Part 2…Continuation of our day trip to the Monkey River and the rain forest…My 65th birthday…

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Jason driving the boat with his feet in order to get an “eagle’s eye” view of the manatees. His ability to spot wildlife is astounding!

Today is my 65th birthday. Unable to “lunch with the ladies,” to receive the usual much appreciated cards and gifts from family and friends with no mail delivery available to us here, Tom gave me this gift of a day on the Monkey River and journey into the rain forest. 

Nothing could have meant more to me, to experience this memorable day and also to share it with all of our family, friends and readers.  Today, we’ll grocery shop, walk on the beach, spend time at the pool and tonight, dine in one of our favorite romantic restaurants, the Singing Sands. What a day!  I qualify for Medicare (can’t use it outside the US) and am having the time of my life in this amazing country. 

Back to our story:

The rain forest is filled with a wealth of nature’s miracles. Seeing first hand the vegetation that may be the answer to many of the world’s illness added to our commitment that the rain forests must be preserved. This massive untouched area gives one hope.  The country of Belize is dedicated to the preservation of these areas, constantly striving for ecological purity. 

The jungle.
Termite nest.  They were busy at work. Hi
Termite nest.

Unusual trees hold secrets to health.
The varied rain forest floor.  This was a nature of the path we walked.
Largest bamboo growth area in Belize.
Four turtles sunning on a log.
 

Iguanas, as do other wildlife, blend into their environment, making them difficult to spot.

Croc climbing out of the river to the shore.

Leaving the rain forest, we jumped back into the boat, swatted more horse flies and headed to Alice’s Restaurant for our awaiting lunch.  The food was hot, delicious and much welcomed along with ice cold bottled water.  We engaged in lively conversation with our Ruth and Howie. 

Alice’s Restaurant was hosted by a small group of friendly, kind and attentive staff. We weren’t sure who, or if there was an Alice.

Shortly after we ate lunch, Jason appeared coaxing us back to the boat for more adventure, the long fast bouncy boat road back to Placencia with multiple stops along to way to look for manatees. Excited at the prospect of seeing these massive creatures, we couldn’t get back into the boat quickly enough.

Much to our delight we saw several in the open water area between the mainland and the Placencia Peninsula.  Elusive mammals, they place their blubbery snoots above water for only seconds to gather a gasp of air, quickly dashing back under the sea.  They were nearly impossible to photograph.  Please bear with the photos that we managed to take and see the link for more about the manatee of Belize with better photos.

Look carefully to see the outline of the possibly 1000 pound manatee in the water.  We’d hoped for better photos but, they’re shy and don’t do the “show” familiar to whales and dolphins.
At the exact moment we shot the photo, a mother and baby surfaced for air. 
More feet driving.

Returning at the lagoon at 2:00 pm as planned, covered in bug spray, bearing a wide array of bites, we felt dirty, wind blown and ready for a spray from the outdoor shower followed by a dunk in the pool. 

It was a perfect day.  We loved every moment.  For now, this is our home and our “backyard” is a treasure of gifts bestowed upon us by Mother Nature and the sea.  Thank you, Mother Nature.  Thank you, sea.  Thank you, Jason.  Thank you, Tom Lyman.  And thanks to all of our readers for adding to our adventure by “sharing” it with us.

Part 1…Our day trip adventure to the Monkey River and rainforest…

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Looking like tourists, off we went on our adventure this morning.

Covered in bug spray, looking like tourists loaded down with a camera, binoculars, water shoes and swimsuits under our clothes, at 7:45 this morning we walked across the street to the pier at the lagoon to meet up with our well versed guide, Jason, born in the tiny community of Monkey River, an area rich in Belizean history and culture.
Along the way, we met a lovely couple, Ruth and Howard from Brooklyn, New York staying here in Laru Beya over the next several days, also participants in our planned outing which was arranged through the resort.  The cost per couple for the six hour expedition was $150.

After a high speed bumpy boat ride from the Placencia peninsula across the rolling Caribbean Sea to the mainland of Belize, we made our way to the Monkey River, a well known 10 mile long winding river literally amass with wildlife and overgrown vegetation. 

Vultures hovering in the trees along channel as we left Placencia.

By 9:30 am, we were docked at the pier in Monkey River to stop at “Alice’s Restaurant” to place our lunch orders, with a plan to return around noon for the included meal of stewed chicken, rice, beans and pan fried vegetables.  Moment later, we were off on our excursion of the river.

Tom in front of Alice’s Restaurant in Monkey River where we had lunch.
Inside Alice’s Restaurant in Monkey River.
Monkey River locals enjoying the day.
The gift shop outside Alice’s Restaurant.  Notice the conch shell border around the entrance.

Speaking mostly a combination of English and Creole, Jason was an articulate wealth of information possessing the eye of an eagle, quickly spotting every morsel for our excited attention to behold.  We saw all we could have hoped to see! 

Jason, our tour guide and Jess, outside Alice’s Restaurant.

Luckily, the day was overcast, less humid than normal, around 80 degrees making it a perfect day for our adventure.  With low expectations and a little apprehensive about the abundance of horseflies, mosquitoes and no-see-ums hovering around us in the boat, we slathered on the bug spray while bracing ourselves for what was yet to come.

Pair of dolphins we saw on the way to Monkey River.
Moments later, we saw another dolphin.

Jason slowed the boat as we entered the winding river, stopping frequently to point out crocodiles, many species of birds, unusual fish, families of the Black Howler Monkey known for their loud screeching.  Halfway through the four mile river journey, Jason pulled the old fiberglass boat up to a shore as we climbed out to explore a rough trail in the rain forest.

Dense vegetation along the Monkey River’s edge.
We lost track of the names of the endless variety of birds.
Immature Blue Heron are white prior to turning blue as adults.
Believe it or not, there were three Black Howler Monkeys hiding in this canopy in the rain forest.   We saw them move, heard them screech but so high above our heads, we couldn’t focus for good shots.

As soon as our feet hit dry land, Jason began banging his machete against a tree.  Curiosity brought out dozens of the black monkeys high in the trees to begin of earsplitting chorus of a sound unfamiliar to our ears, both annoying and entertaining at the same time.

Dozens of Black Howler Monkeys hovered in these trees.

It was difficult to take photos of the monkeys as it was of much of the wildlife, rapidly flitting around, shy of uninvited visitors.  They moved so quickly, staying buried in the leaves and branches of the enormous trees. 

After a time with our necks straining from looking up, Jason steered us deep into the rain forest along a narrow, head ducking, ankle turning, rock and vine covered path into a world neither of us imagined.

The entrance to Monkey River.

Magical sounds filled the air of creatures big and small, hidden out of sight protecting their young.  Over and again Jason warned us to look out for dangerous plants that were either poisonous or possessing needle like thorns difficult to remove once merely touched. 

We learned about medicinal plants for almost every imaginable ailment as we carefully lifted our feet over potential pitfall from burrowed holes from hidden creatures such as the blue land crab to termite nests to the dreaded red ants meandering across the forest floor.

Jason, his machete and Tom as he explained the medicinal uses of this tree that the locals call “The Tourist Tree” since it relieves the sting of a sunburn.

Bug spray in hand, we continually soaked ourselves, as flies, bugs and spiders presented themselves at almost every turn.  As Jason described some of the dangers in the rain forest I looked down at my water shoes and screamed a scream that must have echoes through the jungle.  I thought I saw an enormous black bug on my shoe.  It was a part of the laces.  We laughed after we all calmed down from my senseless scream.  See the photo below.

I can tell that Tom’s chomping at the bit as I write this!  Its time for me to shower and get ready to go to our now usual Tuesday night Mexican buffet at Habanero’s Restaurant across and down the road.  I’m hungry too looking forward to their wide array of meats, veggies and cheeses that I can enjoy along with the best guacamole in the world.

In the dark of the rain forest, as Jason is explaining the dangers, I looked down at my “worn for the first time” water shoes thinking that this black clasp was a huge black bug.I screamed scaring the daylight out of the five of us in our group.

Tomorrow is my 65th birthday. After grocery shopping for which Estevan will pick us up promptly at 9:00 am come celebrate with us, my first birthday on our worldwide journey, as we tell the “rest of this story” with lots more photos and stories about our day trip to Monkey River. 

Budgeting, wills and taxes…

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Its been nagging at me.  I think about it every day with a sense of dread. 

On the massive Excel spreadsheet, I created for our 5 to 10-year worldwide journey, there is a worksheet page entitled “To Do in Scottsdale.”  It contains all the paperwork tasks we’ve had to complete before leaving the country on January 3, 2013. 

“To Do” lists never intimidated me, no matter how lengthy. I’ve always taken great comfort it chipping away at task after task ensuring each one completed in its entirety before going on to the next. 

Yes, I know.  I’m rather obsessive. We live with that.  It doesn’t intrude in the enjoyment of our lives, we don’t fight about it and it doesn’t prevent us from a rich and full life. 

Perhaps, in a certain way, it adds to our lives by eliminating thoughts of all the “things” we have to do.  One by one, I chip away at them, freeing our thoughts to more fulfilling moments.  No one ever heard me say, “Oh, I can’t come to the party ’cause I have to fill out forms.”  Never.

So, on that “To Do in Scottsdale” sheet we’ve knocked off everything (many of which I posted here and there) except for the following:
1.  Prepare and get new wills notarized (our bank here will notarize at no cost)
2.  Prepare and get new Living Wills and health care directives notarized.
3.  Prepare our taxes up to date, amending the last two weeks of this month at the end of the month forwarding everything to our accountant by snail mail. 

Oh, tax prep, I despise this task!  Always have, always will. Yesterday, I began the process and today, it will be completed except for additions as mentioned above. 

We couldn’t imagine living in Belize, steps from the ocean and ever feeling like going through that bag of receipts, let alone hauling them along with us. In future years, we’ll have used our handy Doxie portable scanner, saving all tax-related items.  Much easier to do as we go then dread it all along.

A few people have asked, “Will you still file tax returns and pay taxes in the US?”  The answer is “yes,” always. We will always remain US citizens, as do many ex-pats living outside the US. 

Having saved every receipt for absolutely every dime we have spent since leaving Minnesota on October 31, 2012, it was also time to enter our “actual” costs into that budgeting expense record.  Upon completing the tax portion which I will finalize today, I started totaling the other expenses, such as food and entertainment.

Our total cost for the three-day drive to Scottsdale $780.  We had budgeted $1065 but arrived one day early.  Fortunately, the property manager didn’t charge us for arriving a day early but had he, we still would have been within the budget.

Preparing the taxes and totaling the receipts (all of which we’ve saved) finally enable us to see how we’re doing on our budget.  As I mentioned, going forward, we’ll log (scan) and toss each receipt as the expense occurs to avoid hauling around a growing bag of receipts.

Here’s where we are so far for the variable expenses for food and entertainment with only 18 days left in 2012.

Groceries for Scottsdale
Budget:  $ 1700.00     Actual: $ 696.00

Dining Out & Entertainment for Scottsdale 
Budget:  $  300.00      Actual: $501.00

Total Budget for Groceries and Entertainment for two months: $ 2000.00
Actual (so far):                                                                   $ 1197.00
Balance available until we leave for Henderson next week:     $   803.00

Groceries for upcoming 8 days in Henderson over the holidays
Budget: $ 600.00

Dining Out & Entertainment for upcoming 8 days in Henderson over holidays:
Budget: $ 450.00

We’ve been in Scottsdale 40 days as of today, arriving on November 3rd for an average cost of $30 per day.  With 6 more days until we leave for Henderson, we’ll plan to spend another $180 for a total of $1377, leaving us an overage of $623.00.  Thus, our total available for Henderson is $1673.

Preferably, it won’t be necessary to use this overage, putting us ahead of our budget right out of the chute.  We’ll see how it goes, posting our “actual” costs later.  Of course, there are other costs we are reviewing and will be posting as we go along.

Today, I will finish the tax prep after my trip to the health club, leaving the file ready to receive the remainder of this month.  Tomorrow, we will re-do our wills bringing them up-to-date and re-do our living wills, getting them notarized at the end of the day.

Also, VisaHQ, our visa, and passport processing company, sent us an email that our second passports will be in our mail within one week.  Yeah!  We did all the paperwork correctly! 

By this weekend, we can relax knowing that the worst of our paperwork is done, a huge relief.

Isn’t this part fun?

Living in Scottsdale, budgeting for this life..

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Our Scottsdale dining table set for tonight’s dinner guests. Much to my amazement, there were linen napkins and placemats in the condo.  Five for dinner tonight.

We’ve been living in Old Town Scottsdale for almost a month, an ideal area for travelers.  Within a mile to the upscale shopping mall in downtown Scottsdale, walking distance to the Arts Walk District in Old Town, a mere 10-minute walk from our condo, we are literally within range of hundreds of eateries, shopping, and entertainment.

Fine dining is abundant as well as casual theme orientated bistros, cafes, and local versions of fast food, this area is limited in the usual sprinkling of chain restaurants, a delight to see.

While living in Minnesota, far from everything, we seldom dined out.  Tom drove almost an hour each way to work and back and the thought of a long drive to dining out was never appealing to us on the weekends.  We always blamed it on the fact that I enjoyed cooking and we loved lounging at home.

Now, we’ve confirmed that it was the drive more than anything that kept us away.  Living close to everything prompts us to look at one another each day asking, “Shall we go out to breakfast?” or “Want to go out to dinner tonight?”

Fast and furiously my fingers are flying across the keyboard reading the multitude of online reviews for the local restaurants.  We have yet to venture out to the half-hour drive to the McCormick Ranch area, where I had tried to find us a vacation home to rent for the two months, finding nothing under $4000 a month.  

Living in our well equipped and well kept 1100 square foot one-bedroom, poolside condo, we’ve been content.  The high-speed Internet works, although problematic when we first arrived, fixed immediately by the management company, allowing us to continue to work on our technology and research. 

View from our dining/living room in Scottsdale condo.

The kitchen has every gadget known to man/woman, except a rolling pin (I thought of making low carb tortillas, scrounging around looking for one).  There’s linen placemats and napkins (yeah!) and reasonably nice dishes.  The frying pan situation is lacking with one difficult to clean stainless steel pan and another old flaky Teflon pan I refuse to use. 

I’ve made breakfast using Reynold’s No Stick foil (on the dull side) on a glass 13 x 9″ pan, placing the sausages and bacon in the oven at 375 degrees to bake for 20 minutes while the huge low carb, gluten-free pancake bakes in the same time frame in a pie plate, again covered with the foil.  In the last four minutes I drop the eggs into the pan I used for the bacon and sausages.  Voila! We have a delicious baked breakfast and I must admit perfect jumbo pancake and eggs.

One might think it would make sense to buy a $10 pan while here for two months, but I decided long ago… improvise.  There will be vacation homes around the world severely lacking in many of the amenities we’ve enjoyed in the past.  Change and flexibility are in order going forward.

Last night we went out to dinner at a local diner in Old Town, David’s Hamburgers for one of the best bun-less burgers on the planet.  We’d gone there for a great breakfast on Thursday morning. 

Upon ordering the lettuce wrapped avocado adorned, stringy cheese, crisp onion, and fresh tomato covered burger for breakfast, I told Tom we must come back here for him to enjoy the same for dinner after he had eaten eggs, bacon, and sausage for breakfast. 

Drooling over the prospect of another of those burgers for two days, we went back last night enjoying a great reasonably priced meal in the cozy diner before attending another hilarious night at The Comedy Spot also in Old Town. 

We’re already “regulars” in Old Town as many of the seniors moseying around the area have become. Perhaps, the comfort of the familiar goes hand-in-hand with being a senior citizen.  In simple terms, “love the one you’re with.”

Living on a strict budget, documenting every expenditure makes us conscious of how we spend our money.  Now on a more fixed income, committed to all of our future travel plans, its imperative to continue to refer to our pre-planned budget so meticulously outlined on our Excel workbook with multiple spreadsheets. 

We have local copies of our budget saved to both of our laptops, to DropBox and also to SkyDrive, the cloud that came with Windows 8 and, of course on our new My Passport 2 terabyte external hard drive.  It’s safe.  

With that budget in mind, we’ve only dined in more upscale ($$$) restaurants three times since we’ve arrived in Scottsdale, each time spending $100-$120 with tips. Having budgeted for a few of these such occasions each month, we were comfortable spending the money. 

Our budget allows for $800 a month in groceries and approximately $300 a month for entertainment.  If we spend less on groceries, we have more for entertainment or we can roll it over to extras we may purchase on our upcoming eight cruises. 

Some may cringe at the thought of two people spending $800 a month on groceries.  Based on our diet of mostly organic vegetables and grass-fed meat, occasionally entertaining others, beverages, purified water, paper products, and cleaning supplies, we have found it nearly impossible to trim this number. 

Without a doubt, it will be near this number in other locales, although the grass-fed meat may be more economic in some parts of the world where it is more prevalent than the grain-fed meat supply here in the US.  We shall see and report back later.

Tomorrow, Monday, we’ll purchase two cashier’s checks made out to the US Department of State for $170 each to send to VisaHQ along with all the necessary completed forms, after paying their $154 in processing fees, to apply for our 2nd passports with extra pages.  They’ll be awaiting us at our mailing service in Las Vegas when we’ll head to Henderson to spend Tom’s 60th birthday on the 23rd and Christmas with family in yet another vacation home.

Lots of details, aren’t there?  When speaking with my wonderful friend Chere on Friday, a loyal reader of this blog, we both marveled at how travelers managed to explore the world before technology, before credit cards, before cell phones, before the Internet, before cameras, and before the myriad gadgets we use today. 

This left me asking, “what benefits do we derive having the availability of all of these resources?”  Convenience, simplicity, preparedness, and awareness, all of which could fly out the window in a single moment if something goes wrong. 

Oh.

Why 2nd passports?…Visit to Nevada…

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Over the past many months of writing this blog, I have mentioned the need for 2nd passports.  One may ask, “Why isn’t one passport sufficient?”

Usually, one passport is sufficient for most travelers.  If visas are needed for travel, one must send in their passport to the appropriate embassy along with other pertinent documents as required by the country into which one is seeking access.  Doing so, would leave us in a foreign country without a passport in our possession for a week, a dangerous situation.

Visas are not required by all countries, many are only required for stays of 30 days or more, many for as much as 90 days. It is imperative that we check the requirements at the embassy of the countries we’ll be visiting, found easily online at a number of sites.

Rather than take the time and effort to apply for all the visas we will need as we need them and, based on our long stays in many countries, we have decided to use the services of VisaHQ, a company located on Embassy Row in Washington, DC.  They have the ability to quickly and easily process the paperwork, not only for our 2nd passports but also for our many upcoming visas.

Unfortunately, it is necessary to wait about 30 days before traveling to a specific country, since they usually are only good for a specific period.

Of course, there are additional fees for processing each visa, usually under $79 each.  Early on in our budgeting discussions we decided to include this expenses rather than taking the time and the effort at each of our locations to do the paperwork ourselves. Doing so would create stress, distracting us from the enjoyment of the experience at the time.

VisaHQ, along with other such websites, has the traveler complete a master form kept secure on their site.  When a visa is needed a single page is all that is required to complete online along with sending in the 2nd passport and any necessary documents which are quickly returned. 

Second passports are only good for two years.  We’ll note the renewal date on our calendar upon receipt.  For this reason, we are waiting until we are down to the wire to ensure we have full use of the two years.

Once we apply and have experienced the process of our first application online with VisaHQ we will report back here with the details.  Of course, we already have our “first” passports, good for another nine years in our case. (US passports are valid for a of a total of 10 years).

This past Friday while here in Nevada, we had additional passport photos taken at a Walgreens pharmacy, who along with CVS are certified to take passport photos, making this process easier than in years past.  The cost for each pair of photos is $10.99. 

We each ordered two sets leaving us with a total of four passport photos plus a fifth we already had of an older photo. Generally, passport photos are valid for six months. (Yes, us old timers do change in appearance in six months, I suppose). 

The time here in Henderson, Nevada has been low key as we continue to prepare to leave the US, visiting family, playing with family kids and dogs, Monty and Owen. 

We dined in the past two nights.  On Saturday while at Whole Foods we purchased a huge chunk of bison sirloin steak, gluten free of course, that I cut into two nice sized pieces to marinate.  After all, we are trying “new things.”

Nah, Tom took one bite and gagged.  It didn’t help that we were watching a show on TV, Extreme Cheapskates, whereby the “star” of the episodes would go “dumpster diving” at restaurant dumpsters for dinner. 

That didn’t bother me!  I busily chomped away on my big steak, noticing a “gamey” flavor but hungry enough to eat the entire thing.  I eyeballed Tom’s plate considering attacking his steak also deciding not to “pig out.”  Bison in the future?  Not so much.

Undoubtedly, we’ll have plenty of opportunities to try new foods along the way as we travel the world.  Later.

Big itinerary change!…Part 1…

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Without a doubt, an itinerary change was inevitable. When we began this process, we decided that any major changes would not be on our part unless an unforeseen health issue or misrepresentation of the situation occurred. 

If we found a better “deal” elsewhere after paying a deposit on a vacation home or cruise, we agreed that we would stand behind our original decision.  Good health providing, we decided that if we arrived at a vacation home, finding it dirty or in ill repair or, not as represented, we would never force ourselves to stay for what could prove to be uncomfortable, dangerous in any manner or unbearable.

In the past, I was the person that would check out the hotel room to ensure it was to our liking before committing.  If it wasn’t, I would gently and kindly request an alternative, rather than ask for a price adjustment. 

At times, this resulted in an upgrade.  This was never intended to be a case of whining to “see what one could get” but more a situation of exercising the privilege of getting that which one pays for.  Fairness. 

Over the past several years, finally maturing in my 60’s, I became less picky, expending my energy on more important issues.  With Tom at my side, I could live in a tent.  Of course, the cotton inside the sleeping bag would be 600 pt. Egyptian cotton and the tea would be loose leaf Pouchong from Taiwan.

Our original plan had been to spend from May 4, 2013, after a cruise from Barcelona to Mallorca, staying until June 4, 2013 in the lovely property, high on a hill overlooking the sea, the beautiful historic island of Mallorca, Spain (also spelled, Majorca). 

It was a good plan, to be followed by a Mediterranean cruise from June 5th to June 16th which would end in Venice, Italy, where we’d take a train to Florence, spending the remainder of the summer in a renovated 17th century farmhouse in Tuscany.  Ah, what a plan!

Shortly before we left Minnesota 12 days ago, we were informed that the property in Mallorca may be sold.  Rather than leave the owner, a dear friend and neighbor in Minnesota, in a tough position we graciously agreed to bow out and find other accommodations for this time period while leaving all of our other plans in place.

The new challenge, to fill this odd time period from May 4th to June 4th with something especially daring and exiting, rather than filling the spot with a
month in a residence hotel.  Compared to our planned two to three month stays in various locations, this to us, was a short period to fill.

And fill it, we did. This weekend we wrapped up our plans:

May 5, 2013 – May 21, 2013- Aboard this 15 day cruise from Barcelona to Dubai:


FastDeal 10789
15 nights departing May 6, 2013 on
Royal Caribbean Mariner of the Seas
Cheapest Inside $959
Cheapest Oceanview $1,049
Cheapest Balcony $1,499
Cheapest Suite $2,649
$$$ Early booking bonus! Book now and receive a FREE $50 per cabin on board credit on select categories.
Royal Caribbean – Mariner of the Seas, departs 5/6/13, 15 nights
 Mon May 6 Barcelona, Spain 5:00pm
Tue May 7 At Sea
Wed May 8 At Sea
Thu May 9 At Sea
Fri  May 10 Cairo / Giza (Alexandria), Egypt 7:00am
Sat  May 11 Cairo / Giza (Alexandria), Egypt 3:00pm
Sun May 12 Suez Canal, Egypt (Cruising)
Mon May 13 Luxor (Safaga), Egypt 7:00am 10:00pm Tue May 14 Petra (Aqaba), Jordan 9:00am 10:00pm Wed May 15 At Sea
Thu May 16 At Sea
Fri   May 17 At Sea
Sat  May 18 At Sea
Sun May 19 At Sea
Mon May 20 At Sea
Tue  May 21 Dubai, United Arab Emirates 6:00am

With taxes the total was $3900, averaging at $260 per day for both of us, higher than our preferred $200 per day including meals. Plus, another $900 total for our return flight to Barcelona on June 4, 2013, yet to be booked. 

We realized this month long trip was higher than our budget allowed for any one month. But, averaging our total daily budget over the extended period of 945 days booked thus far, we’re still within our daily budget of under $200 per day including every known expense: health insurance, emergency evacuation, personal insurance,  XCom Global for MiFi Internet, incidentals, my lipstick, haircuts, booze aboard ship, tips, taxis, ferries, planes, car rentals, boat rides and on and on).

Giza and the Suez Canal become a dream come true only a short four months after we’ve experienced the Panama Canal on our cruise beginning on January 3, 2013, the date we first leave the US.  Tom loves the idea of seeing two of the largest waterways in the world, history buff that he is. 

Yes, we may ride a camel to see the Great Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx. And yes, photos will follow.

Please read this about Giza from Vacations to Go’s website:

“Highlights in Cairo include the Ibn Tulun Mosque, which dates to the ninth century, and the Citadel, a medieval fortress. Many passengers choose to visit the Great Pyramids of Giza, considered one of the Seven Wonders of the World; the Sphinx is nearby. Tours of these sites are offered on foot, horseback or camel. The port city of Alexandria is set on a strip of land between the Mediterranean Sea and Lake Mareotis, and serves as the gateway to Cairo and Giza. In Alexandria, a tour of the harbor and Montaza Palace or lounging on the beach are favorite activities.”And this about the Suez Canal:

“The Suez Canal runs 100 miles between the sand dunes of the Sinai Peninsula and the Nile River delta. Cruise ships often dock toward the canal’s north end at Port Said, a gateway to Cairo. From the port of Safaga at the south end, passengers are offered shore excursions to the ancient city of Luxor, where Tutankhamen was entombed.”

And this about Luxor:

“This small port city on the western shore of the Red Sea is a gateway to Luxor and all of the splendid Egyptian temples, tombs and ruins found there. After experiencing the sights on the east bank (including Karnak and the Luxor temples and Luxor Museum) cruise across the Nile to the west bank (where sights include the Valley of the Kings and the Temple of Queen Hashepsut). Although most people head straight to the ancient architectural treasures, scuba diving and windsurfing are popular activities in Safaga itself. “

As on our previously booked seven cruises (this being the eight cruise), we once again chose a Balcony Cabin with the assistance of our fabulous cruise professional, Joaquin Contreras from Vacations to Go, truly the king of cruise planning himself!  Thanks, Joaquin!

Here’s the link to the actual cruise with more details. 

Next post, we’ll share with you how we ‘ve booked the remaining 13 nights in Dubai from May 21st to June 3rd, after which we’ll fly back to Barcelona for the next cruise in our itinerary, the following day. 

There is never a moment that we don’t marvel in our willingness to take the risk of selling everything we owned, leaving everyone we love behind to embark on this adventure, in this perfect time in the economy, in this particular time in our lives; with one another, full of love, full of joy, full of wonder and full of gratitude. 

Organized layers…on to Albuquerque…

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Yesterday, it was 82 degrees in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma at 5:30 PM when we checked in to our hotel, a newer Comfort Inn & Suites.  Never having stayed in a Comfort Inn, I was tentative at the low price of $79 a night including tax. We’d decided when we began this journey that nicer hotels would be reserved for our future travels, not for getting us to Scottsdale.

Surprisingly, the room was a clean mini-suite with living room,  comfortable sofa, spacious bath, mini refrigerator, microwave, flat screen TV and free wireless although unsecured Internet.  

We left Des Moines Iowa at 9 am, stopping twice for gas with two additional stops  to stretch our legs, mine particularly cramped from sharing the passenger floor space with the cooler.  

Since starting our low carb, gluten free, sugar free way of eating 15 months ago, we no longer are hungry for lunch.  We saved at least an hour by not stopping for meals.  It was a good day, our first official fully retired day for both of us together.

Frequently we glanced at one another in a state of awe.  We did it!  We left! We said our goodbyes to loved ones with tear filled eyes. We let go of all of the entanglements one acquires in their lives, the stuff… and we left.  Sadly?  Yes. Easily? No.  But we did it.  And, we can’t stop smiling.

During the day, I received a text message from Verizon reminding me that I’ve used up most of my allowed text messages with three days left until the end of the billing period.  Ah, who cares? 

Along the way, my fingers flew across the tiny keyboard on my Android phone (soon to be replaced by two unlocked international smart phones) chatting back and forth with family and friends. See, we aren’t going to be so far away!

Tom and I chatted.  We laughed. We silently contemplated our lives.  We enjoyed the driving, not anticipating the future as much as reveling in the moment, coming to a single conclusion:  We are on a permanent vacation that may never end. 

No longer will we have angst on Wednesdays as a week’s vacation rolls into its mid point. No more will we be dreading the mail accumulating in the box (we cut our snail mail down to a few pieces a month, now going to our new mailing address in Las Vegas).  No newspaper to call to resume the delivery. No sense of dread on Sunday evening anticipating Monday morning’s tough reality. How in the world can this be?

How in the world did this happen?  The first discussion, flippantly spewed from Tom to me, resulting in us both surprisingly saying “yes” at the same time, seems as if were a lifetime ago, when in fact it was only 11 months ago.

And this morning, as we packed the organized layers of only that which we need in the hotel room, not a stitch more, we’re already in step as to who does what. 

In these few short days we’ve developed a routine, so familiar, so comfortable that, oddly in itself, begins to feel like “home.”

Solutions as we wind down..

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Although now sick with the flu, I’ve had no time to rest in an effort to speed my recovery. Forcing myself to continue running around, making phone calls and completing tasks in preparation for leaving Minnesota in five days has been trying.  

Tom’s retirement party is tomorrow, Saturday at 5 PM. My voice sounds like Minnie Mouse and I’m weak, coughing and foggy headed.  Perhaps, this is Nature’s way of warning me to slow down.  Not a good time to teach me a lesson, Mother Nature! 

The mailing service, MailLink requires notarization of legal documents with literally no daytime hours for Tom to go to a notary.  After speaking with Eric at MailLink he reassured me that there was nothing to worry about.

He suggested we go ahead, sign up, pay the $156 annual fee for the largest mailbox via PayPal to get the documents notarized when we get situated in Scottsdale.  In the interim, they won’t be able (due to state laws) to forward our mail until they receive the forms.
Over the past several months I’ve reduced the amount of mail that we receive by contacting the various companies requesting they only send online notifications and statements.  Most were able to comply.

In the near future, it appears that snail mail will become a thing of the past as evidenced by the financial difficulties of the USPS. Today’s fast paced technological advances continue to have an enormous effect on the use of paper and mail in general. Perhaps, in time as we travel, we’ll no longer need the services of any form of a mailing service, receiving all communications by email

A portion of Tom’s income from his work will no longer be paid by direct deposit as his paycheck had been over the past many years. This in itself presents a dilemma. How do we get the paper check “mailed” to us into the bank? He requested direct deposit for these payments to no avail.

We considered asking one of our adult children to receive the payments by mail immediately depositing the checks. Realizing how annoying and inconvenient it would be for them with their full and busy lives to be watching for the checks and subsequently depositing them, we decided it was too much of an imposition.  We didn’t want that inconvenience ourselves!  Why would we impose this on our children?

In speaking with MailLink, they suggested we do what their other clients do in a similar situations:
  1. Use the provided MailLink  address as our mailing address
  2. Provide them with deposit slips and mailing envelopes made out to to our bank’s department that handles incoming snail mail deposits.  
  3. MailLink opens the envelope, scans a copy of the check to our email, signs the back of the check, “deposit only” and then mail in one of the envelopes provided.  No deposit slip is required per this service offered by our bank.
  4. Within 2-3 days the deposit it made into our bank at which point they email us a receipt for the deposit.
  5. Check online banking to verify the receipt of the deposit.
Cumbersome?  Yes?  Alternative?  Hire an accountant or certified money manager and pay $100’s in fees each year?  No, thank you.

Next task? Oh, yes, they continue.  Insuring our belongings.  With the documents signed on the sale of the house, we are ending our homeowners insurance on the day we leave, October 31st.  At that point insurance ends on our belongings as well.  Today, I will wrap up the details of our new “personal property” insurance.

The estate sale is in progress.  Yesterday, the first day, was a bit challenging.  It was snowing, the roads were slippery and the wind was whipping at the time the sale was to begin. 

At 7:00 am yesterday morning, sick and miserable, I showed up the house to meet with the estate sale people to finalize pricing and details.  The wind and sleet on the peninsula felt like a hurricane as I nearly was blown away finding my way from the driveway to the front door in the dark.  Somehow, the detector for the exterior lights were turned off. 

By 9:00 am, as the sale began, I was visiting with our friend and neighbor two doors down, peeking out the window to witness the caravan of cars driving down the narrow road to examine and hopefully buy “our stuff.” It was hard to watch.  I left an hour later for a delightful stress-reducing lunch with the neighbors at our favorite local restaurant, as opposed to the breakfast we had planned earlier.  Its so hard to say goodbye.  The worst is yet to come.

Once again cocooned in this comfy leather love seat as I write today, my voice is gone, my throat less sore and the cough is slightly better as I prepare for the tasks of yet another day in limbo:
  1. Finalize personal property insurance policy
  2. Go to bank to get extra deposit slips and arrange for the mailing service to send them the pension checks
  3. Pack a box of overflow to be shipped to Scottsdale and held by UPS until we arrive on November 4th.
  4. Check on final details for Tom’s party tomorrow.
  5. Grocery shop and prepare dinner as I have done each evening since moving here last Sunday. After all, a good house guest must earn their keep.

Yep. Five more days.

Glitches, resolutions and more health insurance research…

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We knew there would be glitches.  We’ve planned for them.  We’ve built emergency funds into our budget.  And here we are, not even out the door and a glitch occurs. Oh.

As we approached the 90 day sail date of our first cruise on the Celebrity Century on January 3, 2013 , our final payment was due.  This first cruise was more expensive than a number of our other cruises but Tom wanted to see the Panama Canal during its state of construction and this was a perfect time.

We justified the expense with it providing us with not only 15 days of cruising to the Panama Canal, but a final destination of Fort Lauderdale, leaving us in place to board yet another ship for our cruise to Belize.  Perfect!

My calendar marked for this upcoming balance due of $4645 after having paid a $900 deposit some months ago, I was prepared to pay in full this past Wednesday.  

In an effort to keep as much as possible of our credit cards free of any large balances, I paid using an American Express card (getting points) and our debit card (no points).  Alas, an error was made by Celebrity’s processing department and my debit card was charged an additional $2400 over and above the amount I had authorized.  

As a result, we had paid $7945 for a $5545 cruise. I don’t know about you, but unless a situation such as this is remedied in a matter of minutes, I can get a little testy, not so much rude as stern and extraordinarily persistent. Yes, very persistent.  

I kept reminding myself, after an hour of the phone whereby the cruise line could not detect that they overcharged us, to stay calm. Our bank account said otherwise.  We had expected these situations to occur.  Its all part of the process.

With no resolution, I called our bank, filed a claim after producing evidence of all the payments to prove we had overpaid. Jean, a very helpful banker was clearly willing to assist without hesitation.  

She not only hadn’t filed the claim upon email receipt of my documentation, (proving cost of the cruise and all payments, including that which was made with American Express), she put the $2400 (the bank’s money!) into our account  cover the difference. I had some bill pay payments in the process and had not prepared my checking account for this unexpected amount.  Sure, I could have transferred funds to cover this, but when they offered, I jumped all over it.

After more email communication with Celebrity the refund appeared this morning, much to my relief. Immediately I sent the bank an email requesting that they drop the claim and take back their temporary $2400. Whew!  

I knew it would eventually be resolved.  However, I didn’t want to spend valuable mental time these next crucial days (we move out in 20 days for the estate sale) thinking about this a possible 10 day period, the usual time to dispute a claim.  Thank you, Jean.  Thank you, bank.  Giving her this blog address, I hope she reads this post and knows how grateful we are.  

I always try to insulate Tom from these situations.  He works. I’m retired and besides, I must admit, I kind of enjoy the satisfaction of getting issues resolved as quickly and efficiently as possible.  No voice-raising, no name calling, no threatening and thus diplomacy prevails when backed by solid evidence. Love it!

In the past several days a bit of angst was “wafting” (love that word) around my brain that maybe, just maybe, we could get a better price on a worldwide health insurance policy for me when Medicare will kick in on my birthday next February. The thought of paying $432 plus $107 for Medicare makes me cringe, especially when Medicare doesn’t cover me outside the US. 

After contacting no less than a dozen companies over the past week I stumbled across what proved to be a delightful experience; email and phone communication with Gerry Mould of April Medibroker Ltd in the UK.  Gerry Mould took the time to prepare a substantial list of options for me (Tom is five years younger than I and will have a retiree policy through his company until he goes on Medicare in 2017) and also spent considerable time on the phone with me from the UK, answering many questions regarding our somewhat unique situation.  

Had we been able to acquire an address outside the US (their company is not licensed in the US), we would have been able to apply for a policy saving us over $2000 a year for coverage equal to or better than that which we have been planning with the State Farm supplement that also provides international coverage.  

Unfortunately, we won’t be able to work with Gerry Mould at this time. Who knows? Maybe someday we’ll be considered official “expats” and actually have that foreign address.  In the interim, I’ve left a message for our State Farm agent to review my health insurance quote when he returns from a convention next week.  Perhaps, we can find a less costly option. I’ll report back.

Now, I am off to see if i can complete the transaction on the sale of my car!  In either case, I will report back. With possibly no mode of transportation during the day, I’ll spend my time getting back to the issues at hand…completing our packing. 

I can’t wait to be on the road on our way to Scottsdale after all the tearful goodbyes, the finalization of the sale on the house, the move to a friend’s house for a week during the sale, the planning of Tom’s retirement party with his co-workers and family, the completion of the packing of Tom’s bags, working on the redesign of this blog with the web designers, filling the year’s worth of prescriptions, attending the neighborhood party our friend Sue is having for us next weekend and all the tearful goodbyes.  Ah, yes, all the tearful goodbyes.

Tire of traveling?…BugsAway clothing?…

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The topic of tiring of traveling may become a frequent point of discussion, particularly once we are “on the road.”  We’ve frequently been asked this question by friends and family members.

Traveling for years, as opposed to the usual one or two weeks or, for a retired few, a month or more, may become tiresome after a while. With 949 days booked out from this upcoming Halloween, it is difficult to draw upon any prior experience to use as a reference as to how we will physically and emotionally handle moving from location to location all over the world.

Tom and I often discuss this topic, invariably easing our minds by this simple fact:  We will rarely stay in one location (except for the one week in Las Vegas next December) for less than one month, most often staying for two to three months or more.

After one month or more, we will have had the fine opportunity to become familiar with the area, made friends, forgotten about the burden of our bags (our biggest nemesis) and be excited to move on.  As we peruse our itinerary we can visualize a certain ease we will acquire as we anticipate an upcoming location with enthusiasm and childlike wonder, lessening the burden of packing up and moving on.

There are a few travel burdens that hover in my mind; the required three airplane trips to three of our locations:  Kenya (for three months), South Africa (for three months) and later, the island of Madeira, Portugal (for two and a half months).

We aren’t afraid of flying.  We simply have little tolerance for the commotion at an airport; the waiting, the crowds, the security check and most of all, the baggage restrictions.  
The cruise lines have minimal restrictions on the number of bags that a passenger may bring aboard.  Thus, we can take everything we need for the 949 days and then barely enough to get by, in the above referenced locations when we have no alternative but to fly: one checked bag and one carry-on each.  We are considering some storage options for these ten months to avoid the expense of excess baggage fees which can run upwards of $1000 extra per person, per bag.

Tiring of travel, while living in vacation homes is highly unlikely.  If we do give up along the way, it would most likely be a result of illness, the painstaking process of packing and hauling our bags, or the necessity of more air travel than we’d prefer which may be the final “deal killer.”   Of course, whatever happens, we will post it here.

Tom always reassures me by saying, “We won’t be on vacation. We’ll simply be living life, in a variety of locations.  What will we do if we tire of it?  Take a break for three months and relax??  We will be staying for three months in many locations, sometimes longer, with ample time to regroup and relax, preparing us for the next adventure.  

This morning, with little piles of mostly newly purchased clothes on my bed, I made an assessment of any additional items I may need. We had decided to bear the expense of purchasing new clothing for both of us.  Over the past several months, Tom has lost 25 pounds from our gluten free, sugar free, grain free, starch free and wheat free diet. Nothing fits him.  
There seemed little point in packing older, overly worn and overly washed items, knowing we’d be gone for this extended period. Since these may be the only items I will be wearing over the next three years, plus a few purchases along the way, puts an entirely different spin on  packing.
As an accomplished bargain hunter with little interest in shopping at large malls or strip mall stores, we make 90% of our purchases online, all brand names, quality clothing befitting our travels.  

Often, I will find items at the major retailers and then proceed to make the actual purchases at eBay, all new with tags, at less than half the price.  Whether bidding on items or purchasing with BUY IT NOW, the process is fun and rewarding. Tom and I are both easy to fit, making it a rarity to return an item.  

Most sellers are very willing to handle returns.  Reading the reviews and rankings from past purchasers is a good clue as to how the seller will handle any issues.  We tend to avoid sellers with less than a 95% satisfaction rating, clearly visible on the site.

Another website we have used for years is Amazon.com. In the past week, we purchased a replacement bulb for our LCD TV (wouldn’t you know?), retailing for $125 in local stores, $85 at most websites.  It was only $40 at Amazon with free SUPERSAVER shipping.  They stand behind all purchases offering an easy return policy.  The bulb arrived in two days.
Today it took two large rubber bins to hold my clothes until we actually begin the packing.  This will translate into two large suitcases. This is frightening. It’s time to get to work on Tom’s wardrobe next, an easier proposition.  

While writing this post, I heard a knock at the door.  The UPS driver handed me a large box from Sierra Trading Post. I placed an order with them last Thursday for the following items shown that arrived in the box: two BugsAway baseball caps, four pair BugsAway socks, one pair men’s BugsAway convertible pants (unzips to shorts) and one long (roll-up) sleeve BugsAway men’s shirt, all retailing for a total of $299.  

As shown in the receipt below, I paid $130.25 for everything!  That’s why it pays to search for great prices online.  Sierra Trading Post  included a 20% off coupon for my next purchase. That’s some fun online shopping!  

A start on Tom’s BugsAway clothing for Africa with 2 pairs of socks and a cap for me!
Receipt for $130.25 for all the above clothing, retailing for $299!
Next “buggie” night, Tom and I will put on our BugsAway caps, socks, pants and shirts and see if the mosquitoes will dine elsewhere.  Otherwise, back in the box with the included return shipping label!