Final Prep, Cruise to Barcelona

Spain 2016 We are now in the final stages of preparation for our 2016 cruise to Barcelona, Spain.  We will explore Spain and Portugal for about 90 days then we will depart from Barcelona for a flight to possibly Romania or Bulgaria.  We will travel in a clockwise fashion from Barcelona around Spain and Portugal.  The curved line on the map is a flight and the straight lines are  trains and bold lines are planned car rentals. We are staging our departure from Alamogordo, NM the gateway to White Sands National Monument.

White Sands Nationl Monument, NM

White Sands National Monument, NM

Spain and Portugal combined are almost the size of Texas.  Ninety days is as far as we have planned and made reservations for, but we (I) hope to stay in Europe for significantly longer.  Our schedule is above.  My secret plan is… since we are already in Europe, what’s to stop us from continuing on eastward, and maybe go around the world, ending up in Los Angeles or Vancouver, Canada? A testament to our good planning is the fact that during our last several days here in Alamogordo, NM, we are not hurried, rushed. We are not doing much of anything, just relaxing and fine tuning.  Our check list for the last 10 days or so has been: 1)  Pack up the truck and leave Tempe, AZ. 2)  Visit family in Los Alamos, Tucumcari and Las Cruses, New Mexico 3)  Get our fill of the great New Mexico Mexican food 4)  Unload the truck at the storage facility in Alamogordo, exchange what we need for Europe. 5)  Sell the 2011 F-150 truck in Alamogordo, NM Since selling the truck, we have had to walk to lunch spots and Wal-Mart.  Today on our way to Wal-Mart and a Thai lunch, some lady we passed on the street offered us a “couple of dollars”.  Apparently we are fitting in a bit too well.  Some of the clothes we are wearing we will donate prior to leaving.  Possibly they should have been donated some time ago. Every travel aspect to get us on-board the Norwegian cruise ship has been planned.  Shuttle from Alamogordo to El Paso, flight to Houston, shuttles to the hotel and finally to the port of Houston where we will board a re-positioning cruise to Spain.  Sixteen  days at sea will be most relaxing. If you have been reading my blogs, you are aware that the outrageous $18,000 annual premium of Obamacare was the initial impetus for planning this European adventure.  We are calling ourselves Obamacare Escapees.  That is simply the excuse, the adventure lies ahead.  Bon Voyage.

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