It's time to get on the road again. We will leave home tomorrow morning, probably in dense fog, and proceed to New Orleans. Their weather prediction is for up to 5 inches of rain. On Sunday, noonish, we will board a cruise ship and sail down the eastern coast of Central America. I will not gain any weight. Nor will I get seasick or sunburned. Trust me, I know what I'm doing.

The truth is that this is our 11th cruise, but our first on this cruise line. I never get seasick or sunburned, and if I can stay on my diet, I won't gain any weight. This is a seven-day cruise and last year about this time, we took a 14 day cruise and I never gained an ounce. I won't say that I will enjoy eating as much as I did on the first nine cruises, but there are other things to do.

Most days will find me in the pool or the hot tub. I will go to the show each night and spend a lot of time in that big lounge up above the bridge where I can watch the sea go by. I'll walk the deck for a mile each day. Maybe two.

Did I mention that two of our grandchildren will be on board? Also their parents.

This is a "freestyle" cruise which means that I don't have to wear a tie so much and we can eat when and where we want. There are no assigned tables, meal times, or servers. You just drop in and order up. On earlier cruises, I have been stuck in the main dining room a few times when I would much rather have been up on top watching the ship sail in or out of a beautiful seaport. I even saw part of the Panama canal from the main dining room. I may have missed something. I may have to go back.

Cruise ships almost always have great music. I always hope for a steel band, the heartbeat of the Carribean. I remember one ship that had a harpist and another that had a string quartet. There are lounge singers, and a floor show.

At times, wild sea creatures put on a show along side the ship. I have seen hundreds of dolphins, flying fish, eagles, orcas, sea turtles, a sail fish, and once a hawk stayed with our ship all the way from Hispaniola to Puerto Rico. I still wonder if he ever got home.

Something unexpected sometimes becomes a highlight of the trip. The Gulf of Mexico is stormy right now, so maybe the weather will be the highlight this time. The only time we have ever sailed really rough seas was on our first cruise and that happened in the middle of the night, so we sort of missed it. That was in the Gulf of Alaska. Once we sailed through one rainbow after another as we were coming into Fort Lauderdale. Sailing out of Tampa, you pass under a beautiful bridge. On Gatun Lake,in Panama, the ship is surrounded by dense jungle. And we have watched the skyline of Miami sink into the Atlantic.

I guess these are expectations. I'll supply the highlights when we get home. That will be about nine days from now.
How"should have been a sailor"ard