April 26 & 27 – Two days at sea. When I checked my email on the 26th I had email saying that there was an emergency at home and to call immediately. Ironically I had called the day before and didn’t get anyone, just answering machines. I bought a satellite phone card on the ship, $25 for 12 minutes. Pretty steep but better than the $7.95 per minute that it costs without the card. We called home to find that Diana’s mom is in the hospital again. We won’t be anywhere that Diana could fly home from until 5/2 in Barbados so it’s a problem. In calls over the next day the reports seemed to be getting better. Laurene has started to recognize people and is more alter and has better color. We are praying for her recovery and that Diana will be able to get home and see her mom. We’ll just have to wait and see for now. I took some food pictures today. I have a hamburger for lunch about 25% of the time. It’s the only time I go to the grill on the Lido Deck so the cook just starts it as soon as he sees me coming. They had the show buffet today and I took a few pictures but didn’t eat anything.
Food Pictures
Above (r to l) My buffet plate, Diana’s buffet plate. Next row: My hamburger lunch, Nutty Ludwig’s Castle
Brazil Night Pictures Stefan (maitre‘d) Diana, Yohan, Andi (Head Steward Wedodo (our steward) on the left & Yonathan (his asst) on the right
April 28 – Today we are on the Amazon River at Santarem, Brazil. This is an amazing place. More fresh water flows through the mouth of the Amazon in a day than flows down England’s Thames River in a whole year. At any time 20% of the world’s fresh water is in the Amazon Basin system. We are here in the wet, or high water, season. The river is up into the rainforest and fishing is bad because all the fish follow the water into the jungle to eat the vegetation that has become flooded. It’s home to the greatest diversity of birds and fish and more than 65% of all species of both live here. People build their houses on tall stilts, but right now they look like they’re setting on the ground.
The Amazon has its source in Peru at Lake Lauricocha. It’s 4,195 miles long and getting longer every year as the delta extends further into the Atlantic Ocean. It has over 15,000 tributaries, four of which are over 1,000 miles long. The Amazon Rainforest is almost 3 million square miles and takes up 40% of Brazil’s total area. It dumps 46,000 gallons of fresh water into the Atlantic each second, 6000% (yes, six thousand percent!) more than the output of the Nile River. It varies in width from 1 to 35 miles and the mouth is over 250 miles wide. Most of the Brazilian section is over 150 feet deep and at some places is over 300 feet. This system supports the largest and oldest rainforest in the world.
The Amazon Basin has three distinct types of rivers that flow from the different shield areas of the basin. The Amazon (left) is a ‘White River’ and they flow from the west. White rivers get their name from the color of the water. These rivers carry so much sediment that they look muddy, like the Mississippi in flood. They are actually pale yellow to light tan in color. The rivers that flow south from the northern land shield are ‘Black Rivers’. These rivers have a great quantity of dissolved minerals in them and are actually a rusty red/brown color. At most angles they look very black and have a wonderfully reflective surface. ‘Clear Rivers’ flow north from the southern shield land mass. They look a little green because they carry a large amount of small plant life out of the jungle in that area. The water in both the black and clear rivers is very clear.White Rivers have the largest array of marine life. There are many species of Piranha that live exclusively in white rivers. Some will also live in black or clear rivers, but only where they meet with white rivers. Their danger is greatly exaggerated. They view humans as too large to be prey. In fact, baby Cayman have to hide during the day to avoid attack. But full-grown Cayman, crocodiles or alligators swim all day with immunity. They are too large also. Our Amazon lecturer has lived upriver on the Amazon for 25 years and has never heard of piranha attacking a human in all that time. The other odd animal in the waters here is the ‘Boto’, an endangered, pink, freshwater dolphin. They reach a length of 8-10 feet and weigh about 200 pounds. They are unique among dolphins in that they have unfused cervical vertebrae that allow it to turn its head 180 degrees. They also have a hump on their back instead of a dorsal fin.
Black rivers are unique in that the dissolved minerals make them very alkaline; they have a Ph of about 5. The nice part about this is that piranha and mosquitoes don’t like this alkaline water and these areas are clear of both. Many of the cities in the Amazon Basin are on black rivers for this reason, no mosquitoes.
Clear rivers are much the same in effect; except their waters have less dissolved minerals and carry a large quantity of small plant life that makes them appear pale aqua green to clear. The city we are heading to, Santarem, is on the Amazon but just east of the Tapajos River, which is a clear river. When the waters of these two rivers meet the temperatures and water density are so different they don’t mix for miles and miles. Locally this is called the Encontro das Águas (Wedding of the Waters). Since Santarem is on the southern bank of the Amazon and the Tapajos enters from the south, the water for hundreds of yards out into the Amazon is clear river water and it does not support the breeding of mosquitoes leaving the area almost totally free of the pests.
Santarem is a little over 350 miles from the mouth of the river. Its only 2.5 degrees south of the Equator and is the third largest city on the river, still it is much smaller than Manaus (about twice as far up the river as Santarem) and Belém (near the river’s mouth), the largest cities. It has a small commercial port and as we arrived a freighter was being loaded from a long series of conveyers on the next pier. Because the area is so wet the entire system is enclosed and I couldn’t see what was being loaded.
We’re taking a small boat trip from Santarem to the Tapajos River and the Jari Canal. The Tapajos is thought to be the largest clear water river in the Amazon Basin and generally acknowledged to be the most scenic. In the low water season it will display more wildlife that it will now in the high water season. The high water season is from April to August.
We boarded our small boats, 7 in all, right on the pier at the Prinzendam. Our boat (left) had about 30 people on it and there was plenty of room to move around. It’s about 45-50 feet long with a beam of about 12 feet. It has a small pilothouse at the bow and a cabin aft that contains the heads and a small kitchen. Between the two is an open but covered deck. The pilothouse and aft cabin have room to walk around them to the bow and the fantail. Both of these areas have space to stand at the rail.
We continued up river, stopping at a small sandy beach for a little roaming. The weather today is very cloudy and it has been raining all morning, sometimes very hard. Guess you can’t really have a rainforest without lots of rain! We didn’t arrive at the pier until 1PM and the tour started at 2PM. The sky is still cloudy but the rain is slowing. The temperature is the amazing part. It’s only about 72 degrees and while it is very humid at that temperature it’s very pleasant. The guide on our ship is a very cute 19-year-old girl named Krishna (right). Her English is excellent but she’s freezing at these temperatures. She says that it’s usually over 90 degrees and that’s what she’s used to. I’m in shorts, shirt and sock less sandals and very comfortable, yet she’s freezing. Guess it’s a matter of what you’re used to.
The beach stop was supposed to be for swimming but the most anyone was willing to do was wade out into the river. The water was very nice and would have been refreshing if the weather had been hot and humid. I wondered along the beach and back into the wetland behind it. I saw White Egrets, some starling or crow like birds, the vulture picked over carcass of a 4-foot long catfish, some yellow
butterflies and a small sandpiper like wading bird. It was a nice spot. Almost everyone just wondered up and down the beach like Johnny, Sheri and Craig (left). Johnny and Craig are on the Cruise Staff and Sheri is the ship's hostess. Three years ago every ship in HAL's fleet had a ship's hostess. She taught scarf tying, table setting and other classes on the 'social graces'. She also introduced the passengers to the captain on reception nights. She was like the protocol expert on the ship. But after our cruise on the Amsterdam from Copenhagen to New York the position was eliminated. The only cruise that has one now is the World Cruise. I miss them because they were always very pretty but also and more importantly, very outgoing and contributed greatly to the social life aboard ship.
After leaving the beach we crossed the Amazon to the south bank and entered the Jari Canal (right). It’s a narrow waterway through the delta area in the confluence of the Amazon and the Tapajos. It winds around for miles and has many smaller channels leading off along the way. As we sailed along we saw birds of all sorts. A hawk or eagle type with a white head and dark body, looked a lot like a Bald Eagle but smaller, Egrets, Vultures, Crow like black birds and something of a tall bird with a spiky comb on its head like a Secretary Bird. We saw a three-toed sloth in a tree and a 4-foot Iguana on the top branch of a tall tree. It was a very peaceful and beautiful place.
As we cruised across the Amazon to the canal, Krishna showed us some of the tropical fruits grown in the area; passion fruit, pineapple, many types of bananas and Brazil nuts. Brazil nuts grow in a unique way. The trees are like palm trees and grow to a height of 40 meters. The nuts all grow at the top like coconuts. In fact they grow in a large round casing like a coconut but without the hairy coating. When they get ripe they give off a smell that attracts fruit bats that try to eat the casing and consequently knock it off the tree so the humans can pick it up off the ground. In reality, the bats are picking the fruit. The casing has a top like an acorn that comes off and inside the casing are 12-15 Brazil nuts. All you have to do is pick them out. Pretty cool!! She had one such casing on the boat with the nuts in it (above). It was not the Brazil nut but a ‘poor sister’ of the Brazil, as she called it. Grows the same way but the surface of the nut is wrinkled not smooth like the Brazil. They cracked some open and the meat of the nut had a mild coconut smell and taste. When squeezed it became oily and it seems like pressing it would produce quite a bit of oil.
Along the Jari Canal we saw lots of little farms (right) most of which had moved their animals to higher ground for the wet season. One farmer had a nice dry patch of land and his cattle, goats, sheep and chickens were still there. We passed several fishermen in small one and two man boats (below). One man proudly flashed a large fish he had caught. I didn’t recognize it. The trip was great. Of course, I think any time spend on a small boat is great but everyone else seemed to enjoy it as well.
We arrived back at the ship at 7PM, too late for the dining room so I showered and went up to the Lido Restaurant to eat. Lots of other late returnees ere there eating as well. Diana stayed on the pier to do some local craft shopping. That worked out well as she returned as I was finishing my shower and she could jump right in.
Sunset with Green Flash caught by my lens and Canal Boat by Twilight (above)
Late Sunset (below)
Now we have three days at sea to get out of the Amazon and up to Barbados.
April 29 – Diana’s Birthday!! CSI staff, Tom and Ellen, but balloons and a clown picture saying Happy Birthday on our cabin door this AM and had our steward put a card from them on the bed. Eric & Evelyn Kimsey, Max and Shirley Minear, Diana and I went to dinner in the Pinnacle Grill this evening. It was a very good dinner and good conversation. They are our regular tablemates in the LaFontaine Dining Room. The chef made a special Chocolate Volcano desert for Diana.
April 30 & May 1 – After passing the Sea Buoy yesterday we are back in the Atlantic Ocean heading for Barbados.
On May 1st Ron Troy and Barbara Strong, our dance instructors, presented a Dance Showcase. 18 couples from their dance class presented between 2-3 minutes of different dances for the passengers in the main showroom, the Queen’s Lounge. Barbara was the MC and Ron danced in about half of the presentations because there’s a shortage of men on the ship, or at least men who wanted to dance in public solo. Both Tom Mullen and Ellen Bethel, our CSI escorts danced. Ellen danced the tango with Ron and Tom danced the meringue with Rose Chinchilla. As I’ve said before, Tom is the most British man I know and when he and Rose got down and personal in during the dance it brought the house down. They danced to ‘Hot, Hot, Hot!’ and it was. Ellen and Ron were great on the tango. Ellen obviously loves it and is very good at it and Ron is an excellent dancer in any step. Ron asked me to video tape it for him and I agreed. The lighting was not good but I did manage to get a fair image on tape.
May 2 – Today we are in Bridgetown, Barbados. Diana and I have been here before. This is the first port since March 23 in Singapore that we have been somewhere that was not new to us. That was one of the things that made this particular cruise so interesting to us.
Barbados is an island with an English heritage so there’s not much of a language problem. Most of the blacks on the island speak Creole as well but everyone speaks their form of English. Somewhat British, don’t you know. The most of the ship’s regular tours visited places we’ve been before so we opted for an action activity, Rhino Riders. I know, I’d never heard of them either.
Now we have three days at sea to get out of the Amazon and up to Barbados.
April 29 – Diana’s Birthday!! CSI staff, Tom and Ellen, but balloons and a clown picture saying Happy Birthday on our cabin door this AM and had our steward put a card from them on the bed. Eric & Evelyn Kimsey, Max and Shirley Minear, Diana and I went to dinner in the Pinnacle Grill this evening. It was a very good dinner and good conversation. They are our regular tablemates in the LaFontaine Dining Room. The chef made a special Chocolate Volcano desert for Diana.
April 30 & May 1 – After passing the Sea Buoy yesterday we are back in the Atlantic Ocean heading for Barbados.
On May 1st Ron Troy and Barbara Strong, our dance instructors, presented a Dance Showcase. 18 couples from their dance class presented between 2-3 minutes of different dances for the passengers in the main showroom, the Queen’s Lounge. Barbara was the MC and Ron danced in about half of the presentations because there’s a shortage of men on the ship, or at least men who wanted to dance in public solo. Both Tom Mullen and Ellen Bethel, our CSI escorts danced. Ellen danced the tango with Ron and Tom danced the meringue with Rose Chinchilla. As I’ve said before, Tom is the most British man I know and when he and Rose got down and personal in during the dance it brought the house down. They danced to ‘Hot, Hot, Hot!’ and it was. Ellen and Ron were great on the tango. Ellen obviously loves it and is very good at it and Ron is an excellent dancer in any step. Ron asked me to video tape it for him and I agreed. The lighting was not good but I did manage to get a fair image on tape.
May 2 – Today we are in Bridgetown, Barbados. Diana and I have been here before. This is the first port since March 23 in Singapore that we have been somewhere that was not new to us. That was one of the things that made this particular cruise so interesting to us.
Barbados is an island with an English heritage so there’s not much of a language problem. Most of the blacks on the island speak Creole as well but everyone speaks their form of English. Somewhat British, don’t you know. The most of the ship’s regular tours visited places we’ve been before so we opted for an action activity, Rhino Riders. I know, I’d never heard of them either.
After a short ride in a small bus we arrived at the small boat harbor. Here we boarded a larger boat to go to the Rhino mooring area. We transferred to the Rhinos from the larger boat and off we went. I drove on the way out and Diana was the REO. A Rhino Rider is like a Wave Runner with a Zodiac type rigid inflatable hull. It’s about 10 feet long and powered by a 25HP outboard motor. Even loaded down with Diana and myself, once the flat-bottomed hull got up to plane it really scooted along. The steering is very responsive and easy to control.
We rode up the coast of the island to a snorkeling site that includes a shipwreck. There were lots of fish and the water was great. A recent storm had churned up the bottom a little but visibility was still about 25 feet. After about an hour of snorkeling we headed back to the harbor. This time Diana was driving and I was tail gunner. On the way back the wind had picked up so the ocean was a little choppy and it was raining. The ride was pretty rough but still fun.
Our travel agent, CSI, hosted a luncheon as a sort of farewell party for us. The restaurant they had planned to use cancelled only a few days before we arrived saying that it was a public holiday today and they wouldn’t be open. Didn’t they know that 5 months ago when the arrangements were made? Oh well, that’s life in the Caribbean. They’re more on ‘island time’ than the Hawaiians. Through the efforts of the staff back in Seattle a new location was found that’s about 40 minutes out of town. It’s a sugar cane plantation that hosts meetings and banquets.
The drive out was very picturesque. Because it had been listed as an afternoon activity Diana and I had booked the morning Rhino expedition. When the location changed the departure time had to be moved up and we weren’t back to the ship. Ellen, one of our escorts, arranged for a large bus to take most of the guests to the plantation and a small van for the four of us that had booked tours. When we got back Tom, our other escort was waiting for us with the van. The other couple that was supposed to go with us didn’t show up and after waiting 45 minutes we decided they weren’t coming and left. So Diana, Tom and I had a very nice ride to the plantation.
After driving for at least the 40 minutes estimated we turned off the two-lane blacktop road onto a very narrow dirt road through a cane field. The cane was so tall it was like driving in a roofless tunnel. It wound around for such a distance that I began to think we might be lost. We drove up a small hill and around a curve and the sugar cane fields opened up onto a large house on the hilltop.
The house and its surroundings were beautiful. In the rear there was a large garden with two large aviaries. One aviary had two macaws (right), one male and one female; the other held a male macaw. The female was causing quite a ruckus. The aviary had a house built on one wall and the female retreated inside the house and stuck her head our occasionally to screech at the male. It was pretty funny! The solitary male in the other aviary was a hoot also. Anything you said to him provoked a pronounced bobbing of his head as though he was saying ‘Yes!’. Of course, once we discovered this he was asked all sorts of weird questions with which he apparently heartily agreed.
The meal was served buffet style. The food was on long tables under canopies in the garden (left). It was very good. They had some regular dishes like green beans, corn casserole, rice, potatoes au gratin and tossed salad. These were served alongside some more traditional island dishes like grilled flying fish (This was some of the best fish I’ve ever tasted. I don’t know if it was the fish or the preparation or both but it was fantastic.), plantain fritters, hot pot (shredded beef barbecued island style), curried bananas, squid salad, crab puffs, and beans (somewhat like pintos, but not exactly) cooked with onions and ham of some type. The lunch was great (below)! It was accompanied by white or red wine, beer, sodas or water.
Tom Mullen, once again the most British person I know, has a tea room in his home in England and he has pictures of himself drinking tea all over the world hung there. He posed for a picture in the garden with a cup of tea and I’m going to send him a copy when we get home.
Most of the guests went back on the same big bus that brought them. Since only Diana and I came in the van several stayed to ride back with us. We had congregated in the garden under a small canopy. Tom and Ellen stayed with us and the owner joined us for drinks and a chat. He’s a very interesting fellow (below right in red shirt). He’s a 14th generation Bajan and his family has been in sugar cane since they arrived. He’s a distant relation to the royal family, the cousin of a cousin of the queen. He has little use for the monarchy for several reasons and he told us one of them. It’s actually a pretty funny story.
When Queen Elizabeth II visited Barbados in 1989 he was invited to the official reception because, in addition to being a relative, he has been active in island politics for many years. The invitation read Mr. & Mrs. and since he has no wife he invited his girlfriend, an official with the US State Dept. stationed in Barbados. He wanted to arrive in style so he borrowed a white Daimler owned by a friend of his. Unfortunately there are two white Daimlers on the island and the queen was traveling in the other one.As he and his girlfriend were driving to the reception, all of a sudden they were surrounded by police motorcycles and given an escort to the venue. The Bajan driver turned back to them and said, “Mon, they tink you be the Queen!!” Sure enough, when he arrived at the manor the red carpet was rolled out and a military man came to open the car door. After he did he looked in and said, “Where’s the Queen?” Of course our host replied, “I have no idea, I haven’t seen her all day.” They were quickly escorted inside and held incommunicado for long time by the police, even though as an island dignitary he was well known to everyone.
The motorcycle escort raced back to the place where they were to wait for the Queen and sure enough there she was, locked in the other Daimler, waiting for her them. The police were very embarrassed by their error and needed a scapegoat. So he was blamed and the next day his girlfriend was recalled to the US. In other words, expelled from Barbados as though it was her fault that the police picked the wrong car to escort. He said with some satisfaction that it was the last time the Queen had visited the island and if she never came back it would be too soon for him! I did a little search on the Internet and discovered that HRH used to the island every 5-7 years as part of visits to Bermuda, the BVI and other former British Colonies in the Caribbean. She has been back to the other places several times since 1989, but she did not include a stop to Barbados. I just wanted to see if I could verify the truth of some part of his story.
Soon it was time to take the van back to the ship to continue our trip. The lunch was great and the company was just as good!
May 3 & 4 – Two more days at sea to relax and say goodbye to the ship and our fellow passengers because the morning after Half Moon Cay (pronounced ‘key’) we’ll be getting off in Fort Lauderdale. Half Moon Cay is Holland America’s private island. It’s part of the Bahamas so I guess we could say we were there also. There won’t be the usual immigration officials to deal with, as the island is uninhabited except when a ship visits. The employees live on nearby E Island and come over on a ship that HAL has here for that purpose. There is some housing on the island for the busy season when ships are here almost every day.
We spent a lot of our free time on these two days packing. We couldn’t miss our regular classes, Tai Chi for me, Bible study and Bridge lessons for Diana. HAL gave us two large duffel bag type roller suitcases to help us get our stuff off the ship. It’s a good thing because we have packed all our original suitcases and completely filled these two new suitcases as well. I’ve even packed stuff in my backpack and camera bag and Diana has made a temporary small carry case out of a cardboard box and plastic twine. Fortunately HAL will ship 200 pounds of stuff home for free. I figure we will ship three suitcases; the two new duffel type and my Samsonite hard sided. The rest we’ll have to load into the rental car and drive back to Texas.We also had our Tai Chi class graduation (above). I really enjoyed the class and hope to continue with the practice.
Max & Shirley Eric & Evelyn Rod & DianaMay 4th is our last formal night. We’re mostly packed but still have a little to do. I spent some of the evening getting pictures of some of the people on staff and a few of the passengers I got to know. Our tablemates for the cruise are pictured above. We have sailed with each of them before.
Diana, Wedodo & Baked Alaska -- Rod & Emily Dove -- Jen, Rod, Wendy & Johnnie
Elizabeth, Rod & Hillary -- Sheri & Rod -- Christine, Rod & Evelyn
Elizabeth was my Tai Chi partner. Hillary, her granddaughter, joined her at Cape Town. Sherri is the social hostess, a position that most HAL cruises no longer have. Christine is one of the front office managers and Evelyn is one of our tablemates.
May 5 – Well we’ve finally made it to Half Moon Cay and I won’t have any pictures because I didn’t take my camera ashore. HAL acquired the island in 1995 but improvements took some time and the first ship came here in 1997. Our last Caribbean cruise, a Christmas-New Year cruise, was on the SS Rotterdam in 1996 so we have never been here before. It’s a small island in the Bahamas between the southern tip of Eleuthera Island and the northern tip of Cat Island. It was previously named Little San Salvador, but was renamed when HAL purchased it. It has a crescent shape and this could account for its name however the actual homage is to Henry Hudson’s ship the Half Moon that is shown on HAL’s logo. The island is the largest employer on Eleuthera Island except for the government. HAL keeps a ship here to bring employees to Half Moon from there. There are some living facilities on the island for the island administrator.
The beach inside the crescent is more than a mile long and is made up of extremely fine, very white coral sand. It’s gorgeous! They have put in a small dock that is up a short curved canal. This prevents the wave action of the ocean from affecting the tenders as people get on or off them.
After disembarking the tender you turn right and walk down the pier and up a small incline to the Welcome Center. There’s a Concierge desk here with maps of the island and staff to direct you to the various venues. There are also some shops and a bar. The various amenities are manned by a mix of locals from Eleuthera and the ship’s staff. The shops sell island style crafts and souvenirs. At the pier end of the beach there’s a swimming lagoon with improvements for kids, a water slide etc. The mile long beach has three water sports centers that rent various types of equipment for beach and ocean use. They rent Hobie Cats, water trikes, snorkeling equipment, water mats, etc. There’s a large outdoor bar in the middle on a bluff overlooking the beach.
They use the ship they keep here to ferry the BBQs, food and other equipment from the ship to the cooking area. Cooks from the ship prepare the lunch. Diana and I didn’t stay for lunch. I think we’re both a little stressed by what’s going on at home.
May 6 – Day 96 and we’re finally back in the USA. We got off the ship with little or no problems. They estimated we would disembark about 10:30AM and we didn’t get going until a little after 11AM. We had to claim all our bags in the terminal to go through customs, the three bags we’re shipping as well as the seven we’re taking with us. We enlisted the aid of a stevedore to help us and headed for the Customs checkpoint. Customs didn’t even blink at our load of luggage. I think they figured that after 96 days on the ship our clothes were pretty smelly and they didn’t want to risk being overcome by toxic fumes if they opened our luggage. At any rate they waived us through without even a question.
We dropped off the bags to be shipped with ILS right outside the terminal and hopped a taxi to the Fort Lauderdale airport where we are to pick up our rental car. Hertz was the only company willing to do a one-way rental to Dallas/Fort Worth without a large drop off fee. Their weekly rate was the highest of any company but after considering the drop off fee they were the least expensive. I’m glad I joined the Gold Club with Hertz because the regular rental counter was very busy with a long line of people waiting to check in. The Gold Club counter was deserted when I arrived and I was checked in and in my car in about 10 minutes. Very good service indeed.
I had reserved a standard size car, Mazda 6 or similar. We would have had a lot of trouble getting our remaining bags into one of those. They offered me a Subaru Outback (above right), sort of a station wagon, at no additional charge and I took it. Our bags fit fairly easily (left). We grabbed some maps and took off heading north.
Usually I like to plan road trips but I had not gotten any maps before leaving California so we stopped for lunch on the Florida Turnpike and bought a map of the eastern states there. We will be almost half way to Dallas before we get out of Florida and I want to get that far today. Considering our late start we will be driving until about midnight. We stopped for a snack at a Cracker Barrel restaurant and rented a couple of books on CD to listen to while driving. What they do is sell you the CDs and then refund all but about $4 when you return the CDs to another location. That worked out very well.
May 7 - We made it to Pensacola before we stopped for the night. I’ve become a fan of Holiday Inn Express. They aren’t the cheapest place but they include a great breakfast in the price and you can get up and going without making an extra stop to eat. They always have some sort of local specialty on the breakfast buffet. In Corvallis, Washington it was a waffle maker. Here it’s cheese omelets. We got started at about 9AM and I want to be in Cleburne this evening. The day passed without incident and we stopped at another Cracker Barrel to eat and turn in the CDs we’ve finished and pick up some new ones. That’s really a great service.
We made it to Cleburne at about 9:45PM and it was nice that our duplex was there, ready for us to move in. We have come full circle. We left Cleburne in early January to get ready for our cruise and we’ve returned in early May. Five months to go around the world heading west at all times. It’s good to be home in the USA.
(c) Rod Longenberger - 2005
Corvallis, Oregon would have been your stop.
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