The Castaways of Coco Cay - A Private Island Day in the Bahamas

Thankfully, after the hassles and fiascoes of the first day of this trip, we got a good night's sleep. Morning found us still at sea. Soon, an island came into view along our side of the ship. This must be Coco Cay, one of the Bahamas' Berry Islands, Royal Caribbean's private island. We are to spend the day here.

First, we must eat breakfast and the buffet is at the bow of the ship. We're eating there because the dress code is more relaxed. Tim and I are dressed in swim trunks (I want to change his clothes as few times as possible) so we're skipping the main dining room for today and hitting the buffet instead.

The buffet is a zoo, with everybody cutting in line, butting their way in to grab some bacon, being wide to scoop up some scrambled eggs. There's no rhyme or reason to how people should line up or what direction to go in.

I finally grab some food for Tim and I...Letty's on her own for this one.

The announcement comes over the PA that the boats to the island are now in operation and to make our way down to the bottom deck to go to the island.

This is the great unknown for us. Coco Cay is a tender port, meaning that there is no pier for the ship to dock at. Smaller boats...tenders...shuttle passengers back and forth to shore all day long.  Tenders mean that there is no guarantee that wheelchairs will be able to disembark, it's strictly at the crew's discretion.

I had tried to ascertain with Royal Caribbean before we left on if a wheelchair would be able to go on the tender. All I could get was "we can't guarantee it," but browsing through people's reviews and trip reports online before we left suggested that it could be done so this will be a gamble for us.

(NOTE: Royal Caribbean is in the middle of a massive construction project on the island. A new pier has opened for the ships to dock at, making the tender transfer obsolete. There is also now a large water park on the island)

No need to worry, though, there's a ramp to the tender (after going through security to get off the boat) and a flat area up front where wheelchairs are allowed to sit during the short journey. The crew graciously lets me stand there with Tim, although Letty is told she must sit in the seats inside with the rest of the passengers.

A shore excursion specialist is standing next to me for the trip. He tells me he's from Chile and we talk about all the things to see and do there, also telling me what destinations I should see, where to fly to, and more. A font of information for a future trip...I'm putting his suggestions into the memory bank for that distant vacation.

We talk about shore excursions and I tell him that in Nassau, we plan to take the glass bottom boat because that's the only one that was listed as accessible.

"Oh, that excursion's been cancelled to to lack of bookings," he tells me, "but we have one on the island today."

Once on the island, I follow him to the excursion office to sign us up, "be back here at 1:15 this afternoon."

I should also mention that when we left the tender, Tim's power wheelchair was traded for a beach wheelchair with fat tires for the sand. We'll exchange them back when we leave (NOTE: although special needs passengers are advised to get on the island early because beach wheelchairs are first-come, first-served, we noticed that there were a lot of beach wheelchairs, much more than the demand for them).

With that taken care of, the three of us head to the sand where we have an easy time finding some lounge chairs to relax on.

The Bahamas, while usually uttered with the word "Caribbean," are not part of that tropical sea. Rather, it lies just outside of the warm Caribbean east of Florida. This is readily apparent when I go for a swim and there is a definite chill in the water.

It's clear. I can see the coral, some fish swimming around, and not a trace of cloudiness. It's just not warm. I do my best to get used to it but a half hour in that chilly ocean water is really all I need. It actually feels warmer when I get out and back into the air.

I go to get some snacks. I went healthy for Tim and I, mostly because the more 'junk' food stands at the Island buffet were overrun just like the breakfast buffet. The salad and cold cut bars were mostly untouched.

Letty went to get a bucket 'o pina colada from one of the bars. I had a beer and filled up two of our soda glasses. Then is was time to go on our glass bottom boat ride.

Arriving at the counter, we're given the bad news...the weather's not good enough to go out so it's been cancelled.  We've pretty much done all we wanted to do so we trade back for our power chair, go through security, and get back on the tender to the ship.

About halfway back, cool drops of rain fall on Tim and I...exposed on the bow of the tender...while we wait to get back on the ship.

Since Tim won't go in the ocean, I take him up to the pool deck. There are a couple of lifts for handicapped people. He usually floats around in an inner tube we bring along, The ship also has a variety of swim vests, intended for children but some of the larger sizes looked like they'd fit. We ask the lifeguard...who's Russian...what we should do for Tim.  He says to go with our inner tube.

After we get it inflated, the lifeguard along with a pool attendant comes over to operate the lift. We get Tim in the chair and I jump in to get him out and ease him into the inner tube. That's when I found out that the ship's pool is not heated.

Tim is eased down and is also a bit shocked at how cold the water is but he's still game and in he goes.  I figure we'll get used to it...which we do for the most part...and float around for an hour before moving on to something else.

About 20 minutes later, the lifeguard comes back up..."you done with swim?"

"Well, no, I figured we'd stay in for awhile longer to make it worthwhile," I tell him.

"That okay but you know rain coming. Lightning."

"Oh, I understand, let's get out then."

We get out, drops start falling so we move under shelter near the side of the ship. Then, a deluge hits. Lightning, thunder, and buckets of water. We're fine under the roof but many out in the pool and lounge chairs are caught out. I also think of the hundreds of passengers that are still on the island and have to make their way back.

I see that we're next to the Windjammer buffet's side door, which I can get to without getting too wet so I go in to grab some hot dogs, fries, and fruit for Tim and I.  I also take our soda cups to their machines...which are out of everything except Diet Fanta.

That's when I find the only other soda machine onboard is in the middle atrium, on the 6th deck. So, get cups good for unlimited soda on the ship. There are only three machines...two in the buffet and one in the center...for 2,400 passengers.  You can see where the math gets dicey. You can also get soda from the bars and main dining room, but the cups are specifically for the three machines on board. To fill 'at your leisure.'

Well, the food's still good so we relax here until the storm passes then we go to our cabin until dinnertime.

Dinnertime comes and, true to their word, we have a more accessible and appropriately-sized table assigned.  The food is good, the waiter is very good if a bit on the talkative side, and it all goes off without a hitch.

We do a little shopping in the duty-free mall onboard but Letty and Tim aren't onboard on with seeing any of the ship's entertainment that night.

All in all, this was a much better day than the first day. Still a few issues here and there but even Tim said he had fun today. After a couple of cocktails in the quiet mid-ship bar, we call it a night and head back to our cabin to relax until bedtime.

Darryl Musick
Copyright 2018 - All Rights Reserved

Photos by Letty Musick
Copyright 2018 - All Rights Reserved

Dastardly Dorian Dumps on Halifax

We've had marvelous weather in Nova Scotia since the fog of the first day lifted. Daytime highs of around 70 degrees, sunny, with a slight breeze. That's about to change.

Just before we left, Hurricane Dorian pummeled and devastated the Bahamas on its course through the Caribbean. As of this writing, 58 people have been killed, more than 600 are still missing, and some endangered species...like the Bahamas nuthatch...are now believed to be extinct after the storm.

Dorian left the Caribbean, headed out to sea, and is now headed north. Looking at the track on the weather map, we can see a dot right smack in the middle of the storm's path...the next landfall will be Halifax.

We are going to experience our first hurricane.

Walking along the waterfront, we see changes. The floating pedestrian bridge is gone, it's been stowed away for the storm. A parade of Navy ships are headed out of the harbor from the big base here. They're headed to safer waters for the duration. Cranes are being lowered. The ferries have stopped running. Waterfront restaurants are boarding up their windows and, in our hotel, dozens of cots have been set out in the conference room to accommodate employees who can't go home and stranded guests who can't leave.

It's Saturday morning. On the news, the storm is expected to make landfall sometime in the afternoon. We head to a nearby convenience store to load up on snacks and drinks to hold us over until the storm passes. We each get a microwavable dinner from the hotel's lobby shop to have some nutrition to go with it.

Then, we get comfortable in the room. We're hunkering down, waiting for the storm, and will not be leaving the hotel until it's gone.

A consideration for us is that our room is on the 10th floor. We visit with the manager to see if we need to be concerned. We're told that all should be well, the hotel (Homewood Suites) has plenty of backup generator power and the elevators will still be running in the case that the local power goes out.

Now we wait...as long as the cable TV, lights, and internet hold out, we'll be good. Hopefully, the large windows will remain intact as well.

Mid afternoon, the rain starts. Not long after that the wind kicks up. Soon, we also have snow that is blowing sideways. The snow doesn't last long and then the rain comes in sheets with 80-90 mile per hour sustained winds.

Hurricane Dorian has arrived. A category 1 storm, just enough to be a hurricane, but not the category 5 that hit the Caribbean, thank God.

The windows shake...even the building shakes with the buffeting of the winds. I make a quick trip to the lobby just to take a little video of the storm for posterity. No way I'm going beyond the front door.

Back upstairs, now and again, the internet and cable go out. Just for a few minutes at a time. The lights flicker now and again but no sustained power interruptions. If you're our friends on Facebook, we apologize for all the silly posts...mainly, we were bored.

We're lucky...the neighborhood around us is lights out and the area to the east of us would not see a flicker of electricity for three more days.

By 10 o'clock that night, the winds have died down and now it's just a steady rain.

Halifax was very lucky...no one died, no major injuries. A crane toppled onto an empty apartment building under construction, hundreds of trees were taken out, windows broken, and hundreds of thousands of Nova Scotians were without power for several days. Minor inconveniences in the big scheme of things.

Some things we planned to do will either have to be modified or scrubbed but now it's time to count our blessings and continue our trip.

Darryl Musick
Copyright 2019 - All Rights Reserved

PHOTO ESSAY: The View from the Window Seat

I'm an aisle seat guy. Letty likes to curl up by the window. It works for us. 
(Scroll down for more...)

Sometimes she brings her camera down from the overhead and starts snapping away.  Here are some pictures we took on our most recent flight.

Looking down on the Bahamas.

The shuttle assembly building and launch pad at Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Somewhere over one of the hundreds of islands of the Bahamas.

Turks and Caicos.

Descending over the Dominican Republic.

On the tarmac at Punta Cana International Airport, Dominican Republic.

...and one last shot over Florida, looking at the sunset heading into Atlanta.


All pictures taken by Letty Musick.
Copyright 2011 - Letty Musick
All Rights Reserved.


-Darryl

Back on Dry Land in Miami, Florida

We're back from our less than stellar Royal Caribbean cruise to the Bahamas. Now, it's on to the longest segment of this trip, five nights in Miami before returning home. If you've been following along, you might remember way back at the beginning that we're paying for this trip mostly with points and rewards accumulated over the last few years. Hilton Hhonors members can get an extra free night if they cash in four nights so that's what we've done...cashed in four nights so we can stay five nights here at the Homewood Suites in the Brickell neighborhood of downtown Miami.

It seems like so long ago that we were landing in Atlanta to start this grand tour...either tied for the longest trip we've ever taken (according to Letty) or the second longest trip at one day shorter (according to me)...so five nights in one location seems like a luxury at this point.

So it's been four nights in Atlanta, four in St. Petersburg, three nights cruising in the Bahamas, and now five here in Miami for a total of 16. I think we we did 17 on our East Coast Adventure a few years ago but my wife thinks I'm off by a day. Either way, it's a long time...especially if you dealing with caring for someone in a wheelchair.

At the port, we've packed up. Actually, we packed last night because we had to have our luggage ready for the porter by 11pm. We're told to vacate our room by 8:30 and also pick up our duty free purchases (I'd purchased two bottles of rum) by the same time. 

We wait in a cocktail lounge at the front of the ship with my duty free box and carry on luggage until we're called to leave the ship. After processing through customs and immigration, we collect our bags at the carousel...actually just a big storeroom...and then we're outside.

Officially done with Royal Caribbean, as they are with us, a porter helps us with our luggage and let's the taxi stand manager know we need a wheelchair accessible vehicle. She's in a mood for some reason and takes it out on our poor porter but she does call an accessible cab and then promptly leaves as her replacement comes on duty.

A few minutes later, the ramped taxi van pulls up...and another group of passengers promptly cuts in front of us trying to steal it.  A few tense words and they back off. We're in and on our way...thankfully we didn't have to pay for that weekend or I would have been sorely disappointed. As it was, it was OK but not great in the way cruises used to be.

Our driver pulls into our hotel a few minutes later. The staff at Homewood Suites is very welcoming and our room is excellent.

Ah...let's just let the stress of the day melt away for awhile before we go out and try to find something to eat. 

We do find a very good pizza place, Mister 01 Pizza, where we have this star-shaped pizza while the rains poured outside. 

As we finish, the weather clears and we have a hot and humid walk back to the hotel where we will rest and recover from the weekend.  

It's time for Miami! Stay tuned for that, it'll be a blast.

Darryl Musick
Copyright 2018 - All Rights Reserved

Photos by Letty Musick
Copyright 2018 - All Rights Reserved

Rewards Come to Those Who Wait: Cashing in our Points for a Post Retirement Vacation Blowout

We're not really hard-core points warriors (those who live to exploit every advantage to accumulate rewards points for traveling) but we're not ones to shy away from opportunities to collect points.

Over the years here at The World on Wheels, we've been known to cash in points for a free flight or a night in a hotel here and there but have not really made a great effort to accumulate a lot of points to cash in for a big vacation.

Until now...

The last couple of years worth of travel have involved a more concerted effort on our part to accumulate points for one of our biggest vacations yet...a multi-week blowout covering two southern states with a cruise to the Bahamas thrown into the middle just for the heck of it.

I retired from my job in March after 30 years of service (that's a picture from my retirement luncheon) and we had longed to take a long trip through the south once that happened. The original plan was to take a month, start off in Key West and slowly make our way through the southern states heading back home.

Over the years, pieces of that trip were whittled away with our adventures to Tennessee, Texas, and the Florida Keys. Plus, a month might be pushing it now, so we've cut the time down a little bit and narrowed the scope some...we'll be starting off in Atlanta and going south from there with the goal of seeing the last remaining unseen baseball stadiums in our quest to visit every Major League Baseball park.

Now, what about the points?  A few years ago, our traveling evolved so that Southwest Airlines turned out to be our preferred airline so all three of us signed up for their Rapid Rewards program. All of our trips started out with the question "Does Southwest fly there?" Many times they did (but not always) so we booked them as much as possible.

The last few years, we've flown on them to Baltimore, Nashville, Dallas, Houston, Fort Lauderdale, and more.  A couple of years later, we have enough to cash in a free flight for the three of us to Atlanta, so our first leg of airfare is basically free (it cost me an extra $16 for taxes and fees for the flight).

Our Hilton points were enough to get us five nights at a hotel in Miami, so those will be cashed in later on this trip. In the meantime, an old Hyatt rewards account that I'd forgotten about had enough points for a couple of nights so we'll be using that in Atlanta to stay at the Hyatt Place in the northern part of the city. In between, we'll have to pay out of pocket for a couple more nights at the Hyatt, the rental car, and a few more hotel nights between Atlanta and Miami.

Lastly, we use a Costco Citi Visa card for most of our purchases which has a very generous cash reward program. In the last year, we've built up enough rewards on that to pay for the cruise to the Bahamas.

Stay tuned...we're off to Atlanta for our mosty-free, big-blowout, post-retirement vacation!

Darryl Musick
Copyright 2018 - All Rights Reserved

Photos by Letty Musick
Copyright 2018 - All Rights Reserved

Been There, Done That, Bought the T-Shirt: Tim's Souvenir Wardrobe

As we spread our tentacles into the world, we document our travels with these posts, pictures, and video. Tim, on the other hand, likes to have something solid to bring back with him  We've talked about his collection of iconic structure reproductions but he's also into the wearable memories.

Tim likes to buy and wear t-shirts from the destinations he's visited.

We've put together a video showing a small selection of his collection, which you can watch below.

Watch The Video!

He's collected shirts  from destinations such as Prague and Mexico. Memphis and Costa Rica. Miami and The Bahamas. Shirts from baseball stadiums across the country as well as a few other sports.

It sometimes presents a logistical problem as we try to figure out where we'll put them all...luckily, the eventually wear out and we use those for rags...but Tim loves them and wears them just about every day.

Check out the video and see what we mean.

Darryl and Tim

Darryl Musick
Copyright 2018 - All Rights Reserved

Jungle Fever: Our Tropical Destinations Rated

Over the past few years, we've been focusing on tropical destinations in the Caribbean, Central America, Mexico, and more.  For now, we're turning the chapter on that particular kind of trip but have come to some conclusions as to our favorites among the destinations we experienced.

Here is our list of tropical beach destinations, from our least favorite to the best.

NASSAU, BAHAMAS - Run down, very little wheelchair accessibility, about the only thing we could do is visit the bars. As the late, great Merle Haggard said, "I think I'll just sit here and drink.

JAMAICA - Yes, it's beautiful and has some amazing beaches.  The nightlife is wonderful as can be the food.  Wheelchair access at the hotel was extensive but away from it, hardly existed.

Over a quarter century ago, my wife and I went and had a grand time but that was also before we became so wheelchair aware.  This time, it stood out in relief as we went to attractions that promised to be accessible but were not when we arrived.

Add to this the incredible knot of trying to navigate immigration and customs upon arrival and the hotel not giving us near what we paid for of what was promised turns us off of the Island of Irie.

Twice was nice but a third time is not in the cards for us.

MAUI - On the other hand, I am willing to go to Hawaii again it's just not high on our list right now. Since it's in the U.S., access is good (not great). Scenery is wonderful as are the many beaches.

What keeps it placing higher is the exreme high prices you have to pay for basics when you get there and a 'barely tolerated' attitude towards visitors when you're there.  It's a beautiful place but I can't really call it too friendly.  Several trips have re-inforced that feeling though there are a few friendly faces here and there, enough to make me not strike it off the revisit list completely.

COSTA RICA - I want to like this verdant Central American destination better but something's just keeping it from rating higher. 

It has wonderful access (better that Hawaii in some cases), enough that wheelchair users can actually take part in some of the eco adventures like zip lining and canopy tours.  Public buses and many taxis are also wheelchair friendly and accessible rooms are not hard to find.

On the down side, the beaches on the Pacific side are not at all what you'd expect from a tropical beach paradise...the water's muddy and the sand more like wet dirt. While the vast majority of the people are friendly, helpful, and honest, there's a pretty big slice of people who live to rip you off from car rental counters, zoos, and dishonest tour operators.

The buyer really has to be aware in Costa Rica. 

Would I go back? I wouldn't rule it out but instead of a beach vacation, I'd rather go there for the volcanoes and rain forest experiences.

PUERTO VALLARTA, MEXICO - Ah, Puerto Vallarta! Lovely city, great beaches, miles of jungle, wonderful food, a great variety of nightlife, incredible hotels...what's not to like?

Nothing, actually. It's a perfect destination...if you can walk.  If you're in a wheelchair, obstacles abound.

We came here almost every year when Tim was young and it was not as big a deal to lift him over the obstacles but he's grown bigger and heavier, and I'm older and more decrepit.  It's just not possible anymore.

I hear PV is getting more accessible but from what I can see, it's just not quite where it needs to be to get us to come back, yet.  I would really love to go back.  It is almost perfect, otherwise.

PUNTA CANA, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC - This one could be technically a tie between the next entry. Wonderful place, extremely friendly people, gorgeous beaches, excellent service, great food, drink, and nightlife. Accessible where it needs to be.

The only downside is that Punta Cana is rather far from any other parts of the Dominican. Would love to be able to visit the historic sites and go to a few baseball games without having to spend hundreds on a taxi to get there.

ST. CROIX, U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS - My personal favorite on this list. What's not to like? Friendly people, outstanding accomodations (especially the Buccaneer Hotel), good (but not great) access...it is part of the USA, after all, and the ADA applies...great food and drink, spectacular beaches, and fun, accessible attractions.

While access could be a bit better...we could not find a boat that could accomodate us no matter how much we and the concierge tried and the old Cruzan distillery couldn't be done in a wheelchair...we did find more than at other destinations as far as attractions go.  Cruzan couldn't be done but Captain Morgan allowed full access at their facility. The waterfront in Christiansted...the main town...is fully accessible and even the jungle bar with the beer-drinking pigs had an access ramp.  The accessible room at the Buccaneer was nothing short of fabulous.

There's still a way to go, transit is very spotty and there are very few accessible taxis, but from the incredibly warm people, outstanding service and stunning beauty make this a great destination.

And with that, we close out our latest tropical chapter here at The World on Wheels.  We're going to point our spotlight at other destinations for awhile but I'm sure we'll be back to a couple of spots on this list at least.

Darryl
Copyright 2016 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

Shelter in Place De Ja Vu: Memories of Travel Lockdowns

Living in this time of Covid 19 related lockdowns, shelter-in-place, safer-at-home, or whatever you'd like to call this quasi-quarantine, we sit in our homes doing our best to keep from getting a bad case of cabin fever and dreaming of what we're going to do once we're allowed to live normal lives again.

While sitting here wondering, I am reminded of at least two times we lived under government imposed shelter-in-place orders while we were traveling. It's not like now, where we're sitting here at home for 23 hours a day (I like to go out for a little officially approved, socially-distanced exercize each day) for at least 7 weeks and counting...these only lasted for a day but did give us a little taste of what it would be like when the virus hit the fan this spring.

One time happened just last September when we visited Nova Scotia in the Maritimes of eastern Canada.

Watching hurricane Dorian ravage the Bahamas on the news was one thing. It was another a few days later into our vacation in Halifax that we were surprised that the storm's track took it far to the north and the next landfall bullseye was directly on the city we were now staying in.

Life went on as usual in Halifax for a couple of days. That started to change the day before predicted landfall as we saw restaurants and other businesses on the waterfront starting to board up windows. A floating pedestrian bridge was removed, and a parade of naval vessels greeted us as all the ships from a large, nearby base headed out to find safer waters.

We check with the manager of our hotel as to what we should do, especially as we were staying on the 10th floor with a wheelchair user. Assured that there was onsite power generation and that inside the hotel, things would operate as normal, we prepared by buying a ton of snacks and a few microwavable meals to tide us over.

Tomorrow, the city would be on lockdown. Like now, you were to shelter in place and not leave your building. You could go out if you really wanted...there was no law against it...but it was highly discouraged and you were let known in no uncertain terms that it was at your risk and...if you were out, got injured, or even died...that it would be too bad and your fault if something happened to you.

We hunkered down, the building shook a bit, the windows rattled, the cable TV and internet went out a couple of times but, other than boredom, we came through it fine. A few times, we'd go to the lobby and walk around just for a change of pace and one time, I went a few feet out the front door just to see what the force of the wind felt like.

For the next few days, we lived with the aftereffects. Power was out in most of the city, stores and restaurants were mostly closed (I did find a microbrewery near the hotel doing business by candlelight and cash only), and there was a lot of trees and a tall crane down. On the plus side, no one was killed or injured.

Picture courtesy of Wikimedia

Adam Stacey under CC BY 2.5 license

The other time was a more serious and deadly lockdown. The time was in London in the summer of 2005.

The day started out like any other and we were going to head out to see the observatory at Greenwich, which meant a significant journey by tube from our hotel in Chelsea.

After stopping for a cup of coffee at a Starbucks located in the station, we went to make our way to the platform only to be turned away by staff closing the gates. Buses outside were also refusing to take on passengers.

Our only option at that point was to go back to our hotel and see what else we could do. Of course, back in our room, Tim turned on the TV and we found out the problem...terrorists had set off bombs in the Underground and on a bus, killing many people.

The city was shut down. Everybody was ordered to stay right where they were. Many people already at work in the busy city had to walk home, some for many miles.

Our hotel fed us and set up some large TVs in the lobby so we could follow along with our fellow guests the events of the day. Like now, we could go outside and take a stroll through our immediate area. We walked the short distance from our hotel to the nearby banks of the River Thames where we could look towards the city and see hundreds of people, walking home over the bridges.

The Queen said we should stand up to the terrorists and get back at them by living life like normal so the next day, the Underground and the buses were back. Businesses were open, and...although shocked and saddened...the residents (and tourists) in London went on with their lives.

Now, we're faced with another, invisible foe who is not going to let us go after a day. It's tough...we've got to keep fed, well, and deal with unforeseen incidents while trying not to leave our homes...but most people are healthy. They're bored and grumpy but healthy.

It's just patience we need as we try to get through this very long enforced stay at home.

Darryl Musick
Copyright 2020 - All Rights Reserved

The Evolving Destination...How a Trip Decision Comes Together at The World On Wheels

Picking where to go on a trip isn't merely "hey, let's go there!" for us. Well, sometimes it is and everything comes together rather quickly. Other times, it's an evolution.

Take our latest travels...how does a Caribbean island vacation morph into a triple destination trip through the Lone Star state then over to the Florida Keys?

After last fall's European Grand Tour, we were talking over the difficulty of multiple air legs to reach destinations deep into Europe that didn't offer non-stop service to Los Angeles. Tim had some anxiety before leaving but did fine. The last leg, of three, on the way home didn't sit too well but he managed fine.

"I don't want to go anywhere where we have to take more than two flights," he told me, "but I wouldn't mind going to St. Croix even though that takes two flights."

That started the wheels spinning. We love St. Croix and, especially, the beautiful Buccaneer Hotel there. The only thing is it's a bit hard to get Tim onto the sandy beach (but not impossible), pool, and especially the ocean.

That got me searching for alternative spot where we could go somewhere in the Caribbean, tropical, and where we could get Tim to some crystal-clear ocean water. The Bahamas, Barbados, Curacao, and more came up where...maybe...I could get Tim to the water's edge and wade in. 

Harder yet was to find a boat that he could go on then go into the water from. We learned the hard way that advertising your dive boat as 'handicapped accessible' doesn't mean that it is in anyway, shape, or form accessible in St. Croix (one operator there plasters their web site with it but when asked said "yeah, you just need to be able to climb this ladder-like set of stairs onto the boat and off into the water").

My search did keep turning up one operator in the Florida Keys, Tranquil Adventures, who had installed a pool lift onto the side of a pontoon boat specifically to lower disabled people into the water to go snorkeling.

I'd put that in my memory banks for later use, if I needed it. In the meantime, I came across an ad for Southwest Airlines announcing that they'd just started nonstop service from our favorite local (but underused) airport, Ontario, to Dallas' Love Field.

Another long term goal of ours is to see every Major League Baseball stadium. We're up to 25 and the two stadiums in Texas are among the last five we need to visit. My brain clicks in to tell me that if I could get a cheap, nonstop, Southwest flight to Dallas, maybe we could get another cheap flight from there after a layover to the Caribbean allowing us to not only have an easy transit to the islands but get another stadium in along the way.

Perusing the flight schedules, there's not much from Dallas to the Caribbean but from Houston we could get a short and simple flight on Southwest to Fort Lauderdale...only 90 minutes from Captain Mick's Tranquil Adventures in Key Largo.  It's also a very easy and cheap add on to fly one hour from Dallas to Houston and...hey!...they have another stadium there with a very affordable Homewood Suites only a block from it.

We can do this!  Two Texas stadiums (plus a day or two at each city to experience what they have to offer) then an extended stay in the Keys...which would satisfy our itch for a warm beach at least adjacent to the Caribbean...where we can go snorkeling on a lift-equipped boat.

So, Tim's original comment about taking the two flights to St. Croix evolves through several permutations to become a trip to Texas' two biggest cities ending up on a Florida island for some warm, beach adventures.

Stay tuned for that...

Darryl Musick
Copyright 2017 - All Rights Reserved