Bubba Gump

I woke a few times after 4:30am before waking for good at 6:00am. I had a couple strange dreams through the night, thus why I woke at 4:30am. At 6:00am I pee’d, brushed my teeth and started a pot of coffee. My goal was to be out the door for my run by 6:30am. I got a photo of the sunrise over the Caribbean Sea. Very nice! I sipped my coffee some what anxiously, almost certainly a product of the busy day ahead. I saw that Mindy was awake. I asked if she wanted coffee before I left on my run. She did. I prepared her coffee then headed out for my run. Exiting the room one can see a lovely view of the Caribbean Sea, the lagoon, and the entire Cancun hotel zone. I was surprised as ever to see yet another rainbow. This one wasn’t a complete rainbow but a very colorful tail of one just the same. But perhaps what was more surprising, there weren’t any rain clouds in the area, just a few benign puffy clouds. I guessed the rainbow a byproduct of the high moisture content in the air. I thought for second about bringing it to Mindy’s attention but didn’t. Instead, I headed to the elevator and eventually out for my run. The area was riddled with runners, more so than there’s been an hour or so later each morning. I’m sure the cause being the much cooler temperature just before and after sunrise. Once the sun gets a little lift, the area quickly heats up like nobody’s business. Like the other six days, I stretched just outside the view from the hotel lobby and then removed my shirt before heading off. It was a lovely run. I ran 5 kilometers. During the run I encountered what appeared to be an American male about 6 foot tall passed out flat on his back between the walk and the road. On the run out a couple young girls were tending to him. On the way back he was all alone. I worried that he might be dead. A security guard at a nearby hotel let me know that he was OK, just drunk. I kept going. I got back to the hotel in great shape. There’s no doubt that the sweat I worked up was the least this week. Mindy was finishing her shower by the time I made it back to the room. It was around 7am. I showered and prepared for the long travel day ahead. However, before leaving, we planned to have breakfast as usual. After showers and final packing, we left the room and headed down for our last breakfast on the beach. It was about 7:50am. Jorge quickly greeted at the entrance and seated us at our favorite table. We talked with him for quite awhile, learning about his family and his length of employment. He came to Cancun from Mexico City some 12 years ago with family for a vacation. He never went back home. Instead, he stayed in Cancun and got his current job at FAGCB. Since, he claimed, much of his extended family has followed him to Cancun. His mother, however, still resides in Mexico City but visits occasionally. We enjoyed his story. Mindy took the opportunity to show off picture of our kids. He seemed really interested in how we came about Bella. Of course Mindy shared her adoption story. We spent the next 45 minutes eating our breakfast. Jorge took a photo of the two of us. Before departing, we each gave him a hug, and I got a photo of him with Mindy. His kindness was appreciated and will be missed. Next, we moved towards the pool area where we already saw Javier working his charm for other guests. He had several beach chairs in full dress. He spotted us and came quickly to say goodbye. Again, we each gave him a hug. He asked if we were well taken care of Friday, his day off. No, definitely not the Javier treatment, although, we weren‘t fruitful guests then either. We bought just one drink yesterday. He apologized and asked that we come back and look him up. We just may do that. He suggested next time we bring the children. Back to our room for the last time. Back in the room we gathered our gear and left a fair tip for the woman who kept our room exceptionally clean and finely tuned each day. We toted our own baggage to the lobby. With only one suitcase each, and both with wheels, the task was simple. We went right to the counter to checkout. I was a little nervous about seeing our final bill. Oh yeah! We did some damage. They presented a detailed breakdown of our purchases. We spent about 11,500 pesos, or roughly $1,000 USD on food & drink at the hotel. That’s the number I quoted to friends that we’d most likely spend so I wasn’t in shock, but still appreciative of the number. I was more concerned to make sure that we weren’t charged for anything we didn’t use such as errant room charges, minibar, or internet. Nope. All looked good. So many times we had to correct our servers otherwise our bill would’ve been attached to another room number. It was 9:10am CDT. Our transportation wasn’t due at the hotel until 9:35am. The driver was about five minutes early. It was another passenger van. He quickly loaded our bags and seated the both of us. I sat up front with the driver for the full affect of the balls-to-the-wall driving so prevalent in Mexico. We were at the airport by 10am. Our first goal was to get our luggage and a tip to our driver. I gave him $3USD. In the airport we were herded to a slew of tables where each of us had to complete another health form. They checked our body temperature again, too, only this time with a rectal thermometer. J kidding! The US Airways counter had no wait whatsoever. The attendant reviewed our documents, confirmed our flights, and offered a $100 each first class upgrade. No thanks. But now that I’m thinking about it, they should’ve comp’d us the upgrade given the screw up flying out of Columbus last Saturday. I noticed a sign indicating a second bag charge of $25 USD. Good thing we brought only one each. We proceeded through security and ultimately the gate area. The Cancun airport has certainly come of age over the last decade. It’s now a more like an upscale shopping mall, especially upon departure. The first thing one sees after making their way through security is herds of Americans gathering in the upscale souvenir shops spending the last of their hard earned vacation dollars. One last hit, so to speak. I bought nothing else. Mindy, on the other hand, sought out a couple more things for our kids. I found a seat and began writing/recapping our day. We had 90 minutes before our plane would board. After writing to the current moment I handed the laptop back to Mindy. Not sure what she did, but think she played solitaire. I suggested a Starbucks. We both were jonsing for a good fru-fru coffee. I flew, Mindy bought. I had a caramel macchiato, and Mindy a white chocolate. Eventually, we walked to the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, a seafood restaurant, to see if Javier, the FAGCB pool server’s son, was working. He was. He had no idea who these two Americans were that asked for him by name at the hostess stand. He found it amusing that his dad asked us to look him up. We had his co-worker snap a photo of all three of us together. He then gave us his email address. We walked back to our gate. We were surprised to see that our plane had already begun to board. Ten minutes later were seated at the back of the plane (a 757) in row 32 seats A & B. I took a video of our departure. Flying out of the Caribbean is always a beautiful experience. As turquoise as the water looks from the beach, it looks even more surreal from the air. Unbelievable! After about two or three minutes it’s nothing but open water, blue above and blue below. We had a really long stretch with no clouds. That only makes it more difficult to discern what’s up and what’s down. I read more of my Philosophy book. Before we knew it we were landing in Charlotte, North Carolina – back in the good ol’ USA. Because this was our re-entry point, we had to go through US customs. Those that know, know that US customs agents have no sense of humor whatsoever. I am often troubled at how they speak down to the masses and warn of peril if you violate anyone of their silly rules. The lines were long but thankfully they moved swiftly. The last time Mindy & I passed through US customs we were stopped and thoroughly searched. This time we made it through unscathed. We rechecked our bag and re-entered through yet another security checkpoint before getting to our Columbus departure gate. It felt terrific to finally be sitting at gate C14 destined for Columbus. Home was a little more than an hour away. While waiting, I suggested that Mindy phone Crissy & Kenny, our neighbors who were vacationing in Myrtle Beach. She called and left a VM. They called back minutes later. Mindy yacked it up with Kenny for a while, about what I’m not sure. Suddenly, a look of disbelief and concern came over Mindy’s face. I tried to dip without being rude. Whatever it was, it wasn’t good. Mindy said something like, we’ll have to deal with that when we get home. And then she asked if my dad knew about it. Oh dear. My pulse started racing. I couldn’t wait for her to get off the phone so I could hear the story. She shared that Justin, the autistic boy that has been hanging around our subdivision of late, threw all of our patio furniture, including Mindy’ fire pit into the pond. And as far as Kenny knew, it was still in there. He didn’t have time to deal with it as they were about to leave on their own vacation. That pissed me off but I was relieved that it wasn’t our house or one of our cars. The plane boarded minutes later. Once again, I videoed the take-off. Between Charlotte and Columbus the clouds and sunshine were incredible looking. I took a number of photos. As we approached Columbus from the southeast, I videoed our landing. We landed almost 15 minutes early. “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Columbus where the local time is 7:00pm.” We were quick to deplane, too. We had our luggage and were outside phoning my dad from passenger pick-up by 7:13pm. He arrived 5 minutes later. We shared stories about our trip, and Dad shared stories about his care of Ykraps and the house. He had us home by 7:30pm. He agreed to walk Ykraps one more time. While dad walked Ykraps Mindy & I surveyed the yard, and more pointedly, the vandalism. At that point, we hadn’t yet mentioned a word of it to dad, having not yet seen it. Sure enough, all of our stuff had been tossed in. But one of our neighbors had already retrieved our two benches and Mindy’s new fire pit. But there was much more, bags of mulch, cinder blocks, a planter full of flowers, our gazing ball, as well as our two purple flamingos. I grew angrier by the minute. About that time dad and Ykraps got back. I shared my disgust. In hindsight, however, I wish that I hadn’t because I could tell that he felt guilty. There was nothing he could do, and according to Kenny, it didn’t happen until late Thursday evening. We gave dad a few bucks for taking care of things, but more importantly for all the gas he used running us around. Dad left around 7:50pm. We wasted no time at all freshening up and heading out to Barley’s. We had planned this yesterday. Both of us were looking forward to some good old Barley beer and food. We were there and in our favorite stools by 8:10pm. Beth was working the bar and served us up our favorite libations. I ordered a Hoptopus. Mindy ordered a stout of some sort. We eventually ordered food, too. I ordered Gates of Hell wings and Mindy ordered a brisket quesadilla. We chatted with Thad & Monica for about an hour. After they left we made a new friend, Cliff, a guy we’ve seen in Barley’s countless times but never got to know him until that night. If I recall correctly, he’s a professor at OSU’s Veterinarian school. He shared that he’s leaving for Rwanda Africa on Tuesday and expects to be there for about one month. The purpose being something related to his science. He’s a very interesting fellow. He ended up reading Mindy’s palm, but was careful to admit that he’s not that adept at it but understands some of the nuances behind it. I found it fascinating, really. We must’ve left Barley’s around 10:30 – 11:00pm. I drove home after Mindy declared herself to be sporting a good buzz. I felt fine. We headed directly to bed, but I did manage to turn the bedroom TV to Saturday Night Live. Will Ferrell was on. Funny.