Little Cayman Dive Trip Part 1

I haven't written anything about my dive trip yet. I guess it's because I didn't want anyone to turn green with envy. Yeah, like that's a good excuse. I always like to write sumpin' about my trips. I never pass up a chance to point out that I'm a SRF© and live the good life in spite of being a Grouchy Old Cripple.

Once again I took MARTA to the airport. Under the old system, you would get a token at a vending machine and use that. Now they have sumpin' known as a Breeze Card. You can put one or multiple trips on it. Now instead of paying $1.75 each way, they tack on a surcharge. So, instead of paying $3.50 for a roundtrip, I got to pay $4.50. Yep! The Breeze Card sure is an improvement. Nice way to institute a fare increase MARTA. Assholes!

I was supposed to get a new wheelchair a few months back, but the vendor fucked up. Cindy kept haranguing the dude about it (He is in her workplace on a regular basis) and now it looks like I'll get it in the next few weeks. In the meantime, she browbeat him into getting me a loaner to take on the trip. Due to my caster problems on the old chair, the footplate is low and can snag on differences in pavement height which can make the chair stop dead and turn me into the Incredible Flying Cripple. Unfortunately, the loaner was just as bad, but at least both caster bearings were OK.

We had a 10:20 flight, so I didn't have to get up at the crack of dawn. I got to the airport at 7:10 which should have been sufficient, so I thought until I saw the line. I only had to wait in it ten minutes until a Delta rep saw me and moved me to the front of the line. Yep! Sometimes being a cripple has its advantages.

Also being a cripple allows me to cut the security line. Only took me ten minutes to get through security. I was out to the gate by 8:00 AM.

I had a seat back in row 43, but the gate agent moved me up to the row just behind the bulkhead seats. Since we were flying a 757, which uses the second door from the front for boarding, I was able to roll my chair on board and it was a quick trip (I wear my braces so I can walk on and off the plane) to my seat. I hate being wheeled on and off a plane in an aisle chair.

The flight to Grand Cayman was uneventful. I had a copy of the Atlanta Urinal and Constipation and a Sudoku book.

We then had to catch a flight to Little Cayman on a 20 seat puddle jumper. I was a guinea pig to see if we could take other crips to this dive resort. Short answer, "No." One of our guys is in a power chair. They might have been able to carry him on and off the plane, which would not be an easy task, but weight restrictions would have put the kibosh to the power chair. As it is, they stowed my chair in the luggage compartment and my wheels with me in the passenger compartment. I pretty much crawled onto the plane and into a seat in the back.

Folks were sweating the weight restrictions. It was 55 pounds for checked baggage and 10 pounds for carry on. My bags were 53 and 10, respectively. My wheelchair didn't count.

So after landing, we hopped a van for the trip to the resort which was only five minutes away. Little Cayman is not a very big island.

Upon arriving at the resort, I immediately had to have my room changed since the resort had put me into a second floor room. I guess Bert and Dawn hadn't told them I was a crip. The room I eventually got, was not the most accessible room in the world, but I was able to make it work. I'm pretty adaptable.

I got unpacked, changed clothes, and headed to the dive shop to fill out paperwork, the kind of stuff that says if I die it's not their fault. Then, it was off to the bar for my free rum punch. Then it was time for supper.

The package included all meals which we ate at the resort. There aren't too many restaurants on Little Cayman. Let me tell you, they had a great cook at this resort. The food was OK, but the desserts were out of this world, especially if you like chocolate, which I do. Everyone ate at least two desserts at every meal.

Sunday was our first day of diving and we started bright and early at 7:45. They had already taken our dive gear down to the boat, but we had to unpack it and set it up on tanks. We also had to get our weights. From then on, the normal starting time would be 8:15.

We made two dives Sunday morning. I didn't go on the afternoon dive due to some residual effects of the antibiotics I had taken for my elbow. I took the last antibiotic on Wednesday, but was still suffering some side effects on Sunday. I hoped that this shit wouldn't go on for the rest of the week.

This ends Part 1.

Posted by denny at June 7, 2007 02:11 PM