The "Glistening Pools of Water on the Tarmac: Part II" Story

Jerry directing me as I turn around on the "2-lane" road.

It's an ordinary day.  Picking up where I left off yesterday during our day trip to North and Middle Caicos islands.  Few days ago we landed in Providenciales which is also one of the islands in the Turks and Caicos chain of islands. Known as "The Jewel of the Caribbean," the chain is a cluster of eight major islands and 40 smaller islands or cays, located approximately 21 degrees north latitude by 71 degrees west longitude, below the southernmost tip of the Bahamas chain. TCI (Turks and Caicos islands) is a British Crown Protectorate.  The capital of the islands in Cockburn Town, located on the island of Grand Turk, about 575 miles from Miami.  Anyway, getting back to the story.  I had just checked to see if I felt like I could drive our sun-bleached white car over the opening between the roadway and the edge of the concrete bridge that separated the two islands.  Made my choice, headed back to the car, put my seat belt on, popped the gear lever into "D" and tramped on the gas.  No turning back now.  I slowed down when I had to drive over the piece of roadbed that was sticking up about two inches before the bridge, but the car lowered and took front-wheel hold of the bridge's road surface.  Good to go!  Over the bridge and no problem on the other side as the bridge had a smooth connection to the other side.  But, the road's surface past this point was more of the same of what I had just maneuvered.  Large sharp rocks and endless deep potholes created by the washing away of the tarmac from either a tropical storm or a hurricane.  Drove a quarter of a mile then realized that the road was now reduced to one lane with road surface slabs built up on either side.  Large black tubes that looked like PVC were also exposed with what was probably electrical and telephone lines jutting out of them at various places.  Wow, looks like the end of the world. How can people drive safely on roads like this.  It was here that I made a choice.  I stopped the car, looked at my crew and told them I was turning around.  I could sense the disappointment, since we were told there was a beautiful beach in Middle Caicos, a short distance after we crossed this causeway we were now crossing.  Jerry said, "You're driving.  I'm OK with that."  My wife, knowing that a recent re-occurrence of my shingles I got 6 months ago came from stress, and wasn't being helped by this stress, also said she agreed that we should turn around.  I was disappointed, but gosh, it's only our 3rd day here and we paid for more days.  Don't want to miss out on those because we plunk this piece of ugly metal we are riding into the Caribbean Sea.  Now, how do we turn around.  Jerry hops out and directs me back and forth until finally I am clear to head back.  Half an hour later we are back on a firm surface again and hungry as can be.  We pulled into a restaurant that was the brightest shades of green and yellow you can imagine, pure Caribbean, only to be told that the restaurant is closed for the season.  We get directions to one that is open and head to "Miss B's", a mile or two down the road.  Sure enough, Miss B. herself greets us as we entered her pale yellow restaurant.  We opt to sit outside where the breeze is blowing from all directions.  Meals with conch and Caribbean lobster dotted the menu.  After our refreshing stop at Miss B's, and a few photos of her, we hit the road again.  Find a road leading to a beach called horsestable beach and head in that direction.  Within a minute we see a beautiful beach with inviting water.  We need to remove the day's stress and grime so we head to the water.  Relaxing!  Half an hour later and it is time to head back to the ferry dock for our return trip.  Again, as usual, I take a wrong turn and have to stop for directions.  Pulled into a sand driveway, lowered the window and asked how to get back to Sandy Ground.  A hefty woman in maybe her mid-30's hustled over to the car.  But, she didn't stop there.  She opened the rear door and told my wife in her broken creole language to move over.  She was going to show us where the place was.  Carol slid to the center of the seat, the woman plopped in next to her and then .......... called for her four-year old equally hefty daughter to come sit on her lap.  So here we are, six of us in a car that I thought wouldn't clear the potholes with four in it, on our way to Sandy Ground.  I asked her which way and she pointed and said straight.  "Which way is straight?" I said to no one in particular.  Carol responded, after seeing which way the lady was pointing,"To your right."  And, off we went.  After a few more "straight" turns I told everyone I needed to stop for gas to put enough in to take us back to where it was at the beginning of our adventure.  This was going to be an experience, since we needed to get off the roadway and the drop-off seemed to be maybe four inches down.  Did it on the diagonal with no scrapping, but positioned myself in the wrong approach for the pumps, so had to back up and move forward a few times to get next to the pump, all the while beeping and beeping every time I put the car in reverse.  Woman attendant close to my age asked how much I wanted.  Gave her a $5 bill and said that much.  Jerry checked the needle on the dash and said it didn't move so I gave her a $10 and 3 ones and asked for my $5 back.   That worked so we had restocked the gas tank with $8 worth of gas.  The woman was thoroughly annoyed, but not as much as when she noticed the four-year old black girl and her mother in the rear of the car.  She asked me, "What are they doing in there?"  The rear window went down and the two islanders said something I didn't understand and the older woman just looked at me and shook her head.  Off we went, straight.  A mile or two down the road Carol told me to pull over at the next house.  Out jumped our riders with a point down the road to where we needed to go.  Well, we got back safely.  I got my license plate I told you about yesterday, and we got a much more memorable journey than if we had found the beautiful beach at the end of the yellow-pot-holed road.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy. 

Caribbean restaurant we stopped at for lunch, but found it closed for the season.

"Miss B" who prepared a great lunch for us.  She agreed for a photo as long as I didn't make her look fat.

Horsestable Beach were we stopped to unwind.

Island guide and daughter.