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By Vicky Wells, on November 23rd, 2010
Our transportation, accommodation, food and entertainment cost so far
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Nov 19 ~ Day #193
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Budget to date
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Spent today
|
Total to date
|
Daily average
|
|
Total
|
$19300
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$31.47
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$16915.10
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$87.64
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|
Miles by Road
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Miles by Sea
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Miles by Air
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Miles by Train
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Total Miles
|
|
16064.8
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12056.7
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7662
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196
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35979.5
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Our transportation, accommodation, food and entertainment cost so far
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Nov 20 ~ Day #194
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Budget to date
|
Spent today
|
Total to date
|
Daily average
|
|
Total
|
$19400
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$48.67
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$16963.77
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$87.44
|
|
Miles by Road
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Miles by Sea
|
Miles by Air
|
Miles by Train
|
Total Miles
|
|
16064.8
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12056.7
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7662
|
196
|
35979.5
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Our transportation, accommodation, food and entertainment cost so far
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Nov 21 ~ Day #195
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Budget to date
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Spent today
|
Total to date
|
Daily average
|
|
Total
|
$19500
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$31.47
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$16995.24
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$87.16
|
|
Miles by Road
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Miles by Sea
|
Miles by Air
|
Miles by Train
|
Total Miles
|
|
16064.8
|
12056.7
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7662
|
196
|
35979.5
|
Our transportation, accommodation, food and entertainment cost so far
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Nov 22 ~ Day #196
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Budget to date
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Spent today
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Total to date
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Daily average
|
|
Total
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$19600
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$31.47
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$17026.71
|
$86.87
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|
Miles by Road
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Miles by Sea
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Miles by Air
|
Miles by Train
|
Total Miles
|
|
16064.8
|
12056.7
|
7662
|
196
|
35979.5
|
Our transportation, accommodation, food and entertainment cost so far
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Nov 23 ~ Day #197
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Budget to date
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Spent today
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Total to date
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Daily average
|
|
Total
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$19700
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$15.00
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$17041.71
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$86.51
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|
Miles by Road
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Miles by Sea
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Miles by Air
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Miles by Train
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Total Miles
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16064.8+19.8=16084.6
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12056.7
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7662
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196
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35999.3
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Current Location: Heading Home to Eleuthera, Bahamas
Combining Days
We have decided to combine our last few days into one post because we are really now just marking time until we head home to Eleuthera.
We will not be including our flight back to Eleuthera in our costs as we began our trip in Fort Lauderdale on May 11th and we will end it in Fort Lauderdale on November 23rd.
We will be including all the costs right up to our flight home, including the cost to get to the airport.
Each day’s expenses are itemized below and, of course, in the grids above that we have been including in each post.
Day 193, Friday, November 19, 2010
Accommodation: $31.47 (Camping)
Day 194, Saturday, November 20, 2010
Accommodations: $31.47 (Camping)
Food: $17.20 (Groceries)
Total: $48.67
We are trying to keep our grocery buying down to a minimum as we don’t want anything fresh left over on the day we leave.
Day 195, Sunday, November 21, 2010
Accommodations: $31.47 (Camping)
Day 196, Monday, November 22, 2010
Accommodations: $31.47 (Camping)
Day 197, Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Transportation: $18.00 consisting of:
Cab to TriRail – $15.00
TriRail to Airport $3.00
Mileage: 19.8
The Adventure Ends
It’s hard to believe that today is the last day of our almost seven month long adventure. And yet, it’s going to be good to get home.
One hundred and ninety-seven days is a long time to be traveling and living out of a suitcase or, in our case, backpacks.
We have had a terrific time and certainly enjoyed the journey. We will now enjoy the familiarity of our home in Eleuthera.
It will good to see old friends again and reconnect. Our very dear friends, V and B, will be picking us up at the airport when we arrive back in Eleuthera. It will be wonderful to see them again.
Recap Tomorrow
Stay tuned for the recap of our adventure in our post tomorrow.
By Vicky Wells, on November 7th, 2010
Our transportation, accommodation, food and entertainment cost so far
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Nov 07 ~ Day #181
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Budget to date
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Spent today
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Total to date
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Daily average
|
|
Total
|
$18100
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$102.34
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$16261.92
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$89.84
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|
Miles by Road
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Miles by Sea
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Miles by Air
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Miles by Train
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Total Miles
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15551
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8185.5
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7662
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168
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31566.5
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Current Location: On Board Celebrity Century En Route to Miami
Today’s Total Expenses: $102.34 (cruise cost includes transportation, accommodation, food and entertainment)
Miles Traveled Today:
We will record the miles for the Atlantic Crossing on November 8th when we arrive in Miami
Sailing Between Eleuthera and the Abacos
Early in the cruise we checked the chart in the main foyer that shows the course the ship will be taking.
To our delight, it showed that we would be sailing through the Eleuthera Channel which is between Eleuthera and the Abacos.
We had asked the staff to find out for us the estimated time that we would be passing Eleuthera. We didn’t want to miss getting a glimpse of our island as we sailed by.
The staff member we asked for the information actually called the Bridge to get the information for us! And, it seemed we would be passing Eleuthera somewhere between noon and 2:00pm at our current course and speed.
We were determined to be on deck when that happened. Although the weather looked like it might not co-operate. It was still a bit overcast with the odd bit of rain every now and then.
Passing Eleuthera
The weather cleared, thank goodness, and we got our first glimpse of Eleuthera at about 2:30pm. We stayed on deck until we couldn’t see it anymore, feeling just a little homesick.
However, we still won’t be home until November 23rd as we still have more things planned for our time in Florida.
So, we bid farewell to Eleuthera and looked forward to ending our transAltantic cruise in Miami tomorrow.
By Vicky Wells, on August 24th, 2010
Blog Title: Inception at IMAX
Our transportation, accommodation, food and entertainment cost so far
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Aug 24 ~ Day #106
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Budget to date
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Spent today
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Total to date
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Daily average
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|
Total
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$10600
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$58.00
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$9223.38
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$87.01
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|
Miles by Road
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Miles by Sea
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Miles by Air
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Miles by Train
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Total Miles
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13542+28=13570
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4451
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000
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69
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18086
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Current Location: Vacation Village at Parkway, Kissimmee, Florida
Accommodation: $30.00
Entertainment: $28.00
Today’s Total Expenses: $58.00
More Rain? Yep!
We woke up to overcast skies and it wan’t long before it started to rain yet again.
The forecast on the Weather Channel calls for scattered thunderstorms EVERY SINGLE DAY!
Watching the Tropical Updates
We currently use the Weather Channel on TV and the National Hurricane Center (www.nhc.noaa.gov) online to follow any activity in the Atlantic. and, it looks like things are starting to heat up.
Fortunately, it looks like we don’t have to worry at all about
Danielle. But now there’s Earl and something else behind that.
Keep your fingers crossed that there’s nothing we have to worry about over the next few months of hurricane season.
Over the past few years it seems that most of the hurricanes have been going further North than usual. As a matter of fact, over the last 5 years Geoff’s daughter in Halifax has been hit twice, while we got nothing.
It also looks like she may have to worry about Danielle.
Unfortunately, the Weather Channel really only cares about hurricanes that may threaten the US. So, there’s not a whole lot of information about ones that threaten the Bahamas or Atlantic Canada.
Following the path online at the National Hurricane Center is a bit better but still slanted towards US interests. Not surprising as these are US sites.
Checking Out the Travel Club We Just Joined
We managed to get a temporary membership number from Global Discovery Vacations as we still have not received our regular number by email. That was promised to be available to us no later than Monday (yesterday) and still nothing.
Anyway, we have the TransAtlantic Cruise to book and have already determined the best price we can get on our own online. We called and spoke to the travel agent part of the club and they gave us the same price we could get ourselves!
I told them that and they said that certain cruise lines (this one is Celebrity) will not allow travel agents to discount their cruises. So, in this case, the travel club does us no good.
Next, we asked them to find a hotel close to the cruise port in Barcelona for around $60/night. They came back with three hotels ranging from $150 to $250/night and said that was the best they could do.
Again, we can do much better on our own using CheapOstay. And, we told them that, too.
One More Chance
We decided to give the travel club one more chance to prove that they are worth the membership fee.
One of the things they do is offer condo stays around the world. So, I checked for what condos they had available for a certain time frame.
For the entire two week time frame that I checked the ONLY condos they had available were on the Texas Coast. Really? Nothing else? That’s just way too restrictive for our needs.
Our decision was clear – this travel club would just not work for us.
We contacted our salesperson and they told us it was no problem to cancel, we just have to send our cancellation to Global in writing. I’m hoping we can do that by email, we’ll see.
We’ll keep you posted on this.
TransAtlantic Cruise Booked
We went ahead and booked the TransAtlantic Cruise on our own because the travel club couldn’t get us a better price. We certainly don’t want to use them if we’re canceling our membership.
We will be leaving Barcelona on Oct. 25th and arriving in Miami on November 8th. That’s a full two week cruise and we paid a total of $1432.74. That works out to just over $100/day and that includes food, accommodations, entertainment and transportation. A pretty good deal,
actually.
I did check airfare and it was only a couple of hundred dollars less. It was a no-brainer to take the cruise.
Inception at IMAX
Tonight we treated ourselves to a movie. We’ve been wanting to see Inception and it was playing at the IMAX theatre in Orlando.
We had seen Avatar at this same theatre in April, but that was also in 3D. Inception was not in 3D.
It’s a good movie and certainly worth seeing. We’re just not sure if it was worth paying the extra to see it in IMAX.
But, hey, at least in an IMAX theatre I don’t need to put my glasses on to read the credits. They’re not tough to read when the letters are several feet high!
See the movie, but it’s up to you if you want to shell out the extra to see it in IMAX.
We actually went to the late showing – 10:30pm. As it’s almost 2-1/2 hours long, that means we didn’t get out until after 1:00am!
By Vicky Wells, on July 26th, 2010
Our transportation, accommodation, food and entertainment cost so far
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July 21 ~ Day #72
|
Budget to date
|
Spent today
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Total to date
|
Daily average
|
|
Total
|
$7200
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$0.00
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$7253.59
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$100.74
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|
Miles by Road
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Nautical Miles
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Miles by Air
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Miles by Train
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Total Statute Miles
|
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9285
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3856 [4437]
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000
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69
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13791
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Our transportation, accommodation, food and entertainment cost so far
|
July 23 ~ Day #74
|
Budget to date
|
Spent today
|
Total to date
|
Daily average
|
|
Total
|
$7400
|
$13.12
|
$7266.71
|
$98.19
|
|
Miles by Road
|
Nautical Miles
|
Miles by Air
|
Miles by Train
|
Total Statute Miles
|
|
9285
|
3856 [4437]
|
000
|
69
|
13791
|
Our transportation, accommodation, food and entertainment cost so far
|
July 24 ~ Day #75
|
Budget to date
|
Spent today
|
Total to date
|
Daily average
|
|
Total
|
$7500
|
$37.69
|
$7304.40
|
$97.39
|
|
Miles by Road
|
Nautical Miles
|
Miles by Air
|
Miles by Train
|
Total Statute Miles
|
|
9285+106=9391
|
3856 [4437]
|
000
|
69
|
13897
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Our transportation, accommodation, food and entertainment cost so far
|
July 26 ~ Day #77
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Budget to date
|
Spent today
|
Total to date
|
Daily average
|
|
Total
|
$7700
|
$33.12
|
$7337.52
|
$95.29
|
|
Miles by Road
|
Nautical Miles
|
Miles by Air
|
Miles by Train
|
Total Statute Miles
|
|
9391+58=9449
|
3856 [4437]
|
000
|
69
|
13955
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Current Location: Grimsby, Ontario
Today’s Total Expenses: $56.46
Transportation: $25.00
Accommodation: $
Food: $32.44
Six Days in One
In this post we are combining six days in one post while staying with my Dad and visiting my two sons and their families.
Enjoying Time with Dad
We arrived around 6pm last night so Wednesday was the first full day we had to spend with Dad.
It’s great to see him and to spend some time with him. The last time we saw him was when he visited us in the Bahamas for a month last November.
Bodies – The Exhibition – Niagara Falls
On Thursday we planned a trip to see “Bodies – The Exhibition – The Science Inside of You” in Niagara Falls.
This is a display of actual human bodies and organs in various types of dissections to show such things as muscles, internal organs, blood vessels and much, much more.
At first we thought we might have difficulty with this type of display. We were afraid it might be a bit gruesome. But, Dad had seen the exhibit before in Vancouver and said it was fascinating.
So, off we sent and we did find the exhibit interesting, educational and fascinating. The human body is truly amazing.
Actually, the only things that we thought were in poor taste were the photo they took of each group, photoshopped in one of the bodies and then offered the photos for sale and the gift shop had such things as a stuffed “Flesh Eating Disease” toy and leg bone swizzle sticks. Sorry, but that kind of thing is just gross!
Discount Shopping
Just around the corner from the exhibit was a discount outlet, so we also stopped in there.
Dad found a lovely bird feeder for his backyard and we got some small propane cylinders for our Coleman stove. The prices were not only good but they also included the taxes in the price. In my opinion, that’s a great way to price things.
Niagara Falls
Then we drove around Niagara Falls for a bit. We have all been to The Falls many, many times so we didn’t stay long as it was, as usual, quite crowded.
Unexpected Dental Work
After getting back it was time for Geoff to head off to the dentist. He had chipped his tooth the day before.
We just picked a dentist from a sign we drove by. I think, perhaps, we should have shopped around a bit.
For just 5 minutes to fix the chip – with no freezing – he was charged $140.44! And, they said they gave him a significant discount. This was just another one of those unexpected expenses that you can’t possibly plan for but have to find some way, on such a long to trip, to allow for such things in your budget.
Canadian Tire
When we were leaving the US we started having a little trouble with the transmission. It was having difficult changing from second to third gear. Having to fix a transmission could easily be a trip ending problem.
As the car needed another oil change, we took it to Canadian Tire and also had them do a road test on the car to evaluate the transmission.
When we picked it up they let us know they couldn’t find anything wrong with the transmission. Good news. Now let’s hope the car behaves. Perhaps it was just a little quirk. Here’s hoping.
Work Day
We decided that Friday needed to be a work day so we did our best to catch up on our posts and other stuff that just goes along with keeping up with life.
Mexican Train Dominos
During this week my Dad also introduced me to a game called Mexican Train Dominos. It’s really a lot of fun.
Try as I might, I have yet to beat him, but I did come close – once!
Visit to My Eldest Son and Family
Saturday we were off to visit my eldest son and his family which includes my grandson, my granddaughter and his lovely fiancé and their new home.
This was the first time we met his fiancé and what a lovely lady she is. She has three children – two boys and girl – who we’ll get to meet tomorrow at a bbq given by my other son and his family. More about that next.
Visit to My Second Son and Family
This son and his fiancé have just purchased a lovely house and are busy making it their home.
I was happy to see them both again as well as my grandchildren. Together they have five kids and only one of them was missing as he was working.
We were also able to meet my eldest’s son’s fiancé’s children and that was a pleasure, too.
All the kids played together amazingly well and enjoyed themselves immensely in the pool at T & F’s new house.
Our Last Day Here
On our last day here we had to take our car back to Canadian Tire because the “check engine” light was on.
They simply wanted too much to check for the reason and we’re sure there really isn’t anything wrong. It has probably just registered a miss-fire like the last time when we had the distributor cap replaced.
We did some more running around and topped off the evening with a lovely spaghetti dinner cooked by my Dad. He’s a wonderful cook and the spaghetti sauce was amazing.
It will be sad to leave tomorrow, but it’s time to get back on the road.
Thanks, Dad! Love you!
Thanks also to T&F and family and T&E and family for welcoming us into their homes. We love you all.
By Geoff Wells, on June 27th, 2010
Our transportation, accommodation, food and entertainment cost so far
|
June 27 ~Day #48
|
Budget to date
|
Spent today
|
Total to date
|
Daily average
|
|
Total
|
$4800
|
$31
|
$5743.78
|
$119.66
|
|
Miles by Road
|
Nautical Miles
|
Miles by Air
|
Miles by Train
|
Total Statute Miles
|
|
6253
|
3826
|
000
|
69
|
10756.4
|
Current Location: Sunny Chinooks
Today’s Total Expenses: $31.00
Accommodation: $31.00
Reading Naturally
This was another relax and do nothing day, lay in the sun, walk down to the river, spend time in the hot tub, lay back in the sun. Sunny Chinooks is building a new pool but they doubt it will be ready for this season.
They have quite a collection of naturist magazines including several back issues of “Naturally”. Vicky and I were passing the time reading some of them and I picked up the Fall 2008 edition.
We’re Famous
To my surprise on page 38 was an article entitled “Escape to Eleuthera” which is the island in the Bahamas we live on. Eleuthera has more than fifty fabulous beaches that you pretty much have all to yourselves. The problem is they are very hard to find and a tourist with only a week’s vacation has no hope of finding them. This is why we wrote “The Elusive Beaches of Eleuthera” which has become a must have purchase for anyone that comes to the island.
Rich and Cindy Thiboutot
Well the authors of the Naturally article, (Rich and Cindy Thiboutot) apparently agreed because they gave our book a terrific plug right in the article.
We are now writing an article for Naturally about how we discovered the Thiboutot piece in a pile of back issues in a naturist camp in Alberta.
Thanks again to the folks at Sunny Chinooks for letting us keep the Fall 2008 copy of Naturally.
By Geoff Wells, on February 24th, 2010
 North Eleuthera Airport (ELH)
Orlando vacation ~ Day one
Now that we have decided to spend the next few years traveling around Europe and blogging about our adventures, we thought it might be a good idea to get in a few practice runs.
One of the rules of living in the Bahamas is that you can only stay for six months at a time. You can get a homeowners card that allows you to stay longer but we have never bothered. Anyway, since we had to leave because our six months was up, we decided to have a mini-vacation in Orlando.
Part of what we plan to do on our adventures is travel as cheaply as possible and document everything we spend. We want to show that it is possible to travel a lot in your retirement years without spending a fortune.
We’ll talk more about timeshare later but for now know that we exchanged into a resort in Orlando where we plan to spend a week. Timeshare (now they call it vacation ownership) can be a great way to save money but one of the downsides is actually getting to the resort.
American Airlines Special
American Airlines currently runs a $69 one way special (plus taxes – total $396.40 return for two) from Eleuthera to Miami on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. This is way better than the $704 we normally pay to fly into Fort Lauderdale with the other carriers that service the island. The only problem is we keep a car in storage close to the Fort Lauderdale Airport so now we have to get from Miami to Fort Lauderdale.
We figured a taxi was out of the question as it would have eaten up any savings on the airfare. We checked for limo and shuttle services between airports but it was still more than we wanted to pay. The best price we found was at shuttlediscount.com but it was still going to cost almost $80 for both of us.
Then we remembered the Tri-Rail system that runs parallel to I95 from Miami to West Palm and beyond. A quick check online at http://www.tri-rail.com and we discovered the trip from Miami Airport to Fort Lauderdale Airport was just $1.90 each for seniors and that included a free shuttle bus from arrivals at the airport to the train station. Add a $15 (including tip) taxi ride from the station to our storage unit and we had a pretty sweet deal.
Air travel is increasingly becoming a royal pain in the ass even from a one room terminal like North Eleuthera. We still had to arrive two hours before the flight and sit and wait for the plane to arrive.
We arrived at the North Eleuthera Airport at 11:30am for a 1:30pm flight to Miami. The flight was more or less on time, which is rare for here, but we got into the wrong line up at customs. The guy ahead of us was interviewed for a long time and finally got hauled away. Of course this meant we missed the train we had planned to catch and had to wait another hour at the station. We finally got to our car in Fort Lauderdale at about 5:30pm ready for the 3-4 hour drive to Orlando. After reconnecting the battery it started immediately (I love my Jeep) and we were off.
Hard To Beat Denny’s
Before getting on the highway we stopped at Denny’s for the first food we had had since breakfast. It’s tough to beat their senior specials – huge salad, grilled Talapia, two sides and coffee for just $20 including tip.
We had printed out our Google maps to the resort before we left home but somehow they didn’t seem to match the reality of the street we were on when we eventually made it to Orlando. Anyway after a couple of stops to ask directions we got to the Celebrity Resort – Orlando around 11:30pm just 12 hours after leaving home. We were looking forward to crawling into bed for a well deserved rest but the days adventures were not over yet.
Because we booked on short notice the only unit available for exchange was a studio which can often mean very limited cooking facilities. When we got to our assigned unit we quickly discovered, as we had feared, that it was small and only had a microwave and bar fridge. Worst of all it had not been cleaned since the previous guests. Needless to say, after traveling all day, we were not happy.
The resort staff were very apologetic and immediately offered us an upgrade to a one-bedroom unit which we gratefully accepted.
So it worked out well and we got a beautiful unit with a full kitchen just across from the pool. It was a long day but we are here and looking forward to our first vacation in several years.
By Geoff Wells, on February 9th, 2010
Our slogan is “Because you’re never too old”, but the reality is we know that, at some point, we are going to prefer sitting and rocking on the front porch to skiing down a black diamond hill. Actually prefer is not the right word but now that just getting up off the couch is accompanied by numerous grunts and groans it seems inevitable that we will have to find enjoyment in less physical activities.
We have lived and worked most of the past ten years on the small island of Eleuthera in the Bahamas. Our house is not grand but it is on top of a hill in the middle of the island which gives us spectacular views of both the Atlantic and Caribbean oceans. We had a lot of plans for this house but they will take time to realize and time is the thing we are most short of.
We had to make a very difficult decision and choose between staying in paradise or exploring the rest of the world. It’s a big world and we just can’t do both so we decided to sell our house and set out on a new adventure.
We have already been to every state and province in the US and Canada plus most islands in the Caribbean. We’ve done Mexico, and a little bit of South America but hardly anything in Europe. So that will be the focus for the next few years.
We plan to get a motorcycle (trike), a trailer camper and travel from place to place, blogging as we go.
We write this having just listed our house for sale. With the world’s economy in the dumper this is not a good time to sell but we have priced it so aggressively we hope it will sell quickly.
If you or someone you know has a dream of owning a home in a tropical paradise check out our home in Eleuthera.
By Vicky Wells, on April 22nd, 2009
 Images of Eleuthera DVD
This brand new DVD featuring the island of Eleuthera in the Bahamas is packaged and ready to ship.
Images of Eleuthera, which is over an hour long, is a photo journey through the island of Eleuthera separated into North (including Harbour Island and Spanish Wells), Central (including the Glass Window Bridge) and South (including Princess Cay and Lighthouse Beach).
There is even a bonus section of underwater photos as well as a folder of photos to use on your computer as a screen saver.
All of this is set to an original score by long time winter resident and well known composer, Sam Spence.
We are very proud of this latest production as it complements our very popular beach guide, The Elusive Beaches of Eleuthera.
Where the book highlights all the beaches of Eleuthera, the DVD showcases the entire island.
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