LEAVING OUR RV LIFE FOR AWHILE APRIL 2-5, 2014

Our drive from Hunting Island to Raleigh, NC took most of the day and we arrived at Springhill RV Park just a little ways outside of Chapel Hill late afternoon. It was a perfect find! The park is secluded from the highway, in fact... enough so, that we drove right past the sign for the park and had to make a really hard u-turn in a parking lot to get back where we belonged! But, once we got checked into our site we were so happy to have such pretty place to be for the days leading up to our upcoming cruise.  

 The park is wooded and so very quiet.  Our first night there we had this stunning sunset! Later that evening we did some laundry in town and picked up a few groceries.

Our plan was to leave the motorhome here at the same park in their storage yard while we would be traveling for over three weeks; safe, secure and easy for us when we returned form our trip. But, finding a home for Foster turned out to be more difficult for us. It was a little stressful, as the person I thought would work out for us, just wasn't right, he had far too many dogs already at his home and we didn't feel Foster needed to join into the group.  So, with a few more phone calls we found a perfect solution for him.  He would spend the first 10 days with two wonderful young women and then he would move to another home for the remaining two weeks.  And, thank goodness it ALL worked out so well!!!

Once we had Foster's care all settled we did a little sight seeing around the area, including the North Carolina Botanical Gardens. This small cabin sits among the ponds and trails in the garden.

 My favorite find was this structure called The Storyteller's Chair. I loved the uniqueness of it.

 The last thing I needed to do was finish the packing for our journey, and that's never my favorite thing to do so it's always left until the last minute, but it does always get done. By Saturday morning we had everything packed and loaded into the car, including Foster. After dropping him off, we left the car at a hotel park-sleep-fly and then caught our 5:15 flight to Ft. Lauderdale, FL. We always get to our destination a day before a cruise departs giving us a little extra time for any surprises that might happen.

We were up early the next morning for breakfast and a walk around the neighborhood when I saw this amazingly tall gardenia plant just growing in someone's yard. I've never seen one this large, but this being Florida, I guess that's just how they grow there.

 Our shuttle from the hotel to the cruise ship was such a great benefit and we were boarding by noon and set about seeing Holland America's beautiful Ryndam, our home for the next 15 days as we sailed across the Atlantic to Barcelona, Spain.

It was such a lovely day just to sit and enjoy the sun before our sail away at 5PM.

 We've learned never to eat lunch before getting on a ship, there's always so much available everywhere!  This was the Italian display on one of the decks.

 And then, the horn sounded and away we sailed out of Fort Lauderdale with the next eight days ahead for just relaxing and enjoying days at sea!  It's the part we love the most about taking a Transatlantic cruise!

Our first port of call would be Punto Delgado in the Azores.