All that frenzied activity getting clothes and supplies ready for a 4-month voyage has ended – no more fittings, no more washing, no more ironing, no more folding carefully (no more stuffing last-minute items in later J). The bags were packed, locked, and tagged and are now out of the house. The checked bag and carry-ons are all packed and tagged and are sitting by the back door just waiting for Wednesday’s flight to Fort Lauderdale.
The holidays are over, the presents unwrapped and the paper in recycling, the tree is down, and the house is (almost) clean. There are a few pieces of homemade fudge and some cookies to eat, but basically, the refrigerator is empty. I need to gas up the car and put in some gas stabilizer to keep things okay for the duration once I’ve completed my last-minute errands Monday and Tuesday. My housemate will be here, so there is no need to stop the mail or have neighbors check on the house periodically.
Relatives have been notified of the ship’s phone number; my cell phone has the global plan added; the voicemail message has been changed to “don’t even think of calling me!”
I have nothing to do. So, here I sit with the “Tropical Music” station on the TV as freezing rain patters on the rear deck. If I close my eyes, I can picture the island musicians banging their steel drums, palm trees swaying, waves lapping against a sparkling beach, the turquoise waters of the Caribbean swirling in the ship’s wake.
I have been to our two first stops on this cruise – Dominica and Barbados. After that, it’s all new territory for me. I’ve read enough books and watched enough movies, Discovery/National Geographic programs to be able to visualize “Happy Feet” in Antarctica; the Easter Island statutes; Oprah at the Opera House in Sydney and the “Mutant Message Down Under”; how Komodo dragons like white meat so don’t wear light-colored clothing on their island; and so on.
I have the full trip in my head, so it will be interesting to see if the actual experience meets or exceeds my expectations. So often, travelers are disappointed in the reality of a place. Nature fascinates me, so I’m looking forward to seeing Iguazu Falls and Uluru and the Great Wall of China and the Taj Mahal, just to name a few of the places we’ll visit.
All too often, travelers on a whirlwind trip are driven to a sightseeing spot, get out, snap a few photos, and go on to the next place, leaving only a ghostly impression of what they’ve seen and done. And, when they return home, exhausted, with suitcases full of dirty clothes and photo cards filled to capacity, they pick up their “old lives” as though they’d never been away. They’ve overloaded their brains and their bodies.
That’s why I like the idea of this cruise. We will have multiple days at sea to recharge between ports, to review our experiences, to check the photos, and to write the blogs. Days with nothing to do except eat, attend seminars, eat, go to classes, eat, play games, eat, watch live entertainment, haha. Surely, doesn’t sound like a life of leisure, does it?
Wednesday will be here soon enough; but for now, I will wait and enjoy the serenity and solitude as warm calypso and reggae music inside compete with snow and freezing rain outside.
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