Diving into the Rest of the Voyage

          Every morning when I arrive at my office in Horizon Court, I turn on my laptop. After it wakes up and blinks its sleepy eyes, it settles on the web page that is used to connect me to the satellite-based internet system that we have on board. This system really is good, even with all things like being in the middle of whatever ocean we happen to be sailing through considered.

                             I have found only one problem with it.

                             It has a “Countdown”.

                             Since this service is subscription based and depends on being on this voyage, it counts down the remaining days, hours, and minutes left until it goes Poof!

                             In 37 days, 2 hours, and 46 minutes, our existence in this idyllic daydream will cease.

                   This is not an event that we are looking forward to.

                   Now please don’t take me wrong here, it’s not that we don’t miss all of you! We really do. We love any contact with you, phone calls when they can get through on WhatsApp, emails, and the always there, Face Book and Instagram messages.

                   Will we miss four months of not having to shop for food, cook, do dishes, clean the motorhome, make our own beds, clean our bathrooms, order our beverages of choice from an app on our phones, and/or do basically anything that we want to do, at any time that fits our (busy?) schedule?

                   You bet we will! 😊

                   But do you know what we will miss the most?

                   It’s the one that is not listed there, the one thing that we warned about in the very beginning of the cruise by Cole, our awesome first Cruise Director.

                   It’s the friends that we have met on board.

                   Cole said and I quote, “You will make life-long friends on this voyage.”

                   And he was correct. In reality I guess that it is hard to evaluate life-long in such as short period of time, but remember, our time spent with some of these folks is like a normal friend-making experience on steroids!

                   Now it’s not like we all don’t make friends all the time. New folks in the workplace, new people coming to church, the new kid in school, a new neighbor moving in, you all get the idea. These are all great examples of how we meet new friends.

                   In our case, all of these are true, but when you mix all these together, and throw in a little excitement, a slew of adventures, relaxing times spent reminiscing about these new adventures, sharing your previous “Life Journeys” with these new acquaintances, and then toss in three social mealtimes per day for all these days…….. well, it gets rather special.

                   Would I have to admit that this (as I said earlier) idyllic setting makes it easier to experience this?

                   Absolutely!

                   Would I have to admit that when the polish comes off of the shiny stainless steel and brass trim (that’s on board) that some of these relationships will fade with time and distance?

                   Absolutely!

                   But I am as positive as I can possibly be that there are some really special ones that will stand that test of time and distance!

                   There is one really obvious reason that will facilitate this positiveness that I have……

                   We live in a motorhome and can show up at these friends’ homes and just park in their driveway!

                   “Hi! We’re here!!!

                             I hope we get a nice reception 😊

          So, with the countdown in full force now, and the days dwindling quickly, we have a lot more ports to visit!

                             This leg of our itinerary is going to be challenging because there are many ports that go back, to back, to back, and then some!

                             Sea Days are a luxury, and sometimes a little necessary as a respite and regroup. You know, lounging around playing card games, going to Trivia Time, and eating! We love Sea Days!

                   So, here is how the rest of our voyage will pan out, unless of course, there are extenuating circumstances such as, storms, civil wars, or other natural disasters that would prevent any of these future ports from becoming a reality.  We have 21 ports yet to visit, crammed into 30 days (because the last seven days will be spent crossing the Atlantic ocean). There is a time coming up that there are 10 ports in 10 days, so I will beg your forgiveness in advance because it usually takes me two days to put a post together and that’s when there are Sea Days in between!

                   So, without further ado, here are the rest of our ports to visit:                  

We are currently in the Red Sea which is about 1200 miles long and we need to get to the northern end of it in order to get to Petra, our next port. This will take another three days at sea. Then…..

Petra, Jordan

Suez Canal

Jerusalem

Ephesus, Turkey

Monemvasia, Greece

Venice

Ljubljana, Slovenia

Split, Croatia

Kotor, Montenegro

Island of Malta

Sicily

Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast

Rome

French Riviera, Monte Carlo, and Monaco

Marseilles

Barcelona

Grenada

Casablanca, Morocco

Lanzarote, Canary Islands

Santa Cruz de La Palma, Canary Islands

Atlantic Ocean Crossing

Home

So, don’t put your traveling shoes away just yet! There are some really great things to come, especially since we have contracted with our new best friends at Tours By Locals to enhance our travelling experiences! Most of these ports are being shared with the two couples that we have become the closest to over the last three months, Darla and Sandra and Sherry and Harold.

          We are all looking forward to these adventures!