Travel Reference
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We bit the bullet the next season and advertised the house as either a one- or three-bedroom,
hoping to catch all the couples-traveling-solo business we'd missed the previous season.
Our hunch was right.
Come September, the inquiries began pouring in.
We got emails from Washington State, Utah, Colorado, even Nova Scotia, as well as all
the usual spots on the East Coast.
One stands out in my memory.
Checking our inbox one day, I found an email containing a phone number with a very
familiar area code—that of the vicinity of my hometown, a small-ish town in Tennessee.
Although Michael usually responded to inquiries, I couldn't resist making this call my-
self. A woman answered the phone and immediately passed me along to her husband Kevin.
After exchanging the usual pleasantries, I asked what town they lived in. He sounded
slightly surprised by my question. Then he named my hometown.
“I grew up there,” I said.
“No way,” he responded. “Who are your parents?”
I told him.
“You're joking,” he said quietly.
“No, why?”
“I'm related to your mother.”
“Oh my God, how?”
“Well…” he began, and then launched into a long and tortuous explanation of how his
grandmother and my maternal grandmother were first cousins thrice removed.
“I can't wait to tell my mother about this,” I said.
He laughed.
“We sent out lots of emails about houses in Vieques but of course now that I know who
you are, there's no question which one we're going to rent.”
He told me about himself and his wife, Helen, describing the two of them as “profes-
sional travelers.” In fact, he went on, they had visited sixteen countries since retiring five
years earlier.
“Have you ever been to Puerto Rico?”
“Never.”
“What made you consider Vieques?”
“Well, we read an article about the island online and decided since it's the new hot spot
in the Caribbean, we'd better see it before it starts sizzling. At that point, we won't be able
to afford it. We're budget travelers all the way.”
This sounded reasonable enough.
“Makes sense,” I said encouragingly.
“Yep, we don't eat out, we don't take taxis, and we don't rent cars. Too expensive.”
Oh no.
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