2:30am. That’s the time I started my morning on my first day of travel from an average-sized Howard Johnson’s motel room. Given that our flight was due to leave at 6:25am, we either had the choice to get on the road from home at 3am for the hour drive to Detroit Metro or stay at one of those nearby airport motels. We opted for the motel option after we found a deal that was actually cheaper than using the long-term parking lots. Unfortunately, with my built-in sleep patterns that usually begin around 2am on most nights when I finally start getting tired, I found it hard to get any sleep at the motel. All in all, I think I got about one and a half hours of rest, which for a guy who’s riddled at the present time in life with various pains and ailments, this didn’t bode well for the start of my vacation.
Needless to say, I did my best to suck it up and do my morning spiritual routines. By the time I was finished with them, as well as my shower, I was feeling overly grumpy and pessimistic. My body felt off, way off in fact, which regrettably only led to me snapping at my partner a bunch of times as we headed to the airport. Sadly, this is something I know I need to work on some more in life.
Nevertheless, when we entered the airport at 5:15am, I honestly thought it would have been rather quiet, but boy was I wrong, it was totally slammed with people everywhere. After making our way through the American Airlines check-in process, checked in our bags and received our boarding passes, I decided to give in and follow the advice of my spiritual teacher and ask for wheelchair assistance. And man did that feel like it was going against my ego on every level.
Regardless, as I sat down in my first assisted ride out to the security checkpoint, I watched as everyone stared at me, eyeing me up and down trying to assess what was wrong with me. I felt like an invalid because of it, yet I suddenly remembered plenty of times when I myself did the same exact thing in prior airport visits.
Thankfully, a nice perk came along with that wheelchair assistance though. My partner and I were ushered ahead of everyone at those long security checkpoint lines. That was such a welcomed relief given how hard it is for me to stand for long periods. Not too long after this, we were well on our first leg of the flight. I spent most of it meditating, saying positive affirmations, and dozing off, which for the most part made it go by rather quickly. Once in Charlotte and off the plane, we were whisked away by one of those loud beeping carts, heading for our next place of departure. Once there, I purchased breakfast for the two of us at a Starbucks: two yogurts, two oatmeal’s, and two hot chocolates. If you can believe it, the total was a whopping $30!
Anyway, the second leg of the flight departed after a brief delay and for most of it, I tried to sleep. Yet somehow I was just too wrapped up in my frustrated thoughts about my health to get any real quality shuteye. I think that’s why it was such a welcomed relief to finally arrive in Grand Cayman a few hours later. I thought it rather interesting how we disembarked from the plane, as the airport didn’t have those jetways. Instead, we walked out the back of the plane, headed down some tall stairs, and stepped onto the runway itself. From there a woman was holding a card with my name on it, while standing in front of a wheelchair. To be honest, I was actually going to try walking through the customs process instead of using the assistance, but given my pain levels, I graciously accepted her help. After doing so, we made it through the luggage retrieval and security checkpoints with ease and not too long after were well on our way in a Ford Fiesta from Budget Rental, heading to the other side of the island for the Wyndham Reef Resort.
Driving in Grand Cayman was a little scary to say the least because they do so on the left side of the road versus the right. I narrowly avoided a few accidents right from the onset, but after settling in and getting used to it, we drove along the beautiful coastline to our resort on the other side of the island.
Upon arrival, we checked in and swiftly headed to our room in total exhaustion, but somehow gained a second wind after seeing the view from our balcony, which looked straight out onto the beach and ocean directly in front of us. After unloading our luggage, we headed across the street to a small grocery store to get some supplies, since we had planned to cook more than not. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much of a variety so we headed 20 miles back to where a much larger store was. $350 dollars later, yes $350 dollars, our car was full of breakfast, lunch, and dinner foods for the next 10 days. Prices for food on Grand Cayman were extremely expensive, but I wasn’t surprised given how everything had to be flown in. For example one cup of Chobani Yogurt was $2.00, while a package of bacon cost $10.00!
By the time we got back to the resort after our extended grocery trip, I know my partner was totally exhausted, not just from the long travel day, but also with me. My obsessions about my health had gotten the best of me, much in part due to my lack of sleep. Given that, I decided to take him out to dinner instead of cooking for our first evening there. We headed across the street to a nice Italian place and both opted for some gourmet pizza, which was rather tasty. I had a BBQ Chicken and Artichoke combo, while he had some deluxe meat-based one.
An hour or so later, our evening came to an end with a short stroll along the beachfront. Upon reaching our room, I began to wind down for the night and reflected on my first day. I realized in doing so that I had made one major error throughout most of our first day of vacation. I hadn’t turned over much of my frustrations and fears to my Higher Power and instead had lolled in them, which only caused unnecessary fatigue to both myself and my partner. But, as they always say in recovery, tomorrow was another day, and I was sure after a good night’s rest, I would feel far better… 🙂
Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson
