Back in Texas

Once again home at the RVICS Village in Smithville we settled in unpacking and loading up the laundry baskets. We have spent the past week reliving some wonderful memories of our time away. Getting back to a regular routine has been an adjustment since returning from our whirlwind journey.

Here are some of the closing highlights;

Our last Saturday night aboard was spent at dinner with our shipmates: Skip and Karen from Nebraska and John and Sandy from Connecticut. We really enjoyed sharing many of our evening meals with their company. We hope to maybe visit them as we travel the country in our RV or perhaps see them on another cruise in the future.

The Sun Princess docked in Fort Lauderdale, Florida on Sunday, November 15 at 6:30 AM. We had packed our suitcases the night before so we were ready to leave the ship after taking our showers and dressing. Earlier in the week Karen had booked bus transfer tickets from the port to the airport. Leaving the ship went quickly and once we cleared Customs and Immigration we boarded the bus for the short ride to Fort Lauderdale Airport.

We ended up arriving almost 4 hours early for our flight. With the recently ended government shutdown and the possibility of flight cancellations or delays we wanted to make sure we had plenty of time to mitigate any complications. Because we were prepared for such issues, nothing came up to delay our return to Texas. Our flight was 2 hours and 40 minutes long and our neighbor Jon Ray picked us up at the Austin Airport shortly after our arrival.

Since returning to Smithville we have had some appointments. Karen had a pre-op surgery appointment on Monday, November 17 in Round Rock just north of Austin that she needed to attend prior to her scheduled left hip replacement surgery on Monday, November 24. Yes, she is getting the other hip done this year, so we will be staying in Texas for the holidays. After seven weeks of rehab and physical therapy she should be back to normal.

Karen is motivated to get back on her feet by January so we can do a scheduled scuba diving trip to Honduras. We appreciate all your good thoughts and prayers during the coming weeks. Our village friends will be around to help us if we need anything; it's a blessing they will bring us meals the first week! We will keep you all up to date as her healing progress moves forward.