(Mis)Adventures at Coral Bay

[Anyone reading this blog?? If so please add a comment so that I know someone is actually reading what I write. I fixed it so that you don't have to sign in to a gmail account anymore to leave a comment]

Two incredible things happened today. An incredibly stupid thing, and an incredibly miraculous thing. And they exactly canceled each other out!

I made a journey to the far side of the island — Coral Bay — to visit the Skinny Legs bar, a bar well known for its international patronage boating in from all over. The bus ride cost me all of $1 to travel the entire length of the island.

I got off the bus, walked into Skinny Legs and ordered a beer (since where ever I go I drink the local beer, I’ve been drinking nothing but Virgin Islands Summer Ale on St. John). When I reached for my wallet I discovered to my horror that it was gone! I knew it must have fallen out of my pocket while sitting on the bus. That was the stupid thing. As a seasoned traveler I normally protect my wallet very carefully and have never had it lost or pickpocketed — until now. I also know the odds of recovering a lost wallet in foreign lands is very close to zero. This was a disaster of trip-ending proportions! The only saving grace is that I knew exactly where I had lost it.

I sprinted outside to try to catch the bus coming back from the left fork turnaround, but it had already passed by. The bus then continues down the right fork before turning around again to return to the main fork. I then ran back to the fork to catch it on the return trip. Minutes seemed like agonizing hours. Finally the bus returned and I frantically scrambled onboard and ran to the back of the bus where I had been sitting before. And miracle of miracles, there was my wallet sitting right on my seat!!

That’s two miracles so far on this trip(*). I believe a third one qualifies me for sainthood.

* Previous miracle described in this blog post.