The challenges of dining out in Arizona…Ultimately, weather-related reasons…

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When we visited friends Kathy and Don in Pretoria, South Africa, one year ago, we visited this monument, the Voortrekker Monument, an unusual-looking structure located in Pretoria, South Africa. When I walked up all these steps (not all steps we tackled are shown in the photo) without getting out of breath or having any health issues. A little over a month later, I had open-heart surgery with three main arteries 100% blocked. Who knew? For more photos from this date, please click here.

Let’s face it, many of the patrons of restaurants in the area are seniors, based on varying stats online from several sites, none of which I will quote based on this variable.

But, overall, it appears approximately 25% or more of the population of Arizona consists of “snowbirds,” those who migrate to the state during the colder winter months from other parts of the US and other countries.


Some have moved here to live year-round, even with the sweltering summers in the Arizona desert. Some have chosen to live in cooler summer temperatures, such as stated here from this news article at this site:

“When the temperatures heat up in the Valley, many head north to escape the heat, but where is the coolest place to go?

Let’s start with a popular destination, Flagstaff. On average, in July, the afternoon high temperatures are 25 degrees cooler compared to Phoenix. In perspective, the average high temperature in Phoenix during July is 106 degrees, while Flagstaff comes in at a cool 81 degrees. 

While Sedona is also a popular place to escape the heat in the Valley of the Sun, it is on average only about 10 degrees cooler compared to Phoenix.
So where is one of the coolest places in Arizona to go to escape the heat? That would be Greer, coming in with an average high temperature for July of only 76 degrees! 

That is, on average, 30 degrees cooler than Phoenix.
Here are a few other northern Arizona locations, along with their average high temperatures during the month of July:

Grand Canyon: 86°
Holbrook: 93°
Payson: 91°
Prescott: 89°
Show Low: 86°
Williams: 83°
Winslow: 95°”

Here are the average temperatures in Apache Junction during the summer months:

“Apache Junction, AZ
Month High / Low
June 103° / 71
July 105° / 78°
August 103° / 76° “
It’s no wonder that most seniors who purchase or rent homes live in Arizona during the cooler winter months. Subsequently, a tremendous number of seniors dining out on any given day/night of the week.
Since we arrived here a month ago (as of tomorrow), we’ve only dined out during lunchtime or by 3:00 pm. These times were busy but not outrageously so.
At 4:30 pm, the seven of us arrived at a popular Italian restaurant, Babbo, located about 10 minutes from here in Mesa. As soon as we walked in the door, we knew we’d have a long wait. People were lined up outside, 90% of whom were seniors, dining out early as most seniors seem to prefer.
Also, seating a table of seven would be tricky when tables would have to be set up specifically to accommodate our small group when most tables and booths were for four diners.
It made no sense to leave to go to another restaurant, since, if the food was good as it is at Babbo, we’d encounter the same scenario at other restaurants mostly attended by seniors. (No reservations are allowed unless made 24 hours in advance which we hadn’t done).
We waited patiently for 45 minutes until we were seated, with our eyes on a table of eight that were eating, hoping they’d leave soon. At such a busy place, it appeared patrons dine and leave shortly thereafter rather than remain in idle conversation.
The smells in the restaurant of freshly baked bread and Italian spices sent me to the moon. But, ahead of time, I’d scoured their online menu to find they had many suitable full meal dinner salads that would work for me.
I ordered a steak and blue cheese salad with walnuts, roasted peppers, and mushrooms. It was delicious. Tom had spaghetti and meatballs, which he seemed to enjoy, along with the warm crusty bread served with dipping oil. The sisters and spouses enjoyed their meals as well.
As busy as the restaurant was, the service was excellent. In no time at all, we forgot about our long wait. By 6:00 pm, we were out the door heading back to the resort.
We spent the evening back at our place, watching a few downloaded shows, relaxing, and later getting a good night’s sleep.
This morning, after receiving a few email messages from the law firm in South Africa, we reviewed the documents, signed as indicated, and asked how we’ll pay for the guaranteed maximum fees. With the time difference, we won’t hear back until tomorrow.
Today is another low-key day. I’ll do my usual walk, and this evening, we’ll cook bone-in chicken breasts on the grill. Yesterday was a blissfully 72-degree day but today, it’s in the 50s and 60s, a little cool to spend much time outdoors.
May your day be blissfully comfortable!

Photo from one year ago today, January 8, 2019:

Exquisite paintings and tapestries lined a number of walls at The Voortrekker Museum. For more photos, please click here.

Time flies…Emotions remain…Visa waiver attorney located…

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One year ago today, we continued to have such a fantastic weekend celebrating Don’s birthday while staying at their gorgeous home in Pretoria. This photo was taken at a Mexican restaurant with 10 of us in attendance, again celebrating Don’s birthday. For more photos, please click here.

Time flies. It’s mind-boggling when we refer back to an event from one year ago when in actuality, it seems as if it was only yesterday. I often wonder if it felt the same years ago when we were younger. It’s easy to remember events. It’s not always easy to remember how we felt during “ordinary” times.

During periods of sorrow, worry and stress, we can easily recall our feelings many years back. During periods when life was relatively uneventful, we struggle to remember how we felt at the time. It’s ironic. 

It’s no wonder any of us can fall prey to becoming emotionally engaged in less desirable-times-past, carrying them as baggage into the future. This past year will be decorated in my mind for years to come, regardless of how well I’m feeling physically, spiritually, and emotionally.

The only baggage I want to carry with me into the future is our single suitcases filled with clothing and shoes, our third bag of supplies, and three miscellaneous carry-on bags.

No doubt, my level of ease, comfort, and happiness has been tempered. Will I ever return to those carefree days? By no means am I down or depressed? I feel optimistic about the future. There’s so much ahead of us, bringing both of us a powerful sense of anticipation, joy, and contentment.

But, the facts remain. Can we visit some of the highly remote areas we’d considered in the past, far from quality medical care? Are we at risk during month-long cruises or during extended periods in rural areas in countries where medical care is questionable?

We wish we had an easy answer. As we plan the over six months, we have to fill in and around Europe before the cruise ends in Cape Town, South Africa. We considered many facts on December 2, 2020.

Hanging over our heads is the visa waiver issue in South Africa (resulting from overstaying our visas due to my heart surgery in February, requiring us to stay an additional almost three months). 

If this issue isn’t resolved by the time the ship is ready to set sail, we won’t board or. We’d have significant problems at the end of the cruise. Of course, we won’t take that risk.

Instead, in the past 24 hours, we have contacted an immigration attorney in South Africa who is working on our file. The firm has a 98% success rate of resolving immigration issues such as these. The fee for services is ZAR (Rand) 30000, which translates to US $2,101. 

We’ve decided to move forward rather than be banned from South Africa until 2024. Plus, we don’t want an “undesirable” status to be a part of our passport records.

The law firm estimates it will take eight to twelve weeks to get the issue resolved. It will be fantastic to have this behind us. We’ve provided the law firm with all of the necessary documents, and they will send us a contract with a statement for services which we’ll handle this week to proceed with the process.

There’s no such thing as a “free lunch,” as the saying goes. Everything in life has its pluses and minuses, its rewards, and its consequences. But, how we choose to handle the challenges ultimately determines the quality of our lives.

As we move forward into this next phase of our lives, of our world travels, we strive to do so with the determination, the hope, and the joy we so much enjoyed in the past, long before we were faced with these challenges.

In a mere 22 days, we’ll continue on our long and fruitful journey, hopefully with many more years to come.

Be well.

Photo from one year ago today, January 7, 2019:

Last year on this date, our party of 10 consisted of (from left to right) Kathy, Linda, Tom,  Don, Keith, Ken, Cynthia, Robin and Karen with me taking the photo. For more photos, please click here.

Knocking down the “to do” list…Contacted an immigration attorney in South Africa…

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One year ago today… Tom and I hid in the bedroom, and once the others arrived for Don’s birthday, we suddenly appeared to be surprising everyone.  In the background are Keith (Don’s brother) and Ken, with Don and Linda in the center and Robin and Karen in the foreground.  It was a fun surprise. We had a fantastic stay with Kathy and Don. For more photos, please click here.

It was a quiet but good weekend. We had a happy hour party here on Friday night and attended a party by the pool on Saturday afternoon. The Vikings won their game, making Sunday special.

Last night, we laid back and watched a few shows, including Jack Ryan on Amazon and a good show we’d downloaded on Graboid, The Resident, a medical series we’d missed along the way. 

The Resident would be a tremendous binge-watching series, but right now, we don’t want to take the time to be watching too many shows. We have other “fish to fry” while also participating in a multitude of social events with the sisters and other locals.

When I finish the daily posts and respond to any email messages from our readers/friends, the day passes quickly. Then, there’s dinner to prepare each day, our almost daily walks, cleaning and laundry (every four days), financial matters to attend to, leaving little time for research and planning for the future.

As far as research goes, we’ve made some headway in the past few days. So far, it appears Scotland, like Spain and Portugal, has some beautiful holiday homes within our budget. We’ve enjoyed doing the research and need to focus on this in the next several weeks.

Today, I ordered the shipment of our accumulating supplies at our mailing service in Nevada. It should arrive by the end of the week. Once it comes, we’ll assess any additional items we may need and have them shipped to us in Apache Junction, or in the worst case, I’ll head out shopping.

I don’t enjoy shopping in stores, although I didn’t always feel that way in my old life. The varied selections and the abundance of items can be daunting, making the process somewhat unpleasant. I don’t think that way about grocery shopping which has always been enjoyable.

This morning, after researching online and reading many reviews, I found a South African immigration attorney to whom I wrote an inquiry explaining our situation, asking if they could assist and their fees for such services. 

The time difference makes it difficult to call during their regular business hours from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm. We’re hoping they will assist in expediting this immigration issue, enabling us to sail on the cruise arriving in Cape Town on December 2, 2020. We’ll report back what we hear.

Once we arrive in India, the time difference will only be three hours making any necessary phone calls more practical time-wise than now while in the US. 

Today, I sent another email requesting an update from Home Affairs in South Africa, the department which handles immigration issues for locals and foreigners. We’ll see if they respond.

The research will continue after we clean the house. The kitchen and bathroom are done. All that’s left is vacuuming the floors (Tom does this) and washing them with the mop (my job). It didn’t make sense to hire a cleaner for this small place, and now that I’m feeling well, I can share in the process.

However, in future full-sized vacation homes, we’ll hire a once-a-week cleaner as we had in the past when such a service wasn’t included in the rent. Heavy-duty cleaning is not something either of us cares to do in our retirement.

That’s it for today, folks! We hope you had a fantastic weekend and all is well your way!

Photo from one year ago today, January 6, 2019:

One year ago…Two hippos we spotted when visiting Rita and Gerhard’s temporary condo at Ngwenya in South Africa on Thursday evening. For more photos, please click here.

Football day in the neighborhood…Planning for the future…

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On this date in 2016, we were in Sydney, Australia, about to board our ship for a 14-night cruise to Auckland, New Zealand. Our hearts go out to all of the people of Australia who are dealing with the horrific fires throughout the continent and to all of the firefighters and first responders who sacrifice their lives in an attempt to extinguish the rampant fires. For more photos from this date, please click here.

Yesterday, we attended the 3:00 pm party by the pool. When it started, it was a pleasant 70F (21C), but by 4:30 when the sun was no longer shining on our table of eight, and the temperature was dropping rapidly. 


We’d dressed for the warmer temperature, but when the sun wafted away, and we were left in the shade, we decided to head back to our “park model” (as they call the permanent homes in RV parks). It was simply too cold to sit there the way we were dressed.

Tom picked up Margie at the Mesa airport at around 10:30 pm to return from her granddaughter’s wedding in Minnesota on New Year’s Eve. I stayed behind when he left to pick her up at almost 10:20 (her plane was late) while Eugene accompanied him.

They all met at Colleen’s place to catch up with Margie and eat chicken and coleslaw at 11:00 pm when they returned. Tom returned to our place by 1:00 am, and I awoke immediately to greet him. We both fell asleep in no time.

Today is another Minnesota Vikings football day with the game broadcast on local TV. We won’t get together with everyone today since it’s easier for all of us to watch it, if interested, on our TV. There will be plenty of gathering in the upcoming weeks.

Watching football isn’t my favorite pastime, but I do enjoy watching the Vikings play, perhaps because I know how much Tom wants it and my two sons, Richard and Greg, who both are quite enthusiasts.

Today is an otherwise quiet day for me. Tom will watch other football games for which I have little interest. To keep busy, I’ll continue to work on the new 2020 travel spreadsheet, transferring pertinent data and conducting more research for the six months we’ll spend in Europe this coming spring and summer.

We’ve decided we’ll stay in Spain and Portugal during our last two-plus months and now must decide where we’ll stay in the first four months, most likely in and around the UK, to avoid the Schengen visa requirements.

At this point, the possibilities that appeal to us are Scotland and the island of Jersey, where we could easily spend two months in each location. Today, I’ll begin researching these areas. We’ve already found several great possibilities in Spain and Portugal.

Once we decide on the itinerary and appealing holiday homes, we’ll begin booking the locations. As much as we enjoyed moving every few weeks in England this past fall, we’ll welcome staying put a month or two at a time after the constant moving while in India.

Sunday dinner will be easy today, a spiral sliced ham, rice for Tom, green beans, and salad. To avoid drying out the ham, we’ll only warm small sections at a time since it’s already cooked. Spiral sliced ham may become dry when baked in the oven to reheat. It will be a quiet day, relatively uneventful, which can “change on a dime” and fast become another day of socializing. We’ll see how it all rolls out.

May you have a restful and peaceful Sunday!

Photo from one year ago today, January 5, 2019:

We drove for five hours to Kathy and Don’s home in Pretoria, South Africa. Don, on his birthday, knocked lemons off the tree in their yard for us to take back to Marloth Park. We stayed for four nights at their lovely home. For more details, please click here.

Seven years ago…Accomplishing tasks feels good!…

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On this date in 2014, similar to the main photo in this post of December 14th, once again, we looked toward the driveway to discover giraffes coming our way. What a glorious sight! Click here for the post from this date.

We knew we embarked on a long journey when we left Minnesota to begin our world travel on October 31, 2012. We never imagined we’d be traveling in 2020 or beyond.

We began a road trip to Arizona, where we rented a holiday home for two months, thinking it might be a good idea to stay for future reference. Would we consider Arizona as a possible permanent home when we decided to end our journey? 

We stayed in Old Towne in a condo where we worked on the balance of the tasks we had ahead of us for two months before we could officially leave the US on January 3, 2013, seven years ago. 

Yesterday, Tom reminded me of this fact after I’d already uploaded the post. At that time, we didn’t know how to take photos and barely included photos in our posts until later on.
As a result, we decided to write this story today.
During this period, we also rented another holiday home in Henderson, Nevada, where Tom’s sisters and spouses stayed with us during Christmas while other family members came to spend time with us: son Richard from Henderson, cousin Phyllis from Massachusetts, and her two adult daughters, Robin and Wendy and, my sister Julie, all from California. We had a fantastic time.

After the holidays we returned to the condo in Arizona and spent the remainder of December continuing to complete the tasks we had on the agenda including purchasing and setting up new digital equipment.

On New Year’s Day, we headed to San Diego and spent two nights with niece Kely and her husband Dennis at their lovely home in San Diego where our first cruise on the Celebrity Century was sailing away on January 3, 2013.

We’d never been on a cruise, but as boaters in Minnesota, we had no doubt we’d enjoy being on the water. Also, we were confident we’d never be seasick. Our assessment was correct. We love cruising and have never been seasick.

Here’s the link to the day we boarded our first cruise.

Our mouths were agape during the entire cruise. Not only were we in awe of the outstanding itinerary and beautiful ship, but we were also enthralled by the social interactions that continued day after day. 

Those first few days, we were so naive about cruising we booked tables for two at dinner in the main dining room. We were having a great time together, but in only a few days, we got into the groove and started booking “shared dining” in the main dining room, and the good times escalated.

If you’d like to read about this first cruise, please click the above link or visit our archives on the right side of the page beginning January 3, 2013. You will easily be able to read through the excitement of that first cruise which ultimately shaped our opinion of cruises which hasn’t changed much over the years.

As a part of my tasks mentioned in yesterday’s post, I needed to start updating our new 2020 Excel spreadsheet, including a page for cruises only. At this point, we have five cruises booked, including the upcoming cruise from Mumbai, India on April 3, 2020, which ends in London on May 2, 2010, an entire 29-day cruise.

We cringed when it was required to pay for the entire expensive Mumbai cruise fare at the time of the booking, but now, we’re happy to have that behind us. Now, it’s imperative to begin booking holiday homes for the six-months between the Mumbai cruise and the cruise returning to Africa for which we’ve yet to be provided a visa waiver. 

On Monday, with the holiday season over, we’ll start making phone calls to find an immigration lawyer in South Africa to assist us with the issue. That item was on yesterday’s to-do list. The time difference is quite an issue.

As a matter of fact, from the seven items we’d listed in yesterday’s post, we are down to only four things when we immediately got to work accomplishing these tasks. More on this later.

Last night, we had a happy hour get-together at our place with the family and our two new neighbors. Today, there’s a party by the pool at 3:00 pm, which we’ll attend with the family and other locals who’ll gather around our table.

And then, there were nine! Tonight, at 10:00 pm, we’ll pick up Margie from the Mesa airport, and our family group of seven will be complete. However, within the next few weeks, another of Tom’s sisters, Rita, will arrive from South Dakota and, Mary and Eugene’s son Kevin (Tom’s nephew) will also come. The good times continue.

May you be experiencing good times with your family and friends in the New Year!

Photo from one year ago today, January 4, 2019:

One year ago today, we spotted young zebras running around a circular path playfully chasing one another. For more photos, please click here.

Making a list…Checkin’ it twice!…

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On this date in 2016, we posted this photo of a vegetable stand where we purchased most of our produce during the 28-day stay in Pacific Harbour, Fiji. For more from that date, including final expenses for Fiji, please click here.

With the new year upon us and only 26 days remaining until we leave for India, we’ve begun to put the wheels in motion to get everything for our departure.

Last night, I began compiling for our departure, including the following:

1. Compile a box of cold weather clothing and ship it to our mailing service in Nevada to hold until we need it again. We are glad we’d purchased warm items in Minnesota, Nevada, and Arizona with the cold weather. This morning it was 35F (1.7C). It makes no sense to bring these items to India, but we may need them again during the year.
2. Order the box of supplies we have awaiting us at the mailing service in Nevada.
3. Contact an immigration attorney to begin working on our visa waiver for South Africa.
4. Contact United Healthcare Global with questions, and purchase an annual health insurance policy for the two of us.
5. Reorganize our supplies suitcase to lighten the load.
6. Purchase a list of items we’ll need for India and in the future; socks for both of us, a belt for Tom, and cool summery tops for me.
7. Start transferring data from our current Excel spreadsheet to our new workbook that is relevant for 2020 only.

Each of these items could take some time, but I must get to work with the days ticking down. The list falls into the categories of tasks that I perform, not Tom. He has “other fish to fry,” and his time will come soon enough to get to work.

Traveling the world isn’t a laid back as some may perceive. Last night while we had Shark Tank on the TV in the background, I scrolled through over 500 listings in Homeaway.com for Portugal. 

With our next cruise departing from Lisbon, it makes sense to spend the last few months near Portugal before we sail away on November 10th. Last night’s research proved fruitful when I found dozens of possibilities in and around Lisbon. Today, Tom and I will go through these together.

With the European Schengen visa restrictions, we have to be very careful not to stay in Europe too long, especially when part of the cruise will be visiting a few ports of call in the Schengen area that count toward our total allowable days.

It was these restrictions that caused us an immigration problem in Australia when we’d been on the continent a few days too long due to being on a cruise. The cruise was considered a “closed-loop” when sailing from Perth to Sydney (with several ports of call in New Zealand), and all the days we were cruising counted toward our maximum time on the continent. We won’t let this happen again.

They are making lists that have always been helpful to me. Although they are hardly New Year’s resolutions, our timing precipitates getting them done.

Today, we’ll work on more research, and I’ll try to knock off a few items on the “to do” list. So far, there are no plans for social activities tonight, but one never knows. They often pop up at the last minute in this senior community.

May your New Year list provides you with a sense of accomplishment we’re looking forward to over the next several days.

Photo from one year ago today, January 3, 2019:

In Marloth Park, one year ago today, one of our two favorite frogs took up residence in this cute little decorative basket near the pool on the veranda. We couldn’t stop laughing! For more photos, please click here.

Part 2…2020…A new year…a new decade…Our travels, a year in review…

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At the New Year’s Eve party a few nights ago.

Today’s post is late. Since this morning, we have been distracted when we met our new neighbors who moved into the unit behind us. Coincidentally, they are also from Minnesota, and it was fun sharing stories with the two of them.

View of hotels along the beach from the ship on our way back to the US in Nassau, the Bahamas from this post.

No doubt, we’ll see them both again soon. The socialization at the park is over the top. No less than three or four evenings a week, we get together with family and new friends to chat, laugh, and share stories.

Socializing is different here than it is on a cruise ship when most passengers are frequent travelers from all over the world. All the seniors (55+) we’ve met thus far are from all over the US, many from the Midwest and other cold climate locations.

Out to dinner With dear friends Karen and Rich for a “thank you for hosting us at your home” at Gianni’s Restaurant in Wayzata, Minnesota. For more from this post, please click here.

A few nights ago, we met a lovely couple from Arkansas while standing in line for the New Year’s Eve party, where winter climates are temperate. However, the draw of this simple life is appealing to seniors from all over the country.

And now, as we have rolled into the New Year, with more and more people coming here to stay for the winter, no doubt we’ll meet more residents, and like the couple we met this morning, those staying in a rental unit such as ours.

Tom won the last game, Bingo Coverall, winning $200 when we were out to lunch with Karen and Rich, where bingo is played at a bar on Saturdays mornings only. He looks tired from little sleep from coughing all night while in Minnesota. For this post, please click here.

For the remainder of the year, Today’s photos were all while we have been in the US since November 8, 2019, almost two months ago. Being in the US during this time has been great, seeing family and friends.

Now we’re gearing up to leave the US again and most likely won’t return for another two years. We have many worlds left to see and look forward to the next leg of our journey.

As mentioned yesterday, 2019 was the most challenging of our seven years of world travel. We’ll never forget what we went through, but we take the memories with us and hopefully have learned from our experiences as we move into the future.
Our next stop was Nevada, where I had the opportunity to visit my sister Susan. This is her pup, Chase, an adorable little guy. See the post here.

Sure, there’s a bit of trepidation in the future. Will we be close to competent medical care? Are the risks of future issues with my health going to hold us back in any way? We could easily make ourselves stressed contemplating these raw facts.

However, we choose to free our minds from stress and to focus on the good fortune we’ve had in discovering my heart issues in time to avert a possible life-changing event and, of course, our ability to continue.

Tonight, we’ll lay low and enjoy our delicious leftovers from last night’s successful dinner party. The sisters and brothers-in-law came to our house around 3:30 pm and stayed until close to 9:00 pm. 

It was wonderful to meet up with old friends Jerry and Vicki. It was amazing to see them so many years later when we’d met in Kauai in 2015. For this post, please click here.

As often the case, the conversation was filled with stories of experiences they all shared about their years of growing up in a large family. They are quite an entertaining group. 

We’re attending another party at 3:00 pm on Saturday by the fire pit. It’s warmed up a bit, and when the sun is shining, it’s pretty comfortable being outdoors. Tom is picking up Margie at the Mesa airport on Saturday. It will be great to have her back with the six of us.

Have a wonderful day!

Photo from one year ago today, January 2, 2018:

Last year on this date, we posted “year in review” with this photo of two female rhinos on the trail of a nearby male. See this link here for more from the date this photo was taken. Click here for the year-ago post.

Part 1…2020…A new year…a new decade…Our travels, a year in review…

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In Devon on a farm, Tom had the unusual experience of shepherding 150 lambs. For that post, please click here.

Since we’ve posted so many photos from Africa, we’ve decided not to post favorite photos from 2019 that include our time in Africa. Our readers have seen them over and over again. We appreciate your patience and interest.

While in Ireland, we got a good shot of this pair of cows, most likely a mom and baby, from this post.

Instead, today (with more to follow tomorrow), as mentioned in yesterday’s post (click here), we’ll review where we’ve traveled over the last 12 months. Based on the fact my open heart surgery was in February, and we weren’t able to do much during the remaining three months we spent in Marloth park while I recovered thus, the dates are as follows:

January to May – Marloth Park, South Africa 
May to August – Connemara, Ireland (three months)
August – Flight to Amsterdam, where we spent two nights
August – September – Baltic Cruise – 12 nights
September to October – Stayed in four locations in the UK: Falmouth, Witheridge, Devon, England and, Chepstow, Wales, two of which included living in the English countryside on working farms.
October – Drove to Southampton, England, where we spent two nights and then boarded a ship for a 15-night cruise to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA.
November to December – Minneapolis, Minnesota, the USA to visit family (3 weeks)
November to December – Henderson/Las Vegas, Nevada, the USA to visit family (11 nights)
December – Apache Junction, Arizona, USA – the balance of December has been spent visiting family (Tom’s sisters and spouses)

While in Amsterdam wished we could post the identity of all of these great highlights on our canal boat tour, but it wasn’t possible as the boat moved along. For this post, please click here.
  • Number of Flights: 5 
  • Number of Cruises: 2 
  • Number of Vacation Home Rentals: 7
  • Number of nights in hotels: 4
  • Number of nights spent with family or friends: 32 (with friend Karen in Minnesota and son Richard in Henderson)
  • Number of Rental Cars: 5 
The luxury in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg was indescribable. See the post here.

Considering the awful condition I was in until October, unable to walk from the surgeries and dreadful medications I later stopped taking. Then the dreadful virus we both caught on the cruise back to the US traveled quite a bit.

In Tiverton, Devon, these birds reminded us of the Helmeted Guinea-fowl we had in our garden in Marloth Park. For this post, please click here.

Now that we are both feeling well, we’re finally able to relax and focus our time with Tom’s family members and preparing for our upcoming trip to India in a mere four weeks from today.

In some ways, it was a good year. In other ways, it was frightening and disheartening. As the year ended last night at midnight, when we stood on the dance floor at the party here at the resort and shared a long kiss, we couldn’t help but smile for the New Year to come. 

This is the view from our veranda in Falmouth, England. For this post, please click here.

No, we can’t dismiss what we’ve been through this past year, but we can and have embraced a feeling of gratefulness and good fortune, to have made our way through a challenging time.

In the rain on the farm in Witheridge, Tom was using the wheelbarrow to bring the wood to Pond Cottage. See the post here.

The party last night was fine. We could have done a few nuances without, such as eating prime rib (which was good) with a plastic fork and knife. But, the people were relatively friendly, and the two of us had a good time together as always. 

Friends Linda and Ken from South Africa came to visit us while we were in Chepstow, Wales. Here’s a photo of the four of us, and here’s the post from that date.

We couldn’t resist staying until the stroke of midnight to hear and sing the traditional song, Auld Lang Syne. Oddly, one of the participants on the dance floor collapsed right at midnight. Shortly after the song ended, an ambulance came to take the poor woman to the hospital. We never heard what had transpired.

The tabletop is a plain white blank canvas, making such colorful presentations possible while we dined on the ship experiencing Le Lewtit Chef a digital dining experience. For that post, please click here.

Back at our park model (as they are called) by 12:15, we unloaded our bag of beverages and went off to bed. We both slept reasonably well,,, awakening to a new year, a new decade, and a new journey we’ll continue with joy in our hearts.

Today, we’re making dinner for the family: baby back ribs, mashed garlic potatoes, sweet corn, dinner rolls, salad, and dessert. Based on time constraints, we’ll continue this post tomorrow. Please check back.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Photo from one year ago today, January 1, 2019:

This is a two-year-old Rock Hopper Penguin on New Island in the Falkland Islands,,, yet to grow his full plumage when we visited Antarctica. Last year on this date, we posted favorite photos from 2018.Last year on this date, we posted favorite photos from 2018.Last year on this date, we posted favorite photos from 2018. Please click here for more photos.

Happy New Year’s Eve, everyone!…A new year, a new decade, a new beginning…

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On this date in 2013, this foot-long insect on the wall by the bathroom door in the master bedroom made us cringe.  Sleep didn’t come easy the remainder of that night, fearing that the rains of the previous few days may have brought more of these ugly things indoors. Tom, as always, disposed of it outdoors, but of course, didn’t kill it.  For more photos from that date, please click here.

Many times in the past seven years, we’ve chronicled our year in review on New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day. In tomorrow’s post, we’ll list where we traveled in 2019 with snippets of what transpired during those travels. 

As our readers know so well, this has been a tough year for us when on February 12th, I had triple coronary bypass surgery with many complications. We won’t get into all of that. 

We’ve said enough and appreciate the patience of our readers who saw us through that difficult time and stayed with us, continuing to read our daily posts. That month I only uploaded 16 posts when I could not prepare posts during the first two weeks after surgery. 

In tomorrow’s post, we‘ll breeze by that period when in May we were “on the move” once again, albeit with a certain amount of trepidation and fear.

Instead, now, we look to the future with hope and optimism that we’ll be able to continue for years to come. But, we’ve both decided over the past few months that we cannot and will not dwell on fear or apprehension of what could happen. 

We could all get caught up in this state of mind, even those in great health. None of us know what the future holds and we can only do our best to maintain good health and a good attitude which ultimately may be instrumental in our quality of life and longevity.

Most of us can look back at our prior year and recall various circumstances causing us to worry and be concerned for ourselves, our loved ones, our circumstances. No one is exempt.

And, most of us choose to move forward, learn from our experiences, good and bad, and continue on the path we’ve chosen for our lives or in some cases choose a new path as we had done over seven years ago. It changed everything.

Rather than New Year’s resolutions, we find it helpful to look back over the past year to determine what we have learned, changes we have made and the changes we need to make going forward. 

It’s highly individual and we cannot imply or suggest that any of our readers/friends follow such a path. But, we find a sense of comfort moving into the New Year knowing we are doing the best we can to maintain a quality of life that brings us both joy and contentment. 

That being said, we wish each and every one of our readers a meaningful and purposeful New Year that fulfills your needs and wishes and brings you joy and contentment as well.

Happy New Year!

Photo from one year ago, December 31, 2019:

Adorable giraffe at rest in Marloth Park. For more photos, please click here 

Another birthday celebration…This time at the bar entitled, “What the Hell”…Finally, rental car issue resolved…

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I was painting on the wall outside a sushi restaurant in Palermo, Buenos Aires, Argentina, on this date in 2017. For more photos, please click here.

Seniors seem to prefer going out during the day as opposed to at night in the dark. I suppose we are no exception. With crazy drivers on the roads at night, many of whom may have been drinking, daytime visibility is beneficial. That’s not to say daytime drivers are competent or sober.

This fact is especially relevant as we approach New Year’s Eve. For this very reason, we were prompted to spend New Year’s Eve at the party here at the resort rather than venture out to any other locations.

Over the years, our interest in New Year’s Eve has diminished considerably. Still, when the opportunity to attend the party came up a few nights ago at a great price, we negotiated for two tickets, it was hard to turn it down. See yesterday’s post for details.

Yesterday, we brought the egg dish and blueberry muffins to Colleen and Gene’s home for brunch. Afterward, we watched the disappointing Minnesota Vikings Game, returning to our house around 3:30 pm with little to do but relax and unwind.

We should have started to tackle prospects for future bookings, but Tom was determined to watch football for the rest of the day and evening once we returned.

I busied myself with a variety of tasks, including making a light dinner at 6:30 pm. This morning before beginning the post, my time has been spent online checking credit card balances for the first-of-the-month payments. 

Since we’re leaving at 1:30 pm to pick up Colleen and Gena (it’s her birthday today) to head to “What the Hell Bar and Grill” to celebrate her birthday, we have little time to get wrapped up in any research for future travels.

This morning, Tom received an email from rentalcars.com, a site we’ve used since the onset of our travels and will continue to use for the best pricing on cars worldwide. They finally credited us for the issue we ran into when we arrived in Las Vegas on November 28, 2019.

When we approached the rental desk at the Alamo airport, we were informed we couldn’t receive the car we’d rented online due to some technical error between them and rentalcars.com.

However, Alamo booked another car for us at an even better price, which we accepted. But, the issue remained to apply for a credit for the car we didn’t get, and Alamo stated we’d have to do so through rentalcars.com.

We were receiving the credit turned into a convoluted mess of endless email messages and instructions to apply for the credit online (which didn’t work), with a high degree of frustration on our end. We didn’t give up. We kept pressing.

Finally, today, they wrote to us stating the credit will be processed and appear on our credit card within ten business days. Plus, they offered us a complimentary three-day rental next time we use the service by using a code they included in the message. 

We’ll keep checking the credit card and use the code next time we rent a car which should be once we arrive in London in May, after the cruise from Mumbai in April.

Now that we have all of the annoying issues resolved hanging over our heads, we can freely move forward in our planning for the future.

Have a fabulous day!

Photo from one year ago today, December 30, 2018:

Puff adders are commonly seen in Marloth Park. This photo was taken while we were at snake school in March.  Click here for the link to when the photo was taken. Click here for the post one year ago.