Saturday, October 27, 2012

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Atlas, our final morning of the beautiful sunrise on a terrace overlooking the ocean has come. We get up around 6:00AM and begin to pack up our trusty rental car. I arrange the little room back to the way it was when I had first seen it, (minus dirty buggy bedding of course). Dad makes his final calls about his flight plan while the weather channel plays in the background.

I can barely believe our time has come to an end here in St. Croix. It feels like just yesterday we were getting off the plane being lectured by customs. It feels like time has sped up and before long we were in our car, driving down the “road that never ends” for the last time.

We make our way to the airport and Brad turns in our friendly rental car. We pack up the plane and Dad checks his flight plan status and the weather one last time. Once again we are flying through the sky on our way to our next adventure: following hurricane Sandy up the coast and making it home in one piece.

Trusty passport in hand, Dad has no worries about landing in Puerto Ricothis trip. We seemed to go through customs easy enough, although they again claimed we were not in their system. They were nice enough and cleared us through. We re-fueled and were on our way again by 11:00am.

The 4 hour flight from Puerto Rico to Inagua was uneventful and smooth enough. We could barely tell there had been a hurricane a few days prior. I enjoyed a short name while the men took turns steering. Inagua’s airport was the same as I remembered it a week before. We went through Bahama customs and paid our landing tax. This time we re-fueled with our own fuel that we had been toting around with us. We didn’t stay in Inagua for longer than we had to. In less than an hour we were in the air again.

We landed in Grand Exuma at quarter to 6 in the evening. We hoped to re-fuel and be back in the air in no time. However, when Dad got on the phone with the international briefer, she informed him that we would not be out of the Bahama air space before dark, and that without an IFR Rating, Dad would be in trouble. Dad told me to let Brad know that we would be staying the night so we needed to grab some overnight stuff from the plane.

I ran out to let Brad know. He did not seem happy at all and tried to get someone on the phone to clear us to come in tonight. Dad and I overruled him, and he finally gave up and jumped on the bandwagon.

The taxi-driver, Leroy, was very friendly and on our way to a hotel, several cars honked “hellos” to him. When we pulled up to the hotel, we were a little worried. The lights were all off and there were no cars in the parking lot. Leroy told us to wait in the van while he went up to see if he could find something out.

We watched as a maintenance guy appeared out of nowhere and had a chat with Leroy. He returned to the car and told us the man wasn’t sure when or why or for how long but that the hotel was closed.

No worries, we were soon on our way to another hotel. It seemed to take us awhile to get there, but Leroy informed us it was the same distance from the airport just on the other side of the island.

We pulled up to a small hotel resort and Leroy helped us with our luggage. We stepped inside and the main entry was also the entry to the restaurant. It seemed to be bustling with visitors but the only person working was a bar tender. Leroy said he would stay until he made sure we had a room. The bar tender got on the phone to call in the hotel manager for the night. It took her about 10 minutes but she finally arrived. She pulled up her computer to see what rooms she had available. She told us before we decided which ones we would stay in she wanted to show us what was available. We paid Leroy and told him what time to pick us up in the morning.

The first room she showed us was a suite. One room had a queen sized bed with a couch and the other room had a king-sized bed. She didn’t end up showing us that room since when she walked in she said it hadn’t been cleaned yet. Next, she showed us two rooms next to each other- one with a double bed that had been rolled into it. We decided on those two rooms. Dad and I would stay in the room with the two beds and Brad would stay next-door.

We left our luggage and returned to the hotel bar to get some dinner. The mix of locals and visitors made a pleasant atmosphere. We seemed to fit right in. One of the men we talked to was doing construction nearby. As soon as he found out what we had been doing in the islands, he got real excited. He introduced us to the woman next to him telling us she had many pets.

Once in deep conversation, the woman revealed to us that the only veterinarian on the entire island and nearby islands, had just recently passed away. She told us how he and his wife had moved down to the Bahamas to retire and opened up a practice. I could see excitement growing in Dad’s eyes as she spoke. I could see him picturing the excitement of a new adventure brewing.

The woman at the bar began telling us stories about patients the veterinarian had seen. She told us how it wasn’t all vacation and how a lot of the patients brought in were not in good shape at all. She spoke of how strong the vet’s heart had to be in order to keep on doing what he was doing in spite of the conditions and heartbreaking sites. She also told us that the vet had the only X-ray machine on the island and if people broke a bone they would have to go see him as well.

When the time came that the woman excused herself to leave, Dad traded e-mail addresses with her, hopeful that he could find a veterinarian who would love to retire and follow in the past vet’s footsteps. Not long after, we retreated to our rooms as well to prepare for the following day’s adventures.