Trudy Myers's Blog, page 11

When Did Humans Reach the Americas?

This question has been simmering in the back of my mind fordecades. I’ve given panels on it at science fiction conventions, and I’vewritten blogs on the subject before, too. I believe the last blog I wrote aboutit theorized that an ice-free channel through the North American glaciers ofthe last ice age opened up about 14,000 years ago. And therefore people who hadcrossed the Bering landbridge sometime before that were finally able to leaveAlaska and find their way south to the plains of central North America. Andfrom there, they could have gone on to populate all the rest of North America,Central America and South America.

But even that might not be right.

The other night, we watched a documentary about fossilizedfootprints in the White Sands National Park in New Mexico. Although the area isa desert now, during the last ice age, it housed a large lake. The fossilizedfootprints recorded the presence of Columbian mammoths, great ground sloths,North American camels and horses. And among all those footprints, it is not atall unusual to find lots of human footprints.

Scientists have to work fast to learn all they can fromthese footprints, because as soon as they are revealed by the wind blowing thesand away, the blowing sand starts to erode the footprints away. For these arenot the usual fossils that have been turned into stone. Some of the footprintsare impressions in the sand, that had been filled with silt that was finer thanthe sand around them. Others are outlined with bulging sand indicating theweight of the animal. All of them dried out when the lake dried up, and littlehas happened to the area to disturb them. Except the blowing wind.

A number of scientists work the site each year, and I wasleft with the impression that each year presents a new batch of footprints, ata slightly lower level than the year before.

One year—and it didn’t say what year it was—a pair ofscientists who are experts at radio-carbon dating dug a trench in the sand,going down through several layers of human footprints. But you can’tradio-carbon date sand; you can only radio-carbon date organic material, likeplants or animals. By examining the layers between the human footprints, theywere able to find organic material, such as seeds or pollen. They packaged up anumber of these samples and took them back to their lab in Denver to date them.

Two years later, the narrator visited them in their lab toask what kind of dates they had gotten from their samples. They said they had gottendates between 21,000 and 23,000 years ago! That would have been long before theice-free trail through the glaciers had opened up!

At the very end of the show, the narrator was talking toanother scientist, and wondered how humans could have gotten so far southbefore the glaciers had started to melt. The anthropologist said they hadprobably followed the Pacific coastline, starting in Alaska and working theirway south. But, he pointed out, the sea level was much lower at that time (asmuch as 400 feet lower), with so much water tied up in the glaciers, so anysettlements they might have established would be underwater now. He suggestedwe should be doing more diving along the coastline to find them.

Okay. Who still thinks that ancient alien visitors broughta herd of humans to the Americas? (This was the last suggestion I made when Igave this talk at conventions.)

Life Goes On

Every once in a while – I’m sure you’ve all experienced it –life decides to kick you, just to see how you react. And there are times whenlife decides to repeat the experiment (ad nauseum) for an extended period oftime. It’s a real bummer, and the longer it goes on, the bummier it gets. (Iknow, ‘bummier’ is not a real word. Blame the creative artiste withinme. I think it gets the thought across.)

Well, for the past 8-9 months, that’s what this householdhas been going through; one of the bummiest rough patches I think I’ve beenthrough that didn’t involve people dying. Lots of illness in the house, some ofwhich we are still working our way through, a treasure trove of doctor’sappointments to schedule and then get to. Sometimes as many as 3 appointmentsin one day. A car accident that killed one of our cars, 2 air conditionersgoing out (one in our remaining car) and computer equipment dying.

There’s an old saying I’m familiar with, about insanitybeing to repeat the same action, expecting a different outcome. And it occursto me that in a way, that’s what I’ve been doing. I’ve been getting up everymorning, doing what I had to do, and expecting things to get better.

Maybe insanity wins, because I’m beginning to believethings might be getting better. I don’t want to jinx it or anything, but I’venow had 2 weeks where I did not call the doctor’s office to schedule anappointment for one of us. No urgent care or emergency room visits. Justworking our way through a number of appointments that I set up when I was ‘doingwhat I had to do’.

It’s kind of been the same in my endeavors to market ourbooks. For a lot of those same months, I worked diligently at marketing, but nothingseemed to make any difference. This past couple of weeks, I started looking at adifferent angle on my marketing. It involved laying out a bit of money, buthey, it takes money to grow money, right? (At least that’s what the rich peoplesay.) But about a week ago, it occurred to me that I could do the exact samething by making use of the outlets I already have established. Without puttingout any large sum of money. So the last few days, I’ve been designing newbusiness cards and coupons to hand out at the next science fiction convention Igo to. Which happens to be in September. Wish me luck, okay?

Life can be a bummer for a while. But at the same time,life goes on. One has to be ready for the bummerness to go away, which iteventually will. Then you can reach up for the goodness, take a deep breath,and move on in relief.

Getting Home

Sunday,4/30 - We arrived at LA, and had to find out where our gate was. We only had about1/2 hr to get there. Turned out it was down this big hallway, turn right, downthe escalator to a smaller hallway, take the elevator up to another smallhallway, then through a doorway to a small room that had 2 gates in it. Inearly missed it because I saw 'Gate 41B' before I noticed 'Gate 41A'. Weneeded 41A. We sat down in the cramped quarters to wait, and I got my sweaterout of the carry-on suitcase and put it in my carry-on bag. In case the nextplane was also cold. The boarding ramp to the plane was extra long andconvoluted, but eventually, we got to the plane. We didn't get to sit togetherhere, either. I shoved my cpap and bag under the seat in front of me, buckledmy seat belt, and tried to get some sleep. This was another 5-hr trip, to Orlando.Shortly after take-off, the staff came around with cookies and drinks. Since Ihadn't had any breakfast, I made the most of it. I think I managed to doze someof the time. Shortly before landing, staff came around again to offer coffee orwater. I should have taken the water; my sinuses felt completely parched, but Ipassed.

We claimedour baggage and went to find our shuttle for our parking lot. It took somedoing, but we finally connected with it. The shuttle driver was not the mostpleasant person in the world. Our car had been sitting in the hot sun for overa week, and the remote clicker wouldn't work; we had to open all the doors withthe key. Then as we drove home, we kept hearing the locking mechanisms goingoff and on. John finally got it to stop by hitting the 'lock' button on hisdoor handle. Our first place for stopping to eat was super busy, so we went toour 2nd choice and got something to take home with us. Watched an hour of tvwhile we ate and went to bed about 9 pm.

PS.Monday, 5/1 - we discovered we had both come home with covid.

Pearl Harbor & Getting on Our Plane

 

Pearl Harbor

Saturday, 4/29 - John got up about 5:45, having had amiserable night. Went for breakfast at the buffet, then gathered our carry-onsand made our way to the disembarkment station. Around 8, we were sent off theship to claim our luggage and find our tour bus. John nearly had a panic attackbecause he couldn't find our car keys. We were given a short tour of somesights in Honolulu, then given about 4 hrs to explore the Pearl HarborMemorial. We saw 2 short movies and took a boat over to the USS ArizonaMemorial, where we spent about 15 or 20 minutes. We didn't know if there wouldbe a place to eat at the airport, so we got a sandwich apiece at the snack shopand finished with a look through the gift shop, where I bought a tote bag. Bythen, John was getting tired, so we slowly walked back to the bus and waitedfor the rest of the people to show up. The tour bus dropped us off at theairport at about 1:30. Our plane was scheduled to take off at 10:59 pm, so wehad a long wait before we could check our luggage and go through TSA. There wasno place to eat outside the TSA, so we were extra happy we'd had sandwiches toget us through.

Getting on OurPlane

John searchedevery one of our suitcases and the carry-on bag for the car keys, which wefinally found. We discovered we could get our suitcases checked in 6 hoursbefore the plane took off, so about 5 pm, we hopped up and got started on that.TSA was its usual nightmare for John, or more so, because the x-ray machineclaimed he had metal somewhere, and they had to pat him down. Happens to me allthe time, but I think it's the first time for him. Then we started walking toour gate. It was a long walk, made even longer by the number of stores thatwere already closed. We finally came across a restaurant that was open, so westopped and had burgers and sodas. $50! Just before we got to our gate, we cameacross a news stand that was still open, though we had passed a couple that hadalready closed. We sat down and waited. Eventually, I went to that news standand bought a bottle of water. When I got back, John asked, "Couldn't youjust use the water fountain right over there?" My reply was, "Theairplane doesn't have water fountains."

There were morepeople trying to get on the plane than they had seats, including a pair ofparents and their 3 young girls. The clerk was looking for volunteers to bebumped so these extra people could get on. As we were checking in to board theplane, this family apparently figured out they wouldn't be sitting together, sothey had to go back to the clerk to get something done about that. John and Ididn't get to sit together, either. We had a 5-hour flight to LA, and I thoughtthe plane was cold, so I didn't manage to get any sleep. John tried to get somesleep, I could see him from where I was, but I don't know if he managed it.

Nearing the End in Hawaii

Thursday, 4/27 - I got up at 6:30 for our morning excursionto the 'Grand Canyon of the Pacific'. First, we made a stop at a rocky beach tosee a spatterhorn in action. That's where the incoming waves go into a tunnelin the rocks and shoots out a hole on the beach, looking much like a geyser.Very interesting.

Then we went to the canyon, which was beautiful, much greenerthan the mainland grand canyon. We weren't getting back to the ship until about2, so we made a short stop in a small town, where most people got off and got abite to eat to tide them over. John wasn't doing very well on the way back, andhe promptly lay down for a nap. I took my book back to the library and read foran hour there, then went to the bar in the lobby and got a Bahama Mama. As Isat there, a long line of people walked by on their way to the luau. I heardsome 700 people had signed up for that. About 1 1/2 hr after john lay down, Iwent back to the room and waited for him to wake. After another hour, hestirred and rolled over. I asked him if he wanted supper, and he said no, so Iwent to the skyline by myself. I was waiting for my 2 desserts (couldn't decideon one) when he walked in and found me, so I guess he did want supper, but hekept complaining the room was warm. After supper, he turned in for the night,and I wasn't too far behind him.

Friday, 4/28 - I got up at 6:30, even though I had set thewake-up call for 7. We had breakfast in the buffet, although we didn't have ashore excursion scheduled this day, then I got off the ship just far enough touse my phone to call John's ENT, but the office was closed. Was it that late?Didn't seem like it to me, even counting the 6 hrs of time difference.Meanwhile, John checked our account balance, then we started looking for face masksfor our shore excursion the next day. The Pearl Harbor Memorial, we were told,requires face masks be worn while inside. The ship's souvenir shop didn't haveany, but the medical center handed them over cheerfully. We went to deck 11 todo some reading. About 11, we went to the room to pack everything we weren'tgoing to need. At noon, we went for lunch, then John wanted a nap, but wascoughing too hard to sleep, so he went to deck 11 to take pictures. I sat inthe room writing.

About 5 pm, we went to deck 11 to try to see the beautifulNali Pai shoreline. The ship had left its dock about 2 and traveled to the eastside of the island so people could see this spectacular view before it turnedaround and headed for Honolulu. It had been a misty day, and unfortunately, aswe approached the Nali Pai shoreline, the clouds came down to sea level andobscured the view. So we went to supper at the buffet, since we were already ondeck 11. John had a couple desserts, while I had corn on the cob, celery,apricots and walnuts. Back to our room to make sure everything was packed, thenJohn went to bed. I put the big suitcases out to be disembarked for us, andwent to bed about 7:45, but because it was so early, I spent some time thinkingabout the next scene in my Work in Progress.

More Adventures in Hawaii

Tuesday, 4/25 - Hilo, Hawaii (the big island). I got upabout 6, the wake-up call came at 6:45. Went to Skyline for breakfast, where wewere warned that omelets and waffles couldtake 1/2 hour to prepare, in case we had a shore excursion. We ordered anyway,and there was no delay. Went to the theater and shortly got sent down to findour bus. Before we boarded, they handed each of us a 'box lunch' and a can ofwater. Because of my knees, we were offered seats in the front of the bus. Westopped at a Japanese garden, a statue of Kamehameha, Rainbow Falls, AkakaFalls, the zoo (where we ate our lunch), a macadamia farm gift shop and a candyshop. Had to take a detour to get to Akaka Falls, and missed the turn to thefalls, so had to turn around on a busy hiway. Got back to the boat about 3:30or 4:00, went to the talk on our next port of call. Back to our room until5:30, when we went to Skyline for supper. Long line to get in and had to skipdessert to get to the comedy show, which was good. Back to the room, read for abit, then went to bed.

 

Wednesday, 4/26 – I have forgotten the names of the restof the ports we visited and the islands they were on. My notes don’t includethat information. We’re still touring Hawaii, and probably hitting the islandsto the north and west of the Big Island.

I got up at 5:30 because I woke up. The wake-up callsounded at 6:30, and John got up. To the buffet for breakfast, then to our roomto pick up stuff for our day ashore; water, our shore excursion tickets, and soon. Went to the theater to be ready for our excursion. To get to our excursion,we had to get on a tender boat and be ferried to the shore. Once there, wefound our tour guide, jumped in his van, and we were off for a "ScenicTaste of Hawaii". First, we went to a coffee farm, where John bought anexpensive lb of coffee ($46). Then to a farmer's market, where we bought abook, 2 jars of local jelly, a facial scrub and a bottle of essential oil(TiTree). At a macadamia nut farm, John found a lb of coffee was going for $64!(He didn't get any.) Then to a park on the beach where we got a box lunch anddrink for lunch. Then back to the port for a tour of the Kona Brewing Co, wherewe sampled 4-5 different beers. Got dropped off at the pier about 4:05, and theline waiting for a tender ride back to the ship was a mile long. The lasttender was leaving the pier at 5, and they were loading tenders as fast as theycould. Once we got to the ship, we went to our room, to relax before ourspecialty dining reservation at 8:00.

I was not terribly impressed by the French food offeredby Jefferson's Bistro. Mostly, I wondered how I was supposed to eat it. Evenfor the baked pear I got for dessert, I had to ask for a knife so I could cutit up and get pieces on my spoon. 

Maui, the First Island

 Getting aTaste

 

Sunday,4/23 - At the island of Maui. We had a tasting excursion at 8:15, so we got upat 6:30 and had breakfast. Had 14 passengers and a driver/guide packed into avan, driving from place to place to try various dishes. Usually, a 'tasting' isa single bite, or maybe 2, but several of these tastings involved a completeserving. John got over-heated at 1 point, and then got full at the next stop,which surprised me. The final stop was a craft brewing company that servedfood. John tried the 2 beers they offered for tasting, but neither of us ateour fish taco. Back at the ship, John was wiped and took a nap. Then we hadsupper at the skyline, which was okay. John read for a while and went to bed. Iread until midnight and went to sleep.

Our roomhad not been made when we got back to the ship about 2. Which meant the bed hadnot been split. I complained - again - and someone arrived about 3 to clean it.We went to the library until about 4. It had been cleaned and the bedsseparated so we could use them.

 

Climbingthe Volcano

Monday,4/24 - still at Maui. Had an excursion at 8 to go to the top of the dormantvolcano, supposed to be 2 to 1/2 hours, but we didn't get back until 12:30.John tried to walk the last 500 feet to the top of the peak, but only gothalf-way there before he had to turn around and come back or miss the bus. Itwas a spectacular sight, but John was running down by the time we got back tothe ship. We were going to eat at the Skyline, but it wasn't open, so we wentto the buffet. Listened to our voicemails on our room phone. NextCruise wantedto answer John's questions, and she would be at her desk from 2 until 4. Weoriginally went to the wrong desk, but eventually found her. Then back to ourroom, where John was tired and upset. At 4, went to the talk about the nextday's port, Hilo, on the Big Island. At 5:00 was a Loyalty Appreciation party.After about 15 minutes, we left to get supper. Decided to try the CadillacDiner, but weren't impressed. John ate about half his sandwich and went back toour cabin. I finished most of my meal and went to our cabin. We talked aboutthe luau, which was an evening excursion on Thursday, and decided to cancel ourparticipation, so I went down and cancelled it. When I got back to the roomaround 7, J stopped reading and went to bed.

Saturday, Getting on the Ship

 Aftergoing to bed so early, I got up about 6, and John at about 7. When we went downto find some breakfast, the lobby restaurant wasn't open, and looked like itwas undergoing renovations or something, with a ladder and some tools in themiddle of the floor. Other guests told us there was a coffee shop down by theentrance, so we went down and got some breakfast sandwiches and drinks and tookthem to our room. Our phones worked, so John had a long call with a fellowKlingon while we waited to check out. He wanted to call another friend, butrealized he didn't have that friend's number. We checked out just before 11,and I sat in the lobby with our luggage while John went outside to takepictures. He came back about 11:15, and we moved out to the driveway, tryingnot to miss the taxi, which was due at 11:30. We found the taxi, the driver gotus to the dock just fine; it was a much shorter trip than from the airport.

We hadnever gotten luggage tags for the ship, so we had to go inside and find thetable set up just to deal with that problem. We discovered our cabin had beenchanged from 4005 to 8197, so we thought we had gotten an upgrade. Turning overour large suitcases, we could now check in, and we let them take a couplepictures before we got on the ship. Of course our cabin wasn't ready for usyet, so we found our muster station and checked in, went to the buffet forlunch and then to the Pink Champayne Bar for drinks, where a trio was playingHawaiian music.

About 3,they finally announced we could get to our cabins. Ours was hidden in a maze ofhallways in the aft of deck 8, and I almost walked past it. When we walked in,our hearts sank. This was not an upgrade! There were 2 bunkbeds attached to thewalls, each sticking into the room about 12 inches. The walkway on either sideof the bed was about 14 wide, so we had to contort ourselves to get in and outof bed. We asked for the main bed to be split in two, leaving a larger walkwaybetween them, but it wasn't done before we went to bed. Getting in and out wasa miserable as we had imagined.

Friday, Getting There

We were atit again, flying out in the wee hours of night to catch a cruise ship. Headedfor Hawaii! This was a little different, because we were flying in the daybefore the cruise started, in case we had a flight delay. I had booked us intoa hotel in the Waikiki section of Honolulu. Their website said they had ashuttle from the airport, a complimentary breakfast and a pool. I should havekept looking.

We went tobed on Thursday, about 6 pm, and on Friday, 4/21, I got up at 1:15 AM to getready. I woke John at 2:30. Everything was packed and in the car; all we neededto do was eat and take off. Easy Peasy. ExceptI forgot to water the houseplants and grab my refrigerated medicine, I was soeager to get going. Well, the best laid plans of mice, men and people going oncruises.

We got tothe parking lot about 4:15, but there was nobody there to check us in. Wewaited with 3 other groups of people. Apparently, there was only 1 personworking, doing both jobs, the clerical checking in and the shuttle driving.

We finallygot to the airport about 4:45, and there were long lines at TSA, despite theirsigns claiming it would only take 18 minutes to get through them. It took us morethan that to get to the first TSA agent, plus another 20 minutes or more to getthrough the machines. John and I got separated between that first agent and themachines, so I went ahead to the gate to wait for John. Well, I did pause at alittle store and picked up a couple pops and candy bars, because who knew if wewould be offered anything on the plane?

He got thereon time, with his shoes. Things went fairly smoothly, then. We were onSouthwest, and they don't have assigned seats, just your assigned boardinggroup. We were Group 8, the next to the last boarding group, but we managed tofind 2 seats together. We discovered our seats wouldn't recline, which made ithard to doze. And there was no wifi on this plane, so there was noentertainment. Shortly after take-off, the crew passed out pretzels and drinks.

After 3hours, we paused in Austin TX to let off some passengers. John and I changedseats to some that would recline. Then the plane filled up, and we were off toSan Diego. The gate we needed in San Diego was pretty close to the gate we camein at. We ate burgers and fries and found some seats to wait in. John noticedour flight was delayed by about half an hour. I called our hotel to let themknow we might get in late. They said don't worry about it; the desk was manneduntil midnight. (!) They also said not to worry about their shuttle from theairport, that a taxi would be cheaper, anyway. Then why advertise that they hada shuttle?

We finallygot on the plane for Honolulu in mid-afternoon, and the flight was uneventful.John was antsy, but couldn't sleep. We landed in early evening, got our luggageand found a taxi to the hotel. It was not what I expected. It had a circulardrive, but the drive was full of vehicles, and the taxi could barely pull infar enough to unload us. The lobby was hard to find, because of all the littlebusinesses between it and the drive, most of them not open at 6 pm. There wasno evening restaurant, just a small cafe that served breakfast and lunch, andit wasn't complimentary. We would have had to walk somewhere to find supper,but we were too tired. We went straight to our room and to bed about 7 pm.

There's a6 hour difference between Hawaii and Orlando, so we had been up and goingpretty much for 24 hours.

Neither Here Nor There

Well, I'mback, in more ways than one. In late April, we took a cruise around Hawaii onNorwegian's Pride of America. I took notes so I could tell you all about it.Before I could get those blogs written, we had a car accident that broke myright arm. No typing for me for several weeks. In the meantime, late in May, weflew to London to catch a cruise up through Scotland and the fjords of Norway.Even a broken arm couldn't keep me from that, but I didn't get any notes taken.And I already find my fond memories of these countries getting muddled in mymind, so I'm going to take these trips out of order and type/post the blog onScotland/Norway before I go back and do the ones about Hawaii. Yes, I can typeagain!

The tripto get to the cruise ship was full of stress and worry, but that seems to bepar for the course whenever we have to fly to the ship's port. We drove to theairport, parked our car, took the shuttle the rest of the way, checked our bag,got our boarding passes, got through TSA... That was a chore! If I went throughthe normal metal detector, my artificial knees would set it off, and I couldn'traise my right arm to go through the round metal detector. So they sent methrough the normal detector, and then I got a thorough pat-down before we couldgo on to our gate.

By theway, TSA is now posting how long it will take you to get through the line, butthat's just to get past the agent who studies your passport and boarding pass.You still have to get through the metal and explosives detectors.

Okay, thepat-down was done, and we went on to our gate, where we caught our flight toMontreal. Once there, we caught our over-night flight to London, where I hadbooked a night at one of the airport hotels. First, we wanted to recover fromthe flight, since we don't sleep well while flying. But also, we had to catch ashuttle from Heathrow to the Southhampton docks. Second, the shuttles pickedpeople up between 9:45 and 10:45 am, but because we got in at 9:30 am, I wasn'tsure we could collect our luggage and find our way to Terminal 4 by 10:45. Wedidn't, so it was a good thing I had booked our shuttle for the following day.

Afterwalking what seemed like miles in Heathrow, we gathered our luggage, askedquestions, had to go outside, take an elevator down to the underground level,walk long miles to get to the ticket station, take an elevator, get on theunderground to Terminal 4, get off and take an elevator up. Luckily, justoutside that elevator was a door with a sign that said, "To Terminal 4hotels", so that wasn't hard to find. We walked a few more miles to get tothe entrance to our hotel.

It was tooearly to check in, but we did go to the cafe and grab some lunch. By then, theyhad our room ready, so we went up and when we got to our room, we closed thecurtains and took a nap. Later, Hubby wanted to go and search for the placewhere the shuttle would pick us up, so we walked another mile or so to find theHilton. Having found it, we went back to our hotel, had supper and settled infor the night.

Theshuttle was supposed to pick us up at about 10:45. We got there about 9:30 andtried to pass the time by watching other people get picked up by their rides.Probably a bad idea, as by 10:30, Hubby was positive we had missed our ride.Finally, we gathered all our stuff and moved outside (It was chilly and windy.)Our shuttle finally arrived about 10:55, having picked other people up indowntown London before it came to get us. At least that gave Hubby people totalk to during the 1.5 hr trip to the ship, so he got a chance to calm down.

The tripstarted out a lot chillier than we expected. Our first full day on the ship,during which we were headed for Edinburgh, Hubby made the comment, "Ithink I'm coming down with a cold." And of course he did.

We had ashore excursion scheduled for every day except the last, because the shipwasn't getting into Tromso (Norway) until 7 pm. And we had to get up at 4 am toget to the airport. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

The shoreexcursions were lots of fun. The first week or so, I was super protective of mybroken arm, constantly worried it would get bumped too hard, or I would falland do more damage. So I enjoyed the bus drives, looking out the windows, but Iwas too afraid to get off and explore Edinburgh Castle, because they said itwas crowded and we'd be walking on cobblestones. Eventually, I did become morerelaxed about my arm.

I didfall, a couple of times, but did no damage to my arm. Once when I was trying toclimb onto an antique street car. The steps were really steep, especially thetop one, and the tour guide was acting as my handhold, but the step was toodeep, and I went down onto my right knee. It took both the tour guide and Hubbyto get me back on my feet so I could find a seat. But no bleeding, so I wasfine. The 2nd time was in Dublin, but I'll get to that later.

TheSheffield Islands (Scotland) have stone rings similar to Stonehenge. TheShetland Islands (also Scotland) have Shetland ponies, and I think that's wherewe saw an archeological site of a Neolithic village on the beach. The homeswere built of stone slabs, and the furniture was made of stone, too. Plusassorted furs for the beds. I got off the bus for that and walked to the site,walked all around it. There was a Laird's house not far away that was open as amuseum, but as slow as I walk, I didn't figure I had time to go there, so Iwent back to the bus. This was the place where the tour guide lost one of ourgroup. The guide had said to get back to the bus by 11, and everybody hadexcept one. After looking for her for 10 minutes, the guide made arrangementsfor the other buses to keep an eye open for her, and then we left. A littleways down the road, she announced that one of the other buses had collected thewayward woman and she was safe.

Norway'sfjords are beautiful. The mountains are beautiful. At that time of year (earlyJune), the snows are melting, and the waterfalls and rivers are raging, whichis more interesting to see that 'stately and sedate'. The daily high was alwayspredicted to be 52F, but at least one day, it got up around 60F, so you neverquite knew if you would need a jacket or not. We had a great time, except forJohn's cold.

Now,remember how I said the trip there was stressful and worrisome? The trip backwas much much worse. We got up at 4am and went to the buffet for a continentalbreakfast, which consisted of not much. We were supposed to meet at the Aqualounge at 5am, and at 5:30, they would take us out to the shuttle. We got tothe Aqua about 5:05, and they were already hurrying people out. There were 2shuttles, and both of them were packed full. The one we got had no luggagecapacity, so our carryon had to ride inside with us.

We gotthrough Norway's TSA okay, which led us to Gate 32. There weren't enough chairsin the gate lobby for everybody to sit down, so they brought in folding chairs.The plane was supposed to take off at 8:35am. That's when the flight crew forthe charter flight arrived, however, so it was more like 10am before the planetook off. Naturally, it got into Dublin late, and then, the luggage took overan hour to arrive at the carousel. Consequently, by the time we had our luggagecollected, we had missed our flight to Philly. We trudged our way to theAmerican Airlines ticket counter to see what could be done. Us and about 100other people who had been on that charter flight.

Luckily,there was a cruise line representative there to help us with this problem! Overthe course of several hours, he saw that we all got booked on the next day'sflight, gave us bottles of water, sent us to the food court to grab some supper(and keep the receipts!), got us all booked into various hotels for the night,and arranged shuttles to get us to those hotels. It involved a lot more walkingto get to the shuttle, which was parked 3 or 4 blocks away... felt like a lotmore than that.

And now,the time I fell in Dublin; It was while I was getting off that shuttle at thehotel. I was on the stairs to exit, and somehow I lost my balance. I fellbackwards, against my hubby, who staggered, but didn't let me hit my head onthe driver's seat. So, no damage done, I got back up and got off the bus, andwe chatted with the driver for a moment, then went inside. Very nice hotel, butwe were exhausted and went to bed about 7pm.

Incomparison, the following day was a breeze, but it had its snags. We wereconcerned when the shuttle didn't pick us up until 10:30am. We'd been thinkingwe would need 4 hours to get through the airport, and the plane took off at1:55 pm. I needed help getting through the automatic kiosk, but it seemed a lotfaster than going through the regular line. Then the kiosk printed out only onepiece of paper, which said, "You have been selected for a Traveler's Survey".My helper told me to take it up to the bag check window, and they would helpme. The survey was apparently only 1 or 2 questions, but the guy's machinedidn't want to read our passports, so he had to enter the information manually.Finally, we got our boarding passes and could head for our gate, except wedidn't know what gate!

We gotthrough Ireland's TSA, complete with pat-down for me. Then we had to go throughthe US TSA, only when we found it, they sent us through a line that didn't haveanybody manning it, which was worrisome as well as a relief. Then we walked andwalked and walked until we finally found our gate, where we could sit down for20-30 minutes. The flight was full, of course, with all those left-overs fromthe day before. Hubby and I weren't sitting anywhere close to each other. Andthe entertainment wasn't working. I slept for about 1.5 hrs, and hubby read hisbook.

We got toPhilly and found our next gate. We had about 3 hours to wait. Eventually, weboarded that plane and started the last leg of our journey, to Orlando. Theplane would touch down about 10:05pm.

InOrlando, we gathered our luggage and said good-bye to the shipmates who hadmade the entire trip with us. We found the pick-up location for the parking lot'sshuttle, and called to let them know we were ready. This was about 10:55 pm. Wesaw lots of shuttles come and go, but not ours. At 11:20, we called them again.And several times after that, but they either didn't answer or hung up on us.Finally, about midnight, our shuttle arrived and was packed solid in no time.The driver was smiling and upbeat, as if nothing was out of the ordinary. Andwhen I went to the office to pay for the extra day that we were stuck inDublin, they didn't charge me $7, like for a full day; they charged me $10!

Anyway, wedrove home, and got here about 2am on Wednesday. Here it is Sunday, and we'restill recovering.

We reallylike cruising. It's the flying back and forth that drives us crazy.