Today is Sunday July 17th and we got up early to wash up and change into our newly washed and air-dried clean clothes. We decided to walk down the beach and see what else may be open to get some breakfast or something like it. We saw a few places, but nothing seemed to have people around, so we kept walking until we came across the craft market at the river. There we found some people cooking in big pots and we were plenty hungry by then. After eating, my wife wanted to shop a little for a souvenir but wanted to see what else was available, so we continued walking on the roadside into the West End.
We walked for a time until we came across a row of stalls opposite the ocean side of the road displaying colorful towels and some shirts. She browsed the shops looking for something different but small because of the limited room in our backpacks. She settled on a couple of small, woven baskets that nested inside each other and a woven smallish beach bag to carry things too. As we were standing there, a small airplane flew over with loudspeakers blaring from an open door. They were announcing a revival that was happening somewhere around where we were, but we were geographically challenged. We thought it unusual and a little funny way to reach people but agreed it was quite effective.
We walked back to the river mouth where a boat had just come in with about a half dozen lobsters, so my wife went over and bought one for a couple of dollars. We took it back to our cabin and my wife went to go borrow a pot from Valerie to cook it. Valerie offered to cook it for her along with a pot of rice. We accepted.
While we were sitting and watching the lobster cooking, I asked Valerie about catching the country bus the following day as we had a plane to catch out of Kingston in the later afternoon. She told us the bus did not come by in time for us to make the trip and meet the plane. She went on to suggest we get a taxi to Mandeville and catch the bus out of there. She knew a guy named Roy who had a Ford Cortina that could take us, so we arranged for a pickup.
We had to be ready at about 4:30am. We looked at each other in shock. Well, it was important that we make our plane, so we agreed. After we ate and tipped Valerie for her cooking and hospitality, we headed back to the cabin to pack and get a little sleep. Sleeping was difficult knowing we had to be ready at 4:30am but we finally fell asleep.
“Beep! Beep!”, it was the sound of a little Cortina horn.