The "Antigua 2019: Meeting Michael - Part III" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Heading to the beach for the day when someone yelled, "Hey, Lar...Have a good day on the beach!"  Yep, it was Michael.  We have become good friends since I first met Michael over a week ago.  He seemed to be at the resort most every day trying to drum up some business for his land and water tours.  We took the land tour with him as I have described in the past two stories, but didn't care to take the water tour.  He actually had two water tours; one included a boat ride to an offshore island where he would cook lobsters for us before returning to Antigua while another was a fishing trip.  Jere and Just Sue, our traveling mates, chose to do the fishing tour and had a good time except for the fact that Jere caught only one small fish.  

Sue has just made her way into the water while Jere will
try next.  Getting in and out was the tough part of the trip.

Seems that they were one of his first fishing trip customers and he had a friend who had a new boat that they used for the trip.  They boarded in shallow water and when they returned they dis- embarked in shallow water.  They decided they needed to have a better way to board and depart for future trips.  During our time with Michael we talked about our families and what we enjoyed doing while on vacation.  Michael told us he was 60 years old and had 10 children to 9 different women.  Boy, did that lead to an interesting round of conversation.  He seemed to know everyone and was friends with most.  One afternoon I was walking around the resort taking photographs to share when I heard..."Hey, Lar...come play dominoes with us!"  I walked over to the table where Michael and his two friends, David and Buffalo, were engaged in a wild game of dominoes.  I had played a few times during vacation trips to other Caribbean islands, but hadn't played for a few years.  Seems the one general rule, no mater what island you may be visiting, is to see who can smack the domino down onto the table with the most force.  Hey, I can do that I thought.  Wasn't long before the tall, thin white guy was smashing dominoes with the best of them.  And...they didn't let me win a single game!  Matter of fact, I was the first one out in each game I played.  I asked David why they didn't let me win a game and he said that he heard I was going to write a story about my experiences and didn't want to be the loser in my story.  After about a dozen games my hand was gettin sore from smashing the domino on the table, so I thanked them for allowing me to play and wished them well.  Michael stopped on our final beach day to say "Good-Bye" to us and thanked us for visiting with him every day.  He is a true ambassador to his home country and a fun one to top that off.  He is someone we will always remember when we get together to talk about our trip to Antigua.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

Buffalo

Michael

David

LDub getting ready to slam one of his dominoes on the table.