Tim and I both tested negative for COVID today. It’s about time! We still have lingering symptoms, such as cough, congestion, and fatigue, but we do feel much better.
It’s nice to be able to go places again. Tim’s going to his GIS class in person today, and I’m going back to the Loveland Museum tomorrow. Keeping my fingers crossed that life is returning to normal.
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| When Two Negatives Are a Positive |
When I announced on January 19, 2023, that one of the things I had done this year was to start this blog, I had no idea where that would lead. The impetus for the blog was to document our upcoming World Cruise, starting with tossing the idea around, then planning for it, and finally taking the journey itself.
In the back of my mind I had wanted the blog to start in 2019, when Tim and I transitioned from living full-time in our RV to buying a condo and settling down. I knew, however, that going back that far would be a mammoth undertaking, and I doubted I was up for it.
Since I had no other projects of note to occupy my time, I nervously decided to see what I might be able to accomplish. I wrote posts for the end of 2022 when the idea for a World Cruise first raised its head, and then finished the posts for January 2023, when we booked the cruise.
I started reviewing the few notes I had made after buying our condo, and I looked at my photos. I even found a few mini journals that I had written about several of our trips. I slowly dipped my toes into blogging again and found that it was coming along much easier than I thought.
Tim helped me come up with a name for the blog, and I worked on the layout and other technical issues. I decided that I wanted this blog to follow the same format as the previous ones, so that made things somewhat easier.
I backdated all my posts to the date they occurred, and I often included only summaries when my memory and notes failed me. Occasionally, I would later remember something else that had occurred, and I would insert this post where it should fall into the timeline.
I soon found that I had finished the posts for 2019 and was almost through 2020. I was on a roll and really enjoying writing again. Posts for 2021 were even easier since that’s when I had journals to use. Writing blog entries while I had COVID was a perfect diversion and helped take my mind off of my symptoms.
I am now starting to write the posts for our Viking Homelands-British Isles Explorer cruise in 2022. These posts will challenge me since I took almost no notes, but thousands of photos. I am having fun though reliving that fabulous cruise.
I keep telling Tim that never in a million years did I think I would ever bring the blog up to date. But I’m so glad that I’ve found the resolve, or whatever it is, to keep going. I know that I will appreciate having a record of these years to look back on. Keeping memories alive will be so much easier.
Who knows, I may even be inspired to go back to my See Where the Road Leads blog and add entries to that one. Now that would really be a wonder!
Our Zoom call with Philip, our WOW travel specialist, went very well on Tuesday. He was a wealth of information and suggested many options on how best to maximize our time in France. He considered our few “must-see” sites, and discussed how best to fit those in. In the end, we decided to let him plan the rest of the itinerary. We had no doubt after listening to him that his choices would be fabulous.
The next morning, we received a tentative itinerary from one of his associates. We reviewed the options and made our selections. The next morning, we received another email with hotel choices. Again, we looked at the room types and picked the ones that would work for us.
I am especially glad that we asked him to plan an itinerary for our travel day to Avignon, where we will board our France’s Finest river cruise. We’ll get to travel through the Luberon region and visit several towns on the way. Much better than taking a non-stop train.
Today, we received our final itinerary and invoice and made our 30 percent deposit. I am so excited about our pre-cruise stay and have no doubt it will be a WOW experience. Yes, it’s way more expensive than we ever expected to spend, but I think it will be well worth it.
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Our WOW Trip Itinerary |
It seems our recovery from COVID is going rather slowly. Neither Tim nor I ever had any of the severe symptoms, and the Paxlovid certainly lessened our other symptoms. However, we’re still dealing with coughing, congestion, and runny noses.
Tim was planning to attend his GIS class in person this evening and decided to take a COVID test just to make sure he was okay to be around other people. Can you believe that he tested positive again?!!! We had been warned about Paxlovid rebound, and I guess Tim was the unlucky recipient.
Surprisingly, I tested negative, but I’ll test again in a few days just to make sure.
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| Our Drug Store |
In 79 days, Tim and I will be in Avignon, France, ready to board our ship for our France’s Finest river cruise. Our flights have been booked, and rebooked, but the details of our pre-trip stay in Nice are still a bit up in the air.
We will be arriving in Nice on May 3 at 5:05 pm, too late in the day to do much of anything. We will have three full days to explore the Riviera and Provence, and then we will make our way to Avignon on May 7. I have a tentative hotel booked, but I’m not too excited about it.
My plan was to base ourselves in Nice for four nights and make day trips to places of interest. We would either travel independently by train or take small-group tours. I’ve investigated various options, but I’ve not booked anything yet. I’m not sure what’s been holding me back.
Yesterday, I was thinking about the trip, knowing I had to quit stalling, and recalled something my friend Noreen talked about while we were in Maine last summer. She had mentioned the success she had had with using Wendy Perrin’s WOW List and had raved about the trips the travel specialists had put together for her.
That conversation got me thinking. I was familiar with the WOW List, but had not considered it as a possibility, thinking the resulting trip would be too expensive. But, I decided to take a look at the options. The specialist for France that I identified noted that the minimum cost would be $1,500 per day, including hotel accommodations and driver-guide. That was certainly more than I thought we would be spending.
Then I thought some more. If we could splurge on business class seats to France, surely we could spend the same amount of money for a personalized itinerary with our own driver-guide. This would also make our lives so much easier.
So, I filled out the questionnaire, gave a general idea of what we might like to do, stated our budget, and waited for a response. I received an email from Wendy Perrin almost immediately, telling me that we were “in.” This morning I received an email from the travel specialist, who said he would be delighted to plan a trip for us. We scheduled a Zoom call for next Tuesday to go over the different possibilities and options. Because of the time difference, our call will be at 7:30 am. It was that or 2:00 am!
I now feel much better about this portion of our trip and feel more confident that this will be a wonderful start to our time in France.
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| The WOW List - We're On Our Way! |
Yes, you guessed it. Tim tested positive for COVID today. It’s not a big surprise, but I do feel guilty.
Tim followed the same protocol as I did, and we are both taking Paxlovid, resting, drinking lots of fluids, and staying home.On February 8, my chronic cough morphed into cold symptoms, which got worse overnight. Just to be safe, I took an at-home COVID test this morning. I’m not sure I was really prepared for the red line – positive!
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| UGH! |
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| I Hope This Helps |
On November 30 of this year, Tim and I set sail on our Mediterranean Explorer and Crossing cruise. We had also booked a three-night, pre-cruise extension “Ultimate Italy – Tuscany,” which will begin on November 27.
I always like to arrive a few days before a cruise, and even before a pre-cruise extension, in case there are delays or other complications. We also like a few days to recover from jet lag and have more time to explore the city from which we will depart.
Our cruise departs from Rome (Civitavecchia, actually), but the extension starts in Florence. A few extra days in Florence, a city I love, sounded delightful, especially since Tim’s never been there.
I’ve been looking at airfares for a while, and there are no deals to be had, either using cash or miles. We had already made the decision to fly business class, so the search was even more difficult. One thing I found surprising is that it cost no more to fly to Florence than to Rome, and we would have to change planes in Frankfurt or Munich either way. The other wrinkle in finding a flight is that we will be flying around Thanksgiving Day, not my favorite time to be finding airfares.
Today, I finally bit the bullet and booked our flights. There were two bits of good news. Business class fares were no higher two days prior to Thanksgiving than on Thanksgiving Day itself. We could leave on Tuesday, November 21, and have five nights in Florence. The other bit of good news is that we could “fly” from the Fort Collins airport, which is ten minutes from our home. Travel is by motorcoach to the Denver airport, not by plane, but this makes it so much easier for us. The only slight negative is that we have to change planes in Frankfurt, not Munich. Oh well, you can't have everything!
I had enough United miles for an award ticket for myself, and we paid for Tim’s. Done!
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Our Seat Assignments in United's Polaris Business Class (Tim's Seat Is Next to Mine) |
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| IL Tornabuoni Hotel (Photo Courtesy of Hyatt.com) |
Our transatlantic cruise will end in Fort Lauderdale on December 23. Although I would like to be able to spend a few days with friends in Miami, I know that most everyone will be busy with their own Christmas plans. Therefore, we decided to fly back to Colorado on Christmas Day. The airports won’t be quite as crazy, and the fares were about half what they were for the other days around the holiday. We went ahead and booked our flight, the first flight of the day. Luckily, we will be “flying” back to Fort Collins. Done!
