500 Saturdays: Nomad Diary

Darrell and me today. Christmas day in sister-law's backyard.  Alex and niece Casey with Boo and Roo. Visiting from DC. Soon to be lawyer and a working OT. 3 sister nieces,  Kylee,  Kaytie (virtual in Houston,  Texas) and Casey Donald and Shirley (88 years young). Live with Daughter,  Cyndy.  Decorated Old Denton Courthouse in square.  Cyndy cooking Crepes and earlier,  cinnamon rolls on the counter. She is cooking up a storm this week: prime rib, turkey pot pie, coconut pie, layered pudding, yeast rolls, etc! She's a 5th grade teacher on holiday.  Present party. What a sweet time with extended family! We have enjoyed being with them and being included in their holiday.   Darrell and I are staying in an airbnb about 9 miles away in Denton. We have little to gush about our apartment in an old house. It's okay, and that's the best I can say.  When...

I called this Dragon Cloud at Sunrise.  On NCL Breakaway Ship at 40-50% capacity makes for no lines, no little children, lots of empty chairs.  On the ship. Once on board,  masks are not required.  View of a rainbow from our balcony.  Pastry demo  Moon over the ocean.  We boarded the ship Dec 12th in the afternoon.  Everyone was required to be vaccinated and also take a fast covid test just prior to boarding.  We sailed out of NOLA. Monday: sea day. Tuesday: Cozumel.  We walked down the beach and around the local shopping.  I had a smoothie made of espresso,  avocado and honey! Yum! Then we got seafood tacos!  Wednesday: Roatan. We went four wheel mudding. I had never done this before and I had a blast! We showered outside when we finished the course. We were soaked to the skin! The day was continually raining on and off. We only got dry once we got to...

 The past week has been a busy one!  Darrell and I both had doctor appointments scheduled, travel PCR covid and blood tests to take, prescriptions to fill, a 12 hour 'retirement class' online, Darrell's regular remote work schedule, and packing for our upcoming cruise and our next 6 weeks of travel.  We got so much accomplished in our week!  Friday morning, yesterday was our check out day at our Decatur, Alabama airbnb.  We went out early in the morning to pack our car and truck, and an unfortunate event happened.  Darrell had a slight accident while backing up the truck, the driver's side mirror hit a tree.  When Darrell got out of the truck, he noticed that this collision had shattered the rear mirror.  So we had to rearrange how we were accomplishing our morning so that I could take the truck into Huntsville and get a new mirror or as it turned out, a stick on temporary mirror. We left Huntsville on Friday around 1pm heading for New Orleans....

These three sons live in this area. Left to right in the picture: Wesley (35); Samuel (28); Eric (36). We gathered at Eric and Erin's house to have a meal, exchange gifts and play a few games.  We get our mail at this address and maintain our state residence here. This is a huge help to us living this way. I have a great time being with grandson Owen,  born Sept 14th. He is playful, smiley and vocal. He resembles his Dad, Eric. I enjoy playing,  and then rocking him to sleep. After a cooperative dinner, we gathered for games.  Next to Eric is Phoebe and then Glenn, Darrell's youngest brother and wife.  Eric holding Owen. Erin in background.  View of living room. Our nine night airbnb located in Decatur,  Alabama.  Our view from our airbnb of a greenspace laid out in the 1800's! Airbnb interior view from front door. To the left of these rooms are three b...