Excellent Adventure - Final Chapter

Our last day at sea was somewhat anticlimactic. It was quiet, and the sea was calm. The weather was again cool and wet – too cold to be out on deck. We spent the day reading, eating, and playing Scrabble. We also packed our suitcases to leave outside the stateroom that night. By this time, we were tired of “gourmet” food and opted for hot wings and French fries. We also decided to skip the accordion player’s second performance that evening, and instead, turned in early for a good night’s sleep.

The next morning (Sunday) we were scheduled to debark at 9:30. We were ready early and went to the breakfast buffet where we ran into David and Louise, so we sat and had a leisurely breakfast with them. We were already docked at this time. This is when I took this picture of the bridge over the Mississippi. The sun was actually coming up!

We had time for one more game of Scrabble before they called our luggage tag color. Then we left the Norwegian Spirit for the last time, reclaimed our luggage, and stood in line to go through customs. We quickly found our car in the parking deck and loaded up. Then we locked the car and went to explore New Orleans on foot.

As I said before, this day turned out to be beautiful. We strolled along the river walk, taking lots of pictures, and then walked to the French Quarter and Bourbon Street. We then walked back through a large riverside mall where we got delicious shrimp po’boys, which we took outside to eat. A lone, fat seagull sat on the railing watching us. I threw it a crumb – big mistake! About a hundred seagulls came swooping down out of nowhere! We were very fortunate not to get bird poop in our food!

We began the long drive from New Orleans to Athens, where we planned to check on our house, especially the goldfish pond. That pond has been a constant source of worry since I am not there to care for it. I knew it was covered with leaves and ice as well. We had learned that it snowed in Hayesville the night before, and Saturday morning it got down to 5 degrees. It wasn’t a whole lot better in Athens.

It was 10:30 pm before we pulled into our garage. We collapsed on our air mattress and went to sleep. The next morning was cold and windy. Doug changed the heating filter while I broke up the ice on the pond and dipped the leaves out. I didn’t see any sign of the fish. I have no idea if they are alive in there or not. They can live for a while with the pond completely frozen over, but it had been a few days.

After talking with the neighbors, we went to the hospital to see Doug’s daddy. He seemed in fairly good spirits. By now, we couldn’t wait to get home, so after visiting for about an hour, we drove back to Hayesville.

So – this wasn’t the BEST cruise we’ve been on, but it was still a good one. We overheard one person on the ship tell someone that there is no such thing as a bad cruise. I probably wouldn’t go that far. If you were sick the whole time, or the toilets backed up, THAT would be a bad cruise. If your idea of a Caribbean cruise must include sunny days lying on a beach, you probably would have been very disappointed on this particular cruise. That really didn’t matter to us. Doug hates lying in the sun, and I am no longer too keen on being seen in a swimsuit. What we enjoy is going new places, meeting people, and learning about other cultures. We definitely did that! Plus we ate good – too good. We’ve been watching our diet ever since we returned. I still recommend cruising as an excellent way to vacation. There is still one more we would like to do – New England and Canada in the fall. We may wait a couple of years before that one.

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Excellent Adventure - part 6

Friday we arrived in Cozumel. This was by far the nicest, prettiest, and most modern place we had been. Unfortunately, we did not get to see very much of it. We had scheduled an excursion to see the Mayan ruins at Tulum. It was quite a trip to get there. First we were to be tendered twelve miles to the Mexican mainland, then ride a chartered bus for about an hour to Tulum. While waiting for our excursion to begin, we met another couple, David and Louise Hunter from Jacksonville, Arkansas, who were celebrating their 38th anniversary that day. They were on their 14th cruise! Talking with them would make our boat ride much easier to take. When we were ready to get on our small boat, we were told the waves were too rough for that pier, and it would be dangerous, so they walked us several blocks to the next pier. That is when we got to see a little of Cozumel.

Once we were finally on our boat, we began what could best be described as a 45-minute roller coaster ride at Six Flags! The little boat was tossed about and waves went all the way over the top. John was back on the ship watching and telling Mary Ann that Doug sure was going to get sick, as his stomach had been upset the night before. Doug did not get sick, but many people started looking pretty green, and so the crew handed out the barf bags. I took one since I was feeling a bit queasy, but I never needed it. There was a bar in the boat. Of course, the bottles and glasses were fastened down, but everything else ended up in the floor. It was quite a ride, and all of us were relieved when we arrived at the dock in Playa del Carman. Unfortunately, we got separated from David and Louise and ended up on different buses and tours. From the dock, we walked several more blocks to get on our bus. Again, this area was quite nice. It looked just like any American city, except the signs were in Spanish.

Carlos was our guide, and he was obviously proud of his Mayan ancestors. He told us a great deal about Mayan history on our way to Tulum. Once we arrived, he led us the half-mile into the park. One nice thing about being on an organized excursion is that we didn’t have to wait in a very long line to get tickets like the many other tourists that were there.

Tulum is fascinating and beautiful. Here is where you see the ancient temples with the long stairs leading up the front to the altar where human sacrifices were once made. There were many other buildings as well. The temple itself is on a cliff overlooking the sea. Below is a beautiful beach. We were fortunate. This day had the best weather of our entire trip, except the day we got back, which, naturally, was beautiful. We enjoyed walking around Tulum and taking lots of pictures. We even paid five bucks for me to have my picture taken holding a real live iguana!

When we returned to Playa del Carman, we met up with David and Louise again. We all hoped the sea would not be so rough on our return ride to the ship. Unfortunately, it was worse. Besides that, our boat was late and caused the ship to be late launching, something that rarely happens in our experience. I guess because we were late, the tender boat returned directly to the dock where the ship was anchored, the one that had been “too dangerous” that morning. That’s when the real adventure began. To get off the boat, we had to go up steps and then back down to the gangplank. The boat was rocking wildly, so we had to go up the steps single-file, holding onto the railing for dear life. The wind was blowing at gale force by now.

The gangplank was laid across from the boat to the dock, but because the boat was rocking so, the gangplank kept moving. Four men stood on the dock pulling on it to steady it as best they could. It took forever to get everyone off, one person at a time. We had to jump from the bottom step to the gangplank because if we stepped down level with it, it could slide back over our feet. One lady foolishly did just that, and had a bleeding foot. One by one, we quickly ran across the gangplank and were thankful to be on dry dock.

We returned to the ship, showered, and met John and Mary Ann for dinner. Of course, we told them all about our day. They had stayed in Cozumel and walked around, which is what we will do if we ever go there again. We saw the show afterwards. By that time, even our huge ship was rocking enough that people could not walk straight down the halls. All I wanted to do was go to bed, so we did. I lay there for a long time, rising and falling and rocking to and fro, hearing trays and objects crashing in the hallways, and creaks and moans from the ship itself. Finally I turned on the ship TV to find out what was going on. The waves were from 12 – 18 feet, and the wind was gale force 8.

I finally went to sleep, and everything was much calmer when we awoke the next morning in the gulf. This day would be spent at sea as we returned to New Orleans. We spent a quiet day, eating, buying pictures, playing Scrabble, and finishing our books. Mary Ann had gotten motion sickness the night before and spent Friday in bed, eating only soup. When we met up with David and Louise the next day, they told us that in all their cruises, they had never experienced such rough seas!

Excellent Adventure - part 5

Thursday, we dropped anchor off shore from Belize City. I assume the bay was too shallow for large ships. We were tendered over to the docks on small motor boats. We were all excited when we reached the dock and noticed a dolphin following closely behind us. Of course, I was trying to get a picture when my cell phone rang. It was Daddy, much to my surprise. We thought we were out of range. He called just to see how we were doing. I was able to assure him that all was going well before I lost the signal. I couldn’t get him back. It seems that people could call us but we couldn’t call out. Cell phones work well while at sea in the gulf, but are not of much use once you reach Cozumel and the Yucatan.

As soon as we got off the boat, we were walked through the “authentic” shopping mall built by the cruise line to board a nice chartered bus. There we met Mary, our guide for the excursion. She was not funny or entertaining, but was friendly and knowledgeable. She told us about the history of Belize, which, when we were in school, was still British Honduras. As a British colony until recently, Belize has a history of peace and stability often lacking in other Latin American countries. The government is not known for corruption, and the people have escaped civil war. The country is becoming increasingly popular as a tourist destination.

We saw very little of Belize City as we drove out of town. It did look nicer and more modern than the other cities and towns we had been in so far on our cruise. This all changed, however, as we got out into the rural areas, which to me, looked almost as bleak and poverty-stricken as Guatemala and Costa Maya. One thing that struck me was the amount of trash all along the sides of the road. This might have been a result of the floods that recently inundated Belize after two weeks of rain. Water still stood in many places. Perhaps the flood waters had deposited debris in the ditches along the roadside. Still, there were places where people had clearly been dumping garbage for quite some time. If Belize hopes to become a tourist attraction, they need to clean the place up! I commented on the litter to Doug. “Just like at home,” he quipped. But it was worse, much worse. We do at least pick the trash up ever now and then.

We rode for about an hour to a zoo. The landscape along the way was flat, sandy, and punctuated by scrubby tropical plants. In the distance, oddly-shaped mountains seemed to jut out suddenly from the flat land. Eventually, we entered a more jungle-like forest with thick growth. Soon after that, we reached our destination, a zoo that housed animals native to Belize. We were told an American lady had financed it and was very proud of it. A fellow traveler told us the lady is Dolly Parton.

It was raining on us all the way out there and the rain continued the whole time we were there. It was a light shower, and it was fairly warm, so we just got wet rather than carry umbrellas. We had foolishly left our rain jackets back on the ship. We wandered along trails to see tapirs, tropical birds, black howler monkeys, deer, cougars, leopards, and
other assorted cats. We were able to get up close to the animals, but the rain prevented me from getting good pictures.
The zoo was just so-so, certainly not worth the long ride out to it. We spent a short time there before boarding the bus for another ride to the Belize River where our lunch was already prepared – chicken with rice and red beans. It was tasty, but the conditions under which it was served were pretty unappetizing. As usual, there were people selling goods there, and Doug and I were delighted that one of them had Snicker bars for sell. We bought one for each of us and thoroughly enjoyed them. All of us bought these flimsy blue and yellow plastic ponchos to wear on the boat we were about to ride down the river back to the bay. The rain had stopped, but the sky was still threatening. The motorboat had no cover.

We rode for miles and miles down the river and saw mostly green – green water, and thick green plant life along the banks. Our guide spotted iguanas and black howler monkeys in the trees along the river and made the boatman go back so we could get a closer look. We also saw crocodiles, though they were small. People think nothing of swimming in this river with crocodiles! The rain held off throughout most of our ride, so it was pleasant.

However – when we neared the bay, the bottom fell out. Our driver sped up and we all covered ourselves with our plastic ponchos and huddled down in the boat as low as we could. The boat flew over the water. At one point, I looked at the woman next to me and saw the plastic was covering her face. I pulled my poncho aside and yelled, “Can you breathe?” She pulled the plastic down, and, looking like a drowned rat, as we all did, she said to me, “This is the most miserable day of my life.” I laughed and said to her, “You have to see the humor in it!” She laughed, too.

We were very glad to get back to our ship and get a hot shower before joining Mary Ann and John for a nice dinner. This turned out to be our least favorite excursion, but it had still been an interesting day.

Excellent Adventure - part 4

We docked in Puerto Barrios, Guatemala, early Wednesday morning. Doug and I had not booked a shore excursion here as nothing really appealed to us that much. We had a leisurely breakfast and then decided to go on shore to look around on our own. The weather was warm but cloudy. There were plenty of shops near the dock, and we again experienced the frenzied selling of the local residents. This time we bought a few things: a scarf, a necklace and earrings, and coffee. Walking around, we discovered that plenty of local taxi drivers were offering to take people to see the sites. We decided to go back to the ship, eat some lunch, get some more money, and then return to hire a driver. Doug was a little nervous about hiring someone we didn’t know as he had read all kinds of warnings about Guatemala on the State Department’s web site. Apparently there has been a real problem with crime, especially the theft of money and passports from tourists. Until 1996, Guatemala was engaged in civil war. The web site stated that things are much better now, but tourists should avoid “agitated groups.” I think I would have done that without the warnings! Anyway, the drivers had very official looking taxies, so I really wasn’t worried. This might have been the first time in our entire married life that Doug was worried, and I was not! Doug did want to try to go with another couple, figuring there is safety in numbers, I suppose.

When we went back ashore, we saw another couple about our age talking to the driver of a Gray-line trolley. We stopped to find out the cost. It was $35 for an hour-long tour. Doug told the couple that we had seen air-conditioned minivans for hire for just $20 for an hour and a half tour, with an English speaking driver. They decided to go with us, so the four of us rented a taxi driver. His name was Francisco, and he turned out to be a very nice man whose English was fairly good. We enjoyed helping him find words at times. Francisco seemed to enjoy being with us and proud to show us his home. Our hour and a half tour turned into four hours, at no additional cost! (We gave him a generous tip!)

The other couple turned out to be John and Mary Ann Parsons from Scottsboro, AL. They were very close to our age, and we liked them instantly. Mary Ann was a trip; she must have asked Francisco a million questions, so we learned a lot on our tour. This day turned out to be the most fun day of our vacation. First we rode through part of Puerto Barrios. It is a fairly large port city. Near the docks are many, many cargo containers, most of them holding fresh fruit – bananas, pineapple, and oranges – ready for export. We saw many familiar American businesses such as MacDonald’s, Verizon, Bridgestone Tires, etc. Of course, these names were all that looked familiar as everything else was written in Spanish. Christen and Pris, you would have been proud of me. I was able to read a sign on a grocery store that said “We always have everything you want” in Spanish. The city was crowded and busy. There were lots of cars, mostly small ones, and older trucks, and many, many motorcycles. Most things looked pretty shabby and run-down, but it was colorful. Dogs roamed everywhere, and we even saw a few horses wandering free in the city. At one point, we saw men driving a small herd of cattle up a city side street. Even in the city, it was clear that most people have very little in the way of possessions. Very few homes looked even half as nice as the ones we are accustomed to in the poorer parts of American cities.

Francisco asked us if we wanted to see a banana plantation and we assured him we would. He drove us many miles out of town on somewhat mountainous roads. The only time I was a little nervous was when we passed through a checkpoint where they collected tariffs on cargo coming from Honduras, which was just 30 miles away. Lots of men stood around there, some with very big guns. One man came out towards us waving a fistful of money, in case we wanted to exchange currency before crossing the border. Francisco ignored them and kept on driving. We passed long lines of trucks loaded with oranges stopped along the side of the road. The drivers were waiting to go through the checkpoint.

On our way to the plantation, Francisco stopped at a roadside stand where a woman and her family sold fresh pineapple. There were large piles of pineapples. She chopped up some fresh fruit and sold it by the slice, so we all got a piece to enjoy right then and there. I hoped it was sanitary, but didn’t really worry about it and didn’t get sick. The older lady did not want her picture taken, but the younger girls didn’t mind at all.

The banana plantation was interesting. All the bunches of bananas were wrapped in blue plastic bags to protect the fruit from insects and the hot sun. There were banana trees as far as the eye could see. A lot of men have to do a lot of work to tend to those trees. The trees are cut down every nine months so new trees will grow up and produce a new crop. The trees are owned by corporations, such as Dole. (We saw lots of Dole trucks in Puerto Barrios.) It made me feel bad to think how rich these corporations are and how little they pay their workers, as evidenced by their poor living conditions. Frankly, I will never again complain about paying 64 cents a pound for bananas.

On our way back to the city, Francisco asked if we wanted to stop at a restaurant which also had a museum of Mayan culture and a rain garden in the back. He said we could see everything for $3.00. The restaurant didn’t look like much from the outside, but it turned out to be very nice and beautifully decorated. The lady proprietor took us through the museum and then served us coffee. About the time we stopped there, it started raining fairly hard. We still wanted to see the rain garden, so Francisco got a large blue umbrella that would normally go over an outside table. The five of us huddled beneath the umbrella and started down the paths through lush green plants, stopping now and then to take pictures of the colorful flowers. We were taking little baby steps to try to stay together. Only Francisco managed to stay dry, as he was in the middle holding the umbrella. It was all quite funny, and we laughed the whole time. We were glad to get back inside and sit at a table to enjoy our coffee before getting back in the van and continuing our tour.

Further down the road, Francisco stopped to point out all the iguanas that were resting in treetops. I didn’t even know they climbed trees. They sure are big lizards, and we would see many more of them before our journey ended.

Finally, we returned to the city. Francisco stopped at his sister’s roadside store and introduced us to his family. His sister’s name is Rosalinda. I think that is a beautiful name. Her small store was open to the road. She sold a few food items and school supplies, as she is also a teacher. I don’t think she understood much English, but we communicated with her and her pretty daughter quite well. Their little concrete house was behind the store, and another relative’s motorcycle shop was next door. A dirt yard separated the house from the store. A rooster, hen, and baby chick roamed the yard. I laughed at the way the chick followed its mother everywhere she went. When one of the men in the motorcycle shop saw that, he went and caught the chick to bring it to me, much to its mother’s consternation. I rubbed its little yellow head and made over it, thinking that this guy had no idea that I used to take care of 36,000 of these things at a time! Next, one of Rosalinda’s daughters went to get her new puppy to show to us. It was a scrawny little mutt, but we petted it and told her how cute it was. Then one of the girls brought out a beautiful parrot! The parrot laughed whenever we laughed, imitating us perfectly.

We left Rosalinda and continued through the city streets to the open-air market. We didn’t stop, just rode through and looked at all the wares available. We did stop at a nice Catholic church. As soon as we got out of the van, we were accosted by a family selling goods with, shall we say, great enthusiasm. The mother had beautiful woven throws she claimed were handmade. If so, it was a crime to be selling them for only $10, but I have my doubts about their authenticity. Her adorable little girl, whose name was Sonya, had little handmade dolls she was selling for a dollar. I couldn’t resist her big brown eyes. I gave her a dollar and picked out the doll that looked most like her. Then I pointed at it and said, “Se llama Sonya.” Her little face lit up in a beautiful smile. This only made her mother more frantic in her attempts to sell me her goods. I really felt sorry for the little family and would have bought everything they had if Doug had let me, even though their goods wouldn’t exactly fit our rustic, mountain décor. The only way we could get away from them was to duck into the church; they wouldn’t sell in there. The church was lovely in a primitive sort of way. Burning candles and icons graced the entrance. The ceiling was adorned with a huge tile cross. Beautiful stained glass windows seemed almost out of place in the simple little church.

When we went back outside, the little family started in on us again. I finally bought another necklace before we got into the van and drove away. Another interesting site in the city was the cemetery with its multi-colored stone tombs built above ground. A building in the cemetery looked Byzantine with its onion dome and carved elephants. It seemed very out of place. The cemetery was surrounded by a wall on which advertisements had been painted from one end to the other. Flowering vines grew over the walls.

We finally returned to the dock and boarded the ship. By this time, we had new friends and agreed we would meet for dinner the next night. This had been by far the best day of our trip. I realized that what I most love about traveling is experiencing new and different places meeting new people. Travel really does broaden ones horizons. Books can go a long way towards taking us to new places, but nothing is quite like actually being there. Francisco had done an excellent job of showing us life in Guatemala.

Excellent Adventure - part three

Excellent Adventure – part three

Tuesday we arrived in port at Costa Maya, Mexico. The sky was still overcast, but at least there was no rain. Doug and I had a leisurely breakfast in the main dining room. My French toast was excellent. We then debarked from the ship and walked down a long pier to the plaza built by NCL. It was very nice, with shops and a large swimming pool. There were beach chairs on the beach nearby.

We joined a group that was doing the jeep ride. We were paired with another couple, Ed and Jahenne (old English for Jane) from New Orleans. Ed drove the jeep and had a ball. He is the jock-like, adventuresome type guy and aimed at the many, many mud puddles, or perhaps I should say, sand puddles, along the very long road to the private beach where we had an authentic Mexican lunch awaiting us. But first, our guides, Adrienne and Roberto, took us to a small fishing village where we personally witnessed the extreme poverty we have always heard about. Most of the houses are concrete or wood and open to the elements. They appear to have nothing. There is no industry except fishing and selling trinkets to the tourists.

Adrienne and Roberto were friendly and funny, and Roberto was also very cute! They make better money than most people there by working for the cruise ships. However, the entire area was taken out by a cat 5 hurricane (Dean) two years ago. It even destroyed the concrete pier, so for a year, there was no work for them while NCL rebuilt it.

This desolate land makes even southern Mississippi look good. There are miles and miles of Mangrove trees, but they are all dead because the hurricane flooded them with salt water, which killed the roots. The only greenery is provided by small shrubs that have come up since. When we started along the road to the beach, we saw nothing but these small shrubs and trees for many miles. The paved road soon gave way to a dirt road filled with deep, water-filled pot holes. Ed made a point of aiming at every one, going through them as fast as possible as his goal was to return with the dirtiest jeep. He definitely accomplished that! We really had fun with them. They told us a lot about their experience with Katrina; they’re house was flooded.

The beach was absolutely gorgeous – clear water, white sand, and coconut palms. We ate at tables set right on the beach, and the guacamole we had was the best food I had eaten so far on the trip. There were beach chairs and hammocks to relax in. Doug and I waded in the water which was much colder than I expected. We saw living sea urchins and starfish the size of large dinner plates. There were large, fully intact conch shells along the beach. The beach, however, is protected, so we couldn’t bring any back with us.

After we made the long trip back to the pier, we looked in the shops. That was the first time we experienced the hard-sell techniques of the natives. I wanted to be nice to them, so when they asked me if I liked something or thought it was pretty, I assured them I did. Big mistake! In their minds, I’m sure we are all rich Americans who can buy whatever we like. Every time we told them no and started to walk away, the price went down. They were very, very aggressive! We didn’t look long and returned to the ship to shower and dress for dinner.

Dinner that night was a vast improvement over our previous meals. This was what I had been expecting all along. We had lobster and grouper. I also had the most delicious chilled carrot and orange soup. The crème Brule dessert was out of this world good, with a layer of chocolate in the bottom.

After dinner, we went to the show which was a comedy team that was quite funny, especially when they satirized cruising! After the show, we went again to the Galaxy Lounge for the country-western hoe down. We even did a little line-dancing, which is much harder on a moving ship.

It seemed that each day had been better than the one before. Even the weather had improved with occasional glimpses of sun that day. We went to bed very tired that night.

Excellent Adventure-part two

But not right away. (See end of previous blog.) The next day was spent at sea. Fortunately, the gulf was calm and we felt very little movement. Doug and I slept until 9:30 in the morning as we had no shore excursions to get up for. We had spent the past eight hours just sailing out of the Mississippi River, so the air was still fairly cool, and it was misting rain. We went to the buffet for breakfast. Before we left, I got some cranberry juice to take with me. Doug noticed the plastic cup had a leak in the bottom, and it had leaked dark red juice on my brand-new khaki pants. We headed back to the cabin so I could try to get it out. As we walked by the pool, we passed under an awning. At that very moment, water poured off the awning and onto the top of my head, drenching my hair and shirt. Apparently, they had been swabbing the deck above. Doug was about two steps behind me and was able to jump back just in time. Now I had to go back to the cabin to clean my pants and dry my hair. Fortunately, I had a Tide pen with me which did a fine job of taking out the cranberry juice. I should do a commercial for Tide!

Once we were cleaned up, we went to the game room and played the first of several Scrabble games. We are very evenly matched, so our games are quite competitive. We next went to the library and read and checked out books. After that, we attended the Latitudes Party in the Galaxy lounge. Latitudes is the club you become part of after your first cruise. Basically, the party meant a band played, you met the captain and staff leaders, and they gave you free drinks. As you know, we are not drinkers, but we tried a rum punch since they gave it to us. It was a bit too strong. We swapped it for a Pina colada and still left most of it behind.

We next went to the Latitudes Lounge, a smaller lounge for members only. It was really nice – big windows, comfy leather chairs, coffee and cookies. I discovered the delicious chocolate macademia nut cookies that would add considerably to my waistline during the week. This room became our preferred place to read or play games.

That afternoon, we walked for several laps around the track on the uppermost deck. The weather was better at that point, and we no longer needed our jackets.

We dressed up for dinner that night as they were taking portrait pictures in the lobby. Dinner was better than the night before. Afterwards we went to the show and it was great! A very talented group of young people did a song and dance tribute to Broadway.
We were amazed at their energy!

That evening we went to the Galaxy lounge to watch passengers participate in the Newlywed game. It was hilarious. We sat with another couple and enjoyed watching it together.

I went to bed that night, feeling much better about our trip. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get to sleep and ended up worrying half the night about our house. After that, however, I forgot my worries and just had a good time.

Doug and Paula's Excellent Adventure - part one

Doug and I got up early on Saturday to begin the long, nine-hour drive to New Orleans. The day was overcast with occasional light showers. It was a scenic ride through the NC and TN mountains along the Ocoee River. We finally entered northern Alabama where the first things we saw were trailers as far as the eye could see – no houses, just trailers. At this point, I was beginning to think all those jokes Georgians tell about Alabama must be true! (Sorry, Mary Ann and John)! It looked much better, however, as we came near Fort Payne. I saw a sign on I-59 that said, “Alabama Museum and Fan Club.” I was wondering why a state would have a fan club when Doug said to me, “I think the group Alabama came from Fort Payne.” We stopped there and had lunch at a Cracker Barrel. We continued on through the state and into Mississippi, where we stopped at Meridian to spend the night. Southern Mississippi is even worse than south Georgia, if that is possible – nothing but flat land and scrawny pine trees that give way to swamp and more scrawny pine trees. Flat land just does not appeal to me.

The next morning we continued on to New Orleans. Doug has been there, but I never have. I was amazed at the long bridge over Lake Ponchatrain. As we came into the city on I-10, we were looking down on the districts hit by Katrina. Parts of it still looked bad, but there was a lot of new construction. To be honest, I imagine this area looked pretty bad before the hurricane.

We got off the interstate and drove down to the port where our ship, the Norwegian Spirit, was docked and ready for its new passengers. We paid $98 to leave our car in the parking deck for the week and got our suitcases out – three of them, plus a duffle bag and my makeup bag. I over-packed. We went down to the entrance and waited in line to go through security. Then we waited in line again to check in and leave our luggage with the porters. The whole process took about an hour. Finally, they took our picture for the first of many, many times, and we got on the ship, around 1:00 pm. The cabins were not ready yet, but there was lunch at the buffet. We went there to find about a thousand others there already. It was crowded and chaotic. We finally managed to get some food and find a place to sit so we could eat our lunch.

We should have taken the advice of the lady who first checked our passports at the beginning of the process. She said we could go into New Orleans and eat lunch, and come back a couple of hours later, and there would be no lines.

I had expected warmer weather in New Orleans. It was cold and windy. The sky was still overcast.

After eating, we explored the ship. Like the other two NCL ships we’ve been on, it was beautiful. This one had an Asian theme. (You would have liked it, Vivian). We then found our tiny little cabin. Although the cabins on these ships are small, they make an excellent use of space. There are nooks and crannies everywhere to stow your stuff. We lay on the bed and read our books until our luggage arrived at our door. Then we unpacked and put everything away. The ship was to set sail at 5:00, so we decided to take our books and go to the Galaxy of the Stars, a huge lounge at the front of the ship with wall-to-wall windows. There we found a seat in the very front and ordered virgin pina coladas, which I just love! I had been looking forward to them since our last cruise. We read and waited for the ship to turn around in the Mississippi River and start its voyage. It began to vibrate and move sideways until we were turned around and the voyage began. It was great seeing the skyline of New Orleans lit up as we sailed down the river. This was definitely the highlight of our day.

By then it was time for dinner. NCL is the only cruise line which has “freestyle dining.” That means you can choose to eat whenever and wherever you want. You can also sit at your own table or sit with anyone you please. In other words, you are free to do your own thing. Other cruise lines assign you a time and a table at which to eat. You sit with people you don’t know. The advantage of that is you meet and get to know people on the ship. You will get to know people on NCL as well, but usually on the shore excursions. Since there were only the two of us, we always got a table for two next to the window. We were surprised at how many people were there in groups, some of them quite large. I have to admit, I was a little envious at first, because they were laughing and talking and having so much fun at their tables, while we were having a much quieter dinner.

There are seven restaurants on the Spirit. Four of those are “specialty” restaurants which means you pay a cover charge to eat there. We ate dinner at Windows, the main dining room, since we had already paid for it when we paid for the cruise. For breakfast and lunch, we usually ate at Raffles, the buffet, or the Blue Lagoon, which was open 24 hours a day. The food was very good, of course, though I was not too impressed that first night. After our dinner, we went to the theater for the first nightly entertainment. It was an accordion player. He played well, but unfortunately, thought he could sing. We were, again, not impressed.

I fell asleep that night thinking that I really wanted to enjoy this cruise, and I hoped it would get better. It did.

The New Year Begins

2009 got off to a pretty good start for us. On New Year’s Day, Doug’s birthday, we went to Mary Jane and Mike’s house to watch the GA game. Mary Jane made the most delicious chocolate brownie cookies with macadamia nuts. (Recipe follows.) She also fried some buffalo chicken strips. I got very comfortable on the couch with plenty of cookies, a good cup of coffee, and a dog on my lap. We all were settled down to watch GA play in the Capital One bowl game. The Dawgs had us worried the first half, but someone must have given Stafford a good talking-to during halftime, because he came out fired up and raring to go. The Dawgs won!

After the game, we went to see Doug’s mom and dad. They took us out to Fatz for supper to celebrate Doug’s birthday. Sean and Misty joined us, and so did Mary Jane, Mike, Katie, and Wayne. (Katie is Doug’s sister.) We had a great time. The waiters brought Doug a sundae and we all sang to him. By the way, the shrimp and grits at Fatz is fantastic! We spent the night at Doug’s folks.

The next morning we rented a steamer and went to our old house to remove the Civil War wallpaper from Doug’s office. We figured that particular paper would not appeal to everyone, and thought it best to paint the room a more neutral color.

I know you are supposed to never say never, but I am going to say it and mean it: I will never, ever take down wallpaper again as long as I live. The paper came off in tiny little bits and pieces, even with the steamer, and it sometimes brought the sheetrock with it. We worked the entire afternoon on that little room and only got about halfway around the walls when the steamer stopped heating. The rental place was closed by then, so there was nothing we could do. Our neighbors, Jack and Jan, had told us to come over for coffee and cake when we were ready. We ended up eating supper with them. Jan’s ham and corn chowder hit the spot on a cold, rainy evening. Jack and Jan’s kindness certainly helped take the edge off of a frustrating day. These two are some of the nicest people you will ever meet. Jack is Daddy’s age, but seems much younger, and Jan is about ten years younger than he. They moved down to GA from Brevard about three years ago.

One thing we had planned to do was blow all the fallen leaves off our sod; it was covered. We were hoping for good weather but woke up to find it raining that morning. When we pulled into our driveway, however, we discovered the grass was cleaned off. Jack had come over during the week and done the job for us. He has also kept an eye on the house for us. I don’t know what we would have done without him.

We slept at the house that night on the air mattress. I can sleep on it, but I wake up stiff and sore all over. We have been very careful, however, to make sure we stay there regularly for insurance purposes.

Saturday morning we took the car to the Toyota place to get the oil changed. Ken and Vivian picked us up there and we went to IHOP for breakfast. After a quick trip to Wal-Mart, they took us back to get our car. We then did some necessary shopping at Sam’s. We tried to graze, but they had all this health-food stuff out. I guess they figured losing weight was everyone’s New Year’s resolution. I tried the V-8 Fusion made with pomegranate and blueberry juices. YUCK!!! I quickly grabbed a trail mix bar to get the bad taste out of my mouth, but it wasn’t much better than eating cardboard. So much for grazing. We bought two unhealthy chili dogs and large cokes and made that our lunch.

I know these posts are sometimes boring, but think how much you learn from them. For example:

1. Never go grazing at Sam’s the first week in January.
2. Never attempt to take down wallpaper; better yet, never put it up in the first place.
3. Always keep a flashlight in your car in case you want to attend a nighttime, outdoor event (like a possum drop).
4. Cultivate good neighbors; they are priceless.
5. Do not attempt to handle tall ladders if you are a five-foot, four-inch short woman.
6. Wear gloves when using spray foam insulation.
7. Exercise while you can, so you don’t end up a crippled old person.
8. Buy low; sell high – especially when it comes to houses.
9. Never give a haircut to a chicken.
10. The shrimp and grits at Fatz are excellent.
11. Most of what you learn will come from making mistakes.
12. Never clean the dryer’s lint filter with wet hands.

OK, I threw that last one in for good measure. And the rest of them won’t make much sense if you haven’t read the previous posts!

On a far more serious note, yesterday afternoon I attended the memorial service for Kathy Geyer. Kathy was an old friend; I worked as her teacher’s aide at Prince Avenue Christian School for four years back in the eighties. She was married to Mike, our real estate agent, and had one child, a nine-year-old son they adopted in Guatemala when he was just a baby. Kathy found out she had breast cancer soon after she married Mike and fought it off the first time, but it later returned. It finally spread into her lungs, and just two days before Christmas, she died. Her faith remained amazingly strong right up until the very end. She was an inspiration to everyone who knew her. The service was held at Morton’s Theater in downtown Athens, and the place was packed. The music was beautiful and meaningful. One song had words something like, “If you could see me now, standing straight and strong, you wouldn’t want me to leave this place.” Brother Bill performed the service; I had not heard him preach in several years. One of Kathy’s friends gave a most beautiful, touching eulogy. A video montage showed pictures from her life. It was during that time you could hear sobbing that sounded like that of a child. I couldn’t see her son, but I guessed it was him. That part was heart-wrenching.

Much was made of Kathy’s graciousness and her big, bright, ever-present smile. I couldn’t help but remember something else about that smile, something kind of funny. When she was a teacher, it used to annoy some of her students that she would smile while she rebuked them! I guess they wanted her face to match her words. Her smile was genuine, however. Working with her in the same room everyday for four years, I never heard her bad-mouth anyone. She was fifty-five – much too young to die.

I saw people there I haven’t seen in years – old friends and acquaintances from Prince Avenue Baptist Church. It was good to see all those people, though I wish it had been under different circumstances.

Doug stayed at the house and cleaned it while I attended the service. We had met that morning with a painter who agreed to finish removing the wallpaper and do the painting. The room we messed up cost us fifty dollars extra, because he will have to repair the sheetrock. So basically, we spent $63 to spend an afternoon in total frustration for nothing. (The $13 extra was half the price of the steamer; they refunded the other half.)
Like I said, you can learn a lot from our mistakes.

I will close with Mary Jane’s recipe for Chocolate Brownie Cookies. Try them warm with a glass of milk. It will make everything better.


½ cup butter
4 1-oz squares unsweet bakers chocolate
3 cups (18 oz) semisweet chocolate chips, divided
1 ½ cups all purpose flour
½ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
4 large eggs
1 ½ cups sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
2 cups macadamia nuts, chopped

You can leave out the baking powder and salt and use self-rising flour instead. You can also use pecans instead of macadamia nuts.

Combine the butter, unsweet chocolate squares, and half the chocolate chips in a heavy bottom saucepan and melt over medium-low heat.

Combine the flour, salt, and baking powder.

With an electric mixer, beat the eggs, sugar, and vanilla at medium speed. Gradually add the flour and then the chocolate mixture. Stir in nuts and remaining chocolate chips.
Drop by tablespoon on greased cookie sheet and bake for 9-10 minutes at 350. Do not overbake. They should be gooey inside. Cool on rack. Enjoy!

Possum Drop at Clay's Corner

Happy New Year’s!
You might be a redneck if…you celebrate the new year at the Possum Drop in Clay’s Corner. Yep, in Clay County, NC, they drop a possum – well, actually they lower him in a small cage. We heard that they used to actually drop the possum which, like a cat, always landed on its feet, but then the animal’s rights people got involved. Don’t know if that’s true or not, but it makes for a good story.
This illustrious event takes place in the tiny little town of Brasstown, NC, a spot in the road by the river, just below the John C. Campbell Folk School. A few small shops, selling mostly crafts and antiques, line the side of the road across from the river. The most prominent building is Clay’s Corner, a rundown old gas station and country store. It’s well known for hosting bluegrass pickers every Saturday night, and folks are welcome to come and just listen. Its real claim to fame, of course, is the annual Possum Drop held on New Year’s Eve.
We had to see what it was all about, so we drove over around 11:00 PM, having no idea what to expect. We parked in a field next to the volunteer fire department and walked, in the dark, down the side of the road a fair distance to the store. (Note for next year: Take a flashlight.) The temperature hovered in the upper twenties, so we were bundled up like all the other crazy folks out there. Doug had on his long johns and I had my Cuddle Duds under my pants and heavy knit sweater and two pairs of socks inside my boots. A heavy coat and a scarf wrapped around my lower face and the hat Pris knit for Doug completed the outfit. Only our noses got cold!
We couldn’t really see anything in the dark as we approached, but we could hear a woman singing old-time mountain music over the speakers loud and clear. We just walked toward the sound.
When we arrived at the store, we joined a crowd of several hundred people in front of the makeshift stage. Doug thought there might have been as many as a thousand people, but I think he overestimated, though my ability to judge crowd size is nil. Two large-screen TV’s were mounted up high so you could see all the going’s on, at least when they were working. The speakers were loud and clear enough, but an occasional earsplitting screech caused everyone to c over their ears. The announcer apologized for not getting everything right, but said they had been doing this for fourteen years and hadn’t gotten it right yet.
About twenty feet up in the air was a small cage gilded in red and silver ribbons. The cage was suspended from an arm off of the light pole, on a pulley with a long cable going down to the ground. I looked as hard as I could, but I couldn’t see a possum in that cage. I kept watching for some movement, but if there was a possum in there, it was playing possum!
Some smart entrepreneur in a wagon was selling funnel cakes and another booth had long lines of people waiting to buy coffee and hot chocolate. Other than that , I don’t think there was any drinking going on there. It was truly a family-friendly event.
There were a couple of tall gas heaters near the stage, but the crowd around them was impenetrable. Some people sat up high on a bank above the road, wrapped in blankets, and someone up there had a small fire going. Mostly people just huddled together, their collective breaths hanging above the crowd in the frosty air. The night was clear as a bell, and Orion could be plainly seen in a sky filled with bright stars. The smell of tobacco and wood fire tickled our noses.
Several shop owners took advantage of the crowds and opened for business. Needless to say, they attracted many lookers, who were really just looking for somewhere to get in from the cold. We spent a LONG time in one arts and craft shop which had an impressive variety of paintings, weavings, pottery, and other crafts. Some really talented people, probably from the folk school, had some amazing work there.
About fifteen minutes before midnight, we went back outside to huddle near the stage. A church choir was on stage singing gospel music. Clay’s Corner is run by an old guy named Clay somebody, and he was the master of ceremonies for this auspicious event. After the choir finished, he introduced a lady who led the whole crowd in singing Amazing Grace. Then Clay told some corny preacher jokes and introduced the VIP’s, which included one of our state senators. Next to the stage came a grown man in a full possum costume, which was actually pretty cute.
The event was quite patriotic. A large banner with an eagle and the words “In God We Trust” formed a backdrop for the stage. A moment of silence was held just before midnight in honor of the soldiers who have died overseas and two people from the local community who had died the day before. Then a video of Clay was shown on the big screens, with him sitting in his store and talking about how thankful he is to live here in such a great country.
Finally the big moment arrived. As the crowd counted down from ten, a spotlight shined on the cage and it was slowly lowered to the stage. About halfway down, I finally saw it! There really was a possum in that cage, and he was looking out at the crowd. Wonder what he was thinking? When the cage hit the ground, everyone started hugging and kissing and saying “Happy New Year!” At this point, I expected everyone to quickly start walking back to their cars, but no one moved. Then I found out why. To our surprise, a very impressive fireworks show followed. It went on for quite a while, all of it like the grand finale we always wait for on the Fourth of July. As the fireworks and smoke filled the air,The Battle Hymn of the Republic blared from the loud speakers. That was followed by, believe it or not, DIXIE. I don’t think I’ve heard Dixie played in a public venue since the Dixie Redcoat Band became just the Redcoat Band and announced that they would no longer play the “politically incorrect” song that had been their signature for years. I guess if you live in an area that’s about 100% white, you don’t have to worry about political correctness. There are some Mexicans around, but I reckon they don’t have a dog in that hunt.
At the conclusion of the fireworks, Clay wished everyone a Happy Redneck New Year, and we started the long, cold walk back to the car. People and cars mingled on the dark road, which couldn’t have been very safe. People around here just don’t worry about stuff like that. Soon we found ourselves walking behind a very large guy wearing shorts! I figured any car coming down the road would hit him before it hit us and there would be one less idiot in the world.
We arrived home to find that it was down to 24 degrees. It would be 16 when we woke up this morning. I’m glad we went, though. It was the perfect redneck event to welcome in 2009!