This was a “do nothing” day. Eat, sleep, read and lose money in the casino. I am still up, but barely. The weather contributed to the general miasma: cloudy and cool with intermittent showers.
TC2 Day 2: At sea
Our first full day on the Pride. We had breakfast in the buffet and met a lovely woman from Michigan, Amy, who was traveling alone and made arrangements to dine with her at dinner. It was a formal night so Marlene and Amy were both dressed to the nines. I was definitely the thorn between two roses. A guy asked me how HE could get two lovely women. I said “be me.”
After dinner we all went to the show – “88 Keys”, a tribute to piano classics. The voices were terrific, as was the piano playing. I was also impressed by the staging. Very professional. It was, hands down, the best cruise production I have seen since before COVID. Near the theater was a little hallway called, I believe, Serenity Garden. Empty but I thought it was lovely. Very tasteful.
We stopped in one of the nightclubs on the way back to the room. The band was playing some very danceable music, which we could not resist. We danced. And danced some more. Then we met the band. From Argentina. I think we will be dancing to their music many more times on this cruise.
We spent quite a bit of time in the casino. I think Marlene is down some but the slots continued to be kind to me. I ended the day up $123. It won’t last.
Categories: TC2
Leave a comment
TC2 Day 1: Embarkation in Tampa FL
My transatlantic cruise, with Marlene, has begun. We boarded the ship – the Carnival Pride – in Tampa Thursday around noon. We are now underway.
But before the trip began we had to figure out how to get from home to the ship (Tampa) and from the airport (Miami) back home. The astute reader might notice that Tampa and Miami are two different cities, so driving and leaving the car was not an option.
Why not fly back to Tampa? Because flights from Spain to Tampa cost about twice as much as flights from Spain to Miami. It would be cheaper to fly to Miami and take an Uber to Tampa. But that didn’t seem like a great option either, so we prevailed on our friend Maureen to drive us to Tampa. That took care of the departure problem. To get back from Miami we decided to drive to Coral Springs in two cars, stay overnight with Marlene’s brother Michael and drive home in her car, leaving my Toyota with Mike. He will pick us up at the Miami airport and we can drive home in my car.
Whew! I hope that is the most difficult part of this trip. We haven’t booked hotels in Spain yet, but Marlene assures me that it will be easy to find good accommodations. We will take a train from Barcelona to Madrid.
The Pride. This is one of the smallest ships in the Carnival fleet with a capacity of 2,124 passengers – less than half the capacity of many of their larger vessels. It is also old, launched in 2001. It was refurbished in 2012 and is going into drydock in Europe after this journey, so it is showing its age. But it is still beautiful, with classic Italian decor. And the staff is friendly and efficient. So it made a positive first-day impression.
We have a balcony cabin – spacious compared to some I have had – with an oversized balcony. No complaints except that there is just ONE electrical outlet in the cabin. We don’t have a lot of electrical gadgets with us, but it is annoying to have to share the one outlet. Being an older ship, the television is small and the channel selection is lousy. No on-demand movies. But no big deal. We don’t spend a lot of time in the cabin watching movies.
The buffet is more than adequate and the burgers and pizzas are very good. There is just one dining room and so far the food there has been mediocre, but I am not worried about starving.
We explored the ship a bit. We found the cruise director, Joey, and had a nice chat with him. Turns out that Marlene knew his fiancé who is a cruise director on another Carnival ship. I also took a picture of the American Victory, a WWII vintage ship that is now a floating museum in Tampa. We were docked right next to it.
I was amazed at how long it took to exit Tampa Bay – nearly 2 hours. This bay is HUGE. But we got a lovely view of the sun setting over St Petersburg.
The casino on the first day was kind to me. I walked out with a $1.22 profit.
Categories: FL, Places, TC2
Leave a comment
Dance, dance, dance
I think 2023 will be the “year of the dance,” thanks largely to Marlene. She loves to dance and goes to clubs and other music venuues three or four times per week. And then there are the festivals. In the past couple of weeks we have gone to
- Redbones to listen to Zydegatorz, a local Zydeco band.
- Rusty’s to listen to Unfinished Business, a 60;s rock-and-roll band.
- Sneaky Pete’s to listen to Jacob’s Ladder, a “fat-bottomed rock” band.
- Twisted Fork to listen to Pure Country, a classic country band.
- The Bonita Springs Shrimp Festival to listen to several bands including Memphis Lightning, a high-energy rock-and-roll band.
And we didn’t just listen, of course… we DANCED. A lot.
Categories: Adventures, FL, Friends, Music, Places
Leave a comment
Re-tired
I had my first flat tire with my Corolla last week. I was on my way home to prepare for my afternoon volunteer gig driving golf cart for cancer patients at Lee Health Regional Cancer Center when my front left tire started losing air. I suspect I ran over something dropped from a flatbed that was shedding debris in front of me. At first I thought it was just a low tire pressure warning but it soon became apparent that it was going flat. Fast. I couldn’t make it home. So I had to stop on an off ramp from I-75 and replace the thing myself. Not fun. My jack was a bit rusty and I had to lift the car four times because every time I got it up the car shifted a bit and the jack tilted. I ended up with a blister on my finger and a bruised left palm. But I got it changed. I hope I never have to do that again.
And the tire – one of the two I got new before the trip north last summer, with less than 7,000 miles on it – was damaged beyond repair. Over $200 to replace it. *sigh*
Categories: Adventures, FL, Places
Leave a comment
“Sanibel Flats” by Randy Wayne White
Copyright 1990 by Randy Wayne White. Published by St Martin’s Press, New York.
This is the first of White’s series of mystery/adventure novels featuring Doc Ford, marine biologist. There are currently 26 books in the series, so this is the flagship of a very successful series.
The book opens with Doc Ford returning from a mysterious stint working clandestinely for the US government in Central America. It isn’t clear who he was working for or what he was doing, but it establishes his bona fides as a more-than-biologist figure. He sets up a small business preparing marine specimens for use in high school labs around the country. He does this on Sanibel Island, near Ft Myers, where he was born and raised. The local flavor adds to the appeal of the book for me.
He soon gets enmeshed in the mysterious death of an old buddy, Rafe Hollins. The police close the case as a suicide but Doc Ford knows it was murder, having discovered the body and some gems hidden nearby. He also knew that Rafe’s son had been abducted, probably by a guerrilla group in Masagua, a third-world country in Central America. He commits himself to saving the boy. Much of the book takes place in Masagua. That is the adventure part. The mystery part is what happened to Rafe and why.
The book is well-written, particularly for a first novel. I will try another.
But the plot was implausible. Fun but not real believable. The book would have scored higher if it had been more realistic.
7 out of 10.
Categories: Books
Leave a comment
First – and last – anniversary
I met Ooma a year ago today. The year consisted of two months of joy, 4 months of bewilderment and 6 months of increasing acrimony. I now regard her as the most despicable person I have ever known. I have no plans to have anything more to do with her.
But, in case she reads this, I want to state, one last time and with feeling: I NEVER LIED TO HER and NEVER BROKE A PROMISE. Her inability to accept that truth was the beginning of the end of our relationship.
Categories: Friends
Leave a comment
Second transatlantic cruise (TC2) preview
My 10-week auto trip last summer with Ooma was a disaster, but hope springs eternal. Marlene loves to cruise. So do I. And she has access to deals far better than anything I can get. So when she found a 13-night transatlantic cruise aboard the Carnival Pride from Tampa FL to Barcelona Spain for under $600 for both of us in a balcony cabin how could I say no? Less than $300 for 13 nights? Unbelievable!
The ship doesn’t make a lot of stops – just the Azores, Malaga, Valencia and Barcelona – but that is fine. I like being on the ship. Same for Marlene. We will have fun.
We will stay 3 nights in Barcelona and 3 nights in Madrid, then fly from Madrid to Miami.
Figuring out both ends of the trip was a challenge. Leaving from Tampa and returning to Miami (because the flights to Miami are half the cost of the flights to Tampa) means that I can’t drive and park. So we have arranged to be driven to Tampa and I am probably going to leave my car in Coral Springs with Marlene’s brother. We will figure out the details.
I haven’t booked the hotels in Spain yet. Nor the train trip from Barcelona to Madrid. But Marlene speaks Spanish and doesn’t want to book way in advance. Fine with me. I like adventure.
We leave April 13.
Categories: TC2
Leave a comment
St Patty’s Day in Fort Myers
I had never attended a St Patrick’s Day in Ft Myers. Until now. This year St Patrick’s Day – March 17 (and what would have been my 20th wedding anniversary with Jett) – fell on a Friday. And not just any Friday but the once-a-month Friday when Fort Myers has its MusicWalk, a celebration of music in downtown Fort Myers. It is always fun and I figured that this one would be even funner. So Marlene and I, along with friends Larry and Dottie, drove down for an afternoon of music and beer.
And some shopping, too. Can’t take Marlene and Dottie downtown without spending some time in the stores.
The featured band was Deb and the Dynamics, one of our favorite local bands. We have seen them many times this season, mostly at the Wednesday night street dances hosted by Cork Soakers in Cape Coral. But they got the big stage at the St Patrick’s Day festivities and the crowd loved them. What’s not to love?
We also listened to another band – can’t recall the name – where the lead singer was a former minister. Tending to a different flock, I guess. They were pretty good, too. Larry and I got some green beer at The Lodge and Marlene saw a custom bicycle that looked like a motorcycle. Pretty cool.
A fine St Patrick’s Day in Fort Myers.
Categories: Adventures, FL, Friends, Music, Places
Leave a comment
Fun with phones
I helped Marlene update her cell phone today. She bought the phone 2 months ago and we both avoided the upgrade task because we expected that it would be massively annoying. We were right.
The first step was actually easy: transferring apps, contacts, call logs, etc. There is an app for that. I went pretty smoothly although the contacts did not appear to be transferred. But when I moved the SIM card then the contacts magically reappeared. I thought we were close to completion. But I was wrong. When I tried to make a phone call I got a message that the phone was “not registered on a network.” Googling the problems gave me some things to try. They all failed. A call to Marlene’s tech-savvy son yielded a URL to unlock (re-register?) the phone. But it wanted $29. Nope. There must be a way to do it for free.
So we drove 2 miles to the local Metro PCS store where we learned that they would do it for $21 (less than $29 but not free). But the store guy told us that we could do it for free on their website. So back home and get on the website. Find the two VERY long numbers (a phone ID and a SIM ID) and enter them. Press ENTER… nothing. Just didn’t work.
Called the Metro PCS help line. Waited 15 minutes. Got an agent who needed to verify Marlene’s identity by sending a code to her phone. Um, no, ma’am, that won’t work as the problem we are trying to fix is THE PHONE DOESN’T WORK. She hemmed and hawed and finally consulted a supervisor. She suggested we return to the store, have them register the phone. And waive the $21 fee.
Back to the store. There was minimal hassle there. They were able to make the phone work.
Two hours and two trips to the store. Sheesh.
Now Marlene has to deal with the things that did not get transferred. Like the status on her WordScapes game. She was up to level 2000 but the new phone started her over at level 1. She really doesn’t want to re-play 2,000 word games. Hopefully she can figure out how to fix that. But that is probably just the first of many transfer problems.
Fun with phones.