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The Recovery Tour: The Journey and Arrival
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mindehankins
- Posts: 3014
- Joined: Fri Mar 06, 2009 8:21 am
- Location: Western NY State
The Recovery Tour: The Journey and Arrival
It'd Been Awhile, Since He'd Tasted Monkey Meat
(the journey and arrival)
We travelled three hours, Sunday evening, to Pittsburg for our early morning flight. It'd been a long day, so we made a stiff drink then laid down to try to sleep. The TV was on the Travel Channel and narrator was describing a scene in the Amazon. I reached for the remote to turn the tv off. The last words we heard were "it'd been awhile, since he'd tasted monkey meat" We both howled with laughter and joked about that for awhile then drifted off to sleep.
Before dawn at the airport, check in couldn't find our reservation. We had a few nervous moments and I wasn't about to tell Blaine I'd booked our flights through "Cheapo Tickets Dot Com." First leg was Pittsburg-LaGuardia (never again). We checked one bag with stuff we could live without but would like to have. As we flew over the Hudson, I noticed "Do not step out of this area" printed on the wing. "This area" didn't extend much more than 1/2 of the wing, and I thought of the passengers that were on the Hudson river, lined up on the wing.
We changed airlines at LaGuardia, which meant we had to walk 15 minutes in the rain and barely made it to the gate on time. The walk was really hard on Blaine, who'd hurt his back a week before the trip. Blaine had lost his boarding passes, so we had to go to the counter and have new ones printed. We boarded immediately on arrival at the gate. Blaine asked why Expedia was failing us so completely this trip, and I had to fess up that I'd tried to save a few bucks by booking with "Cheap O Flights dot com." You know those freecreditreport dot com commercials, with the band singing about what a loser you are? Yeah. I was totally re-writing that song with our story in there. I kept hearing those guys' voices singing in my head. When things were not going right, we could revisit the monkey meat line, and have a laugh, though.
During departure, I started to wonder if we were supposed to claim our baggage at LaGuardia and re-check in on Delta. Crap. I asked Blaine and he didn't know. He mentioned how "that'd suck since the luggage receipt is with the boarding pass I lost." We've never changed airlines in the middle of a trip. I discreetly summoned a flight attendant who reassured me that our bag should be on this flight with us. We had 3 seats on this flight so we could stretch out on our way to......no, not STT..... Atlanta! I hadn't eaten yet, so I bought one of the Delta Travel Treats boxes, and it was really good, with Gouda and Cheddar, crackers, salami, chips, craisins and Milano cookies. $5. Yum.
We had a delayed departure from Atlanta, but had 3 seats to ourselves. This was an uneventful flight except the pilot descended over Nassau, Bahamas, and I got my first look at the impossible shade of blue someone wrote about. My heart sang!
We arrived at STT, I bought vodka at the airport (our nightly drink), at an amazingly low price....something like 1/2 of what we'd pay here. Looked for a couple of cold Diet Cokes but the airport only sold booze and water. Our checked bag arrived and we were ushered into not a roofed pickup truck like I expected, but a COOL, air conditioned van, with a really sweet driver named Arvia. We chatted about the music and when a really pretty song came on, I asked about it and he turned it up. He said it was new and sang along and all was good
He left us at Red Hook. The ride cost us $15 each.
We arrived on St. John just at dusk, in the rain. The air is purfumed with a scent I've never smelled before and I kept taking big whiffs to try to identify it. We were so tired and hungry, in a brand new place with no time to orient ourselves. And this was where the fabulous Rick G. came through for us in a big way. I'd printed out his newbie guide. I pulled it out of the bag, and having no idea where we were, we were at Conrad Sutton's in minutes. Absolutely perfectly concise directions. What a relief! We did NOT want to start off on the wrong foot with Conrad Sutton. I will not include any of our experiences with Conrad Sutton in this trip report, but we were very unhappy with him and won't rent there again.
It was very dark by the time we drove away from Conrad's. We stopped at a little market just around the corner, and I bought some Diet Cokes and a bag of Bugles. I had NO idea what we were going to do about dinner. I'd planned on picking our boxes up from Connections, picking up dinner in town, going to the lumberyard for ice, and going to Starfish market, but just starting our drive our in the dark was very disconcerting.
I am a nervous rider. Poor Blaine! He was going sooooo slowly but I was gasping and Oh-my-Godding allll the way to Cinnamon Bay Campground. Note to new visitors who are nervous riders: shut your eyes and your mouth and let the person drive. Don't torment the driver. He/She is going to drive just fine. It is NOT that bad. If I could get over it, you can!
Cinnamon Bay Campground's office was closing as we arrived. They were hanging our key on their bulletin board. The nice lady took the time to tell us where we were going (in the dark with no flashlight), and then said "you must be hungry. The restaurant is closed but Fabian will make you food." She pointed in the direction of the restaurant.
We walked into an outdoor pavilion area where two men were obviously closing up the kitchen for the night. No one else was in the area. One of them asked if he could help us, and I told him that this was our first visit, that we were tired and kind of lost and very hungry, and the front desk had suggested we ask him for food. He asked if tuna would be okay and I said yes, absolutely....peanut butter and jelly would be okay. We waited about 20 minutes for our tuna sandwiches, and out comes our hero Fabian, with two plates of AMAZINGLY good food. Large tuna steaks, seasoned brown rice, and vegetables in a nice sauce. I shrieked with delight! We couldn't thank him enough. Fabian explained that the first night of vacation sets the tone for the entire trip, and he wanted our trip to be wonderful! I think dinner was around $40, and we tipped probably $20, and it was worth that and more. We slowly and cautiously made our way to Cottage 5C, in the dark. Sleep came easily. It poured buckets all night long.
(the journey and arrival)
We travelled three hours, Sunday evening, to Pittsburg for our early morning flight. It'd been a long day, so we made a stiff drink then laid down to try to sleep. The TV was on the Travel Channel and narrator was describing a scene in the Amazon. I reached for the remote to turn the tv off. The last words we heard were "it'd been awhile, since he'd tasted monkey meat" We both howled with laughter and joked about that for awhile then drifted off to sleep.
Before dawn at the airport, check in couldn't find our reservation. We had a few nervous moments and I wasn't about to tell Blaine I'd booked our flights through "Cheapo Tickets Dot Com." First leg was Pittsburg-LaGuardia (never again). We checked one bag with stuff we could live without but would like to have. As we flew over the Hudson, I noticed "Do not step out of this area" printed on the wing. "This area" didn't extend much more than 1/2 of the wing, and I thought of the passengers that were on the Hudson river, lined up on the wing.
We changed airlines at LaGuardia, which meant we had to walk 15 minutes in the rain and barely made it to the gate on time. The walk was really hard on Blaine, who'd hurt his back a week before the trip. Blaine had lost his boarding passes, so we had to go to the counter and have new ones printed. We boarded immediately on arrival at the gate. Blaine asked why Expedia was failing us so completely this trip, and I had to fess up that I'd tried to save a few bucks by booking with "Cheap O Flights dot com." You know those freecreditreport dot com commercials, with the band singing about what a loser you are? Yeah. I was totally re-writing that song with our story in there. I kept hearing those guys' voices singing in my head. When things were not going right, we could revisit the monkey meat line, and have a laugh, though.
During departure, I started to wonder if we were supposed to claim our baggage at LaGuardia and re-check in on Delta. Crap. I asked Blaine and he didn't know. He mentioned how "that'd suck since the luggage receipt is with the boarding pass I lost." We've never changed airlines in the middle of a trip. I discreetly summoned a flight attendant who reassured me that our bag should be on this flight with us. We had 3 seats on this flight so we could stretch out on our way to......no, not STT..... Atlanta! I hadn't eaten yet, so I bought one of the Delta Travel Treats boxes, and it was really good, with Gouda and Cheddar, crackers, salami, chips, craisins and Milano cookies. $5. Yum.
We had a delayed departure from Atlanta, but had 3 seats to ourselves. This was an uneventful flight except the pilot descended over Nassau, Bahamas, and I got my first look at the impossible shade of blue someone wrote about. My heart sang!
We arrived at STT, I bought vodka at the airport (our nightly drink), at an amazingly low price....something like 1/2 of what we'd pay here. Looked for a couple of cold Diet Cokes but the airport only sold booze and water. Our checked bag arrived and we were ushered into not a roofed pickup truck like I expected, but a COOL, air conditioned van, with a really sweet driver named Arvia. We chatted about the music and when a really pretty song came on, I asked about it and he turned it up. He said it was new and sang along and all was good
He left us at Red Hook. The ride cost us $15 each. We arrived on St. John just at dusk, in the rain. The air is purfumed with a scent I've never smelled before and I kept taking big whiffs to try to identify it. We were so tired and hungry, in a brand new place with no time to orient ourselves. And this was where the fabulous Rick G. came through for us in a big way. I'd printed out his newbie guide. I pulled it out of the bag, and having no idea where we were, we were at Conrad Sutton's in minutes. Absolutely perfectly concise directions. What a relief! We did NOT want to start off on the wrong foot with Conrad Sutton. I will not include any of our experiences with Conrad Sutton in this trip report, but we were very unhappy with him and won't rent there again.
It was very dark by the time we drove away from Conrad's. We stopped at a little market just around the corner, and I bought some Diet Cokes and a bag of Bugles. I had NO idea what we were going to do about dinner. I'd planned on picking our boxes up from Connections, picking up dinner in town, going to the lumberyard for ice, and going to Starfish market, but just starting our drive our in the dark was very disconcerting.
I am a nervous rider. Poor Blaine! He was going sooooo slowly but I was gasping and Oh-my-Godding allll the way to Cinnamon Bay Campground. Note to new visitors who are nervous riders: shut your eyes and your mouth and let the person drive. Don't torment the driver. He/She is going to drive just fine. It is NOT that bad. If I could get over it, you can!
Cinnamon Bay Campground's office was closing as we arrived. They were hanging our key on their bulletin board. The nice lady took the time to tell us where we were going (in the dark with no flashlight), and then said "you must be hungry. The restaurant is closed but Fabian will make you food." She pointed in the direction of the restaurant.
We walked into an outdoor pavilion area where two men were obviously closing up the kitchen for the night. No one else was in the area. One of them asked if he could help us, and I told him that this was our first visit, that we were tired and kind of lost and very hungry, and the front desk had suggested we ask him for food. He asked if tuna would be okay and I said yes, absolutely....peanut butter and jelly would be okay. We waited about 20 minutes for our tuna sandwiches, and out comes our hero Fabian, with two plates of AMAZINGLY good food. Large tuna steaks, seasoned brown rice, and vegetables in a nice sauce. I shrieked with delight! We couldn't thank him enough. Fabian explained that the first night of vacation sets the tone for the entire trip, and he wanted our trip to be wonderful! I think dinner was around $40, and we tipped probably $20, and it was worth that and more. We slowly and cautiously made our way to Cottage 5C, in the dark. Sleep came easily. It poured buckets all night long.
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piscesgirl0314
- Posts: 598
- Joined: Thu Sep 25, 2008 12:31 pm
- Location: Chesapeake, VA
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chicagoans
- Posts: 1586
- Joined: Thu Jan 18, 2007 2:51 pm
- Location: IL
Re: The Recovery Tour: The Journey and Arrival
What?! No monkey meat? That's what happens when you go to Cheap O Tickets.com!mindehankins wrote:Gouda and Cheddar, crackers, salami, chips, craisins and Milano cookies.
We have all given praise to the Nubie God - RickG.
It sounds like the recovery was well underway when you fell asleep that first night.
Let' hear more.
JIM
Man it's like some dream we live down here....
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mindehankins
- Posts: 3014
- Joined: Fri Mar 06, 2009 8:21 am
- Location: Western NY State
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Berlingirl
- Posts: 499
- Joined: Mon Aug 07, 2006 6:09 pm
- Location: New England
Always like to read of peoples airline adventures...getting there isn't quite the fun it used to be anymore. I miss the good ole days when Pam Am and TWA were choices! (dating myself I know!)
Important thing was you made it to STJ and your dinner the first night sounds like it was utterly fantasic. Looking forward to the rest of the story.
Important thing was you made it to STJ and your dinner the first night sounds like it was utterly fantasic. Looking forward to the rest of the story.
