Adventure with the Garden Guy

 Well David Shlay and I are bringing in the New Year on the train to Ft Lauderdale where we will spend 74 days on the Volendam 74-day Grand South America 2023 Voyage to circumnavigate South America and The Antarctic Experience. With stops in Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Panama 🇵🇦, Patagonia, Tierra del Fuego, to the Falkland Islands 🇫🇰 , then up to Uruguay, Buenos Aries - Argentina 🇦🇷, Then a week touring Brazil 🇧🇷, Visit Rio de Janeiro and three days up the Amazon to Manaus and back before headed to Devils Island - French Guiana, Dominica 🇩🇲, Barbados 🇧🇧, Puerto Rico and home the end of March. We will start the year expanding our minds meeting new people, learning about other cultures, foods and visitors some of the worlds most beautiful places, all the e-bike filling my head with imagery I can transfer to feeding my private sanctuary over the next growing season.

So here it is, the day before. It’s 3:43 PM and David is expected to be here by 4:00. I am packed as tight as anyone could be. Down to my three piece TravelPro as recommended by youngest son Noah who uses their brand as standard to,’flight attendants, he works for DELTA. In between he operated his Twin Cites Glow Shop. Where he makes neon lights. The car is tucked away in the garage , the animals are fed and the plants waters. Most of the plants are basically dormant. They slow down with the coolness, shorter days. I tend to keep them dryers than if they were outside and never fertilize in winter. I expect them all to get a nice winters rest as when I return near the end of March it well had better, be spring here. Just In Time for the massive Daffodils to explode all over my yard.  So dinner out tonight at Pizza Luce’ then to David’s to sheep carefully the luggage, watch some TV ‘and be to the depot in the morning by 8:00. And so it begins…

 10P05 PM Thursday December 29th, I already flipped the tiles on the calendar box my mother gave me. I turned it ahead to 30th. I am relaxing herenformthenlast night in my own bed, my own food, kitty;,my surroundings here in my safe place, I think I’ll go to sleep now. ..

  2:21 PM Thu Dec 29, 2022 In the meantime as we are about to set sail we are up to our eyeballs in the Balkan trip coming up in May. we are gonna be gone for like two months. We are joint with a young professor in Philadelphia who’s specialty is the Jewish Heritage of the Balkans. He is originally from there. We will start in ‘Sarajevo and move on to Cultural and historic places that are important to the history of the Jewish People in these ancient places. How the Holocaust was perpetrated in the places we will visit where the Jewish people were often herded up for mass murder. I do not know how it will feel. To be there. We will also be for a week in Transylvania. We will visit the Castle of Vlad the Impaler. We will ride through the Carpathian Mountains and the Borgo pass of Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

 1:45 PM Thu Dec 29, 2022 I am savoring the last hours before transitioning from this place of comfort and safety here in my Roseville home. Here I have my bed, my routine. I have well adapted to this life right now. I have my cat Bela. Yet in just a matter of hours all of this will take a dramatic shift, several in fact that will, shape me for the next year and more. I feel like I have a plan. I am not doing this alone.there are several series of alliances that make it all possible. Of course my partner David, my children, grandchildren and the list could go on. In any case my gratitude to my family and friends. I also have amazing housemates that I share my home with. I am very fortunate to have them. Today had an hour or two with my precious granddaughter Gloria. I held her close and kissed her forehead. We shared some chocolate and established an internet connection. For that I am very proud. She is smart.  I was also able to pick up my sea sickness patches from CVS. More ...

 9:16 pm Wed Dec 28, 2022 Going to try and get to sleep a little earlier that usual. I need to rest up for the Tran/bus/ship adventure in just two days.  Seems we caught some of the overflow from the ‘Big Blizzard of the Century’ out near Buffalo, NY. So our train from St Paul to Chicago has been canceled. Instead we will be transported by a bus, I am hoping a very spacious and comfortable one but I fear Old School Greyhound. We leave ‘Chicago by 6:30 PM ‘so will have New Years Eve dinner on the train and then a ‘roomette’. We will have another transfer in DC to Ft Lauderdale where we arrive Jan 2, 2023. We have reservations at The Element  Ft. Lauderdale. It is essentially downtown about 8-10 min to the dock. We have a 2:00 boarding time for Jan 3. It’s a whole process boarding that ship. Some of the guests have already been on the Volendam for a week on a pre-cruise Holiday Cruise ‘add-on’. They have been on since before ‘Christmas. I imagine our room, a Veranda Suite w...

 Dec 27th, 2022 6:30 PM Just seven days till we set sail. Today was a nice day, cleaning day. The ladies came in and said, my your house is already clean. Nice to hear since I spend days preparing for then lest they think I am some kind of slob. It is really nice to come home to a fresh cleaned house. I especially love how they make my bed all nice and tight.  Beyond that I went to visit both Noah and Joy. Always nice to visit with my kids. Came home and focused on the trip. Sorted some and just think I’ll zip up the suitcases and be done with it. I did some searches and print of charts to ‘Antarctic Whales and deck plans. 9:53 PM I have spent the last few hours happy in my clean and quiet home. Here with precious Bela, Aquariums bubbling, fire place crackling. I made a really good soup,today, a kind of chowder, it had corn, rice and beans in it. I also had a helping of ‘Candy Cane Crisp’ ice cream. In between I filed and I sorted. Made few phone calls. And read interesting th...

 December 26, 2022. 8:06 PM “The Drake Passage is considered one of the most treacherous voyages for ships to make. Currents at its latitude meet no resistance from any landmass, and waves  top 40 feet (12 m) , hence its reputation as "the most powerful convergence of seas". OK so I have a big stash of scopolamine Sea Sick Prevention Patches. I also have wrist bands. Worst case I get a shot. I am a little worried about it. I think just thinking about it I got sea sick. In the meantime I spent most of today just sorting and consolidating my luggage. I know I have too much to drag around. I just have to be very careful with lifting. Today in the meantime was relatively easy. I got up and had a 7:20 AM Kidney test. They just drew some blood. That was it. Came home made some soup and avocado rice. Then did internet searches for charts on Antarctic Sea Birds  and such.  It felt like a productive day.

 Sun Dec 25, 2022 9:42 PM So let me just say that here in ‘Minnesota, USA; ‘Hell Hath Frozen Over.’  I’ve lived here all my life and it is COLD. Everything you imagine a Minnesota deep freeze might be like… you right! So yeah, I am ready to get on that ship and hit Jamaica, Costa Rica, Panama let’s go. And after that I’m fine with a little cool down as we cruise on down towards Patagonia. Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Robinson Caruso Island, Tierra del Fuego then off to Antarctica.  It will get progressively cooler as we sail south into what is summer in that hemisphere. Yet I expect it to get cold fast as we enter Antarctic waters, The Beagle Channel, Straights of Magellan, e through the dreaded Drake Passage past Cape Horn at the bottom of the world to finally reaching the Icebergs, glaciers and whales along the Antarctic Peninsula,   What I think are the South Shetland Islands, Deception Island and finally on to The Falkland Islands. All along the way trying new foods, me...

 Sunday December 25th, 2022; So here we are on Christmas Day. We went to see the movie Babylon. It was long but it held my attention. It was a diversion to the cold we are experiencing, yes today is like -6. Six days and counting till David and I get on the train, 9 days till we board the Volendam. Then it’s Jamaica, Costa Rica and Panama. It will be like stepping into another world. The few days till then are like filler. I am so looking forward to meeting new people, not having to cook or clean.the food on the ship should be excellent. Both David and I are pretty much packed. I keep thinking of other items to stuff into the suitcase. I’m never quite sure if I have the right shoes or if I can even stuff anything else in. I’ll need room for any souvenirs I expect to buy.  I’ll get mostly very small items, maybe a golden earring for crossing the ‘Drake Passage. Maybe some Inca Gold Treasure.in the meantime I’ll stay warm, David is making us dinner and I’m watching ‘The Policema...

 Dec 23, 11:38 AM I had seen this picture of a potato gone wild in someone’s kitchen. I randomly posted it in a few garden groups on FB. I am the creature/Moderator of several FB Pages that you could check out. They include : BIG Boys into Gardening, Amphiuma Planet, Gay Grandparents, Gay Zionists United, A. M. Chisholm Museum and an old one I havn’t  looked at for a while That Woman: Wallis Simpson. I was kinda fascinated for a while by her. So back to that potato. It really does want to survive. I wonder what the variety is? If just one of those stems touches down and roots the plant survives. And imagine the reserve in the actual potato reach out like that? Some potatoes will not sprout as they have been ‘chemically treated’ to ‘inhibit growth’. I’ll pass on those and prefer my potato actually still alive, just naturally dormant. And if and when they do then those are the ones I’ll plant outside come summer.  In the meantime I keep an jar for Avocado pits. I like to pl...

 December 23, 2022 I know what this is like. The cold that penetrating cold. Cold enough that you are just waiting for the pipes to freeze. I see the little fishes swimming around in their little worlds when all it would take is a power outage and the tanks turn to ice. No doubt aquarists in Ukraine are distraught. I braved the cold and brought my car in for an oil change, they drove me home and I’ll need  a ride there sometime early this afternoon. Target stop after 5 for my prescriptions, unless I decide to just go tomorrow.  As far as being packed I’m pretty much there, I just need to make a few final last minute toiletries and USB wires. I’m either brining way to much or not enough. I did make a stop at CUB to recycle my plastic bags and also pick up a cupcake for my granddaughter Gloria’s birthday. Each year we do a Cupcake Stop. Gloria stomps out that last year and moves on. She is a Grandfathers dream. I have two grandchildren ‘Giuseppe and ‘Gloria. My descendants....

 Wednesday December 21st, 2022 8:48 pm. So it was a pretty nice day. I finished my season as acting Super Sub at Coon Rapids Middle School. I met such nice people who care about kids and work together in our schools. I learned about the daily violence some of these children face each and every day. I came to respect the partnerships the staff all have and relationships with student. They are like 11 and 12 year olds.  The day wrapped up with a staff chili cook off. It was holiday sweater day and all the Jews work Hanukkah. It was really fun. I subbed for science, the lessons were well planned and the students smart and engaging. I knew this was my last day and now our trip is mere days away. It will all wrap up quickly and ‘David and I will be on the train. I wish I could wear my giant sweater but I need to travel light.  School was canceled for tomorrow and we all go to go home not just a few minutes at the end of the day but a day early (for me that means without pay). ...

Wednesday December 21st, 2022 In just 10 days David Shlay and I will be leaving for our Grand Voyage to circumnavigate South America and Antarctica. For us this will be a big adventure. We will be carried away on luxury ship Holland America the Volendam to the wilds of the Costa Rica Macaw Sanctuary, meet the fabled Blue Iguana at the Queen Elizabeth Botanical Gardens on Grand Caymen. From there to the Panama Canal where will will board a small boat past the giant ships and locks to a quiet estuary where the monkeys come down from the trees and the Toucans call out from their perches. Then down the West coast of South America with stops in Manat, Ecuador, Peru (revolutions permitting) including the pre-Inca ruins of Pachacamec and several in Chile, on to the remote Robinson Caruso Island and its endemic Firethorn Hummingbird. If we are lucky we will see the Juan Fernandez Fur Seal, once thought to be extinct and now making a steady recovery. We will catch our breath and eat the delicio...

 December 20th 2022 It is the end of days. This year is about to be over and the real fun begins in 2023. I turn 65 this year, a real senior citizen. But I am alive and well enough. In like twelve days I am moving forward to see the worlds most beautiful places. I want to see the birds, the glaciers, the mountains and rainforests. I want to see wild parrots and aToucan. I am on a quest to see the fabled Lodicea ‘Coco de Mer’ in its natural habit on Seychelles. I love to see penguins, seals and walrus. I would love to see a narwal. This summer we shall meet the Freshwater Pink Dolphins of the Amazon. And I am not doing it alone. I am meeting interesting people along the way.  So I hope you like my blog.  Chuck