You Got A Problem?!?

Once I picked up the rest of the family on St. John, the adventure was not over yet.

Even though I was only 10 minutes behind schedule, our departure on one of the last ferries out did not seem certain. As we pulled into the ferry dock, cars waiting to return to St. Thomas snaked out of the entrance gate and back around a dirt field. We dutifully got in line with the others and waited to see how things would unfold.

As usual, the staff onsite were not well organized. There are two ferry companies running out of St. John. Therefore they were struggling with deconvolving the flow of cars into two lines. The young man "guarding" the facility, wearing a t-shirt with security in big, bold letters, seemed to follow no rhyme or reason when letting people inside the gate. Once we got near the gate, he told us to stop and wait. Given others were anxious to move forward and fill the void, some decided while he was away to just drive in front of us. To stop the cutting in line, I advanced as well. Fear of getting stranded was bringing out the best in people.

The line of cars we were in ran along the fence line, allowing cars bound for the other ferry to proceed forward and board. Soon others behind us decided to advance along that corridor and wait as well to get ahead. This quickly destroyed any order needed to expedite loading of the cars.

The young folks working the ferries looked dumbstruck. No one was in charge and pandemonium was breaking out. While the staff were not looking, cars would roll slowly forward looking to gain advantage on their neighbors. I had positional advantage over the minivan on my right, given I was closer to the ferry and could cut her off. But I had to keep slowly advancing as well when she did in order to maintain that advantage. While the minivan driver was advancing, she was cutting off a van driver on the far outside who was originally ahead of her. The man finally said something to her and shouting erupted out the windows back and forth. I continued to advance.

Finally we got a signal to get on and I went for it, cutting off the minivan. Backing our rental onto the ferry was an art due to its low ground clearance. Multiple times over the previous days I did not cut hard enough to back the car up the ramp at an angle. So I would catch the muffler on the ramp and some part of the undercarriage as the car flattened out on the boat. Thank goodness Dad got full coverage.

On the ferry, they pack the cars in like sardines. We were in particularly close this go round. I got kudos from a neighboring driver for my deft backing skills, while narrowly missing his side mirror. I was so close to the car next to me that the only option for exiting the car was Dukes of Hazzard style: climbing out the open window. I did that later to snap a few photos of our position.

Once we arrived at St. Thomas, one expected the exit to go a little smoother. But surprises always await. Another van to our left was bound and determined to go ahead of us, even though we were in one of the center lanes.

"What is he doing???" I exclaimed.

Mom took this as a call to action.

Sitting in the passenger seat, she taps the automatic window down and says forcefully "Excuse me!" with a glare and rolls the window all the way back up. When this little game of chicken continued, she rolled the window back down again and now says "Do you have a problem?"

At this point, we're all thinking what is Mom doing? Are we going to get into a brawl on the ferry? M thought he might ultimately have to jump out and dish a little smackdown.

It appeared the driver of the van was just as shocked while replying "No we don't have a problem. Go on ahead." with a slightly irritated tone of voice.

Mom rolled the window back up. Problem solved.

From that point on, we teased Mom mercilessly whenever appropriate saying to each other or to her "You got a problem with that buddy?" Watch out! Mom is on the case. She's tough and I'm glad she's on our side.