Friday, 9 Dec 2022 – It had been over two-and-a-half
years since our last cruise ended abruptly on 15 Mar 2020 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil,
due to the Covid-19 outbreak. We finally
decided to book a 5-Day Caribbean cruise to help Verna and Earl celebrate their
50th wedding anniversary, along with several other family members and friends. The outcome of this cruise would decide whether
we would be booking more, longer cruises in the future!
By early afternoon, we
were all packed to start our drive to Memphis.
However, it had snowed 8 inches during the night. Even if we had managed to clear our driveway,
the snow that covered our street was much too deep for our vehicle to
negotiate. So, we waited for the Homeowners Association’s contractors to clear the snow from our driveway and street. They finally made it to our street and
started clearing it around 3:00 PM or so.
Scott stopped by our house after work.
By then, the snow was mostly cleared from our driveway and street, but
there was a snow berm remaining at the end of our driveway which prevented us
from reaching the street. Jesse and
Scott managed to clear a path through the berm, wide enough for our vehicle to
get through. (Thanks Scott!) We finally left home at 4:30 PM. It had snowed only as far south as Sioux City,
IA, so our route was clear after that.
Jesse wanted to get to the other side of Kansas City before stopping for
the night. After making it to Kansas
City, we fooled around the last one-half hour looking for the Best Western where
we had stayed previously. There were
several Best Westerns in the area, and our GPS was not much help. We finally found it, actually located in
Independence, MO. We checked in at about
at 11:11 PM.
Saturday, 10 Dec 2022 – After enjoying the delicious
complimentary breakfast, we left motel at 10:40 AM. It was cloudy all day; raining before we
arrived in West Memphis. After checking
into the Quality Inn, we drove to Walmart to purchase wine and swim googles
(which we forgot to pack). For dinner,
we purchased chicken sandwiches and Oreo milkshakes from Burger King. Afterwards, we decided to drive to the Amtrak
station in Memphis to check out the location, parking, etc.
Sunday, 11 Dec 2022 – Got up at 3:30 AM, and
left the motel at about 4:30 AM for our drive to Verna’s. We left our heavy winter coats and a suitcase
containing our winter clothes at Verna’s.
Then we loaded most of Verna and Earl’s luggage into our vehicle. Catherine, Mario, Karanie & Jay (Jesse’s
nieces and nephews) soon arrived at Verna’s also. They loaded Verna & Earl’s remaining
luggage into their vehicle. Then, Verna &
Earl got into our vehicle and we drove to the Amtrak station. There, we checked our luggage and boarded the
train at about 7:00 AM. Karanie took
care of storing our vehicle.
All of our group of
about 20 were seated in the same section.
We sat on second level in second seat on the right (behind Verna &
Earl). Jesse bought coffee and juice,
and we ate the fruit that Sally had brought.
Later, we all enjoyed chicken salad and crackers for lunch, provided by
one of Verna’s friends. We arrived in New
Orleans at about 2:40 PM. Pre-arranged coach
transportation soon arrived and drove us to the Maison Dupuy Hotel.
We (Jesse & Sally)
took a taxi to Nubian’s house, arriving at about 4:55 PM. (We had tried unsuccessfully to book an Uber.) Nubian had invited everyone to dinner at her
house, and Jesse was making six lemon icebox pies, so he needed to get there
early and Sally went with him. Later,
the rest of the family and friends arrived.
We all enjoyed a fine catered meal, lemon icebox pie, and drinks. Afterwards, we returned to our hotel.
