Hi, welcome back. Our
last episode concluded on Thursday, August 31st, at our home in
Pahrump. Friday, the first day of
September. Summer is slowly coming to a
close. The 115 degree plus days of
mid-August are gone, with most days in the low 100’s. Friday was a stay-at-home day. We had a bunch of Monsoon moisture come up
into the high desert and we spent most of the day with on and off again
rain. Sometimes it was very hard
rain. Although we didn’t have any
flooding around our park or even our site, there was flooding elsewhere in
Pahrump. In addition, Highway 160, the
road over the hump to Las Vegas, closed because of flooding. For the short-term Pahrump is cut off except
to head North in Nevada. What we call
the “back way” out of Pahrump, through Shoshone, California south to Baker and
Interstate 15, was closed a couple of weeks ago because of the Hilary flooding
and is still closed, as is Death Valley.
I got a call from my son Roy, who is working at Death Valley, that they
are being laid off for a while because the park is closed. He may come and stay at the Escapees Park for
a while. I did have to go out in the
rain for a little while for my first tour of security duty, but fortunately it
had slowed down a bit during the time I was out.
Saturday, September 2nd, we had another stay-at-home
day. The forecast called for a
possibility of showers, but nothing came of it, and we had a cloudy but dry
day. I did some packing for our cruise
next weekend and some chores. We went to
happy hour at 4:00, then had dinner and spent the rest of the evening with the
TV. Sunday, we had coffee and the paper
in the morning. We went to ice cream
social at 2:00 and then left to do a quick Walmart run. After shopping we headed back home, had
dinner and then spent the night watching TV.
Monday, September 4th, Happy Labor Day, the
unofficial end of summer! It was another
stay-at-home day. We had a BBQ and
potluck in the clubhouse at 1:00. We did
some petite sirloin steak sandwiches and provided some crab salad for the
potluck. It was pretty well attended, at
least a couple dozen or more in attendance.
By 2:30 we were done and went back to the trailer. We spent the rest of the day doing chores and
relaxing. I am 95% packed and Jackie is
getting there. Tuesday was a stay at
home, chores and packing day. I did take
the car to the Quonset hut to air up the tires and check the fluids. All good, ready for a drive to Long Beach on
Saturday. We did go to happy hour, then
came home and I made a pot of chili for dinner.
After dinner we watched TV and then went to bed.
Wednesday, September 6th, Jackie went to play
Pokeno in the clubhouse at 1:00 and Len came over for guitar practice. After Jackie got home, we went to the hair
salon for haircuts. I just got a trim
and clean up, Jackie got a full cut.
After that we headed home, had dinner and then watched TV for the rest
of the night. Thursday, we went out
after lunch and went to the nail salon.
I got my toenails trimmed and Jackie got a full mani/pedi. While she was doing that I went out and ran a
couple of last-minute errands, gassed up the car, got some cash, that kind of
thing. We are close to being ready to
leave Pahrump on Saturday morning. After
we got home, we went to happy hour, then came home, had dinner and watched TV
for the rest of the evening.
Friday, September 8
th, our last day before the
cruise. We spent the day just finalizing
our packing and getting ready to leave tomorrow for our cruise. Saturday morning, we were up early, about
6:30, so that we could be on the road by 9:00 or so, heading to Long Beach,
California. We packed our suitcases in
the car and were on the road heading west by about 9:30. The trip was fairly easy, although a bit
long. Being a Saturday morning, the
traffic wasn’t too heavy until we got into the heart of Los Angelese, the last
30 miles or so to the hotel in Long Beach.
We got into the hotel about 4:00, which was check in time. We checked into our room, got the car parked and
our luggage in the room. We then met
with the rest of our group, Jim and Linda Sullivan, and Charlene and
Joyce. We had a couple of cocktails in
the lobby bar, had some snacks for dinner, then went to our separate
rooms. We got a good night’s sleep.
Sunday, September 10
th, we were in the lobby with
our luggage ready to go at 10:00.
We
have a package with the hotel that lets us leave our car parked in their lot
while we are on the cruise.
Our check in
time for getting on the ship was 11:30 and we were in a taxi, also provided by
the hotel, by 11:00 headed for the ship.
The taxi dropped us off at the luggage drop off for the ship, we checked
our bags and headed for check in with the ship.
It went pretty easy, much more so that it did back in February when we
did the Panama Canal cruise.
We were
onboard the ship, the Carnival Miricle, by 12:30.
We couldn’t get into our cabin until after
1:30, so we did the lifeboat station check, then got a bite to eat in the
buffet.
When we got to the cabin
at 1:30
most of our bags were in the room, so we started unpacking.
There didn’t seem to be as much storage space
in this cabin as we had in previous voyages this year, but we made do.
After we got unpacked, we spent a little time
checking out some of the ship.
We met
the rest of our group at about 6:00 for dinner in the dining room.
While we were eating the ship sailed out of
Long Beach harbor and we were on our way North to Alaska.
After dinner we checked out the casino, had a
drink or two and at 9:00 went to the welcome aboard show in the theater.
The ship has a great company of entertainers,
singers and dancers for the big shows, and they put on a nice show.
After the show we went back to the casino for
a bit, had a drink and went to bed about 10:00 because we were beat.
Monday, September 11
th, Patriots Day. Most everyone on the ship was dressed in
patriotic clothing today. We went to a memorial
gathering in the main atrium which included a moment of silence. A little later in the afternoon there was a
Military salute ceremony in the theater which was very moving. The rest of the afternoon we wandered the
ship, checking out games and having some cocktails. We had dinner with our group at around 6:00,
then after dinner attended another show, this time a female singer headliner. After the show we went to the comedy show
then headed off to bed at about 11:00.
The seas were pretty calm and we had a good night’s sleep. Tuesday was our
second day at sea. We slept in because we could and there wasn’t
anything on the morning schedule we really wanted to do. We got coffee from room service and just
relaxed until lunch time. At 11:30 we
went to a cooking demonstration in the Steak House, which is on the top deck of
the ship. They cooked several really
nice dishes and gave everyone the recipes to take home. After the demonstration we did a few games
and went to karaoke at 3:30. The don’t
have a huge song selection, but I got a couple of songs in. Dinner again at 6:00 with the gang, then
another show in the theater, another show by the house dancers and
singers. Tonight was a formal night so
we got dressed up and even had some pictures taken. After the show we went to the comedy club
again, which is in a very bizarre looking room called “Mad Hatters Ball” and is
decorated like a bad Alice in Wonderland dream.
The comedians are pretty funny though.
After the show we went off to bed.
Wednesday, September 13
th, our third and last day
at sea northbound before we start making port calls. We slept in again, then had a late breakfast
in the buffet. We spent the day just
relaxing at various areas of the ship.
We went to karaoke again the afternoon, got to sing a song and listen to
some others sing. We had dinner with the
group again around 6:00. Most of the
time it is all six of us for dinner and we have had some pretty good food. Charlene did get seasick the second day out
and missed a couple of dinners. There
was another solo singer in the theater tonight who put on a really good show,
singing show songs. He was an old Broadway
show entertainer. After the show we went
to the comedy club again, then off to bed.
Thursday, we made our first port call in Sitka, Alaska. Unfortunately, the forecast called for rain
and Mother Nature didn’t disappoint, it was raining cats and dogs. We bundled up in our rain gear after
breakfast and got off the ship just long enough to visit one of the restaurants
on the pier and have lunch, check out some of the shops on the pier, buy a
couple of shirts and we were back on the ship.
The actual town of Sitka was a couple miles down the road by bus and we
didn’t have any need to go to town in the pouring rain. We have been to Sitka in the past. We went back on the ship and just spent the
day with various activities. We had
dinner with the group then spent some time in the casino. I managed to win a couple hundred dollars
playing let it ride, which was nice.
Other than that, we had very little luck in the casino on this trip. Tonight, because of the storm, we had a
pretty rough ride, although it didn’t bother either Jackie or I very much. We still slept pretty well despite the
rocking and rolling. Since we have an
aft facing cabin we get a little more motion than some of the other people, but
it was OK.
Friday, September 15
th, we arrived in Juneau,
Alaska, the Capital city, in the morning.
The weather had cleared up, although it was a bit chilly. We got off the ship after breakfast and
walked around town for quite a while. We
had lunch at the Red Dog Saloon, the same place we had lunch back in 2007 when
we came here on our first Alaska cruise.
I had to buy another tee shirt because I wore my last one out. After lunch we spent a couple of hours
shopping in the downtown area and we even managed to get a geocache on the pier
before reboarding the ship. We had a
nice dinner with most of our group, then just relaxed around the ship. We didn’t sail until about 10:00,
so we
didn’t get to go to the casino at all today.
Saturday, we arrived early in the morning in Skagway, Alaska. This is the one port stop where we actually
remember the town well because we actually spent four days here in 2009 when we
drove the motor home up with the caravan through Alaska. It was the heart of the 1890’s gold rush in
Alaska and has quite a history. The
whole group had lunch together in one of the brew house restaurants, then we
all went to the Elks Lodge for a cocktail.
It was a little rainy, but fairly light, not like it was in Sitka. We did some shopping and touring and then
headed back to the ship. We had dinner
with the group, then spent the evening just relaxing around the ship. The ship sailed about 7:00 and we had another
night of rough weather that put a couple of our groups back on their heels
again. There were no theater shows tonight.
Sunday, September 17
th, we arrived on another cold, rainy morning to a
place called Icy Point Strait. It is a
newer, private port of call on the inside passage owned by a tribe of Indians
who have put in docking facilities and some shops, as well as what is touted as
the longest zip line in the country. At
the turn of the century the area was the site of a salmon cannery owned by the
Indians. Since it was raining again, we
didn’t go into the little Indian village of Hoonah, but rather just went ashore,
shopped in the old cannery which has been turned into a small shopping mall,
then got back on the ship. The only activity
besides food and shopping was the zip line, and it was closed due to the
weather. After we got back on the ship
we just
relaxed until we sailed again, about 7:00. We had dinner with our group, then went to a
show in the theater. It was the usual
“Love and Marriage” show that every cruise line does at least once each
cruise. It was pretty entertaining. We went to the late comedy show, then went to
bed. Monday was the day we were supposed
to be cruising the Tracy Arm Fjord, which is where a lot of the cruise ships
are going to see glaciers and ice bergs and close in scenery since the National
Park Service is limiting the number of ships and passengers going into Glacier
Bay National Park, which is where we cruised back in 2007. However, shortly after entering the fjord,
which is narrow and winding, the captain announced that the fog was too thick
and we would not be able to cruise the fjord.
One highlight of the cruise was cancelled. Oh, well, better safe than shipwrecked. We spent the rest of the day cruising
south. We played some in the casino,
went to karaoke, had some drinks and relaxed.
We ended up doing some laundry, which went late, so we had dinner on our
own in the dining room. It was supposed
to be a formal night, but we didn’t bother getting all dressed up as we were
alone and it was rough seas. After
wandering the ship we went to bed.
Tuesday, September 19
th, we arrived in the
morning to the port of Ketchikan, which is the last Alaskan port on the
cruise. The weather was cool and
slightly rainy, so we got off the ship and walked around town for a while. We ate at an out of the way local restaurant
called The New York Café, and had some really good food. Afterwards we shopped for an hour or so
before heading back to the ship. We had
dinner with the group at 6:00, then went to a show again in the theater. We skipped the late-night comedy as we were
tired, so we went to bed about 10:00. Wednesday
morning we arrived in Prince Rupert, British Columbia, which is a new
substitute Canadian port for the Alaska cruise ships. By law they have to stop in a Canadian port
before returning to the states, and in the past that was Victoria Island. However, there are now so many ships on the
Alaska tours that they have had to find alternative ports. Prince Rupert was a tiny little town, and we
didn’t even get off the ship. I was
starting to feel like I had gotten a cold, and I was coughing and not feeling
100 percent. We sailed early, about 4:00, and just relaxed for a while. We had dinner in the dining room with our
group, then just went back to the room and relaxed. Both of us were starting to get sick with
what seemed like the flu or a cold. We
went to bed early.
Thursday, September 21
st, was the first of the
three sea days as we headed South back to Long Beach. Neither one of us really felt good all day,
but we did get dressed and go to dinner with the group. We made an effort because we had been invited
by the dining room Matri de to come to a special Al Fresco dining experience on
the Lido Deck, under the night skies.
That part of the pool deck has a retractable cover, so it was quite
comfortable. The six of us had our own
table and the food was the best we had on the entire cruise. We had a really good time. After dinner we went to a really great 80’s
music show put on in the theater. After
the show we went to the cabin and went to bed.
Friday was another day at sea, but we were both really sick. We didn’t leave the room except for brief
periods all day. Today was supposed to
be the last formal night, and we had made reservations in the steak house for a
special dinner, but we were too sick and the seas were really rough and we
didn’t want to be at the very top of the ship in choppy seas. We just got room service and stayed in. Saturday was the last sea day and it was much
the same as yesterday. Jackie did get
dressed and go to High Tea with the girls while I did a little gambling, but we
both wore down pretty fast. We did have
a last dinner with our group in the dining room, packed our bags after dinner
and put them out in the hall, and went to bed.
Sunday, September 24
th, we arrived in Long Beach
harbor early and had to be out of our rooms by 8:30. We were not feeling too well, but we got
packed up and out of the room on time.
By 10:00 we were off the ship but ran into a problem catching a cab to
get from the port back to the hotel where the car was. We finally got back to the car and were on
the road headed back to Pahrump about 11:30.
We made one stop for gas and lunch and made it back to Pahrump about
5:30 in the evening. We got the
suitcases out of the car and in the living room,,and then went to bed, sick and
exhausted. Monday I was starting to feel
a little better, but we decided to go to the urgent care just to check to be
sure we didn’t’ have Covid or RSV, which I suspected it might be. They checked our lungs and said they were
clear. They tested us for RSV, and it
was negative. They didn’t have any Covid
tests, but a friend of ours at the park had some spares and we tested when we
got home and were negative for Covid too.
Just a bad cold I guess. We did
get some prescriptions for steroids and antibiotics to help us get better. Tuesday was more of the same, I was able to
do some laundry and get some chores done, Jackie was still pretty sick and not
able to do much.
Wednesday, September 27th, I continued to
improve, Jackie was still pretty sick.
She was able to get her stuff unpacked and we were pretty much catching
up on the chores from the trip. We have
not been going out at all, other than on necessary short errands, and not going
to happy hour just to keep from being around other people while we have been
sick. Thursday I was pretty much 100
percent better, Jackie was starting to feel a little better. At least we are both sleeping OK now, so we
are getting our rest.
Friday, September 29th, we were both making
improvement. I was able to get most of
my office work and other pending chores completed today. We actually went to happy hour at 4:00 for
the first time since we got back from the cruise. After happy hour we had dinner, then relaxed
with the TV for the rest of the night.
Saturday, the last day of September.
Jackie had planned on going to a sip and paint gathering in the
clubhouse this afternoon at 5:00, so we went out about 1:00 for a late
lunch. We went to El Jefe Mexican
restaurant and had a nice meal, our first Mexican food in a couple of
weeks. After lunch we went back to the park,
and I did a few chores out in the shed. As
5:00 approached, Jackie said she was having a bit of a relapse and didn’t feel
like going to the painting class. We
ended up spending the rest of the night with the TV and then going to bed.
It is now a month since our last publishing, so it is time
to close out this month’s chapter. Until
next time, be kind.
