DAY SEVEN: Friday, 10
August 2012
After I greeted
the sunrise, I did my last beach walk of the week. I did get joined by a local, one who’d I’d
seen off and on all week swimming in the morning. This hippie-looking older man didn’t provide
a man (but mentioned he’d come down about seven years ago from Oregon ). While he seemed like a nice person, something
kept my “spider-sense” going off around this guy, so I didn’t provide any
personal info. He wore a doodad around
his neck similar to what I had to keep my room key in when I swam, except he
used his to keep his smokes dry.
I did suggest to Mr. Oregon that the sea weed
which washed up each morning could be a good money making venture. Pay locals to pick it up from the beaches
(and pay them $X per pound, so the more motivated ones will get paid
better). Then charge the resorts and
other beach-front properties $Y amount per square foot that needs to be picked
up. After removing the saltiness from
it, sell the sea weed to farmers as feed and/or fertilizer for $Z amount. Sounds like a good idea.
After I ran up to the local
stop-and-rob (“the red gas station”) and got the morning papers (which was a
suggestion from Angie), I went for what I planned to be my last swim. I didn’t want to swim in the afternoon, only
because I wanted my suit and swim shoes to be as dry as possible before bagging
them up and putting them into my luggage.
Shelly and Hannah were having their last swim and sun-bathe for the
day. I collected more coral pieces, too.
I’d left a voice message with Kurt
Otto before going out for the swim. I
packed some stuff, got cleaned up, and went out for another exploration of the
island. I can honestly say I didn’t do a
lot of tourist things, but certainly got a feel of the island.
This place is social Darwinism at
work, and Charles Dickens would be proud.
Most of the east-enders are wealthy people, and most of the central and
west-enders are poor, with very few middle-class in between. Because of the economy, the poor prey on the
cruise ship tourists (and whoever else they might be able to find during the
off-season) because there’s nothing else for them to do. I’m sure there are other opportunities on the
island, but with the laid back attitude of “I’ll get to it whenever I get to
it” means many don’t try for opportunities that are available, or attempt to
make new ones. The poor are resentful of
the ex-pats who come to the island (whether as a wealthy east-ender or as
someone who grabs one of the available jobs), because the natives feel these
newcomers are stealing the jobs. Well,
they are, but only because the locals are taking them.
Other islands (Turks & Caicos
being the example I learned first-hand) want to hire locals over newcomers, as
they see that as a boost to the local infrastructure. But on St. Croix
(and I gathered from what I’d heard, the rest of USVI) that newcomers are
preferred over locals, because the newcomers have the drive to work for what
they want (as that’s what was able to get them to the island in the first
place), as opposed those who’ve always lived with the laid back attitude. I want the laid back attitude, I rather liked
being a beach bum this week, but I’ll only do that on my time. Not on work time. When I’m on work time, I do what I need to do
to complete my job. It was commented to
me on more than one occasion, that my outlook of that will be beneficial to my
long-term survival on the island.
Today’s destination was to hit the
south-eastern part of the island. Not
sure what’s out there, as the map doesn’t have anything listed, so I’m sure
it’s residential. If I go too far, it’ll
bring me back around to Point Udall.
Figure I’ll get lunch out there as I’m waiting to hear back from Kurt.
I thought about taking Route 753
south to 83 south, then east on 62, and then cut over to the southern portion
of 60. Of course, with 753 not
well-marked, I missed that completely.
Instead I just followed 82 east until the intersection of 60 (near where
Cheeseburger In America’s Paradise was). Heading south in 60 was some decent-looking
middle-class residential property. Once
60 turns east at Great
Pond Bay Southshore Road , the views became very
nice. Not as good as those from North Shore Road ,
but comparable. (Yes, one is road is the
two-word “North Shore,” and the other is the single-word “Southshore.” Don’t ask me why. I didn’t name them.)
I took a few shots at a place with
a sign marked “Point Elizabeth,” but that wasn’t listed on my map. The houses got really nice as I headed past
the Divi Carnia Bay Resort (which had the island’s only casino across the road
from it). There was also a mini-golf
course there, but it didn’t appear to be opened. Since I was close enough, I made a quick
visit of Point Udall again, and then came back along Southshore Road because the views were
nice. I stopped and took some pictures
where I could like I’d done the day before.
One note about this second visit to
Point Udall, I thought I’d missed something important the first time, and
hadn’t realized it until later. On the
first visit, I parked right where the road made a Y (so Coral was parked on the
west side of the Millennium Monument).
When I was at the gift shops in Christiansted ,
I saw a postcard showing there was some very prominent lettering on the rock
wall (with the name of the monument, and “Eastern Most Point of the United States ”
displayed on. I’m not sure how I
could’ve parked Coral in front of this and noticed it. I’m sure I was looking at the scenery, but
I’d like to think that I’m not that blind.
This time when I parked, I parked
next to one of the sitting areas built into the rock wall (thus Coral was
parked on the north side of the monument).
I walked around to where the letters should be, and saw that it’d been
since worn off. I could barely tell
they’d been there at all, so that explained why I hadn’t seen them the first
time around. The Millennium Monument
Because I hadn’t heard anything
back from Kurt yet, I back-tracked slightly along 82 (just near the junction
for 60) to the Tamarind Reef Resort at Green Cay, only for a little place
called Deep Blue Café. Figured it was
close-by enough for lunch. The chicken
fingers were okay, but not as good as those I’d gotten at the Palms. My cell phone signal was spotty out there,
and that’s when I noticed Kurt had left me a voice message. I wasn’t going to talk to him in a public
place (as my business was not everyone’s business). Also, I wasn’t sure how long the conversation
would be. It could be short (“Come over
to my office, Dave”) or a longer conversation (where I’m sure the people at
Tamarind Reef wouldn’t want me lurking around).
During lunch, I chatted briefly with the bartender, and watched a little
of the swimming events on the Olympics.
I wandered around the Tamarind grounds what I could to get close up
shots of Buck Island
I then shot down 60 again to a turn-off
I’d seen earlier, which brought me back to 62.
This was a hilly region, but also home to some cattle farms. Not sure if
they were diary or steak (or both), but there wasn’t more than a handful of
residences around here. The water off
the coast had the light blue to show it was shallow, and there weren’t any dive
sites noted (which may’ve been why there were no resorts out here). There was a Boy Scout Camp out here, and few
places for food.
All along the east-side were houses
dotting the hills, and other sections still in the natural state. Providing that something can boost the
economy, there’s lots of places to build and expand into. The island has so much potential to grow in
good ways, unlike St. Thomas ,
which I’ve been told had grown in bad ways.
I followed 62, and was able to look
across the flat land there to see the pipes of the closed Hovensa (Hess)
Refinery. Once at the intersection for
83, I used that to get to 753. Where 83
became 753 was slightly confusing in its design, and missing a turn took me
into the island version of a trailer park.
A quick U-turn got me back to where I needed to be. The first section of 753 was hilly curvy
road, then became two-lane parkway (some parts still under construction), and
then brought me back to the intersection of 75, where I could head back towards
the Palms. (This was the intersection
I’d missed earlier today.) The section
of 753 close to the intersection was similar in quality to some of the back
streets of Christiansted ,
and understood why there was a police station at the corner. Essentially, I’d done the route I’d planned,
just in reverse.
Back at the Palms, I called Kurt
back, and spent some time explaining my situation and what I was seeking. I know there wouldn’t be much call for
automotive things here, but I figured the arbitration skill was transferable to
other disciplines. Kurt did agree with
that, and mentioned some of the same stuff Gerry had mentioned earlier (like
the mediation stuff through Nancy Clark).
Would I consider the visit a
success? Yes. Made some connections in ways I could’ve
never done at home. Learned more about
the island in ways that Fodor’s or Frommers could ever tell me. Certainly met a number of nice people, which
more than likely I’ll never see again.
(When I commented was so-and-so on FaceBook or asked for email
addresses, didn’t get concrete responses, so there weren’t too many new entries
into my address book.) And I had a good
relaxing week away from work, and the stresses from home.
Did I get any job offers? No.
Honestly didn’t expect to, and would’ve been greatly surprised if I
did. Didn’t buy as many trinkets for others
as I would’ve liked. Didn’t see a lot of
places to do that here, and much of what I did see was pretty average. Wasn’t impressed by any coffee mugs, so there
wasn’t any reason to get any. I made sure to bottle up
some sand and water from the beach (like I’d done on the last trip to Turks
& Caicos).
And the whole build-up I had about
bringing home a suitcase full of rum ended up being not necessary. Anything I saw at the Cruzan Distillery I
could get at home (although at twice the cost).
I didn’t see any “special flavors” available only at the distillery. Customs allows U.S.
residents returning to the mainland from the Virgin Island
I was writing this journal
long-hand into a spiral notebook. It
made it easy to have with me when sitting on the beach or at a lunch restaurant
(and not having to worry about carrying my laptop around with me). Sure it’ll take some time to transcribe it
back into the computer, but that’s how I chose to do it. I only brought two pens with me, and the
first died on Day Three. I was figuring
the resort might have some pens with their logo laying about I could snag, but
didn’t see any. Hope this one lasts me
the rest of the way home. I have
freakin’ dozens of pens at home and work (because they keep ending up at my
desk), so there’s no need to purchase a pack of something I rarely use. Going through Miami airport is always a fucking adventure,
so I’m sure I’ll have a lot to say about that.
To the casual reader, it may sound
like I didn’t do much. Sure a lot of the
morning was the same routine of sitting on the patio to watch the sunrise,
walking along the beach, and taking a morning swim. But that was what I wanted out of this, to be
able to relax. I didn’t do as much
sitting on the beach (“working on the tan”) as I did at Turks & Caicos,
simply because I wanted to explore the area.
And since there was more which could be reached by car here on St. Croix , it made sense to explore more and make the
rental car worth it. I had considered
taking a ferry over to St. Thomas
for one day, or perhaps a side trip to BVI, but didn’t feel I needed to do so
on this trip. The historical areas on
Turks & Caicos, by the way, would require ferry and/or sea plane trips,
things which would end up making the vacation more expensive.
If I did have another week at my
disposal on the initial foray, I certainly would’ve opted for the ferry to
explore St. Thomas , and what I could of St. John (thus incurring
the extra costs). Madam Giselle (the
cleaning lady) had commented there was going to be hardly anyone at the Palms
the following week, so there was only going to be half the house-keeping
staff. When I was planning the trip
initially, I had looked at either first or second full-week in August, and only
went with the first because of the good flights (at the time). Had I come the second week, while the
experiences would’ve been similar in exploring, I would’ve not encountered the
people I did, including Angie (who ended up one of the most important contacts
I made).
After today’s exploration, I spent
a couple hours working on the tan, which ultimately will not make me any darker
than when I’d left. I then did a couple
more walks up and down the beach in order to rack up some more miles on the
pedometer (still with “blinking battery”) as I continued to work on the tan. Many of the pictures I’d taken from the patio
had been of the sun rising, and I knew I’d need to take some pictures of the
sun setting before I left. Only had
tonight left to do it.
Once cleaned up, I went for the
evening rum punch with the Houston
gang. They always headed out for dinner
at 7pm, and they had more money to drop on these trips. That’s why I only ate lunch out, and have
been eating cold cuts for dinner. I’d
eaten up all the foodstuffs I had, excepting for what I’d consume during
travelling tomorrow. On the last night
here, I’d already planned to eat dinner at the Palms. To me, it also made sense as I had to get up
ass-early the next morning for the flight out.
(The original flight plan, as I’d pointed out, was originally to have me
leave at 2pm.) The Houston group some-how didn’t have a flight
out until 11am tomorrow, so they had more time to play tonight. They only had one lay-over too. Lucky bastards. >grin<
For my last dinner at the Palms, I
had a good piece of grilled chicken with a cucumber relish, which was very
good. I also took the opportunity to
thank Shelia for the great time I had this week. She did mention that one of her friends was
in the process of moving to Austin , so I still
couldn’t escape the Texas
connection of this place. Since there
were a large number of people checking out Saturday morning, they prepared the
bills ahead of time so people could clear them tonight, instead of having to do
it the next day. I took advantage of
that. I had one breakfast, one lunch,
and two dinners (counting this one) at the Palms.
More my last drink of the trip, as
I’d already had my rum punch, I went for the closest I could for an alcoholic
milkshake, thus got a mudslide. The
bartender that was there (it wasn’t Willie) mentioned there’s a rum variation
of that called a “Bushmaster.” I
commented had I realized that, I would’ve gotten one of those instead.
Not a chronological comment, but
something I thought of here, so I may have to do an appendix of general
observations of things I hadn’t mentioned earlier. There’s no sales tax on the island. What ever you pay for food is what you pay,
before adding tip. On anything you
purchase for that matter. It’s something
you don’t even think about until you happened to look at your receipt.
For more information on the places visited or mentioned:
Tamarind
Reef: http://www.tamarindreefresort.com/
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