September 2019 Articles

Archives by Months

Just Rambling September 2019:

Just Rambling
It began on August 15th when we flew from Monroe, LA to Dallas, TX. This was the beginning of our recent trip on an Alaskan Cruise. From DFW Airport, we flew to Seattle, Washington to stay at the Embassy Suite where a blue grass jam session was going on to prepare for the Bluegrass Alaskan Cruise on the Royal Caribbean Cruise ship “Ovation”. This ship had 4,902 guests on it with 1,685 staff members from 37 different countries. It was quite a chore getting on the ship then going through the safety procedures in the event of any problems. We finally got boarded and got through the safety procedures to get to our room. This was my first ever cruise and I hadn’t been real thrilled about going, but Donnette told me to “cool it” and that we were going—so we did. My sister, Cindy, and her hsu8band, Ted Nichols, along with my first cousin, Joye, and her husband Hal Neely, also went on this cruise even though we all flew up on different flights. We all met our first cousin, Bonnie, who is married to Little Roy Lewis of the Little Roy and Lizzy Bluegrass group. They had been touring out West with their band leading up to this cruise. There were several other bands on the cruise as well and we really enjoyed them all. We enjoyed our adventures as well—the dog sledding, the train ride through parts of Alaska and our trip into Victoria, British Columbia. I believe the dog sledding was my favorite. We got off at Juneau, Alaska to meet our guide who carried several of us to the dog camp. There were 200 dogs there —it was amazing how they acted. They all were so happy to see all the people and they were so excited to be hooked up to pull the wheeled cart that we all rode in. Each dog had its own dog house which was quite a sight—200 dog houses scattered around in the valley between the two mountains. There were dogs on top of their houses, dogs in the houses, and one dog that always turned his house upside down to sleep in it—they leave it that way for him. The young men and women that run this training camp were all really nice young adults. We really enjoyed visiting and talking with several of them. The young man that drove our sled was from Colorado and several of he dogs he was training were from the lower states. He said the camp would start moving dogs out in late September due to winter moving in and them not being able to get to the camp in a motorized vehicle. Again, we really enjoyed this adventure with the dogs and the young people working and caring for them. The sights in Alaska were great and Victoria, British Columbia was so beautiful. We toured the city and we were amazed at the beautiful landscapes throughout—no trash and flowers, flowers, flowers. We were told that the climate in Victoria remains basically 60—80 degrees year round, which is why their landscapes are so beautiful. We boarded the “Ovation” on August 16th and got off the ship on August 23rd. After getting off the ship, we went up the Space Needle in Seattle to enjoy the sights from there then spent another night at the Embassy Suites before departing for DFW Airport and home on the 24th of August. When we left the ship, they were boarding other passengers and were leaving for Australia by way of Hawaii. All the crew members we met and had dealings with on the cruise were very nice—our steward, Victor, was from Indonesia and our two waiters at our dinner table every night were from Kenya. Like I said—1,685 crew members from 37 different countries. We had a great trip and we really enjoyed our families, the new people we met, and all the Bluegrass bands. As Donnette said, “You will enjoy the trip” and I really did, but this ole country boy was proud to see the home front again. —Van Bennett