11/25/08 Back to Reality

Well, I was back. I had traveled a total of 27,794 miles by air and sea. That’s more than the distance around the world. And I was finally right back where I started.

I slept great that first night. There’s just something about sleeping in your own bed. Of course, there was no chocolate on the pillow and nobody delivered coffee and danish to my room in the morning. Oh well, back to the real world. I had to run some errands, the most important being to pick up my little girl from the kennel. But she wouldn’t be ready until about noon since I always have her bathed before she comes home. So I had a little time to get started on other things.

I began with the laundry. I had dumped everything in the clothes basket when I emptied the bags so there was a major pile of stuff to be washed. I figured that I could get at least one load done before I had to go out. Once that was started, I got on-line and downloaded credit card and bank statements, cleared checks, etc. I had saved my credit card receipts and, even though they were from all over the place and in several different currencies, everything balanced to the credit card statement without a problem. That was a relief since I have no idea how I would have resolved a problem with a merchant in Fiji or New Zealand. I downloaded and verified all checking account transactions to make sure that the bills were paid while I was gone. No problems there! I went back to the basement and threw the clothes in the dryer.

After a quick shower, I headed out to run a couple more errands before going to the kennel. First I had to make a “real” trip to the grocery store. The donuts wouldn’t last forever! Since I live by myself, I don’t buy a whole lot of food at any one time. It just goes bad before I can get around to eating it. So the grocery shopping didn’t take very long. I stopped at Costco for a few things, including some chicken strips and pig ears for Sarah. She loves those things and I buy them in large quantities. Then came the post office. They had been holding my mail for two months and I wasn’t prepared for what was coming. I gave the clerk my name and driver’s license and she disappeared for probably five minutes. She returned with one of those big plastic bins like they use in business mailrooms, about three-quarters filled with mail. It must have weighed twenty pounds and it was all mine! She told me to just take the whole bin, so I hauled it away. Of course, most of it was junk….

I dropped everything off at home, put the groceries away and went to get my baby. The kennel charges were pretty high, of course, but not bad for the length of time she had been there. And the people there love Sarah! They take great care of her, even though she doesn’t really understand it. As expected, she went a little nuts when they brought her out to the lobby. But she didn’t pay so much attention to me as to the front door. She kept jumping up on the door and pawing at the knob, saying “Let me out of here!”. So I did….

Dogs are funny. Sarah had been home for no more than an hour before she was right back into her routine. She chased a squirrel, played with her football, had a chicken strip and was asleep on the bed in less than an hour. It was as if I had never been gone. I was really worried about leaving her for so long but I’m now convinced that dogs don’t perceive time in the same way that we do. I guess that explains why she is always so excited when I come home, whether I’m gone all day or just a few minutes. In the future, I won’t worry quite so much when I leave her.

Well, I guess that’s just about the end of my story. I had planned and anticipated this trip for almost a year and it was worth every bit of it. Creating this journal has brought it all back, allowing me the opportunity to re-live all the experiences once again. What started as a favor for my travel agent has turned out to be a lot of fun for me and I hope that you enjoyed following along. Perhaps you’ll be writing your own trip journal before long!

Just one piece of advice: don’t put it off too long! If you have a “trip of a lifetime” in mind, go for it! I kept saying “one of these days” for a long time before I finally pulled the trigger. I wish I had done it sooner. You never know what might happen tomorrow!

So what’s next for me? I’m really not sure. I have two cruises booked for September, back-to-back trips from Seattle. The first is a week trip back to Alaska, my fourth cruise there. Then I’ll stay on the ship and cruise the west coast of the U.S. and Mexico, transit the Panama Canal and visit a few Caribbean islands before docking in Fort Lauderdale. It’s not exactly a “trip of a lifetime” for me but I’ve never been through the canal, so it will be interesting. But I’m looking at another cruise in July that may qualify as one of those “lifetime” things. It’s a thirty-five night round-trip from Boston with a fabulous itinerary, places that I would never visit on my own, including Newfoundland, Labrador, Greenland, Iceland, Scotland, Ireland and the Netherlands, among others. I haven’t booked it yet but it’s just a matter of time. There’s a lot more world to see!

Bon Voyage…..


2/1/09 Update: Well, I said that it was just a matter of time before I booked the "Voyage of the Vikings". Turned out to be a short time! I booked it a couple of days ago so I will be leaving Boston on July 25th aboard Holland America's Maasdam. I'm really looking forward to this itinerary since I've never visited any of these ports. I see another blog in my future!