First, let me get one thing straight… there is only a handful of people I would allow to join me on my Island Sabbatical, for a lot of reasons. A few major qualifications include, being able to do your own thing and enjoy being alone. You must be able to just chill and look at God’s beauty and be happy with that, there is NO schedule, so relax. The majority of the time will be spent laughing so, get used to it, your cheeks will hurt. Lastly and Importantly, Don’t Judge!
Having said that, Gail and I began our journey Friday at 10:30, to be exact. All the stress leaves my body, the minute I make my flight back to Little Harbour, the place I call home. It’s a good thing because there could have been some melt downs the last few days and there were zero. I was packed and ready to go with a smile on my face. As is says in my new favorite song by Keb’ M0′ (Thanks Clay),
“l hear a voice
And l hear the sound
The sound of my shoes
shuffling on out of town
Too many people
Too many cars…” – Just listen to it!
Went to pick up Gails right on time at 10:30 am and surprisingly, she was ready! That’s crazy! I gave her a two thumbs up, (would have given her a “tater”, but she refuses to do that – too redneck, hahaha”). Her being ready, wow, I never saw that coming. We had to stop at the bank, so we went the long way to the airport, didn’t matter… we had plenty of time. Well, all that was about to change. We sang the above song over and over on the way to the airport. We made it to the roundabout when it hit her – “OMG, I forgot my passport”. After a moment of shock, I just made the circle and started heading back to her house. It was what it was. It was raining so freaking hard. I wasn’t convinced we would make it back but we made it 20 minutes before take off. Let the laughter begin. To top it off, the lady at the Southwest desk pages Gail… moment of panic! No worries, they just tore her bag. Our two flights went smooth from that point, and we made it to the Hilton Bar… we both needed food. We sat in there, with not a care in the world and laughed so much we were crying all night.
To bed we went 10ish, early flight in the am. We were up at at ’em at 5:30 and on the shuttle to Twin Air Calypso and to paradise by 6:10 am. The first place we were dropped off was the “old office”, I knew it didn’t look familiar, so we grabbed the driver and said, “Don’t leave us”, sure enough the office was around the block. We drug our luggage into the hallway, driver left, only to find the door to the airline locked up tight! I wasn’t really worried, they are on Bahama time, they would be there soon! Hummmm, flight was supposed to be at 8 am, it was 7:15, wasn’t looking good at this point. Some guy walks past us and informs us that Twin Air went out of business months ago…. WHAT? Oh well! So I spent the next hour and a half searching for flights, while Gail was relaxing and texting. There was no panic, no worries, it was just another adventure.
We finally changed locations. We drug our crap to another part of the building and started looking pitiful (not really we were still all smiles). We could at least see airplanes and a few pilots scurrying around. Yes, we told them all our sob story (hard to convince it was a sob story since we were still laughing). Finally, one bit. All of a sudden, Gail was handing me some man’s cell phone saying, “Take this, I can’t understand a word he is saying”. A few minutes later, we had us a pilot driving over from Miami to Fort Lauderdale to pick us up and take us to paradise. So we waited. Meanwhile this guy walks in and grabs our luggage and says, “The pilot will be here soon and I am putting you a couple of seats in the plane now” – HAHAHAHA This should be interesting. Thirty minutes later, “Our Pilot” arrives. Sketchy? Maybe! Mafia type, died black hair, large mustache, Hawaiian shirt (which I have an adversion to), White linen pants and aviator shades. Ok, I will give him the shades, he is a pilot, or at least says he is. What do we know?
We make the walk across the tarmack, passing some beautiful private planes. We are smiling from ear to ear. We chartered our on plane. Whoo Hoo! Then we see her. We almost wet our pants. I swear it was held together with duck tape. We just laughed and said a prayer and jumped on board. Gail did say that her family would be pissed at me if we crashed. Well, I was worried about that, I can tell you! HA HA (See photos).
We did make it safely, Danielle and Maria were waiting on us at the airport. I have no idea why they were there at that particular time, because I had not let them know when we would eventually arrive. We went to the Jib Room for lunch. Gail tasted her first Conch. We toasted our arrival and laughed some more. Next, was our grocery shopping experience, then a nap. Our first night was perfect, as Susan had a pot luck dinner. Gail was exposed to the entire Island all at once. Great food, great friends… it doesn’t get much better. On the walk home, the moon was full and amazing and she said, “I get it”!
We sat on the deck, listened to some music, laughed some more and went to bed early.
Let The Games Begin!
