The Turks
After connecting in Charlotte and hooking up with Ken there, we made it to Providenciales, Turks and Caicos without much problem. While in line clearing customs (about 45 minutes to an hour), we met Mark and Melissa from Denver who were there for a wedding. Apparently 76 people were coming to this beach wedding, which is a pretty impressive number for a Caribbean wedding. As it turns out, we met several more people from the wedding party, including the bride and groom. I was making a play to get an invitation, but didn't seal the deal. After their vows were finished and the turned to walk away, I just "happened" to be strolling by on the beach along the water with my orange floppy hat and received many congratulations for putting in an appearance at the event.
There were two other women in line at customs "of interest". Very attractive brunettes, but they were too far away in line to actually talk to, plus they didn't seem all that interested in talking. We finally cleared customs, grabbed our bags and meandered outside. The Club Med was there and was pretty helpful, if not a little confused. After waiting a few minutes, Mark and Melissa were brought over by the rep. A short while later, the two brunettes were brought over too! Bingo! Things are looking up. In the mini-van cab, we introduced ourselves and they are from NY City. They are a fairly abrupt and seem standoffish, so when we get to the resort, I told Ken we'd probably not talk to them again the rest of the week. I couldn't have been more wrong!
The rest of Saturday we didn't see the brunettes from NYC, but Sunday we did, down on the beach. They actually set up very close to us, maybe ten feet away, but they seemed content in their own world so we didn't try to talk to them. Absolutely beautiful women, so it was a shame they weren't more approachable. We saw them after dinner that night when they came over to talk to us....and thus started a week long friendship with Beth and Karen. Beth is married, as we found out later in the week, and it's easy to see why: smart, great sense of humor and drop-dead looks, rock hard body. It turns out Karen wanted to make the trip down to the resort but didn't particularly want to go alone, so she called up Beth to see if she wanted to go. The trip was planned only three weeks before they actually came down. Seems like a good friend thing to do.....dropping what's going on in you life, leaving you spouse for a week and heading off on vacation.
We had several meals together, played some pool and on the last night, after Karen went to bed early from a night of margaritas at local bars, we stayed up until 3 a.m. just chatting with Beth. Except for the 30 or so mosquito bites on each of my legs, it was a great evening. Outstanding women both.
Beth and Karen before dinner one night.
What's up today?
As I mentioned earlier, my luggage is in Newark, I think, and no word from the airline today. That means tomorrow I need to call and figure out what's going on. Ugh. Interestingly though, when you lose your luggage, you have to do without a lot of things that are comfortable: shirts, shorts, that favorite pair of jeans, underwear, shoes, toiletries, a razor.....oh so many things. In addition to that list, I had packed my electric toothbrush, prescriptions, my scuba dive log book, my golf clubs, scuba equipment, swim trunks and one of my beloved pillows. So now I'm managing without all of those things.
A question though, while I've missed a few of these things over the last 24 hours, what will I really miss come next week, or the week after? Right now I'm missing my toothbrush the most, but that's easily replaced. I think my shorts are going to be a big problem if I don't get my luggage back. Oh, and that pair of jeans. Like that sweater, they fit just right. My dive log of course has my scuba certification in it in addition to my logs on each dive I've made. That's actually irreplaceable. Makes you think about what should be in your carry-on bags and what is ok to actually place in the hands of airport baggage gorillas. Not to scare you in any way, but just think about it more carefully next time you travel.
Under the "someone always has it worse off" category, poor Ken went home to find his basement flooded. You might have heard about all of the rain they got in NJ (we heard about it on the island). There was all sorts of flooding and road closures right around Ken and apparently he didn't get away unscathed. Funny thing though, he gave his neighbor the phone number to the resort and said, "If the house burns down, don't call me." Guess they decided the same applied for floods!!
While in the Turks, I decided to relax the shaving a bit. Now I have the beginnings of a goatee (or a Hollywoodian actually) going and it seems to be getting a pretty positive response thus far. We'll see how it grows in and then make a call.
2 comments:
oh no, luggage lost! That sucks! The last couple times it's happened to me it didn't take long at all to be reunited.
Sure you don't want to try a handlebar and chin puff? Very Edwardian!
Well, you were right about the luggage. Didn't take long to get them back.
It's my first face fuzz in 15 years, so take it easy on me!!
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