'll be seeing a few of them at a dance somewhere in the near future.

    Went and had a bite to eat after helping clean up some after the dance. Felt good to sit down finally, but it was kinda hard to get back up again. Needed to go get some grocerys I had forgotten the other day. Basically some more english muffins and another bottle of honey. While wandering around though I found a great DVD to buy. It had 5 real classic movies on it all for $10. So since I had been dancing my little feet off, and because it was raining by the time I got back to the trailer, I opted to put  one of my all time favorites, 'Singin' In The Rain', on again and watch it this evening. I still think this movie has some of the best dancing sequences of all time in it, especially some of the duets with Gene Kelly and Donald O'Connor. Of course Debbie Reynolds is no slouch either, but who can forget the scene with Gene and Cyd Charisse. I mean, that women had legs that went all the way up to her armpits. Whoee!

   I leave you tonight with a few more pictures from the St Croix week.... they are nearly done and then I'll get onto something else. Tonight the show some scenes from the day my friend and I visited the fort in Christiansted.

Fort Christiansted on the island of St Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands - Feb 9, 2013

From inside the fort looking up at the 2nd floor where the officers were quartered.

Near the fort, and under it's protection was the customs house. This is where all the goods exported and imported were assessed of value so that they could be taxed. On the right in this picture was another government building where goods would be impounded, or stored, until the tax had actually been paid. It was also the scene of slave sales back when the island allowed slavery. In the far background is the steeple from the first Lutheran church ever built on the island, because you know, slavery is a good Christian ideal.

Looking out at the door from the dungeon, or prison cells, underneath a portion of the floor. In addition to the heavy, locked metal door there was also another heavy trap door that was lowered and locked at night. You can believe that no one escaped once incarcerated unless they had outside help.

A view of the main room in the dungeon. Doesn't look to bad with all that light, but the window use to be about 1/4 that size and was also the only ventilation for the room. I can't imagine what it must of been like in mid summer. Along each wall are rusted spots where the leg irons use to be located. Inmates would be chained down in a sitting position for years at a time. No baths, no clean clothes and if lucky a communal bucket that might be emptied once a day. If you were good you at least had some light during the day. Do something bad or piss off a guard and they would simply throw you in 'The Hole', a lightless, airless room off of this one, with a solid metal door to lock you in. On a more interesting note, it is neat to notice how they used arches in the ceiling to increase the strength of the structure.

Nope... not another part of the prison. This was actually where the enlisted men lived. All of their gear and clothing would of been contained in one wooden trunk at the foot of their bed.

What remains of the enlisted men's latrine. (toilet). This room was located at the far wall of the fort closest to the bay. This made it easy for the tide in the harbor to come in twice a day a wash everything 'away'. The officer's latrine was on the 2nd floor of course, and directly over this one. Just another reason why it is always better to be an officer instead of  an enlisted man. (Something I failed to think of a long time ago)

Just a standard open air window. I like this photo because it gives you an idea of how thick the walls are. This fort was never captured by force while it was occupied. It was however surrendered several times over the years.

A view of the armory where they kept hand weapons and worked on broken pieces. On the right are the soldiers flint lock rifles with bayonets. On the rack are all the tools needed to service and load one of the forts many cannons. On the top of the rack are devices for loading preformed bags of powder into the end of the cannon. Once a cannon ball, shot, was placed in behind it the whole was rammed down the throat using the rammers on the 2nd tier. The little corkscrew device was used to pull burning or burnt wadding and the remains of powder bags out of the mouth as well as pulling whole shot out once in a while. The bottom tier holds sponges. These were well wetted with water and run down the interior of the cannon after each shot to cool the interior of the barrel, as well as to extinguish any still burning wadding. Many a soldier ruined his whole day when he put a new bag of powder down the throat before everything was cool and extinguished.

A view of the fort at dusk from the deck of the Roseway.

One last view of the fort. I really like the lighting on this one.

  I want to leave you tonight with a quote I found in one of the books I have recently been reading. Seems to make a lot of sense to me in so many ways.

 

The Pessimist complains about the wind; the Optimist expects it to change; The Realist adjusts the sails.

 

William Arthur Ward