28 October 2005 | St. Vincent, SVG
The alarm was set for 3:30am, but Sheryl and I were out of bed before 3am. Excitement and anticipation make sleeping difficult.
Although we were flying in coach on my frequent flyer miles, Sheryl had only to mention her affiliation with American Airlines before the 1st class flight attendant on the Miami to Barbados flight was sneaking cups of red wine back to us. Before we disembarked, we also had a complimentary bottle of red in our backpack. Boy did I marry into some great perks!
Across the aisle sat a man who bore a striking resemblance to Santa Clause. As I struck up a conversation, it was obvious that he had a similar disposition, as well. Reverend Dan Stevenson told me of his love of god and Harley Davidson's. Hence his position with the
Motorcycle Ministry & Riding Fellowship. He described his transition from hell raiser to heavenly calling. Quite an interesting character.
We were slightly delayed in Barbados when Liat Airlines experienced technical difficulties with one of their planes. However, only 2-hours after our scheduled departure, we were flying our way over the multihued blue waters from Barbados to St. Vincent. Upon arrival we were immediately greeted by Phyllis, who picked us up in her taxicab with her name on the front. Phyllis proudly told us that she was the only female cab driver on the island as she pointed out the grocery store and other amenities on our ride to Beachcombers Inn. I noticed a lot of other vehicles with names on the front and assumed that they, too, were cabs. Phyllis corrected me by indicating that they were the public busses.
Before we had been at Beachcombers for 5 minutes, Sheryl had happened upon a group from Raleigh, NC. They were a group of 12 who had been in St. Vincent for a week, and it was their last night on the island. They were all members of a
"No Kids Club" and were elated to learn that Sheryl and I meet the obvious requirements for membership. We enjoyed meeting them all, joining them for dinner and chatting through the night.
We also met Steve and Angelina, who were to be our sailing companions over the next week. They had just sat down to dinner, so we agreed to catch up with them tomorrow.
After the last of the "No Kids Club" members departed for bed, we went for a quick nighttime walk on the beach before retiring for bed. The tree frogs serenaded us in our journey to the land of sweet sailing dreams.