We are sitting in the Carnival Cruise terminal here in Fort Lauderdale waiting to board the Carnival Freedom for our 8 day rum run. It has been an eventful couple of days since we left Ormond Beach.
We took the slow road down part of the way just enjoy the scenery. In North Palm Beach we stopped to visit Lizzie at work. We haven't seen her in years. She looks great and still is as funny as ever and has a great laugh. She manages, runs? a surgery center in North Palm. At one point I joked with her that my knee was hurting, could they get me in for a scope real quick. Little did I know.
We went on down the road and stopped for lunch at a little beach town called Del Ray Beach. The A1A through here and south to Boca Raton is gorgeous with huge homes and meticulously manicured, lush landscaping by the road. You really do wonder who lives here and how they can afford it. All I could think of was Miami Vice and the Warren Zevon song that said "bring lawyers, guns and money".
Del Ray has several small restaurants in a row carved out of some of this expensive real estate. One of them, Caffe Luna Rosa, looked the most promising and we parked the car a ways out and walked back. I was limping, but no big deal because I've been doing that for a month on and off.
We had lunch. Peg had a tuna melt and I had what they called an Affetato, basically a panini filled with provolone and Italian salamis. Both were very good.
On the way back to the car I suddenly was unable to walk. I couldn't bear weight on my right knee at all, the pain was excruciating. Peg had to go get the car and pick me up.
Two days before the cruise. Bummer. Serious thoughts that we might have to cancel. I had Peg stop at a drug store. I tried to get out and walk with the aid of a shopping cart. Couldn't do it. She went in and bought a cane (the optimist in me) and crutches (the realist in me). The cane didn't work, but I'm an expert with crutches. I'm a Capricorn and I thought goats were supposed to be sure footed. I didn't expect my legs to be my weakest link.
We decided not to cancel. There was some pressure (persuasion) from one half of the party to continue, i.e. only 4 ports, take a cab, not much walking, get our rum. On Friday I was able to get a hold of an orthopod in Ormond Beach who gave me an appointment the day after we get back. I see an arthroscopy in my future. It feels like lateral meniscus, maybe lateral collateral. I don't know enough ortho to dx it myself.
...
We're on board. I played the cripple card and got wheel chaired up the ramp. I was going to just walk but Peg insisted on a wheel chair and the lady there also said it was a good idea. Turns out it was a good idea. It was quite a steep grade going up to the entrance. My pusher was a nice young guy from Bosnia. A lot of the rest of the staff seems to be from that area. Of course, the Filipino contingent is here in force as usual. On our way up to lunch we were greeted by a young woman from Serbia. Her name is Snjezana which looks like a sneeze but translates to Snow White. She told me how to pronounce it but I've forgotten already. She saw me on my crutches and wanted to know what happened. I told her I got old. She expressed her regrets, then said I should get my teeth checked. Huh? Seems that her father was on crutches for years and no one could figure out what was wrong. He had terrible teeth. Actually he only had one tooth and it was terrible. He had it pulled, and a miracle, he dropped his crutches.
Then she said the same thing happened to her. She fell, hurt her heel and was on crutches. Got her teeth fixed and got all better. So all I have to do is find a Serbian dentist.
We found the trough, which is what we call the all you can eat stampede. I have to rely on Peg to get my meals and she did pretty well, going with salad and fish and veggies. Then she found the desert bar.
Then she found the soft serve.
I suggested we might want to find the gym and at least weigh in before we get to much further along. She said she knew where the gym was. But that was as far as that suggestion went.
That's it for blog updates until we hit a Starbucks with free Wi-Fi.
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