Searching for Blackbeard's Treasure

            It was February 1st today in New York, so naturally the weather high was 62 degrees. People were walking around in t-shirts and shorts in some cases, while I kept my ear open in case Mister Softee decided to make a surprise winter appearance. A day like this couldn't go to waste, so I took my bike out for a ride and went to one of my usual destinations the bike path takes me, and that's Ferry Point Park.

            There's an area in the park, as mentioned in my November 29th blog of 2011 "Under a Bridge as They Say", which overlooks the Long Island Sound and provides views of the Manhattan skyline as well as LaGuardia Airport. What was different this particular day that I never saw before at this location was that the tide was very low, hence a large amount of the beach head was exposed, and items that were underwater recently would now show up on the surface. There is always the air of mystery when it comes to stuff that washes up on shore, and in the back of my mind I was daydreaming I might find an old treasure chest, or at least something cool like a dead body that got dumped. I took my bike and walked it down closer to the shoreline so I could start my treasure hunt. The sand looked a little wet, but firm, so I put my foot down and had it sink a half inch into slushy goo. With my shoes half-sinking into mud there was a small part of me saying this was a bad idea, but with a fortune to be had, I carried on.

            The first priceless item I encountered seemed to be a dead skunk, then I looked at it again and thought maybe it was a dead house cat. Turns out it was a soggy black teddy bear with a white line down its back, alla a skunk's. There were certainly tires available, from Goodyear to Michelin, and about type of ball available such as baseballs, golf balls, softballs, tennis balls, paddleballs, but the water must have been out of basketballs, footballs, and bowling balls. For a split second I did think there might've been something of real value when I saw something that closely resembled an iPad. It would have been worthless anyways as the water would have totally ruined it, but I still went up to it to have a closer look. I stepped on it and heard a piece of fragile glass crack, then after removing some of the sand on top only then did I find out it was a simple picture frame. Every five minutes there were planes roaring above me as they made their final descent into LaGuardia Airport. It was a windy day, and sometimes it looks like the planes were coming in diagonally to offshoot the strong winds.

            Something that did strike me odd was that there were these yellow and red sheets all over the place. In fact, one got caught up in a tree branch and it looked like a yellow flag waiving. When I saw the first one, I thought it was one of those veils or sheets that Hindu women wrap themselves up in, but with out thirty of them spread out all over the beach, it couldn't have been that unless a whole case found it way into the water somehow. The more I looked around the more I began to come to the reality that I wasn't going to find anything of any great value, but when I set my eyes onto a fifty-gallon drum, I thought maybe at least I would get my dead body. Excited, I took a peek inside to see what it contain, but excitement faded away as there was nothing but some old dried up weeds. With my shoes rather muddy and my feet starting to feel wet, I had to get back up onto dry land again. I found myself a seat on a bench and took in the nice-weathered day and gave my shoes some time to dry, although the low-tide smell was still present on them. The winds were kicking up pretty hard off the water, and when I heard a flapping noise I turned around to see the source of that sound and saw this large black garbage bag doing a dance. This bag was getting hit so hard by the wind it took up a life of its own and gave me a free show.

            At least I know where to go next time I need to replace one of my car's tires...

A Nightmare at 36,000 Feet

            I don't particulary enjoy airplanes and only travel by air if its absolutely necessary. Had there been a pair of rollerskates that would've taken five weeks to get to Haiti instead of only a three hour flight, I would taken the rollerskates.

            The skies were clear in Haiti and New York weather was only supposed to be a little rainy, so I figured I would be able to get through it without a hitch. Usually I'm able to apply mind over matter to get through the fact I would be halfway to space in a piece of machine that shakes as much as an amusement park ride, unfortunately the mind was lacking this time around. The first sign of trouble occured at the Toussaint Louverture International Airport when there was a two-second blackout as I was waiting at the cafe inside getting a cookie. Next, we board the plane and are on the runway to take off, and although cellphones are supposed to be shut off at this time, some rocket engineer decides to keep his phone on and text as the plane is lifting off the ground. I was anticipating the cellphone's signal to somehow damage the plane's internal function and put us into the Altantic Ocean an hour later. Another detail about the take-off from this airport that the plane always make a sharp left turn as its still rising to the sky. In normal circumstances, a place rises straight up and then turns at a certain altitude, but when they leave Haiti to head up to America, its a sharp left turn immediately that isn't too much fun.

            The flight time between New York and Haiti is about three and a half hours, which isn't bad overall, but five minutes in the air for me seems like forever. Intially the skies were clear from the ground, after about the first ten minutes in the sky, we were going into alot of clouds, and while in the cloud the plane would start shaking. Looking out the window to see if everything was alright was of no use as there was nothing to see but the cloud outside. After the captain turned off the seatbelt sign and allowed people to move around, I immediately went to the bathroom to gag and throw up some of the cookie I had at the airport cafe. I had a bad feeling the next four hours where going to be quite rough. The stewardess was sitting in the back reading a book and I was thinking of asking her for a sleeping pill, as requesting to have them just make a quick pit stop in Florida to drop me off was likely out of the question. I figured I should just go back to my seat and see if I could settle myself in as I'm usually able to. That only lasted about three minutes, so I went back over to the stewardess and asked her if she had anything that could put me out, as in the sleeping pills always seen in the movies. They're called movies for a reason, turns out there's no such thing and her only solution was beer or wine to numb me out.

             I declined any alcohol initally as I knew it wouldn't have any influnce on me since all my senses were at their highest peak. Perhaps if she gave me a case of liquor, that would have been different. Some time past, but not enough time. I tried watching a DVD on my laptop, I tried reading, nothing was working, so I went to her again and elected for the mini-bottle of wine. Although it costs $7, she let me have it for free. I drank the entire bottle in the matter of a minute, hoping the quick jolt of alcohol would make me numb fast and fall asleep. That didn't work out for me either. The stewardess passed by to see how I was doing and was quite amazed I drank the bottle so fast. Then I saw her go up towards the front of the place, probably to tell the captain there's a possible nut sitting in 33H. On these international flights between New York and Haiti, annoucements are made in both English and French(which is close enough to Creole). From that point on, almost all of the annoucements in mid-flight were in French only, so as I most likely couldn't hear them and start freaking out possibly. I knew exactly what the French annoucements were as the word "turbulance" sounds the same in both langurages.

             Soon after a few word in French, the plane would start rocking, the seatbelt signal would beep, babies would be crying, I would be in my seat plucking my eyebrows, looking towards the front and waiting for the plane to spiral out of control at any moment. The stewards and stewardesses came around with their fake smiles, as a way to mask the plane's shakiness, to serve dinner, but I refused as i didn't want to be throwing it up five minutes later. Many thoughts raced through my mind as in: there's thousands flights occuring around the world at all times - why should mine have problems, or, there hasn't been a plane crash in the news in quite a while - maybe this will be the one. About halfway through the flight the sun went away and it was completely pitch black outside the window, which made it even worse. Then came the biggest turbulance sequence of the entire ride which had my head in my lap and the even the guy next to me praying in Creole. He likely saw I was a nervous wreck and it was starting to rub off on him. For the rest of the ride I pretty much kept my head down in my lap the whole way. I kept taking peeks at my iPod clock to only see minutes very slowly ticking away.

             A slight euphoria came over me as I saw a steward walk around the aisle with a trash bag, which is usually the sign the plane is about to land very soon. I felt the plane descending and was glad to see the lights of New York underneath instead of the total darkness of the Atlantic Ocean. The plane got closer and closer to the ground, and this was my favorite part of the whole ride. We did have a clean and successful landing, but my chest was still pounding from the four-hour adrenaline rush. Even though I was safely on the ground, as I was getting off the plane and waiting on line for customs, I felt like I was still in the sky battling through the adversity. The custom agent I had to see provided me with some comedic relief as he first asked what my job was, and I told him I'm unemployed. Then he looked at me oddly as if the idea of not having a job and going down to Haiti for non-working purposes was humanly impossible, but I explained I was there to visit my girlfriend who works for Unicef, and he stamped me through. After that I picked up my bag and went to the last customs agent before exiting the airport. With homeland security a top priority, he asked me if I had anything to declare, I simply said "no", and he told me I'm clear to go.

           As I waiting outside for my parents to pick me up in the rainy 50 degree weather, which was somewhat different from the 85 degree weather in Haiti I had a few hours earlier, a gentlemen with an African accent asked to use my cellphone to call his friend to pick him up. He even pulled out money from his pocket and offered to pay for the call, but I told him it wouldn't be necessary as it was a US number. He actually wanted me to describe to the friend which terminal and area we were waiting at, the whole thing stunk like some sort of set-up or scam, but I went along with it anyways like the airplane. The guy on the phone was named "Butro". He even called me back a few minutes later to describe the place again, so "Butro" definately knows my cellphone number for future reference. In the end it must have been legit, as the car came before my parents did to pick the guy up.

             Even if the guy needed to make an expensive international call, I might've not accepted his money anyways, I was just happy at that moment to be alive...

The Plane Ride
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dar2HKImK-0