A CRUISE DOWN MEMORY LANE (By Candy Anderson)

I could only wish that the first memory that came to my mind after reading your blog was about the fourth grade. At that age, one can attribute one’s mentality to the influences of age, immaturity, and stupidity.

It is when you find yourself a married mother of two that deferring to age and immaturity does not factor in quite as legitimately, thus leaving stupidity to be one’s only plea.

In June of (I’ll leave out the year), Ken and I chaperoned Parkway’s Senior Trip to the Bahamas. Mind you, we are talking carnival here. Not Carnival, but carnival. Upon arriving in Miami to board our vessel for our “Barefoot Cruise,” (registered trademark), I thought we were boarding a smaller boat that would take us to the bigger boat. The smaller boat was the bigger boat. Clue number 1. It was a 65-foot sailboat with Captain Ron at the helm. Not really Captain Ron, I think his name was Captain Mark. However, shortly after departing the midnight Miami shore, Captain Mark became Captain Ken, and Captain Mark became asleep. Second clue.

I could proceed from here, but your nerves couldn’t take it. I’ll leave out the parts about never locating a radio nor seeing even the first life vest the entire week. Neither will I bore you with the daily menus which were planned by and prepared by, you guessed it, the passengers. Don’t even venture to inquire as to exactly how many of us were on board, what the restroom facilities were like, nor what means of communication we had with the civilized world. A lot, limited, and none.

Recently, I told my friend Melanie about this trip. She laughed at most of what I said, doubting many of my details. Remembering that, somewhere, I had a copy of a fellow cruiser’s VHS tape which chronicled the cruise (and which I had never watched), I found it; we began to view it as I provided additional commentary.

The viewing didn’t seem to bother Mel nearly as much as it bothered me. After only about two minutes into the documentary, I thought to myself, “WHAT WERE YOU THINKING? YOU WERE AN IDIOT, AND YOU WERE AN IDIOT RESPONSIBLE FOR OTHER IDIOTS.”

It’s really bad when an adult remembers an adult event and concludes absolute stupidity.

On the day of my viewing with my friend, I panicked as I watched, even becoming a bit seasick thinking about all the “what if's?” Too many to enumerate here, but a few include storms, hurricanes, lost at sea, drug runners, drug felons, injuries from sharks, barracudas, piranhas (we saw, even swam in their midst), drowning, death, orphaned children (mine), and parental lawsuits from deceased seniors. All at once, I paused and thanked God that He protected and delivered all of us “dingies” that sailed on that dingy.

The only benefit of my stupidity was that I really did enjoy the adventure.
I’ll loan you the video if you want to watch it.