Part 2…We have news!!!

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In Maui, the clouds and mountaintops are a sight to see.

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.

Good day, Everyone!…We’re back…

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Most shoppers in Hawaii prefer to buy shelled macadamia nuts that are roasted and salted.

It’s been an excellent past 24 hours. We were busy doing some tasks in the hotel room, talking on the phone with family and friends, and continuing my workout regime. Today, it’s been two months since we left Minnesota to drive to Cleveland. That seems like so long ago.

We enjoyed our second night of “takeaway food,” which was Asian beef salad for me and Chinese sweet and sour pork with rice for Tom. Tom had Costco pumpkin pie for dessert, and I had a slice of homemade keto cream cheese pie. After dinner at 8:00 pm, we watched a disappointing Minnesota Vikings football game and went off for bed when it ended around 11:00 pm.

For some reason, I awoke at 3:00 am and couldn’t get back to sleep until after 5:30. Instead, I read articles on my phone after trying to doze off with no luck. Finally, around 6:00 am, I drifted off and slept until 9:00 am. I feel good today after a total good number of hours of sleep overall.

Today is a quiet day. Once I finish today’s post, I go to the fitness center to work out. Hopefully, the housekeepers will do our scheduled deep clean today. However, they often don’t do it on the expected day, Friday, because they say they are too busy. Getting a daily refresh has reduced the issues we were having. They come at different times each day, but we are used to it and don’t feel as if we’re sitting around waiting for them.

Yesterday, in My Chart, the company that reviewed the two-week heart rate monitor finally posted the results of my tests. There were dozens of comments about heart rhythm issues, including Paroxysmal AFib, PVCs, AV block, P wave morphology, Supraventricular Tachycardia, and more. I am waiting to hear from the electrophysiologist (a cardiac cardiologist specializing in heart rhythm issues) to discuss my upcoming heart procedures in February.

I’d hoped the results would be better and we could leave here earlier than February. However, after seeing the test results, I imagine we will have to stay for the additional tests and the procedures in February. Thus, we have four more months to go before we can leave.

Working out is not easy, and it’s challenging to stay motivated when it’s so difficult. For this very reason, I must continue to try each day. Some days are more complex than others, but I make a point of increasing the difficulty daily in small increments to ensure I am making progress.

The satisfaction I feel after working out each day is indescribable. Working out, especially when desperately needed, boosts one’s confidence in one’s health and well-being if not life in general. Although I am upbeat and optimistic, this physical boost is just what I need right now. That alone motivates me to go downstairs to the fitness center each day.

It’s getting cool in Cleveland. We have yet to turn on the heat in our room, but surely, in weeks to come, it will be necessary. We don’t go outside much and only have lightweight jackets for the upcoming times we’ll be heading out.

That’s all I have today, folks.

Be well.

Photo from ten years ago today, October 25, 2014:

This is a view from an overlook along the highway as we drove to Lahaina, destroyed by a horrific fire a few years ago. For more photos, please click here.

The comedy of errors…

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There was a juice truck in Waikiki, Ohua, Hawaii. We didn’t order any because we don’t drink juice due to its high sugar content.

“The Comedy of Errors is one of William Shakespeare‘s early plays. It is his shortest and one of his most farcical comedies, with a significant part of the humor coming from slapstick and mistaken identity, in addition to puns and wordplay. It has been adapted for opera, stage, screen, and musical theatre numerous times worldwide. In the centuries following its premiere, the play’s title has entered the popular English lexicon as an idiom for “an event or series of events made ridiculous by the number of errors that were made throughout.”

Yesterday, we encountered two significant errors that impacted our day.

First, I had an appointment at 10:25 at a Cleveland Clinic facility not located on the main campus of the Cleveland Clinic. With the printed appointment in hand with the address, I gave it to the driver of the hotel’s shuttle. He punched in the address, as I had done on Maps, and it indicated the location was less than two miles away. No big deal, we thought.

Following the turn-by-turn instructions on Maps, we ended up at a location with no indication of where we were supposed to be. When we realized we weren’t at the correct location, the driver and I typed in the clinic’s name to discover it was 25 minutes from our current location. I called the clinic to tell them we’d be late or to reschedule our appointment.

Realizing we’d never make it on time since the hotel driver wasn’t allowed to drive that far from the hotel, we had him take us back to the hotel. By the time we returned, there was no way we would arrive on time for the 10:25 appointment. I was still on hold with the appointment desk at the distant location. It was already 10:20.

We’d have to call an Uber, and most likely, we wouldn’t arrive at the proper location for another 40 minutes, totally missing the appointment.

I stayed on hold for one hour, and no one answered the call. Later in the day, I tried calling again to apologize for missing the appointment, but I was on hold for so long that I gave up. I decided to arrange another appointment with a nephrologist at the nearby Cleveland Clinic main campus. After all, we’d be here until at least the end of February, plenty of time to get an appointment.

The second error was I couldn’t find my wallet, which I’d been leaving on the small dining table. We scrambled to find my wallet before heading out the door to the “missed” appointment. It contained my medical cards, driver’s licenses, credit cards, and much more. When we scoured every area we could, we had to give up trying and head out the door for the “missed appointment.”

Of course, I panicked, wondering where my wallet was the entire time we were gone. We both scrambled when we returned to the hotel, looking everywhere in our spacious hotel suite. I don’t usually misplace or lose items. My memory is excellent. We knew we hadn’t been out and about anywhere I would have dropped it, nor did we suspect housekeeping of taking it.

We are always here when they come to clean, except for Fridays when they do the deep cleaning. On those days, I attached my phone case to the back of the wallet, which was conjoined by a strong magnet. See the photo below from Amazon, where I purchased this nifty set. Here’s the Amazon link to this item.

When staying in, I only use the phone and its protective case since it’s too bulky to carry the entire thing for the use of the phone only. When heading out, I reattach, via the magnet, the wallet to the phone, and then I have all my cards, etc, with me. The only drawback is the powerful magnet going through security at checkpoints and the magnet picking up any metal items in its path. Nonetheless, since this is also RFID, protecting me from illicit scanning by thieves, it’s worth the few inconveniences.

Well, here’s the shocking discovery about where Tom found the wallet section: IT WAS IN THE OVEN!!!

How in the world would my wallet end up in the oven? Here’s how…

Several days ago, when preparing the chicken pot pies, I took the broiler pan out of the oven (which we stored there to be out of the way) to avoid heating it when I didn’t need to use it. I placed the broiler pan on the table to get it out of the way since the tiny kitchen has very little counter space. When I did this, unbeknownst to me, I placed the pan on top of the wallet’s magnet when it was face-down on the table.

The magnet attached to the bottom of the broiler pan stayed there after I returned the pan to the oven after it cooled down. Yesterday, when we were in a frenzy trying to find my wallet, Tom had the foresight to open the oven door, where he noticed the broiler pan was askew. He picked up the pan, turned it over, and there was my wallet.

Here’s the photo below:

We were aghast. Only Tom, with his extraordinary “attention to detail,” would have thought to look in the oven! It’s a good thing that we didn’t turn on the oven and cook/melt everything in my wallet. Then again, I never warm the oven without taking out the broiler pan first, even if we’re going to broil something, since I avoid handling the hot pan any more than necessary.

Go figure. What a fluke! I’ll never let that happen again!

So, that was our day. Today, we settled back into another pleasant day, listening to podcasts, prepping for dinner, and enjoying each other’s company. Have a lovely weekend.

Be well.

Photo from ten years ago today, October 12, 2014:

October 8, 2014 - small scale lava flow map
By drawing a straight line to the ocean from the current northeast flow of the lava to the darkened rectangular area on the coastline, we can see that this is the area where the two houses we booked for December, next door to one another, are located. This is a current map from the National Park Service. For more photos, please click here.

A long haul ahead of us…Happy October…

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Flowers in Hawaii are breathtaking. This is an Anthurium. Wow!

We no longer bother with the complimentary breakfast in the hotel, offered each morning from 6:30 to 9:30. The mass-produced, greasy foods, fake scrambled eggs, and eggs boiled in vinegar are not to our liking. Since we’re currently having two meals a day, breakfast and dinner, it made sense to start making our breakfast, which consists of eggs and bacon for Tom and eggs topped with guacamole and Picante sauce for me.

Lately, feeling under the weather, I don’t get up until around 8:00 or 8:30, and once showered and dressed for the day, I make breakfast. Tom would happily do it, but I feel it’s crucial for me to continue preparing meals to keep me more active.

I cannot start walking the corridors again, and I have no idea when this will be possible. When we leave the hotel room, we’re still using the wheelchair. It will be quite a thrill to walk again eventually. But, for now, I accept this as my reality and strive to stay upbeat.

A few of our readers have written asking if the housekeeping issues have been resolved after my lengthy conversation with the general manager. It’s 25% better. They show up every other day but always fail to bring enough supplies we want to be refreshed for the next few days: four bath towels, two hand towels, two washcloths, two dish towels, two toilet paper, and four dishwasher soaps. It’s not that hard.

But they breeze in and out each time they come, leaving us short on half of these supplies. We have to ask them to add the correct items, let alone the proper amounts. They are supposed to make the bed every other day, but they do not. When we ask, they pretend not to understand.

Right now, more than ever, these simple requests are more important to us than in the past. After all, we’re paying premium prices for this hotel close to Cleveland Clinic. The shuttle guy is fantastic, always getting us to our appointments in plenty of time. On October 11, I have an appointment outside the clinic at a location associated with the clinic that is further away, and he will gladly take us there and to my remaining ten appointments over the next 4½ months. Whew!

Many of our readers have written over the past several days, insisting we keep them updated on what’s happening. I suppose I hesitated, fearing I was boring our readers with my constant health updates. Thank you for all of your support. Many of our readers have written about their health issues, for which we offer our love, support, and prayers for well-being.

I make a point of responding to each of these messages, acknowledging that none of us is exempt from experiencing frightening and worrisome health issues as we age and at any time in life. We’ve received many messages from readers as young as their 20s and 30s who also deal with heart issues, generally seen more frequently in the senior population.

Please don’t hesitate to write to us, even via email, about your health concerns. This enables us to return the kindness and consideration of providing support and a safe arena to share your concerns and worries. Of course, we aren’t medical professionals and cannot offer medical advice. But being able to offer an unbiased ear is something we all may need from time to time.

Tonight, we’re having Italian meatballs topped with Rao’s marinara sauce (which I spruce up with additional seasonings), fresh sliced portabella mushrooms, and mozzarella and parmesan cheese. I am having chicken meatballs, and Tom will have beef and pork meatballs. We’ll have a side salad, and Tom will have rice, which he always includes as a side dish.

That’s it for today, folks. And when we say, “Be well” at the end of each post, it’s done so from the bottom of our hearts.

Photo from ten years ago today, October 1, 2014:

Tom is thrilled to be in Hawaii. Me, too! For more photos, please click here.

No definitive answers…

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Artwork is abundant on many cruise ships.

“Thank goodness,” you must think…today’s post will be the last time I discuss my health until I have more definitive answers. Yesterday’s appointment with the cardiac electrophysiologist only resulted in more tests and vague answers. In any case, we will be in Cleveland a lot longer. I have an ablation (a cardiac procedure) scheduled for February 10. I’m on a waiting list for an earlier date, but it’s unlikely it will happen sooner.

Yesterday, a Zio monitor was placed over my heart, which I will have to wear for two more weeks after wearing the 48-hour monitor that I wore a few weeks ago. Now, the doctor is looking for signs of Afib, which would only appear without me being on the medication. Yes, he took me off the drug Multaq, which he clearly stated after reviewing test results offered no improvement for my near-constant PVCs. He didn’t replace it with another drug.

PVCs generally aren’t necessarily life-threatening but, over time, can cause permanent damage to the heart. At this point, my heart itself is in good shape with no evidence of damage due to my rhythm irregularities. I knew this, but the question becomes, can I live my life with the near-constant feeling that birds are flying about in my chest?

Some patients don’t even feel PVCs. But many do, and it becomes a question of yearly checkups to determine the condition of the heart after another year of rhythm irregularities and how tolerable this situation is for the patient over time. When I was on the more dangerous drug, Flecainide, I didn’t feel them since the drug kept them under control but was damaging my body in other ways and increasing the risks of a heart attack or stroke.

As of today, I am off all antiarrhythmic drugs for the first time since last October. The Multaq stays in one’s system for three to four days, so technically, I’m not entirely free of its effects yet. Walking more easily and breathing better will take about a week. Dr. Keogh explained that no drugs currently on the market can help me. The only possible solution is the February procedure.

There are a few ablations, one for PVCs and another for Afib and PVCs. Unless Afib appears on the new two-week monitor, I will only be scheduled for the PVC ablation, which is for the lower part of the heart only. So now, we watch and see. It’s scary being off of any such drug after this challenging past year. Twice in the past two months, I’ve spent three days in hospital with accompanying dangerously high blood pressure.

Based on those bouts, the doctor set up an appointment for October 11 with a nephrologist, described as follows:

“Nephrologists, also known as kidney specialists, are medical doctors who diagnose, treat, and prevent hypertension and kidney diseases. They are experts in treating high blood pressure because the kidneys play a vital role in regulating blood pressure.”

This upcoming appointment may result in more tests, so our plans remain up in the air. As for the angiogram results, one of my cardiac bypass surgery graphs has failed, and the other graphs are 50-60% blocked again. Nothing can be done for these situations. My arteries are too small for stents, and repeat bypass surgeries aren’t recommended until the blockages are 70% to 80% or more. Again, this is a situation I will have to deal with.

So now, I wait and see what transpires without any drugs for the heart rhythm issues and if, off the Multaq, I can walk and breathe easier again in the next several days.

Solutions for medical issues aren’t always clearly defined, as in my case. If I can feel better and continue with our lives of travel, walking, breathing easily, and enjoying every moment, I will be content. Let’s see how all of this rolls out.

When we know more, I will write here. Thank you for all the love and support. My being mum about this until we know more doesn’t mean something Is wrong.

Be well.

Photo from ten years ago today, September 28, 2014:

My dinner consisted of salmon and steamed vegetables, which was fine with adding a side dish of Hollandaise sauce. Due to their sugar content, I don’t eat many carrots, so I left those behind. For more photos, please click here.

Source of frustration since we arrived at this hotel…

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A gorgeous sunset as we sailed from Vancouver to the Hawaiian Islands.

Since settling in at this Cleveland hotel, our frustration about housekeeping has been exacerbated daily. We’ve already reported the issues to a manager, but our concerns have fallen on deaf ears. We don’t want anyone fired from their job—that’s not the point.

Since the pandemic, there have been staff shortages in many businesses throughout the country, if not the world. We fully understand the need for every-other-day housekeeping in hotels with these shortages. That’s fine with us if we get enough towels, toilet paper, and miscellaneous supplies as needed, which isn’t often the case.

The housekeeper on this floor has told us to leave all our trash and dirty towels outside the door daily. We pay over $100 a night for three months and shouldn’t have to haul them outside the door daily. We’ve never heard such a thing.

This morning, I left a message for the general manager to return my call. I just heard back from him. He was shocked to hear that we were told to leave our trash and dirty towels outside the door and for the lack of service we’ve received in the almost month since we arrived at the end of August. He assured me that this is not their policy. I feel confident that he’ll follow through and things will improve.

Since COVID, many travelers have noticed a decline in the quality of hotel housekeeping services, and it’s hard to miss, especially for those who travel frequently, like us. The pandemic created a significant shift in how hotels operate. While some changes were implemented for health and safety reasons, others appear to be cost-saving measures disguised as necessities.

The immediate post-COVID landscape was about protecting guests and staff, with daily housekeeping services suspended in many hotels to minimize contact. At first, it seemed understandable. We were all adjusting to new norms, and fewer face-to-face interactions meant less risk. But as travel restrictions eased, many of us assumed that hotels would revert to their pre-pandemic standards. However, for many places, that hasn’t been the case.

Now, guests often have to request housekeeping services instead of receiving them automatically. Sometimes, this creates a lack of consistency, where rooms aren’t cleaned as thoroughly as they used to be. You might notice dust gathering in corners, bed linens not being refreshed, or bathrooms not being restocked meticulously. It’s not just about cleanliness and how this makes guests feel.

For many travelers, staying in a hotel is about comfort and care. You expect to walk into a clean, well-maintained space that feels like a retreat. When that sense of care is absent, it changes the whole experience. You feel less valued as a guest, almost like the hotel is cutting corners, affecting your emotional connection to the place. Hotels have long been a space of escape, and when that feeling is compromised, it leaves a lasting impression.

Perhaps it’s not only about cost-cutting but also a shift in what hotels prioritize post-pandemic. They may assume that guests have adjusted to these new standards, but for many of us, the inconsistency in housekeeping reflects a broader decline in service quality.

Have you noticed this, too, in your travels? Hopefully, after today’s conversation with the general manager, we’ll see an improvement in the quality of service we expect from a Marriott hotel.

Be well.

Photo from ten years ago today, September 24, 2014:

Ten years ago, no images were posted on this date due to rough seas and poor WiFi.

What’s going on with us?…

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Our first meal was in the ship’s dining room shortly after we boarded after we had missed breakfast. It was delightful to be on the ship.

When I realized we hadn’t updated our situation in a week and instead chose to post articles about travel and technology, I knew it was time for an update. In a way, I suppose I was avoiding the topic, especially since we are unsure of what the future holds.

With most testing completed by this Friday, we’ll meet with the electrophysiologist to develop a treatment plan. The new drug I am taking, Multaq, is only working at about 50% but is causing me side effects that significantly impact my quality of life. I am once again having trouble walking, experiencing breathing issues, and having a feeling of general malaise, such as weakness and feeling tired. It’s been almost three weeks since I started the drug, and by now, some of the side effects should have begun to diminish.

Instead, the side effects worsen each day as I struggle to perform even simple tasks. I’ve forced myself to walk three times a day, but before the drug, once I was off the last drug, I could walk five times a day. Now, the shortest distances are a struggle.

The test results came in from the Holter monitor and indicated I have an excess of irregular heartbeats that require further treatment. This drug, Multaq, is not solving the issue. Plan B must be established, which we’ll learn about during Friday’s doctor’s appointment.

Once we know what will transpire, we can consider the options. In any case, we look forward to being able to leave Cleveland sooner than later. But, at this point, we don’t know.

We are doing alright in this hotel room day after day, night after night. It’s certainly not our first time “stuck” in a hotel room. Since this is more like an apartment than a hotel with a separate bedroom, large bathroom, living room, dining area, and fully equipped kitchen, it’s not bad.

Since we don’t have a car, since parking is $60 per day plus the rental car expense, we don’t go anywhere. Also, with my difficulty walking, how I feel, and the need to use the wheelchair, sightseeing isn’t on our radar while in Cleveland. Once a week, we treat ourselves to Grubhub-delivered meals, enough to last for two nights’ dinner.

I prepare meals for the remainder of the week, and Tom happily helps as needed. I try to be independent and not pester him to help me with everything, but he often “beats me to the punch” and jumps in to help. This morning, he did the week’s laundry. When it was dry, we each folded our own items, and now we’re set for another week.

We are by no means feeling low. We talk and laugh and make the best of the situation, as we always do. Hopefully, soon, we’ll know more about the future, which will surely provide both of us with a much-anticipated burst of enthusiasm.

Be well.

Photo from ten years ago today, September 23, 2014:

Vancouver is often a starting point (usually an ending point) for many cruises to Alaska. For more photos, please click here.

Shocking event in the cruise business…Frustration for travelers..

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The view from our condo in Vancouver before we sailed to Hawaii.

Traveling is a tricky business. We are subject to changes, cancellations, and longer-than-expected waiting periods, often at our own expense, due to situations entirely beyond our control. The following story popped up today that clearly illustrates one of those frustrations, in this case, for a more extended period than usual.

From this site:

Business

Passengers bought berths on a 3-year cruise. Months later, the ship is still stuck in Belfast.

By  JILL LAWLESS and PETER MORRISON

BELFAST, Northern Ireland (AP) — Lanette Canen and Johan Bodin gave up life on land to become seaborne nomads on a years-long cruise.

Months later, the couple has yet to spend a night at sea. Their ship, the Odyssey, is stuck in Belfast undergoing repair work that has postponed its scheduled May departure for a 3½-year round-the-world voyage.

Bodin said Friday that they have enjoyed their pit stop in the Northern Ireland capital, but “when we’d visited every pub and tried and every fish and chips place and listened to all the places that have Irish music, then we were ready to go elsewhere.”

“We’re ready to set sail, for sure,” added Canen.

Villa Vie Residences’ Odyssey is the latest venture in the tempest-tossed world of continuous cruising.

It allows travelers to buy a cabin and live at sea on a ship circumnavigating the globe. On its maiden voyage, it will visit 425 ports in 147 countries on seven continents. Cabins – billed as “villas” — start at $99,999, plus a monthly fee, for the vessel’s operational life, at least 15 years. Passengers can also sign up for voyage segments lasting weeks or months.

Marketing material, aimed at adventurous retirees and restless digital nomads, touts “the incredible opportunity to own a home on a floating paradise,” complete with a gym, spa, putting green, entertainment facilities, a business center, and an “experiential culinary center.”

But first, the Odyssey has to get out of the dock. It’s now at Belfast’s Harland & Wolff shipyard, where the doomed RMS Titanic was built over a century ago.

Villa Vie Residences’ marketing manager, Sebastian Stokkendal, said the company had been “humbled by the scale of what it takes to reactivate a 30-year-old vessel from a four-year layup.”

He said that the ship was almost ready to depart after work on the rudder shafts, steel work, and engine overhauls.”

Calling itself the first perpetual world cruise, Odyssey has a busy 425-port itinerary across 147 countries through 2028. Its cabins, renamed “villas” by Florida-based Villa Vie Residences, start at $99,999 and run to $899,000, with monthly fees that vary according to the cabin type and number of occupants. Non-resident passengers can also sign up for segments that last weeks or months.

As of today, the Odyssey has yet to set sail. We can only imagine the frustration of the waiting passengers who have upended their lives for this extended journey.

Photo from ten years ago today, September 22, 2014:

A lonely-looking boxer was waiting outside the restaurant for his family, where we dined on our final night in Vancouver. For more photos, please click here.

Unusual event on Delta flight…Nothing surprises us…

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View of downtown Vancouver, British Columbia, in 2014.

Numerous media accounts have provided information about events occurring on various flights by many airlines. We ask, “What’s going on?”

Is all this news due to increased reporting of any situation that can be sensationalized, or are the airlines being less diligent in ensuring safe flights for travelers? Are careless inspections being performed by disgruntled employees, or are checks and balances ignored in certain situations?

We don’t know the answers to these questions, but we don’t perceive flying as safe as it may have been a few years ago. The average flyer can do nothing to eliminate such concerns as they continue to flood the press. Today’s story is a perfect example of such an event. Why was this allowed to happen?

“FAA investigating after Delta passengers report bleeding ears and noses (from this site)

SALT LAKE CITY —

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating after a Delta Air Lines flight leaving Salt Lake City last weekend developed cabin pressure issues and left some passengers with bleeding eardrums, headaches, and bloody noses.

The flight was traveling Sunday from Salt Lake City to Portland, Oregon, when the five-year-old Boeing 737-900ER aircraft’s pilots noticed a pressurization problem and made an emergency landing back in Utah’s capital, according to the flight log.

Passengers told KSL they noticed people bleeding as the plane decreased in elevation over the Great Salt Lake. Passenger Caryn Allen said the pilots announced they were returning to the airport but did not explain why. Oxygen masks did not deploy.

Allen described watching her husband cover his ears in pain while other passengers tried to help a man on the other side of the aisle who had an uncontrollable bloody nose.

Another passenger, Jaci Purser, told KSL it felt like someone was stabbing her inner ear.

“I grabbed my ear, and I pulled my hand back, and there was blood on it,” she said.

Paramedics met passengers at the gate and identified at least ten people out of the 140 on the flight who required medical attention. They recommended that anyone who was bleeding go to the hospital for further evaluation, and Delta offered to cover those transportation costs, the airline said.

“We sincerely apologize to our customers for their experience on flight 1203 on Sept. 15,” Delta said in a statement. “The flight crew followed procedures to return to SLC where our teams on the ground supported our customers with their immediate needs.”

Delta said the plane was taken out of service Sunday and returned to service Monday after technicians resolved an issue that prevented it from pressurizing above 10,000 feet.

The Boeing aircraft involved in Sunday’s emergency landing is not part of the manufacturer’s newer MAX fleet, which was investigated this year after a door plug blew off during a Jan. 5 Alaska Airlines flight while the plane was at 16,000 feet over Oregon.

However, in late January, the FAA recommended more thorough inspections of other Boeing aircraft, including the 737-900ER involved in the incident over Salt Lake City, because it shares the same door plug design as the MAX jets.”

This obviously resulted from human error, which seems to have caused many such flight events. Notice the above statement in bold: “Delta offered to cover those transportation costs, the airline said.”

What about the cost of medical bills incurred for those who sought medical assistance? What about the potential loss for those who had connecting flights or other forms of awaiting transportation?

To enjoy world travel, one must fly. In a perfect world, one could cruise from location to location, as we attempted during the first year of our travels. It was often more cost-effective and certainly more enjoyable than flying. Unfortunately, it’s not always possible, although we continue to search for cruises to get us to our following preferred location.

That’s it for today, folks.

Be well.

Photo from ten years ago today, September 19, 2014:

My breakfast was served in the restaurant of the membership hotel, Club Intrawest, Vancouver, British Columbia, where we waited for a cruise. For more photos, please click here.

Time flies, even when its not as fun as we’d prefer..

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We stopped to take a photo of a pretty flower.

Time seems to fly as we age because of the way our brains perceive time. Everything is new and unfamiliar when we’re young, so our brains process these experiences with intense focus, creating many vivid memories. Each day feels longer because we’re constantly learning and noticing details.

But as we age, life becomes more routine, and our brains don’t have to work as hard to process familiar events. This creates fewer “new” memories, making time seem to speed up.

There’s also the relative perspective. When you’re 10, a year is 10% of your life. But by the time you’re 50, a year is just 2%. As a result, each passing year feels proportionally shorter compared to the ones before.

Emotionally, it’s also tied to how we approach life. Many people reflect on missed opportunities or unfinished goals as they age, which can amplify the sensation that time is slipping away. The more we focus on the rapid passage of time, the faster it seems to move, leading to that bittersweet feeling of time flying when we’re older.

Yes! “Time flies when you’re having fun” taps into how our brains handle enjoyment and focus. When deeply engaged in something that brings us joy, we enter a ” flow state.” In this state, we’re fully immersed in the present moment, losing track of external factors…like time.

Our brains aren’t constantly clock-watching or overanalyzing; instead, they’re soaking in the experience, and before we know it, hours have passed.

It’s almost like when we’re having fun; time slips into the background because we’re more focused on the joy and connection we’re feeling. The irony is that the more we wish to hold onto those moments, the faster they seem to slip through our fingers. It’s as if fun compresses time, making it feel fleeting.

This sense of time speeding up during fun is a reminder to embrace the present fully—while it lasts!

We can’t waste time worrying about how much time we have left, nor can we become obsessed with always having fun. Life’s reality dictates that sometimes it’s challenging and far removed from our preferred reality. However, having “downtime” is crucial to embracing those special times when we engage in joyful and playful activities.

As we also know, during downtimes, we can fall into the trap of believing this is our permanent state of being. God, Life, or whatever spiritual means you surround yourself with (or not) usually provides us with the choice to make the best of every situation. However difficult it may seem, our state of mind determines the quality of our lives, regardless of the challenges. As world travelers, we are temporarily in another type of lockdown preventing us from exploring the world at this time to find even snippets of pleasure and purpose in our currently mundane state of being.

Thank you for sharing this time with us.

Be well.\

Photo from ten years ago today, September 15, 2014:

Buildings at the busy port of Boston. For more photos, please click here.