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Tuesday March 20, 2012

Up early, it is crunch day, Donna and the others are landing at 8 PM tonight. A little after 8 AM Deborah and I leave for the supermarkets. First K-Mart, then Cost U Less and finally The Food Center. Deborah has her clip board with her meal plans and required shopping list. Provisioning day is always difficult due to the planning, the search for items taking you to more than one store and the sheer volume. We always fill up 2 or more shopping carts at one of our stops. The volume of the rental car becomes an issue. Today we will fill up the trunk first and then the back seat. When you are buying food enough for 9 people for 2 weeks, you are talking about a non trivial volume of food. Add to this the likes, dislikes and food allergies of the group and you can see how big a problem it can be.

Checkout again reminds us of the need to slow our roll. Unlike Costco on the US mainland, the checkers must not have a quota to meet. With 2 baskets of groceries and a line behind us it seems to take forever. The checker stops to carry on conversation with the customer ahead of us while I fill the checkout stand and stand with 2 hands full of items with the first basket still not empty. 

We had to restrain ourselves from buying more items at The Food Center as there is no more room in the rental car. There is so much food that the trunk is crammed full. The back seat is crammed so full our front seats are moved forward so much our knees are touching the dash, even the seat back is leaning forward. At the marina we fill up a golf cart equipped with a pickup truck like rear and an attached trailer about the same size. Having a half dozen of us load and unload at Bella Donna, we were under cover before the next rain shower - maybe thanks to the heads up penny. At least that is what I think. Luckily the duration of any one shower is less than 15 minutes. At one stop I found a heads up penny and this I am convinced bought us good luck to miss a shower or two. If we had thought to bring umbrellas it would not have helped us as the intensity of the rain was 9 out of 10. The groceries would be ruined.

The flight from Miami is early. I see Donna pulling her carry on towards the luggage, my heart skips a beat; it has only been a week and I missed her. We all stand waiting for the checked luggage. One after another of the fellow passengers pick up their bags. There are now only a dozen or two left staring at the hole out of which the bags flow. Finally there is a red cone like police use in the streets laying on its side coming towards us. Something is written on it. I read allowed "Lost Bag" but the fellow next to me says no it says "Last Bag", either way the message starts to sink in. All the stranded disbelievers stand and stare at the cone as it makes several trips around the belt. One by one we make our way to the baggage claim counter.

Tonight will be a late night, we still have the traditional arrival party.

God Bless Bella Donna