Great trip report. Thank you for posting
Great trip report. Thank you for posting
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Friday morning and Tom and Geri leave at 7. I bring them coffee and we promise to visit each other back home in our different cities in California.
I head off for my last walk with Aunties. They at least confirm that they ARE coming back next year as renters to their place so at least I can hold on to that. It’s not the final walk ever. We hug goodbye and say see you next year, and mean it. They will be heading back to cold weather in Michigan tomorrow. I at least have warm San Diego ahead of me later today, I tell myself as some sort of last day consolation. I turn back to walk the final walk (of this reach) and have THE final breakfast and see JK and JY off.
I am the last one to leave and I have 1 and ½ hours after they are gone to get rid of all of the decorations and extras that have been left. I leave final tips in thank you notes for key staff that have gone out of their way to make our trip special. Kia and Steve stop by to say see you til next time – goodbye seems so harsh!
JoJo shows up and it is time to head for the airport. We stop at Bloody Bay and I say one last farewell to the kids and friends that I have there and then head off.
Another guy, Michael jumps in and is going to take the ride with us. He is a friend of JoJo’s and very funny. We are laughing back and forth and before we know it we are in the stretch between Green Island and Lucea when we see a Police Roadblock on the road. They have us pull-over and ask JoJo the standard question about having anything illegal in the car. JoJo says no but then says “Oh- I do have a knife.” This gets everyone’s attention, not just the cop asking the questions. He asks where it is and JoJo says it is in the pocket on the driver’s door. He asks him to get it out but when JoJo goes to get it, it isn’t there. The officer has JoJo get out of the car and searches him. He then gets Michael out of the car and searches him.
Now it is my turn. It is a male officer so he obviously didn’t body search me but he had me get my purse out and he searched it as I explained I was on the way to the airport. I actually pointed out several pockets that he missed while searching my purse and this brought an ever so slight smile to his face as he checked them. After finding nothing on us, he had myself and Michael wait at the back of the car with the other officers. Turns out they are pulling over all white plates, no red plates. I watch this for a while as the other officer searches the vehicle with JoJo’s help. They never did find the knife but they did find two pairs of scissors. When they asked JoJo what he uses them for he responded “cutting ganga”. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. The whole thing seemed too funny to me.
After not finding the confessed to knife or anything else and confiscating the offending scissors we were on our way again. The whole incident probably only took about 15 minutes but it seemed like A LOT longer. I gave JoJo trouble about his “false knife confession” the rest of the way. Luckily because of it being Good Friday there was no construction traffic in Lucea and very little regular traffic in MoBay so I still made it to the airport in plenty of time.
I went and got my boarding passes (no line at AA) and then headed to the Club MoBay check-in. I was so glad that I had signed up in advance for this. The Immigration line was very long yet I just was whisked through to a very short line and made it through with no problems or questions in about 5 minutes. This was especially welcome because of the delay getting to the airport and the fact that my nerves were more than a little frazzled from the PoPo experience. I headed off to the lounge where I enjoyed sushi, sandwiches, and other snacks while I waited for my plane. Met a nice couple in there who had just come from Ochi and they were super interested in hearing about Negril. Actually ended up giving them the Contact Info for Treehouse and they are going to check into it for their next reach.
The plane was a little delayed causing some concern for making my connection in Dallas. I also got to sit next to quite a character (not in a good way necessarily) on the plane. He had very interesting opinions about everything and even my headphones, book, and pillow w/ me fake sleeping on it, would not deter him from sharing all of them with me before the plane touched ground in Dallas.
With my Global Entry I didn’t have to fill out the Declaration Form or go through any lines in immigration. So easy. Luckily my bag was one of the first ones off in Baggage Claim (apparently Global Entry helps with this also I was told.) I was able to get through Customs with just my card, dropped off my checked bag and headed for the other Security Gate. There were a bunch of people with very tight connections so they kept diverting them over to the TSA Pre-checked & First Class line and neither line was moving very fast. I finally got through and managed to get one of the Limo carts (they work for tips) that actually drove me all the way over to the C Terminal which was like MILES away. There is even an elevator at one point that he drives the whole 6 passenger cart into. I made it to the gate with 10 whole minutes to spare. I’m not sure I would have made it had I had to walk to the Skylink and then ride the Skylink and then walk to the gate. Thank you Airport Cart Limo service in Dallas. I finally made it home around 9 pm local time San Diego.
PS I was home less than a day before I bought my first items for my next trip in August. LOL! I know YOU ALL understand.
PSS Snakes & Breaks – Home for less than a week:
2 huge (non-poisonous) snakes in my house
Plus +
1 fractured finger bone at hand growth plate on son
Plus +
1 broken down car (picture too boring to upload.)
EQUALS =
WHY did I leave Jamaica????????
Ha! Those snakes! Yikes...
What a great report...thanks for sharing.
Your welcome. It's actually cathartic to write these things! Helps with the PVSD - Post-Vacation Stress Disorder!
Thanks everyone for reading...next reach is in August so..... When do we start the August Roll Call?????
Nice trip report, although several times it gave me the creeps, lol, anyway august roll call, I am usually on that for ATI , Dream weekend festivities!
Trip #59 most of February
Beautiful California King snake in that first photo! We had one of those that lived for 15 years...
Great trip report, thanks very much!
I don't mind any of the King or Gopher snakes - NOT a fan of the rattlesnakes (none this year yet, many every year!)Originally Posted by Z-Corn
I would prefer all of them outside, as they are not pets. LOL! Really I would like to know how they are getting IN my house. I have cats and would think that would deter them (but maybe it is luring them...)
Regardless of the snakes, I feel I should get back to Negril soon so that I can hone my TR skills!
Thank you so much for the TR and I'd say that your TR skills are just fine, but if you feel you need to hone them, well, so be it...
Sweet report! FUN~FUN, and more FUN~~that's the way to vacation!
"I'll love you till the stars fall out of the sky "
:cool
Finally I got a chance to read this, great report, but did you have to name that driver jojo ?
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