Testing the engine......... was it done right? Wheeeeeeeeeee!
It was a Joy ride... into Oblivion: Byron cleared Customs at Bimini and got his cruising Permit /Transire.
It was early afternoon and he really was hoping to make Matthew Town by dark....
He was sliding along at 500' just about sunset by the Cliffs of Cat Island... the way the setting sun was reflecting on the cliffs as he looked out the left side of the plane ... the scene was indescribable ... such fire of beauty..... 2nd or 3rd most beautiful sight he ever laid eyes on....... even still to this day.........
Well Hells bells... Byron thought to himself , not gonna make Matthew Town by Sunset... guess its Cat.
A couple of years earlier he was delivering a plane and spent the night and a day or two on Cat Island, he rented a bug and drove to the farthest northern tip of the Island there was an old wooden house on a pristine cove with a powder sugar white sand beach and the water a turquoise a glory color that is hard to describe... it was an old wooden house there and a place where Neville Chamberlain once lived.. or so he was told.. it was quite rotten and had enormous ant nests inside... but what a location..... spectacular.
This day he was in the area once again and The sun was setting and there is no V.F.R. supposedly after Dark in the Bahamas... and no runway lights... or smudge pots , most places... he thought quickly... well it was either Arthur Town, Cutlass Bay or Hawks Nest on CAT... he shot for the middle and into Cutlass Bay... he taxied up onto the apron and parked under the sole sodium light that was atop a high pole... shit... nobody around.. he got out and walked down the Queens highway into a little local village.. only one lone barking dog in the distance and nobody around like some kind of a movie set... kinda weird... what the hell? He walked back to the airport and climbed in the plane and shut the clam shell door on a sweat stained shirt so it would hang to block out the light streaming in the cockpit, Byron admired the real pretty homemade curtain as he tried to get comfortable, smelled good too...as Byron was just starting to snooze.. he heard A big manly voice say....' Who In Der? ' oh man! he peeked out the window and there was this Bahamian Official in a Uniform with what looked to be a Chrome plated .45 drawn out of its holster and he was swinging it back and forth.. a big long shiny barreled bastard glistening under that light... a Dirty Harry Special pointing , and in his general direction too, Good Lord take it easy pal.... Don't shoot!
Byron hollered out " Ebery ting Cool Mon... Yaaaaaaaaa Mon"........ a couple of three times.. the dude ordered Byron out of the plane... Byron once again " Ebery ting Cool Mon........."
What the fuck.... engaging in a lengthy conversation with the Constable and around 3 hours later they were the best of pals.... lets tip a few.... they spoke about a gambit of topics one lastly being about Free Masonry and what the Officers mother had told him about it.
Byron has to go back to Cat Island one day... its his destiny to meet himself there.. and eat a bowl of mutton stew... He is reasonably sure he met himself there in the past... in a parallel dimension... why not? after all it is the Bermuda Triangle....
The next morning Byron flew into Inagua.. and thought how similar Matthew Town looked to what Key West once must have looked like once .. with its square grid patterned streets.. that were still all coral dirt.. flying up into the air and the houses were made of clapboards and still utilized rain catchment and cisterns... while he was there Byron also visited the Flamingo rookery and some caves.... at times there are over 30,000 birds.. and the salt works ... catchy little place by the sea... Matthew Town Proper no tourism much to speak of how nice... The Natives were having some kind of a party with amplified jungle music as he called it, and grilling chicken... he bought 'hims' self a nice plate of Peas and rice and and dumped a bunch of ketchup and hot sauce on it..... he was the only white man for miles.. Byron strolled freely about the Island community no fears whatsoever . You can see the mountains of Haiti off in the distance on a clear day........ The following Hazy Day it was... poor visibility Byron was over Jeremie Haiti Looking down through the haze at the red tile roofs... and hoping he had not made a wrong turn as the navigation transmitters were down what was a G.P.S. you used to have to know how to Navigate........................The Maroons were down there you know?
The Warrior ran like a champ.
However in sharing expertise.
Byron suggests you land well before dark.
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