Marinade on the Serenade!

The cruise name Marinade on the Serenade was coined accidently by Sandy. It stuck immediately. Ultimately, it was to be included on our name tags as well. During the long wait for the cruise we posted dozens and dozens of pages and chatted real time on Sunday nights, later expanding to Wednesday nights as well. Somewhere along the way Mr Bumper showed up. He claimed he was from Bangor, Maine and everything he posted was in rhyme. Mr. Bumper appeared to know little secrets about a lot of people and he would let out this information in poetic form. So who is he? Nobody knew for sure. Some thought it was Chuck, some thought otherwise. But then one day, his sister showed up. She also wrote only in rhyme. And believe it or not, one day, the mother appeared. Mr. Bumper even showed up in our live chats. They did not reveal who they really were. Just before the cruise, Mr. Bumper announced he too would be coming on the cruise. More on him later.

The cruise was set for April 10, 2004. It was leaving from San Juan, Puerto Rico at 10 Pm. Due to the distance many of us chose to fly in the day before. Since we were in San Juan ahead of time, we decided to get together and meet at a pre-cruise dinner. Some of us had never met before, which is the way the MIXED NUTZ keep expanding. Usually, we meet on the cruise thread, chat for a year and then meet at the port and our sail-away party. But this time would be different. One of our group, Dave from upstate NY, had been in San Juan most recently and knew of a place for dinner. We agreed on the place and Dave arranged for us to meet and eat at Tony Roma's.( famous for Ribs)

Everybody who was coming to dinner were booked in close by hotels. They started arriving and we were seeing old friends and meeting new friends. But...............no Mr. Bumper. Hmmmm.