What we thought would be a relaxing 3-month fall visit to our home base area near Austin, Texas, was made a little more exciting when I (Maren) had to have my gallbladder removed. Lucky for me it wasn't an emergency -- just started having odd mid-chest pressure after some meals while we were visiting my parents in the Seattle area late August. Boy, I can see why people say gallstone issues can feel like a heart attack! Thankfully, I had plenty of time to have surgery and recover before we left town. Didn't even miss hosting one of our local Gator Club football game watching parties! (though I had a lot of help for a few weeks).
Surgery aside, we had some nice "positives" from our Texas visit too -- successful annual phyicals, dental checkups, and eye exams along with a wonderful first-time visit to Corpus Cristi to visit my college roommate and her husband (thanks Lisa and Zack!). We also enjoyed catching up with local friends, watching Gator football with our club, and chasing a golf ball around a small 9-hole course we used to play weekly when we lived in Austin. Unfortunately our golf game hasn't improved much since then, but the fellas we play with are fun so the social part of the game is top notch :-)
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| Maren and roommate Lisa |
We wrapped up our final few weeks with my great idea to wax the motorhome ourselves instead of hiring professionals. As I write this post a month later, I think Jeffrey's wrist is still sore from the experience :-( But Max looks wonderful and it gave us a chance to check him out in great detail. Too bad we discovered a few small hairline fiberglass cracks near his front cap running lights (that are 11 feet up in the air). We suspect the angle of the hot Texas sun just overheated the dark brown paint up there. Sigh. We put some repair tape over the cracks to reduce any chance of water getting in and need to think about where to get the repair done. Since it will involve laying down some new paint, we are thinking that we could give Max a lighter-colored "eyebrow" of some sort so it won't happen again (no joke!).
We left Texas mid-November and raced across the gulf states (something we are now very familiar with), getting to Florida in time to visit Jeffrey's brother John and wife Susan in Pensacola, my aunt Helen in Palm City, and Jeffrey's parents in Gainesville leading up to Thanksgiving. The race ended when we got Max settled in the Clewiston area south of Lake Okeechobee in time to get on a flight to St. Thomas where we met my parents for a 10-day chartered cruise.
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| Frangines, our boat |
We scheduled this trip 18 months ago and were pinching ourselves that it was FINALLY here. We had picked a 55ft catamaran with a captain and a chef -- so all we had to do was relax and enjoy the beautiful scenery of the US and British Virgin Islands. The weather was lovely most of the time, the breezes were perfect (kept the mosquitos away), the daily sailing was fantastic, and we even had numerous chances to snorkel on the island reefs. Jeffrey and I even tried our skills at stand-up paddleboarding. Don't let anyone fool you... it is a real "core" workout and tough to learn even in calm waters. After the requisite number of struggle-up-wobble-wobble-fall-off attempts, we were both successful in paddling around a bit before crawling exhausted back on the boat. Not too bad for 50-something year olds! No resulting pulled muscles or stitches!
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| Jeffrey using the paddleboard (sorry, not gonna post one of Maren trying it!) |
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| One of the beautiful sunsets we enjoyed |
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| Sunset off the back of Frangines' stern and hammock |
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| A rainbow behind someone else's boat |
We sure hope your holidays are "wobble-free" and 2016 greets you with open arms (and hopefully no stitches or hangover).
Maren & Jeffrey
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