'DRIVE' - Charles Belhumeur

DRIVE (Remix & Remaster)

Charles Belhumeur ('CB: One-man Band')

Single from my 'CRUISE COVERS' collection: 48 Cover-Songs recorded at sea, onboard various Cruise-Ships around the world. Find details at https://cbmusic.net/cruise-covers

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DRIVE (Remix & Remaster) 3:39
DRIVE (Remix & Remaster)
by Charles Belhumeur ('CB: One-man Band')
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THE STORY

She was perfect!… A brightly coloured lime-green rundown old Volkswagen Beetle with half the roof chopped off, partially covered by a button-down rag-top, complete with rust holes through the floorboards, electrical wires hanging below the dash and the number “09” painted on: EXACTLY what we needed for our adventure driving around the entire Island of Cozumel that day. “Limey Nine” is what we called her, and she served our purpose in spectacular fashion!

Claire & I woke up earlier than usual onboard the ship that morning, to make the very most of our day on that Mexican Island. We found it funny that the guys we had just hired ‘Limey Nine’ from watched me as the person who slid behind the wheel before we drove away, after the only identification they’d seen before approving our rental was a Driving License belonging to Claire, rather than the person who would be the actual Driver; which was ME (not her). Whichever one of us wanted to drive was of absolutely no concern to them. They’d already received our payment, so anything after that was fair play. I love doing business in Mexico: The way it SHOULD be!

We set off with only a good old-fashioned paper roadmap as our guide. That’s right... no SatNav or GPS to complicate things. The well-worn gearbox in our new ride demanded a bit of ‘man-handling’ through each gear, and the ornery stick-shift only added to her charm, endearing her even more to us both. She certainly did have some character, but we were quite happy dealing with her many quirks provided that she didn’t leave us stranded in some remote part of the Island before our day was through.

We packed a whole lot of fun into that day, including a stop at ‘RASTAS’ (A Rasta Bar) for some late morning refreshments, paying homage at a tiny little stone temple, discovering some ancient architecture while off-road exploring near a village we probably shouldn’t have visited, then making a stop after finding an isolated beach and taking some time to just hangout for a while, before our deadline with the ship was imminent.

That entire experience was very symbolic of where I happened to be in my life at that time: On the ‘home-stretch’ of my journey performing music at sea, wanting only to be with Claire in any place that we could call our ‘home’. We were already a few years into the long & tiring process of my immigration from Canada to the UK, well knowing that we still had many miles ahead of us yet to travel.

Thankfully; that glorious day with ‘Limey 9’ was on what turned out to be the final contract I ever did performing on Ships, and I was able to eventually push through to complete my final ‘DRIVE’ home, and finally be reunited with Claire in our new home which she had worked so hard to have all setup, ready & waiting for us on the beautiful south coast of England.

This song was recorded in the Mediterranean Sea onboard Royal Caribbean's ‘LIBERTY of the Seas’, somewhere between the south coast of France & Italy, after leaving our home port of Barcelona, Spain. It is part of my 'CRUISE COVERS' Collection: 48 Cover-Songs recorded at sea, while performing on various Cruise-Ships around the world. To see more details (including which ships & parts of the world where each song was recorded), please visit https://cbmusic.net/cruise-covers

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