Off to Florida

December 3, 2017

We are off to Florida for all the right reasons. This is just a quickie update for all of you who have been inquiring about Megan’s progress. She is well, strong and getting stronger each day.  She is even planning on going back to work, albeit from home and in short bursts, so that means she is mentally moving on.

We are also moving on, onto a cruise ship, the Seabourn Odyssey.  Starting on Tuesday, we’ll be cruising the “Islands in the Stream” for eleven days of dancing, dining and drinking Champagne. I’ll turn seventy-two somewhere between Guadeloupe and Cuba and I plan to do it in style!

Best wishes, Cindy and Wm

Back in West, By God ,Virgina

November 14, 2017

After twenty-four hundred miles, twenty-five days, three extra pounds for each of us, and a few days of not so wonderful driving, we have returned to Charles Town.  We are so happy to be home but even happier that we were able to be with Megan for her treatments. Cindy did most of the heavy lifting while we were there.  After three days of my wearing surgical gloves to sanitize the bathroom, my hands broke out and the nurse said I was allergic to the non-latex gloves. Cindy then had to do all the glove-related cleaning, convinced that I had somehow managed to will my outbreaks.  (From CCE - I mean, really, can you believe this?  Allergic to non-latex gloves?  Gotta admire his cleverness.  HA.)

I did take responsibility for shopping and cooking and I’m proud to say that Megan might be the only cancer patient at Moffitt to have gained a few pounds while going through all the treatments. There were nights when she just had to force herself to eat, but eat she did. They wanted her to have lots of rest, exercise, and protein and she willed herself to do it all and the results have been spectacular.

It was hard to leave her but we know she is in excellent hands with her family. Our first day on the road didn’t start until noon so we only drove about four hours, but it was a very interesting drive. We went northeast and through some very interesting “old Florida” towns.  We were amazed at one point when the area we were passing seemed to look more like the wealthy horse country of Northern Virginia.  Large parcels of land with lots of horses and what looked like actual hills in Florida. Snug up to these estates were tracts of trailer parks and acres of manufactured houses. Lots of contrast to be sure. 

We stopped in Brunswick, Georgia for the night and there was a really wonderful restaurant in our hotel, which made us doubly happy since it was raining. I had the best piece of fish on the whole trip. The next day we decided to be tourists for an hour and drove over to St. Simons Island, which is well known in the area and a bastion of enclaved wealth and gated communities. There are large marinas right on the Atlantic Inland Waterway and they were filled with really, really large vessels. We drove around a while but didn’t see anything since all the cool stuff is behind gates and on private roads, so we headed north.

Interstate 95 continues to be a road that I detest, but we had very little choice.  It is only two lanes through Georgia and South Carolina and the traffic was horrible. We thought that the trip would get easier once we were off 95, but approaching Charlotte it became a parking lot. Our trusty but ancient GPS found a way around a horrible accident and we only lost about an hour before getting to our hotel. The last day of travel was a breeze for which we were deeply grateful. 

Megan continues to get stronger by the day and is so very happy to be in her own home. It is cold here, but I actually turned on the fireplace and it is warm and comfortable in the living room. Cindy has a concert this weekend and is up to her neck with practice and rehearsals. I’m happy as a clam getting everything ‘winterized’ and doing mundane chores, shopping and cooking. All is well.   Best to all, Cindy and Wm

Ode to Joy, Part Two

Dearest Friends,

You by now know that we are in a state of bliss.  Megan has received a clean bill of health and was discharged this afternoon, one week earlier than anyone ever expected.  She is in good health, good spirits and ever so positive, which is what got her through all of this.  We thank all of you for your prayers, positive energy, thoughtful cards and mindfulness. It has been a roller coaster six months and now we all look to the future with great hope and appreciation for all that we have as family and extended family.

Megan and David get to go home tomorrow and she will be in the bosom of her sisters and their families. We begin our journey home tomorrow with far more energy and joy than the trip down last month.

Cindy and I shall be eternally grateful to all of you!  With love, Cindy and Wm

Ode to Joy

Dearest Friends,

There are times when even I am at a loss for words!  I’ll invoke the talents of Herr Beethoven to assist me.  Please turn your volume UP!!  Please click here.

With much love, Cindy and Wm

Urban Wildlife

In an effort to stay to a schedule, which includes some exercise, we have been getting up earlier than normal to go to Megan’s apartment to clean and organize, and from there we go on our walk/run.  Cindy normally stays within the gates of the apartment complex until the sheets that she washed can be put in the dryer and then we go back later to fold and tidy again. My walks have taken me to some marvelous little pockets of unspoiled scrub, ponds, and rivers. Not too far away is a large park, Lettuce Lake Wildlife Park, that is hard up against the Hillsbrough River which meanders for about fifty miles before dumping its water into Tampa Bay. We had a picnic there last week with all the Florida kids, and it was a marvelous time, but we only saw a snake and someone saw a gator. On my walks thus far I’ve seen a family of ducks - mom and dad had red on their beaks and the ten little ones were all dull brown and mottled for protection. There was another fowl family, wild turkeys this time, mom and dad and eight young ones, wandering around the grounds of the regional office of Verizon. There are two donkeys and one bull and three cows in a field near the fire station and there are birds everywhere. We’ve seen three types of cranes, one large white stork, at least 3 kinds of herons, a pileated woodpecker or two, a pair of Sandhill Cranes, many ducks and swans, a flock of 5 parrots, and tons of songbirds who must winter over here in Tampa.

The absolute best viewing of wildlife however has been only a few feet away from the entrance to Megan’s apartment complex. We came across what we think is a Gulf Coast Box Turtle who was preparing a nest to deposit her eggs. She had come from a pond that is about two hundred yards from where she was digging (we figured out later). We assume that she has been doing this for decades since they can live to be a hundred, and we think it used to be a direct shot from the pond to the high ground that she chose for her nest. In the intervening years housing has been built that blocks her direct path so she decided to take the sidewalk and drop the eggs. We watched her for about an hour while she dug a nest. She would dig a little with her left hind leg using her webbing as a shovel, and then swing her butt over and use her right hind leg and dig a little more. After about eight of these sessions she would urine in the hole to make it easier to dig. When she had a nest about four inches deep, she began to deposit her eggs, a total of 22. If you have any interest you can click on this link to see my video.  When she was done, she buried the eggs, cleaned the area and then took off down the road and back to the pond as we followed to make sure she didn’t get hit by a car. It was spellbinding for us. We check every day to make sure no one has tampered with our nest!

Best wishes,  Cindy and Wm

Just stopped by to see what condition my condition was in!

It has been an event-filled week for Megan. On Monday we went to Moffitt for the final briefing on what would be happening for the rest of the week. Tuesday was the ‘Wowza Chemo;’ this is the one that was going to get rid of everything in her blood in preparation for her transplant on Thursday. The chemo made her very tired but the next day she bounced back like super woman and was walking around, taking the stairs and generally defying all the odds, as is her wont.

Thursday was the transplant day, David took her to Moffitt and I relieved him at 10:30 so he could get to work. Meg was in the bed for about six hours as they made sure all was going well with the various drips she had working. About eleven they were ready to administer the three bags of her own cleaned-up stem cells, and each one took about fifteen minutes to drip back into her system. I was blown away with the security protocols to make sure she was getting her own cells. The tech would bring up the bag and the nurse would read out Megan’s name, birthday and patient number. The tech would then read the same information he had on the bag. This was done with each bag. They had ‘relaxed’ Meg before the procedure and she spent most of the time drifting in and out of sleep. 

Cindy came at about two and by three thirty we were able to leave and get Megan back to her apartment where she went right to bed for a few hours of much needed sleep.  They talk about the day you get the transplant as your new birthday; they make a big deal out of that and every one of the nurses came by to wish her a happy birthday. While Cindy held down the fort at the apartment, I went to the store and got lots of water - she drinks about 80 oz per day - as well as a birthday Key Lime Pie, some balloons, and a birthday card for the three of us to sign and give her when she woke up. 

Now it is all up to her body to start to do the right things and rebuild the immune system. It is no fun for her:  constant feelings of exhaustion, nausea, and dull aches. She says it feels like she has a bad case of the flu after having flown for twenty hours. We all try to make sure she has protein, exercise and rest; those are the three biggies for this procedure.

When David takes her to Moffitt in the mornings at seven, we go over to the apartment and strip her bed, wash the sheets and any clothing she had on the day before and sanitize the bathroom and kitchen. For the first two days after the wowza chemo she was what we call radioactive. Anything that she had touched or touched her had to be well cleaned. We had to wear double sterile gloves when we removed her sheets and clothes and when I cleaned the bathroom. I know it was my imagination but after the first such cleaning session I too felt nauseated. Now the routine is not as stringent but we still need to make sure that everything is clean and neat since her immune system is at this point non-existent and we have to make sure she is not exposed to any nasty germs, bugs or bacteria.

Through it all, Megan has been Megan, worried that we are bored, wanting to make sure we are eating, worrying about David and her son Blake. We try to gently tell her that all she has to do is worry about herself and we’ll all take care of each other.  What a gal!

Cindy and Wm

About to Tackle Toilets

Arrival in Florida

We have been in Florida now for a while and have settled into a bit of a routine. We are staying at a Hilton Garden Inn which is a five minute walk from Megan’s apartment. She has lovely digs:  two bedrooms, two baths, great kitchen, washer/dryer in the apartment - all well laid out and stylish with more TVs than I’ve ever seen in an apartment. She has added some personal touches to make it feel more like home and she seems more than ready for the next big push. Last week they inserted a port in her chest where they will feed all the meds and other things that are best not discussed. She was in horrible pain for a few days but it is better now and she is happy that they have given her the all-clear for the next phase. 

Our digs are a bit more modest but just fine for what we need. We have a junior double suite that has a little fridge, microwave, TV, couch and desk with a small round ‘dining’ table. There is a separate room with two double beds and another TV. Like I said, basic for a month of lodging but enough space so that we don’t go stir crazy. The best part of this hotel is the staff. They are universally friendly and helpful, and I feel like we could ask them for anything and it would be done. They are genuinely concerned about Megan’s well being and ask about her almost every day. This hotel, unlike lots of others in the area, has a bar and restaurant, both of which open at 5 pm, which is swell since there really isn’t anything within walking distance and nothing worth driving to at night.  We know about the staff members’ kids and their lives outside of the job, and it does feel a bit like staying with an extended family without the crazy uncle or aunt!

Our drive down was without incident and our car, DVDV, performed beautifully. We drove almost the entire length of I-81 with the Blue Ridge Mountains our constant sentinels watching over our passage. Dropping down into North Carolina on I-77 presented some of the most spectacular views I’ve ever seen, but I couldn’t look that long since the driving required lots of attention. At one point we passed acres and acres of pumpkins that were ready to be collected. I don’t recall ever seeing a really large pumpkin farm and it was exciting to behold. The driving was easy and not too much traffic, except for the last ninety minutes or so where we hit construction and rush hour. This proved to be the case for each of our overnights, easy for the first five hours and then a pain in the butt for the last hour or two. 

It was cool and crisp when we arrived at our hotel in Rock Hill SC. There were about six hotels within spitting distance of ours; clearly Rock Hill is between places of interest.  We took a long walk around the shopping mall/car dealership/hotel circle, just to stretch and look for a spot for dinner. There were all the usual suspects about fifteen minutes from the hotel: Applebees, two steakhouses, a Japanese/Chinese restaurant and some fast food joints. We ended up walking over to a Holiday Inn where we had a quiet drink and a very acceptable dinner, which was more like lunch food but well made and fresh. 

Next morning we were up and out after a nice long walk/run and a good breakfast at the hotel. Zipped though South Carolina and Georgia and enjoyed the ride since there is a lovely variety of sights, birds, and glimpses of marsh, ocean and bays. We hit lots of traffic approaching Jacksonville and even more on the ring road but eventually we zipped into St. Augustine just as the 15% chance of rain became 100%. What a difference in temperature!  We were cold in SC and it was 86 with 100% humidity in Florida; I loved it.  We changed into our Florida clothes and, the rain having stopped, took a lovely long walk along the water while keeping an eye out for good restaurants. St. Augustine is truly a lovely city, the oldest in the USA, and well kept and well presented. 

Dinner turned out to be fantastic.  A little modest fish joint, wooden tables, quite small but staffed with some of the most genuine and competent young servers and cooks. We shared a starter of deviled eggs topped with fried oysters and nested on a bed of bacon and tomato jam that was house made. Cindy had two fresh snapper tacos and I had fresh broiled snapper on top of risotto made with baby kale, corn and garlic. The fish was topped with fresh greens and cabbage and it was certainly the best food I have had in a while. The restaurant is called Catch 27, for those of you heading to St. Augustine who may want to take note.

We had thought that by pushing ourselves for two days the last leg would be a walk in the park of only three hours, but it was not to be.  We departed the hotel and almost immediately it was stop-and-go since there were about 250 bikers parked on the main drag, which had been reserved for them. I guess there was a big event that weekend but it was slow going, and just when we thought we had made it out, we discovered that we had left our big Rand McNally road atlas at the hotel so we had to double back to pick it up and go through the biker gauntlet once more.  Once on the open road the section to Daytona Beach was a breeze until we got to the cut-off for I-4 which crosses the state from the ocean to the gulf. The interchange was a mess and difficult to maneuver, a harbinger of things to come. About 30 miles outside of Orlando things began to collapse due to construction and volume; my goodness there were a lot of cars. We crawled through Orlando as I cursed Walt Disney for having started this all. It took an hour to go about twenty miles and the traffic never really thinned out until twenty miles beyond the Disney World exits. Our little three hour trip turned out to be four and a half but we were happy to be pulling into our Hilton a day early so as to be here for Megan.

This week will be filled with activities at Moffitt so I’ll be focused elsewhere. More when the big stuff is out of the way for Megan.  Ciao, Cindy and Wm

Off to Florida

We had a whirlwind visit to Tampa, arrived on Sunday, trained at Moffitt all day Monday, and back to the airport on Tuesday. My goodness, there is a heaping helping of knowledge required to be a caregiver. We departed with lots of good information and tons of materials for us to read, research and memorize. We are here at home for a few days before packing up the car and heading back to Florida, this time for a month or more.

Speaking of the car, we decided it would be better to drive our twenty-year-old Explorer since it will give us the most flexibility getting there and also while we are there. The car has only 88k original miles and it has been well maintained, but I wanted to bring it to the shop for an oil change and checkup. We have been going to the same auto maintenance shop for ten years so they know the car well and they promised to give it a good going over.  For the most part, it passed with flying colors but they did find that the spark plugs and wires were original equipment. They were amazed that the car was still going. It took them awhile to get them out, and my goodness but they were a mess. Everything is in working order now so we’ll hit the road with a greater sense of confidence and a lighter wallet.

Here is a photo of the day we took Divi Divi home. The name comes from the color of the car which is Desert Violet, DV, like the Divi Divi tree in Aruba.  You will note that the only thing in this picture that looks the same is Cindy!

Our Eddie Bauer Explorer

Tidbits from Road Trip

Trip tidbits that didn’t make the blog the first time around …

One of the things we were looking forward to on our trip was a visit to Wall Drug which Cindy had visited in the 60’s on a road trip with her family. I had heard about it for years and it turned out that the anticipation was much more exciting than the actual visit. We saw our first billboard while still in western Minnesota and it promised free ice water in just 303 miles. The closer you get the more frequent the signs, and they are all really quite clever and provide a great diversion from the endless flatness of the terrain. Upon arrival we were met with a tacky, crowded set of commercial shops filled with busloads of tourists with their names and addresses hanging from their neck along with the bus number so as to be sure they all got home after shopping for all things Wall Drug. Cindy remembered it as being not as coarse and of course when she was there the interstate had not opened so it was not nearly as large or crowded. We lasted about twenty minutes before mercifully placing it in our rearview mirror. The worst part was that I didn’t even get my glass of the promised ice water!

And speaking of billboards, South Dakota seemingly has no restrictions on the location or frequency and they practically blanket the roadsides.  Some are very well done and fun to read, such as the 30 or so ads for the Firehouse Brewing Company in Rapid City.  Every ad includes an old red fire engine, some newish (1980s?) and others that appeared to be from the 1930s or even earlier.  Every one seemed to be in perfect condition and of course was painted bright red from bumper to bumper. Another set of clever billboards advertised a local Mexican restaurant:  “feed me tacos and tell me I’m pretty;” “Mexican food so good Trump would build a wall around it,” and “Mexican food, local water.”  Ha.  

North Dakota apparently limits billboards to a mile or so before freeway exits, and they also apparently have a civility campaign going on.  We saw several billboards with just two words in very large capital letters:  BE NICE - or - BE POLITE - or - BE KIND.  Given the length of our daily drives the diversions were nice, but in the end just looking at nature was preferable.  

After leaving Yellowstone and spending another night in Billings, we headed for Bismarck and arrived much sooner than we had expected.  It took only five hours instead of the six we thought it would be, so we tried to cancel our reservation so that we could drive another few hours to shorten the next day’s trip. No dice! The hotel industry has now made it impossible to be spontaneous by requiring a 48-hour cancellation. The travel industry does all it can to nickel and dime we the consumers, and we are seemingly helpless. I’ve had to change flights to Tampa twice and each time they charge $200 a passenger, no exceptions, and then if they feel like it they will also charge more - for the difference in the ticket price from when you purchased it to what the going rate is now, and there is no way to figure out the going rate!  

So we stayed in Bismarck and used our newfound time to walk a bit around the campus of Bismarck State College. It was cold and windy and there was some spitting rain, but we were thrilled to be out of the car and into fresh air and exercise. The campus is quite new and very modern and we enjoyed our excursion. That night we walked across the street to a sports bar and bellied up to enjoy the five TVs over the bar which were showing a playoff game between the Twins and Yankees. As we munched on potato skins with the works, along with the largest pours of booze in the West, we marveled at how we could be almost anywhere in the USA.  We throughly enjoyed the entire experience and left when the score was tied so that we could pretend that the Twins could actually win something important. In the morning our breakfast was sullied by discovering that they lost big time to the Yanks.

In seven days we drove close to three thousand miles averaging 425 miles a day. The car we rented, a Ford Edge, performed beautifully in all weathers and altitudes and there wasn’t a single time that I was uncomfortable driving since the seats could be adjusted in scores of ways and the air conditioning could be controlled for each half of the car so that Cindy could have it her way and I mine. Once our twenty year old Explorer gives up the ghost, we’ll think hard about getting an Edge. I seldom use cruise control, since I seldom cruise anywhere, but with these long, long stretches of highway it was a delight to set and forget. We had always been under the impression that you can usually go about five miles above the posted speed and be ok.  NOT in Montana! While nothing happened to us, our new found friend Christian from Bin 119 was pulled over for speeding. It seems that the police and highway patrol were dead set against raising the speed limit to 80 and therefore will pull you over even at 81. 

The one night stands played havoc with our exercise routines. Cindy always runs for 30-35 minutes in the morning and I always walk for an hour, but with long distances to cover, we were almost always in the car by eight or nine which left no time for routines. My canary pants still fit so I’m not too far gone, but it will take some time to get back in the groove.  

On the Road Again

Sorry to have been blog-less for the first part of our trip, but as you know from yesterday's blog, we ended up condensing many of our plans and that left no time for typing in a hotel room.  We are not very good at one-nighters and had planned for 2 or 3-night stays along the way, but we’ve managed well despite the changes.  The Corn Palace in Mitchell was quite interesting to say the least, even though we arrived after the birds had had their piece, quite literally.  Still lots of cobs left, however - and the effort is amazing. They do this every year, always with a different theme, and we saw some drawings that showed the pre-planning stages and where they would put which ear of corn. Who knew that corn came in such glorious colors including bright green?  I’ve seen my share of Indian corn but these colors had far more variety.

Next stop Rapid City with a tour through The Badlands on the way.  What a glorious surprise!  It’s like an above-ground Grand Canyon, or several of them - colorful layers of rock soaring skyward.  Unfortunately these absolutely gorgeous rock formations do not photograph well (the colors appear quite muted).  Rapid City was another glorious surprise - the friendliest, nicest people and a lovely downtown area with a beautiful huge park situated along the river.  We ate very well the two nights were were there, and couldn’t help but notice the vast array of on-tap beer selections in nearly every restaurant - one had 70 choices!  I tried one, a local ale, and it was very good.  I guess I’ll have to go back a few times to try the other 69.  

While staying in Rapid City we took a long day trip south to Mt. Rushmore and beyond to Custer State Park.  Cindy had been to Mt. Rushmore as a kid but I had never seen it, and it is indeed impressive when you stand right there looking up at those four noses.  The history of the construction is well presented in an interpretive center, but unfortunately the dining hall where some of the scenes of “North by Northwest” were filmed is long gone.  

The rest of the day proved to be the only disappointing part of the trip - way too much driving and switchbacks that turned my stomach, and while the park is pretty it pales in comparison to everything else we’ve seen on this trip.  We were there on the day of the famous bison roundup when wranglers on horseback herd the bison to another part of the park.  Thank goodness we got there after the big event but we still encountered lots of traffic and the only bison we saw were part of a large herd behind a fence.  Who needs to see fenced bison?  As you read in the previous blog we saw bison up close, really close, in Yellowstone Park and that was far more interesting.  Apparently in Custer State Park the animals have holidays, because they were definitely away while we were there. (As an aside, the best investment I have made was to purchase a lifetime pass for all National Parks for only $10 ten years ago. Great pass to have!)

Back to Billings, the city we meant to stay two nights all along, but two nights in a row.  Our second night proved to be really fun and interesting, mostly due to our discovery of Bin 119, a perfect little restaurant and wine bar.  We had a quick glass of pre-nap wine when we first arrived and got to know the bartender/ manager named Kari who was delightful and knew a lot about wine.  We promised to return for dinner when an equally delightful guy named Christian was in charge.  He was charming and funny and competent, and the food was delicious and served with plenty of garlic.  We made a mistake by ordering our favorite Côte du Rhône because it was an off-menu special (and well-priced) but didn’t check the alcohol level in time:  14.5%!  That is way too high; this wine shouldn’t be more than 13% or 13.5% tops.  Ah, as mistakes go I guess I can live with this one, a drinkable mistake - but we did leave a nice portion in the bottle for Christian and he was thrilled.   When he first uncorked the wine he wrote the name of the restaurant, the date, and his name on the cork - a very nice touch, and a first for us.

The next morning we ate breakfast at Stella’s, the bakery / cafe next door, and oh my what a breakfast it was!  We could choose from list of seven items that were included in our room price, from 2 eggs with bacon to yogurt with fruit, and every choice was huge.  I tucked into the eggs and bacon that came with a slab of crispy hash browns, and it was enough to get two mornings off to a grand start.  Cindy ordered the pancake with an egg and sausage, and the pancake was as big as a dinner plate and was served with a pint of syrup, yes a whole pint in a pitcher.  She drained it.  (Right.)  We avoided the cinnamon rolls which were truly as big as a small loaf of bread; first time we’ve seen a breakfast treat big enough to require a fork and steak knife!  Well-fueled personally and with the gas tank already filled, we headed east into sleet and wintry weather toward Bismarck ND.

Best to all as we point ourselves toward Tampa. We'll give you an update on all of that next week.  Cindy and Wm

Yellowstone Visit

We read that there are 1000 geysers in the world and 500 of them are in Yellowstone - well, we think we’ve seen all of those!  Most are gentle columns of steam rising skyward - and they are truly everywhere you look - but some “blow” every so often.  Old Faithful is the most famous of course and we were there to see it:  It happens regularly on an irregular basis, so to speak, every 40 to 120 minutes.  We had to wait nearly an hour and it was sleeting heavily, but saw it we did.  More interesting was the Beehive Geyser about a hundred yards away which only goes once per day and we happened to catch that one too.

Yellowstone National Park, as many of you gentle readers already know, is worth a visit.  We just stayed one night but we toured aplenty the day before and day after and feel that we saw all we need to see at this stage of our lives.  Bison and elk up close (and I mean close, 20 feet away), coyotes, cute little ground squirrels, white-tailed deer, and a bald eagle that flew about 15 feet directly above our heads - in addition to glorious scenery that changes every few miles.  We went from 78 degrees the day before to 30 degrees in the park with near white-out conditions in the pass that leads to Old Faithful.  As a man who hates winter and hates snow in particular, this was not a pleasant event!

Our accommodations at the Lake Hotel on Yellowstone Lake were comfortable but rather basic considering the price - they’ve gotcha in the park and can pretty much charge whatever they want, which they do.  But the setting is gorgeous and we had a grand time.  Solitude was a plus - no TV, no radio, no internet, not even cellphone service.  We both found the lack of telecommunications amazing as well as restful - but it is a mystery how the preponderance of Asians in the hotel managed without being connected.  It was the first Sunday of my adult life that I remember when I could be in a bar at this time of year in the US and not be subjected to the noise and bluster of various football games.

The elevation of most of the park 7,000 to 10,000 was a challenge for me - I was born at sea level and have lived most of my life very close to sea level, and gasping for oxygen is not my idea of a good time!  Not quite gasping, but it’s disconcerting to feel out of breath just by taking a flight of stairs.  Cindy isn’t as bothered but she felt it when she went on her usual morning run through the buffalo herds. Okay, two buffalo - but they were up close and personal.  

Yellowstone was to have been a stop on our way to an anniversary party in San Diego on October 14 that also included a loop over to Phoenix and up I-35 through Oklahoma and Kansas, but alas, Megan needs us in Florida so we are turning back nearly 3 weeks early. It has been hard to not be with her, but we would have just been in the way. Now, we are able to go and provide our TLC, which we are only too happy to do - turns out that being in remission, while very good news, actually means that she’s ready for the next step which is a bone marrow transplant and is a brutal process. They’ll use her own marrow not a donor’s, and therefore they will remove all of her marrow, clean it, and put it back.  Modern medicine is amazing but also scary!  She will need 24/7 monitoring so we will form a tag team with her husband so that she is not alone for even a minute. On October 9th we’ll take a mandatory daylong workshop to learn how to do this properly and then we’ll be in Florida for most of the next several weeks, at least until Thanksgiving.  

More tomorrow on our way home.  Cindy and Wm

How to spend a summer vacation.

Tampa Airport, August 22, 2017

There are a myriad of things a father can do with his daughter. He can take her to parks, to ballets, concerts and theater. They can go to ball games and movies and special lunches. The one thing no father should ever have to do it to take his daughter to chemotherapy, and yet that is what I did yesterday.

In early June  Megan was diagnosed with multiple myeloma.  A true mystery - it usually hits black men over age 60 (she is in her mid-40s) - she'd had symptoms including anemia and a sore jaw for several weeks and the tests revealed multiple myeloma.  It's a bad one (bone marrow cancer) - BUT she has been accepted into an excellent trial program at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa and the prognosis is as good as it can possibly be under the circumstances.

Megan's attitude is phenomenal (but of course; it's Megan!) and her labs have been extremely good.  She is a model patient and does everything she should do which of course works in her favor, as well as the fact that all of her organs are strong and healthy.   She started weekly chemo in June that will last for a total of 4-5 months - she is just over halfway through at this point.  After that it will be a bone marrow transplant but she IS GOING TO BEAT THIS, for sure.  As her sister Valley says, when cancer chose a victim it chose the wrong one. 

She is a favorite of the staff at Moffitt, they all know her and love her and do everything they can to make her comfortable during the chemo sessions. I sat in amazement at all that has to be checked and double-checked; it gave me great confidence in the program and staff. Megan has had marvelous support from her employers who are continuing to provide her with everything she might need to make her life a bit easier: Weekly ‘care’ packages, flowers and plants, and most importantly a great health insurance package.

Twenty-five days a month Megan has to take medicines that cost $1500 per day! The three chemo sessions per month cost upwards of $5000 per session. These are numbers that just stagger me and I’m so thankful that access to excellent care is not an issue for her.

My job yesterday was just to be with her, which is the easiest thing in the world to do (despite the location!). I was also responsible to providing laughter, keeping her wrapped and warm during her ‘drip’ sessions and making sure she was hydrated. She, unbeknownst to me, was up at 3 am making sandwiches and snacks for both of us since our 05:45 departure for Tampa precluded breakfast, although she did have her health smoothie that has ingredients too vile to put in print. Just to spice things up for her last Monday, I provide a Solar Eclipse as a surprise, which was much appreciated.  I also provided chef services and prepared a great meal:  open-faced starters of Burrata with pesto and tomato, followed by foie gras seared and served on toast, and finally duck confit with raspberry sauce, roasted potatoes, and broccoli with cloves of garlic that had been sautéed in duck fat.  Megan ate some potatoes and some duck, which is a lot for her after a treatment. Blake and David assisted me in finishing the rest of the food.

So, this is how Megan and the rest of our family have been spending our summer vacation. I know Cindy and I shall be making more trips back to Florida to provide support, laughter and love, trips that we look forward to making as Megan works towards complete recovery.   As my dear mother Kay used to say in times like this, “hold good thoughts.”   Best wishes,  Cindy and William

West Virginia Nice

A few days ago, Amazon delivered four new tires for our twenty-year-old Ford Explorer. I consulted with our neighbor Brett - who knows everything about fixing, rebuilding and caring for cars - as to where he would recommend I go to get them installed.  I called the shop he recommended and this is how the conversation went:

“Hello, Tire Shop,Gail speaking” 
“Good afternoon, I’ve four new tires that need to be installed, can you do that?”
“Well Darling, that is what we do for a living!”  What size are the tires?”
“They are 255x70xR16”  (I was prepared for that question and had it all written down.)
“Well Sugar, we charge $25 per tire, plus tax so you’ll be walking out of here about $110 lighter.”
“Can you also do an oil change as long as I’m there?”
“Here’s the thing Sweetheart, we change more than those big stores since we don’t have bulk oil, so it will cost you more. Now Love, if you want to bring in your own oil that would be okay with me.”
“No Ma'am, I’ll just use your oil. When is a good time to bring it in?”
“Sweetie, you bring it in any old time you want but we’ll be closed on Friday and Saturday so tomorrow is the only time if you need it done soon.“
“Okay, how about 12:30 tomorrow afternoon?”
“I’ll be here Sugar, just waiting on you. See you then, Love”

I could not wait to meet Gail. On the phone she sounded like an older person but certainly quick on the uptake.   I had to take Cindy to the airport in the morning and then I came home and loaded the tires into the car and headed for the store. This is a very old building that must have been a gas station and not much has been done to modernize it. Just two bays, both of which had huge trucks in them, and where the gas pumps used to be there were racks of tires.

I entered the office and it was like stepping back in time. Old calendars, old pictures of cars and tires, old, very old furniture which consisted of two easy chairs and two desks pushed together in the corner by the big plate glass window. I could hear Gail before seeing her; she was in the back room with one of the workers who soon came out with two tires, and there appeared Gail rolling two more tires.  “With you in a minute Sugar, just as soon I get these tires out there.”

Gail was perhaps mid fifties, give or take five years either way. She was about five foot three and perhaps 180 to 200.  She was wearing a caftan that had pictures of the Eiffel Tower interspersed with the word Paris. She came back in the room and quickly dispatched the two other customers there who were waiting to pay, while at the same time asking about their family members (by name) and how the business was going and “oh my, this heat is just about ready to melt me.” They responded and it was obvious these folks had known each other a long time.

When they were gone she directed me to the chair in front of the desk and said, “Hey Sweetheart, I remember you calling and you need an oil change too, that right?” 
I told her it was and asked where to bring the car. She told me and I brought it to one of the bays, where she guided me close to the bay but not into it since there was still a truck there. Back in the office she asked me what year the car was and what size engine so she could order an oil filter.  I told her it was a 1998 and it was a six cylinder engine. She looked up at me quite expecting me to continue, but my knowledge of cars and engines had been depleted. “Honey, I need to know the engine size, how many liters?” When I just looked dazed she said, “Love, let’s just go out there and take a look.”  I knew right then that I was perhaps the only person who she had ever interacted with who didn’t know how big his engine was.

Out we went and she had me pop the hood and she knew right where to look and yelled to her husband, “Jim, it’s four liters” and then we headed back to the office. She called an auto supply company, ordered the filter, and went back to her paperwork while telling me to just relax and read some of the papers or magazines on the desk, which I did in silence.

Fifteen minutes later, a woman came in, handed Gail the oil filter and an invoice, which Gail signed without looking, gave it back, asked the girl about how her mama was feeling and that was that.  I commented that that was pretty fast service and that opened the gates.  I learned what happens if they are slow and the customer is in a hurry and she went on and on and I smiled and nodded in agreement. Well, she must have enjoyed talking to me because her husband came in and said I needed new valves for the tires; she looked at me and I nodded and the husband left to install the valves. She said, “Hon, those are normally two dollars each but you’ve been waiting a bit so I’ll only charge you one dollar.”

I asked her where she was going for the long weekend and she said they were going up to Wheeling just to look around and relax, leaving that very afternoon so as to have more time for relaxing.  I asked her if she had purchased the caftan in Paris and she looked at me and laughed and said, “Sweetheart, if I ever went to Paris I’d be as confused as a cat with twelve kittens,” which made us both laugh.

All too soon my time with Gail was over. She wrote out the invoice, added all the numbers in her head - which is amazing in this day and age and something I’ve not seen since living in Germany - and she said if anything goes wrong just come on back and we’ll make it right.  I told her to have a lovely vacation and I was off.  As I was walking to the car Jim called me over to the pile of my old tires. “Take a look at these,” as he pointed to several bare patches, “Just wanted you to know that you didn’t buy something you didn’t need!”

Cindy and I have often commented on how civil everyone is in Charles Town. You’ll be going into a 7/11 and a bearded, shirtless, tattooed guy will be coming out and he’ll greet you and hold the door and wish you a pleasant day. I am always addressed as sir and Cindy as ma’am, and courtesy is always front and center.  We sometimes complain about living in a small town, but it certainly has its advantages. 

Hope your weekend was as good as I'm sure Gail and Jim’s was.   Cindy and William   

Krakow

 June 6, 2017

Whereas Warsaw was more modern and frenetic, Krakow was laid back, green and old. During the brief taxi ride to our hotel, it was obvious that this was a tale of two very different cities and we knew right away that this would be a grand experience.

Since we arrived on Cindy’s birthday, I had made an effort to insure it would be a special day. Our hotel, the Metropolitan, looked very plain and had obviously been remodeled from two older buildings. Upon check-in we received maps and suggestions for visits and were then escorted to our room, which I had carefully selected online. We opened the door and the first thing we saw was a bottle of Champagne chilling in an ice bucket with two crystal flutes waiting to be filled with bubbles.  This is always a good first sign. We then noticed how very, very large this suite really was. It went on and on and each area was more impressive than the other. We marveled at how we could play hide and seek with ease in this suite, but we had no time to dally since I had made arrangements for us to attend a performance at the concert hall and we needed to get our bearings.  So off we went in search of the evening’s venue.

The old town of Krakow is completely surrounded by a greenbelt park, filled with benches, flowers, old trees, and cool breezes - not to mention lots and lots of people enjoying the surroundings.  We wandered into the main square and were overwhelmed with the huge churches, old towers, and the grand Cloth Market smack in the middle of the square.  Following our map we tried to find the concert hall, but we kept turning down the wrong paths in the parks. We finally stopped to ask directions and a few minutes later we found our destination, which was steps from where we originally entered the park.  Having figured out how to get here, we slowly wandered back to the hotel, slowly because that was the only speed available. The old town was mobbed due to a church holiday and a city holiday that weekend.

We cooled down and dressed for the concert, which was at six pm, a most respectable time. I collected the tickets from the concierge at the hotel who had done a great job of securing them the day before on short notice, and we were off. The Philharmonic is a great hall with a magnificent organ, and while our seats were not the best, they were just right for this performance. While waiting for the concert to begin there was an elderly couple wandering around looking for their seats. They were quite befuddled and had asked several people where to go but no one helped and they just stood there.  The concert was to start in a few minutes so I jumped up, smiled and held out my hand for the tickets. In one minute I had them in the right seats and was seated before the concert began. In my next life, I’ll be an usher.  It was a really lovely concert featuring a conductor who was celebrating his 70th birthday and much beloved by the audience, and a solo violin player who was only 21 years old but played beautifully with great energy and maturity.

Cindy’s birthday dinner that evening was at the hotel, which also has one of the best restaurants in town. Champagne at the bar, Chablis at the table to accompany the fish, and  some great French red for the duck and dessert.  It was a truly wonderful meal, a great way to end the actual birthday and a wonderful ending to our first day to Krakow.

The next morning we went down to the Vistula River, a short walk from the hotel, and Cindy ran while I walked along the well-maintained pathways, enjoying stunning sights of churches (dozens of them) and old, old tree-lined neighborhoods of four-story buildings - many refurbished, others in need of a coat of paint - but all of them very old-world and reminding us of our first years in Germany in the 1980s.

We spent the next two days walking all around the old town, literally, around it in the surrounding park and then crisscrossing the old town itself. On Sunday the town celebrated their symbol day, their symbol being a dragon. All of the schools in the area built dragon floats and then there was a huge parade around the old town with bands and dancing events and all manner of entertainment. A great and unexpected benefit of our visit (see below).  After hours and hours of walking and not having had any lunch to speak of, we retired to our suite, had a sip of the Champagne and took a well-deserved nap, avoiding by minutes a tremendous thunder and lighting event that was accompanied by torrential rain.  It was still raining in the early evening so we opted to dine late at the hotel since they had a very large group of Norwegians eating early but not staying at the hotel, go figure.  Dinner was wonderful yet again; they have a justifiably well-respected kitchen.

Our last full day was, to say the least, exciting.  After breakfast I received an email that said my flight from London to Washington was ready for check-in and would be departing on time the next morning at 11 am. The problem with that was my ticket showed a departure the day after that! So I was on the phone with Virgin Atlantic for several hours as I sorted through everything. It turns out they had cancelled our flight on the 7th and rebooked us on the 6th but failed to notify us of this event. I finally got us two business class seats on Delta on the 7th going to Atlanta and connecting back to Dulles, adding six hours to our journey - and Delta business isn’t much like Upper Class on Virgin. Having sorted all of that out, we did some shopping in the Old Town, looked without success for an open museum, listened to three women playing and singing lovely folk music on the street, and purchased eighty Nespresso capsules for half the price we pay here.

We were bound and determined not to dine in the hotel again so we had the Concierge book us a table at a well-known restaurant in the Ghetto section of town, a very short walk from the hotel. Turns out there are two of these and the one with our reservation was not the one we went to, but they were only too happy to accommodate us and seated us near a window overlooking the courtyard. We noticed that there were long tables of about twelve to a side, already set with salads. When the waitress came she said that our food would take about an hour to prepare since they had this large group coming in. Poland needs to do a lot more training of staff or needs to hire more kitchen help! We were in no mood for waiting an hour per course and listening to forty or more people eating and yapping, so we simply left and, yes, ended up back at the hotel. I must say, we never had the same dish twice and it was all wonderful, but we felt like we missed a bit of old Krakow.

The next morning we took the train back to Warsaw, connected right away to the train to the airport and waited for the check-in counter for British Air to open, which took two hours. When we finally checked in we were told that our flight would be four hours late due to weather in London, and in fact the flight to Warsaw had not even departed Heathrow at that point.  Not the news we wanted at the end of a three-week trip, but it was what it was so we headed for the lounge for awhile and after that simply walked from one end of the terminal to the other, several times, to kill time and stretch our legs.  Arrived at our hotel near Heathrow at nearly midnight and had a quick drink in the pub before heading to bed.  The next day’s travels went smoothly - but as mentioned, much longer than anticipated or ticketed, resulting in our getting home at about 10:30 pm, completely exhausted. We had a rule that we can’t go to bed until we have unpacked and we unpacked with alacrity!

All and all, a fantastic birthday three weeks.  Best wishes,  Cindy and William


The June of 2017 will be the record-breaking month for Krakow events in 2017 and festivals. The beginning of June will be when the Grand Dragon Parade is expected to march through the Old Town of Krakow. Hundreds of relatives of Wawel Dragon – some of them breathing out fire for real – will be led to the Main Market Square by their child tamers for the joy of other kids (and adults) gathered all around the route. Soon after, a similar route will be covered by the longest parade of Krakow in 2017: the Parade of Dachshunds.

Warsaw

June 3, 2017

For Cindy’s Birthday Week, she usually selects a city in the USA for us to visit and play. Given that we ended the cruise in Iceland and would already be halfway across The Pond, she chose Poland since neither of us had ever been there. We spent two days in Warsaw and three in Krakow and we had a fantastic time.  These are very different cities in many ways but each had something very special to offer.

Warsaw was destroyed in WWII and therefore relatively new in terms of buildings. Lots of high-rise apartment buildings and offices, wide avenues and lots of rush hour traffic, mostly on foot, in the morning and evening. We were staying at a modern Marriott directly across the street from the central train station and could observe the comings and goings of the ‘working class,’ mostly young professionals jumping on trams or buses or just walking to work. We tried to buy train tickets for our trip to Warsaw but there were enormous lines of people lined up at the counters. It seems there was a three-day weekend and everyone was getting out of town.

Upon arrival we did what we always do: Walk and walk to get a feel for the area while keeping an eye open for good restaurant choices.  We had been given a recommendation of a spot close to the hotel that specialized in genuine Polish cuisine and after several hours of walking it was getting on to eight o’clock and we were fortunate to find a table for two in this restaurant. After about fifteen minutes someone came and took our drink order, returning with the wines ten minutes after that. We were seated right next to the bar so it wasn’t so much a matter of distance as it was being understaffed. When the young girl came to take our order she informed us that it would take perhaps another forty minutes since they were very busy. We demurred, paid for our wines and decided to go elsewhere. There was a couple next to us from Britain and they said they had waited forty minutes for appetizers and were now told they would wait another forty for dinner.  Not the best start to experimenting with Polish cuisine.

It was now after nine and we were quite tired and in no mood for more walking so we headed back to the hotel and ended up having a marvelous little meal with fantastic wine at the Italian restaurant on the second floor of the hotel. What made the meal even more delightful was our waiter, who was a native "Varsovian" who provided us with all kinds of information on the city, the history of the city, and suggestions for us for the next day. Having salvaged the evening we happily hit the hay and slept very well indeed.

The next morning Cindy ran around this marvelous building called the Palace of Culture and Science that Stalin build as a gift to the people of Warsaw in 1955. It is an exact copy of buildings in Moscow that are called the Seven Sisters. It appears that half of Warsaw wanted to rip it down after the end of communism and the other half wanted to keep it as a reminder of communism. It is now a hub of culture housing museums, theaters, a ballet company and is a focal point for fairs and carnivals. After breakfast we went across the street to meet our hop-on/ hop-off bus, which gave us a lovely overview of the city with some interesting commentary. Most of the time the commentary was on things we had already passed (an issue with the timing on the recording!), but we enjoyed it nonetheless.  When the bus dropped us off, we started walking for another four hours to revisit the places where we wanted to spend more time, which was mainly in the Old Town Market Square.   This was built around a castle, parts of which can still be seen, and is a labyrinth of narrow cobbled streets and old shops, bars and restaurants. It was great fun but exhausting since it was also rather warm.

We had every intention of going out in the evening to try yet again to find an authentic experience with Polish cuisine but our plans were dashed by two factors. The first was that we were plum tired of walking and we would have had to walk a distance to get to the row of restaurants we saw on our walks. The second factor was most delicious. We went to the club lounge to have a glass of wine before setting out to find dinner, and lo and behold, it was Polish night and the chafing dishes were filled with Polish delicacies. Pierogi stuffed with meat or cheese or spinach, all manner of Kielbasa, farm cheeses - some smoked, others fresh - cold meats and patés, fresh breads and pastries … well, you get the picture. We settled in for our first Polish dinner courtesy of Mr. Marriott and it was swell.

The next morning after our walk/run,  we threw our clothes into the suitcase and headed across the street for our first class train to Krakow. The train is one of the fastest in Europe and is extremely well equipped for comfort. As we pulled out of the station we zipped past the suburbs of Warsaw and soon were in the middle of rolling farmland which was absolutely beautiful. We experienced another spring with lots of flowers, flowering trees, and green, green grasses and young plants. An attendant came by offering coffee and tea followed by a light lunch, a marvelously civil way to travel.  Two hours and twenty minutes later we were in Krakow, refreshed and ready for another adventure.

More on Krakow later, Cindy and Wm

Heading to Poland

 May 31, 2017

When you board a luxury cruise liner you are made welcome immediately, and for the duration of your cruise you are remembered by name and every wish is anticipated and fulfilled. The day you depart the ship their motto is, "Don't let the gangway hit you in the butt!"  You depart with very little fanfare and even less assistance, but hey, they have to get everything ready for the next set of guests.  At first they told us that we had to depart the ship at 06:15 for our flight that departed at 10:40. That was a non-starter for us and I informed them, rather than requesting, that we would be on the 07:30 bus. They complied by sending the right baggage tags to our cabin for the later bus. So far, so good.

We were on the bus at the appointed hour and for the next fifty minutes we were treated to a monologue by a woman who was most certainly related to our guide from the day before. She told us about trees and lava and all the other things we had heard yesterday. Her twist was on the fact that fast food came to Iceland via the US Navy, which had a base there from 1941 to 2006 when it was turned into a NATO base and most of the Americans departed. In addition to some Iceland/American children, we left a fondness for hot dogs, hamburgers and french fries as well as a real affection for rock and roll - to the extent that they have a rock and roll museum near the airport. As we approached the airport I thought I would have to give up on my red-hot desire to see a puffin, but as luck would have it, a big puffin flew right in front of us as we drove around a roundabout and landed on the grass just outside my window.  I was over the moon.

Check-in for our flight to London was a nightmare, taking more than fifty minutes to get our boarding passes and check luggage. Then on to security which took another twenty-five minutes and then passport control which took more than forty minutes. No time for duty free shopping and luckily the flight was delayed by twenty minutes which allowed everyone to get aboard. The flight itself was quite lovely with great views as we departed Iceland and continued over Scotland, Manchester and into Heathrow, arriving on a beautiful sunny and warm afternoon. Heathrow has not improved much in the past several years and getting through immigration and waiting for luggage - which came on two different belts without any notification - took another ninety minutes.

We arrived at our airport hotel in time for a lovely long walk. It always amazes me that you can see the airplanes taking off across the street, but if you turn down a country lane and walk the other way, you are in gardens and fields and pastoral bliss in ten minutes.  We found a narrow path that went by a highly fortified facility that was called, "Her Majesty's Refugee Return Center" (Brit for deportation jail).  Soon after we were rewarded by walking into a perfect little English village with two pubs, a large church with vast gardens and cemetery, and a few little shops. All the spring flowers were blooming, the cottages sported newly planted flower boxes, and it was heavenly to be walking among such beauty.

We had an early dinner and got to bed at a reasonable time. Not sure what happened but I was wide awake at five am and despite my best efforts could not get back to sleep. I slipped out and walked the same route as the day before for about an hour when exhaustion finally hit and I headed back to the hotel for a two-hour nap. By eleven we were back at Heathrow and heading to Warsaw.  Our arrival there was so different than yesterday's at Heathrow:  off the plane, walked though a very modern and lovely airport (named Chopin of course), through passport control in seconds, no paperwork involved. By the time we stopped to get some local currency our bags were at the carousel and we were heading to a taxi and the hotel. From landing to entering the hotel was less than fifty minutes; absolutely amazing!

More on Poland later, but here is a hint: We love it!  Cindy and Wm

Iceland

June 2, 2017

There are many things to do and see in Iceland, but only if you like to do and see the same things over and over again!  At first glance it is a physically beautiful country but the first impression wears off quickly.  Granted, our first full day in Iceland was plagued by foul weather but even the sunshine of the next day did little to improve our impressions.

Since we had missed our first port in Iceland we only had one full day in Reykjavik and we tried to make the best of it. We left the ship on the first shuttle bus into the downtown area where we stopped at the new concert center and convention hall called the Harpa, which means harp (see, Icelandic isn't a hard language). The building is modernistic and all black glass panes to make it look like lava or something. It is impressive, especially since it is the only thing on the old harbor that is more than three stories.

It was raining lightly but we took off on our own walking tour and looked at monuments to Vikings, in fact everything seems to be a monument to Vikings despite the fact that the Vikings came from Sweden and Norway and only used Iceland as a pit stop. We headed to the famous church in  town which is far more impressive from a distance than it is up close and personal. There were lines of people waiting to take an elevator to the top of the church for the 'good' view of Reykjavik, but we just looked at the beautiful organ and departed.

All too soon we realized we had seen everything and headed back to the ship for a quick lunch, changed our wet cloths for dry and headed back to a bus, this time for a four hour tour called, "Historic Iceland, Lava Fields and Viking History."  By now it was really pouring, but looking at the rain at least distracted us from the most BORING guide in the universe. By the end of the tour we all knew what he paid for his water and electricity, the price of a car and how much gasoline costs. It was more of a really dull lesson on the economics of an island nation than an exciting lecture on the history of the island, but perhaps there is no exciting history of Iceland.

We continued in the rain through endless lava fields, which are flat and covered with a dull brownish moss. We went past a large lake with swans on it and finally, after on hour on the bus, came to the thermal springs and boiling mud puddles. We got out of the bus into a raging rain storm with cold rain coming at us horizontally, but we persisted because it was either that or stay on the bus and listen to the guide. After ten minutes of sulfur infused air and watching mud boil, we headed to the toilets before getting on the bus for what we were told was going to be another hour ride. There were only two toilets, this at one of the major attractions on the island, and since we were on a cruise where we were among the youngest, there was active interest in both holes.  (Note from Cindy: yes it was wet and windy and smelly too, but the colors of the water and mud were amazing.  They've built walkways alongside the thermal springs so at least our feet were dry!).

Back on the bus we tried to dry ourselves as best as we could while heading through more lava fields to what was described as a picturesque fishing village.  This turned out to be the major fish processing plant in Iceland and we traded sulfur stinks for fish stinks. Then it was on to the Viking Museum - which truth be told, was wonderful. There was a replica of a midsize Viking ship and lots and lots of history and detail in how they sailed, traded and made ships. Truly a great experience and it was all indoors.  Then back to the ship where we passed the Blue Lagoon - another tour included the mud baths and sulfur springs, but that's not our cup of tea so driving past was great.  The water is an amazing shade of light blue aqua with swirls of pink.  The rest of the tour was a ride through rush hour traffic before being deposited in the parking lot where we had to walk though yet another rainstorm to board. We had never seen so many people making a beeline to the bar before, all of us still in our wet jackets and shoes - it was hilarious.  The Crystal cruise folks had set up a table full of fluffy dry bath towels just inside the ship, so you can believe that our tales of dampness are not exaggerated!

Best wishes, Cindy and Wm