I Don't Travel Well

I spent my first day in Seattle in bed. Which is where I spent my first day home.

I am within pages of finishing "Stephen Decatur". I am doing what I always do when I near the end of a book I really like.....I am reading just one or two pages at a time because I don't want it to end.

There was a passage describing an incident in 1815 in the Mediterranean that sooooo reminds me of SB. As Decatur sails the Guerriere from Naples to the coast of Spain he runs into the remaining ships of the Algerian fleet. The treaty has been made with Algeria, but you still don't know what the Algerians will do. Decatur orders his men to quarters. Four frigates and three sloops close in one Decaturs ship.

The flagship approached on Guerriere's leeward side -a sign of peaceful intentions, though Decatur would take no chances. As the frigate drew alongside, the Algerian admiral called through a trumpet in Italian, the lingua franca, "Dove andate?" Where are you going? Taking his own trumpet Decatur answered slowly and clearly, "Dove me piace," Where I please.
The American frigate, going whereever in the world it pleased, sailed on for Gibraltar.

What an attitude! Now why would this remind me of SB? Hmmmmmmm