Where in the World are Ric and Anne?

In seven days, if the stars align and the creek don’t rise, Anne and Ric embark on the MS Zuiderdam for their around the world adventure. Or misadventure. (Had we known the effort and angst involved in getting us to this point…) But here we are with at least one show-stopping issue solved—we now have meds for the entire five months duration. But we don’t have our Brazil visas, which we were told were required to board the ship, but then no one else does! The new e-visa system that Brazil initiated recently is not working. Holland America is aware of the problem and working to resolve it, either by getting Brazil to lift the visa requirement so we can sail up the Amazon, or by changing our entire itinerary to skip Brazil! Wow! This problem must apply to anyone trying to visit Brazil, whether for work, school, tourism, … Unimaginable incompetence. Where is Bolsonaro when we need him? The other possible modification to our adventure is rerouting to avoid the Gulf of Aiden, the Red Sea, an...

Around the World? Are We Crazy? So, for our upcoming 50th wedding anniversary, we, Ric and Anne, are taking an around the world cruise. Woo hoo! The closer we get to departure the crazier it seems. How did we come to this? Road Scholar World Academy World Cruise Piqued Our Interest . We always get lots of travel ads, having done a bit of traveling since our retirement. Most go straight into the trash. But, many moons ago, Ric glanced at a Road Scholar flyer for an around-the-world cruise that happened to mainly visit places we had not visited but were interested in. It also happened to cover the longitudinal slice of the globe we had not crossed into , (Burma through India).  Well, against our better judgment, we signed up, tentatively, having months before we had to put down the non-refundable payment. But we got more used to the idea, so coughed up the money, purchasing expensive travel insurance in case of serious health or family contingencies. So, here we are. Ten days from d...