Friends Along the Way

“A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles.” Tim Cahill

Adventure travel writer, Tim Cahill, summed up our kind of travel in a nutshell. He said “A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles.” Over the 16 years and 86,000 miles that we've traveled the globe, what stands out in our memories most vividly are the people we've met and the friends we've made along the way.

I've written about meeting people in different ports. I've written about the 90-Day Rule. These are the adventures that make our journey most enjoyable. Finding people who are willing to share just a small piece of their lives with us is what makes it all so meaningful.

Reading about a culture or a tradition or a ritual may be exciting. It builds up the anticipation. Experiencing the culture firsthand with people who live it daily, however, is the real thing. It's not a contrived setting fit only for tourists, it's how life is lived whether on a small island or in a big city, in the mountains or the jungle, or in a marina. Perhaps it's sharing a meal or a glass of wine ... or kava or coconut water ... and chatting. Or maybe it's visiting a school and watching a teacher with his/her students … or asking the fishermen about the catch of the day.

Sailors are an interesting lot when it comes to friend-making. We realize we are transients. We meet people and quickly make a decision. Do we like these people? If yes, we get to know them quickly. Who knows how long we'll be in port or they'll be around? Friendships are made on the fly, but are no less strong.

Finding commonalities among people is as satisfying as celebrating the differences. We all have to launder our clothes … in a river or at the laundromat. We all eat and sleep and dream. We all love our children. Perhaps we show it in different ways, but the love is evident everywhere we go. We all complain about our spouses from time to time or the universal foibles of the opposite sex. It's inherent in our human natures.

But, of course, it's not just the miles we've traveled and the friends we've made since we've lived aboard Nine of Cups, it's the hosts of friends that we've made throughout life who pop up every once in awhile … maybe at the holidays … and say hi and renew the friendship with a few words and a “how are you doing?” and fill us in on their lives.

We've met lots of people along the way and we're proud to call many of them friends. We stay in touch whenever we can, but these friends are the kind you can pick up where you left off … even after years apart. Friends who would be welcome in our home. Friends with whom we share a special bond.

Sailors and landlubbers alike ... how do you feel about friendships along the way?

In the news...something besides politics

Despite our crazy daily schedule of packing, moving, installing, painting, cleaning, assembling and generally keeping ourselves occupied with a new house, I've been trying to keep up with the news by reading the newspaper that's delivered to our sidewalk each and every morning. I'd say it's delivered rain or shine, but usually there's only shine. Las Vegas paperboys have an easy job of it. The primaries and caucuses have taken the spotlight in the news and, quite honestly, it's getting old. There have also been all the regular, uplifting stories that capture the front page headlines in Las Vegas: Pedestrians killed by drunk driver, crazy woman kills her lover, graft and corruption in the gambling industry. But beyond all that, I find wonderful little nuggets of information and/or good news that seems to be hidden in the back of Sections B, C and D.

For instance, first grade students celebrated Dr. Seuss' birthday by reading to animals at the SPCA. The animals seems to enjoy it as much as the kids did. And there was an article on teddy bears. The first was created in 1902 and named after President Teddy Roosevelt. There was a wonderful article on keeping chickens as pets … maybe not on a boat. It discussed the rules concerning keeping chickens and the best breeds for family pets, egg laying and meat (did I say pet?).

One full-page ad asked if I was “looking for a medical marijuana dispensary?” I'm not, but Nevada has legalized medicinal pot and Euphoria/Wellness (yes, that's the name) offers “the biggest variety of flowers, concentrates, pre-rolls and edibles.” How about that? They also offer free express delivery valley-wide.

There was also another article, on a more serious note, which explained “Why We Need Immigrants” in the USA. In light of the political controversy, it was very informational.

And most exciting? The World Championship of Sign Spinning competitions was held in Downtown Las Vegas. I would never have believed that those energetic corner buskers gathered together to spin their stuff.

I guess what I'm saying is that if you look for it, you find all sorts of good pieces of information that are newsworthy. I'm not an Alice in Wonderland kind of girl, but it's certainly pleasant to read an article that's uplifting and positive once in awhile.

New House Superstitions

When we began packing for the move to the new house, Mary reminded me that we needed a new broom. A new broom … really? The old one seemed in good shape. Mary assured me you left your old broom at the old house and promptly went out and bought a new broom for the new house. Of all the houses we've moved into over the years, I'd never heard of this tradition/superstition. Being a sailor and having always kept with all our nautical traditions, however, I figured I'd better look into it. I certainly didn't want to piss off any house gods. Sure enough … bringing an old broom into a new house was bad juju … you brought any bad luck you'd experienced (and old house dirt) with it. We rode the new broom to the new house. It worked perfectly.

Interestingly enough, the previous owners had left their old broom behind. I've obviously been living in the dark regarding brooms all these years.

Delving a bit further into new house traditions, I found a few more with which we needed to comply. For instance, don't move on a Friday. Yikes! That would be like leaving on a passage on a Friday. We even moved up the closing date by one day, so we didn't sign the final purchase papers or receive our keys on a Friday. Geez … everyone knows that one!

If we were Wiccas, like my sister for instance, we would have also had a house cleansing and blessing ritual, but we opted for something a bit more simple. Instead, I sprinkled salt on the doorstep when we entered the house for the first time after it was ours. Salt is evidently solid protection against bad luck and keeps the evil spirits out.

A couple other superstitions we didn't feel as strongly about …

• It’s bad luck to carry a hoe into the house. If you do it by mistake, carry it out by walking backwards through the same door — it’ll reverse the bad luck. Hmmm ... we put the hoe in the garage with no thought to bringing it into the house.

• Stuff fennel or an herb with yellow flowers and feathery leaves, into your keyhole or hang it over the door to protect your home from witches. Interestingly enough, Wiccans also suggest this and many of them are self-proclaimed witches. Go figure! Doesn't matter … fennel and yellow-flowered, feathery herbs were in short supply on move-in day.

• Paint your front porch blue to ward off ghosts. They'll think it's water and thus, you'll confuse them. Nah, no blue porches for us. We'll have to chance it.

• Never put shoes on a dresser or table. Now this is reputedly a Jewish tradition which makes sense. It's just not cool to put your shoes on the table … any time.

• According to a Norse superstition, placing an acorn on a windowsill will protect a house from being struck by lightning. This is the desert … no acorns, but we do have lightning. I've got to think about this one.

• Never pound a nail after sunset, or you’ll wake the tree gods. No trees in our yard … only cacti and we reckon the cacti gods might be okay with nail banging. We'll keep the noise to a minimum.

All in all, I think we did okay. I'm feeling like the house has some good energy and the new broom works well.