Trip Report – St. Croix – Tuesday, April 13 to Thursday, April 22 – Ten Days is...NOT ENOUGH TIME!!!

Trip Info: 4th trip to STX in 4 years after many trips to STT and STJ. . Returning? Yes, already have our accommodations booked and my new ticker – staying 16 days next March. (If you are on Facebook with me you may have already seen some of the same videos but am going to try to mix it up.)

Part 1

I have now learned the hard way to pay attention to “signs”. When our sump pump went out the day before we left for St. Croix, I shoulda taken it for the bad juju that it was. I should have stood on one foot, hopped around three times, sacrificed one of my good handbags to the gods, burnt some sage – something. But, no, instead I dismissed it as the Jumbies merely playing a pre-trip trick on us. I shoulda paid attention.

I also kind of had an inkling a week or so before we left that this ten day trip was going to fly by really fast. Our niece and her hubs were going to join us at villa Island Time for a couple of days and then spend a few more days on island at a villa they had rented – Lymin’ Beach House – before they headed over to STT/STJ to finish out their USVI trip. I started blocking out in my mind all that we wanted to do on island, and just knew that ten days was not going to be enough. The villa was available so I tried to add a few extra days and make the extended dates work with flights but couldn’t. Another sign (sigh). I made a mental note not to let time get away from us but I guess I forgot to pack that mental note pad. We ran out of time. But, before that happened…

Tuesday – April 13
We were taking a 5:45 AM AA flight to Miami to connect to St. Croix. No sleep since Sunday night, sump pump repair and packing on Monday. Our 303 Taxi Driver was late; he didn’t speak any English we were able to understand; he drove 85-90 on the tollway, without his seat belt, window open so he could hack and spit; he popped Nicorette gum 2-3 pieces at a time; he talked on his cell while trying to work the GPS. -It’s O’HARE, buddy, just how new to the amber waves of grain ARE you??- If he hadn’t been so darn late we would have called for another cab even if this guy had to leave us on the shoulder of the road to wait for one – it would probably have been safer. We buckled up tight. We told him to SLOW DOWN, GET OFF THE FLIPPIN’ PHONE, GET HIS HANDS BACK ON THE WHEEL, FORGET THE GPS AND JUST DRIVE. Eh? Ehhh? (Language barrier.) Good thing there was minimal traffic at that hour. We held on tight, started reviewing all of the bad deeds we had done in our lives and attempted to make deals with our higher powers. We lamented that we were most likely not going to get to St. Croix. As we saw the lights of O’Hare and felt a glimmer of hope that we would actually get there, we just started repeating “American Airlines” over and over, hoping he would get it and take us to the correct terminal. We finally screeched to a halt at the barrier, making even the AA Skycaps jump. We tumbled out gratefully and actually looked forward to going through TSA. As always, the skycaps were wonderful – quick, friendly, and efficient.

Our niece, who works for a major airline, tells us that TSA stands for “Thousands Standing Around”. I get it. We waited in line patiently. Lots of folks connecting to various islands through Miami on that first flight out – happy folks, one group sucking on PBRs already, getting them down before screening. There was only one line open, the line was long but moving and we were only about 6 folks back to getting our docs checked and going through screening when I distinctly heard the Jumbies giggle. A little TSA guy, obviously drunk with power even at that early hour, decided to reconfigure the lines. Our 6th place in line was now about 46th. Then, still heady with the power made his by TSA, he made an announcement that they wanted all electronics and electronic accessories out and in the bins this morning. ALL?? His fellow TSA’ers blanched, halted screening, and the lines stopped moving while lengthy discussions ensued. Meanwhile, I’m thinking of all of the electronic crap that I have carefully packed in that area under the zipped lining in our roll-a-boards – at the very bottom, between the frames. I’m also looking at my watch and doing the fidgits. I need COFFEE and some sugar and a bathroom – not necessarily in that order. TSA finally broke up the summit on the “all electronics in bins” decree and made a new announcement that they only wanted to see laptops, Kindles, iPads, and like devices– for whatever reason. I don’t care the reason – all I know is that I don’t have to unpack all of that stuff. Whew. A new screening line is hastily opened and we are finally moving through and DONE and beginning the overland trek to our gate.

No time to grab coffee or whatever – we are getting real skinny on time. Boarding the 767 is already underway. We have a minor delay closing the doors while we wait for some poor souls still trapped in the purgatory that is TSA. We have an aisle and a window and an open middle seat between us and it looks like it is going to stay that way. The Jumbies seem quiet – maybe they’ll let us sleep. We get into Miami about 20 minutes early and we have 2+ hours to wait for our connection.

Some things never change – some of those unchanging things are comforting, some are NOT. Miami is still a mess. Unlike our previous connection through Miami, however, we DO get to eat at The Islander. The food is decent for airport food - I have a burger with Swiss and mushrooms and Hubs has a jerk chicken sandwich. Good fries. The hostess was friendly and they even had a spot for us to park our cart of carry-ons. I’m starting to relax and think that maybe the Jumbies didn’t make the plane and are stuck in Chicago. I forgot that they are Platinum Advantage flyers and that they sometimes also fly private. They probably got in ahead of us.

About ten minutes before boarding, TSA descends on our gate en masse. They set up tables by the entrance to the jetway, call the sections early and tell everyone to have their documents out with their boarding passes for screening. I am seriously over-tired and when I am over-tired I get chirpy. While the TSA guy is scrutinizing my passport I jokingly ask him if he is looking for ME. This feeble attempt at humor earns me a complete carry-on screening and a pat down by a woman who I think tried to slip her phone number into my pocket. Hubs is lucky enough to win the random passenger full screening lottery. Finally, we board, but, of course, are delayed at the gate while this manhunt or TSA training exercise (or whatever) grinds on.

Again, aisle and window, no one in the middle on the 737. Looking good for a comfortable flight but by now I know that the Jumbies are most likely already relaxing up in first class where they will have more leg room.

We land and it’s a beautiful sunny afternoon on St. Croix.

I have to put in a plug here for a little gadget called a “Travelon Bag Bungee”. We travel with roll-a-boards and then brief bags/totes that have those sleeves at the back so you can slide them down on the roll-a-board handles. These sleeves are a major pain because the weight of the smaller bag never seems to distribute correctly, they tend to make the roll-a-boards fall over when you try to stand them on their own and it’s awkward to try to get the bags disconnected and reconnected quickly. So, we tried the bag bungee: I think we got them from Irv’s Luggage for under $15. Here they are at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Travelon-12181-50-Bag-Bungee/dp/B002EQ9O8C Great little gizmo – adjusts to keep any size added bag on nice and snug and it’s easy to disengage and re-engage. If you hate fighting with those sleevie things, try one of these.

We head to baggage claim and meet up with our Centerline Car Rental rep. The luggage comes quickly and we are off in their courtesy van just down the airport road a few blocks to pick up our car. We have a brand new Ford Fusion waiting for us and the final paperwork and walk-around takes only a few minutes. Centerline has always taken good care of us and this is our fourth rental from them. I feel that we are somehow not worthy of this brand new “un-islanded” ride (and that will be proven later in the trip) but we are certainly enjoying it on our way to Plaza Extra where they “got all that we need”. This trip I learned about the baggers at Plaza Extra – they are high school students and to obtain and keep their jobs at Plaza they must maintain a B+ average. They are paid a small hourly wage but tips make up the greater part of what they earn. The check-out person is not getting my humor today but the bagger is smiling and nodding; he helps us out to the car and we are on our way to the east end and Island Time villa.

OK, so here I stumbled a bit with the navigation and fell into old habits. I’m tired and I miss directing Hubs through the whole 708 East thing coming out of Plaza and so we are soon loop d’looping to the South Shore Road rather than going through C’Sted. But I start paying better attention and we hit all of the other turns spot on and are soon back on East End Road and flying past Green Cay, Chenay Bay, Coakley, Solitude, Cotton Valley and Teague Bay- right to Island Time’s gate. We are returning to Island Time again after falling in love with it during our stay last spring. The gate is standing open when we pull up and Island Time has a new paint job – unh, ohh, I think I might be hearing that damn giggling again…

We unpack the food, make a Cruzan D&D for Hubs and a Citrus & Diet for me and head out to the lanai to start to decompress. At first glance, some things here at Island Time are not quite as we remember them from last trip but we decide to postpone thinking about any of that until tomorrow morning when we’ve finally had some sleep and can really see what’s what.

We decide we are completely done in and too tired to head out for dinner. I can’t even remember what we cooked up – we might have slapped together and grilled a chicken quesadilla but I can’t swear to it. I just remember that we ate something out on the lanai and enjoyed our first island sunset of the trip. I whipped out my new Kodak Playsport and shot my first little high def video of the sunset over Teague Bay and the St. Croix Yacht Club.

STX: Island Time Villa - First Sunset 2010 from Margy Zuffante on Vimeo.

A quick dip in the pool, a shower, and that’s it for travel day.

Things looked a lot brighter in the morning and I try to learn more about the camera.

STX - Island Time Villa - 2010 from Margy Zuffante on Vimeo.

It appears I need to learn more about embedding videos on this forum - can anyone help??

To Be Continued