Chapter III - TexasT's & the Queen Arrive At Their Destination - Finally!

There are actually two terminals at the MOBAY Airport. International air traffic uses the "new" terminal.

The "commuter" terminal is actually the Old airport. It certainly looks older and is for local service (Jamaica) only. There are quite a few enterprises, mostly small prop jobs, going on there for transport anywhere on the island.

The taxi ride was just transport to the “old” or Commuter terminal.

At the other end of our Commuter flight, the Aerodrome at Negril, on the other hand, is a "daylight only" facility and can not be used at night or in inclement weather because there are no runway lights(!)

The Queen and I made it to the (Commuter?) terminal without incident (vibrating or otherwise). Another man meets us at the curb, puts the bags on a 2-wheeler and says, "Follow me, mon." Well, since he's got the luggage, after giving the driver a tip, we follow him. We go over to the BurlAir counter, where we meet this nice gyal who asks, "Cash or credit?"

"Cash," was the ready reply. As I'd heard about a little thing called a credit card Surcharge (One or two percent charge over and above actual charges) we came prepared with extra cash.

"That will be 120US, then"

"We negotiated with Tim at the other terminal for 100US," I say.

She looks at me kinda funny, like I wasn't supposed to do that kind of thing (except maybe here at the counter) and says, "Just a minute, Mr. Hynds." and gets on the phone, presumably to call Tim on his cell because the one side of the conversation I can hear is going so fast in patois that I can only catch a word every once in a while. She hangs up with him and makes another call. It's about this time that I notice the little kiosk where Red Stripes can be purchased. So we leave the gyal to work it all out, walk over and get our first REAL Red stripes. (The stuff they sell in the states is a different beer. The real thing is closer to Malt liquor.)

Beer...It's not just for breakfast anymore!

The gyal gets off the phone after a few minutes and calls me over, "Mr. Hynds, everyting is in order. Plane will be ready in about 20 minutes. That will be 100US, please." I fork over five twenty dollar bills for which she gives me a receipt. I join the Queen outside to wait for the plane, have a smoke, and finish our Stripes. The twenty minutes comes and goes, so the Queen goes into the terminal and over to the counter and asks about it while I go over and get a couple more Stripes and go back out side. After a minute or so the Queen comes back outside smilin'.

"Well?" I ask.

"I guess I've been properly chastened. Soon come, mon," replies the Queen and cracks up. Since we had decided to go to Jamaica and had been on the negril.com board, we had used that so much around the house that it had become kind of a private joke between us.

Basically, “Soon come” means “it will be ready when it’s ready”

Pretty soon this guy from BurlAir walks up and asks, " Are you the other 2 for Negril?"

"Ya mon," says the Queen.

"Follow me, please," he says and starts walking towards the tarmac.

It's then that we get acquainted with this nice guy from Dallas who fell in behind us. He’s got longish hair and a beard and is dressed pretty casually. I think he was on the flight from Houston, but I'm not really sure.

"Please keep in single file behind me and walk this way."

Picture it, you've got the guy from BurlAir leading, the Queen following behind him, me behind her, and the hippie from Dallas bringing up the rear. He's kind of leading us on a parade march around some of the other planes. Then he breaks out into this combination of the 3 stooges, Inspector Cluesou, and the ministry of silly walks thing. The Queen and I are right there with him for every step. The hippy from Dallas is looking at the 3 of us like we are all crazy! The Queen and the guy from BurlAir are cracking up. When they finally get to the little plane, I am laughing so hard, tears are streaming down my face.

They make intros all around. I felt compelled to ask, "You do that with all your customers?"

"No Mon, just the ones that are special. I could tell you two were." Yeah, right. But what the hell, weren't we on vacation? "Where you guy's stayin'?" he asks.

"Hedonism," says the Queen and I in unision.

"Oh, You stayin' at the ZOO! You gonna have a good time there!"

Hedonism resorts, and there are two in Jamaica, are referred to as "The Zoo" by Jamaicans.

"Ya, Mon!"

The pilot arrives, jumps in the plane, and cranks 'er up, says hello to everybody, and we're off down the runway and into the air in a jiffy. The pilot gets up to cruising altitude pretty quickly. He flies along the coast. Jamaica is beautiful from the air. You could have flown a 747 into my mouth at that point, my jaw had dropped so far.

I don't know whyit is but every time I go to the Caribbean the water does that to me. There is just something about that part of the sea. So clear, so BLUE, and so GREEN! My eyes well up just from the beauty of it all. It won’t be the last time that week it happens.

For a little while I even forgot to drink my Red Stripe. By the time I remembered I was holding one, it had gotten warm.

In a short while we are getting ready to land. The pilot lines up with the runway and descends. The little plane bounces down the runway for a ways and pulls up to the terminal at the Negril Aerodrome and everyone disembarks.

LOOK OUT NEGRIL! TEXAS T'S & THE QUEEN HAVE ARRIVED!! (Did I mention we were exhausted?)