The morning after that final dive there was a strange bird call that woke me up. I went out on the deck and found this guy in a tree top next door. Sorry, again, this was a long shot requiring 'digital zoom' which is inherently grainy and soft.

At a distance that guy looks like the same breed as this beach club bar pet I saw in PDC last year.

What a swell place to have a pet bird escape. Plenty of food, great weather year round, and a good chance of them hooking up with some pals.

Since I was already up early I took off for PDC on a calm sea, riding on a $2 ferry. I got a chance to see and say good-by to lots of friends there and catch a 'carnival parade' that evening. Here is a parade participant showing me one of his stilts that afternoon. That is a piece of car tire on the bottom and two Velcro straps on top. I wonder if that bandage on his leg is from a fall during practice.

A few days later, back on Cozumel I went around and did some visiting to say good-by and to thank everyone for being so friendly and helpful. Below is Rene, seated, and the guys at Meridiano 87 who filled and serviced my SCUBA tank for me and who are storing it for me until next winter.

There are several drilling rigs on the island, and since the water table is so shallow they use air to blow out the hole instead of water. As the drill grinds it's way down the debris needs to be removed. Traditionally water is pumped down the pipe to flood this debris out but here they use air. (what a spattered mess!!)

Here is a tool box I like that my South Dakota farming relatives use on their field service truck.
Manufacturer  >>-->   http://www.cpltoolbox.com/cpl_home.htm

That box was brought to mind by this older homemade version I saw on the drill rig, above.

South of downtown Cozumel, along the coast, is the area called Villa Blanca because of the fine old hotel of the same name. There are several dive and snorkel operators here and I got to know the folks at Pelagic well enough to have them offer to store my dive gear between dive days. Many thanks Jim, Troy and Opal.
 (pe·lag·ic:  adjective: of, relating to, or living or occurring in the open sea)

The guys at Blue Angel were not around when I stopped by to say good-by and thanks for everything, before I left. In addition to letting me land at their great lagoon from my beach dives they let me join one of their night dive groups. Many thanks All.

Finally, there is Kevin Holt at Deep Blue to thank for his many kindness' and and generosity with gear and local knowledge. Thanks Kevin.

Tuesday night I could hardly sleep with the anxiety around trying to get the triciclo on the plane home. I finally gave up around 4 and started getting loaded for the spin out to the airport.

When I got there I found out they don't open the doors until 7 so I unloaded the Trike and started to disassemble it and store the parts in the basket. I used tie-wire to fasten everything down and I'll be darned if it didn't all fit. There was a friendly security guard who kept me company and was highly amused by the whole process. When the doors opened I hauled the whole collection to the check-in counter and waited for things to open. Around 8 the Sun Country staff showed up with the security check-in staff. They went through everything I had, then, in passing, Sun Country said that since the plane wasn't anywhere near full they'd just fly my entire collection home, trike and all, no charge.

Incredible !!
My jaws ached from grinning. It sure pays to fly Sun Country on a weekday.

I was so fixated with that trike during checking in I didn't even notice that I'd been asigned an isle seat until I boarded. This is the best I could do for a parting shot of the Island through someone else's window.

The light green patches between the runways and the coast are the golf course and Country Club. If you squint and look real close you may see John Lee waving good-by with his 5 iron.  =)

The trip home is a 4 hour straight line flight to Minneapolis and Barb, my ride home, was just a few minutes away when I called. Man is it COLD right now for me. My diesel VW Vanagon started right up and that 'cold diesel rattling' was like hearing music. If you've been reading through all these pages you know of my concern with having someone bag the hood orniment off my 'other car'. Well, check it out.
(Doesn't that late afternoon sun look cold?)

The warmest part of getting back was the welcome I got at my AA homegroup.

In closing. . . . . Special thanks to all of you who have written and commented on this site.

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