Day 116 and beyond – Disembarkation and Home

The process of going home probably started after our last excursion in the Canary Islands. We both knew the end was in sight. Our first concern was how we were going to pack the wine without breaking any. I suggested one way and Mary had her own idea. That's pretty much the way the packing went. I suggested and she did what she wanted. Of course, our initial thinking was we should have plenty of space because we've used all the medical supplies. I suggested we try to be done with packing a couple of days early to avoid any last minute hiccups. Of course, this suggestion, like many, was acknowledged and ignored at the same time. All of the suitcases and plastic boxes had to be outside the door by 7:00 PM Thursday. I looked around and I would say that 95% of this stuff was packed. It's this last 5% that has no place to go. Yes, we used up all the medical supplies, but we also bringing back 20 bottles of wine and 150 T-shirts. Add to that the little things like honey we bought and the olive oil and refrigerator magnets, all the sudden you can see we're bringing back more than we brought. I kept my mouth shut because Mary did have it under control.

In the middle of the night on my head uncovered another potential gotcha – duty taxes. We’re bringing liquor back into the United States.  At the time, Mary had a rough count of 20 bottles. We did some research that was more confusing. There were some websites that there was no duty and there were other sites that said it could be up to 3% of the cost and there were others three to four times as much as the bottle itself. As with most things with the government, it was clear as mud. We discussed it and decided to go for it. If the cost was too much, we would just leave the wine at the immigration point. Lying to the government is not necessary. Nonetheless, this added to my anxiety level over leaving. My anxiety level was nowhere near what it was getting on the ship, but I had a certain level on leaving.

We went to dinner that last night. When we came back come all four of the big plastic bins and two of the suitcases we're gone. We would pick them up in the luggage area on shore in the morning. I've looked around and Mary still was not 100% packed. I didn't say a word.

I toyed with the idea of staying up all night, but Mary did not like that idea. She did not want me to be on my ass for more than 24 hours. I told her I would come to bed around 2:00 so I was off my ass for three or four hours. Mary went to bed. I worked on the log. I did not stay up until 2:00. It was close though. We had an hour time change so I guess it was maybe 1:00 the new time. (Don’t get me started on this new time versus old time nightmare. We did something like 23 time changes and I still didn't get it right. There are some things my brain just does not comprehend very well. Thankfully, this was the last one.)

We woke up at 5:30. We had decided that I would not take a shower. Mary got me dressed and into the bathroom to brush my teeth, etcetera. We initially said that we were going to leave the room around 8:00, but we decided to leave earlier. We received a letter that suggested we go to the crooner’s lounge. This is where they would handle people that were in wheelchairs. Before we left, I looked around the room and Mary was completely packed but she had to figure out how she was going to push the shower chair with two or three suitcases on top of it and pull another suitcase. I decided that I would try my smart drive down the hallway to at least get us off the ship. I have not been using my smart drive because I could not consistently get it to stop. It's a long story that has to do with the watch sensitivity. I had to move to the Apple Watch because the watch that came with the smart drive didn't work anymore. The Apple Watch is much less sensitive so when I double tap to stop it should stop. Unfortunately, this was not consistent with the Apple Watch. So, I was a little leery of using it, but I had no choice really. Thankfully, I was able to use the smart drive to get down the hall to the elevator. Once we got off the elevator on 7 there was an officer of some sort there that gave us a push down to the crooner’s lounge. This allowed Mary to push the shower chair and pull the suitcase. It took her a while to catch up. Once we get to crooner’s lounge, our waiter buddy, Sonic, was standing there. He called over our buddy Sorocco. By this time Mary had caught up. Sonic took me and Sorocco helped Mary. Together we got past the ship's security, off the boat into the rampway which led down to the cruise terminal. We were officially off the boat. The guys helped us all the way through the cruise terminal to where we had to go pick up our luggage. We said our goodbyes again. They had gone as far as they could.

 There were enough people standing around offering help, so we asked for a porter. We knew there was no way we were going to be able to lug all that luggage through immigration and out to the curb where we would wait for our driver. It took about 20 minutes or so, but we finally got a porter assigned to us. When he saw what we needed to get through immigration, he went and got a bigger dolly. I should have taken a picture of the loaded dolly, but I didn't. It was a sight to see. He had been part magician to make it all work. There are a couple of pictures below that if you look closely you can see the amount of luggage. Anyway, the next hurdle was immigration. As we were approaching the gate, I saw a sign that said you need to declare these things and wine or liquor was not on the list. An instant sigh of relief left me. We did not have to worry about declaring the wine. Once in front of the agent, Mary showed him our passports, and we sailed through. The porter had already gone through and was halfway to the street by the time we caught up. We were told we needed to go to the 3rd aisle over which was personal transportation. He left his dolly with the security guard and pushed me across to where we would wait for our driver. He then came back and got the dolly. Mary worked her way across with the shower chair and suitcase. Mary tipped him very well. As he left, he said he would be back in an hour to help us load the van. It is crazy in hindsight, but it was an hour later when the driver showed up. Mary and I stayed , Sdot, on the sidewalk with several other passengers and their luggage for about an hour or so. Our driver, Scott, got caught up in traffic and had to stop for gas before he picked us up. We originally said we would meet at 9:00, but we were there by 8:00. Not a big deal. Everything had gone better than expected to this point. We were sitting in the sun. It was warm out.

The porter must have had ESP or something because he came back shortly after the van driver pulled up. Scott had to go around the pick up area because there was no place for him to stop our van on the 1st go around. By the time he did the quarter mile loop, a couple of spots opened up. For the next 20 minutes or so, Mary, Scott and the porter stuffed our plastic bins, suitcases, shower chair and me into the van. Once I was in and tied down, two more plastic bins went in behind me. Mary had to climb over the bins to get to her spot on the seat behind me. Again, I should have taken a picture. Later I made a joke that you could not have put a playing card more in the van. It was that stuffed. Once everything was in, we pulled away.

The traffic on the Florida Turnpike was fast, then slow, then fast, then slow. There was a lot of construction which made things slow up. Then things would open up and we would go fast. I really didn't care. I was just glad to be in the car on the way home. About halfway through our 4 hour journey, we stopped for Dunkin' Donuts. Mary bought me a coffee which was supposed to be black but ended up being filled with cream and sugar to the point where I couldn't drink it. It was gross. I did eat the breakfast sandwich. It took a couple of hours extra but we were home by about 3:00. It was bittersweet that is for sure. I was glad to be home and that the whole disembarking process went without any issue. At the same time we had such a good time on the ship they did not want to leave it. I don't think Mary did either.

I am reading this one week after we got home. Of course, Mary ran through the plastic bins, suitcases and everything else we had by the end of the weekend. It has taken her a while longer to work our way through the mail. There was a box that was I'm guessing 20 inches by 20 inches that was filled about 16 inches to the top. I can only guess as to how much mail was in there. She has gotten all the important letters separated to the side. For whatever reason, I am always afraid of the mail. This is true especially if you leave it go for too long. There was only one letter that scared the hell out of both of us. It had to do with my long-term care policy. It made us think that the contract was closed. Monday, Mary called and found out that it wasn't. That was a huge sigh of relief. There were a couple other what I call black clouds hanging over us that we need to get resolved. My mother had been in emergency room twice in the last week or so before we got off the ship. There's not much we can do 1100 miles away. Actually coming there's not much we can do if we lived across the street. I learned long ago that we are not in control and until we are we just have to watch. That hasn't made watching any easier unfortunately. Thankfully, she's home and stable. There is a plan. Now, we just have to watch and see how the plan plays out.

Other than that, we are in our day-to-day routine already. We have played cards twice. We have met with neighbors. I got my haircut. Mary got her haircut. We have already started to see doctors. This is our Florida, in a nutshell.

I will create one last section that has to do with my overall thoughts. I don't know what this section will entail yet, but work on it.