Perhaps, every August is a busy month for me and I just don’t remember. Five years ago, I was in Utah, shopping, for my AmeriCorps assignment in Sitka, Alaska. I few months earlier, I was serving in the Peace Corps in Ethiopia. In March 2020, Peace Corps shut down worldwide and more than 7,000 volunteers were sent home. I quickly changed my home of record back to Hawaii. My friend’s mom had suggested I use her address, in case of an emergency.

My birthday is in July. So, wherever I am in the world, I head back to the USA for my annual medical exams. That was until July 2023, when I decided to walk the Camino. It took me 40 days to complete the 500 mile journey, from France to Spain. It also got my annual physical exam off schedule. This year, I was finally able to get it back on track. But, during my July appointment, I saw a nurse practitioner. I had to return, for the follow up with my doctor. The first available appointment was … in early August.

With some extra time on my hands, I first traveled around the country via Amtrak. Fun fact, there are two cities named Las Vegas in the US. One is in Nevada and the other (serviced by Amtrak) in New Mexico. After arriving in Chicago, by train, I flew to Las Vegas. Once there, I decided to do some dental work. One problem with full time travel is scheduling six month dental appointments. Six months ago, I saw a dentist in Mexico. A year ago, I did the exam and cleaning in Honduras.

I flew from Vegas back east for my medical appointment. Then, I hopped back on Amtrak. I headed to St. Paul, Minnesota. Back in 1991, I lived in Minneapolis. I lasted less than a year, after the Halloween Blizzard that dropped a record-breaking 28.4 inches of snow, over a three-day period. On this return, thirty three years later, I visited old friends and my old neighborhood. Nope! I couldn’t remember where my old apartment was!

The closest I got to my old apartment in Minneapolis was the statue of Mary Tyler Moore. The apartment is “somewhere” nearby. Leaving Minnesota, by train, something told me to book the sleeper car, for the short trip from St. Paul to Chicago. When you learn that the Wisconsin State Fair shut down early, due to severe storms and flash flooding, you can’t really be upset with Amtrak for being more than five hours late and putting passengers on buses. Now, what they served us for dinner, due to having run out of food, was a crime!

I arrived at Union Station in Chicago just after midnight. My hotel’s policy was to cancel any reservation not checked in, by midnight. At the train’s first delay, I called the hotel. I couldn’t get anyone to pickup the phone or respond to email. I called Expedia. They couldn’t get anyone to answer the phone, but the guy said he would keep trying. We hung up. I arrived to Union Station, by shuttle bus, at 12:10 AM and took a taxi to the hotel. I was already checked in. Expedia VIP status is no joke. The next day, I took Amtrak to Washington DC.

I made it to DC the same day as ICE. I lived in the capital, in 1985, before I left to volunteer in Peace Corps Kenya. I returned to WDC, after completing my Masters degree, in Public History (with a concentration in Archives). My first job after graduating was at the National Archives and Records Administration, in WDC. That was back in 1990. I made a short visit, in 2017, for my Peace Corps Armenia staging. My staging for Peace Corps Ethiopia, in 2019, was in near by Arlington, Virginia.

“You Can’t Go Home Again” is more than just a good novel by Thomas Wolfe. To say that I had a hard time recognizing WDC this time around would be an understatement. But … it’s the nation’s capital and if you’re going to protest … this is the city to do that. I sat with one group camping across from Union Station, to find out what it was like. They were not the types of people I thought would be manning a tent, in shifts, 24 hours a day. But, then it made sense. They had the free time to do it, (on a daily basis), and little concerns over any backlash at work.

I hopped on a train from WDC to NYC, a few days before my cruise. I’m a LA person and this was the most time I’ve spent in the Big Apple. I mean I’ve been going there since 1984. Back then, before my first trip to London, I booked a room at the YWCA. I saw my first Broadway play and watched the Thanksgiving Day parade … in person! Over the years, I’ve returned for work related conferences or as a layover, before flights to London. And, … like many Americans, I was drawn there to see the 9/11 Memorial & Ground Zero site.

This trip, I booked a hotel in Hell’s Kitchen, near the Manhattan Cruise Terminal. I knew about NYC bodegas, but I had never been inside. I couldn’t wait to visit the one a block away from my hotel. It was a grocery store, convenient stop, and restaurant … all in one. The workers were amazing and made me feel like I was a part of the neighborhood. The night before the cruise, I received an email from Norwegian Cruise Line. Due to Hurricane Erin, we would now dock, for three days, in New York City. And, three of our ports were canceled. They were adding two new stops in the Bahamas.

Luckily, one original port, Bermuda, was still our final stop. I’ve been to Puerto Rico and to the Dominican Republic. I was more excited about the British Virgin Islands. Cruise day, I checked out my hotel and made the short walk to the terminal. I had an 11:30 checked-in. I was inside my cabin, by 9:45. When you’ve told 4,000 passengers their cruise is now a bust, you want everyone happy. We also had the added bonus of an empty ship. There was no waiting for passengers to disembark. I put my suitcase in my room and headed to the Thermal Spa Suite.

I booked a Solo Studio cabin, in the separate area, mid ship. You need to use your room key to gain access to the three levels of 100-square-foot studio rooms, with access to an exclusive Studio Lounge area. I was lucky this time and my room was on the same floor as the lounge. I didn’t have to walk up or down stairs, with my late night tea and snacks. Solo passengers, in any type of room, on the ship, have access to the solo lounge. Informal meetings happen each evening, run by a cruise director, for solo guests.

This was my seventh cruise with NCL. My first was an Alaska Cruise, followed by a Fiord Cruise (Norway, Iceland, Scotland, and England), and a final Mexico Riviera cruise, in 2024. This year, I did a Transatlantic cruise (Southampton to Miami), in winter, and a Mediterranean cruise, in spring. Early fall, I did the failed one to the Caribbean. I’ll round out the year with a repositioning cruise that starts in Vancouver, BC, makes three stops in Alaska, followed by Seattle, Astoria (Oregon), San Francisco, and then ends in San Diego. I’ll do another repositioning cruise a month later that starts in Barcelona and ends in Miami. My final cruise for the year will start in Miami, with stops in Mexico, Costa Rica, Belize and the Panama Canal.

I haven’t yet worked out whether or not I want to cruise full time. Six cruises in one year may just be my limit. Before the second repositioning cruise, I’m heading to Lisbon and walking the final 100k of the Portuguese Way on the Camino. I walked the French Way, two years ago. The 500 miles took me 40 days to walk. Never again! (Smile)! — Buen Camino! XOXO—GGT