Wrinkly Bits
A Blog by Gail Cushman
All good things must come to an end. Thirty-one days on a ship is a good thing, but we are ready to get back to normal. We have stuff going on at home, not to mention Cody, the wonder dog, who has recently taken to sitting on Miss Carla’s lap, and it will make me sad if I have been permanently replaced. On the last day at sea, we gaze at the sea in front of the ship and never tire of that endless horizon, maybe that is what beckons us back, or is it the adventure of far-off lands? We visited Argentina, the Falkland Islands, Chili, Ecuador, Peru, Panama, the Panama Canal, and Cayman Islands. We saw people, heard languages, and absorbed national pride from each country. So many sights and sounds, but the ship, oh, the ship at sea, that is our joy. We will return to the sea as soon as our pocketbook catches up, hopefully before our time runs out.
We sailed from Buenos Aires around the Horn of South America and will arrive in Ft. Lauderdale tomorrow before the sun rises. We have met people from all over the world, including Europe, Canada, Peru, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, as well as Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Florida, Iowa, Oregon, Billings, Montana and more. I often introduced myself as their elevator concierge, offering to open elevators, push elevator buttons, or solve marital disputes by making guests laugh but no one took me up on it. We have crossed about eight time-zones and gone north, south, east, and west, sometimes all in one day. We had beautiful weather the entire trip, a few drops of rain, but hardly enough to get wet. We saw deer, penguins, condors, manna-rays, dolphins, sea lions, seals, and more. And Gail rode a horse which was challenging, but she’s game to try again. We heard the story of the building of the Panama Canal for the fourth or fifth time, something that rattles your bones, just thinking of the hardships thousands of people went through to shave off 8,000 miles from the Atlantic to Pacific Oceans. Teddy Roosevelt was mighty proud and for the rest of us, it was mind boggling!
Cowboy calls cruising “grazing,” with 2,000 or so of our closest friends enjoying food choices in five different shipboard locations (the Lido, Pinnacle Bar, two entire decks of aft dining room, and the Dive. (not to mention room service which is always available). Snacks and ice cream, too. We don’t see too many svelte people, but as Cowboy says, it looks like they all wintered pretty good. We dined on fish and beef and lamb (not me, though) and ate enough shrimp to last for a while. We have eaten lobster three times. Woohoo. And crème brûlée and blueberry muffins (except today when they ran out, can you believe that?) They also ran out of Cowboy’s favorite beer (Heineken Zero) twice, and soda water, which caused head scratching and threats of mutiny, and he must switch gears and drink water.
People like to talk about where they are from, but they are in awe as we describe where we live, in Montana, on the northside of the Beartooths, at the edge of Yellowstone Park. We have had a great trip and are ready to return to our abode, hug Cody, and consider how fortunate we are. It’s good to be going home to the beautiful mountains and then a planned trip this summer on the Snake and Columbia rivers on our boat.
Before long, we will return to the sea.
