The Final Frontier (DCL without Young’ens)

[GoofyIsAsGoofyDoes]

The Final Frontier

D C L without Young’ens…
Sort’a​

​

Why do we read Trip reports?

Well, for some it’s because the TR in question happens to be about somewhere that they may be headed off to in the near. For a few others it’s about the repartee between the writer and the followers. But for a large number I suspect it’s that love of Disney and in particular that love of looking at pictures of all things Disney. Especially pictures filled with happy, smiley, pretty people.
More especially: very young, happy, smiley, pretty people.

I mean what illustrates: “The Disney Experience”…
better then photographs of adorable kids having a ball in the Land of Walt.

Well, if you fall into that last and likely largest group…
then I’ve got some absolutely terrific news to share with you.



You don’t have to bother
reading this TR!

It’s not that there are no “young’ens” in my family, or that none of us acts like kids from time to time…
It’s that there is no longer anyone who can legally be defined as a “minor”
(and certainly not using Disney’s definition of what constitutes an “adult”).

So why then are we cruising with the one line purpose built for young families?

Because you don’t gott’a be a kid to have a blast on a Disney ship, any more then you have to be in grade school to experience the thrill of one of their parks or films. In fact, there are a number of spaces and experiences that are out of bounds for the younger folks. DCL may be known for offering some of the most imaginative and applauded age specific club houses on the high seas, but they pay just as much attention to us geezers as well. And being as everyone in my household has already come of age (“…in a very real, and legally-binding sense”), there is now a whole slate of experiences that will be entirely new to our family of experienced Disney cruisers.

Not to mention plenty of chances for us to act like kids ourselves.


So now you’ve been warned about the single greatest flaw in this hear TR, but there will be additional perils along the way as well. Some of them may even be too perilous.



Reading along may well not be in your best interest.
And if I were to offer up a bit of advice, it might be…


Engage the LAS

aka: Launch Abort System



(oh, and consider that last image a foreshadowing of the unspeakable perils to come)



Before continuing on you may want to take a look at some of my older “offerings” just to get an idea of what you’re in for. Or not; chances are good I’ll be referencing some of those older posts anyway to either add information, back up a point or more likely to divert attention from the disaster that will be the current narrative.

Like I said, following along with me here may not be your smartest decision.
But if you choose to do so, I’ll not be stopping you.


Pity you… Yes



But stop you… Nope.
We’re all grownups here; you’re on your own now.
​

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[GoofyIsAsGoofyDoes]

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Table of Contents


Chapter-1: The View from 207,500 feet…

Bonus Feature-1: ”The Big Red Boat”

Chapter-2: The Space Coast
Chapter-3: We have cleared the tower… I mean Channel

Bonus Feature-2: Old Salem and a bit of Night Music

Chapter-4: Attractive Forces


***
​

 

[GoofyIsAsGoofyDoes]

Chapter 1: The View from 207,500 feet…

Well, actually…



…that right there is a view from only about 700 feet. It is quite the view though, and you’ll be seeing more of that view after we get a few days into this nautical misadventure. As for that rather larger number I tossed out there in the chapter heading, it will become a mite clearer (and only “a mite”, mind your) a little bit sooner than that (oh, and painfully so, I’ll warn you of that now as well). Now, what the title should have been based on is the common business-phrase: “a 10,000 foot view”, meaning simply:

A general overview


And that is what you’re “generally” going to get within the confines of the rest of this update. Of course, being me, I can’t leave well enough alone, so you’ll be getting other unwanted things as well.


But all in due time.





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AMAO Memorandum: 23052015
The following documentation and been cleared for public release





So Anyway…


Welcome to my most recent excuse for a TR.
I suppose I ought to start out by introducing the main characters, so here goes…

That big ugly galoot over on the far right side there, that’d be me.
The name’s Rob, and I’ll be your tormentor… errr… I mean guide (yeah, that’s it, guide) for this here recollection of things past.

The gal on the other side (the gal not the mouse), would be Tamara. My wife, my better in all things, a proper southern bell and one dang fine lady. Which leads one to wonder what the heck the lady is doing hanging around with me. But then again, it’s really not in my best interest to bring that fact to her attention.

Now is it?


Ok, now for the fell’a in the middle there. That is Max. He’s the young’en in question that we’re traveling without. No, no, he’s traveling along with us of course, it’s just that he’s not a young’en. Well, that’s not right either, he is our young’en - mine and Tamara’s that is - but he just ain’t a kid no more. As of now, our little boy has survived two full decades of our painfully inadequate attempts at parental guidance and is currently a junior in college studying Music Performance and Music Education. With majors like those he obviously intends to become a starving artist, and I whole heartedly support that aspiration.

Well, that leaves only the Mouse on the far end there to introduce.

That’s Minnie.


You ought to at least recognize her. She will be our gracious hostess for this detour away from work-a-day life and has (probably somewhat foolishly) allowed us aboard her beautiful ship…

The Disney Fantasy





This is the fourth ship to carry that “Disney” prefix and fly the Skull and Cross Bones…
I mean… the Ears and Cross Waves…

Oh… you know… the DCL flag…

And up until now at least, the only one of the four ships in the fleet which we had not yet the good fortune to board.

In fact, I’ve even had the opportunity to write up a TR on one of those previous trips. It’s the one down there in my signature titled: Experiment 627 and that English-Teacher’s nightmare was designed not just to tell the story of said trip, but as a guide for cruising DCL in general. Since I hashed out a lot of things in that one, I’ll be referring y’all back to it from time to time for details and added information.


Something I’ll go on ahead and do now in fact.
If you’d like a bit more unnecessary info on the other ships we’ve sailed, take a look here:

Signorinas and Fräuleins



Or not…
In which case, all you need to see is this next picture…

That completes the set and serves as proof I was there…


And this illustrates the good thing about my “referral policy”; you’ll be able to ignore me whenever I advise you to follow some random link for more of my nonsense. The bad thing about the policy though is that it creates the delusion in my mind that I now have more time and more apparent room inside this TR to add all kinds of unwanted history and unrelated information that will be harder to ignore.


Not impossible – I’ll always warn you – just harder.




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The LCC Document
(Launch Commit Criteria)






Our last cruise took place back in 2011. We’d like to have gotten back out on the water again by 2013, but things change and we also had other fish to fry that summer. 2014 ended up not having a lot of traveling in it at all. At least not of the vacation related type. But that long drought got us thinking and that got us to scheming. And apparently, all that scheming accomplished its goal.

As fact proven when at one point a couple months into 2015, we received the official MOU in the mail…
(Memorandum of Understanding)

That’s actually the cruise document booklet and luggage tags required for us to board the Disney Fantasy for one glorious week in May while sailing through the Eastern Caribbean. Well I guess we’re committed now; the money has done been spent and the paperwork has done been issued.

All that’s left is to get busy.
First to join the F/E Exchange, and get our offerings made up and packed.


If, perchance, that last sentence makes no sense to you what so ever, then give this next link to my previous cruising TR a click and I’ll better explain it to you (in nauseating detail)…

So… what’s a “fish” and why does it need “extending”?



In either case, it’s time to start working through the NRE action task list
(Non Recurring Engineering)

We wanted to offer up something to the folks on our group that was “potentially” useful during the cruse, but also likely to be at least somewhat useful afterward. And if it served to remind folks of the adventure as well…
so much so better.

Hence - this curious object here…

Custom pens and a pencil box seemed like it’d fit the bill. COTS materials were requisitioned
(Commercial Off-the-Shelf) and construction activities were initiated. We found some unfinished wood boxes on-line and painted them all up. Then I designed the images, printed those on transparent labels and applied them to the boxes.

Here’s a better look at the “artwork” used on the front and back of the boxes
(the bases for the front image we just stole from the cruise documents booklet)

Additionally we simply applied the DCL logo to the other sides of each…


The pens were pretty easy as well.
I just designed and printed out a number of these little scrolls…

Rolled them up and slid the rolls into the casing of some stock clear pens that happened to also have screw on end caps and voilà: it looks like we know what we’re doing.


With each box and pen set we also included a highlighter (for marking up those “Personal Navigators”) and a packet with some basic office supplies: a couple rubber bands, some paper clips, binder clips, safety pins…
You get the idea…

Little things that no one normally thinks to pack but that just might come in handy across the length of an entire seven day cruise.

An additional bonus came in the form of one of these for each participating cabin…

Because you never know when you’ll need just one more extra bag to carry all the accumulated paraphernalia that tends to appear out of nowhere and continually multiply with procreative powers rivaling that of a colony of jack rabbits. Especially when one is vacationing. Actually, there were three different designs for those reusable grocery bags, the more brightly colored ones went to the cabins that had younger kids and the classic black and white version there was for the more growed-up adventurers among us.



Oh and one last thing got tucked into each of the dozen care packages.
A “commemorative” refrigerator/stateroom-door magnet for our specific cruse…

Those are actually pretty easy to do as well.
Just design and print up the images, apply them to some “magnetic sheets” from a craft store, cut them out and give ‘em away.

Easy-peasy.


I go through the same process to put together magnets for our cabin door each trip anyway so this wasn’t any more work. (oh, and I’ll tell you more about those other magnets later on).





So let’s see now, bags packed…

Check!


That ought’a do us for a week.
(heck, that ought’a do a family of twelve for a week)





OK, back to the prelaunch check list….

All GFE located and stowed.
(that’s Government Furnished Equipment – specifically: passports , don’t leave home without ‘em)

Check!



CTV serviced and loaded
(aka: Crew Transfer Vehicle)

Check, check!



Mission Commander picked up from work after lunch time on Friday the 22nd…
(that would be Tamara, by the way)

Check, check, check!



A right turn onto I-77 rather than the left that normally leads back to our home…

Check, check, check, check!



And we’re out’s here!

I’ll not be boring you this time around with the blow by blow of the drive down. We travel the same basic path and not a lot happened that was radically different from any other drive. That said…

If you just can’t resist knowing more about the driving part of the trip…
Then the link below to a chapter from a prior TR will fill in the gaps just nicely.


Interstate Blues
(You’re not actually going to click on that one are you?)



Well then, that’s enough for the set-up phase of the mission,
so it must be time to get the actual TR underway…



Next up:The Space Coast
​

Spoiler: That’s all… Unless you click on this…but I wouldn’t if I were you.

Weeeeeeelllllll…

Actually…
That’s last sentence up there is not entirely true, is it?


I haven’t really explained that odd chapter title yet, have I?
I also warned you that there’d be other perils to contend with, didn’t I?

But…
I also said that you’d be warned so that you might quickly jump out of the way of the uncontrolled train of disconnected thoughts that would be heading toward you.


Well…
You better jump now, or you’re gonn’a get run down.


Go on, Jump!

Better hurry.


Hit the Back Button!



For the love of all that’s holy,
SAVE YOURSELVES!




Aaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrg!






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X - 15





TOO LATE!
(Oh I feel so bad for you now…)



Chances are good that you’ve seen this one particular movie (or possibly even read the original book) that offers a reenactment of the early days of the space race.

A story titled: “The Right Stuff”



If not…
well, I’ve just given you the gist of it, but I want to touch on the first part of that telling of the tale; the bit that has to do with efforts to break the sound barrier. A feat that was finally accomplished on October 14, 1947, by the combined efforts a lot of engineers, mechanics, technicians, military personnel, support staff
and of course…


some highly skilled pilots.


The one pilot in particular who was manning the controls of Bell Aircraft’s X-1-2 (sn: 46-063) rocket plane at that particular time, was a gent named Chuck Yeager.

And while his entire life makes for some extraordinary stories it’s not the bit of unnecessary history I’m going to be beating you on the head with (not just yet anyway). No, for now he’s just the introduction to that unnecessary beating of your head.

(unless you’ve wisely stopped reading)


Still here?
O-Kaaaaaaay…


With that flight and that aircraft, the newly created US Air Force (formally the Army Air Corp prior to having been made a separate branch of the military barley a month before) joined forces with an older civilian government group then known as the “National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics” (or NACA for short, but it’ll be getting a slight name change in a short bit) and launched into what became known as…


the “X Plane Program”


This was a series of experimental US aircraft and process that tested and evaluated new technologies and aerodynamic concepts. To “push the envelope” and see just how far, how fast, and how high we could go.


Of the unique aircraft that were to come out of this project.
The most famous would end up being this one…

The X-15



Well, that’s one of the three that were built and used to test just about everything the engineers could think of. Between 1959 and 1968, twelve different test pilots would take these air frames on 199 separate test flights.


199?...
they couldn’t do just one more?
Well, the intention was to do just one more,
but many things conspired to prevent it before the program ended.

So…
we’re stuck with 199.


Even though it has been retired for nearly a half century, this craft still holds some very impressive records.
Only rockets have ever flown higher than the X-15, and to this day, no plane has ever flown faster.

A great deal was learned about the effects of speed, altitude and even about space flight and reentry.
And not all of those lessons were easy to learn of without cost.

Great cost indeed
(but we’ll touch on that later on)

But beyond the structural knowledge…
the atmospheric discoveries…
and even the aerodynamic lessons learned…

This program accomplished even more when it came to learning about what it took to pilot any type of craft under such extreme conditions.

Up at the point where the sky actually ends.
Beyond where those “Demons” live.


They learned to handle the unique challenges that arise where our safe little world ends and the vastness of space begins. All of the men that flew this beast were highly skilled. Most would leave the program to become part of newer and even greater accomplishments. And they’d take the lessons learned from the X-15 and use them to great effect in those new endeavors.



Pilots like this fella here…

He was one of those twelve.


Considered one of the “civilian” pilots (although he flew 78 missions with the US Navy in Korea) he accomplished much and learned even more in the program.
Some of that learning came from making a few mistakes.
Mistakes he wouldn’t make twice.

If you rank him by the projects overall statistics, he appears at first to be somewhat mediocre
(but remember, that’s when being compared to other test pilots in the program and opposed to say - you or me).

But following that logic for a moment…
He didn’t make the most flights and only pushed the craft to its third fasted speed; although that’s was a phenomenal 3,989 miles per hour (or Mach 5.74, if you will). He didn’t lock down the record for altitude gained in the craft either, settling for a spot in the middle of the pack at a still mind bending height of 39.3 miles above the surface of our oceans
(and that translates to 207,500 feet which finally solves the chapter mystery).

Now most statistics are constrained by the parameters of the test mission that you’re assigned to for each flight, so those numbers don’t really tell the whole story. Because what he was particularly good at was thinking through problems while under duress and recovering a situation when things went wrong.


And things often go wrong when one is leaving the known and entering new frontiers.



So obviously…
You’ll be learning a bit more about this guy in the future.

Among other things that you never really wanted to know, of course.

Remember… I told you not to click on it!

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​

 

[SwimMom2]

Awesome. Following.

 

[strega7]

I am joining in too!

 

[diznymom]

Following.

 

[condorthb]

bump

 

[cheermom2four]

I'm totally following this TR! Yep I will be one to click on other links within your TR as I've never cruised before and DH and I will be going on our first ever cruise (without kids) on the Magic in Feb and then we decided we will take the kids on one in Sept 2016

 

[pkondz]

The kid's graduating from high school and it's going to be a busy couple of days...
But I'm letting you know that I've decided to join you on this journey... and damn the consequences!!!

Can you say that on the DIS? I guess I'll find out when I post and either see, or not see a bunch of asterisks...

Will come back later to read!


ETA apparently you can say consequences.

 

[GoofyIsAsGoofyDoes]

Awesome. Following.

I am joining in too!

Following.

bump

Howdy!
I'm glad to have y'all aboard.
I'm working on the next update now and hope to have it up in a few days.

Feel free to comment on any thing I toss out there or ask any questions that crosses your mind.
And again, thanks for agreeing to at least watch this disaster as it skids off the road and careens into the ditch.

It should be like any other train wreck...
It just too hard to look away.

 

[GoofyIsAsGoofyDoes]

I'm totally following this TR! Yep I will be one to click on other links within your TR as I've never cruised before and DH and I will be going on our first ever cruise (without kids) on the Magic in Feb and then we decided we will take the kids on one in Sept 2016

And to you as well.
You have a whole lot of fun ahead of you.
Cruising is very addictive and Cruising DCL...
well, once you've experienced the best, you'll be spoiled for life.
(and interestingly... there's a decent chance we may also be on a DCL ship in Sept, 2016... we'll see)

Fell free to ask any question that comes to mind and I'll try to help find at least a coherent answer.
I will be linking to a lot of things and I'll try to make the ones that are actually somewhat related to the DCL topics easier to find. (but you may want to be weary of the links to historical or "space" related stuff that will be littering this wayward trail).

A lot of those reference links will be back to my first TR about DCL (our third cruse with them actually) when we were on the Dream in 2011 (that was a 5-day double dip). Or...

you can just read that one directly if you like.
The link to it is down there in my signature and titled: "Experiment 627"
Feel free to ask anything you want about that one as well.

Hope you enjoy the show and I'll do my best to post as reasonable intervals.
Welcome aboard!

 

[GoofyIsAsGoofyDoes]

The kid's graduating from high school and it's going to be a busy couple of days...
But I'm letting you know that I've decided to join you on this journey... and damn the consequences!!!

Can you say that on the DIS? I guess I'll find out when I post and either see, or not see a bunch of asterisks...

Will come back later to read!


ETA apparently you can say consequences.

Graduating?
That's wonderful!
We went through that stage a couple years back now. What's next on her agenda?

Thanks for considering the foolish notion of following along with me here.
And for determining once and for all whether or not "consequences" is an acceptable word on these boards (I was a mite concerned about that). Looking forward to having you rip my attempts at writing to complete shreds. At least until some of the other fell'as decide to show up, someone's going to have to keep me honest.

 

[SwimMom2]

So I hear there's an adult only pool. The one on the Magic and I are friends. Have you knowledge of the Fantasy's?

I will be with you in 2030! Lol

 

[Positively Bashful]

Hi, I recently joined the board and am happy to be able to follow your report from the beginning. I enjoyed The Goofy Identity (fortunately got here too late to have to endure that giant break in real time!) Looking forward to reading your adventures and will go catch up on Experiment 627 while waiting for the next installment.

 

[GoofyIsAsGoofyDoes]

So I hear there's an adult only pool. The one on the Magic and I are friends. Have you knowledge of the Fantasy's?

I will be with you in 2030! Lol

Why yes... yes there is.
And we'll be spending a bit of our time there.

You might be able to partake before 2030 though... especially if your young'ens are the type that dive into the kids clubs and have to be dragged out. For us, that was not the case. A fairly profound streak of introversion and outright shy runs through my family. As such our boy never really cottoned much to the clubs. Not a problem as there's more that a gracious amount that can be gotten into as a family, but that relaxing by the quiet pool thing had to wait until he broke the minor-barrier.

Hi, I recently joined the board and am happy to be able to follow your report from the beginning. I enjoyed The Goofy Identity (fortunately got here too late to have to endure that giant break in real time!) Looking forward to reading your adventures and will go catch up on Experiment 627 while waiting for the next installment.

Woooow...
You are a glutton for punishment!

Actually, I think that "627" is one of my better TRs.

Now, if you are really crazy in the head... than the one titled "Thanksgiving Odyssey" is a good story.
Not Disney, but rather good. That was a week long trip to NYC with our local High School Band to perform in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (and see a bit of "Old New Amsterdam" while we were at it). Had a lot of fun doing and writing that one.

I'm also glad you missed that (unforgivable) break in the last TR as well. I'll be working not to let that happen again. Other things just took over, and.. and... Ok, now I'm just makin' excuses. Time to get busy on the next update.

 

[EastYorkDisneyFan]

I'm checking in for the journey, hi-jinks, shanaganes and whatever other trouble ensues

 

[pkondz]

Whoa. Dude.
Off to a great start! Very much looking forward to reading more!


Aaaaaaand... you didn't think you were going to get off that easy, did you???

The View from 207,500 feet…

Welcome to the Mesosphere!

…that right there is a view from only about 700 feet.

But what a great view!

Of course, being me, I can’t leave well enough alone, so you’ll be getting other unwanted things as well.

Oh. Well, I'm a glutton for punishment... so it seems I'm in the right place.

That big ugly galoot over on the far right side there, that’d be me.

Oh, I wouldn't go so far as to say you're a "big ugly galoot".


You're not that big.

My wife, my better in all things, a proper southern bell and one dang fine lady.

And I'd love to meet her.
This might sound odd to you, but... I've never had the pleasure of meeting a "proper southern belle".

Which leads one to wonder what the heck the lady is doing hanging around with me.

Well, if you're going to be doing all the work, then why am I here???

of now, our little boy has survived two full decades of our painfully inadequate attempts at parental guidance

Funny how kids can thrive despite their parents' obvious shortcomings.

and is currently a junior in college studying Music Performance and Music Education.

I strongly suspect this is the path my youngest will be following in a few more years.

I really like that shot. It really gives you a sense of scale.

That completes the set and serves as proof I was there…

Getting a picture from Google Images qualifies as proof?
Huh. Who knew?

but things change and we also had other fish to fry that summer.

It's been several decades since I've had a good fish fry.

Well I guess we’re committed now;

I can't speak for the rest of your family of course, but I'm not surprised you're committed.

So let’s see now, bags packed…

Holy smokes! I assume you're never coming back?

Mission Commander picked up from work after lunch time on Friday the 22nd…
(that would be Tamara, by the way)

And I don't know why I'm laughing... because I know it's true for me too!

Remember… I told you not to click on it!

Too late!

And I recognized the gentleman in question immediately.
And he just passed away not that long ago, too.

 

[Flossbolna]

I am in! And I never fall into the category of reading a trip report for the pictures of happy kids - maybe for the pictures of beautiful ships though!

However, this one falls into the category of promising a lot of entertainment!! Oh, and pretty pictures of a beautiful ship. I already spotted some!

 

[GoofyIsAsGoofyDoes]

I'm checking in for the journey, hi-jinks, shanaganes and whatever other trouble ensues

Welcome Agent Python.
Congrats on surviving the previous black-opp (that required much strength… of foolhardiness, one).

This assignment will be purely diversionary.
I’m simply creating a disturbance to keep our adversaries confused and of the track of the actual strike team. Farce, will be the primary tool. Its liberal use has been approved.

 

[GoofyIsAsGoofyDoes]

Whoa. Dude.
Off to a great start! Very much looking forward to reading more!

Do I know you?
You seem familiar but something is terribly a miss here…

Aaaaaaand... you didn't think you were going to get off that easy, did you???

There… now that’s more like it.
You had me right concerned for a bit there.

to what I’m attempting to pass off as a gen-u-wine TR.

Welcome to the Mesosphere!

I do hope you brought your presser suit.

But what a great view!

Yep… and it’s a pricy view too, but worth it at least once.
We’ll cover the particulars in due course.

Oh. Well, I'm a glutton for punishment... so it seems I'm in the right place.

Have you sought professional help for that?
It might be in your best interest.

I’m well beyond help myself.

Oh, I wouldn't go so far as to say you're a "big ugly galoot".


You're not that big.

Really? Well I do believe that shirt does have quite the slimming effect.
Just imagine how rotund I’d appear without the camouflage.

And I'd love to meet her.
This might sound odd to you, but... I've never had the pleasure of meeting a "proper southern belle".

You’d find her charming to a fault (with me being the fault)

Well, if you're going to be doing all the work, then why am I here???

Embellishment!
No one person can successfully carry any enterprise toward complete perfection.
I’ll need considerable help if this effort is to live up to its expectations of complete and utter failure.

Funny how kids can thrive despite their parents' obvious shortcomings.

They are amazingly resilient.
I regularly point out those episodes where he needs to make notes so that he can discuss them in detail with his therapist in the future.

I strongly suspect this is the path my youngest will be following in a few more years.

And I wish her well if so.

It’s a tough road, that’s for certain. I couldn’t pull it off.
He or may not be able to either, but I can at least give him the chance to try.
His primary job now is to move from being very good to being fabulous if he wants to actually do the performance part of it professionally. Pop artists have the possibility of being in the right place at the right time… Classical instrumentalists have to fight for very limited opening from the first day to their last.

I really like that shot. It really gives you a sense of scale.

Thanks and agreed.
Sometimes context and scale are difficult to illustrate
(something I’ll be contending with in the next “actual” chapter update).

Getting a picture from Google Images qualifies as proof?
Huh. Who knew?

Meyer Werft - build number: S.688.

If you can find a picture of that builder’s plaque in the internet anywhere other than in my silly TR…
I’ll give you a trove of pointless and unusable bonus points.

I’m among the few idiotic enough to even seek those plaques out when I board a ship of any size.

It's been several decades since I've had a good fish fry.

The shore line and backyard party verities are hard to beat when you have good catch and a good cook. But there are a number of roadside camps and establishment littered though out the area where we live that come mighty close. And one of ‘em is just up the road from me.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmm…

I can't speak for the rest of your family of course, but I'm not surprised you're committed.

Shhhhhh!
Keep it down…
They’re still searching for me.

Holy smokes! I assume you're never coming back?

Remember: “married to a Proper Southern Bell”.
I dare not even utter such unimaginable notions as: “do we really need all of this stuff”?
That would immediately lead to: “disharmony aboard this ship”.


Can’t be havin’ that , now can we?

And I don't know why I'm laughing... because I know it's true for me too!

Knowing and more importantly, accepting are the primary secrets to a long and happy marriage.

Too late!

And I recognized the gentleman in question immediately.
And he just passed away not that long ago, too.

Well, I did try to shield you.

Good that you do recognize him.
One of many folks that deserve recognition far more than the “celebrities” who’s images are neigh on to unavoidable in our tabloid oriented culture.