Are we excited?

Day before our flight ... People think we must be excited. Actually, I'm in total freak out mode right now. Did not sleep well. Trying to redo my poor packing job and worried about being ready for airport at 6am. I know we'll be fine. I better sleep good tonight. 😋 I'll be excited after we get there. 😱


Did we do the right thing by keeping the RV? We're leaving it stocked with dishes, pots and pans, a set of clothes, bedding, and various other things. If we just sell it after 6 months, someone will have to deal with all the stuff. Gee, maybe I want this notebook ... and this pair of shoes .. and ... I keep throwing miscellaneous things in my already overstuffed suitcase. Not good. Now we're going to need to purge again after we get to the ship and open these suitcases, not to mention all the things we shipped ahead in boxes.

Do we have everything? Too late now if we don't.

Evening before our flight - Alex arranged a party, a going away party for us. You see, I went to high school with Alex and many of my other high school classmates live nearby. We often get together. So this was one last time. I was afraid I would be too frazelled to be much fun, but it turned out great. Telling them about our upcoming adventure allowed us to feel excited again and not just freaked out. It was an early party and we got to bed by 8:30, setting the alarm for 4am.

We drove Alex's car to the airport - just 20 minutes away in Gainesville - and she will pick it up later. Brilliant. I was amazed how busy this small, regional airport was at 5am, but everything was quite efficient. We got off the ground at 6:30 and landed in Miami before 7:30. Our Apple airtags indicated that our luggage made it as well. We had 2 hours layover, then another completely full flight to Cartagena. The airport and luggage claim was a bit chaotic, but in the end we collected all of our luggage including the bag they took from Jim in the plane and checked due to no room in the overheads.

Sunrise over Miami

More chaos getting help with all our bags out to the taxis and finding one big enough to take us. Uber said the trip to the cruise port should be about $12 and we paid $40, but we made it! I am so glad that we now get to travel and not go thru any of that hassle. 

The drive went along the beach for a while and we were amazed at how many people were out swimming, sunning, and playing. Oh yeah! It's Easter Sunday.


The taxi dropped us off at the gates to the cruise port where someone official checked our passports and crossed us off the manifest. Someone would come with a car to take us the rest of the way. That took a while, but we had a peacock to entertain us while we waited!

Yay!! There it is, the cruise ship that is our new home! We walk up the gangway and are met by very friendly and efficient personnel who ask us our cabin number and tell us to leave all our bags - they would be taken to our rooms for us. We were asked to just stay put and someone from guest services would be down to check us in and take us to our room. So nice. No one else there. No crowds, no lines.

We get checked in and we go to our room - or our temporary room anyway. The one we purchased was having some last minute work done so they put us in a room 2 doors down. Oh my, this room must be smaller than ours right? hmmm, no, it's the exact same room - I think it shrunk in the last few months. Jim and I are fine in small spaces, but we're going to have a tough time fitting stuff in here!

I'll think about it tomorrow, right now I need to crash.

Aahhhh ...

 There's a physical sensation when mental stress is relieved. Oh, and it feels so good. 

We did our presentation last night. We're waayy out of practice for doing live presentations so it didn't go as smoothly as we'd like, but it was fine. In the end we had fun, and at least some of them learned stuff.

We made it back to the campground after dark. It's rare for us to leave a campground at night so we were relieved when the code to open the gate worked and we made it back to our site in time for a glass of wine and then bed. Here's how Jim stowed our luggage so we could use the bed.

Amazing that he was able to get it all piled on top of the driver's seat, so he could still use the passenger seat, turned around, for his 'office.' 

Next up, our Earlybird Toastmasters meeting at 7am. We used my phone, on the Google Fi network, as a hotspot. I saw that just moving it close to the rear window increased the signal from 2 bars to 5 bars. We had 60mbps down and 5 up. It served to power both my computer and Jim's without a hiccup throughout the meeting. See our video on how to turn your phone into a hotspot.

After the meeting we went for a walk around the campground. We breathed in the fresh air and contemplated our wide open future. A new beginning. A new chapter. Another adventure.

Our plan is to make it to Alex's in Melrose tonight, but there's no hurry. It's only a 3 hour drive and we don't need to leave the campground till 1. We're so comfortable in our little van.

Life is SOO Good

 We did it! We got the house completely cleared out, and we left! Actually, we took the camper van and went to a local RV park (Easterlin - it's beautiful) so that we could ease into being away. One overnight in the van to get the feel of leaving. Then back to the house for one last look around on Tuesday morning. We picked up a few odds and ends.

And we left a few odds and ends that are in the cupboards and drawers. These things are now for the realtor and his helper to remove when they find a buyer to take the place. 

Driving away was like stretching a leash until it finally broke - and we were free!

Our destination for the first night was a state park near Tampa. We had booked a presentation on April 9 for the Sun City Center Computer Club quite a while ago. As our plans came together, it seemed perfect to make that date our getaway date. We would pack everything in our camper van and stay at the Little Manatee River State Park campground. It was only a 15 minute drive from there to the Sun City Center Computer Club's location. We booked the campground for the 8th and 9th. This meant we had all day on the 9th to get our act together. 

And that's exactly what we did. 

On the way, we stopped to say goodbye to Jim's sister, Debbie, in Lake Worth. We had a delightful lunch and told her we'd be back for Christmas 2027, according to the ship's itinerary.

Then we got back on the road for Little Manatee River. We got a fabulous night's sleep on the 8th. The first night without the anxiety of what needed to be done the next day. We did have to do some serious rearranging in the van so we could sleep. But, it was doable. We had four large suitcases, and 4 small ones piled onto the bed. It worked to simply move them from the bed to on top of the front seats. They were piled high, but it worked.

Jim drove the 4 hours to the park and we arrived about 5pm. We had leftovers of Eggplant Parm in the fridge, and I made a little salad. We ate on the picnic table in a beautiful setting and gorgeous weather.

We are so comfortable in our Van. Sometimes I wonder if we should just be taking off in it rather than moving on to a cruise ship. Uh ... No ... there are problems, leaks, repairs that need to be made. And, you still need to do the driving, shopping, cooking. Besides, we've 'been there, done that.' The cruise ship is going to be complete fantasy - no work involved. So many cool people to meet and world destinations to see.

But, the van will be here if we need it. Our life boat!

The weather was perfect at Little Manatee River - it even got cool enough over night that we turned on the heat for a bit. We slept SOO good. Went for a couple walks this morning. Prepared for our seminar this evening and took advantage of the co-ed shower in the campground bath house. 

WE ARE LOVING LIFE!

Last Day Jitters

 Today is our last day in the house. I still have boxes of photos and memorabilia to go through. I sat on the floor and grabbed a pile of photos glancing at them and setting aside a few to scan. At 2 o'clock we decided to go live on YouTube for just a few minutes to give a little talk about what we're doing. Then I got back to work. About 4 we were hungry and ordered out for pizza. I got back to work, then I hit a wall, I just couldn't go on. I turned on TV and just veg'ed for an hour or so as the butterflies in my stomach started to wage war. I don't know what the turning point was, just the fact of the deadline getting closer, but the fear dial was turning way up. Fear of what? I can't identify it. But, I recognized that I've been here before. Check out the blog post from 22 years ago when we were doing something similar by leaving our house then to go fulltime RVing. I absolutely could write the exact same words for what's going on now. 

Just Breathe

We're down to the wire. This is our last week in Fort Lauderdale. We're in packing mode now. The place is a mess again. I lay awake thinking about what needs to be done before we go. The drawers that have to be emptied. We're not storing anything so everything we're not taking needs to go in the trash. I panic. I roll over towards Jim and with unspoken demands cry, "hold me, squeeze me, never leave me!" He complies.

Just breathe.

Everything will be OK.

Drawers have to be emptied because the furniture they're in is being hauled away. Cupboards on the other hand ... If I just ignore the stuff in cupboards and leave, it will be someone else's job to empty them. We've made arrangements, through the realtor, for someone to go thru the house and do a final clearing out after we leave.

I think of all the stuff in those drawers. I haven't looked at it in years so I won't miss it right? But I'll know. I'll know that I've left precious memories behind. But, I also know the freedom of an unencumbered life. For everything you own to fit in a few suitcases. The incredible lightness of being when you have so few possessions. 

The local newspaper, the Sun Sentinel, did a story on us. A friend of a friend works at the paper and she spread the word about our story. It's a great write up. We sound so sure of ourselves. They didn't interview us at 5am! 

Then I think of the alternative - to change our mind and stay. NOO! That sounds so much worse. I want to go. I want to do this. This is such a fantasy life we're going to. I would feel so let down if we didn't go now. I don't want to be like so many and look at a fantasy and say, "That's for other people, I can't do that." I look at the fantasy and say, "That's what I want, I CAN do that." It just takes some work to get ready. I'm so lucky to have a partner who feels the same.

Just breathe.

Eveything will be OK.

Now, get to work!  

Oh - another technique I use to relax is to think of 10 years from now, how will I feel about all the stuff left behind? ... What stuff? ... who cares about stuff? It's a life of adventure that we love. And, how extraordinary that we've found such a life that doesn't need any work on our part (no driving, no cooking, no booking flights, hotels, etc.) The only work is right now - getting there - then we can 

RELAX and ENJOY