Gay and David York were flying in that night on the 6pm tropic flight. Gay and I have "known' each other (not in the biblical sense - get yer minds outta the gutter) for perhaps 8 years, but never met. We were e-mailing before we left trying to meet up, but I missed her last one as to which hotel they settled on. I had considered trying to catch then at the tropic terminal on arrival, but the long day and late dinner interfered with the timing. I felt kind of bad, and said so to Bruce. We got so close this time. Seemed a shame.
It was time to pack to go home. The clothes were easy - shove 'em in the space bags and close it up. But we had to carefully pack the ton of stuff we took home, mostly groceries we love: 10 lbs of caye coffee, 2 lbs each of regular & coarse brown sugar (soooo delish in my coffee!), pineapple jam, 4 marie sharps (of course), and even a loaf of that cinnamon bread! (and more).
We are both happy and sad, but mostly pooped. Bruce, Leo and I spent some time, one last time, staring at the sea, which reflected the moonlight. Palms quietly rustled in the breeze. And it ushered in sleep.
We slept in till 6 (late for us). We lazily sipped coffee & ate some goodies, showered and packed the rest of the stuff. The phone rang, and Ana said "There is a Ms Gay York down here to see you". I think I yelled 'Yippee!' or something, cuz everyone looked at me like I was nuts. I told Bruce what Ana had said, and he, Leo & I flew down the stairs. BIG HUGS!!!
We yakked and yakked, everyone with huge smiles. David is such a nice guy, and Gay has been cracking me up for ages. It was so great to see them. If only we had more time, as an hour of chatting flew by. Little did we know at the time that in two weeks their world would turn upside-down. But that's another story, and not mine to tell.
Our Tropic flight was at 9am, and I had to get the last few things in, zip up the bags and turn in the cart. So we said our farewells, more hugs, hoping to see each other again someday.
As we did the last minute room check, Leo commented again on how many different and really nice people we introduced him to in our 8 days on the island. We all nodded in agreement.
The rest of the story we all know. Boarding passes, TSA, Jet's, duty free, layovers, customs, long drive home, blah blah. It's now after midnight. Confused yet ecstatic cats. Buzz around the house for a while, all wound up. My own pillow. Sleep.
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