Our Wander Years

ATW-1 Day 0: Final preparations

Posted on September 16, 2025 by Sparky

The ATW begins tomorrow with an early morning flight to Seattle. But there is work to be done today, to prepare for the flight and the subsequent 22-night cruise. And to ready Marlene’s house for nearly 10 weeks of vacancy.

Things to be done today:

Check in for the flight and print the boarding passes.
Print the boarding passes for the cruise (we checked in a week ago).
Make arrangements with a neighbor to get us to the airport.
Pack our suitcases.
Mow the lawn (arrangements have been made to have someone mow the lawn twice while we are away).
Clean out the refrigerator.
Unplug the electric water heater and turn off the washer water feeds.
Arrange with a neighbor to periodically check the house and start Marlene’s car (my son will start mine).

Packing is a challenge. We will be away for nearly 10 weeks but can take only one 50-pound suitcase each (plus a backpack and a hand-carry item). We get free laundry aboard the ships, so that solves the laundry problem for half the trip. We will have to find laundromats occasionally while in Europe. Keeping within the 50-pound limit is not a problem for me but it will be a challenge for Marlene. She will be limited to 3 pairs of shoes – 2 pairs in the suitcase and one worn on the flight. Going 70 days with just 3 pairs of shoes (at least until we reach Europe – she could buy more there) will be difficult. And picking the right dresses… also tough.

It is good to be a guy.

All of these tasks are things we would do for shorter trips, except for the mowing arrangements and cleaning out the refrigerator. It is really important this time to remove all perishable items. Anything we leave will be rotten/moldy/stinky when we return. Can’t let that happen.

Anyway, the ATW begins in earnest around 4am tomorrow when we get up.

Categories: ATW, ATW-1, Preparation/Planning | Leave a comment

And so the ATW begins…

Posted on September 12, 2025 by Sparky

Not the trip per se but the final preparation for the trip. Specifically, Marlene just left to deliver Becky to her brother in Coral Springs. She will return Sunday, we will finish packing Monday and Tuesday and will fly out on Wednesday.

The lead-up to our departure has not been without drama. Marlene’s air conditioning misbehaved – again – on Thursday. We believe it is just a relay and a repair guy will look at it Monday. Shutting the unit down and restarting it seems to have rectified the problem, at least temporarily. But it would be good to have a reliable air conditioner in our absence.

Marlene also discovered, just this morning, that her freezer in the garage was off. We found a popped circuit and reset it. But, again, the questions are (1) what caused the circuit to trip and (2) can we trust it to not trip again while we are away? Our working theory is that the heavy rain yesterday got into the exterior outlet (which is on the same circuit), causing a short. I tied a plastic bag over the outlet to prevent that from happening again, if that is the problem.

She will have her neighbor keep an eye on the house while we are away but she can’t expect him to check everything every day. So we have to keep our fingers crossed…

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“The Maze” by Nelson DeMille

Posted on September 2, 2025 by Sparky

This is #8 in the series of mysteries featuring John Corey, former NYPD detective and also formerly a member of a shadowy government anti-terrorism force. I haven’t read any of the other Corey books, but there are plenty of allusions to the earlier books sprinkled throughout this one – an estranged wife who is a lawyer living with her boss in New York City, wounds from being shot, credible fears of being targeted for assassination by Russian agents and a violent end to an earlier case in which his life was saved by Detective Beth Penrose of a Long Island county sheriff’s department. In this book he rekindles the romance that bloomed then and, at her urging, takes a job as a PI at Security Solutions, a private investigation company based in an old farmhouse at the tip of Long Island. Security Solutions recruits Corey to get his stellar creds on the letterhead. Could be an easy summer job.

But, of course, it isn’t.

Corey suspects from the start that Penrose wants him to join Security Solutions because she thought some illegal activity – blackmail, official corruption and possibly the murders of a former employee (whose death was ruled a suicide), a journalist and 9 prostitutes whose bodies were dumped on Fire Island – had a nexus in that farmhouse. Corey, a self-described “danger junkie” – is happy to be the mole.

It doesn’t take him long to form a plan – concoct an excuse to use one of the upstairs bedrooms (which probably were the source of some of the blackmail material) when no one was there, break into the office and basement, grab all the (suspected) incriminating evidence and cart it to the FBI in the city. The local police and judiciary had to by bypassed because it was believed that most were compromised by the (suspected) blackmail material.

I don’t want to spoil this for anyone who really wants to take on this book, but here are some of the problems I had:

The entire book, save the final chapter, is preparation and planning for the big takedown. Planning is good, but why isn’t there any active investigations into the known and suspected crimes? It seems like Corey and Penrose both bought the corruption-blackmail-and-murder theory without a whole lot of supporting evidence. They risked their careers on the possible existence of evidence in the locked basement in the farmhouse?
It is revealed at the end that the entire staff of Security Solutions suspected that Corey was a mole. If they felt that way from the very beginning, why did they recruit him to join?
If the legendary “Thirsty Thursday” parties hosted at Security Solutions were the source of the blackmail material, why did the blackmailed judges and politicians continue to attend?
The plan to grab the incriminating materials goes awry and no evidence is obtained, Yet the company is put out of business. Why? What evidence was there of any guilt?

Corey was a big fan of Nero Wolfe, the first detective series that I fell in love with. I admired the wise-cracking sidekick, Archie Goodwin, and it is obvious that DeMille modeled Corey after Goodwin. I really wanted to like this series, but, like the other DeMille books that I have read – Spencerville and The Cuban Affair – this book was all setup and no resolution. Is DeMille just too lazy to close the loopholes? I don’t know. And after 3 disappointing DeMille books, I don’t care.

4 out of 10.

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Around-the-world (ATW) preview

Posted on August 19, 2025 by Sparky

It looks almost certain now that, come September 15, Marlene and I will be embarking on an epic around-the-world trip. We will be away nearly 10 weeks. It will consist of two cruises – a transpacific and a transatlantic – two flights – from Fort Myers to Seattle and from Sydney Australia to Rome Italy – and a month in a rental car bumming around Europe. I will break it down into three segments:

ATW-1: Fort Myers FL to Sydney Australia (25 nights). The trip will begin with two days in Florida, delivering Becky to Marlene’s brother in Coral Springs FL. We will stay overnight with him, then return home on Day 2 to finish packing. On the morning of Day 3 a friend will take us to the airport in Fort Myers and we will fly to Seattle. We will take a taxi to our hotel. On Day 4 we will board the Carnival Luminosa for our 22-night (technically 23 nights as we lose a day crossing the International Date Line) trip to Sydney Australia. Day 10 will be in Oahu HI and Day 16 will be in Papeete Tahiti. We visit Morea and Noumea on Days 17 and 23 and land in Sydney on Day 26.
ATW-2: Sydney to Rome, with an auto tour of Europe (28 nights). This segment begins with 3 nights in a hotel in Sydney. On Day 4 we board a plane for a long (11 hours) flight to Chengdu China. We have a 20-hour layover there, then fly to Rome, landing on Day 6. We spend 2 days in a hotel in Rome, mostly recovering from the trip there, but also visiting the Vatican (one of Marlene’s bucket list items). On Day 8 we pick up a rental car at the airport and spend 6 nights getting up to Paris (the exact route TBD). We spend 4 nights in Paris, visiting my high school best friend and author, David Benjamin, and his wife, then take 3 days to get to Venice (again, route TBD). Three nights in Venice, two nights in Florence and 3 more nights in Rome (without the car, which we will return on Day 26) will complete this segment.
ATW-3: Rome to Tampa FL (14 nights). This is the simplest of the three segments. We will find a way to get from our Rome hotel to the Carnival Miracle in Civitavecchia, the port city for Rome, and will sail on it for 14 nights to Tampa. How we get from Tampa back to Fort Myers is TBD, but there is a bus which we will take if we can’t arrange anything better. The ship will stop in Cartagena Spain (Day 3), Ponta Delgada Azores (Day 6) and Nassau Bahamas (Day 13) before docking in Tampa on Day 15).

I worry a bit that this trip will cure me of my desire to travel, but hopefully not. It certainly won’t break the bank. Even with me taking on the full cost of the rental car and all hotels I think it will run between $5,000 and $6,000 – less than half of what I expected to spend on the TC1 – the aborted first transatlantic cruise for Jett and me back in 2018. This is going to be a very economical epic trip due to my ability to find cheap flights and Marlene’s ability to find cheap cruises. And we can both be very frugal on the road portion of the trip.

Total: 68 days, 67 nights. Whew!

I will be taking a lot of photos.

Categories: ATW, Australia, Caribbean, China, Cruise, Europe, Pacific Ocean, Preparation/Planning, Routes | 1 Comment

TS_11 wrapup

Posted on August 16, 2025 by Sparky

The 11th trip south didn’t go according to the plan. The stops in Acworth GA and near Pensacola FL were scrapped in favor of seeing Marlene’s son in Savannah where he was being trained. But even that didn’t go according to plan as we didn’t get to see him.

By the numbers:

7 days, 6 nights in 5 hops, 1886 route miles (377 miles per hop).
107 extra auto miles, mostly in Front Royal VA where we traveled a long distance to lose money at a casino.
54.4 gallons of fuel consumed (36.6 miles per gallon). The actual total was 57.4 gallons, but I subtracted the 3 gallons that I believe I was overcharged by a faulty fuel pump.
Total fuel cost: $157.83 ($2.90 per gallon).
3 nights in hotels, $267.34 ($89.11 per night). That includes about $55 in pet charges.
No tolls.

Highlights:

The Luray Caverns. They were spectacular.
The VRBO farm in Luray VA. Also spectacular.
Seeing Jett’s sons and grandson.
Driving a portion of Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park again. Always pleasant.
Mileage in Marlene’s car. Getting over 35 mpg was an unexpected pleasure.
No car problems.
Relatively inexpensive gasoline.

Lowlights:

Being pulled over for speeding in GA. Only a warning, fortunately.
Failing to connect with Marlene’s son in Savannah GA.
Some very long days behind the wheel.

Planned and actual routes:

The actual followed the plan down to VA but then diverged rather dramatically. Stops in Acworth GA and near Pensacola were replaced by a stop in Savannah GA. My desire to avoid Atlanta resulted in a lot of zig-zagging through GA.

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TS_11 Hop 5: Savannah GA to Lehigh Acres FL

Posted on August 14, 2025 by Sparky

479 miles via GA 204, I-95, I-295 (around Jacksonville FL), I-10, US 301, I-75, I-5, US 92, I-75 again and FL 80. Auto miles: 493. Cumulative route miles: 1886. Cumulative auto miles: 1993.

The extra auto miles were due to dropping off some gifts for Marlene’s son and the trip to the “Jaime Casino.”

This could have been a simple trip home, but that wouldn’t have been us. So we started with a trip to Ross Dress for Less near the hotel, then tried to visit Marlene’s old friends in Summerfield FL (but they weren’t home). We also stopped at the Hard Rock Casino in Tampa where I won $40 but Marlene lost more than that. A final refueling stop in Sarasota FL turned into an adventure when the pump claimed to have deposited 15.5 gallons into our tank, which wasn’t possible as the tank capacity is 15.5 gallons and we were nowhere near empty. It should not have taken more than 12.5 gallons to fill the tank. I believe the pump defrauded us of about 3 gallons – nearly $10. I will be complaining to the state.

I did get a nice sunset photo at the gas station though.

Our one-night home in Savannah was the Quality Inn Midtown. This is a huge hotel (over 120 rooms) with nice landscaping, a clean room and bath and many cable channels. The breakfast was quite good but the fridge had no freezer. We had to get some ice for the cooler to make it home. 7 out of 10.

We arrived about 10pm to find the house in good shape. And my car started.

Categories: FL, GA, Hotels, Routes, TS_11 | Leave a comment

TS_11 Hop 4: Athens TN to Savannah GA

Posted on August 14, 2025 by Sparky

408 miles via TN 30, US 411, TN 314, US 74, TN 68, GA 5, US 76, GA 52, G 183, GA 136, GA 211, US 29, GA 15, GA 86, I-16 and GA 204. Auto miles: 408. Cumulative route miles: 1407. Cumulative auto miles: 1500.

This route was even more complicated than this – I am sure I have forgotten some of the turns. I could have kept it simple by going through Atlanta, but who wants to go through Atlanta. I probably added over an hour of travel time by zig-zagging northeast of the city – and I didn’t completely miss the Atlanta congestion as we had some delays near Athens – but we did get to see some lovely countryside. We stopped for a few minutes in Blue Ridge GA and had a refueling stop along I-16 before we entered Savannah. We also stopped a few times to take pictures. Oh… and we had to stop for about 10 minutes in GA after I got pulled over by the GA state police for speeding (71 in a 55 zone). I got off with a warning. Marlene may have helped by mentioning that we were on our way to see her son who was an officer in Dekalb County GA.

We actually were intending to see him in Savannah where he was getting some training. But the timing didn’t work out. Disappointing.

One funny thing in Savannah… Marlene looked for a casino in Savannah and found one just a few blocks away. But when we drove there we found only a dark office building. On the side of the building, a sign: “Jaime Casino, attorney-at-law.” Finally, a casino where we didn’t lose money!

Our one night in Athens TN was at the Baymont by Wyndham. A good place for a one-night stay. No pool and few other amenities but the room was large and clean, as was the bath. The minifridge had a freezer and the cable TV had many channels. Inexpensive and no extra charge for Becky! The owner had a nice vegetable garden, too. But the breakfast was not very good. A breakfast sandwich, microwaved, and a banana. 6 out of 10.

Categories: Family, GA, Hotels, Routes, TN, TS_11 | Leave a comment

TS_11 Hop 3: Luray VA to Athens TN

Posted on August 13, 2025 by Sparky

450 miles via US 340, I-81, I-40, I-75 and TN 30. Cumulative route miles: 999. Auto miles: 467. Cumulative auto miles: 1092. The extra auto miles were due to the visit to Luray Caverns before we left the farm.

Actually, the route wasn’t quite this simple as the GPS detoured us near the intersection of I-40 and I-75 due to an accident. It added some time but didn’t affect the miles significantly.

This was a long hop, but the weather was good and, outside of the accident/detour, the traffic wasn’t bad.

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Two nights in Luray VA

Posted on August 12, 2025 by Sparky

We spent the weekend in Luray VA at a VRBO farm. But we were non-paying guests, there at the invitation of the owners, Jett’s son Devin and his wife Mary. Also there were their son, Zachary, their good friend and neighbor, Angie, and Devin’s twin brother Joshua and his wife Cristina. Two other couples joined us for a cookout on Sunday. And 5 dogs.

Let me get the bad news out of the way: Zachary, who is 14, beat me at chess. I beat him easily in the first match but he wanted a second. I thought I had him on the ropes, but made several bonehead errors and lost. I guess it had to happen sometime and now it has happened.

Now the farm. It is 4 bedrooms (including one with a Harry Potter “cupboard under the stairs” bed), 3 baths and a pool on 6.5 acres with a stream running along the eastern edge. The kitchen is awesome and there are many places to socialize. A very nice weekend vacation spot.

The company was as good as the accommodations. The food was terrific too. Becky had to get used to being around a bunch of other dogs, but she managed. I think she enjoyed the weekend.

Before we left Monday morning we visited the Luray Caverns. I had first become aware of this attraction many years ago and considered it a minor “bucket list” item. Since we had a place to keep Becky – at the farm with the other dogs – we seized the opportunity.

It isn’t cheap – $36 ($34 for over 65), but I think it is worth it. The cavern is just spectacular. A few of the several dozen photos that I took:

The last room on the tour is called “The Cathedral” and contains a pipe organ that produces music by striking stalactites with wooden mallets. The chamber was originally called “The Ballroom” because dances were held there – complete with a big band orchestra. Dancing in a cavern!

When we returned to the farm we learned that Becky had gotten out and had tried to run after us, presumably because she thought we were abandoning her. Fortunately Zachary was able to get her back before she got far on her trek to Florida.

Categories: Family, Friends, TS_11, VA | Leave a comment

TS_11 Hop 2: Front Royal VA to Luray VA

Posted on August 11, 2025 by Sparky

44 miles via US 340, Skyline Drive in the Shenandoah National Park, US 211, VA 674, VA 658 and VA 611. Auto miles: 120. Cumulative route miles: 549. Cumulative auto miles: 625. The extra auto miles were due to a late-night trip to a casino in West Virginia. We both lost money. Should have stayed home.

This was a short hop – easily the shortest hop of the TS_11, unless plans change drastically. It was a beautiful day and we spent nearly 2 hours traversing the 44 miles.

Skyline Drive was very nice, as always. It affords some nice elevated vistas of the Shenandoah Valley.

Our one night in Front Royal was at the Baymont by Wyndham near Shenandoah National Park. This was a perfectly adequate hotel for the 5 hours of sleep that we got, after the casino. The room was large and clean, the shower was very nice, the minifridge held all of our refrigerated items and the free breakfast was very good. The coffee, however, was terrible. 6 out of 10.

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