Cafe Hitch-hike

2023-07-03

Colorado to Cruise Adventure

Being away from work and home for almost 2 weeks was like a mind wipe. The Colorado trip was such a relief. As I headed back to the airport in my rental, I drove through Colorado. It felt liberating to be in a place that was the opposite of “where woke goes to die,” and felt myself feel lighter to be in a place of tolerance and openness. Of course, the Rockies are beautiful and inspiring, and I just plain enjoyed it all.

My Aunt Trish is from from Pueblo. As it turned out, she grew up mountaineering, smoking weed, and having adventures in the 70s. She texted me and said she owned Colorado, and I had a kind chuckle. Her family had lived there since forever, but most of her family either moved to Denver or California.

About 3 minutes after I got back home, it was time for me to pick up my sis Cindy from the airport and go to our cruise the next day. Poor Cindy needed 3 days to get the hometown out of her system and all the merde she deals with on a regular basis. At one point, I softly asked her to stop talking about the prick roommate who used to be her beau (a story not worth repeating) and to my surprise, she did. Now I know what I’m like to be around when a thought gets stuck in my head, but…

…we traveled well together. I was definitely more active but we made it work. The ship stopped in 3 ports. A colleague made a recommendation for the island of St. Thomas (where he was from), and it was definitely a highlight of the trip. We hired our own cab and went to Coki Beach and were one of the first to get there. It was a really cool beach where plenty could be done (drink rum in the shallow, snorkel, dive, paddleboard, wow).

A guy called Dr. ZaZa offered us everything from mushrooms to coke. He was a lean though strong tall guy with a dollar sign tattooed under his eye and had dreads. When he said ‘shrooms, we both said “oooooh” but quickly changed our mind. We mutually agreed it wouldn’t be a good idea because the reaction can be unpredictable. We figured we’d pull a Rose from Titanic, lift each other in a feeling of freedom against the balcony rail from our midship 13th level/ portside stateroom, and whoops…, so the shrooms were quickly out of the question.

There was a guy there who looked like Dylan McDermott and he was always wherever my sister and I were (and was accompanied by his wife who looked like a Barbie doll and their 3 sons). Cindy noticed the noticing, and we smirked like teenagers when he walked past us while were were feelin’ fine at Coki Beach. We had already been there at least 2 hours, so we obviously weren’t stalking him. But, what can I say that we both knew cool places and had similar timing?

The funny part was I sat on the balcony as we left the port. Music by a Fleetwood Mac tribute band wafted from below me (I would had preferred The Maytals or Peter Tosh, it was a cruise targeted for an older crowd). A guy on the port shouted, “if you had a great time in St. Thomas, say ‘Day-o!’”. I along with a bunch of others shouted it in response. He then repeated it but said, “say yeeeeeeeah!”. We responded with yeahs, cheers and whistles. I shouted back, “we love you!” and he shouted back, “we love you, too!” Another minute of that brewed on our side of the ship, and it really made me smile.

A cruise was an interesting place to share experiences with strangers, especially considering the lockdowns, masking, distancing, etc-etc from the pandemic. There was something I liked from communal activities and responses. The bus driver had to slam on the breaks cos of a slow driver and I muttered, ‘slow poke.’ The group of French speakers behind us talked a few seconds later, and I heard one of them repeat ‘slow poke’ and we laughed. All the ones I knew were cheerfully curious about American idioms and expressions. We had some other spontaneous hum-a-longs, shout outs, and stuff like that. It was nice to interact that way.

I really would had loved to have had too many margaritas, get chased by a ship officer or 2, and do the Macarena or electric slide at a night time dance party by the pool. It would had been fun to see the festivities that usually happened on other cruise lines like captain’s cocktail and formal, contests for the hairiest chest or biggest belly flop, or the ice carving demo. Nope, we were on a different cruise line and it had the lamest night life I had ever seen (and, a Fleetwood Mac tribute band for crying out loud). At least they played the music of Pitbull (who has a contract with them), but at a certain point, I could only take so much ‘Fireball’ and ‘Feel this moment’ before cringing.

I guess the best part was spending time with my sister and neither of us wanted to drown each other (hahahha). She wasn’t used to traveling like that (she’s more like a do-it-yourself traveler, like go to an amusement park, stay at a local motel, and get takeout for dinner). Cindy complained about the cost of everything for most of the trip, but that was the way it went. I could see where she was coming from. People from the hometown really travel within the radius that goes from Chicago-Great America, east to Sandusky, Ohio (Cedar Point), and maybe north to Mackinac Island, Michigan (where they filmed ‘Somewhere in Time’).

I think it was just plain refreshing to go somewhere where others cooked and cleaned, and to not work or need to think of work. I wondered if a 7-day cruise would had been too long, but no, it was just right.

I got back to work a little behind on my course work. Professor Insano sent a couple emails of concern to me because I missed an assignment. I assured him I was fine and the missed work was coming. He took my work, and gave me a minimal markdown for it being late, which I understood.

I came back to work fairly relaxed. I was just so tired of the constant strain of the unknown, more people leaving the institution, and our new boss is never there and holds up a lot of decisions that need to be made. It was just so nice to step away from all of that, and really hope that glow continues. I’m just so tired of having that place strip so much from my peace of mind, but I guess that’s the tradeoff I get for what it gives me.

downwind | upstream