KER-SPLASH!

Up the ladder ---- down the ladder------up the ladder=====

Going down is better than going up.

Good-bye 13 foot ladder; hello dinghy. We're in the water and floating just fine. After a weekend in Maine at a wedding, the sailing will really start. Cyndi McChesney, our friend from Colorado, will be joining us for the maiden week. Good thing she is a very flexible person with a positive attitude. Sometimes we need those traits.

While we've been waiting to get in the water we have been discovering how important this area was in the War of Independence. Last Saturday Lou and I went to the Gaspee Parade in nearby Warwick. What does that commemorate you ask? And, so did we. In 1772 the men (some wealthy people, some merchants, some shipbuilders and pirates) of the Warwick/Providence area attacked a British tariff ship, the HMS Gaspee which had gone aground near Warwick, RI. The British officially declared it "the first act of war by the Americans" because it was a planned attach and there was a shooting. The patriots captured the crew and burned the ship. So, every year the fife and drum corps from RI, Connecticut, and Massachusetts parade in costumes and people come from all around to celebrate the beginning of independence. Bristol, the little town we have been staying in, lays claim to the oldest Fourth of July parade in the nation. Everything is red, white, and blue. We're a little sorry that we won't be here to see the 2 1/2 hour long parade.