The day started as most; I woke up early and did a two mile walk. This morning, I reversed the loop up the hill from yesterday. All the same dogs barked and me and I greeted the shopkeeper again. I paused as I walked by the abandoned cars. Too expensive to ship them off the island, and/or they use spare parts. But for the most part, just rusting away.
I've been thinking about the island economy and wishing I was smart enough to devise of a way to upcycle some of their "waste" and help stimulate their economy with something besides tourism.
Then it was time for a swim, yoga, and breakfast. I did some reading before finishing up my packing. Kevin was supposed to come before noon to settle up on the scooter but Curtis arrived on time to take me to the Four Seasons ATM for USD and then to the water taxis, so I had to go.
More frustration with the ATM. Even though I went online and told US Bank what dates I would be in Nevis, for some reason they must have blocked my card. After discussing with Curtis, we decided I had enough ECD to pay all my taxis and I still had six USD left for which I needed two for a tax to get back to St Kitts. Word to the wise. Brings lots of cash here. No one does Zelle or Venmo or PayPal and clearly the banks are unreliable.
As it sat waiting for the water taxi, we had another short rain shower. Once the boat arrived, I made sure I had a front seat outside, which was not a problem because everyone else was content to sit inside. I was getting every last bit out of being here and on the water!!!
Since my flight was delayed, I had plenty of time to clear customs and security. They had an interesting list of items not allowed through security. No axes and such.
The airport was small and crowded. There was a duty free shop where I perused the rims and selected the Shipwreck vanilla. The cashier had plenty of creative ideas of how to use it--punch, over ice cream, cooking, etc.
My plane finally took off over an hour late but I would still have plenty of time to clear customs, and get from E terminal to A on the plane train. That went efficiently only to find that my flight to Minneapolis was delayed over an hour. We had a plane and pilots; we were waiting for the flight crew to arrive from Miami. In the grand scheme of things, I felt fortunate because it appeared Delta had massive delays all day, and the line at customer service to rebook was quite long with weary travelers even though it was after 10:30 pm.
I got a $12 tuna salad sandwich at a typical airport store and a $2 coffee from McDonalds. I was prepping for a coffee nap on the plane to be alert for the 2.5 hour drive home from MSP.
I think we were more than an hour late, but our harried flight crew had hustled over from terminal B when they got in and off we went. That meant I arrived in MSP after 1 am and by the time got my bag and an Uber back to my car it was close to 2 am. The nice Uber driver waited to make sure my car started and that I pulled out of my parking spot. GPS said my arrival at home would be 4:47. Staying over was not an option with a blizzard coming.
Just past Maple Grove, I pulled into a Holdiay and got another coffee. The nice cashier did not charge me. I also worked out a plan. Rather than drive home and then get up and drive an hour round trip to get Buddha from the kennel, I would drive to the rest area south of Brainerd and sleep for two hours in my car. That way I could be at the kennel when they opened at 7.
Around Becker, it started to snow, which reminded me of the year after graduation when I worked at Trout Lake camp. My friend Diane asked me to ride to the airport with her, and drive her car back to Crosslake. That would have been fine except it snowed really hard that night. Pelting snow that was hypnotic and one lane barely drivable. I'm in an unfamiliar car -- a Dodge Challenger with rear wheel drive.
Around Little Falls, I started to get tired and the reminded me of the time senior year in college when I had a long weekend and I decided to drive home and surprise my parents. Two fellow Wheatonites rode with me until Minneapolis, leaving me alone on the last leg. I remember rolling down the window around Ft Ripley to use the cold air to stay awake as well as slapping myself on the face. That trip was in a 1978 Honda Civic with 12 inch tires.
Ah memories.
My plan to stop and sleep worked pretty well except I didn't have a heavy blanket in the car so I woke up chilly at 6 am. I decided to go to Perkins in Baxter and get a big breakfast so I wouldn't have to worry about eating again for awhile.
I was the only customer as the snow continued to fall. I ordered an omelet with every vegetable they had on hand and a side of three pancakes. Sadly, Perkins has long since done away with the apricot syrup they used to have. Another memory!
After picking up a relieved Buddha and stopping at my post office box, I got home around 8:15 am, about 19 hours since I left Nevis. I unpacked and started laundry before I laid down. It took that whole two hours before the cats deigned to acknowledge my return.
But they showed evidence that they had been reading while I was away. And once I had done my penance, they were happy to nap with me.
I can't remember the last time I pulled an all nighter. Next trip to Nevis will require better planning for the return and no blizzards. But kudos to me, I did not check work email or Teams or even Linkedin while I was away.
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