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While Jimmy and Danny preferred to run off to St. Thomas and get wild and crazy like only they could do, I had no idea where I wanted to go for a vacation. First of all, when I come off the road, the last thing I want to do is travel. Still, the real world consists of normal people, who don't travel everyday like I do. It makes it very hard on the home life. An inherent problem that has plagued all 3 of my marriages. It is who I am, but it doesn't make it any easier for my mate. This time, I decided to take my wife of a couple of years, to someplace bizarre. Someplace that would be memorable and obscure. I came up with two places that I had heard of, but had no idea where they were. I flipped a coin saying, "heads, we're off to Pago Pago and tails, we're going to Bora Bora." It came up tails. Turned out Bora Bora was by Tahiti. So, off we went. A 9 hour flight to Papeete (pronounced Pep-Pay-Et-Tay), Tahiti. A French colony. It was beautiful and still not very commercialized in the early 70's. There was only one road on the island and it didn't go all the way around. I went shopping and found the coolest alabaster Chinese snuff bottles from the Ming dynasty. I also bought a bust of a naked island girl, that a local Tahitian had carved out of tree trunk. While on my way to town, I noticed that some of the mailboxes on the side of the road had French bread stuffed into them. Home delivery at its best. Then, I saw a local island lady, with the hair under her arms unshaven and growing long, as is the local tradition with the women. She was walking along the side of the road, with a loaf of French bread tucked up in her sweaty arm pit. Ah yes. Now that's getting earthy. This was not a cool day, either. I just chuckled to myself and thought "What the hell? Pass the butter, please." There wasn't a whole lot to do except drink, swim and eat. It took me two days just to slow down and enjoy the place. A hard thing, coming off the road, with a crazed schedule of recording and tv appearances and then just stop. Stop and listen to the waves and the ocean breeze. We took a short flight over to Bora Bora, followed by a boat trip back to the one and only hotel on the island. A very small island, but beautiful. Here are a few pictures of the beach and the accommodations in Bora Bora. |
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Below: An approaching island babe? Nope. My wife, Helen. We had met in Hawaii in 1970. A gentle person, with an inner glow. I still wish her well and have few regrets, even though the marriage was over in just 3 years. |
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