It's the little things will kill ya

Minor irritations abound. Hola, peeps.

The population in my area: Population, 2003 estimate 1,073,407 . The cell phone company: Verizon. The cost: $1 per day/$30 per month. Number of bars available in my house: 0. Number of bars if I wander about the yard:1. Disappointment factor: Pretty darn high.

First gas fill up: $2.21. Second fillup: $2.29. Third: $2.37. Last: $2.47 Uh-oh factor: Pretty darn high.

I had occasion to visit Grand Caymen Island, which in the wintertime is a lot like Michigan in the summertime. It is a beautiful place and can be quite serene. What it is not, however, is a place to meet single girls. Couples come to the Caymens to vacation. Singles go to Jamacia or Aruba. I wasn't there to meet single girls, I was just there. Still, sometimes even the most disciplined mind wanders upon the sight of small bikinis.

The best thing I did during my week there was to rent a scooter. As I have traveled, I have found that the best way to get around without walking or paying out the nose, and to still see the details and smell the smells of a place, is to rent a scooter. It's one of the first things I check on when I arrive somewhere.

The island only has one real city and just a couple of towns. The rest of what I saw was just wide spots in the road with four to six houses. Not much traffic. Not much bustle. Not much hassle.

I was supposed to have an international license, but back in those days I was not so organized as I am now. I was able to talk my way onto a scooter by promising to be super-ultra careful and by convincing a buddy to leave his credit card number as collateral. And I was off, short hair vibrating in the breeze.

The temp was warm but not hot and the sun was soothing, not scorching. I motored along happily, traveling about 30 kph and soaking up the island. I stopped on scenic beaches and wooded hillsides. I looked down blowholes, once, and not really knowing what it was til it soaked me. I stopped and sat at Gun Bay, which had beautiful beaches, blue water and rusting out cannons. I visited Hell, which is in an area where the beaches and trees give way to a desolate looking landscape of dried, jagged lava. Looks like the surface of a barren planet, not a tropical island. Hell is there so you can send home a postcard from Hell. Kinda like Intercourse, PA is there to provide City Limit signs for dorm rooms.

At night I would sit outside my bungalow, sip a litttle local rum, and listen to the surf mixing with the music from a small joint down the road which, while it was an aqua marine cinderblock building, seemed to spend most of it's time all spilled out into the yard and parking lot. It was peacful, I'll tell you that.

And I'll tell you this. I wrote so much good stuff down there. Sitting under a tree, alone on a beach (like you'll never be in Florida and only rarely are in Mississippi), scribbling down my thoughts in a small spiral notebook then just leaning back against a tree and napping. It was a very good time, even if I was ready to go when time came.

I took the accompanying photo myself, as you can tell by the haunting composition and easy symmetry, and is my absolute favorite Travelin' Ed picture. Of All time. I titled it "Feets Into Hong Kong", and the title is pretty self explanatory. "Osaka Ed" is a way distant second, and I'll post it one day, too.

We were riding liberty boats into Hong Kong (we were anchored out in the harbor) and I, having been to HK many, many times before, just sat in the mess drinking coffee and letting the liberty hounds jostle and poke each other as they fought to get on the first few boats ashore. By the time I got showered, changed and coated down with a little fu-fu juice, the boats in were pretty empty.

I got a railing seat on the upper deck, put my feet up and watched Hong Kong slowly bounce and bob into view. I was glad to be back, it's such a vibrant city.

It's about that time that I noticed my feet. No, I mean really noticed them. And I snapped off a picture of them. When I developed it I knew. This picture, to me anyway, is Travelin' Ed. It captured everything perfectly. No pretenses, no problems, no worries.

Someone said to me once that I lived a very exciting life. "No", I corrected them, "I live a very quiet and mundane life in exciting places." Word.

Drift, out.
Ramblin' Ed