Underway Again

On a cruise ship, not the Journey.   We head out Sat, 5 Sept for another cruise, this time with cruise newbies SIL Gail and my Dad.

Providing we survive and don't find ourselves stranded on a desert island, we'll return to NYC Sat, 12 Sept. 

Our first cruise was on Disney Cruise Lines, our second, Royal Caribbean, this trip is on Norwegian Cruise Lines.  We'll have a pretty good idea how the cruise lines compare after this.

Sails away!   :c)

Spooling Up

One theme that's been pretty consistent in our "retired" RV lifestyle is we seem to be moving at the speed of light instead of slowing down.  Maybe we need to learn how to keep so many things from ending up on our plate?

Even though our granddaughters Anabelle and Lizzie went on vacation with their parents to the North Carolina shore, we've been busy and it's only getting ready for us to hit Warp Speed.

My dad still lives in his house and he takes pretty good care of it, but some things are beyond what he can do at 93, so Marti and I spent another couple of days working on a few maintenance projects for him, Marti inside and me outside.  I installed an additional gutter downspout for him to help alleviate some drainage problems while Marti helped him get his computer problems resolved.

Back at our RV, we've been watering the flowers at our son's house and taking in the mail, all the while getting geared up for our next cruise, leaving NYC on Saturday, 5 Sept for 7 days.  Marti's sister Gail is flying in to go with us, so we have an airport pickup for her on Tuesday.  Friday I drive out to my dad's again to pick him up for the cruise.  He's not too excited, he's already been packed for a week.  He thinks this cruise should be more fun, the last one he was on was in 1944 across the Pacific Ocean on his way to Saipan with thousands of other soldiers.  Yes, I think this one will be much more enjoyable.  The food might even be better...

I have to make some medical appointments for routine checkups at the VA for October, plus we've already been contacted by the Army Corps of Engineers as to when we're arriving there at the J. Strom Thurmond Project in South Carolina, where we volunteer over the fall and winter months.  The COE already has some jobs lined up for us, yep some even require a paintbrush.  23 Sept is our arrival date there.

I have to book a U-Haul trailer to take my motorcycle with us, Marti will follow in the car.  To make it more interesting, we also have an appointment on 21 Sept at the Gaffney Freightliner Service Center to have some routine maintenance done on the Journey.  So to make all this come together, we plan on departing New Jersey on or about 16 Sept.

There are many other little odds and ends involved, too, to make all this happen on schedule. The devil is in the details.

 So much for a lazy, retired life.  Maybe we need to go back to work so we can rest!   :c)

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

I've Been Stewing

Marti and I decided to do something special for our 38th anniversary.  It's been a long time since we had been in New York City, being close by we decided it was time.

We hopped a train instead of driving so we could be foot loose and fancy free to bop around the city and not have to find a place to park our car.  Looking back, I don't know if we'll do that again because the wait for the trains both coming and going took a very long time, hours we could have been doing something.

We lived on Governors Island just off the tip of Manhattan for three years and often ventured in the city.  Years later I did a tour back in the city (although we lived in NJ that time) and traveled all around for my job.

One thing that stood our prominently both times were the twin towers of the World Trade Center.  We had our kids up on top of the towers a couple of times and I spent many work related hours in them.  When the terrorist attacks of 9/11 happened, we were shocked and sickened to see the terrible tragedy that not only destroyed the towers, but so many lives and happy families.

We wanted to see the memorial to the towers, so we headed downtown to see them.  Instead of building new towers where the old ones stood, the "footprints" of the towers have been left free of buildings.

Instead, very thoughtful fountains have been constructed on the footprints, with waterfalls flowing over the edges like never ending tears.  All around the fountain edges are inscribed the names of the victims of the tragedy to be remembered.

Standing next to the footprint fountain I did get a little teary eyed, even though I had no personal loss of any relative or friend, I still felt the sadness of what happened here.  So senseless.

Looking around I got very upset at many of the people who were there.  There were too many that were making light of this hallowed place, laughing, joking, taking selfies with the fountains in the background.  How could this be happening at this memorial?

Another thing we noticed, there was no American flag flying anywhere on the grounds.  I know that many people from all over the world lost their lives here, but the vast majority were American citizens.  How can we as a nation not show our pride in who we are and show the world that despite a horrific attack, we still are a strong, freedom loving nation?  I am appalled that there is no flag.

Later, on the train ride home, I was sitting next to a lady who was traveling to the same stop as we were.  In our conversation, she asked what we had done on our trip and the subject of the World Trade Center came up.  I shared my feelings with her and found she appreciated them and agreed with me.  She had real pain from the attack, she told me she had lost her husband there.

I told her how very sorry I was for her loss, but how can words ever heal someone from such a terrible tragedy?