Low tide @ 10 a.m. therefore Cathie and I headed to the beach even though it was a windy, cloudy morning! We wanted beach treasures! Hunting for sea glass in the waves and small rocks gets under your skin. It’s a game to beat the wave before it gets you! We sure lost! Incoming tide and the winds from a 3 day blow brought plenty of rollers to the shore but we stuck it out and continued to dash in and out of the water collecting treasures! As we left the last beach we giggled at each other’s soaking wet clothes comparing our finds!
The usual drive up the rocky hill and down the potted, dirt road ended when my van just quit! We looked at each other as if to say “Did you do that?” Cathie owned and worked at a Firestone dealer ship for 25+ yrs so her knowledge of cars is awesome! She noticed I had electric and battery just no gas power. I however would never have observed this! The walk out to the Queens Highway was an unplanned hike as we only had flip flops to walk with. We began to count our blessings, “at least it isn’t sunny, or raining OR snowing (LOL). AND we are over half way on the road to the highway NOT up on the hill at the beach 1 mile back!” Our steps became lighter and we relaxed and enjoyed the view of rock walls, banana trees in pot holes in the bush and sorry to say garbage dumped in the bush. We drive down this dirt road over and over to get to the beach but walking it gives a whole new perspective.
‘Hailing’ i.e. hitch hiking is just another form of transportation on the island. Stand on the road, look at the car coming towards you and wave or point down at the road= hailing! I remember the first time we saw someone do this we thought they were pointing at something on the road. Sometimes they don’t even wave, just stand there till you pass and then try to flag you down. I picked up an older man one morning with a machete, something I would never do back home not that that many people stand with machetes on our roads! Anyway, I knew once we reached the highway we could get a ride back to our house. To our dismay, traffic was nonexistent at this noon hour. Finally a Bahamian woman from the Baptist church we sometimes attend stopped and was very surprised to see us walking! She carried us all the way to our house 5 miles away. Although she was raised on island and came back “home” to retire, she had never been up our road and was very nervous about where to turn. When I pointed out where our drive was she almost forgot to put the car in park she was so excited to see our place. I had the pleasure to show her around the garden and house while Cathie got to give the bad news to the boys! They were deep in a project of making driftwood picture frames and had just come out of the bush pulling telephone wire for our hard line we are hoping to get soon. A change in plans is not easy for these 2 non spontaneous planners!! John is my fixer and I guess I take for granted he will go and “fix” my problem- shame on me! I did kiss him extra for doing just that although we ended up having the van towed-not a cheap rate nor was it in the budget! ISLAND LIFE IS GOOD AND ALWAYS AN ADVENTURE
island life 