The "One Stoplight Island" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Sitting by the fireplace with my laptop trying to stay warm.  Had to be at the Manheim Township Middle School at 7:00 AM this morning for a photo of the Jazz Band.  As I made my way to the school I took a look at my exterior temperature reading on my dash and saw it was 8 degrees.  My cat, who is sharing my lap with 

 my computer, is glad that Carol and I rescued him and can now stay inside rather that suffer through the deep freeze we are exper- iencing. But the cold doesn't prevent Carol and me from starting to prepare for our next stay in our second home, the island of Sint Maarten/St. Martin.  Corresponding with Magali our real estate agent, watching the Travel Channel and Home & Garden Channel, reading material on what we may want to experience and checking out the beaches we want to explore occupy our cold evenings.  When we arrived on the island last year, Magali's assistant, Stephan, greeted us with, "Welcome home!"  If you don't know by now, the island of St. Martin is half Dutch and half French, thus the two names given a few sentences ago.  After our last visit in May 2013, we talked with Magali about 2014 and picked out our dates for our visit this year.  Placed a third down on Villa Jeluca and am now waiting for the price of airfare to drop so I can buy airline tickets.  Seems that may not happen, since I have been checking for eight months and they are still about the same price.  That was until this morning when I checked and found they have now risen $100 from yesterday.  Wow!  Gonna make it tough to afford the airline tickets, but certainly won't keep us home.  We figure we have fewer years to travel, since we are getting older more quickly than we anticipated, and will not miss out on an opportunity to get our dose of Vitamin D while relaxing on a gorgeous beach in the Caribbean.  

For those who have had the opportunity to travel to the Caribbean, especially St. Martin, you know the benefits of experiencing a great vacation.  The warm water, beaches for lounging and walking, meals that you don't have to prepare and the joy of driving where you don't have to stop all the time for traffic lights.  Why did I put that last note in the last sentence?  Well, the French side of St. Martin has zero traffic lights while the Dutch side has only one traffic light.  

The one and only stop light in Sint Maarten.

Round-a-bouts and yield signs, or no signs at all, greet you at most intersections which make for easier driving as long as you are aware of your surroundings and the flow of the traffic.  Most times you can't travel faster than 35 or 40 MPH, since the terrain of the island is hilly and the roads aren't the best in the world.  And, when traveling through one of the few towns on the island, the traffic gets congested and doesn't allow for much more that 10 to 15 MPH.  But the atmosphere of driving is enjoyable.  Lots of honking and beeping to signal it is fine to get in line or to thank someone for allowing you to get in line in front of them.  Takes only an hour or so to realize everyone else driving is on island time which means a slowed-down pace and easy traveling.  Only drivers who don't seem to follow that theory are the ones who drive on two wheels.  The motorcyclists travel in the center of the road and think nothing of passing between two cars if necessary.  Still find it amazing that more aren't killed or injured.  Well, Creamsicle is getting annoyed that I'm not petting him as much as he thinks I should, so he is preparing to hop off my lap.  Gonna give me a chance to go add a few photos to this story and sit by the fire again.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

PS - I wrote this story a couple of days ago and since writing the story was able to buy my airfare.  Will be flying with Delta Airlines which is new for Carol and me.  Flying from Baltimore, MD to JFK in New York and then a direct flight to SXM or Sint Maarten.  Price is the best I have found since I started looking and even with a modest additional amount added from my travel agent, the price is still great.  Now all I have to do is arrange for the parking in Baltimore. Additionally, I am listening to the sleet and frozen rain strike the window next to me as we progress through the second of the three winter storms that we are supposed to get this WEEK!