2013 Year End Review

2013 Year-End Letter 

Greetings to all of you who have come to this page to catch up on the Worrall Travel R's who are currently  residing on land!  Yes, we are back in California.  We learned from another cruising friend that we are now CLODs….Cruisers Living On Dirt. Hmmm…not sure we like the label, but we are living on terra firm and enjoying it!

After considering our sailing options in 2012, we decided to continue our travels sans boat.  We'd hung out in Australia for a wonderful year waiting for piracy issues in the Red Sea to resolve, but there was no resolve.   Sailing the Indian Ocean around South Africa or sailing east back to the USA never was a part of our plan.  So we listed the boat in November and three weeks later, we had a contract on SV Worrrall Wind. Our 1 year visa was going to end, January 28, so we had to to move quickly.

We brought the New Year 2013  in Sydney

Consequently, we spent our last month in Australia soaking up all we could, finalizing the sale,

Happy New Owners of Worrall Wind: Mark and Cat of SV Tuuletar

packing and shipping goods to USA, selling our camper van, and saying goodbye to Aussie friends and our wonderful friend Worrall Wind before heading home.

To soften our sadness of selling Worrall Wind, we took a two month tour of Indonesia, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Nepal, India, and Bhutan before heading back to California.  What a trip!  We made many new friends and experienced life and culture very different to anything we had experienced so far.  We played with tigers in Thailand,

Nice Kitty

sailed on the Mekong in Laos,

visited Angkor Wat in Cambodia,

marveled at the natural beauty of Vietnam,

ran from a charging Rhino in Nepal

and were astounded by the color, poverty and chaos of India,

Varanasi on the Ganges River

and the traditional and natural beauty of Bhutan.  

Tigers' Nest

For more details, check out the blogs of February and March 2013.

California Here We Come

Arriving home in California, we immediately became immersed in preparing my parents' home for an estate sale the first of May. My Dad is doing well in his apartment in Elk Grove.  My brother, Russ, my cousin Denise, daughter Abby, and niece Teresa,  and I worked tirelessly for nearly a month, sorting, sifting, organizing an pricing items.  We sold almost everything in 3 days of the sale.  That was entirely different type of adventure and an emotional parting of tons of memorabilia.

As soon as the house was emptied out, we jumped in our truck and our fifth wheel for a road trip through the south west.  The house sold in October 2013.

Our Land Yacht

Zion National Park

Bryce National Park

 to the east coast of America

up to Nova Scotia

and back again through Canada home.  The best part of our trip was visiting friends and family all along the way….the scenery was fabulous, too!

Canadian Rockies, Jaspar National Park

We arrived back in California, mid October, and enjoyed a wonderful warm fall, visiting with family and friends.  Russ and I became members of SERVAS and Friendship Force.  We are looking forward to more traveling that focuses more on people and culture than on sights to see.  Already planned for the last half of 2014 is a train odyssey from Beijing, China to Russia, and then south through Eastern Europe to Turkey.

As 2013 draws to a close, it is with both sadness and joy.  Our daughter's father-in-law died tragically as a pedestrian hit by a car earlier this month. We know the incredible loss of losing a parent, but it is especially hard when it is unexpected.  Our hearts are filled with sadness for all of the Young family.  Ken was a fine man and we will remember him with fondness.

Son-in-law Neal, his Dad Ken, and Mom Henny - Christmas 2011

We are also filled with joy as we have learned that we will be first time grandparents to a granddaughter by our son and his wife in early May.  The cycle of life continues.

We hope that 2013 has been a good year for you and that 2014 will be even better.  Enjoy every precious moment with the ones you love.  If you come through California, we would love to see you and hope you will consider visiting us.

Fondly,  Roz and Russ - Worrall Travel R's