elanya

I got up at 6:30. I expected to make a quick post before I left, but my tide was already at the hotel. I thanked him profusely and am now bound to go to his restaurant on Saturday when I get back, I think ;) Somehow, I shall survive! In anycase, I was well early for the ferry, and dozed a bit while I waited for it to take off, and then during the trio. I don’t think I ever properly got to sleep but it was nice anyway. Got in around 10:30, and caught a taxi to the B&B. Check in isn’t technically until 3, but they said the room would be rady by one, and that I could leave my stuff there. They gave me a gof cart and sent me on my way – this was about 11. The problem was that all the stuff I neded to do anything productive was in my bags! Gah! So I basically toodled around on the golf cart for a few hours, and then went to find someplace to have lunch.

The place I’d wanted to go, for my ‘cheeseburger in paradise’ (endorsed by Jimmy Buffet himself, even) wasn’t open for lunch today. They were open for dinner, but I’d made other plans by that time, so I’ll try for it tomorrow. I have been holding off having a cheeseburger anywhere else for a while now, so this place had better be worth it :D Instead I wound it at the… Briland Café? Or the Bahama café? I think the latter. And I had pretty much exactly what I had for dinner last night. And now I’m recalling that I already posted about this, but you’ll just have to live with it! I’m not skimping on my travelogue just because you don’t like repeats. Suck it up. Hem. I also checked out a hardware store and peeked into the food stores to price stuff.

After lunch I came back here to the B&B, touched base with the internet, and settled in to my beauuuuutiful room. I think the ceiling is oak. I have a four poster bed. Seriously. If the bed is as comfy as it is pretty, I’m in for a treat ;) I then realized that for all it does have, the room is lacking a phone. Oh, and a clock again. I wonder – do people just assume that if you are in the Bahamas you aren’t going to want to get up at any particular time? Or are we expected to rely on wake up calls? I am glad I got my whacked out travel clock from Nassau, in any case. This thing is crazy. The display changes depending o what side you have it on: clock (with date), timer, temperature, or alarm set. And when you change sides, it flashed crazy disco colours. Once you set it down it will stop flashing after a moment, thankfully. You turn off the alarm by knocking it over. I know that wouldn’t work for everyone but it is fun for me! Of course when you do it flashes all disco again. Although it was more expensive than I was expecting to pay (last time I just had a really crap clock that I don’t even think I kept) I think I’m glad I shelled out for this one.

Anyway, I set out on my errand. I first called Fax Guy, who I am to call tomorrow morning sometime to set up a meeting. I am also going to try and stop by one of the resorts here and talk to one of the general managers – they have a huge property that is right n what I think is one of the prime areas. So one meeting that I’m really hopeful of and another (the resort) where I’m unsure I’ll even get to talk to anyone useful. However, I think I may be on another good track. I talked to someone at the Administrator’s office about getting a meeting with her sometime while I’m here, and I’ll check back tomorrow. I screwed up my courage a bunch of times to talk to random people, but mostly no one was home. One of the other inns here, though, assuming that it hasn’t been sold by next year, said they’d let me dig, and said there was one place down by their tiki pit where he is “sure it is where they were throwing out all their dishes. I keep finding all that blue and white wedgewood-looking stuff. I could probably find you some now in like five minutes.” Which sounds promising to me! Might be too late, but I’ll go for it.

By then I knew what my real problem was – a lot of the properties where I’d like to do work are owned by part time islander – people who mostly just come for a few weeks a year and rent their places out the rest of the time. So, I asked around for where I could get some contact info for these people, and was directed to the local realtors. I went in there to talk to them, and they were dealing with an older gentleman. Who, when he was done, said hello, and was all like ‘Oh, Texas A&M!’ So I told him what I was doing, and thereby the realtor ladies. Long story short, they said to bring them a list of the properties I’m interested in and they can give me contact e-mail addresses for the people who own them. So, score! I think that is pretty much most of the properties I really want to look at taken care of :p I just need to collect the names and talk to them tomorrow. I’m hoping Fax Guy can give me some more info about what there is to be found around here, and ideas of other place I should look.

I should say that right now I am working off the assumption that when Lord Dunmore laid out the town in 179…3? I think? That he pretty much formalized a lot of what was already in existence – or at least that he didn’t really *relocate* the settlement. The town as-is makes use of the best harbours still, to the best of my knowledge, and the information I have about the town in the late 1767’s says that the inhabitants were all loving in an area of ‘no great content’, which suggests they weren’t that dispersed. Anyway, I don’t have any *better* information at this point, so I’m rolling with it. Another question to be answered by archaeology, it seems! I haven’t been able to find a map earlier than 1937, in any case. I do want to check some more stuff in the colonial office records when I get back to the archives, though, from Dunmore’s time. But I digress.

After I’d got that all worked out, I went by another hardware/lumber store. I think I can easily get most of the stuff I’ll need locally except the screens, and the stuff to make them. Well, I can get wood, but I haven’t seen any 1/4 inch mesh. But I can probably get it in Nassau and get it sent over, or make screens there and send them over. Or, maybe, get ones from AMMC, depending on whether or not the wind is blowing north-by-north-east when a red herring swims by the end of the forgotten pier. You know ;) Maybe ;) Looking at my list, there are some other bits I need to check still, like wheelbarrows, but I’m sure I must be able to get them. I’ll just look harder or maybe even (*shock*) ask :V

So I remain encouraged on the work front. After that, I went to the piggly wiggly, which is a grocery store of sorts, and got some food – peanut butter, jelly, home made bread, some ice cream, and some water, and came back to the B&B to get ready to remember why you all hate me. I made myself some sammiches, and grabbed some of my left over lemon raspberry tea loaf, and headed to the beach with my copy of Treasure Island. I ate, wave watched, swam, and read, and it was sooooo amazing. It was a great way to wind down from my day. It was awesome to have that whole stretch of natural beach pretty much to myself (err, and the sand flies :p) for a while, and read as the evening cooled off. The sun sets on the other side of the island, alas, though apparently the sunsets are phenomenal. I’m sorely tempted to get up very early tomorrow morning to watch the sun *rise*, and go for a run along the beach. I miss Jola even more, though, after seeing so many other people wander by with their dogs :/ I have pictures (not of dogs), and I’ll try and post at least one when I post this, just to rub it in like the giant tart I am. Now, I’m going to do a bit of writing and probably go to bed early. I was going to go back out and tool around, but it is dark and I’m sleepy after what was, in retrospect, a long hot day!

However I also wanted to note that I haven’t actually had a drink yet since I came on this trip, and I’m sure some of you must be very disappointed in me. I just would rather have some peeps to drink with, ya know? Sunday I’m going out to the Paradise Island beach (Cabbage Beach – not a sexy name, I know, but it is a nice beach!) and then I’ll drink to all the awesome people who I wish could be here with me. I thought of you, when I was glorying in the ocean’s beauty and gentle embrace tonight ;)