Author: Mike Pekrul

The deepest point in the longest cave. That has to be worth something, experience-wise, right?? Today we went down deep, to the (currently) deepest (publicly accessible) point in the cave. So many disclaimers. The River Styx Tour. In 1989 or 1990, I was here and we went all the way down to the basement and…

Today’s tour of Mammoth Cave was the Star Chamber Lantern Tour. Most tours of this and other caves I’ve been in are all done with electric lights. Placed strategically around the passages, they light the way and highlight the features. Seeing where you’ve been and where you’re headed lets you feel the size (or lack…

Slept late. Woke up to Susanne and my birthday present from her. I’ve had a partial set of children’s books since I was quite young, inherited from family. Bomba The Jungle Boy, by Roy Rockwood. Kinda along the lines of Tarzan, the adventures of a young boy lost in the Amazon jungle, raised by natives…

In the words of the great Willie Nelson… “On the road again, just can’t wait to get on the road again.” Well, here we are. We left this morning at the “post-retirement” crack of dawn, 7:30am, and headed north (even if the interstate signs did say west). Six hours later, we arrived at our first…

They kicked us off the ship!! WTF! Some long excuse about our ticket ending and needing the cabin for the next paying customer. Blah blah blah, I wasn’t really paying attention. They gave us breakfast and sent us ashore. 😞 I do have to say, this was BY FAR the easiest time I’ve ever had…

Today we’re in Costa Maya, Mexico, aka Mahahual. Sort of. The ship is docked here, but we have no excursions booked, so rather than go to shore just for the privilege of buying overpriced made-in-china souvenirs, we just stayed on board. Susy lay in the sun for a bit and I parked it in the…

We went ashore today via tender, something I’ve never done before. The port of Belize City in… you guessed it, Belize, does not have facilities for cruise ships to dock, so they just anchor up a few miles from shore, and then a fleet of “small” boats come and take people to and from shore.…

Lazy day today. Another stupid time change last night, but still woke up late(er than usual) and had a leisurely breakfast. And a leisurely second breakfast when Susy got up. 😁 Ambled off the ship for an excursion, a day at Turquoise Bay Resort. Sand, sea, bar, and lunch. A nice young lady that circled…

We docked in Cozumel, Mexico this morning. Today, we cross an item off Susanne’s bucket list… we swim with dolphins. Off the ship and a short van ride down the coast to a place called Dolphinaris. Half a dozen rescued dolphins, protected and trained by Dolphinaris, living in a man-made lagoon. We got to pet…

So, in the middle of the night, we crossed a timeline and rolled the clock back an hour as we crossed into Mexican waters and into Central Time. Which just meant I woke up REAL early. I stayed quiet, sneaking out of bed for a bathroom break and back in so as not to disturb…