We were not only busy on ORION these past few months...we also accomplished a few non boat related tasks that had been put on the backburner for a while! We are happy to report that our last piece of equipment from being land lubbers is at long last with its rightful owner (our daughter Julia in Florida)...rendering the two sweeties on ORION truly free of all land-based possessions! I am talking about our 1970 Volkswagen Beetle, lovingly called "Volky" in Puerto Rico...Volky took our three kids through High School and beyond...Jessica, Julia, and Michael all learned driving in Volky, which gave all three of them the advantage of knowing how to drive a "stick shift" or manual transmission :) When the last one left for college we sold our house and put Volky into storage...we will be forever grateful to our friend Richard Lisch for providing a space for Volky in a hurricane-safe hangar for as long as we needed it...thank you Richard...you are the best!
To make a long story short...we gave Volky as a gift to Julia when she graduated from college with the promise to ship it to her whenever she was ready to receive it...and at long last the time came this year! Many friends helped us in the process of getting the Volky ready for its new life and we thank them all from the bottom of our hearts...there is "the old man" in Ponce, who owns a Volky repair place and never ever let us down when we needed his help over the past 10 years...he has become a true friend...there is Richard and his wife Mercedes whom I mentioned earlier...there is Angel, our mechanic in Salinas, who helped get Volky ready when we were living at the marina on ORION...there is Don Miguel and Thomas of Marina de Salinas, as well as the staff there, who all helped in their own ways and kept an eye on Volky when it was parked there...a big thank you also to "Berto" in Ponce, who advised us on all the paperwork needed for shipment and who transported the Volky to San Juan after all the paperwork was finished...and also to the Police Department in Ponce, whose officers helped us tremendously in getting additional paperwork done for verification of engine number and approval for the shipment of this 1970 VW Beetle...and also many thanks to "Laurita's Mom" for rendering attorney services for Julia at short to almost no notice in advance (yes, it was a hectic few days)...and of course there is Ruth, Julia's best friend from Ponce, who kept Julia sane in all the huzzle and buzzle of running to different agencies by being with her for moral support and assisting wherever she could in legalities...Ruth will be a great lawyer when she finishes her studies!...special thank you goes to two friends in Culebra, Paul and Suzie Moran for inviting us to dinner and an overnight in their beautiful home, so we could catch the ferry to Fajardo early in the morning...and last but not least there are our wonderful wonderful friends Claudia Procko and her husband "Pochi", who were the ones responding to our initial quest...without "Pochi" and his professional connections we would still be sitting here trying to figure out how to ship the Volky...we cannot thank them enough!
I hope I have covered the most instrumental players in this orchestra of friends and acquaintances, who helped make it a reality...we could not have done it without you!
We had dinner with some of our good friends in Ponce to celebrate...and of course we are happy that Julia's boyfriend Max was able to accompany her on this visit to Puerto Rico and that we were able to fit in a few sightseeing trips for the two of them :)
Now the Volky is living happily at its new home in Florida...and already made friends with another Volky...all's well that ends well :)
