Part 2…We have news!!!

This morning, we spent two hours in the little kitchen preparing a special celebratory meal for tonight’s dinner: Low Carb Mushroom Scramble and Keto Broccoli Salad, a perfect pairing. We’ve stopped having desserts this week, especially now that we want to be able to maintain our weight (or lose a little) with travel days on the horizon.

No, we don’t have the most exciting news for our readers about where we’ll be from December 18 to March 1, 2025 (73 days). We are immeasurably excited about leaving this hotel on December 14 (41 days from today) to begin another road trip back to Lake Las Vegas, Nevada.

On March 1, 2025, we fly back to South Africa to Johannesburg and then fly to Marloth Park (Mpumalanga), where we’ll stay for the next several months, the exact dates of which we aren’t certain at this point. After 90 days, we’ve leave the country to go on a tour of Madagascar, and if it works out, we’ll return to Marloth Park for another 90 days with a new visa stamp in our passports, taking us to next October or thereabouts.

After Africa, we may try a few cruises, revisit favorite countries from our past travels, and explore new locations we’ve yet to see. There are plenty of places in the world we haven’t explored. It’s a new day—a new beginning—and we couldn’t be more hopeful and excited.

We chose to return to Lake Las Vegas because we couldn’t find any holiday homes in countries we were interested in staying, with only the most expensive properties available on the market during the upcoming busy holiday season. We aren’t interested in staying in hotels or paying $500 a night for a holiday/vacation home. We’ve had our fill of hotels, although it’s been comfortable for almost the past year.

We couldn’t find availability on such short notice over the upcoming holiday season, especially now that more and more people are traveling internationally since the pandemic. We had no interest in going to Florida after the hurricane damage impacted many areas. Our next best option was to return to our home state of Nevada and, if possible, once again stay in beautiful Lake Las Vegas, away from the Strip and the crowds.

Thus, we began our search for Lake Las Vegas. Again, the options were few, and the remaining rentals were few, considering our preferences for two bedrooms and two baths, especially in the Viera Building we loved so much. Lo and behold, “safari luck” prevailed, and the fantastic condo we rented last December popped up.

Immediately, we called the owner, who gave us the “deal of a lifetime,” remembering us as “great renters. ” By a fluke, his unit would be available on December 18. Moments after hanging up, we sent him the rent by PayPal. He was thrilled, like us.

With this plan, we will stay in Cleveland for the next 41 days, when we’ll begin the drive to Lake Las Vegas. It’s 2100 miles or more since we plan to head directly South to get away from the snowy areas in the country. We plan to take four to five days since we don’t care to drive much more than 400 miles each day.

We won’t need a rental car in Las Vegas as in the past since we never spent more than $300 a month on Uber or Lyft to meet family for get-togethers. Seeing family is a huge perk. A rental car costs at least $1200 per month. At that fantastic property, we can walk down a flight of stairs for less than ten minutes to several outstanding restaurants and pubs, a UPS store, a salon, and a grocery store. We ordered most of our groceries online, but it was a short walk to a quaint and charming market when we ran out of anything, including wine, beer, or other beverages.

Then, the joy of all joys, on March 1 or a few days thereabouts, we’ll fly to my favorite place in the world, Marloth Park, South Africa. I texted Louise yesterday, and she confirmed our favorite house on Ratel Street and our favorite wildlife, will await us. Of course, we can’t wait to see Louise and Danie, Dawn and Leon at Jabula, and our many wonderful friends in the park.

However, a special treat we never imagined was possible is that our friends Kathy and Don plan to arrive in Marloth Park within a few days of our arrival. We have all stayed in touch almost daily since they left Marloth Park for their home in Hawaii for medical reasons three years ago. Wow! Amazing! We can’t wait!

Be well.

Photo from ten years ago today, November 3, 2014:

Another Gold Dust Day Gecko in Hawaii. For more photos, please click here.