Vacation finally coming to an end....

It's sad but true... my vacation is now coming to and end. I'm in St. Thomas tonight typing this from my hotel. It's all good though -- between you and me, I'm getting home sick. I'm looking forward to being back in Coventry tomorrow night!

My vacation in a nutshell was great! It had some up and down moments, but it was great to get away and get centered once again. My thoughts on the U.S. Virgin Islands is this.... I first arrived on St. Thomas, but only long enough to catch a ferry over to St. John. One thing that I've really learned from viewing property on the internet is that what looks great on the internet can be kind of a dive in real life. This was somewhat true about St. John Inn. On the rating scale, I would give this inn 2.5 stars out of 10. It was hard as hell to find even though it was only a couple of blocks from Mongoose Junction (one of the few selling points). The rooms were small and air conditioned, but only if you were right in front of the air conditioner! There were no windows - just screens and shutters. That's actually "ok" here because it is so warm. But between all of that, rushing to get there, going to the sleepiest island in all the Virgin Islands, having this HUGE rain storm in the middle of the morning... I suffered from a panic attack at 9pm my second night there. God I hate those! It sucked at the time, but two Xanax and 30 minutes later, I'm all mellowed out and on my way to sleep. I woke the next morning to the sounds of roosters crowing. There are a lot of wild roosters, chickens, and donkeys on the island. They are everywhere.

The second day I was there, I managed, with a lot of trouble, to get a taxi tour around the island. We covered every major site there was and the nicest thing about it was that it was only me and the driver, so he took me to many places that he normally skips. The National Park there is awesome and a true naturalists' paradise. I told him to take me to Truck Bay and just leave me there. It's noted as being the most beautiful island in the Virgin Islands (many think in the world). With a bit of walking and swimming, I finally came upon my own private beach (I took many pictures I'll post). It was really very nice.

There were a few negatives about being there. First, drugs are very common there and a big problem. Also, homophobia is common there. I wouldn't have given that a second thought but on my way from my room one night towards Mongoose Junction, there were some men sitting out along side the road that I had to travel to get there. There were talking about the sexual act of two men being together (I'd really rather not quote them - I'm trying to forget about it). There were laughing and saying how "faggots" were going to hell. I went by as fast as I could. The looked at me and just glared. I thought there were just looking for a fight. I quickly continued on my way making sure that I didn't look at them again.

On my way to Mongoose Junction, some other guys started at me also. One turned to the other and said something, and they both laughed. I wanted to walk over to them and say "WHAT?1?1??", but I didn't. Why start a fight? I explored some of the shops and had really nice dinner at one of the local restaurants along with a nice sunset overlooking the harbor. It was overshadowed only but my apprehension of having to walk back to my room. The first two men were still there, but didn't say anything this time. I rushed back to my room and was thinking to myself that I couldn't wait to get to St.Croix the next day and was hoping that it would be friendlier. After the two days, my body started adjusting to the warm weather and I was more comfortable. Also, my chest cold was clearing up, probably because of the warm weather.

The next morning, I packed and went down to Mongoose Junction for breakfast. There's only one restaurant that serves breakfast, but it wasn't bad. I had hoped to catch a direct ferry from St. John to St. Croix, but I had missed it by 10 minutes, and it was the only one that day. I decided to take a ferry back over to St. Thomas, hoping that I would have better luck there since it was a more populated island. Once there, I learned that I had just missed the direct ferry to St. Croix by 10 minutes! It's like my whole since of timing was messed up. The next ferry didn't leave for St. Croix until 6:30 that night (it was 10:30am). I didn't want to wait all day, so I took a sea plane to St. Thomas. Instead of 3.5 hours to get there, it was only 18 minutes!! I arrived in the town of Christiansted on the north side of the island. The inn I stayed at was Sand Castle on the Beach, which was on the west side of the island in Fredericksted. I took a taxi there, and was really surprised at the greeting I received. They had my first name up on the board, and the staff was there to welcome me to their inn. It was totally the opposite of St. John. It is a gay establishment and I felt right at home. I've made a decision in my life that I'm going to try to stand by. When I travel, I'm going to try to only stay at gay inns/hotels. Then, I don't have to worry about the crap I encountered in St. John. I suppose it's sad to separate myself like that, but I never feel comfortable anymore in a place that doesn't like me or really want me there. So, why put myself in that position. I guess I didn't realize how bad St. John was until I ended up in a place that really wanted me there. I'll post many photos of the inn. It's really quite a place.

The other big thing I did on the island was to take a sail out in the ocean. We sailed over to Buck Island and went snorkeling. I admit I was a bit spooked at the whole idea after Hawaii (had a bad experience there), but the captain (who was like a total hunk, by the way), helped out a lot. We all had to go through this coral canyon and it was very narrow. I managed to get through it without a scratch thanks to him. It was really a completely different world. I took an underwater camera and will hopefully have some good stuff to post. I won't know for a week or so. That's all for now. I'll share more stories as time goes on.