Home Sweet Home

Happy New Year, everyone! I hope 2022 is going well for you so far.

Steven and I welcomed the new year at the ranch with my Dad and friends Bill and Kelly. My Mom was at the house in Abilene for a few days, so she missed our rousing evening of celebration. Last time we were all together for New Year’s Eve in 2019 we cooked up a storm and drank champagne. This year we watched the ball drop (in real time, on an iPad) then hit the sack. It was all the energy we could muster to say hello to 2022.

Our time at the ranch was hectic with lots of things to get done and lots of people in and out. It is always enjoyable, but it doesn’t take long before we all get a bit tuckered out. Bill and Kelly had spent the holidays in Florida, and were coming to Texas anyway, but did so at a much faster pace than usual so we could spend some time together. We appreciate them so much, it was nice to visit and catch up and discuss plans. You may recall that they are planning to meet us in Ireland in August and tour there and in Scotland for a few weeks in a motorhome of their own. We are really looking forward to that adventure!

Just four days into the new year we headed to the Abilene airport for the first of three flights back to Rome, and back to our home, Bijou. Thanks to Covid travel rules we had to have a negative test that would last us all the way to Rome, a nearly impossible feat. We purchased tests that came with the services of an online proctor, someone who monitors the test from start to finish by video, ensuring integrity. This allowed us to take them at the latest moment possible before heading to the airport. We basically logged on to the website, answered a few questions, then a proctor came online to video monitor the test. Well, they could see us, but we couldn’t see them, so it was a one way video. It was easy as pie and as soon as we received an email with our negative results, the clock was ticking. If our travels went off without a hitch, we would arrive in Rome with about three hours to spare before our tests expired beyond the 24-hour requirement.

Well, the best laid plans and all that! We left Abilene an hour late and by the time we arrived in Dallas, our 3:30 flight to London had been delayed by five hours. That meant we would miss our flight to Rome and the next available flight was over seven hours after our arrival at Heathrow. Our tightly choreographed trip was blown to bits. Our negative Covid tests expired as we sat in Heathrow, so we scrambled and found a testing facility at the airport where we waited nearly an hour to get tested again.

Even if our trip had gone as planned, we knew we would arrive in Rome too tired to drive anywhere and we couldn’t stay overnight in Bijou at the storage facility. So we already had reservations at the little AirBnb we stayed at on our way home three weeks earlier. By the time we got there, our trip had taken just under 30 hours door to door. We were absolutely shattered.

We had a good night’s sleep but still felt a bit “pushed in”. Thankfully we had made arrangements for the same driver who picked us up at the airport to also drive us back to Bijou the following morning. As we drove up to the storage place we were so happy to be home. Bijou looked great and on the inside she was dry and clean. We had two suitcases and two large carry-on bags, but before we could get them inside, we first had to remove our bikes that we had stored inside before we left. We feel better when they are inside if we are gone for long periods of time, but it sure is a pain to get them in and out. Once they were back on the outside rack, though, we just brought our bags in, secured them so they wouldn’t fly around as we drove, and then took off for Pompeii. My gosh it felt so good to be back on the road! It was a gloriously sunny day and we flew down the highway in anticipation of a few days of recovery in the campground across the street from the ruins of Pompeii.

Jetlag kicked in not long after we got set up at the campground. If we were on a 10-14 day vacation, we would have fought to stay awake, but since we have time, we gave in and napped all afternoon. We did have the foresight to schedule a tour guide for our visit to Pompeii. And we scheduled that for early on our second day there so we would be somewhat alert. Good thing, too, because wow, Pompeii was amazing!

We had done a quick shop on our way out of Rome so we would have some milk for our coffee and some eggs for breakfast. We couldn’t do a big shop because in just a few days we would be boarding an overnight ferry to Albania and would have to turn off the gas to our fridge, so we didn’t want to fill it up. We have plenty of tuna and beans and rice on board, so we are not going to starve.

We made reservations for the ferry departing from Bari, Italy traveling to Durres, Albania for January 11, so we had a couple of days to kill. We headed to the town Matera. Over the course of its history, according to Wikipedia, Matera has been occupied by Greeks, Romans, Longobards, Byzantines, Saracens, Swabians, Angevins, Aragonese, and Bourbons. I don’t even know who half of those people are, but I can tell you that we were drawn to Matera because of all the beautiful photos we see on Instagram. Also because it is a popular movie location, including the opening scene of the latest James Bond film.

Based on these two facts, we assumed Matera was a quaint old mountain top village with lots of character and charm. But actually it is a mountain top town with a population of 70,000. Its narrow roads are crowded with cars and delivery vans and construction trucks, which makes it difficult for Bijou to get anywhere close to the one spot where the money shot can be had. It is for these reasons, and the fact that it was raining during our two day stay, that we never left Bijou. Plus, we were still severely jetlagged, so this was two days of relaxation, time well spent in my mind! We left without stepping foot in the town, which was fine. We can’t see it all.

We made our way to the port in Bari, which is hands down the most confusing port we have been to. We had six hours before our ferry sailed and it took nearly all that time for us to figure out where we were supposed to go to get our tickets and get in line for boarding. We finally found the proper entrance to the port and found the agent for our ferry and proceeded to check in. The guy asked Steven why we were going to Albania, and he said, “vacation”. The guy said, “No! Albania is closed for vacation!” So Steven said, “Well, I have an appointment with the dentist on Friday.” And the guy replies, “Dentist? Well that’s different!” And so we got our tickets for the ferry. By the time we got in line, we only had to wait about 45 minutes to board for our 11 pm departure. The wind was howling and the Adriatic Sea was very, very angry.

I have heard horror stories about ferry staff directing motorhomers to drive backwards onto the steep ferry ramps. Our guy not only wanted me to drive on backwards, but he wanted me to drive backwards all the way up to the top level. I tried to explain why I didn’t think this was a good idea, but he wasn’t having any of it. Rather than argue, I just decided what the hell.

Poor Bijou. She made it, but wow, her tires were smoking and the smell was awful. I backed all the way up and to the other side of the ship, into the far corner. Bijou was all alone and she looked like she had been put on the naughty mat. Because we were clearly going to have a bumpy ride to Albania, the crew came and tied her down with multiple ropes and ratchets. She wasn’t going anywhere. Steven and I, on the other hand, had secured a cabin for the overnight trip, so we got checked in. Not long after we got settled an announcement came over the loudspeakers informing passengers that our departure had been delayed by an hour. We both downed a sleeping pill and woke up the next morning in smooth waters, gliding along the coast of Albania. I’m sure it was a rough passage, but we didn’t feel a thing.

I have to admit I thought the ferry guy in Italy was just kidding about the dentist appointment being a good reason for entering the country, but when we drove off the ferry and met with the immigration official, he asked for written proof of our appointment. Of course we had nothing official, we just had the email from Kevin and Ruth outlining the information about the appointments they had made for us. Kevin had written the email in such a way that all the information was right in the first paragraph and that’s all the official was interested in. So with that, we were in!

Lastly, we’ve had a few posts go by without including any of Steven’s artwork. That doesn’t mean he has stopped working. On the contrary, he has continued to create new paintings and drawings. If you would like to keep up what he is doing, you can follow him on his Visual Art Facebook Page here. This one is called “Leaving Home”.

UP NEXT: Albania!