First nights. They have always been a challenge for us. Long before Tom was dubbed Antler Man and I discovered I liked to play in the dirt, we took a trip to the Bahamas and began what has become a long string of first nights to chat about.
There was our one night honeymoon at the O’Hare Marriott forty years ago, when a champagne cork ricocheted off the walls around 4 am, and the window washer who later dropped in for breakfast.
Dare I mention our first night on Maui when we got lost on Kanapali Beach, the late night show with the hula girl, and the shot in the dark?
How about Heather and Andrews wedding, which was a joy to behold, 15 years ago? The night before the nuptials, we had a trip to the ER from Hell, not to mention the three times management had to be called to open the door to our suite.
A year after our honeymoon, 39 years ago, we jumped at the opportunity to share a condo for a week in the Bahamas with friends. The price was right and we were raring to go, even if we had to fly over the Bermuda Triangle to do it.
Our first clue should have been when we went to visit the owners of the condo and get the key. It was the 90 minute slide presentation of the mister’s snorkeling adventures that foreshadowed something amiss.
We all worked the day our adventure began; suitcases packed and stowed in our cars for a quick ride to the airport and a late afternoon flight south. The plane was packed with mostly college students, already “two sheets to the wind”, loud, undisciplined, etc. It was 1973. The world was being tilted on its axis, but, airplanes still had a certain cache. Meals were rolled to your seat by well coiffed stewardesses in uniforms, there were no security checks, one wore one’s shoes before boarding, the pillows were free and one felt safe.
As dusk descended across the Atlantic, we landed at the small Bahamian airport. Our luggage retrieved, we headed out to find our economy rental car. Just as the key turned in the door of the Volkswagon Beetle, the lights were turned off at the airport. Closing time. We came in on the last flight. No problem. A map (a real map), and the four of us, loaded down with our Samsonite look-alikes, a large, portable hairdryer, food, swimsuits, and Easter eggs, we squeezed inside! We were like the Ricardo and Mertzes, Ricky and Fred up front, Lucy and Ethel in back. Tom drove with my hairdryer in his lap, working the clutch with his long legs jammed into the steering wheel, his 6 foot 4 frame pushing the roof of the car. We needed the windows opened, not to smell the balmy air. No. We needed the extra room!
We stopped at a gas station to ask for directions. Off we went, around and around in what seemed to be a circle. Actually, it was a circle. They were toying with us, those station attendants! We figured that out sometime around our sixth lap. Finally, we found the complex where our condo was.
Like sardines in a tin, we crawled, squeezed, and maneuvered our bodies and bundles out of the car, while Jerry, who had the keys, opened the door and went in – then came out, shut the door, pale and shaken. “There are people sleeping in one of the bedrooms”. Did we have the right condo? Right key? Didn’t they hear the door open? Were they even alive? We commiserated, four northern souls in a balmy parking lot, wondering what to do. We decided to ring the doorbell.
A man came out, all tousled from sleep. Huh? As we explained that he was sleeping in our condo, we heard a pop as all the lights went out on the island.
It’s hard to negotiate in the dark of night when wearing one’s bathroom slippers – or has just spent hours flying and circling in a VW bug.
It seems there was a mixup from our scuba diving landlord (I told you those slides were foreboding) and the slumbering couple had the condo for a few more days.
All’s well that ends well, I always say, and this story does end well. The two sleeping beauties had another key to a one room unit, where we slept the night, exhausted, on musty beds in the clothes we had traveled in, hoping that no tropical creatures were slinking about. Since the wife was more interested in gambling than sunning on the beach, she readily offered to hand over the keys so they could stay at the swank hotel. Since they would no longer need a car, the husband handed over the keys to his rental. A sleek mid-sixties white Cadillac with a red leather interior and foot long fins; a great white whale that made our second night and our island adventure swimmingly grand!
Thanks to Andra and her post a few days ago about opening a hotel room door to find a man fixing her bed for awakening this sleeping memory. You can find her post here.
Well, you certainly had me laughing with this one. Sometimes, when things go wrong the memories are with us longer and much funnier. You reminded me of an experience that we had. Jim was driving a truck and I went with him when school was out. He had a “Hot Shot” trip to Weaverville, North Carolina. We made it all the way from Jacksonville, Ill to Weaverville in one day with stops only to go to the restroom and grab sandwiches eaten in the truck. We drove the mountains in horrible rainstorms and fog. We delivered the load in the middle of the night. We went to nearby Asheville, NC to find motel room. No vacancy signs were everywhere. We finally stopped at one anyway and they checked around and sent us to Whispering Pines. We arrived at 3:00am and fell into bed exhausted. When we woke up, I was shocked to see what we had slept in. Everything was filthy. The facilities were gray, not white. The bed was lumpy and dirty looking. The “the picturesque pines” were dry, brown and leaning precariously above the lovely pool filled mostly with sand, dirt and litter. The billboard advertised that it was a popular, romantic honeymoon destination.
Now, when things are not as expected one of us will say to the other, “We will always have Whispering Pines.
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I know, and those memories get funnier and funnier over time. The beds didn’t even have sheets on them and everything felt damp as it was in the tropics.
Your Whispering Pines story is equally as funny, Janet. I can only imagine waking up to the sights, not to mention the bed and bath, that you had collapsed, tired as can be, into. That’s one “Hot Shot” trip you will never forget. I’ll bet “We will always have Whispering Pines” comes up every-so-often. tee hee Thanks for sharing the story.
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And all this time I thought we were the only ones who had what I call ghostly adventures! We stayed in a very posh hotel where the water turned on spontaneously in the bath at 2 AM—every night.. And the phone would ring twice with no one there. On another trip, my husband went deep sea fishing and left me fast asleep. A hurricane blew in and the trip was canceled. When he tried to return to our room, I walked into the closet and could not find my way out around luggage like yours. I had a full blown panic attack not remembering where I was. Couldn’t leave home without that hair dryer! And lots of shoes. In New Orleans there was a storm that flooded the streets and snakes were sighted. Most of the restaurants closed but reopened the day we flew out. And so it goes. These things are what make vacations memorable though.
By the way, on CBS Sunday Morning this Sunday, Huey Lewis and the News will be featured. Be still my heart. I am counting the days! Have a great week and stay cool.
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One wonders why we ever want to go away, Marilyn. Your spontaneous bath water must have been unerving. Yikes! A hurricane – now, that is scary. How disoriented you must have been. I would have panicked as well. We won’t go into the snake episode. Isn’t it a good thing we can laugh about them now?
Thank you for telling me about Sunday/Huey Lewis and the News/CBS. I try to watch CBS Sunday Morning when I can. If I miss it, I’ll catch it online. Love that show. That will be fun.
It was very hot and humid here. 50’s now. Cool and damp. How’s it down there?
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Hilarious, Penny. I love how everything turned out all right in the end, but wow, it took a while to get there, didn’t it?
To me, one of the best things about travel is the unexpected things that crop up.
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We were so very young, our first real vacation and all. Initially, we were devastated, but, it worked out great in the end. It was one cool car and a great trip.
I couldn’t agree more, Andra – and see what you started with that post.
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Penny, what adventures you have had! But all part of the fun of life, and having adventures.
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Right you are, Juliet. It is all these little things that add up to the big picture of life, isn’t it?
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What an adventure….but all the more memorable for it. Jx
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It is good to have a few of these memories in life, Janice – and be able to laugh about it.
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Penny this is hysterical! Laughable hysterical now, but I think I would have been hysterical as in breakdown! LOL! I don’t do well when things like this go awry…I’m not yet convinced they come out alright. 🙂 But you guys were troopers and stuck it out and I hope ended up having a wonderful time. You sure do have a great story to tell. Now I want to hear all the stories from the other first nights. You have had quite a few. You might want to start with Heather and Andrews wedding. That sounds like quite a story. 🙂
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Once we got into our condo, cleaned up, and rode around a bit in that Caddy with the top down, tropical breezes, etc. we were laughing. On our 25th anniversary, the other couple sent us a picture of Tom and I, dressed to the nines, tan and smiling, from our Bahamian trip.
Heather and Andrew’s wedding was so special and lovely. We had to overcome a lot of obstacles to get there, however, but, were determined to do so. This was also our 25th anniversary. Tom was recovering from intricate surgery and was being administered antibiotics from a port in his chest. My goal was to get him to our niece’s wedding in NYC, with the girls. We made it there, with the doctor’s consent. A little plastic valve broke to the pick line. That was it. It just needed to be replaced. A 25¢ piece of plastic. Long and short of it was an inept doctor at a mid-century hospital. They were going to medivac Tom to Chicago. We were there for 3 hours and they never checked his blood sugars (he’s diabetic). Tom fortunately had his monitor and took care of it himself. Lots of advocacy on my part, determination on Tom’s, and a super male nurse who kept giving Tom things to fix the leak, we managed to solve the problem.
We made it to the wedding and had a marvelous time, but, it was dicey for a bit.
The trip to Hawaii is funnier.
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Oh my gosh, you have me laughing so hard! We’ve had a few travel adventures . The time our in-room hot tub spa somehow set off the smoke alarm (apparently to the whole resort hotel) is one that comes to mind (that did make for good bragging rights for a while ;>). Then there was the time that an almost hurricane blew the roof off the lodge we were staying at in Belize. That wasn’t as funny at the time. But those kinds of memories are more fun to talk about years later than the ones where nothin’ extraordinary happened.
You share your memories so well!
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PS Thanks for the Bruce Springsteen and the pink Cadillac with my graduation year license plate!
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How observant of you to catch the date on that plate, Sallie, and glad to give you a laugh.
What a “hot” story that is! I’ll just bet you’ve gotten some mileage out of it, and thank goodness nothing worse than the roof blowing off happened in Belize. My-o-my how frightening that must have been. Our stories do make for interesting tales and laughs, don’t they? I’m sure you have more with all the traveling about you do.
Thank you, Sallie.
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What a marvellous tale, Penny! 🙂 I’m grinning at the thought of your surprise at finding someone sleeping in your bed, but also at the way your holiday was wonderfully enhanced by the free use of that splendid car. i reckon you had all earned it. 🙂
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Although it started rather dismally, it was a fabulous trip that we still remember and we spent lots of time driving around in that car, Perpetua.
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Fantastic storytelling, Penny: another instance where truth is funnier and odder than fiction! The pink cadillac sounds like great fun, though…
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Thank you, Kate. We do seem to have some amusing moments.
I’m glad you are feeling a bit better.
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