Thu, 3/20/25 Cape Verde

Day 74 - Thursday, March 20th, 2025 – Mindelo, Cape Verde

This was one of those days where  we didn't know how it was going to end up. We knew there were no accessible anythings on this island. We knew we had to walk into town, but we didn't know what that meant. We knew we did not have to get off the ship immediately, so we had breakfast in the room. Because I was not feeling 100%, we stayed in the room until 1030. We then got off the ship. There was a long, like half mile long, walk to the gate. Thankfully it was smooth and flat. I use my smart drive for most of the way to the gate. We talked to a few people who were coming back, and they said there's really nothing. As we got closer to the gate, I suggested to Mary that I would stay in on the flat area and push back and forth while she walks into town. Thankfully, she agreed. So, she went her way, and I went mine. For the next hour or more I pushed back and forth on the concrete in the sun. The temperature was in the 70s, but there was a very stiff wind. That made it feel more like 50s. Thankfully, the sun kept me warm. I spent the entire hour pushing back and forth. My watch said I did 1000 pushes, but I think I did more than that.

I was in the main road back and forth from the ship, so I saw several people going and then coming back. They all wondered where Mary was. Did she finally got a better offer and kick me to the curb. For some reason none of them believed that. I tried the opposite approach. I told them I kicked her to the curb, for whatever reason they didn’t believe that either. Friends of ours, Mike and Trish, just made 43 years. Mary and I have made 27. That means we have 16 years to go. I can't imagine 43 years. One of these days, Mary's gonna wake up and say “whoa what do I do here?” It hasn't happened in 27 years so I'm hoping it will last for another 16 or more.

I was out there a good hour or more by myself before Mary came back. She had gone into town and managed to acquire T-shirts, refrigerator magnets and postcards. She was not able to find the post office so she will have to send the postcards from a future port. I was surprised she was able to get all of that done. She had said that once you were in town the streets were cobblestone and there were no curb cuts so it was good that I did not go in. She did take several nice pictures. Together, we walked back to the ship.

We decided to go to 14 to get something to eat and drink. I think Mary was exhausted and hungry from her journey. I remember having a grilled cheese and ham sandwich. That was pretty good. Mary ate some fruit. I drank one of my grapefruit waters that I found. Mary had Diet Coke. We sat up there for about an hour, but now it was middle of the afternoon. We went back to the cabin. Again for a few hours, we did what we do.

About 7:00 we decided to go back up to 14. I ended up having two bowls of soup. One was a chicken gumbo. The other was a black bean chowder. The black bean chowder was awesome. I've had that in the past. The chicken gumbo was OK. It was kind of watery. It takes it OK, but next to the black bean chowder it was definitely secondary. Mary had a huge salad. By the huge salad, I mean it must have been 2 heads of lettuce. Of course, we finished up the dinner with cookies.

We made our way back to the room. It had been another successful day. The port itself was a no go. At least we got out of the ship. After seven days at sea, anything felt good. It felt good to get out and push. The sun felt good. Mary was able to get into town so it was not a complete loss.