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I went back to the beginning of our travels and extricated a few short ones that introduce you to the Motorhome Madness way of driving around, particularly on our most unfavorite road around, that of Interstate 10. Here for your amusement (at our nerve-wracking expense) are some of those examples.

The first one is entitled Goin Down the Bayou and was published in the beginning of October, 2020 while on our first trip down here from New Jersey to Texas…….

Goin’ Down the Bayou

          I consider myself a fairly accomplished driver. I’ve been driving since 1972 and when I worked for Ritter Food and Sysco, I would routinely drive 1000 miles a week because of the size of my selling territory. Route 80 in rush hour and the screamingly busy New Jersey Turnpike were just another walk in the park to me. I have even driven a NASCAR race car at Pocono Speedway.

                A few days ago, (our second full day on the road) I experienced what was probably the worst and most stressful 45 minutes of driving in my life.

          Some sicko in the Louisiana DOT designed a highway that runs from Baton Rouge, Louisiana to Lafayette, Louisiana. It is Interstate Route 10. Running basically in a straight line following an almost perfect East / West tangent, it is elevated on a windy bridge above a giant swamp just high enough that you know that there would be no survivors if some idiot caused you to careen over the side.

          It ran for THOUSANDS and THOUSANDS of miles.

          With itsy-bitsy teeny-weeny balsawood guardrails.

          And alligators underneath.

          I KNOW this is true because I’ve watched Swamp People.

          It’s two lanes wide and I needed to be in the right lane of what felt like it was being on the Jungle Cruise at Disney World except there was no humorous Guide to shoot the ‘gators and hippos as they charged the boat.

          When we finally hit dry land I thought, Phew! That’s over with!

          Nope.

          Another 14-mile Destruction Zone that had me feeling as if I was driving on the streets of Monte Carlo in the Grand Prix.

          Except their course is much wider and has easier turns than the road we were on.

          All of this in a 40’ motorhome dragging a 15’ trailer behind it.

Driving a vehicle this size in windy conditions, is like carrying a piece of plywood out to your car at Home Depot.

          In a hurricane.

          With only you holding on to the plywood.

          The term White Knuckle Driving was invented for situations like this. When it was over, I looked down at my hands and found out that there were, in fact, no knuckles left on my fingers.

           They were permanently imbedded in the steering wheel.

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The second one came a few weeks later, after we had been in Texas a while. We needed to travel to Durango, Colorado to drop off the trailer that contained my Library and a few other essentials that were deemed so when Paula had sold her home in New Jersey, and we officially moved into the motorhome. Colorado has a Relative Humidity of about 1% while Texas sports one of about 1000%….. so, the Library et al, were going to a place of Dryness…..

It is from the end of October 2020 and is entitled:

Westward Ho!

You know that it is going to be bad when even the GPS unit warns you there will be High Gusty Winds.

          I knew it was windy!

          I was driving!

          How did my GPS know it was windy?

          Did it sense my erratic driving style?

Could it tell by the many Lane Departure warnings she was giving me?

          At that point, I wondered if she had a DWI Warning built into her too! ( No worries there, I do not really drink except for an occasional Strawberry Wine Cooler maybe once a month.)

          Then I passed a sign that read, “High Wind Area”

          OK, now it made sense. Someone had programmed it in. We were traveling on Interstate Route 10 through southwestern Texas headed for New Mexico and eventually Colorado. This area of Texas is about as broad and expansive as any Texan could brag about. To complicate things, that Weather Anomaly that kept us from departing on schedule reared its ugly head once more, as if bidding us a evil, final, farewell.

           But we had Bluebird Skies and Bright Sunshiny Vistas!

          And Wind.

          Lots and lots of Wind.

          So not only were we in a High Gusty Winds Warning area, but we were still in the clutches of a departing Low Pressure System, which as it leaves, gets filled with an incoming High Pressure System that packs a Pressure Gradient that will knock your socks off! (in our case I guess you could say “tires off”). And unfortunately, it hung around for a while because Hurricane Zulu, Zorba, or Zumba (Can’t remember and don’t care) was still hanging in Louisiana and environs and wouldn’t let “our” system pass through!

          This made the previous drive through the Louisiana Bayou seem like just another Sunday ride on a Bike Path. (except there are no ‘gators in the Texas Desert, just a rattler or two). Remember how that previous drive went on for thousand and thousands of miles? Well, this one went on for millions and millions of miles!

          All day long, constant, no let up, save when we pulled into a rest area for a break.  At that point we could still feel the wind rocking us back and forth like we were on the boat with Jesus and the Apostles when the storm came up.

          Everyone knows the feeling of the Passing Truck on the highway.

          As the truck approaches and  pushes that big wall of air in front of it, you can feel it coming and you need to counteract that push by steering into it. The problem is that you need to stop that countermeasure the precise moment that the Wall passes you because if you do not, you will oversteer and only cause more problems.

          All of those issues are compounded by our size.

          I’m used to that by now.

          I watch my rearview mirror for the overcoming Big Rig and as it comes alongside, I steer into it until I feel the effect lessen and then I pull back to center and then steer the other way because now, as it passes, it wants to suck us in behind it.

          Got it!

          Been there. It is now all part of the Driving Experience.

Except when in the aforementioned High Gusty Winds Warning Area.

          Now it gets dicey.

          All of my carefully calculated, tried and true, driving techniques go out the window (literally and figuratively) when every maneuver that I make gets buffeted back and forth always in the wrong direction.

          I considered taking a Xanax but decided that it would not look good on the Police Report if they did a blood test. Poor Paula was as nervous as I was but made heroic efforts not to show it. You know how it is riding Shotgun, all of the drama and none of the control (slamming your foot to the floor in an effort to grind to a halt using your invisible imaginary brake on your side of the vehicle!)

          Miss GPS and Navigator Paula found an alternative way to go that not only promised to get us off of blustery Interstate 10, but it looked like it was even shorter! Off we go onto Route 285 North towards Pecos. I felt like I was in a Western Movie just hearing the word Pecos!         All was good until another Destruction Zone.

          They were widening the road (good) but in their efforts to do so they forgot to keep even the semblance of a shoulder on the right-hand side (bad). The road is only two lanes, one each way, so there was no riding in the left lane. The big issue with the No Shoulder scenario was that IMMEDIATELY after the white stripe on the right side there was NOTHING! Except a downward slope of freshly graded, sandy-type soil that would have flipped us over if I even thought about wandering over the line. It was so close to the edge I wondered how they even painted it onto the road. We made it into Carlsbad, New Mexico which is in the next time zone so theoretically we bought ourselves an extra hour to do with what we pleased.

          Sleep?

          How about Coma.

          Except we were so used to the constant motion of being shellacked all day long that when we finally stopped for the night and pulled into Walmart of Carlsbad, we felt like we had just gotten off an all-day rollercoaster ride.

          It took a while to fall asleep.

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And lastly for today is a short one about the ungainly shape of a Class A Motorhome and is from the same trip up to Durango. At this point we were traversing New Mexico and going through Roswell, the site of the infamous UFO sightings from the ’50’s. It is entitled:

Bugs or UFO’s?

Karen, one of your fellow readers, asked in the Comment Section if the spots on the windshield were bugs or UFO’s.

I’d love to report that they were UFO’s because that is a much more exciting story! But, alas, they are just BUGS.

It goes like this, a motorhome is about as aerodynamic as a shoebox. No, let me take that back. A shoebox is more aerodynamic because it does not have all sorts of appendages sticking out of it. The assortment of antenna, folded up awnings, TV satellite domes, and air conditioning units makes this thing like its dragging an anchor. But the number one reason for it’s ungainly shape is the FRONT.

It’s as flat as the proverbial pancake.

Which makes your chances (if you are bug) less than zero of surviving a meeting with it. In a car we’ve all witnessed the “Close Encounter” as a very fortunate bug gets swept up and over the car when it gets caught in the aero airstream instead of a “meeting of the windshield” event.

This NEVER happens with the motorhome. If you are a bug ANYWHERE in front of me, I will find you and SPLAT!!! I now have to clean you off the glass.

And soon.

Because what’s the fun of driving around seeing the country if your giant-vista windshield is covered with the “Remains of the Bugs” (to borrow a title from a like-sounding book.) So kids, keep those cards and letters coming and I’ll try to answer them when I’m not driving!

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That’s it for today, as usual I thank you for indulging me and reading these accounts of our travels. If you’ve read them before, an extra Thanks for re-reading and I hope that you have re-enjoyed them!

Well, it’s been a while since you’ve all last heard from us!

                   A respite of sorts, to be sure, but short lived at that!

                   Now it’s back to the keyboard……

In about a week we will be high-tailing it back East for this, our Third Eastern Foray and Escape from the Heat of Texas.

                   Lot’s needs to be done on the motorhome, the most important is the oil change on the diesel motor. Luckily this only needs to be done every 20,000 miles.

                   Yea, that’s a lot longer than your car, but then this baby holds almost four gallons of oil, not four quarts! This reservoir (of sorts) allows for a longer changing cycle. It also allows for a much larger Service Invoice upon completion. I could do some of this myself but there are all sorts of filters, water separators, and other stuff that we feel much more comfortable with a professional poking around down there. They have experienced eyes and can spot an issue way before I ever could!

                    Besides the oil change, we need to have a general emptying out of everything stored below, evaluate its current need/value and the re-assemble it all back where we can find it again. Plus the roof needs cleaning and inspecting and the tires need a close examination, just to name a few items.

                   For those of you that were on the Cruise with us, you will remember the lamentations of our Reupholstery Debacle. The front seats and the dinette seats were taken out before we left and brought to be reupholstered while we were gone. Hopefully to be ready when we came back (four months later!)

                             Hah!

                             Well, that did not happen! We arrived back home to the job just beginning to be done! The story is long and tedious so let’s just say that we finally got them re-installed just a few days ago, just in time to get to the Dump Station and empty the by-now filled Dirty Water Tanks!

                             For the newer folks that started following the blog for the cruise, I am going to start to re-post some of the older posts that are from back in the day. I am being choosy and only selecting ones that are somewhat entertaining, but then, I should let you be the judge of that! It will be like a Greatest Hits compilation, and I will make note of each one’s original post date so there is no confusion! This will help fill in the gap between now and whenever we do something that is actually post worthy!

                             We can’t believe that it will be three years on July 4^th that we have the motorhome! Time (and miles) fly when you’re having fun, and we certainly are!

                             Stay tuned for those “oldies, but goodies” and keep watching the road in front of your house because we do have your address, and you never know when we’ll pop by!

Opening shot: Camera pans across a desolate landscape, there is some sparse vegetation, assorted cacti, and some hazy mountains can be seen in the distance. The wind is blowing, evidenced by a single tumbleweed entering the shot from the left and then scurrying across the frame. The faint sounds of a lonely harmonica can be heard over the wind as the camera slowly zooms in a dusty cowpoke astride his horse singing, “I’m back in the saddle again….”

                             Well, that’s how we arrived back here in Texas after the Nirvana Cruise had finally (and unfortunately) come to a close.

 I guess that I should qualify that last remark.

                             I say unfortunately not because we knew that it was time to re-enter the real world, not because we are running from anything, and definitely not because we were getting tired of being on the ship.

                             Nope, it was not those things.

                             I say unfortunately because this voyage was enlightening on so many levels and those new experiences could have been far from over given the opportunity to explore further each port that we visited. In some ways you could say, “Been there, saw that, got the refrigerator magnet”, and move on. In reality, we just scratched the surface, maybe whetted the appetite for further discoveries for there was so much more to explore.

                             But all of that is for future consideration.

                             For now, let’s re-cap……..

          Here are some interesting numbers/statistics for you,

– 47 Ports

– 31 Countries

– 2 Equator Crossings

– Panama Canal and Suez Canal Transits

– 6 Continents

– 34,567 Nautical Miles

– 21 World Heritage Sites

– 1,382,680 gallons of fuel oil

– 1,110,000 eggs consumed

–  49,950 pounds of butter used

– 28,000 bottles of wine consumed.

 Paula had wine.

I did not.

And for most significant statistic of all…..

          Drum roll please………

          We only averaged a four (4#) pound weight gain!

          Yes, Paula gained zero and I gained eight!

                AJ and David met while serving in the Army, the year was 1989, the place, Fort Ord, California.

                             I met them a few months ago on board in the Horizon Court Dining Area. I was intrigued by the writing on their shirts… it read, “DD-214 Alumni.” And they had hats with DD-214 emblazoned on them.

                             I was  curious because they did not look old enough to have served in WWII. DD is the Navy’s prefix for identifying destroyers. The Navy uses different alpha-identifiers to distinguish between the types of ships, CV is aircraft carriers, DE is Destroyer Escorts, BB is Battleships, CA is for Heavy Cruisers, and the list goes on….. DD-214 was the destroyer, USS Tracey, who had an exemplary reputation and record during that war. I thought that maybe they were the descendants of someone who had served on her.

I had to find out.

One day, mid-morning, they were sitting alone at their usual table. I walked over, introduced myself and asked about the DD-214 and the USS Tracey. They immediately burst out laughing and saying, “We knew you were going to ask about that!”

          They went on to explain that they had no knowledge about the Navy and the USS Tracey, until someone had asked the same question that I did. They went on to further explain that the DD-214 was the standard form used by the Department of Defense (DD) (form 214)  and was issued to most of the veterans when they get discharged from active service.

                             Hence the DD-214 “Alumni” written on their shirts.

                             I then sat down and heard their story.

                   They call each other “brother”.

                   Not “Bro”

                   They are obviously not related.

                   But they refer to each other as “my brother.”

          This kind of relationship is the kind that is forged in the heat of battle.  Every battle is not shared, but the experience is.

I am in constant awe of the persons that put their lives on the line in the name of defense of our Homeland. AJ served in Vietnam in ’71 and David was in Special Ops In El Salvador in ‘88/’89.             

One day, David watched as a new Platoon Sergeant rolled up in Fort Ord. It was some new guy named AJ Griggs. Dave asked him if he needed some help.

And the rest is history.

The time period that David served in was relatively calm compared to what AJ experienced in Vietnam. But there were some “Hot Spots”, one of them being El Salvador. David spent a year there in Special Operations, you know, the kind that goes unappreciated because no one really knows why you are there, except maybe the CIA.

          Returning home after experiencing combat situations, David was in need of someone to talk to. Because of the relatively calm conditions in the world at the time, the guys surrounding David did not have any combat experience, hence they had never suffered anything like what David had gone through.

                   Enter AJ.

                   AJ was one of David’s superiors and he recognized immediately what was going on. He was the only one that could effectively work with David and all those demons that accompany a returning soldier from the front. Even David’s immediate superiors did not have the same combat experience level that David had, and it was AJ, who was still junior to those superiors that told them to back off.

                             He would take care of this.

                             David had finally found someone who could commiserate with him, acknowledge the difficulties, and finally help bring him “back” from the combat that no one knew about.

                             Sitting across the Horizon Court I watch these two brothers, morning after morning they arrive early to sit with each other and some other veterans who have found each other on the ship.

                             I am always welcome at their table, the DD-214’s, but I will never be one of the guys, I cannot be, for I have not run that gauntlet of battle and emerged on the other side. Combat wounds come in many different forms and one of them is PTSD, a clinical acronym that defines a diagnosis but sterilizes it at the same time.

                             Maybe it would be better to go back to what it was called during the Civil War….. when it was known simply as…..

Soldiers Heart.

          Well, that about wraps up this cruise.

                   There is only one more Port to call on and that is the port of disembarkation, Fort Lauderdale.

                                      We do have an Excursion booked for there,

                                      The Airport!

                             If all goes well, we will be back in Texas by Thursday evening, and back at Danny and Kaitie’s in Brenham by mid-day on Friday. Then the fun begins!

                                      Lots to work on in the motorhome before our “Touring Season” commences in about a month or so.

                             So, for all of you that had initially joined us for our cruise, we thank you for sailing along with us, but the traveling does not end there! If you stick around, we will bring you on all of our terrestrial adventures with us. (If you go to the “Archives” you can see some of our past adventures and destinations….. for example, a trip to Yosemite never goes out of style!)

                             In between, you may be treated to a “lesson” or two on some totally random subject, that for one reason or another, is apropos at the time. I may even find a way to work in another Plate Techtonics post!

(Oh no!!! Not another one of those!!!)

                             We shall see.

                             We hope that you’ve had an adventure also, we loved having you on board and globe-trotting with us!

So, ’til then……

                            For the Love of Traveling……

Paula and Don

As barren and lunar as Lanzarote was, Las Palmas was just the opposite. Nicknamed La Isla Bonita, “The Beautiful Island”, this last (sniff!) stop on our World Tour lived up to its name.  

                             We couldn’t quite figure out what Princess was up to as there was only one tour available, called Panoramic Las Palmas and it did not have a description attached. Our little group searched both Viator and Tours By Locals for anything available. Neither website had anything to offer on this little gem of an island.

                             We had a few weeks yet before we arrived, so time was not critical yet. We finally booked an outing with a newer unknown start-up called Tours by Strangers. The guide seemed to know something about the place, at least more than we did and he promised us a full day guaranteed to see stuff that no one else on the ship would experience.

                             He was correct.

                             We met our Guide, Donaldo when he pulled up in a slightly beat, nine passenger Renault diesel stick shifter van. He had a name tag identifying himself so that we felt completely at ease immediately.

                             He even had a little flag (fashioned by Darla and Sandra) for all of us to follow him with. It turns out that this was unnecessary as we never went anywhere that had more than six other people there.

                             Our first destination was the highest point on the island the summit of Roque de los Muchachos, which is just eight feet shy of 8000’ above sea level. In the middle of the Parque National de La Caldera de Tamburiente, this extinct volcanic mountain has the distinction of being one of the best sites on our planet for astronomical observations. There are a total of thirteen different telescopes up there along with an incredible “crater” that seems to plumet from those star-strung heavens to a bedrock deep abyss.

                   When you approach the edge…. It sucks your breath away.

                   My apologies here, I’m afraid as good as the photograph is, it cannot convey the drama that a personal visit will induce. You will need to come here for yourself!

                   This venture took way longer than our intrepid (and inexperienced) guide thought that it would. Google maps calculated that it should take a little over an hour to travel the 42 km from the bottom to the top. That would normally be correct, the speed limit was an official 40 kph, so that makes sense. What the Google Gal forgot to fold into her calculations were the (approximately, but I counted) 262 (mostly hairpin) turns in the road. There was no way that we were making that trip in an hour!

                   But the scenery was spectacular and watching the flora change from sub-tropical sea level, up through deciduous, and then pine forests, to alpine mountain was quite a treat! One of the reasons that the observations are so good here lies with a combination of factors having mostly to do with location. It is not uncommon to have the base of the island covered in clouds and the summit in constant clear air, with no light pollution (it’s in the middle of the ocean!). While it is quite common to have clouds around the world at 8000’, here the combination of the surrounding water temperatures and other meteorological factors, keeps the clouds usually below the summit and those thirteen telescopes. You will notice the cloud layers below us in the photos.

                   After our Summit Sojourn, we deftly picked our way back down the mountain by the route we had come up, trying our best not to smoke the brakes! Good thing it was a shifter-car! It was while pulling into one of the most spectacular overlooks on this road that our guide and driver managed to just slightly (?) come in contact with another vehicle parked there. Luckily the folks (from Switzerland) were very nice, and it was a rental also, so we exchanged some paperwork and we’ll let the companies fight it out when we’re all far away! It really wasn’t bad; I was more dismayed about the time that it was eating up!

                   By now it was apparent that the rest of the Tour of Las Palmas was not going to take place. There was just not enough time to get to the other sights that had been planned, including a nifty lunch on a beach-side (sandy floors) restaurante at the end of the island.

                             No worries!

                             We found a cool local harborside place that only spoke Spanish, so our adventures continued as we struggled, laughed, and cajoled our way through the menu and ordering process.

                             It all turned out great, the meal was fun, and the wine was good. The driver was verboten to drink so he had a Coke, which he would have ordered anyway! Our all-aboard time was 4:30 PM and it was already late in the afternoon so we high-tailed it across the harbor to our waiting ship.

                             The folks at Tours by Strangers are anxiously awaiting the reviews from our group!

Ahhh….. The Canary Islands !

                   Just off the coast of North Africa, they sit beckoning tourists mainly from Europe to come and see all of the cute little birds flying around. Thousands of yellow Canaries can be seen wherever you go!

                             What?

                             What do you mean there’s no birds???!!!

                             No little yellow Canaries flying around?

                             What a rip-off!

                             I want my money back!

                   So, Don and Paula discovered that the Canary Islands are not the avian haven that they thought!

                             Now you may ask, “Why are they called the Canary Islands if there are NO CANARIES!

                             For the answer to that question we will defer to Mr. Bruchalski, my Freshman Year Latin Teacher…

                   “Well Don, if you were a better Latin student, you would not need my help here. If you can recall the root word that you are looking for is “Canes” which is “dogs” (think canine) and Insulae which is “islands” or if we combine them, it reads the Isles of Dogs. We get this from someone who actually spoke Latin back in the day, Pliny the Elder, who in his travels reported a lot of large dogs roaming about.”

                   Thanks a lot Mr. Bruchalski, you just outed me in front of my entire readership!

                   So we now know that the little tweeties got their name from the islands and not vice-versa and if you do look around you will find these little flyers on most of the islands in varying densities, having mostly to do with habitat. That is why on Lanzarote, where we are today, you find very few.

                             Why again?

                             Because there are no freakin’ trees here!

                             This place makes the moon look like the Amazon!

                   Volcanos galore!

          In reality, this island is rather sparse in vegetation that isn’t cultivated. The landscapes are somewhat newer (because of volcanic activity) and therefore not quite ready to support vegetation with any kind of regularity. We did witness farming going on, particularly grapes that inhabit some neat little semi-circles of piled lava stones for protection from the wind and retention of waters. More on that later.

          The Canary Islands belong to Spain. They are really not near Spain; they are only 80 miles off of the Moroccan coast and kind of off to themselves. There are seven major islands, lots of islets, and a bunch of named “rocks” so archipelago is a great description for them! The total population is just a tad over two million, but those Venturing  Vacationers from Europe add to that by an annual migration total of about twelve million!

                   We had another private tour here. We were a party of eight, Darla and Sandra asked two of their on-board friends to join us to help defray the costs a bit. It turns out we could have invited about twenty more and made some money because the vehicle that ferried us around was a small bus that held probably 20+ tourons!

                   Our first stop of the day was to the Timanfaya National Park  covering almost 13,000 acres, which is about 15% of the island. The landscapes are the result of its volcanic origin, namely The Canarian Hotspot. Age-wise it’s pretty old, maybe 70 million years or so, and owes its origin to our old friend Mr. Plate Tectonics. We haven’t heard much from him since back in Australia, but here he is tearing the African Plate and the North American Plate apart, leaving plenty of room for magma to works it way up and out, forming the Canaries and other archipelagos in this region. It can take thousands of years for a lava bed to garner enough wind-driven sand, dirt, and other botanical basics to eventually let enough plants grow and turn the lunarscape into a landscape.

                   So, with the last eruption in the 1700’s you can see that this infinitesimally small time-period is not yet long enough to really show any progress in the reforestation process.

                   But it does give us an incredible place to visit and experience! We were lucky that we were in a Tour Bus because they received preference when it came to entry into this very popular Park. Judging from the long lines that we saw when were departing, it looked as if every man, woman, and child on the island decided to take the day off and visit the Park!

                   Due to their relatively close proximity to the surface, the geothermal features of this area were made even more apparent by the Rangers here. We witnessed a few exhibitions at the Visitor’s Center. First there was a pit that had hot enough temperatures to ignite some brush that was cast down into it.

Then a Ranger took a gallon of water and poured it down one of several tubes that led to a chamber below. A few seconds later we had our own significant Geyser, complete with the bang and roar that accompanies these events.

And last, but not least, upon entering the facility we could see today’s chicken lunch being roasted above a large pit that was definitely hot enough to do the job!

After all of that we went out on the road that wound its way through and around the various vents, calderas, and tubes of the lava fields. The sights were otherworldly!

                             We next went to the shoreline where the promontories were prominent, and technicolor was the shade du jour.

A short stop here was followed by our agrotourism stop at a vineyard. It was an interesting site this vineyard, because there were no rows upon rows of grapevines clinging to their arbors. Instead, we saw those individual plants sheltered from various weather conditions and apparently doing well enough to keep this island industry alive.

                   The wine tasting went well enough for two bottles to be consumed along with two bags of interesting potato chips because one of them was “chicken” flavored.

 Hey! We were hungry, and they filled us up nicely….. at least until we got back to the ship!

Well, it was bound to happen sometime in the four months of travel.

                   Yup, down for the count!

                   The ports were supposed to be Malaga in Spain, and Casablanca in Morocco, and we had awesome plans for each one, but they never came to fruition ☹

                   I guess, that as a confined community, with access to the rest of the world, that we have been rather lucky in the sickness department. The only real thing that has worked its way into the passengers has been a nasty, sometimes very nasty, cough/bronchitis type ailment. It can be quite violent when it comes to coughing fits and the like, you know…. almost breaking ribs and pulling muscles type coughing. Everyone has had it one or more times each. For us, it was Paula who had it really bad the days leading up to Malaga and was not good on that day, so we decided that since the next day in Casablanca was going to be full, that we needed to just blow off going to Granada and the Alhambra and stay home. Little did we know that the next day I would end up with “Intestinal Issues” and we only got a few stops in on our private tour that Samira (Tommy and Nadia’s [from Yetters] cousin in Morocco) had set up for us, when we (I) needed to be back on the ship, a little closer to “facilities” than we could have while driving around. That put the finishing touches on that day!

                             Recovery was rather swift, by that night I felt much better and with a Sea Day in between Casablanca and the Canary Islands, we were ready to go when we reached our first port, Lanzarote.

                   I guess it was good that we both were down at relatively the same time. We felt bad about Granada, and terrible about missing Samira in Casablanca. On the bright side, that gives us an excuse to come back to this area in the future!

On the surface, and if you left it all up to the Travel Guru’s, one would think that the reason for paying a visit to Barcelona, Spain would be to see Antoni Gaudi’s works of Architectural Art.

                   Left all by itself, this statement holds a lot of truths, but luckily for us, we found ourselves with a late afternoon La Sagrada Familia (the Holy Family) tour, which left us a lot of morning and mid-day time to experience Barcelona on its basic level…. A stroll on La Rambla or alternately Las Ramblas, which translated from Spanish means the boulevard. Originally this wide area was used as a (mostly dry and sandy) sewage ditch between the original gothic quarter “Old City” and the new El Ravel (the suburbs) quarter which is nearer to the Port. A map from 1400 shows this wide area distinctly separating these areas. Acknowledging the Muslim influence on Spain previously, Rambla in Arabic comes from the root word for “sand”, so it is interesting to see how different languages get assimilated into later ones and take on totally different meanings!  To us it sounds like “Rambling” which is exactly what we did with Harold and Sherry when we initially got off the ship in the morning. A shuttle bus was provided to get us from the port to the big statue of Christopher Columbus who is seen pointing in the direction of the New World. La Rambla starts on the other side of Chris and continues on for almost a mile.

                   Wide and tree lined, this wonderful, tiled walkway links several sections of the city with a “section” all its own. On it are many outdoor cafés, restaurants, and shops, both basic and high end. The surrounding area can be defined by that alternate name of Las Ramblas (plural) because these neighborhood streets have developed into side areas of even better shops, hotels, and finer restaurants.

                   Pedestrian Friendly is an understatement! This is actually an area that cars seem to shun, there are just two one-way lanes on each side of the wide esplanade while a subway runs directly underneath here in that old sandy ditch that was once here.

                   Our “Goal” for the morning’s expedition was to find an elusive perfume store by the name of Rituals, which is the source of a fragrance that two of Sherry’s daughters wanted. Armed with Google Maps and some friendly directions from the waiter at our first stop of the day, we sortied out. This initial inquisitive halt in the proceedings was at one of those street-side cafés for cappuccinos and (since this was an expedition requiring sustenance) a Red Bull, as they had no Monsters! According to The Trio, this was the best cappuccino yet of our entire voyage! The Red Bull tasted like a Red Bull, no exalted descriptions there, except the setting was definitely one of our favorites!

                   After some more direction findings we chanced upon our elusive prey situated on a square, a block off of La Rambla. Harold and I were happy to find some “Husband Benches” outside where we dozed off in the morning sunlight. Who knew it took that long to go into a store, pick up an item, and pay for it! Inquiring minds wanted to know, so that’s how we found out that the young lady inside hailed from Sherry’s neighborhood in Florida and had chosen Barcelona as her place to start her world-wanderings. It is indeed a small world!

                   Arriving at the northern terminus of La Rambla, we about-faced and started our journey back towards the ship. We wanted to have enough time to have lunch here in town, and still be back in time to start our Sagrada Familia Tour at 3:00 PM. Successful on both counts, we left Harold and Sherry sipping some awesome Sangria’s after our lunch of Vegetable Paella. Sherry has a shellfish allergy, so not wanting to take any chances, and since veggies are Paula’s favorite beings on the planet, we all opted for the Vegetable Choice. Even me.

                             Antoni Gaudi is Barcelona’s favorite son. Mr. Gaudi is most famous for his combination of combining Gothic and curvilinear  Art Nouveau forms. Examples of his style are found throughout the State of Catalan, mainly in its capital, Barcelona, and specifically at the Basilica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Familia or thankfully, simply la Sagrada Familia.

                   I am not sure how to describe his most famous work, this “church”. I can say that everyone that has ever been here and spoken to me has said that one must see it to fully appreciate its magnificence. It truly is a one-of-a-kind, and after visiting it, I can add my voice to that chorus of admirers that have been visiting this still unfinished masterpiece since 1882.

                   Unfinished you say?

                   That is correct.

                   Toni the Builder was the second architect to be involved. The first guy flew the coop after just one year (1883) and Gaudi took over, obviously with now enough time to instill his personal style into this project. The endeavor was funded by private donations so that explains part of the reason for the long construction period. Throw in the untimely demise of Mr. Gaudi in 1926 and the Spanish Civil War in the mid 30’s, WWII in the ‘40’s, slow resumption of work in the 50’s and we quickly arrive in the present where Covid screeched things to a halt.

                   Maybe that’s all not so bad because along with the delay in building came an increase in architectural technology that has helped make the remainder of this building a bit safer and stronger. Just as we saw with the Sydney Opera House, some of the technology to make these impressive structures needed to be invented along the way.

                   So, that brings us to today’s visit.

                   Our Group had timed tickets to enter Sagrada Familia, so we needed to tour the other sites before our scheduled entry. There are several buildings in Barcelona that embody Gaudi’s work and we did a “Drive-By” and then we were let off and we walked around the neighborhoods and went to the Building, which is a hotel. We did not go inside, the exterior had enough to see.

                   When we finally got to S.F. it was akin to entering a construction zone, which in fact it is. Gazing up at the exterior, it takes a while just to take it all in. Just when you think that you’ve got it all down pat, the Guide points out some other little nuance that lends another level of understanding to this Magnum Opus.

                   Viewing just the exterior is an exercise in sensory overload. There is not one square meter of unadorned or unworked piece of sandstone, or concrete. Everything is for a purpose, and there is nothing left unsaid. The Bible Stories are all there on display and every spire and tower has a purpose. For example twelve spires for the Apostles, Four for the Evangelists, one for Mary, the three main facades are themed as the Nativity, the Passion, and the Glory, each one stands on its own when telling the story. The outside is close to completion and was scheduled for 2026 which is the 100-year anniversary of Gaudi’s death, but Covid got in the way and the completion date has been extended.

                   The interior is complete. We were fortunate in a way, that our tour was so late in the day because the low angle of western sunlight shone through the stained-glass windows with quite the intensity. It was actually difficult to photograph successfully, but I did my best.

                   Under the church is a nice museum that chronicles the design and building of it. There are original workshop details and displays of the models that Gaudi used to make sure that everything was to scale and would “work” the way that he had intended. It was these plans and scale models that helped the succeeding architects, planners, and builders ensure that Gaudi’s vision would be carried out to the best of their abilities.

                   So who pays for all of this?

                   We did!

                   The costs associated with the completion of the construction are not underwritten by any government or the Church. Private donations have their place, but the bulk of the monies needed come from the three million Gaudi-Gawkers that come here to admire his work.

                   Hence, there seems to be no issues when it come to the talk of successful completion of Basilica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Familia !

                              Spain in itself is worth a visit, throw this in and you’ve got a slam-dunk!

          Well, it’s almost time to bid this cruise and our new friends good-bye. The ports have all been called on and all that’s left are some Sea Days as we cross the Atlantic Ocean, bound for Fort Lauderdale. As promised, the anticipated backlog of Posts will be completed within a few days. I am in better shape than I thought I would be at this point, only a few behind….. in the meantime, there will be lots of “Contacts Exchanges” going on, last minute get-togethers, and more than enough hugs and good wishes to go around.

                   The topic aboard at this time is a ‘variation on a theme’ of  “Are you going to do this again?

                   Our answer is a qualified maybe. 😊

                   Would we go around the world again? Yes!

                   Would we take the “same” cruise? Probably not. ( Unless they significantly modified the ports of call.)

                   What will we miss?

                   Lots!

                   For four months we did not need to: clean our room, make the bed, clean the bathroom, cook, shop, do dishes, or think about “what to do”.

                   For four months we were totally pampered, we had a myriad of options when it came to entertainment, and there was always someone to talk to somewhere on the ship if we got “lonely”. Even the everyday routine stuff has an element of fun built into it. There is not one thing that we do on board that can be considered a “chore.” We do lots of things on a regular basis, but each one, even though it is part of our “routine”, is for fun.

                   Trivia at 10 AM in the Explorers Lounge. Fun.

                   Walking around the Promenade Deck. Fun.

                   Playing cards on Sea Days. Fun.

                   Going to Horizon Court for breakfast and lunch. Fun.

                   Going to the Dining Room for dinner. Fun.

                   Nightly entertainment after dinner. Lots of fun!

                   And in between all of these fun things we do we can just relax. Sometimes we fall asleep!

                   Yup! 11AM, not time for lunch yet, all of a sudden you find yourself dozing off….. The same can be said for the afternoon.

                   But those are Sea Days. What about Port Days?

                   Well, those can actually be tedious at times depending on the arrangements made for visiting said ports. You have all been along for this voyage, so you are aware of the trials of the Shuttle Boats when needed. You know about waiting (im)patiently for all of the Mobility  Challenged Passengers when we get stuck on a “Best of” Tour. And sometimes, when we run from port, to port, to port, we wish for a Sea Day in between to recuperate. But, as you have witnessed, we have experienced some incredible sights and places! Some are just right out of National Geographic, while others seem to emanate from some exotic old movie.

                   But, while the voyage is designed to facilitate one’s experiencing of different parts of the world, it is definitely not the only aspect of traveling that we found that is important.

                   Just as vital as the Itinerary of the voyage is, is the manifest of fellow passengers that unknowingly signed up to help you experience these ports, even though they never knew that they were going to play that role. We, in turn, never realized that we would be an important piece of traveling memories for the others on this same list.

                   It just naturally turns out that way.

                   So, as our thoughts turn to coming home, getting the motorhome ready for the road, going shopping to fill the larder, getting those doctor appointments taken care of, and settling back into our terrestrial “traveling” routine, we are also feverishly making plans for our next adventures, many of them include our new “Traveling Amigos” that have helped make these last four months seem like it’s only been four weeks!

                   Like they say…..

“Time flies when you’re having fun!”

Now is the time to ask what we won’t miss….

                   The shower.

          It’s smaller than the one in the motorhome!