Roosevelt Roads
Puerto Rico
18.14.018N
65.37.582W

In search of exercise and new surroundings, we took the bikes out for a ride today to get off the boat. Since the bowling alley has been closed, we haven’t been doing much of that recently. We rode in the opposite direction toward what had been known as All Hands Beach.

As we rode past the current headquarters of the base, we turned right (by the post office) and rode down and out onto the old fuel pier that is now being used as a fishing pier. We reminisced about the ships that were once proudly docked there and the welcoming parties we attended in their honor. We doubled back and continued on towards the beach.

We were disappointed to see that the old enlisted club appeared to have been vandalized or least the front door had been pried off and left standing slightly ajar.

Street lights with three feet of concrete still attached to their bases were uprooted and left hanging half on/half off rusty flat bed trailers to the side of the club; abandoned I guess.
As we passed by All Hands Beach, there were some boy/cub scouts shooting off parachute rockets in the parking lot now filled with weeds and its beach littered knee deep with dead sea grass. The hidden beach where my daughter and I went barely a year ago had its road blocked off to traffic and was hardly recognizable with the growth that had already taken place. I was really disappointed as it had been the last of the beaches we had enjoyed as a family that we had been able to gain access to when we were here in February 2006. The hillside leading to the beach that had once been lush with palm trees and undergrowth was bulldozed and apparently being used as a landfill.

It really broke my heart to see the base dying this way. Pretty soon they’ll have to take a bush hog to run ways where jets and helicopters once landed daily. Don’t get me wrong, they’re still mowing the common areas and trimming the bushes but the longer the grounds are unused, the more the termites, vines, and weeds encroach into the area.

Although the base commander gave us permission to ride our bikes into the housing area where we once lived, we haven’t ventured in that direction. I’m not sure I’d even have the heart to now.

We returned to the Palace and picked up new books to read and later this evening we finished watching the A&E Hornblower series that Tom & Jordan loaned to us. We enjoyed each one and were actually disappointed when the story was over.