The Mystery Cruise

We sailed for two days, headed for Greenland. Sort of. We never got to Greenland at all and ended up on the very north end of Iceland, in a town called Akyreyri. A little ways out of town is a beautiful waterfall called Godefuss, meaning Gods Falls. Story is that when the island turned from "heathen" to "christian", the town fathers threw all the statues of the heathen gods into the falls.

 

Then, a visit to the local botanical garden. This was a place where we could have spent hours, but only had a limited time. Such a variety of plants, all imported.

On to Reykjavik! We had taken the Great Circle Tour before, but went again because it was so neat. First to the Gullfoss Falls:

Then, we went to see...guess what?

Actually, it's a whole field of geysers, hot pools, and bubbling cauldrons. One of them spouts off fairly regularly:

Next stop was Eskifjordur, Iceland. The wind the howling. Captain Aris tried very hard to get the ship on the dock, but the wind was having none of it. This being missed port stop number five (hence the term Mystery Cruise. We never know where we'll end up), we set off for the Faroe Islands, and oh boy did we get a ride. It looked like "victory at sea" outside. Huge waves, screaming winds, lots of strange bumps and bangs. It turned out that one of those bangs was a huge, thick window in the main dining room being broken in by the water. Everything and everyone got soaked. What a mess! Seawater everywhere.

We made it to Torshavn (pronounced Tor-shawn) in the Faroe Islands. They have their own government but are under the protection of Denmark for military and security purposes. Took a scenic ride, mostly through dense fog, around the island. The fog cleared on the western end of the island enough to enjoy the views.

So, now we're heading for Kirkwall in the Scottish Orkney Islands, and hoping for better weather.

Finally Floating!

 We had an early airplane out of Chicago, headed for New York. The plane was on time, which was a minor miracle in and of itself. In New York, we spent the night at the famous Plaza Hotel on Central Park. We would have loved to go for a walk in the park, but discretion was the better part of valor and given the crime situation there, we stayed in. That said, the Plaza is sumptuous:

We set sail the next afternoon for Martha's Vinyard.

The weather gods were not on our side. Martha did without us, as we couldn't get the tenders launched. Onward to Boston, with the weather following. Rain. So much for Boston, we stayed onboard. No biggie, we'd been to Boston before. So onward once again, this time bound for Bar Harbor, Maine, where the weather was lovely. We visited Acadia National Park and enjoyed the beautiful views from the top of the tallest hill.

It's not a joke, they all pronounce it "Bah Hahbah". Even the people who aren't from there.

On to Canada. Next stop, Saint John, New Brunswick. We went on a "Foodie Tour" and ate our way through the downtown area. We ate cupcakes, smoked salmon, goat cheese and pecan pizza, beaver tails (pastry, not real beaver tails), a seaweed called "dulse", and drank wine. We didn't need lunch. Here's the inside of the most popular bar in town, at 11:00 a.m. They closed at 4 a.m. Resident and visiting DJ's...and they only play vinyl.

Next stop, Halifax. Neat town. We visited the Halifax Citidel where we walked the ramparts and watched the changing of the guard:

A walking tour of Sydney took us through the oldest and most historic part of town and then back to the pier, which of course displayed its own symbol:

Corner Brook offered a hiking adventure similar to the one we enjoyed on our first visit, four years ago. We were a little disappointed that we didn't get to see the ages-old, wooden water pipe again, but the hike was still enjoyable.

Then was to come the exciting part: icebergs and the Christiansund passage through Greenland. Nope. Too many icebergs for Cappy's liking and weather of an unfriendly sort once again. Now it was a day at sea and a visit to someplace French! A little cluster of islands called St. Pierre. We were welcomed warmly and lots of people hiked into town to see...not much. We stayed on board and watched the horse, who watched us, along with every car that went by. Apparently they don't see a lot of cruise ships in St. Pierre.

By the way, June 21 was the Summer Solstice. The sun never set.

Fall Has Fell

 It's been four months since we posted anything here. We've been to Wisconsin twice for automobile races, but we've posted so many of those pictures that we just don't see the need to do it again. 

We left Wisconsin with the usual memento: Spotted Cow beer from New Glarus Brewery (sold ONLY in Wisconsin.)

We here's how the summer of spending money on the house went:

The blinds fell down in the living room. We must say that Hunter Douglas has a wonderful warranty department and a replacement part was swiftly provided.

The showerhead in the Master Bath went berserk. We can report that the Grohe people also have good warranty protection. Two amateur plumbers went to work to fix it. It's better now, and as an extra, it howls when the hot water comes up. As a matter of fact, the entire house knows when the hot water comes up. Recently, the hand-held showerhead has sprung a major leak. Hello, Grohe??

The kitchen sink's faucet is leaking. We've got the parts but ambition is lacking.

There was always the taxes and insurance to pay...

Masks came off in June. Masks went back on in August.

An inspection of our chimney has resulted in $7500 worth of repair work.

The desktop computer conked out and had to be replaced.

Yet another cruise was canceled.

The handle on the dishwasher broke for the third time. New dishwasher. We're on a first-name basis with Lowe's Home Improvement.

Gordon's tablet decided that it no longer was interested in holding a charge. New tablet. Pati's is just about there but she's hoping to hold out for the back-to-school sales. Next year.

We decided to "cut the cable" and move to streaming TV. New television. New sound bar. New modem. New router. New curse words in Pati's vocabulary as she hooked it all up. Gordon painted a low profile during the transition. Earlier in the year, we bought a smart TV for the basement so we could follow some exercise tapes we purchased. Had to swap the basement TV for the bedroom TV, since the basement one was smarter. We now know how to install flat screen TV's onto universal stands.

We did finally get out to the east coast to visit our family. It's been two years and instead of having young boys as grandchildren we now have young men. We returned with wonderful memories and two jars of Duke's mayonnaise.

Now, we wait to see if the 2022 World Cruise, completely rerouted, gets going in January. Since we are booked on a segment of that cruise, there might be hope. The good news? Wait, let me think...oh, yeah, the car's almost paid off and Pati grew lots and lots of really hot peppers over the summer.

Time Flies

It's June, for heaven's sake. Fifteen months after this all started and we're still dealing with it. Illinois has finally entered something called a "bridge" status and those of us who have been fully vaccinated can go into a store without a mask and get the stink-eye from some folks. But they're still required in altogether too many places.

Getting the vaccine became important to us, since we were certain that we would have to present proof in order to cruise in October. We went off in hot pursuit of Mr. Pfizer or Mr. Moderna. Mr. Johnson would have been okay to find, too. We ended up driving into Chicago four times, since we couldn't find back-to-back appointments at the United Center and no appointments nearby. Once, just as Gordon finished up, a friggin' blizzard came off the lake and chased us all the way home. We slipped and slid on the freeway, praying for survival, while the local idiots continued to do well over the speed limit.

A few days ago, our October cruise was cancelled. 

The new front door, due to Covid issues, took not twelve weeks as suggested by the company, but nine months to arrive. 

Before:

After:

It does close with a satisfying "thunk", it does not squeak, and it has a very secure lock. We're happy.

Since problems arise in direct proportion to available funds, the ceiling fan in the living room expired with an eye-opening BUZZ-CRACK!

The two downstairs fans match and are both visible from several angles, so it's two fans instead of one. While we're at it, we'll replace the one in the upstairs bathroom that quit on us, oh, about five years ago now.

We may actually leave the house and drive up to Road America for an IndyCar race in a couple of weeks. Film at eleven.

Oh, did I mention that we had to fix the refrigerator again?

The End of 2020

Thank heaven.  This year is finally drawing to a close.  What a nightmare!

Our September cruise was canceled, and not long after we went to all the work of booking several dozen shore excursions for the March, 2021 cruise, it too was canceled.  The election didn't turn out the way we would have liked, but at least the latest Illinois tax grab scheme failed at the polls.

We've ordered a new front door unit.  It'll be beautiful.  But the manufacturer is short-staffed due to Covid (oh, everything's due to Covid these days) so when it will arrive is anybody's guess.  The only way to know for certain would be to make a plan that can't be canceled without forfeiting a lot of money.  The door would be sure to show up, then, at the wrong time.  If it ever gets here, we'll post a picture. 

Optimistically, we have booked hotel rooms for two IMSA races next year and are still sitting on a couple of cruise bookings.  Christmas is behind us...hip, hip, hooray for Christmas Vacation!!  And here comes the New Year...auld lang syne.  The acquaintance we'd like to forget is that damn mask.

Cheers!!

July

Remember when this was a travel blog?  What travel?  We canceled our next plan to attend a race.  It just wasn't worth it.

The ice maker only cost an arm to repair.  The leg was, at least, spared.

The washing machine did its final jig across the laundry room floor, with Gordon in hot pursuit.  There came a string of artful profanity, followed by "get dressed, we're going to Home Depot!!".

The basil finally started to come into its own, but then the container had to be moved in preparation for the roofing people.  Our pet chipmunk promptly dug up half of it. The basil's recovering well at this point, as is the chipmunk.

Speaking of the roofing project, it began a week late.  During the first few days, it rained when a portion of our roof was not shingled.  An employee of the company came out at 9:30 at night and put a ladder up to check.  Someone called the police.  The work then proceeded at a glacial pace due to short staffing.  Result:  over three weeks of banging, hammering, and mariachi rap.

The Illinois State Department of Revinooers has returned to work, and the annual notice has indeed arrived.  We're leaving the plumbing alone for right now.

Ruminations

Well, so, here we are.  It's June of 2020.  Don't know what to think about the Coronavirus pandemic...the whole thing seems just a little over the top.  Too many opinions.  There are protests against the police in many cities that have turned into riots with hundreds of people looting businesses, but we can't go to an automobile race because there would be more than 10 people there.  Wait, what?

So far, June's not been so good to us.  Our trip to Road America for an Indycar race is canceled.  The icemaker in the fridge has gone kaput, the cable and internet went down, and we're worried about the washing machine.  Pati's drivers license has expired...the DMV just reopened and the line goes around the building twice.

Seems everyone decided to start a garden this year (nothing else to do) so we struggled to just find some basil seeds and they're not growing well.  There is a plan to put a new roof on our building at the end of the month.  Rate things are going, maybe that would be better done in July, along with some necessary plumbing repair, in hope of avoiding floods and shit storms.

It's probably good that we already had the heating and air conditioning replaced in April.  We need to have our insulation beefed up, but the insulation people aren't allowed to work.  Maybe we saw them on the news, carrying 85-inch flat screen TV's out of Target.

We had, at least, a cruise from Barcelona to Montreal in September to look forward to, beginning with a side trip to Milan for a race.  Just finished up the cruise prep and were looking at plane tickets for Milan when there came greetings from the cruise line.  So sorry, your cruise is canceled.

What really chaps us is that last February, we spent a whole morning scouting out laundromats in Barcelona so we could wash our damn underwear between adventures.

On the bright side, the federal and state income tax people must not be working.  We haven't gotten the annual notice that we did something wrong and owe more money.  Amazon Prime is running like clockwork.  Good thing, we need ice cube trays before 5 p.m.  Period.