Updates

Seems like time for a "facelift" of the blog.  The traveling theme does not seem to fit these days as age and COVID put a lid on our travel, at least for a while.  In the meantime we want to journal, for ourselves as much as for our friends, the growth of our newest family member Misty.  Her breeder sends us regular photo updates and this one is from yesterday.  Not much change in a couple days of course but it is a good picture to share.

Misty at almost 5 weeks, still nursing.

Misty's Mom

Misty's dad, where the Wolf Sable gene comes from.

.... and The Beginning Of A New One.

In our last post we said good-bye to our motorhome and became pretty much land locked in the Desert.  With the Covid Pandemic I suppose we would have had the same experience with or without the coach parked here since there were few places to go.

Today we started on a new adventure of a different nature.  We paid a deposit on a "Wolfe Sable" Pomeranian named "Misty".  Misty is only 4 weeks old and still nursing so we have only met her via photos and videos.  She really does not have a developed immune system yet so we must keep our distance for her safety.  If all goes well she will come home with us in mid January from the breeder who,  luckily for us, only lives a couple miles away.

It has been many years since we owned a dog and never one this small.  Misty will probably top out at around 5 pounds if she is like her dad pictured below.  Right now she really does not look much at all like what she will look like as an adult. 

Misty's dad is on the left (the smaller one).

Our kitty, Peanut, who now weighs 12.5 pounds really needs a playmate and based on her interaction with dogs that have come here to visit we are confident that she and Misty will get along great once we get thing broken in and settled.  

Here is a short video of Misty from a few days ago.  She will change rapidly over the next few weeks.

So the video did not post well in the email many of you get.  If you are viewing the post in our blog the video should work fine.  If you are not in the blog you can see the video by viewing this post at www.waltandarlyene.blogspot.com .   Otherwise here is a still of Misty at 4 weeks.  

 

End Of An Adventure.......

After something like 80K miles of travel in three different motor homes over 12 years it had to happen,  Tuesday Arlyene and I said goodbye to Norv Orbus, our beloved Tiffin Allegro Bus.  The sad truth was that we were simply no longer using it enough to justify keeping it.  My coronary bypass in July of 2019 pretty much took care of that summer.  COVID has taken care of this summer.  We started to think about downsizing to something a bit smaller that we would use less often.  Smaller does not necessarily mean cheaper in the RV world however and so downsizing was also a bit hard to justify based on cost.  

After exploring options to sell on consignment or trade in on something smaller I decided to try and sell it myself on the internet using something similar to Auto Trader, only for RV's.  I listed Norv for sale back in February.  About a month ago a couple from Ohio contacted me and that started a lot of back and forth and a video tour which culminated in them driving here in a rental car, arriving last Sunday.  Al and Ruth are already experienced RVer's with a 5th Wheel so we did not need to teach them how to be campers and Al had experience driving large trucks.  So after a full day of Norv Orbus boot camp they were ready to set out on their own after a test drive.  We did that Tuesday morning driving 15 miles south of our house on I-15 to a truck stop where we topped off the fuel and said our goodbye's.  We followed them back north on the freeway, waived one last time at Norv and watched him drive away.

I have been surprised by my reaction to our separation.  I thought saying goodbye to Denita, (our last sailboat) was difficult but did not expect that same reaction to Norv.  In some ways watching Norv drive away was just as hard.  We know we made the right decision but we feel the loss.  Norv was our full time home for seven years and cast a big shadow here at our house and that shadow is now more than half way back to Ohio.  Ruth and Al will clearly love the coach, whatever they call it, and Al will take good care of it.  That helps some.  The burden of being responsible for all that machinery and keeping it in good shape while not really using it has been lifted off my shoulders and perhaps that is what I am feeling the most.

When we closed the boating chapter of our lives we had the excitement of moving on to the RV lifestyle and that was a new adventure.  This kind of feels like the adventure is over and I don't like that feeling.  Of course, in these COVID-19 days most of the places we would want to go are closed or too risky for our age group.  These seem to be mostly stay-at-home days now and we are thankful to have a nice home to stay in.   Still, we are looking around and planning our next adventure.  We don't know what that will be or when it will be but I am sure it will be a good one when it comes.  

Norv, Al and Ruth leaving the truck stop on their new adventure.

Our last view of Norv, headed for Ohio. 
Maybe he will come back for a visit some day.

So it also seems time for a new look to the blog and a new header.  Before I do that I want to save the one that we have used for all the time we have had the motorhomes.

Don't want to forget our traveling pal Gizmo, our adventures or Norv Orbus himself.

SOME CLOSING STATISTICS/NOTES/THOUGHTS

We had an interesting experience as we left Eurodam and headed for the San Diego airport.  Another passenger had taken one of my bags and left his behind.  We knew this because it was just me and his bag left in the cavernous building where everyone goes to claim their bags.  My bag was on the wrong bus going to the wrong place at the airport.  It all worked out in the end and Holland America reunited me with my bag at the airport and I was able to check it in and it even made it back here to Las Vegas with all the others.  Other than that our departure was orderly and well organized.  Our flight was on time and Jim was there to pick us up.  He even had dinner ready to go after we got back here to the house.

So, this brings the journal of our trip to an end but I thought I would share a few statistics with you to close.

• Our average speed for the entire trip was 14.8 knots.
• We traveled 8562 nautical miles which = roughly 9,850 statute miles.
• The ship used 699,000 gallons of fuel.
• (That works out to 70.9 gallons per mile. GPM vs MPG)
• Eurodam's crew of 834 was made up of 44 nationalities.
• Eggs consumed = 144,000
• Arlyene and I are now members of the ORDER OF THE PURPLE PORPOISE and GOLDEN SHELLBACKs.

This was a wonderful trip and everything we had hoped it would be.  Definitely a bucket list thing for me.  I highly recommend Holland America Lines, they did a superb job.

As I have said in the past, I journal these things on our blog largely for my own enjoyment and for the joy I get reliving some of our trips by going back and reading previous postings and looking at the photos.  I have also enjoyed sharing these postings with you and hope you found them interesting.

Viva La Verve !  

FRIDAY - LAST SEA DAY

Today, Friday,  is our last sea day.  By around 10 am tomorrow we will be off the ship and on our way to the airport.  Eurodam and her crew will be taking on a new set of passengers almost as we leave then heading for Hawaii.  "Been there, done that, got the t-shirt".

Our photos are of a pod of purposes that were feeding on the surface not too far from the ship.  Later we passed Guadalupe Island, off the coast of Baja.  It is a volcanic island with some sea elephants, some goats and a few fisher people.  Hey, it was something to look at other than water.

Since breakfast we have been packing and coughing so now you know why I was excited to get on deck and take some pictures of a barren island.

Tonight is the farewell dinner.  Once we get our packing finished and our bags out in the passage way we will probably not see each other until we all get back to Las Vegas.  Mike, Kimberly, Sandy and Ken all get off in the first wave and they are taking their own bags off after which they will get their car and drive back.  Arlyene and I are flying but our plane does not leave until late afternoon so the others are likely to get home before we do.

It has been a great trip and we all had a great time and we are all still getting along - actually having fun.  But it had to end sometime, we all have places to be and things to do so we better just get on with it.

CLOSING ON SAN DIEGO

We are enjoying probably the smoothest ride of the entire trip.  The seas are very flat, about as close to glass like as the Pacific probably ever gets.  There is almost no perceptible roll or pitch.  Last night I woke up wondering if the ship had stopped.  The temperatures and humidity have moderated as well.

Tonight is our last dress up night and the photographers will be out in force.  Hopefully we can get a nice group photo we all like.  Tomorrow is our last full day at sea.  We arrive early Saturday morning in San Diego and  should be off the ship by 9:30 or 10:00.  The amazing thing is that they will refuel, re-provision, take on a whole new group of passengers, and leave again about 5 pm headed for another round trip to Hawaii before going north to do Alaska cruises.

POSITION REPORT

We continue to chug along on a heading of 28 degrees and a speed of 19 knots headed for San Diego in a straight line.  I was able to find our actual Latitude and Longitude and plot our location on this Google Map.

Looks like we are just a little closer than Hawaii which agrees with the number of days we have left.  In the process of finding our location - which is not provided to us here on the ship with any great detail, I also ran across a service that tracks all kinds of ships.  The map above looks kind of lonely but when you see what else is out here that changes.

You should be able to click on this to enlarge it.  Eurodam is the small blue ship bottom center.  On this entire voyage we have only seen one other ship when we are out on these sea days.  Day after day with nothing on the horizon.  Clearly there is more going on out there then we can see and we are not nearly as close together as this screen shot would suggest.