DAY ONE: Friday, 8
May 2010
The day started
at 4 am, an unnatural hour. Thinking it
would be extremely busy, Dave & Lee got to the Austin airport … with plenty of time to
spare. The flight would go from Austin to Dallas , then
layover, then to Providenciales (aka Provo ). Which is really odd, if you look at it,
because even though Dallas has a customs area,
coming back we’ll still have to stop at Miami to
go through customs (then on to Dallas ). That’ll make picking up stuff at the
Duty-Free store an annoying issue.
After the hour flight to Dallas , and two hour layover in Dallas ,
it would be a three-hour flight to Provo . That would place us there around the time we
could get into Royal West Indies resort (RWI), before the time spent in
immigration and baggage claim, of course.
There was a large group of people
on the flight to Provo
that were obviously all travelling together.
They weren’t rowdy, but they certainly partied! At $7 American Airlines charges for a beer on
the plane, they bought quite a bit. Dave
& Lee didn’t party with the rowdy bunch, but watched “The Fantastic Mr.
Fox” which played on the in-flight monitors.
We were glad our Ipod headphones plugged into the seat jacks, that way
we didn’t have to drop $3 on the cheap-ass ones the airline tried to sell
us. The airlines used to provide snacks
along with the free beverage, but now you had to buy the snacks if you wanted
them. Had we known that, we would’ve
packed the trail mix in the carry-on, not the checked baggage.
Arriving at Provo , five planes all came in at the same
time, so it took some time to get thru immigration/customs. Some of the party guys were still drinking
while they stood in line to get into the frakking country. Sure you want to have a good time, but show
some respect at least. Dave & Lee
didn’t know what was worse, those guys, or the dimwitted lady who was visibly
taking pictures while standing next to the sign “Photography & Cell Phone
Use Prohibited.” And you wonder why
Americans get a bad rap when they go overseas, it’s assholes like that who earn
it for the rest of us.
Once Dave & Lee had their
baggage, we found the Grace Bay Car Rental people who were waiting for us, and
were met by Todd, who would shuttle us to RWI.
Formerly from Saskatoon ,
Todd mentioned how he had moved to TCI with his wife to run Grace Bay Car
Rentals. His wife worked as a Yoga
instructor. Instead of driving up Leeward Highway ,
the main (and only) highway on the island (like what was done for us on the
previous visit), Todd took a turn down Lower Bight Road . A drive thru the area known as “The Bight”
was nice, because it was a section Dave & Lee hadn’t visited on the last trip. Lower Bight Road would eventually bring us
towards Hemingway’s, and the Saltmills (areas we did know from the last
visit). On the drive, Todd mentioned
some places he liked, and pointed out what was different since the last time we’d
been here.
Now on the flight from Dallas , Dave’s head had
become completely congested, and his left ear plugged. Probably from breathing the recycled airplane
AC air. Dave was still running a fever
when we had reached the resort, but an infusion of food and fresh air helped
with that. Sleep had been lacking also,
since we got up so early.
Previously there had been an IGA
which was the only place to get groceries.
And the IGA, like all the other IGA’s Dave has ever seen, looked like it
had seen better days. Todd had mentioned
there was a new IGA close to RWI, which was more of a Whole Foods type of
store, with organic food and such.
No, it wasn’t.
Where the other Provo IGA looked
like it was in a foreign country because of some of the objects that could be
obtained (“That medicine’s been illegal in the US for years!”), this IGA (called
Graceway Gourmet) looked more like an American grocery store that we were use
to. We were impressed.
Once again, there was no Dr. Pepper
(no surprise to Dave, but a bummer for Lee, as it meant there was no Diet Dr.
Pepper). What was interesting was
Graceway Gourmet had the Royalty Ginger Beer that Dave liked and would normally
only find in the Indian foods store.
That would be a treat! In
reality, it made sense, as Royalty Ginger Beer was imported from England ,
and we _were_ in British territory.
Going down the aisles, we noticed while there was also Ben & Jerry’s
present, we passed on getting some of that.
We can easily get that at home, and the money that could be spent on
B&J’s could be spent on other dinners.
Having gotten some sandwiches, we
ate at the resort, and then had our first rum punches of the trip from the
Mango Reef (the bar and restaurant attached to RWI). We walked up the beach towards a “mystery
pier” that didn’t seem to be attached to any resort. With drinks in hand, we watched the sun get
lower and lower in the sky. Returning to
the resort, and on the second round of rum punches, we watched the sun
disappear beneath the clear-sky horizon in a most beautiful manner. Of course, we didn’t have the camera with us
to take a picture, so we tried to burn that image into our minds.
By then, Dave’s fever seemed to
have lessened, and the head ache had mostly disappeared, but there was still
some congestion in the nasal area. Still
it was a great first day.
Before returning to the room, Dave
prepared for the next morning. Earlier
when getting the drinks, Dave had mentioned to the people there what he planned
to do, and they all got a chuckle out of it.
When Dave came up to put this plan into motion, they all laughed. Dave had a rum punch made, with no ice, which
was brought back to the room’s fridge.
The plan was tomorrow morning, Dave would greet the dawn (and the
beginning of his 40th birthday) with a rum punch in hand. Before that, Dave hoped to catch up on the
sleep he hadn’t gotten for the past few days.
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