Last thoughts

Today is Mary's birthday. She is 67 today. Because we have been back for two weeks today, we are in doctor mode already. She is at the eye doctor right now. In the middle of writing this section, the place where I'm having my carpal tunnel surgery called and I went through a 30 minute review and questionnaire. One of the things that surprised me a little is the fact that we were able to slip into our previous everyday life very quickly. It's almost as if the 116 days on the boat didn't exist. We know that's not true based on the 100,000 words that precede this paragraph.

The question most people ask is, “Would you do it again?” My answer has been, “In a heartbeat.” I heard Mary answer the question the same way. I would say we would do it  differently in some regards, but I would go around the world again. There were some challenging moments, mostly early on, where I wasn't sure we would be able to complete the 116 days. I can admit it now, but at the end of January I came down with COVID. Thankfully it was very mild and I only had to stay in the cabin for three days. If you look back in the log you can probably see where this happened. I was afraid to go to the Medical Center because I was afraid that they would send us home. Thankfully, they didn't. Mary ended up getting bronchitis at the same time. She got it a second time much later in the trip. Obviously, I cannot function if she is not functioning. This thought played into my mind more than once. If Mary got too sick we would have to go home. If she fell and broke her arm we would probably have to go home. Again, thankfully, none of these things happened. I'm not sure how I would fix this in the future, but I'd have to give it some thought.

We knew when we left that the weather in the Mediterranean might be cold. We were right. I don't know why, but since living in Florida for five years my blood must have thinned out to the point where 50° is cold. When I am cold, I am not happy. If you've read the log, even partially, you'll know that there were a lot of places that were simply cold. Part of this was the environment and part of it was me being exhausted a lot of the time. As read through the log, you notice that there were a lot of places we took naps. Some of those naps were like slipping into a coma. I think we both felt that we were constantly trying to catch up on our sleep. I'm a horrible sleeper. I do my best not to bother Mary in the bed, but nonetheless at certain times I must. This, of course, wakes her up so she's not getting her full night's sleep. When I am tired, I get cold more easily. Because it was cold outside from about Cape Town on, I was not able to go outside on 7 and push like I wanted to. Actually, like I needed to. Without pushing on 7 I spent most of my time being pushed by Mary. There are a couple of ways we could have remedied this - the smart drive is the obvious answer. I needed to practice and use it more often than I did. With the smart drive I would not get as much exercise, but I would not have to rely on Mary so much to get from point A to point B. I should have thought of other ways to get more exercise. I did gain weight on the trip, but I'm not sure how much. If I had to guess I would say somewhere near 15, maybe more pounds. Being home 2 weeks I've already cut back on my food and have pushed more often than not. I should be able to work off the 15 and more in the coming months. I even bought a scale for the wheelchair which gives me a good idea of how much I weigh. Because I did not weigh myself before we left, I have no idea where I am compared to where I was. I just know that I need to lose some weight. When I look at the pictures before the trip and I look at the pictures after the trip there's not a lot of difference. It makes me wonder how much I gained. I was obviously a bit overweight before we left. All of this boils down to, I will have to give some thought to this to see how it could be remedied in the future.  

We learned a lot about how to save money. This trip was a once in a lifetime trip. We spent a lot of money. I am not complaining. Everything about this trip was high end, for the most part. If and or when we do this in the future, we will do things less high end. For example, we don't need the drink package. With the drink package you could get 15 drinks a day per person. In an average day, if we included soda for Mary, tea for Mary, and wine for me, that would only add up to maybe 10 drinks per day. I would have to do a closer look at the numbers but we probably spent near $60.00 a day per person for the drinks package. We did not spend anywhere near $120.00 in drinks a day. There were certain amenities that came with upgrading to the mini suite. For example, we could go to seven for breakfast instead of going to the dining room. It was a more intimate experience. We got to eat in the special area of the dining room. I think we could forego both of these really easily. There were other little things like fruit in the room and the mini bar selection that we could forego also. The two things we would have to keep more to the Internet package in the photo package. I cleaned up the duplicates in the pictures and we ended up with 518 pictures of Mary and me. If you're interested in seeing them, I can send you a link where you can view them. I don't know why you would want to but let me know. Having Internet is like having oxygen for us so that's a no brainer. Having tips included in the package would need to be researched further. We spent a lot of money on tips buried in the package, but I did not like the transparency of this. We didn't know what money was going where and if the people we wanted to receive it actually did. Instead, we included a little note and a small amount of money for a handful of folks. In the note we told them that we spent a lot of money in the tips package and this small token was for them to buy a drink in port somewhere to remember us by. I would have to go through what we paid for and see if there were other options.

When we first started planning the trip I knew excursions were going to be a challenge. Working with Sage Travel, I was able to get about 15 of them taken care of right away. I felt good about this, but I knew that there were a lot more that needed to be researched and booked. By the time we left in January, we had about a third of them booked. Then we would have plenty of time when we were at sea to research and book others. This is where Mary really stepped in and helped close the gap on a lot of them. Together we ended up with something like 44 excursions. I don't know the exact number, but we missed maybe five of the possible ports. This was simply due to the fact that the ports did not have any wheelchair-friendly options. At the end of the day, we spent a lot of money on excursions, but I would not have changed a thing. The next time we go I will look more closely to see if there are places we've already been. I'm not saying I wouldn't go somewhere twice, but I would consider it. For this trip we went everywhere we could even if it was a duplicate. When I look back at the things that we did do even I am somewhat amazed. We did the big things like this Sydney Opera House, the Parthenon, the Coliseum, etcetera. We also did other very cool things like drinking wine at countless wineries, understanding a how rum distillery works, making olive oil, visiting a Muslim mosque, experiencing countless local markets, viewing countless scenic points of view, and listening to history of every place which was like drinking from a fire hose. We did all these things with personal tours. This gave us the opportunity to customize where we needed to. Obviously, we would not have been able to get T-shirts, refrigerator magnets, postcards and stamps had we not had these personal tours. Actually, knowing Mary she would have figured it out, but it would not have been as easy. We all know that once Mary gets something in her head it becomes reality at whatever cost. That's why we love her. She gets stuff done. What this all means is I would need to do a little more research on excursions the next time. That would not change a thing we did on this trip.

I have to give Mary credit in the area of packing. We went with a lot of stuff. We came home with a lot of stuff. When we first got on the cruise and unpacked everything, I think there was one or two things that were missing. Considering the number of things that she had to get right, missing one or two minor items was hardly an issue. We probably picked up the missing items in one of the early ports, so we never missed it at all. At the other end, when we were finished, beyond catheters, she only had a few of everything left. We had to get off the boat because we had run out of almost everything. What was nice about this trip was that it was out of Fort Lauderdale and into Fort Lauderdale. There was no airplane involved. I have no idea how we would have gotten all of that stuff to an airport somewhere. I just don't think we could.

I don't have the exact number, I wish I did, but we sailed somewhere near 35,000 nautical miles. We crossed the international dateline. We crossed the equator twice. We sailed through the major oceans over the globe - Atlantic, Pacific and Indian. We landed on six different continents - North America, South America, Australia, Africa, Europe, and Asia. I did not do an exact count, but we visited something like 25 different countries. We went through the Panama Canal, through the Tasman Sea, past the Cape of Good Hope, and sailed past the rock of Gibraltar twice to highlight a few landmarks or points along the way. In Costa Rica at the Carara National Park we saw a real toucan in the wild, not in a cage or on a cereal box. At the same stop, on the Tarcoles river we saw real crocodiles in their natural setting. We watched up close seals on the Nambian Desert.  

I'm sure there are things that Mary will consider important to her. It's been a few months now, but I'm still in awe of what I saw in Fiordland National Park. It is one of those places that cannot be explained. It has to be experienced. We have all seen pictures of the leaning tower of Pisa either in books, magazines or on TV. Mary and I were within 10 feet of it. Most people are familiar with the Coliseum but have never been there. Mary and I were there. We walked on paths that had been walked on for 2000 years. We learned that many of the stones that were used were actually triangles because that reduced the weight of walls. We touched those stones. In our years of traveling, we have visited countless churches and cathedrals. I would say some more interesting than others. The Sagrada Familia in Barcelona and Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca are two that stand out. The pictures help but being inside of them has to be experienced.

What I discuss in the two previous paragraphs are just from my memory. The 100,000 plus words that precede these paragraphs uncover countless other experiences. I think this is a good way to end this log is with a quote I found years ago:

“We are the sum total of our experiences. Those experiences – be they positive or negative – make us the person we are, at any given point in our lives. And, like a flowing river, those same experiences, and those yet to come, continue to influence and reshape the person we are, and the person we become. None of us are the same as we were yesterday, nor will be tomorrow.”

― B.J. Neblett