Back to the islands

The second time I went to the Bahamas was in May of 1992.  Bud and I belonged to a bowling league and the league decided to have a contest to see who could earn the most money for charity.  First prize was an all expenses paid (with only a few little asterisks) four day/three night vacation to Freeport in the Bahamas.  It was actually a gambling junket package that Princess Hotels and Casino offered, but it was in the Bahamas and it was almost free.  The object of the contest was to get people (theoretically, your friends) to agree to pay a certain amount of money per pin for a preselected game you would bowl (for example, 10¢ per pin and you score a 175 would mean that person would pay $17.50 toward your charity).  I was a slightly below average bowler.  I really enjoyed the sport, but I've never been good at things that require hand/eye coordination, or that require walking and doing anything else at the same time.  I could never put any of that fancy spin stuff on the ball.  I usually started the season bowling around 160, but by the time the season was over my average had dropped to around 135 or 140.  This is exactly the opposite of how it is supposed to happen.  You are supposed to improve each week.  Well, as we all know, I've never been very good at doing things the way they are supposed to be done.


So, I set out to get people to pledge some money for my bowling.  This was my opportunity to get even.  Throughout my entire work history, I had always been the person who did not have children in school or scouts who were selling candy or magazines or wrapping paper or some other fundraising hooha.  When I was in school or girl scouts, we personally went door-to-door trying to sell our wares.  Well, actually I was only a girl scout for three weeks before I was unceremoniously booted out because I seemed to have some difficulty blindly following orders that seemed foolish to me.  Which makes one wonder how I ever lasted my entire enlistment in the military.  But, back to the fundraising.  It has been a very long time since it was safe to send children out knocking on strangers' doors, so parents now do the fundraising and the kid reaps the benefits.  Parents bring the booklets and order forms to their place of employment and corral fellow employees into buying all sorts of things for which they have no use.  For years, just to keep these parents from badgering me, I ordered all sorts of paraphernalia that would sit around my home gathering dust (unless it was chocolate) until I finally got tired of looking at it and either donated it to charity or threw it out.  Now, at last, I was to get my revenge.  Every parent from whom I had ever purchased any item for their child's fundraising efforts was now fair game for my charity bowling event, and there were a bunch of them.  In the overall scheme of things, the score was never close to even.  I only did this once in my life.  Parents did it every year they had kids in school or scouts -- the same parents year after year after year.


After I got all my suckers donors lined up, I went to the Controller of the company where I worked and talked him into a matching donation.  This meant if I earned $300 from my "friends" pledges, the company would throw in another $300 and my contribution to charity would be $600.  Somehow I managed to coerce enough people to sponsor me so when I bowled a 187 game, my charity earnings were around $650.  My company kicked in another $650, bringing my total to around $1300, which by far surpassed any other bowler in the league.  I won the trip!!!!


I was so excited I couldn't sit still.  I talked Bud into kicking in a little of our own money and extending it to five days/four nights.  The airfare was the same (free) and we basically ended up paying for just one night in the Princess Country Club Hotel in Freeport since the other nights were included in the package.  As it got closer and closer to our departure date, I got more and more excited.  Bud, on the other hand, was completely blasé and uninterested.  To be perfectly honest, he was really getting on my nerves with his apathetic attitude.  Finally, when he got on my last nerve, I demanded to know what was the matter with him, and did he think maybe I should take someone else since he didn't seem to have the least bit of excitement or anticipation.  He explained that he had never been to the islands, he had no idea what to expect, and he couldn't get excited since he didn't know whether he would enjoy himself or not.  I just threw my hands up and walked off muttering.  What?  He couldn't believe me when I told him how incredible it was going to be?  Men!  Sometimes I wonder how it is we ever manage to live together at all. 


Our airplane left at oh-dark-thirty in the morning from Raleigh, North Carolina.  Raleigh is an hour and a half from our home.  The plane was chartered by Princess and was a direct flight from Raleigh to Freeport.  They offered Bahama Mamas (a rum drink you can never get enough of) in flight.  We arrived in beautiful, warm, sunny Freeport early in the day and had plenty of time to check in and get to the beach.  We received a coupon book as part of the package with specials at some of the hotel restaurants and some chips to get started at the casino.  The purpose, of course, is to get you into the casino and tempt you to spend your own money -- a lot of your own money.  It was the first time I'd ever been in a casino and I was fascinated by the noise and the flashing lights and the brilliant tackiness of it all.  I'm a bit like a crow and easily distracted by sparkly things.  I only play the 25¢ slots though.  And even then I only play until I lose a preset amount of money and then I walk away.  Bud plays blackjack, and after our first visit to the Bahamas he bought a book and studied how to be a better blackjack player. 


It took Bud less than 30 minutes to decide he was a tropical island kinda guy.  As a matter of fact, he had such a grand time, we purchased a timeshare apartment right there at the Princess Country Club so we could return often.  Why is it this guy never believes me when I tell him I know what he likes?