More Kruger photos…Final visit to Doc Theo….Already hearing from residents in The Villages…

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The face of a crocodile in Sunset Dam.

Gosh, it’s fun hearing from residents in The Villages in Florida who’d like to get together during the three months we’ll be there. Also, we are hearing from family members and friends who live within a few hours’ drive of The Villages who also may come to visit, staying with us for a few days. This foray into a massive retirement community might be more fun than expected.

Please don’t hesitate to contact us now or in the near future if you live in or near The Villages and would like to get together. We are excited to meet new people and build a busy social life while we’re there. In the first few days after our arrival, we’ll submit our passport applications, but once that is done, we’ll look forward to socializing.

It was hard to determine precisely how many crocs rested in the sand at Sunset Dam.

This morning, we’re returning to Doc Theo to get my prescription to be filled for one year. The pharmacist, Eugene, the pharmacy owner, has agreed to fill them for such an extended period because once we leave Florida, we will mostly be in remote areas/countries where getting them may be difficult.

Sure, we’ll be back in the US in September for three weeks, but we don’t want to have to pay exorbitant prices for a doctor to prescribe them who most likely wouldn’t do so for extended periods anyway. None of my prescriptions are scheduled narcotics. In the US, getting refills isn’t that easy, and the prices would be four times more than here in South Africa. The handwriting is on the wall.

Wildebeests and zebras were grazing in close proximity. Wildebeest have poor vision and prefer to hang around with zebras, who are quick to spot potential predators.

Besides, Doc Theo is my doctor and the only doctor I’d want to contact if something that wasn’t life-threatening came up.  He’s stated emphatically that I contact him on his private WhatsApp number if I need him. How many doctors do this? It gives me great peace of mind, feeling as if he’s traveling along with us. I will miss him.

Some countries won’t accept prescriptions from foreign doctors. Ecuador, where we’ll spend quite a bit of time beginning in late September or early October, doesn’t require prescriptions for non-narcotic medications, but we’ve found these pharmacies often don’t carry the meds I take.

Elephants at Sunset Dam are accompanied by a cattle egret who often hangs out with elephants, picking at undigested morsels from their poop. 

Of course, I will bring my meds and a copy of the prescriptions in my carry-on bag. After losing our luggage so many times in the past few years, there’s no way we’ll take a chance putting anything so important in checked baggage.

After Doc Theo, we’ll head to the pharmacy to get everything filled. They may not have everything on hand but can order and receive them in a few days. We are returning to Komatipoort on April 25 for our teeth cleaning appointments and can pick them up at that time if necessary.

A breed of stork I was unable to identify online. Any suggestions with its pinkish bill and pink legs?

After that, a quick stop at the Spar Market for a few odds and ends we need to get us through the next two weeks until we depart on April 29, such as eggs and salad ingredients. We still have plenty of meat in the freezer and don’t need to purchase meat or chicken.

Our farewell party is a week from today, and with a great response to our invitations, we’re looking forward to a fun event to wrap up our time with many friends who are still here in Marloth Park. Many have left to return to their home base and embark on other worldwide travels, some of whom will return while we’re away for those long 14 months.

A short-tusked elephant is grazing in the tall grass.

Tonight, we’re off to Jabula for dinner as we begin to wind down our social life in Marloth Park. It’s been such fun, and we thank our wonderful friends for making every day so special.

Be well.

Photo from one year ago today, April 14, 2022:

Due to a weak signal on the ship, there wasn’t a post one year ago on this date.

Our last visit to Kruger National Park, this time around…

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Finally, one of the hippos exited the Sabie River in Kruger National Park.

With time flying by quickly toward our departure date on April 29, and finally, with the holidaymakers gone and crowds thinning out, we decided to head to Kruger National Park today when we awoke to perfect weather. The sun was shining with a few clouds, low humidity, and no rain predicted.

By 8:30 am, we were out the door and on our way to the Crocodile Bridge entrance, an easy 20-minute drive. Since the school holidays had ended on Tuesday, we expected to see few vehicles in the park but were surprised by the number of vehicles accumulating whenever there was a sighting of any wildlife.

Hippos are always fun to watch, but waiting for that open-mouth shot can mean hours of waiting. Tom isn’t patient enough to wait for such an event.

Our expectations were low to avoid disappointment, and we were wise with that state of mind. We didn’t experience a single outrageously exciting sighting, but we were content with what we saw, taking photos of simple and familiar scenes we’ve encountered many times in the past.

However, the drive was lovely, and the breakfast at Mugg & Bean was predictable, with its usual less-than-stellar service. We each ordered omelets, and Tom had his usual strawberry shake with two pieces of white toast (his one slice plus mine), the thinnest slices of bread we’d ever seen, to which he added butter and strawberry jam. I had decaf coffee with real cream. Again, our expectations weren’t high, and we weren’t disappointed.

This fish eagle posed for this photo.

After breakfast, we headed to Sunset Dam, where we encountered a few good sightings but nothing spectacular. So please bear with our less-than-exciting photos of scenes along the way during the four hours we spent in Kruger National Park.

Back at the house by 1:00 pm, 1300 hrs., we had only a few tasks on hand for the remainder of the day. I’d already made tonight’s salad before we left the house and had defrosted tonight’s chicken in the refrigerator overnight. At dinnertime, I will cook the chicken, to which we’ll add the salad and Tom’s white rice. After dinner, we’ll have a piece of the keto strawberry cake I made yesterday, which was delightful.

We encountered several zebras on the move.

Besides making the rest of dinner, I only had to do today’s post and update our expense reports after uploading the post. This evening’s time on the veranda will be comfortable with the temperature so tolerable. This morning, Nina and Natalie stopped by before we left, but nowhere was Norman in sight. We haven’t seen him since last Friday, although we saw that many photos had been posted on Facebook with his image.

The holidaymakers were feeding him something extraordinary to keep him away from the mundane healthy vegetables, fruit, and pellets we offer. Hopefully, later today, he’ll stop by. Many other animals have visited in the past 24 hours as the holidaymakers left Marloth Park.

The first wildlife we spotted was a solitary giraffe hidden behind a bush.

I haven’t started packing yet, feeling I don’t need to start making a mess until next week, although I have been paying a lot of attention to our food supply and analyzing items we’ll take and other items we’ll leave behind. I could pack everything in one day if I had to, but I always like to prepare well before our departure date.

Next week, I will begin. Tom only needs to pack his clothes and the digital equipment, while I will figure out what to take and what to leave in the totes for our return in 14 months. I am not stressed by this at all. I never get stressed about packing and unpacking. My only concern is that we remain within the airlines’ weight restrictions on any particular flight.

More Kruger photos will follow in days to come. That’s it for today, folks.

Be well.

Photo from one year ago today, April 12, 2022:

They brought me this when I asked for some grilled fish for dinner on the cruise. Chef Gordon Ramsay would have been horrified if he had been served such a dish. For more photos, please click here.

A thoughtful and unique gift for me from a friend…

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Sindee gave Tom this personalized bottle of South African-made Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot for me. How thoughtful she is! Thank you, Sindee!!!

Yesterday, our friend Sindee whose husband Bruce passed away several months ago, with whom we’ve stayed in close touch, sent a text asking if we could pick her up at the bus stop last night around 7:00 pm, 1900 hrs. after visiting family in Johannesburg over the school holiday and returning by bus. Many locals use this bus service to get to the big city, which is a five or six-hour drive from here.

Sindee is the principal at a school in Komatipoort and had time off during the recent school holiday to visit family. We were happy to pick her up. We’d have an early dinner, and Tom would pop out in plenty of time to meet her at the petrol station in the Marlothi Shopping Centre.

He suggested that I stay behind since the car is tiny, and this way, Sindee could sit in the front seat. She is taller than me, and the legroom in the back seat is minimal, to say the least. I was happy to stay behind, I ended up talking to my son Greg on the phone on Whatsapp (free calls worldwide), and the time went by quickly until he returned a short time later.

The same four zebras stopped by again this morning.

When Tom walked in the door, he handed me the above-shown bottle of red wine, a Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot, one of my favorites. I’ll savor one glass per evening since its alcohol content is 13%. I usually drink very low-alcohol wine since I don’t tolerate higher-content alcohol. Don’t get me wrong, I love regular red wine with normal alcohol levels, but if I drink the higher content alcohol, I can’t sleep at night and easily get a hangover. So I limit myself to one glass.

Right now, we’re trying to use everything in the freezer, refrigerator, and cupboards, and we’re doing a fine job. Yesterday, I noticed two bags of unsweetened frozen strawberries in the freezer I had purchased to make smoothies for Tom. When he never wanted a smoothie, the strawberries remained in the freezer.

I looked up some keto recipes online and found a quick and easy recipe for a keto strawberry cake topped with keto cream cheese frosting. I doubled the recipe making two layers, one plain without frosting for Tom and the other with a thin layer of keto frosting for me. Each evening, after dinner, we’ll each have a little slice of our cake which is low in carbs and calories.

Several blue waxbills stopped by to partake of the seeds Tom placed on the tray.

The two layers came out perfectly, and the cake appears moist. I frosted my layer and placed both layers in the refrigerator on separate plates since they will be kept for about a week. Moments ago, we took chicken out of the freezer to defrost in the fridge overnight, enough for the next two nights, both breasts and thighs, which we’ll roast on the braai to have with salad and rice for Tom.

Tomorrow morning, if the weather is good, we’ll head to Kruger National Park, which is the last time we’ll go before we depart on April 29, a mere 18 days from today. The days are passing quickly. I’ve yet to start packing the bags we’ll t us and the bins we’ll leave behind until we return in 14 months that Louise will store for us.

If we go to Kruger, we’ll do so after our walk but before breakfast, which we’ll wait and have at the Mugg & Bean in Lower Sabie for our final time.

All of the friends we invited to our farewell party poolside at Jabula on April 20 have RSVP’d that they will attend. How lucky is that? We’re thrilled.

Be well.

Photo from one year ago today, April 11, 2022:

Tom and I were wearing silent disco headsets listening to two different songs, smiling and laughing all the while. Such fun! For more photos, please click here.

Attention: Residents of The Villages, Florida!…Please contact us to get together!…

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Yesterday, a band of mongooses was in a frenzy climbing this tree. Could they have smelled a snake residing there? Very possibly, when a mongoose’s favorite meal is a snake of any type. They are immune to snake venom.

Gosh, we’re receiving lots of email messages and comments regarding residents of The Villages who may want to get together during the three months we’ll be renting a holiday home in the Barrineau Neighborhood, from April 30 to July 29. We’re hoping many of our readers in the area will also contact us for social events, including happy hour get-togethers, lunches, and dinners out and hosting at our place.

If you know of anyone living in The Villages in Florida that may want to meet, contact us via either of our email addresses listed under our banner on our home page. How exciting that will be! Based on the comments we’re getting so far, we expect to be very busy.

But you never know. Sometimes, people are shy and hesitate to make new friends, especially those who are content with their current circle of friends, and also hesitate to make friends with “transient types” such as us. It’s similar to making friends on cruise ships, which we’ve done many times, and many of those beautiful relationships continue today. We are grateful for all the friendships we’ve made along the way.

When they calmed down, we gave them a good-sized portion of paloney, cut into bite-sized pieces, which they devoured in seconds.

Perhaps, our expectations are too high after living here, on and off, over the past 2½ years. Residents of Marloth Park are extremely friendly, and we’ve even cultivated friendly get-togethers with other short-term visitors with whom we stay in touch via social media. It’s been so easy here, easier than anywhere we visited worldwide, even easier than in our old lives in Minnesota.

As much time as we’ve spent in Las Vegas/Henderson, Nevada, in the past over ten years we’ve been residents of the state, we’ve yet to make any new friends, although we have a few old friends and family who live there. In the four months we spent in Bali and Costa Rica, we never made new friends, although we had a few social interactions on a few occasions.

On many occasions, we’ve socialized with our landlord and property managers, such as Hans and Geri in Kenya; Gina in Madeira; Sylvie and Andy in Trinity Beach, Queensland;  Mario in Fiji, Australia; Trish and Neal in New Zealand; Françoise and Egon in Bali; Fran and Terry in Penguin, Tasmania; Anne and Rob in Huon Valley, Tasmania; Bob in New South Wales, Australia; Bev and Sam, Atenas, Costa Rica (met them in Kauai in 2015 and later rented their holiday home in Costa Rica); Linda and Bill in Palermo, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Eileen in Connemara, Ireland; Lorraine and Graham in Cornwall, England; and finally Renate and John in Cornwall, England.

This zebra foursome visits often for pellets and a sip in the pool.

And, of course, the closest friendships we’ve made with property owners/managers have been Louise and Danie, who, after ten years of fabulous friendship, are like family to us and will remain so in our hearts forever. How lucky we have met so many lovely people along the way!

We are hopeful we will have a full and enriching social experience while we are in The Villages, Florida, hoping many of our readers will contact us to meet and share stories of our life experiences, travels, and more. Undoubtedly, we’re looking forward to this new location as we continue our world journey.

Be well.

Photo from one year ago today. April 10, 2022:

Port Everglades as the ship began to journey out to sea. For more photos, please click here.

Happy Easter to those who observe the holiday….Happy Passover… and other holidays celebrated worldwide…

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Happy Easter to all of our family, readers, and friends worldwide who celebrate Easter.

After a hectic morning, cooking for tonight’s Easter dinner for the two of us, embarking on a longer walk than usual, and doing a few loads of laundry on an outrageously humid day, I have run out of steam, and it’s only noon as I write here now. It’s the humidity that’s gotten to me when today the temperature will be a high of 92F, 33, but the dew point will be a ridiculous 79. See the comment below from the National Weather Service:

  1. “What dew point is uncomfortable?
General comfort levels USING DEW POINT that can be expected during the summer months: less than or equal to 55: dry and comfortable. between 55 and 65: becoming “sticky” with muggy evenings. greater than or equal to 65: lots of moisture in the air, becoming oppressive.”

2. “How high can the dew point go?

The dew point can never be higher than the air temperature. Similarly, as the air temperature rises and/or the dew point drops, the relative humidity decreases because the air is getting farther away from saturation.”
3. “What dew point is it hard to breathe?
66-70 is uncomfortable. 71-75 is oppressive. Higher than 76 is miserable.”

Thus, even if the temperature isn’t high, the dew point can make us miserable, as indicated above. Today is one of those days, and my inclination is to hide away in the bedroom with the fan and aircon running. But I won’t. I’ll stay out here on the veranda, hoping some of our wildlife friends will stop by.

With the holidaymakers here for Easter weekend, many aren’t leaving until tomorrow or Tuesday, so we may not see them until then. Good grief, it’s been two days since we’ve seen Norman and his family, and I have two bowls of “Norman’s lunch” waiting for his arrival, staying cool in the refrigerator. Certainly, Nina and Natalie are partaking of treats offered by the holidaymakers, which may or may not be appropriate for their digestive tracts.

Some human food may result in severe illness or be fatal to some animals, and we fear this is happening whenever the park is as busy as it is right now. Visitors aren’t educated about the well-being of the animals, or they don’t care, which is insufferable. To think of one of these precious creatures dying in the bush after eating mealie (corn) or other grain products is heartbreaking.

As for today being Easter, we decided to stay home, away from the crowds, and maintain our lovely peaceful existence on one of those days we aren’t being social with anyone but one another.

When searching online this morning about Easter, I stumbled across this site which has 20 Easter Traditions Worldwide that you may enjoy, which are lighthearted and not necessarily religious for those who don’t celebrate. We posted the first five of the 20 below, but if they interest you, click here to see the balance from Woman’s Day Magazine. (Not our photos. Getty Images).

easter traditions eating ham and deviled eggs
Getty Images

1. “Eating Ham and Deviled Eggs

The Easter Bunny isn’t the only one with a thing for eggs. Many people in America sit down around a dinner table laden with holiday favorites like ham and deviled eggs, according to the Farmer’s Almanac.

Ham became a popular dinner choice years ago, mainly by default, since the pigs that went to slaughter in the fall would’ve had plenty of time to cure over those long winter months, making them ready for eating just as spring rolled around.

Similarly, deviled eggs are a popular choice because of the way eggs are used symbolically throughout the holiday as a symbol of rebirth.

easter traditions wearing easter bonnets
Getty Images

2. Wearing Easter Bonnets

Another Easter tradition in America is the donning of the Easter bonnet. This fancy hat became a popular addition to Sunday church attire because it represents a commitment to renewal when paired with new Easter clothes.

These head coverings are loosely tied with the end of Lent when they would be purchased assumably after a period of frugal financing where such luxuries were typically not purchased.

They’re also a great Easter craft for kids who want to DIY their way to a new holiday hat. In fact, at the height of their popularity in the 1990s, department stores would often sell kits for children, who would then enter their hats into a contest.

hot cross buns 
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3. Dining on Hot Cross Buns

In New Zealand and parts of Australia, hot cross buns are more than just a tune you must learn as a kid; they’re an Easter favorite. The island countries enjoy eating these dense treats on Easter during their meteorological fall.

Once you know that Easter comes right before their winter, it makes more sense that they’d be drawn to this bit of comfort food over the holiday.

easter traditions orthodox easter eggs

Getty Images

4. Dyeing Easter Eggs Red

In Greece, those who celebrate Easter through the Orthodox church forego the typical mix of colors when it comes time to dye eggs, instead focusing on a singular shade: red.

The crimson-hued eggs are doubly symbolic since they use the eggs to represent rebirth and the color red for Jesus’ blood, marking the triumphant return of the son of God.

People can get creative with their red eggs, creating different shades, intricate designs, and more.

easter traditions bonfire

Getty Images

5. Starting a Bonfire

In some parts of Europe, people will celebrate Easter by striking a match. In Northwestern European communities, it’s common to kick off a two-day celebration that begins on Sunday by starting a bonfire.

These fires are aptly named Easter Fires and were initially set to help chase the darkness of winter away. Over the years, they’ve become a fun way for community members to come together and celebrate the coming spring.

We have to imagine that they’ve kept their popularity over the years thanks to being the first big gathering following weeks of winter solitude.”

Again, click here to see the remaining 15 traditions from this article.
We wish all of you a Happy Easter. Happy Passover and blessings for all holidays being celebrated right now throughout the world.
Be well.

Photo from one year ago today, April 9, 2022:

Our balcony cabin on Celebrity Silhouette while still in Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. For more photos, please click here.

Planning a party at a party…Oh, oh…is this a good idea?…

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Not quite a Big Daddy with his horns still growing, this male sipped from the pool.

Danie always jokes when he says, “Don’t plan a party at a party.” Invariably, this often happens to us. It’s hard to avoid planning other social events while at a social event. One is more relaxed after a glass of something while hugs and lively conversations ensue, creating a party-inducing scenario.

Last night while at Jabula with the bar filled with many patrons who’d attended my 75th birthday party in February, Dawn and Leon suggested we have a farewell party poolside at their place. We resisted at first, but everyone said they’d attend and that having a farewell party was a must-do when we’ll be gone so long.

As of 11:00 am, the invitations have been sent, and although some of our friends have left the bush for a while, we’re expecting about 20 guests. As always, we could have invited more, but the space is limited, and we don’t want it to be too much work for Dawn, Leon, and the staff.

A young male kudu on the left and a female on the right.

We chose Thursday, April 20, at 1600 hrs., 4:00  pm, and asked everyone to bring meat to braai and their drinks while Dawn had her kitchen staff make salads and sides, including the ever-popular South African dish, pap and Sheeba. Here’s a link for details on how to prepare this staple dish served at most social events.

Neither Tom nor I eat pap and Sheeba. Tom won’t like it (I never tried it), and I can’t eat it with the sugar and corn in the recipe. I’d love this if I could eat these ingredients, but I’ve never tried it. (When it comes to living a keto lifestyle, even a bite is too much).

The other sides will be vegetables in one form or another. People in South Africa are used to bringing their drinks to parties. It is more the “norm” than not, and we’ve become quite accustomed to doing this. When in the US over the past several years, we’ve noticed that most often, the hosts provide drinks, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic.

This forkl of kudus entered the garden looking for pellets. Due to the Easter holiday weekend, there are few visitors right now. It will pick up again on Tuesday.

With the high cost of alcoholic beverages in the US, I believe more people would entertain at their homes if they didn’t always provide ample wine, beer, and other drinks. Also, asking guests to bring their meat is as popular as it gets. When getting people together for socializing, it makes sense to let guests bring their meat and drinks.

Traditional, old-fashioned roles are observed here, more than we’ve seen in the US and other countries, especially today. Also, it seems that in South Africa, men gather around the braai, drinking beer and carrying on lively conversations. At the same time, the women often spend time together at picnic tables and hovering in the kitchen.

When the food is ready, typically in South Africa, the couples sit together while everyone dines on the delicious braai meats and side dishes.

We often see kudus when no other wildlife is around.

One of the reasons I prefer not to bring meat to a braai is because Tom often overcooks my meat when he’s having such a good time talking with the “guys” while hovering over the braai. At the last “bring your meat” party we attended a few weeks ago, I made chicken salad and coleslaw ahead of time for both of us, which worked out perfectly for us. Tom could still chat at the braai and didn’t have to worry about cooking our meat.

Even here at the house, he doesn’t love cooking meat on the braai. Often, he puts the meat on while I keep an eye on it to ensure it doesn’t get overcooked. It works out better if the meat is the type to slow cook. Let’s face it; Tom doesn’t care to do the cooking. But he does all the dishes, and I’ll cook anytime to avoid doing dishes.

We’ll have a dishwasher when we get to Florida and won’t have to worry so much about using electricity without load-shedding impacting electric costs. It will be great to use a clothes dryer once again. Also, it will be fun to shop at grocery stores where we can get some of the grocery items we can’t find here. It’s been a while since we had such conveniences.

Hmmm…We’re both OK about leaving at the end of the month and capping off our wonderful time here in the bush with friends at our farewell party. We couldn’t ask for more of a send-off. As of the completion of today’s post, almost everyone we’ve invited to our farewell party has RSVP’d.

Be well.

Photo from one year ago today, April 8, 2022:

Celebrity Silhouette Itinerary, Current Position, Ship Review | CruiseMapper
One year ago today, we boarded Celebrity Silhouette for a transatlantic cruise. We got Covid-19 during the last two days of the cruise and had to cancel our next cruise while still testing positive and being very ill. For more, please click here.

Figuring solutions for potential obstacles…

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Earl has been visiting each evening. Wildebeests are the only animals that poop in our garden. The rest go out into the bush.

The most imminent topic on our minds right now is getting our passports renewed as soon as we arrive in the US. We’ll arrive at our holiday home in the evening on April 30, hoping to get a good night’s sleep so we’ll be refreshed when we awake on Monday, May 1.

Once we get unpacked and settled that morning, we’ll begin applying for our new 10-year passports. We’ve decided to use a company in Washington, DC, since passport applications are also running behind in the US, again blaming the pandemic for this problem.

One of our kind readers, Cheryl, wrote to remind us by submitting a USA Today article about how the US is behind in processing applications. Although we were aware of this, which contributed to our concern about getting the passports on time for our cruise on August 1, we did considerable research.

Earl and Hal together in the garden.

We decided we needed to bite the bullet and pay for a passport/visa processing company to get them back on time. We will choose to receive the passports in 8 to 10 business days. The cost for this speedy service will be around US $1500, ZAR 27347 for both of us. We know this is an outrageous amount of money for this service.

You may ask, why did we wait so long? We’ve certainly known this date was coming up. If we don’t have the new passports on the sailing date, we wouldn’t be allowed to board the ship. We were informed we could apply in South Africa at the US Consulate. When their website wasn’t working to process our applications, we knew we had to devise another plan.

Then, suddenly, we were informed we had to leave early due to visa extension issues in South Africa, and everything changed. We should have done it while we were in the US in November, but we weren’t there long enough to receive them in time to fly back to South Africa. Ah, the dilemmas of world travel. We accept these realities and our responsibility for sometimes not being on the ball quite enough. Stuff happens.

Ruffles on the right side of the garden.

I can’t believe I managed to do the posts daily, let alone complicated paperwork. Most likely, I blame myself the most since I had a headache for 11 months since we got Covid-19 last April 20, and I couldn’t discipline myself sufficiently to get this done. I spent most days inactive and unmotivated.

The headache now? It’s gone! After a ten-day cycle of Prednisone and ingesting multiple allergy medications, I finally feel free of the headache. However, I am still feeling some allergy symptoms once I tapered off the drug while still taking all of the other meds. I feel confident once we leave the bush, my symptoms will improve significantly when free of all the dust, pollen, grasses, and dust mites prevalent in this area.

When we return in 14 months, it will be winter here when allergies aren’t quite as bad. We’ll see how that goes at that time. Once we return, we don’t plan to stay longer than six months simply when we aren’t interested in dealing with these immigration issues. We’ll do one visa “run” to get a new 90-day visa stamp, but we aren’t interested in doing more.

We’ve been taking our walks each morning after breakfast and are pleased we can increase the distance a little each day. Tom does fine and could walk for hours, but I still have problems with my legs hurting, making long distances an issue. Hopefully, as we walk more and more, this will improve. It feels good to be moving around once again.

Tonight, we’re off to Jabula for dinner. Tomorrow, we’ll have three weeks remaining until we depart, and we’ll continue to go right up until the last night since we leave on a Saturday. It will be unusual when dining out in Florida. Most likely, we’ll dine out twice a week while we’re there with over 100 restaurants from which to choose, all a golf cart drive away. That should be fun.

Be well.

Photo from one year ago today, April 22, 2022:

The new watch face on my Fitbit Sense. How appropriate is that? I didn’t walk much yesterday when I took this photo, and we were too busy with other tasks. For more, please click here.

We’re all set to go except for packing…Posting plans for 90 days The Villages in Florida…

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Mom and son, Jasmine and Johnny.

This morning, filling my 28-day pill case with my three prescription meds and vitamins, I started organizing and assessing how many tablets I’ll need to last while we’re gone for 14 months. I still have a little remaining inventory, and when Doc Theo writes me a one-year prescription for the others, I’ll be good to go until we return in mid-June 2024.

I disposed of a massive batch of useless packaging materials and reduced the amount to bring with us, which I’ll do again when I get the years’ worth next week. As for the supplements I take, I will buy those in Florida, most likely from Costco or Amazon. There’s no point in paying to haul those with us.

Each day, I plan to go through a cupboard or drawer to thin out what we’ll need to bring, what we can toss, and those items we’ll leave behind in the black plastic bins in the storage room. Again, there’s no point in paying to bring all the spices and condiments we’ve accumulated in the past 11 months in this house.

This is Jasmine, Johnny’s mom.

We’re trying to use up as much food as possible and won’t be grocery shopping again unless we need a few items for our meals, such as bacon, eggs, and salad ingredients. We’re working our way through all the meat in the freezer.

On top of that, we have lots of wine left from my birthday party, but each time we have sundowners, I have one small glass of regular wine (not light) and perhaps have a second glass of low-alcohol wine with 75% less alcohol than traditional wine. We’ll store the rest of the unopened bottles for our return, along with some items Tom drinks. All of that will stay fresh without a problem.

Also, we’re both leaving some clothing behind. When we return, it will be winter, and we’ll need some warm clothing. However, we’ll need warm clothing for the upcoming cruises to Norway, Greenland, and Iceland, where it will be cool even during the summer months. Also, it could begin to be cool when we arrive in Boston and Minnesota in September.

Johnny was on the other side of the garden while his mom was visiting. He seems to like it better on that side.

One thing I am looking forward to while living in Florida is easy-to-access products we use for cooking and general items one may pick up at a Costco or Target store. Plus, we’ll be able to place orders from Amazon and receive orders while staying at The Villages.

Speaking of The Villages, as mentioned in yesterday’s post and today’s heading, we look forward to sharing the details of what life will be like while living in one of the most popular and desired retirement communities in the United States. We’ll share photos, pricing, and information about many of the venues we’ll experience at our leisure, including dining out, shopping, and entertainment.

Perhaps our expectations are too high for meeting people. We plan to partake in as many activities as possible to improve the odds of making new friends. Plus, we expect some of our readers to live there, and we’re hoping those who do will contact us for dinner or a drink out at our location. How fun that will be! Please don’t hesitate to let us know if you are there and when we can meet.

Jasmine and Gordy seem to get along quite well. Could he be Johnny’s dad?

Even if you live outside The Villages and if it’s convenient, perhaps you could visit us for sundowners on the veranda at our new place. We also have a lot of old friends who live in central Florida, and we hope to get together with some of you while we’re there if it works out for them.

Of course, we plan to see friends Karen and Rich at some point. Karen’s mom Donna lives nearby, so surely we’ll see each other when they get together. Many of our “snow bird” friends will have left Florida for the summer months, and we won’t be able to visit with them. But we’ll see how it goes. Some may stay through May. We’ll be leaving at the end of July.

Once we arrive, we’ll be busy getting our passport applications mailed to the US State Department. We’ve already completed the forms, so all we have to do is send them to the appropriate address. Once we get one good night’s sleep, this will be on our agenda.

This morning, after an excellent breakfast and a few tasks completed, including booking transport from the Orlando International Airport to our holiday home for US $33, ZAR 600 per person, we went for our walk, which we’ll continue until we leave and pick up again, once we arrive and get a night’s sleep in Florida. It feels good to be walking again, but it may take a while to build my stamina after being relatively inactive this past year.

The weather has begun to cool considerably. No longer are we plagued with zillions of insects and courageously high humidity. This could change in a day. After all, TIA and one never knows.

Be well.

Photo from one year ago today, April 6, 2022:

Tom’s photos of this morning’s sunrise from the veranda of our bedroom at Karen and Rich’s home in Florida. For more photos, please click here.

New travel plans revealed….Leaving South Africa in 24 days, not returning for over a year…

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Earl has been stopping by for the past several days.

We knew this time would come…that we’d be leaving Marloth Park for an extended period. We do this knowing we’ll be back in about 14 months after many adventures in between. It’s about time we get back out into the world! It’s been quite enjoyable spending the past few years, off and on, in Marloth Park, but the rest of the world awaits us.

When speaking with the immigration attorney, she emphatically stated we have to leave South Africa on or before April 30, or we will be considered “undesirables,” which would ban us from returning for five years. We wouldn’t qualify for another waiver after we’d already used that option after I had open heart surgery in 2019. We have no choice but to leave.

Baby nyala Natalie is so adorable. She’s growing up so fast.

The interpretation of the new dictates imposed by immigration for pending visa extension applications, like ours, is unclear, but we can’t take any chances. One never knows for certain what will happen when trying to leave the country.

Secondly, we have discovered we cannot apply for our new 10-year passports at the US Consulate in Pretoria, which we also planned to do while here. It was entirely doable before the pandemic, but now the phone at the US Consulate doesn’t get answered regardless of when we call and how long we let it ring. The website claims we can apply for an appointment online. This is impossible. The link doesn’t work. TIA.

Mom Nina is in the forefront with Natalie outside the little fence.

I called the US Embassy, and they refused to help, saying that a US passport applicant must go through the consulate. What a mess! We’d have to leave even if we could have stayed longer. Our 10-year passports expired in 2021, and now our 4-year passport expires in January 2024. The upcoming cruises we’ve booked require at least six months remaining until the passports expire to board the ships.

As a result of both of these scenarios, we knew we had no choice but to leave. Since it’s not easy getting US passports in foreign countries unless on a short-term emergency basis, which is not us, we also knew we needed to return to the US to renew the 10-year passports.

So the question became, where do we go in the US for three months? We’ll be spending time with family in Minnesota and Nevada in September after the completion of two of the cruises. Holiday homes are priced out of our budget in Minnesota and Nevada, and since we have three months to fill until the first cruise on August 1, we decided to step outside the box and try something entirely new.

Nina and Natalie usually visit together. From time to time, Natalie hangs out with her dad Norman.

A long time ago, we watched a documentary about The Villages in central Florida and were fascinated by all it offered seniors. Where could we go that would be fun socially, perhaps near other seniors? But, for us, this is merely a stop along the way to fill these three months and not a “look-see” for any potential plans for the future.

To stay in some arbitrary US location and try to meet people and have a social life right away it’s tough in the US and many other countries. It’s not as if strangers try to make new friends when they’re out and about. After living there all of our lives except the past 10-plus years, we know this. By leaving Marloth Park, we are leaving many wonderful friends behind.

Nina and Norman enjoying breakfast at our house.

We had a busy social life in the US, but it had taken years to build relationships, unlike when people were ultra-friendly and welcoming. We thought if we went to a retirement community with lots of activities, we might be able to enjoy a busy social life during those three months. The obvious answer was The Villages for the three-month stint.

We got to work researching at VRBO, our preferred holiday home site, and researched exclusively for The Villages, which was easy to do. When we started seeing very nice golf carts that were often included in the rental, we wondered…was it possible we could avoid the expense of a rental car? Every possible shopping and entertainment venue, restaurant, and more were within a short drive using the golf carts allowed on all streets within the community.

Ruffles has become quite a regular.

Yesterday, we signed up for a three-month rental of a three-bedroom, two-full-bath property with a golf cart that we’ll be moving into on April 30. We’ll be departing 90 days later to head to Scotland for the first of two upcoming cruises on August 1.As mentioned above, we’ll be back in the US in September to see family. Afterward, we’ll be off to South America for many months, including a cruise from Quito, Ecuador, to the Galapagos Islands.

We booked our flight from Nelspruit to Johannesburg to Atlanta to Orlando for April 29. The journey will take about 30 hours, with the long overnight flight of 16 hours and 50 minutes from Joburg to Atlanta, a flight we’ve become very familiar with. We no longer anticipate it with dread. We know what to expect…lots of movies, little sleep, and terrible food. We don’t like to eat in the middle of the night anyway. Oh well.

Tomorrow, we’ll share details of our posting objectives during the three months. This will be an entirely new perspective for our site that may be of particular interest to seniors, with many photos included.

Be well.

Photo from one year ago today, April 5, 2022:

Not a lot has to be said about a beautiful sunset. It speaks for itself. This is in front of our friends Karen and Rich’s Apollo Beach, Florida house. For more photos, please click here.

Busy booking into the future…Details coming tomorrow…Routines…Delilah’s new baby…

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Only moments ago, these three giraffes zipped through the garden so fast it was hard to take a photo.

We haven’t felt this excited about booking into the future in a long time. Although we’ve left South Africa several times since we arrived in January 2021 during the pandemic, most likely, we’ll be gone for one year, returning with much enthusiasm at the time. Today, we’re finalizing the details and will get back to you in tomorrow’s post, outlining everything we’ve booked and why we’ve booked them.

A lot will transpire over the next year, and soon, we’ll update our itinerary to post here. This morning, we were busy researching and handling bookings since I find once I’ve uploaded the post, I want to be off of my laptop and have less motivation to research than I do first thing in the morning.

I’ve always been a morning worker, with my mind fresh and alert, allowing me to zero in on important projects. But, by early afternoon, my interest fades, and lighter work is more appropriate. Also, this morning, I baked a double batch of my flax and coconut bread, which I have every morning with two fried eggs and keto barbecue sauce, a weird combination I’ve come to love.

Delilah’s new little boy.

Tom always has four eggs and about five pieces of streaky bacon, all of which I cook for him, making my meal simultaneously. I’ve gone a good routine and can knock off the two plates of food in about six minutes. I cook Tom’s eggs in a large skillet and mine in a little non-stick pan. He likes his eggs over-easy, and I like mine well done.

Tom gets up a lot earlier than me and usually has keto blueberry bread with coffee when he first gets up, and we have breakfast a few hours later. The bacon cooks on a plate (no paper towel) for 5½ minutes on high in the microwave while the two pans of eggs are cooking on the gas stove top. The single piece of keto bread is popped into the toaster and is done when the eggs are done. It’s all a great start to the day.

Today, we did our walk before having breakfast since Vusi arrived to clean earlier than usual, and we thought it would be nice for him if we were out of the way. It all worked out. When we returned from the house, Vusi was just about done.

Please zoom in to see his adorable budding horns.

The keto bread loaf is out of the oven, and I’ve already sliced it into 24 pieces, placing them into sandwich bags of three and freezing them. I take out one bag every three days and use one slice daily, keeping it in the refrigerator. With the humidity here, it keeps better in the fridge for a few days rather than sitting out. Toasting makes it taste perfect.

Oh, I love the simplicity of our daily lives. The routines are rewarding and familiar, while the amazing interspersed travel experiences and adventures are a welcome break from that routine, often making us appreciate it all the more.

Each step of the way in our travels is cherished for its uniqueness and opportunity to expand our horizons, our knowledge, and our vast experiences over these past 10½ years since we began, totally oblivious to what the future held. Now, all this time later, with many tumbles along the way, we feel more in touch with our lives, each other, and the world around us than we ever imagined.

Ruffles, due to her ruffled ears, stopped by again this morning.

Sure, sometimes it’s tough, and sometimes decisions are hard to make, as you’ll see in tomorrow’s post. But, somehow, we always manage to figure out our next best move and carry on with love and hope in our hearts for a full and rewarding future, for however long we’re granted to continue in this dream of ongoing world travel.

We’ve even surprised ourselves that it’s been so long. We never imagined we’d travel for more than a few years, let alone for as long as it’s been now.

Oops, I just had to jump up to take the main photo today, three giraffes walking through our garden. What could be more heavenly?

Be well.

Photo from one year ago today, April 4, 2022:

Tom hadn’t eaten baked beans in years. Along with the chicken and ribs, green beans, and salad, it was a perfect meal at Karen and Rich’s Apollo Beach, Florida home. For more photos, please click here.