Overall another wonderful trip, but this one was not without it's issues:

Got a call at 3:00am from an automated Delta service indicating that our trip from our home airport had been cancelled. The "system" had re-booked us for the following day, not knowing it was possible for me to drive to Atlanta. After 1 hour on hold with Delta, we were finally re-booked for our original day, packed and heading down the road at 4:15am. Made the flight without a problem.

All other logistics were fine; did our usual cell phone (Sharon Harris), rental car (Michael, Unity), stock of groceries and check in at Esmeralda.

Now it's getting to be late in the day, but we wanted to walk the length of the beach (clothed) to say our first "hello" and get a taste of actually being there. We arrived at the Club O end at sometime after 5:00pm. Anyone who visits Orient Beach regularly knows that as the shadows get long, the umbrellas go down and the beach starts to clear significantly. This was the case down there.

The problem was the new tagging system, which we had been exposed to, as it wasn't in place last year. It's pretty complicated: tickets must be purchased for day visitors that are good for TAGS that are removed each day. Guests staying at Club O have a different system, but it's still unclear if their tickets stay on the entire lenght of their stay (I think they do).

Well, we wanted to jump in for a minute (now it's 5:15) so we put our towels, sandles and other things on a tagged chair. Remember, there are a lot of tagged chairs by the end of the day.. day visitor tags are removed sometime in the morning.

We were waist deep in the water when an irate man in his mid 70s came up to the chair, tore each peice off of the chair and threw it in the sand; yelling all the while that "this is B#$% S&*T. Recognizing that we made a mistake, we immediately started coming out of the water telling him that we were sorry and that we'd move our stuff somewhere else... that wasn't good enough. He then gethered the stuff in the sand (including towels) and threw it in the ocean, continuing to stream obscenity and actually flipped Cathy off. We calmly gathered our stuff and put it on a clearly untagged chair. He continued to storm the beach, log arms flapping in rage, seemingly looking for security or some other justice.

He was clearly drunk, or insane, but in either case, confronting him seemed futile. So we took our wet gear, rinsed it out and tried to feel pity for this deeply disturbed individual.

The good news was that several on the beach witnessed the whole thing and applogized to us on his behalf; saying that "most people are not like this." We know this to be true, having visited for several years now. This turned out to be a great opportunity to meet some very friendly, wonderful folks that we spent time talking to for the rest of the week.

If he ever cooled down, or sobered up, he never appologized, but left mid week and we had no further problems. (we bought tickets/tags and stayed "legal" the rest of the week).

We were dissapointed that there are a few folks with "zero tolerance." We admit that we made a mistake, out of ignorance, but we would have gladly removed our stuff immediately if this man had simply pointed this out. Failing that, if he needed to have his say and cuss us out, that would have been understandable to a point (really I don't like people talking to my wife that way, but I make allowances for the drunk or insane). Failing THAT, throwing the stuff in the sand is recoverable, but failing all of that, gathering it from the sand and pitching it in the ocean is way out of line.

The rest of the trip was OK. Traffic is buidling and the locals say that the new airport will probably begin to choke this little island's infrastructure. We had water issues as it was; explained as a island wide water pressure/supply issue. Intermittant, and not much of a problem, but worrysome for the future. We may have to find a new vacation spot because of over-popularity.

Beaches, food and weather were fine.. the food was good and so-so, consistent with other posts.

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