Negril Adventure

Shocker of the week.....the $250 jelly coconut in Negril!

Mystery of the week....how Barry left Kingston the same time as the others yet reached
Negril 5 hours before every one else. Some people think he took a minibus!

Joke of the week....A motorotist seeing Howie lying on the sidewalk and thinking he was dead, summoned the police.

These are the things we will probably be talking about for many years as we remember the decision to ride to Negril in 2011.

While the weaklings decided to ride from Chris' home in St. Ann, the real MTR's rode from Kingston.We weaklings should have travelled down to St. Ann on Friday 7th January, but at the last minute Motty called me to sit in for him, so diligently I gassed up my car and checked my tires to ensure that I could leave immediately after the programe.

As I returned home I received a call from Charles that he had arranged for me to travel down with Sharon and Richard at 3.30pm. That was the best news of the day but as 3.30 passed, I called Richard only to hear that he knew nothing about such plans and he did not think they were going...... my heart fell. Anyway he suggested that I call Sharon and she assured me that they were definitely going, only Richard did not know it yet! Anyway she said she was just leaving school so would pick me up in about an hour. Well an hour came and went as did two. Every call assured me that they would be soon there which turned out to be after 6pm. Anyway once we got on the road all was well especially when we stopped just beyond Castleton gardens for soup and jerk pork.

The others had left out long before and I hear that as they got their bikes ready, Fatman used his super strength to burst Charles' tube as he pumped it, but all was well as they were able to wake up the operator of a cycle shop to solve the problem.

That night we bunked on beds, sofas and the floor at Chris' home and that of her tenant only to be roused from a nice sleep at around 3.30 am by Charles. We left out about 4am and why wasn't I surprised that neither Charles nor Theresa had lights! This slowed us down considerably and in fact it took us one hour to cover the first five miles.

Anyway as dawn broke we picked up the pace and eventually split into two groups. my group with Nicole, Sharlene, Standford, Chris and Fatman got to Mobay at 10am. Chris the driver did an excellent job covering the both groups but in Mobay he was called back to take Sharon and Richard back to St. Ann where they had left their vehicle as they had to get back to Kingston. Charles tried to bribe us to wait on his group by claiming he had ordered breakfast for us, but we resisted this and instead had coffee at Island Grill and resumed the journey.

By the time we got outside of Hopewell, I started to see some excellent beauty spots that I might want to paint at some time in the future, so stopped to take pictures including some excellent shots of the over 200 year old water wheel at Tryall which is still in operation and which is used to keep the fabulous world renowned golf course in peak condition.

Fatman and I had stayed back with Sharlene who was having a problem with her bike, but eventually they left me as I dallied with my camera. By 11.30 am , although I was in no tired or exhausted, with the sun blazing down, I decided that since no one was paying me to ride and since my neck was killing me, it was time to get out of the sun, so I called Charles and he returned with a support vehicle being driven by his friend Stephen and thankfully I jumped in and was even more elated to hear that they were heading straight for the beach in Negril .

We passed Fatman and Sharlene shortly after and invited them to jump in but they were resolute. Poor Fatman, he told me that after he stayed with Sharlene the whole time, when Orrel the conquerer arrived, she declared " Orrel is here now so all is well." Deflated, he rode off by himself while she stayed with her hero.

We saw Chris and invited her also to come out of the sun and drive with us, but although the effects of a lack of sun block were already showing on her, she determined that she was going to go all the way.

Well we went to the beach at Shields hotel and had a wonderful afternoon while the real heroes and heroines slogged in the sun. At around 5 pm we walked into town for dinner and shortly after Fatman rode in saying that Nicole and Stanford, Chris, Orrel and Sharlene had already come in but had gone to their hotel at "Cotton Tree." He was so exhausted that as soon as he ate, he fell asleep with his mouth wide open.....a most tempting sight!

Shortly afterwards, Barry who had left with the Kingston riders at 4am and had a mishap with his support vehicle being driven by Pat, causing them to be delayed for some time at the police station, arrived. When we expressed absolute amazement at how he had arrived so early, he admitted to having driven over part of Mount Rosser in St. Catherine. We are still in awe and are questioning the steroids that he has been taking since none of the other Kingston riders arrived in Negril before 9pm....some 4 hours after he did!

Only next day did we learn some of the drama that took place with them, for somewhere in Hanover, apparently Howie had dismounted and lay down on the sidewalk only to draw the attention of a caring, passing motorists who summoned the police to investigate the dead body on the ground! Michael seems to have created similar concern for Howie did find him lying on the sidewalk near Rosehall and really thought he was not breathing until he let out a loud snore. He admitted afterwards that he had actually stopped for a nap twice and is quite deflated that motorists did not show the same kind of concern for him as they did for Howie!

I certainly had a wonderful time and while the heroes insist that they did too, my non -masochistic outlook makes it impossible for me to understand how people can have fun torturing themselves that way! I understand that when Howie arrived he declared that he would never ride again....till the next day.

I never saw Maurice, Michael or Alrick at all since they left early next morning but I understand that Alrick never finished the ride as after the misfortune of 3 punctures, he ran out of spare tubes. Michael owes me US$500 for he had said he would catch and pass us the St. Ann riders, but I guess that money is dead!

My new resolution is not to ride more than 30 miles again for the unrelenting sun and the pain in the neck demolishes my idea of fun.....different strokes for different folks.

The next day was absolutely wonderful, beach, breakfast then check out....... the best part was of course the lyme at Lymings in Walkerswood where we stopped for food....great jerk pork and there we saw Sharlene and Damit cooling out. Surprise, surprise, Damit had also ridden from Kingston and he tells me he was the last to arrive, reaching his bed at around 11pm.

Well such it is till the next great adventure Fun and thrills style...........

For photographs see Facebook.