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40   St. Lucia 40.
IV-29-36  Had planned to go collecting in the Soufrière Valley today, but it set in for an all day rain. So I spent the morning on accounts and checking over correspondence, and wrote a letter to Bailey in Puerto Rico, and one to Stanley John in Castries about the bird skeletons.
I read to Ruth most of the afternoon, and after tea we rode over to visit the Devaux's. We took along some stamps to exchange, but so far I think we got more than they. He gave us a lot of the Martinique pictorials, some fine Sweden, St. Lucia, etc.
I was much amused at his comments about the motorcycle. Thought it was too heavy - built for sidecar service!
IV-30-36  Started out rainy again. Ruth was not feeling well so I read to her some and worked some on stamps. After lunch I rode into Soufrière to mail letters. I then rode along the "road" that runs along the beach toward the Petit Piton. It is only about a mile long, but I followed for a short distance a rough trail that circles the Piton. This track is quite rocky and I failed to give one rock enough clearance. The result was a broken brake rod - which is serious. I managed to make a temporary repair, and then came down the hill in low gear
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without needing to use the brake. Found a man in town who says he can fix it, but it was too late to do it today. Came on home, riding rather gingerly, - without a brake.
We expected mail today, but a phone call reported that none had come for us.
V-1-36  Went to town in the morning and succeeded in getting a new brake rod made and installed. Another part of the brake assembly was found to have a bad but not recent crack. Will have to come back tomorrow to have that fixed. Wrote to Harry Oson to send new parts for both.
The Post Office has a big batch of mail fo us. Must have been some sort of mistake yesterday. I got a letter from Mother & Daddy, a San Francisco Chronicle, and two Sciences, one A.E.S.A., one Ent. News, and a Ward's Ent. Bull. Ruth received letters from her family, various friends, and the hinges from Scott's.
We spent the afternoon and evening putting stamps in the little copybook albums, and decided to keep our duplicates in these 1/2 penny books also. After tea Mr. Devaux and his sister came down and we exchanged a few more stamps. His conversation doesn't get more pleasant on further acquaintance. I was quite bored and probably looked it.