Home!

20 November

It’s a short trip from Corpus Christi to Houston; the ship moves briskly, although the going is much rougher, as most cargo has been unloaded and it is much lighter as it moves across the water.

The Houston pilot is right on time and we move through the ship channel in full light of day, unlike our departure which was at night.

The New Orleans is at last alongside the dock, and we are home.

Unfortunately, it is 5 pm and the logistics for moving on at this point are complicated. We opt to stay on board overnight and disembark in the morning.

21 November

Our transfer agent is on time at 8 am and we are truly home! Back to the very same dock we left two weeks short of 6 months ago.

During that time, in addition to our land explorations, we have:

• Watched 32 movies (last night’s was Jerry Lewis in The Nutty Professor – not a fine moment for anyone).
• Viewed over 100 Great Courses lectures (and have retained just a smidge of knowledge).
• Henry has taken, edited and cataloged about 6,000 photos and videos.
• Henry has downloaded/transferred and cataloged about 18,000 family and previous travel photos.
• Henry has learned a lot about using his computer for photos and his iPhone for everything.
• Robbie has read over 32 books; working on the 33rd.
• Seven hats and 11 dishcloths have been knitted.

What have we learned? Henry says that the trip has stitched the world together for him; developing a better sense of the nations – what unites and separates them, but most especially the geographic wonders that are all around us.

We ponder sometimes the value of our having made this trip in the greater scheme of things – we have learned a lot and formed a sensitivity to what binds us together as human beings and what keeps us apart. But what the heck are we going to do with that?

If nothing else…… if only one person – friend, relative, child or stranger – is inspired to explore outside his or her sphere of existence because of our voyage of discovery, it is all worth it. And if he or she uses that new-found knowledge to connect with others, to understand our common ground and treasure what is left of our differences, then we can be happy that we have satisfied our own brand of wanderlust and passed it along.

We would like to thank all of you who have followed or checked on this blog from time to time, especially those of you who have taken time to post a comment or send an e-mail.   According to WordPress, we have had 2,575 views and 521 visitors from 20 countries! We don’t even know what that means! … but we are pleased.

Thank you sincerely. This is our last blog post from this trip.

We have a busy 2018 planned. In February we will be setting off for 6 weeks to Japan and Russia; then will spend the summer in Southern Africa – Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, South Africa, Mozambique… and November, on a ship again from the US to western Europe, returning via the windjammer Sea Cloud, following the route of Columbus’ voyage.

Happy trails!