A CHANGE OF PACE... Bermuda (Part 164e)

A CHANGE OF PACE… Bermuda (Part 164e)

After changing we headed for the “pen”, what they called the area where the mopeds were garaged. We had to go through a training session before we could leave and go out on the roads. It was simple stuff and when we were allowed to put the bikes in gear I thought Elle was going to crash, for sure. The accelerator was at one end of the handle bar and when she turned it she went too far. When the bike started to go forward she almost fell off. In looking back, it was funny… but not at the time. The guy who was instructing us thought he had a casualty but she got control and was able to stop before hitting anything. It was enough of a scare for her to not want to go on but the guy went over the whole thing again with her. I was able to convince her she’d be OK after changing our original plans so that we’d head in a Southerly direction where there wouldn’t be as much traffic. It turned out to be the thing to do as it meant we’d turn left upon leaving the complex and we’d not have to cross oncoming traffic. We’d spent way longer than I’d planned but it did put us in the right direction to find the overlooks that I’d asked about. When searching for them I’d been told to look for a what appeared to be a grassy meadow to our left as we headed South. After finding it we were told to look for what appeared to be narrow paths and to follow them but… to go slowly and to be careful of rocks that were really black coral. Hitting one with too much speed could blow a tire or, worse, cause us to lose control and… crash. I, leading, was trying to find one of the little paths that led to where we could see water. I was about to give up and stopped. I don’t know the reason but I decided to leave the bike and pathway and just headed across the grass on foot. It only took me couple of minutes to find what I was looking for… the ocean. I called for Elle to come on out to get a look. It was spectacular seeing the waves splashing up on what looked like craggy rocks (really coral). My guess is that we were about 60 to 70 feet up from the ocean where we were. I decided to walk further South and down a small hill. It was quite a discovery. I was able to walk out on a small coral profusion and from there I could look down and see a small beach to the North. My first reaction was to want to get down to it. I retraced my way back to Elle and then headed North looking for any hint of access to the water. We spent at least a half hour before I found what could loosely be described as a path that headed downward. It was fairly steep and Elle wanted no part of it. I went down to the point I was confident that I could not only get to the beach but, more important, be able to get back up.

At that point I looked at my watch and was shocked to see that from the time we left our room almost three hours had passed. Our original plan was to head to the Northerly end of the island, possibly making it as far as St. Georges, one of the three largest centers on the island. Elle was wearing a pair of pink check Bermuda shorts (what else?) and when I got back to her she was leaning against her bike with a look of disgust on her face. A quick glance at her crotch area told me why. I asked why she hadn’t at least pulled her shorts down. She pointed to the button at her waist. That didn’t make any sense to me but she didn’t waste anytime before complaining that she couldn’t get the button to go through to hole. I had to bite my tongue to keep from smiling. But she was also quick to add that she’d started sneezing and couldn’t stop. She pointed to the flowers throughout the field that we’d just gone through. I didn’t recognize them but knew they weren’t ragweed, a plant we both had a reaction to. I made an attempt to feel the wetness of her shorts but she just turned away. She was upset about it because the shorts were new for the trip.

After a minute or two I explained to her that I’d found a way to the beach and how it would be a great place to have a private picnic. I knew from reading the materials at the hotel that we could request box lunches. I had to do a bit of a ‘sell’ job but by the time we decided to head back she was ‘on board’ with it. Climbing back on the moped she was concerned about her wetness showing but, as it turned out, the pink checks covered it up pretty well. She didn’t believe me but since she didn’t have any other choice she got on the bike and we headed back with her in the lead. It was obvious that she’d pretty much mastered the controls and we ended up traveling ‘at speed’ most of the way back.

After leaving the bikes at the “pen” we made our way to the hotel. Elle was still concerned about the wetness showing and wanted me to find an alternate entrance. We walked around though one of the gardens and I saw the activities director headed for the building. I called out to him and he answered us by name. I remember standing there in amazement. Here we’d only been there for 24 hours and he knew who we were. By the time we caught up to him I could see that he’d been headed for a side door. It definitely wasn’t one for the guests so I asked if we could get in that way. He told us to follow him and as we did I watched him use a key to open the door. He pointed the way to the elevators and just before he turned to go in the opposite direction he told us he knew we were celebrating our 10th anniversary. He went on to say that he’d set aside a table for us for that night’s entertainment, the steel drum band. Now I was really impressed with him.

In the elevator I asked Elle if she’d been embarrassed while we were talking with the guy. She sort of laughed and said she was so ’taken’ with the guy know our names she’d forgotten about being wet. Back in our room she took off the shorts and washed them out as best she could not wanting them to get stained. That left her in just her panties and top and I made that quickly disappear. She headed out to the balcony so she could hang the shorts to dry outside. As I watched her I wished I could have a picture of her that way, with the ocean as a background… but…

When it was time for the entertainment, as promised, we were escorted to a front row table just off to the left of the stage for the steel band performance. We were also treated to champagne and something called truffles to munch on. I didn’t much like them but when it came to the steel band, they were fantastic. When the show was over a lot of the guests headed for the bar but with neither of us into that scene we started back to our room. We got off the elevator and headed towards our room and we saw this woman dressed in what looked like a shortie nightie standing in front of a room door, knocking on it. We stopped before she saw us, looked at each other and smiled as the door opened and she disappeared inside. I honestly don’t think she saw us but as we passed by the door we did laugh… out loud.

Getting ready for bed we talked about what we’d just seen surmising how that had all come about. Somehow we ended up coming up with the idea for Elle to go outside our door in her nightie and for me to take a picture. It wasn’t exactly the type of picture I really wanted but Elle thought it would be cute for our trip album. You decide…
       

To be continued...