Bill and Sheila At Sea - Day Five

Sheila awoke at 3:00 AM, anxious that we would oversleep and not make wake up calls to the other gang members who had asked us to. She apparently didn’t hear when I said that I would set my Blackberry alarm to wake us in plenty of time. She went back to sleep but I was wide awake.

I walked out onto our balcony and saw that we were winding our way through the seemingly endless maze of huge tankers and container vessels that are waiting for dock space in Galveston. In a while, I noticed that we were overtaking what appeared to be much smaller vessel in the ship channel, passing her in exactly the same way you would pass another car on a highway. We went roaring past at twenty knots. I was pleased that I remembered how to read the running lights and channel markers. As I looked down on to her deck thinking how small she looked, I realized that she was about the same size ship that I had served on for over two years, sailing not only the Caribbean but also the Atlantic and the Mediterranean.

We got ready and did our final bits of packing. When it opened at 6:30, we were waiting to be seated at the oh so fancy Paris dining room for breakfast. One of our friends who would be traveling back with us in the car soon met us and we ordered. I had an egg white omelette with vegetables, honey dew melon, hash browns, chicken sausage, turkey bacon, toast and marmalade, orange juice and decaf. Sheila had eggs benedict. It was a fitting end to the cruise. The whole stern bulkhead was glass and we watched the City of Galveston pass by as they twisted and turned the ship into the pier.

Debarkation and customs was fairly painless. By ten o’clock we were driving up the bridge/causeway that links Galveston to the mainland. There was only one spot of stop and go traffic in the Houston area. We stopped for a quick sandwich lunch near the junction of I-45 and Texas 19 and by dinner time we were pulling into Paris, Texas where we introduced our friends to the old Texas institution known as a David Beard’s catfish restaurant. Before 10:00 PM we were driving through Tulsa taking our friends home.

I have not mentioned my friend’s names because excessive internet exposure can have bad results these days. Let me describe them for you for those of you who don’t know us all. They are all dear old friends. Our children grew up together and went to the same schools at one time or another. One of the men is the headmaster of that private school. His wife is an administrative professional in the public school system. One of the ladies is an RN who is a now nursing professor at a local college. Her husband is in business. The last couple are a retired medical services technical specialist and his homemaker wife. In no particular order, their pictures are shown above.

On the day that we were having the bad weather, Sheila swore she would never set foot on another ship as long as she lived. She probably meant it at the moment. I asked her again last night and she said maybe. I asked her today if she had fun and she replied enthusiastically yes. So, since she was the last holdout, I can now truthfully say that a good time was had by all.