Thursday, October 25, 2012

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Our first day off! It starts out fantastic as we realize the electricity went out sometime in the night. The house caretaker, Isabelle, comes by and tells us not to use the water while the power is out since the pumps do not work during that time. Quickly we prepare to go into town. We go to our favorite coffee shop once again but this time take our time savoring the lack of plans for the day.

Dad checks the progress of the hurricane via wifi and we discuss our plans for most likely staying 1 to 2 more nights here. Brad and I decide to check out the jewelry store next door and across the street for the St. Croix famous "hook bracelet". They range in price and we decide to check out another shop down the block. Dad comes with us. Brad and Dad find jewelry for their beas and I convince Dad to walk back down to the first shop where they had more the regular hook bracelets.

We decide next we are going to go through the rain forest. I convince the men to turn off the radio and roll down their windows so we can all enjoy nature. The rain forest was beautiful but small. It was on our way back from the rainforest that the real adventure begins.

We decide to take the (as it is labeled on the map) "scenic route". Let me tell you this, it should have been marked "4-wheel drive vehicles only". The beaten up path started out unpaved and overgrown. There was a small section of paving that convinced us we were on the right path but it shortly disappeared. As we continued down the questionable road, we came to a large puddle in the road. Brad goes out to check it to see if it is drivable and concludes that it is. We make our route through the puddle and then come up to a slightly larger puddle. Brad goes through the same steps and checks the depth and deems it drive-worthy. We splash through the water and continue our journey.

 

I am convinced by this point that we must be going the wrong way. Brad is convinced that it is the right way. Our next stop is a gate off the dirt road. Whoever belongs behind this gate is anything but ordinary. Hanging near the top of the gate are many different animal skulls. Signs are posted underneath warning trespassers away. "DANGER", and "NO TRESPASSING", and of course the favorite of the group "Violators will be shot" followed by "Survivors will be shot again".

 

We continue down the beaten path, greeted by several more large puddles. Somewhere along the path, we noticed there was a guardrail. Unbelievable! After hours of being unsure, I am finally proven wrong when we come to paved asphalt and even a sign labeling the route as "Scenic".

 

Since we had taken a fairly late breakfast, none of us were hungry when lunch time came around.  After our adventurous trek, we headed back to the house.  We planned on going snorkeling but Dad and I had forgotten our bathing suites.  Once back at the house, our plans again fell through.

We made the rest of the day “laundry day”.  It was at that time I decided to wash all the sheets and covers in the small room.  The ants that had been crawling up the wall were no longer an issue.  The house must have been sprayed because they were all dead.  After cleaning up the little room, I made the decision to switch rooms and have my own space.  I moved the bed so that it was perpendicular to the wall so the lack of headboard wouldn’t be an issue.  It was nice and cozy in there now.

When evening came around we decided to check out the casino up the street from the house and not go far for dinner.  The casino itself didn’t have a restaurant but it was across the street from an all-inclusive hotel resort. We headed over to the hotel and made our way to the restaurant area.  The place we picked ended up being a buffet.  The atmosphere was nice and there was a local jamming on steal drums.  The entire dance floor was consumed by a man who probably had had too much to drink.  It was pretty entertaining.  Of course when we got up to get our food the man was all about trying to get Dad to dance with him.  Dad managed to decline and retreat to the buffet.

The food was pretty good but was very overpriced.  Kellie told us later that had we gone a little further that there was a nice fair-priced pizza place right next door.  Well you live and learn.  Desserts were excellent there though.  All and all it was a very pleasant day.

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Today we get up at 6:00 AM and decide that today we will follow the "Spay Waggin" van to the place of the event today: The Agriculture Center. Dad puts on the TV to keep an eye on a possible hurricane threat that is brewing south of Jamaica.  My husband had warned me about it the previous morning.  It is now big enough that it has a name: Sandy.  Dad and Brad have been discussing staying an extra 1-2 nights.  No decision has been made yet.

We get to the Animal Shelter a little after 6:45am. No Peacocks today like Monday. I'm a little disappointed. There is however a lone tortie cat lying the grass.  It starts to play with a bug flying around and even climbs up a nearby palm tree.

No time to waste, the shelter staff load up and we are on our way.  We follow the van to the agriculture center and already the event doesn't appear as happening as yesterday.  No one has arrived yet.  We start to get a little worried.  A car finally pulls up and has 2 cats for us. 

I get right to work and settle in helping with intake.  I pull out my spiral notebook and put together a log to keep track of who’s here and what they came with.  Today I worked with a woman named Mary and a woman named Nancy.

Liza brings everyone breakfast since there was no time to stop for coffee.  She brings us juice, coffee, muffins, and egg croissants.  It is her day off and she can’t stay away, not that anyone complained.

By 8:00AM, we’ve only taken in 4 animals: 3 cats and 1 dog.  We fear it is going to be a slow day.  The previous day we had stopped taking pets in after 9:00AM.  Today we didn’t stop until after 11:00am.  People trickled in a little at a time with dogs and cats.  It wasn’t nearly the rush as it had been the previous morning.

Dr. Bailey and Mike bring us pizza from Dominios for lunch.  Dad took a small break and the staff assisting him in surgery informed me that he was on a roll today.  He only hand a handful more surgeries to do.  No complications today.

We socialized with Dr. Bailey and Mike during the lunch break we had.  The previous day on our way back from the morning’s event, we had taken a small detour up to Point Udall, the most eastern point of the United States.  It had a great view.  Dr. Bailey told us we should come visit them at their house since they also had a great view. 

We talked about going out to dinner together, however they were going to an Italian restaurant they frequented, and Dad and Brad wanted something else.  Kellie had told us about a great Mexican restaurant, Mirims, that had $1 tacos every Wednesday night.  We had made plans since day one to see what that was all about.  We made the decision to stop for drinks at Dr. Bailey and Mike’s home and then go for our $1 tacos.

Dad finished up his surgeries around 2:30PM.  Today Dad had performed 3 cat spays, 1 cat neuter, 7 dog spays, and 6 dog neuters.  A total of 17 surgeries.  That is more than 40 surgeries in 3 days!

We made our way to Dr. Bailey and Mike’s house.  It was more on the way back to the house than from the house to the Mexican Restaurant.  They weren’t kidding about the view!  The drive itself was a little scary.  We went from rocky unpaved roads to concrete on and off.  The driveway was very steep.  Our car almost didn’t make it down.  I wondered aloud how Dr. Bailey would make it down when she goes into labor.  I can’t imagine it will be a fun drive.  We were quite awed with the view from the house.  It was definitely worth the drive, but I couldn’t imagine doing it every day. 

Mike pulled up the storm watch on his laptop.  Dad and Brad talked serious about traveling plans.  We decided we would have to at least stay 1 extra night and then re-evaluate.  With that in mind, we began to make plans for Friday.  The storm wasn’t supposed to hit St. Croix.

Brad had wanted to make a trip to Bucks Island where the best snorkeling and scuba diving was.  Since Mike and Dr. Bailey owned a boat, Dr. Bailey made the suggestion that we all go together, weather pending.  Mike would have to take a half day of work, but that shouldn’t be a problem as long as the weather held out.  We decided either way we would at least meet up for dinner that night.  We thanked Dr. Bailey and Mike for the visit and for the drinks Dr Bailey had made us. 

We headed back to the house to prepare for our highly anticipated $1 Tacos.  During the day’s festivities, Brad had bought a spiny lobster from a stand.  When we got back to the house he began to prepare a pot to boil it.  He explained that it was going to be the perfect appetizer to our tacos.  He looked through the cabinets for some flavoring.  The only thing he could find was so old it was caked on the bottom of the shaker in one big clump.  He settled for just butter.

We gathered around the island kitchen counter and enjoyed our lobster with some wine Brad had brought.  The lobster was excellent and indeed the perfect appetizer.  After enjoying our mini meal, we piled back into the car to head out for dinner.

We weren’t the only ones with a craving for tacos, however.  The place was packed with locals and finding a parking spot was an event upon itself.  Once we made it inside, we were lucky to find 3 open seats at the bar and quickly sat down.  We were greeted by Miram herself right away and were amazed at how good the service was even with the crowd that had gathered.

Surprisingly, our tacos came out quite quickly.  They were delicious!  The staff was also fantastic.  Our waitress even pointed out to Brad when his wallet had slipped out of his back pocket onto the floor.  For her honesty, we made sure she was rewarded in tips.

Back at the house, everyone was pretty exhausted.  We all made it an early night.  Tomorrow was our first day to just enjoy the island and we were looking forward to it.

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

My alarm goes off at 6:00 am and I am amazed to see that Dad and Brad are already up and moving. I get in gear and hurry up myself. Kellie had mapped out directions to our event today to the St. Bishop High School. We decide instead to follow her from the Coffee shop we had gone to the morning before.

When we first arrived at the high school, the van has not yet made an appearance.  The parking lot, however, is full of people with their pets waiting to drop-off.  At the far end of the parking lot, a woman is standing with her chow-chow.  Dad starts up a conversation with her and finds out the chow, Simba, belongs to the woman’s son who has gone off to college.  The woman is concerned because the dog is aggressive and she has a hard time managing him.

Dad takes this opportunity to give a little behavioral advice.  He tells the woman he looks forward to following up with her when we hope to return next spring.  The van finally arrives and everyone springs into action.

The system the shelter has in play for identifying the patients is quite different from ours back at Abbey, but it seems to work.  The shelter staff use masking tape to keep track of who’s who.  They number each patient and place a piece of tape with the number on each of the pet’s foreheads.  The number coincides with records that has the pet’s actual name, their owner’s name and information written down.

Simba gets numbered “1” and the shelter staff began the pre-med stage.  Once Simba is pre-meded, the staff began to prep him for surgery by shaving the surgical site.  The staff is dismayed when they discover Simba appears to be missing 2 crucial parts of his anatomy.  Kellie gets to work calling the owner to verify that Simba has indeed not been fixed.  This was not Dad’s first crypt orchid, however, and he knew exactly where to look for Simba’s missing parts.  Kellie returns to tell us she was unsuccessful at reaching Simba’s owner.  By this time, Dad has found his MIA anatomy.  The surgery was a success!

When Simba goes into recovery, Kellie asks me if I can help Liza, outside with intake.  I’m here to help and will go where needed so of course I tell her I will.  Outside, there isn’t much shade.  The kennels set up for recovery patients are in the little shade that there is available.

Liza seems a bit flustered with the handouts that she is preparing to send home with each patient.  The wind is constantly blowing the forms around and on top of that the patient sheets are mixed all together.  I offer suggestions to keep the patient sheets organized and Liza gets excited and tells me I should talk to Kellie about it.  I tell her I will definitely get on that.

Eventually the shade we were protecting the recovery animals with disappears.  Kellie comes to the rescue and helps us set up a tent where we move all the kennels under for the patients.  One by one recovery patients come outside and Liza and I watch them.

Around lunch time Brad arrives to get a lunch order.  Liza tells him about a sandwich place nearby called “Mencho’s” and Brad goes with it.  He takes everyone’s lunch order and goes to pick-up food for us.  He also stops by K-Mart and picks up a case of sprite for us.

After lunch, a group of students come up for some education on the fix-it foundation and how important pet care is.  Kellie opens the back door to the van which opens up right to Dad’s surgery table.  The children watch with amazement as Dad continues performing surgeries.

The teacher of the group of students and owner of the pet in surgery watches as Dad unknowingly continues.  She seems curious and only near the end of the surgery does she admit that it is her cat.  In fact several of the teachers and students had pets that were performed on that day.

The rest of the surgeries for the day went smoothly.  Dad’s tally for the day was 3 cat spays and 1 cat neuter, 7 dog spays, and 7 dog neuters counting Simba.  That is a total of 18 surgeries in one day.

We head back to the house with plans to go snorkeling.  Overly exhausted from his long day of surgeries, Dad decides to take a nap.  During his siesta, I enjoy the view around the house.  I discover many little hermit crabs wandering around the pavement that leads inside.  So close to the welcome mat outside the door, I hope they find a safer place at night.

There are also a ton of conk shells all around the walls outside.  Liza had told us earlier that the locals were very protective of their shells and no one was aloud to take them off the island.  She told us how there were organizations that go to the airport to collect all their “stolen” souvenirs.

I return to the back porch patiently waiting for the sun to set.  I am surprised to see a tan dog walking along the shore and I call to it.  It turns and looks up at me wagging its tag then disappears.  I think nothing of it until I turn and see that the dog has now joined me on the porch.  I see that the dog is a female and she is wearing a collar with the name “Misti” on it as well as a phone number without an area code.

Misti wags her tail excitedly while panting and I feel sorry for her.  I find a plastic bowl in the cupboard and fill it with water for her.  She laps it up greedily and in no time the bowl was empty again.  I refill it but now Misti is much more interested in getting attention from me than drinking the water.

I notice Misti’s feet appear swollen and callused and her stomach appears bloated.  I wonder if she is pregnant and what the protocol is for taking care of Misti.  I go inside and look for Dad’s phone to find Kellie’s number.  I call her and ask what I should do.

Kellie informs me that many dogs and cats wonder around the island without their owners.  She suggests I call the owner and let them know about the fixit foundation and where we will be tomorrow.  Kellie gives me the local area code and I wonder back outside to find Misti.  She is now across to the neighbors’ yard.  Brad suggests that maybe she is on her way home.  I try to follow her but she disappears in the heavily treed area that separates the houses.

It is starting to get dark so I make my way back to the terrace to enjoy the sunset I had sought after.  As I watch the sun go down, Dad finally gets up from his nap and we make a plan for dinner.  We decide to return to the Cheeseburger restaurant to have a real meal this time.

The night life is happening there and we enjoy the atmosphere of the Island locals.  Our waitress (different from the other day) doesn’t appear to like us.  She is young and has an accent different from the locals.  She would much rather wait on the group of young college-aged men then us, although I can’t say that I blame her.

After dinner we head home to rest and prepare for the following day.

October 22, 2012

Monday, October 22, 2012

            Woke up around 8:00 AM. Slept like a baby. The ambiance of the ocean waves stroking the shore combined with the sound of the crickets whistling made the perfect lullaby.  Dad was already awake and up enjoying his morning coffee on the terrace while reading the paper.  Kellie had told us she would pick us up and take us to the airport around 9-9:30 AM.  It was closer to 9:45.  Island Time, Mon!


             Kellie took us down the “road that never ends” once again and then through town in Christiansted, where we stopped at a coffee house for breakfast.  As we sat down waiting on our order, Kellie’s phone chirped.  Dr. Bailey was already waiting for us at the animal shelter.  Kellie told her we’d be there in 30 minutes.  She hung up and suddenly we were rushing our servers and changing our order to go.  Next thing I knew, I was attempting to butter my bagel as we twist and turn down the windy roads that is St. Croix.

            We are greeted in the parking lot of the shelter by a flock of beautiful peacocks.  Kellie leads us down a path behind the “Spay Waggin” where a very pregnant blonde is perched on top of a picnic table.  Kellie introduces us to Dr. Laura Bailey, the main veterinarian for the shelter.  She immediately begins showing us around the van (“Spay Waggin”) and the surgery suite of the shelter.

             Dad begins preparing himself for surgery while I get Marsden, one of the staff members, to show me the adoption center.  Nearing the end of the tour, we come across Kellie showing Brad around so I join them and Marsden excuses himself.

            

We stepped into the kitten section and my heart nearly broke.  “I’ll take them all” I exclaimed only half-joking.  Kellie immediately begins talking to Brad and I about the possibility of us transferring a couple of them back with us.  Unsure how Dad will react, especially with all our customs run-ins, I try not to get me hopes up.  But hey, it can’t hurt to ask right?

Meanwhile, back in the surgery suite, there are kittens already pre-meded and Dad is prepping for surgery.  Kellie takes Brad to the airport to rent a car and I stay to help in any way that I can.  Dad has 2 girls assisting him directly with the surgeries.  The main helper, Stephany, knows her way around very well.  Her assistant, Shana comes in and out of the room throughout the morning to help when she is needed.

             I help by taking each kitten when they are in recovery.  Brad stops in at some time in between and lets us know he is going to go get some groceries since he isn’t needed.  After the kittens, Dad performs 2 big dog spays and 1 big dog neuter.  Upon starting the dog neuter, the kittens begin to wake up fully and try to move about.  The 1^st one didn’t seem as active as the other 2.  Concerned, I pick him up and notice he is bleeding a little from his suture site.  I inform Dad, who by this time is finishing up the dog neuter.  Dad looks at the site and uses some surgical glue to keep the kitten from bleeding further. During the morning surgeries, we had seen Brad outside the window wandering around.  He finally joins us in the surgery suite and we socialize for a bit before heading out.
           

On the way back to our house, we decide to stop for something to eat.  Kellie had told us about a great restaurant called Cheeseburger in America’s Paradise.  Since we had plans for dinner and by now it is 3:00 in the afternoon, we decide to order something small, or “Scooby Snacks” as the waitress called it.  We split the Deluxe Nachos with chili. We enjoy our meal very much and soon we were back on the road to the house to prepare for the night’s festivities.

We meet Kellie, Dr Bailey and her husband Mike, on the pier at Christiansted.  The night life on the pier was filled with people bustling about.  Dr. Bailey has a very cute little black and tan Chihuahua attached to her hip.  For that reason we have to find a place to eat outside.  None of us minded that of course, since it was such a beautiful night.  We settled for Angry Nates which has greet seafood and steaks.

We socialize for a while, enjoying our company.  Mike and Dad talk about planes and flying while Dr. Bailey, Kellie and I talk about animals and such.  Mike looks at his watch and realizing the time (8:00PM).  The presidential debate will start at 9:00 PM and neither he nor Dad want to miss it.  We say our friendly goodbyes and head back to the house.

Once back and turning on the TV, however, the men realize there is only 1 channel available and the debate is not on it.  They play with the remote and buttons for a good while then give up.  Being the hero that I am, I step in and see that the TV is set to satellite and not cable.  I switch it and put on the Channel search and Voila!  We have the debate.  We only missed the first 10 minutes of it.  That concluded our 1^st official day on the Island.

October 21, 2012 Part II

Part II October 21, 2012

 

Kellie called Dad to say she was at the airport and he filled her in on what we were doing.  He told her that we would call when we were through customs on out whereabouts.

The customs woman called us up one by one to the counter to type in our information including copying things off our passports.  When Dad’s turn came, he received a long lecture from the woman about calling ahead and getting an official flight plan.  This seemed to last forever.

We were then asked to bring our luggage around the corner to a table where the customs woman could go through it.  One by one we opened all our bags and the woman made a couple quips to show us there were no hard feelings.  Finally, we were cleared and ushered through to the other side.  Dad went outside to meet Kellie then we all dragged our baggage out to meet her.

By this time it was almost 9:00 PM.  The car rental shops had long since closed.  We were counting on Kellie for a ride.  It was our only option and we weren’t sure what to expect.

A small woman with curly blonde hair appeared and introduced herself to us.  Her mannerisms and appearance reminded me of my aunt Nikki.  She was very friendly but when she saw our luggage, she frowned.  She told her car was packed with supplies and it was going to be a tight squeeze.  Trying to remain optimistic in spite of the day’s earlier events, the men ensure Kellie we can sit with stuff and that we’d make it work.

When Kellie pulled her jeep up and the back seats were laid down, the trunk full of tents and signs, we get a little worried.  Somehow, after much rearranging and stuffing, we did indeed make it work.  Everyone squeezed in like sardines with our luggage on our laps and then some.

On the drive, Kellie told us all about the FIXIT foundation in which she had co-founded with a friend.  She also spoke of the history of the feral animals on the island.

Remembering that we hadn’t eaten, Kellie kept her eyes peeled for a place that was still open where we could stop.  We settled for Wendy’s which seemed to be the only place with the light still on.  For being 9:15 PM, it was amazingly crowded.  The drive-thru line was long so Brad offered to run inside.  Dad went with him.  Inside, the line must have also been long because they were inside a good while.

Emerging from the fast food restaurant, bags of food in hand, the men finally returned and we were on our way again.  It was only then that I noticed that Kellie was driving on the left side of the road.  I don’t think I could ever get use to that.

Kellie informs us that when they made arrangements for us they had thought two of us were a married couple.  Therefore, there were only 2 rooms.  Brad says he plans to get a hotel but not tonight due to how late it was becoming.

The drive to the house was anything but pleasant.  The windy roads were very dark.  There weren’t any street lamps to light the way.  We were beginning to wonder if we’d ever make it there.  Kellie even tells us she doesn’t like driving at night and she’d only been to the house we were heading to a few times.  In spite of our concerns, we did make it, after passing the street twice.

  The drop for the driveway seemed very steep and appeared out of no-where.  Dad said Kellie seemed to be “taking a leap of faith” when she chose where to drive down.  Kellie parked and we began to unload.  I was a little leery when we followed Kellie down a set of very steep worn-away and over grown stone steps but was pleasantly surprised when we stepped inside.

The beautiful house was a breath of fresh air compared to the day we had.  It was right on the water and you can even hear the waves caressing the shoreline from any place in the house.

In the main living area there is a kitchen and a small room with a bed attached to the laundry room with a bathroom and shower.  Once stepping outside the back door, you were on a back porch that ran the length of the house.  It was the only connection to the 2 bedrooms.  The middle room is furnanced with 2 double beds.  Attached is a bathroom with a bathtub/shower and a his and hers sinks.  The master bedroom is located on the far end of the house.  Inside sits a king-sized bed with the master bathroom containing a double-sized walk-in shower.

After falling in love with the cozy house, Brad decides he will be staying here and not getting a hotel.  Kellie tells us the owner of the house normally rents it out but currently it is off season so we are lucking out.  Before she leaves us to get settled in, we ask Kellie how prevalent centipedes and scorpions are to the area.  She tells us she isn’t sure, she doesn’t think they are a problem, but not to “lose our guard”.  We thank her and she leaves us to our element.


 Now we have to decide who sleeps where.  I am very uneasy about the small room (no light switch) not just due to its size.  Being the smallest and personally not paying for the trip as much as the others, I know I should be the one to offer to sleep in it anyway.  Sensing my concerns about the room, Dad lies down and immediately notices a couple things.
            1. There is no head board
            2. There are ants crawling up and down the wall directly beside where you lay your head.

Upon further inspection, there are ants in the bed, under the covers, and crawling all over the pillows.  The final straw for me was seeing a millipede on the floor by the bed.  At first glance it looked like a slug.  Looking closer, it was definitely a multi-legged creepy crawler.  ICK!!!

I took the initiative and suggested Dad and I share the room with the 2 double beds.  And then it was so.  Before settling in for the night, I sat with Dad and Brad as they drank a glass of wine and reflected on the day’s events.  They both laughed over the many memories made in a single day.  And so begins our adventure…

Sunday, October 21, 2012 Part I

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Today was long and treacherous. 1st off, let me start with a couple recommendations for you:

# 1.) DON'T FORGET YOUR PASSPORT

# 2.) IF YOU CAN AVOID TRAVELING ON A SUNDAY, DO SO. Everything closes early.

So to start out our adventurous day, we woke up around 5:00 AM. I called our airport in Ft. Lauderdale around 5:15 and they said they would pick us up in 15 minutes. We strolled downstairs to grab some quick breakfast and noticed the weather was playing on the TV. The newscaster was telling everyone how a cold front had pushed the clouds and rain towards the island so Florida would be clear. Problem is, that is exactly where we are headed.

Around 6:00, we began to worry about our courtesy ride so I called the airport again. Turns out they had gone to the wrong hotel. After hanging up the phone, I hear Dad whispering obscenities under his breath. When I ask him what is wrong, he looks over at me with frustration in his eyes and mutters, "Guess what I forgot… my passport."

After a few minutes of panic, we try to come up with a ground plan. Dad gets on the phone to mom and I jump on the courtesy computer and google it. While surfing the web, Mom confirms that Dad did indeed leave his passport behind. I come across several articles, including one published in USA TODAY in January, of a Canadian who was able to get entry into the USA by pulling up a digital copy of his passport on his IPAD. I fill Dad in on my findings an he asks Mom to scan or take a picture of his passport and send it to him.

Meanwhile, our ride has finally shown up and we start piling our luggage into the van. Dad receives a few unreadable texts from Mom and finally one legible one. Apparently she is unable to scan it.

We pile up the plane and take off… now an hour behind schedule. It was very cloudy and over the radio hazardous weather was reported "heading East over Nassau". Kind of in the same direction we were heading. Dad clicks his spot checker GPS to alert everyone at home that we were okay. Meanwhile dark clouds are starting to appear all around us.

Our first refuel stop is in Exuma, Bahamas. It is a nice big airport. They direct us to customs and we unpack our luggage. Dark clouds were still rolling in and we even heard a distant clap of thunder. We hoped it would pass while we were inside.

Once inside the lobby, we were discouraged by how empty it was. We waited and another group went in and walked behind the yellow line and around the corner. Brad decided to follow suit and charged around the corner as well. He returns with a stack of paperwork for us to fill out. He makes a few more trips and finally Dad follows his around the corner.

I wait patiently with the luggage and then Brad comes back and begins picking up his bags. He tells me not to worry about the paperwork and informs me that we are good to go. I ask where Dad was and Brad replies that he is coming. Concerned about how easy things appeared, I consciously decided to wait and see where Dad was.

Dad then tells us we need to pull all the luggage around to the other side. We oblige and Dad is in deep conversation with a man at a desk and still filling out some forms. The man asks to see our passports and Brad and I whip ours out. Dad shows the man the picture Mom had texted and starts explaining his story. This is where things got complicated. The man, unconfident about what to do next, tells us we have to wait for immigration to get here but not to worry that she would only be 10 minutes. We step aside to wait patiently.

Brad seeming irritated, asks Dad what he had said. I guess if we were headed straight to St. Croix, we'd be fine. However, Dad's small plane would have to make stops to refuel. He had told the man about our flight plan to stop in Inagua and Puerto Rico to refuel and grab a meal.

It takes about an hour for immigration to arrive and Brad starts the talking, stating that our destination is St. Croix. The woman seems annoyed and asks us if we are planning to make any stops in between. Brad says "Just to re-fuel" and is very adamant about it. Finally she clears us and we packed up and left.

As we begin to taxi to the runway, there is a sudden bumpy thump! Dad and Brad turn to see what has happened and somehow we accidentally had knocked against a runway light with the plane.

Our windshields and windows begin to sprinkle with raindrops and we wonder what it will be like in the air.  Once in the blue, Dad makes quite the maneuver to avoid flying into any of the enormous clouds.  In the distance we could see endless clouds that seemed to stretch from “floor to ceiling” per Brad.  Brad and I weren’t worried.  We had full faith in Dad’s flying ability.  Dad, however, later admits to being a little bit nervous.  We made it, considering, and it actually was a very smooth ride, believe it or not.

Our next stop is Inagua.  Now let me tell you about Inagua.  We landed in the very small, falling apart airport that is Inagua.  No one to greet us we walked up to a small “T” shaped building with screen doors rusting on the hinges.  Inside there were 2 women: One who is slumped down on a torn up chair bench and another leaning on the doorway of a very small office door.

There is two other offices I can see, one located in the middle of the main room with shaded windows and another where I can just make out the bottom half of a TV screen showing some Juliet Roberts movie.  Across from the shaded office is a door leading to the middle of the “T”.  This long room has double -doors on either side that are torn open.  Then at the base of the “T” are the bathrooms.

 

 

There was no air condition just a few fans randomly hanging throughout the building.  I hurry to the bathroom and when I come out Dad has been chauffeured to the shaded office to pay a landing tax fee and order fuel.  He also asks if there is anywhere close by where we can get lunch.  Unfortunately, there isn’t.  Dad doesn’t want to push his luck without a passport so he pays the tax fee and then we head outside to wait for the fuel truck.

Outside, we try to be patient while standing in the blazing sun.  When a richety old truck comes around the corner, Brad and Dad exchange glances.  A man and a woman hop out of the vehicle and the woman starts to unroll the fuel hose while the man hooks up the battery of the truck to the fuel pump to power it.

The woman tells Dad that there is a fee for fueling the gas on top of the price for the fuel itself.  We have no choice so onward the woman goes to pumping the gas.  It seems to take forever to fill up.  As Brad says, it “trickled out”.

Once we were on our way, we started discussing not stopping in Puerto Rico and heading straight on to St. Croix.  Dad is a little hesitant about whether or not his plane can go without the extra stop for fuel.  There is some more maneuvering around some thunder boomers: very high and build-ups on clouds.  The closer we get to Puerto Rico, we also notice that more than half the calls on the radio were in Spanish.

It is near dusk when we approach Puerto Rico.  Dad and Brad had continue discussing whether or not to stop and where, and the plan decided was that we were going to stay the night in Puerto Rico.  Dad, being very anxious about figuring out where he was going to land, was worried about landing in Puerto Rico (foreign territory) without his passport.

“The winds were with us, weather was holding, and St. Croix is American territory, and I’m an American citizen,” Dad made the conscious decision, called up on the radio and changed his flight plan to go straight to St. Croix.

The trip from Puerto Rico to St. Croix tested Dad’s instruments, he later tells me.  For 60 miles it was completely dark with no land marks.  Dad admits to being more than a little nervous during this time.

Approaching St. Croix, Dad had words with the radio tower.  Since customs closed on Sundays at 6:00 PM and we had stopped in the Bahamas for gas, “we are in trouble”.  Dad’s response was “I’m an American citizen”.

After landing in St. Croix, Brad leapt out of the plane to great an airport staff member.  Dad stayed behind a bit to update his flight log.  Brad comes back to the plan to let us know staff member, “Susan” with the airport’s fire department is bringing over a truck and will be transporting us to customs where they called in a woman from home.

While waiting for Susan to bring back a truck to transport us, Dad called his contact “Kellie” to let her know we arrived while I called Mom and Mark to tell them we were safe and sound and on the ground.

Susan was very nice and helped load up her pick-up truck.  The two men hopped into the bed of the truck and I climbed into the passenger seat.  The cool air condition felt great inside but I did find it odd to see 3 air fresheners hung up all around the passenger side of the vehicle.

Inside the customs building it was empty.  I felt a strange sensation of déjà vu.  Luckily, this time we only waited a few minutes for someone to arrive.  During these few minutes, having skipped lunch and not had dinner, I gulped down my leftover sub I had gotten from Brunswick, GA the previous day for lunch.  Dad and Brad warned me that once customs arrived, it would be tossed.  Sure enough, they were right. 

The customs woman had short dark curly hair and wore reading glasses on the tip of her nose, reminding me of a librarian. The stern look on her face didn’t mask her annoyance of being called in after hours.

The woman dons her latex gloves and wrapped the remains of my sandwich in a clear plastic bag like she was collecting evidence for the police.  She took the bag into the back around the corner to dispose of it.  She handed us a stack of paperwork to work on before she left.  When she returned, she then asked us for our passports.  Dad went into his speal of forgetting it and showed the picture on his phone.  She laughed a little and said she’s get to that part later.  We followed her to the customs desk where she pulled up her computer.  Raising a judgmental eyebrow, she asked if we had a flight plan.

Dad pulled out his “manifest copy” as she called it, which I guess wasn’t official paperwork.  She said it wasn’t in the computer, therefore it didn’t exist and we were an “unplanned arrival”.  Very obviously annoyed, the woman was actually very professional throughout the entire conversation.