A 74-Year-Old Woman with a Yen to See the World, a Supportive Husband, and a Couple of Backpacks…

All my life, I’ve loved to travel. My dream has been to visit all the countries that interest me on every continent. Until July 2021, however, I’d never left North America.

In Spring of 2021, we could see the world beginning to reopen. Dempsey said, “This year is yours. It’s time to make your travel dream come true.” And so we did!

We’re spending fifteen weeks exploring the world, and you’re invited along.

My Blog

Sometimes the adventure we plan is not the one we get..

by Jillian Coleman Wheeler | Aug 16, 2022 | Uncategorized | 0 Comments

We left Austin 6 days ago for a month in the Pacific Northwest. Landed in Portland, rented a car, and spent 3 wonderful days with granddaughter Valentina. We had planned more visits with friends, hiking in Olympic National Park, much-longed-for-time in Vancouver, a cruise to Alaska, and a return through Idaho and Montana.

However, I am writing from the hospital in WA where I had emergency surgery Sunday. I had been unable to keep food down for a couple of days and was feeling sick. I went to a UW urgent care clinic. The nurse practitioner who saw me there sent me immediately to the hospital and undoubtedly saved my life.

In the ER I had a CAT Scan, and the ER doc said I had a very rare situation. A gall stone had worked its way through the wall into my small intestine, formed a fistula, and I had a complete bowel blockage. They called the surgeon and woke him up, and he said he wanted to operate in 20 minutes, as I might not survive if we waited 2 hours. It was very dramatic. We were going hiking on Hurricane Ridge the next day, and he said I wouldn’t have made it if it had happened there or on the cruise ship.

However, he had performed 2 such surgeries before and I felt confident in him. Dempsey was so exhausted I had talked him into going to the hotel to sleep and he didn’t even know until the next day – everything happened so fast, and I wasn’t worried about the outcome. I was in a lot of pain by then, but the surgery was very successful.

I’m now feeling much better – lots of good drugs and pain control, and they gave me some soup today. I’ll be in the hospital 4 or 5 days, then I have to stay here 2 weeks for physical therapy and having staples removed.

Sadly, the vacation is kaput. But the important thing is I am apparently going to be fine going forward, with no expected negative outcome.

I don’t know why this happened as it did, but I do know I’ve been in excellent hands medically and cosmically. I am enormously grateful.

Pompeii

by Jillian Coleman Wheeler | Sep 18, 2021 | Italy | 0 Comments

We took the train to Naples, and from there transferred to the local train that took us to Pompeii. After our tour there, we reversed course to Ercolano to see the ruins at Herculaneum. It was awe-inspiring to look up at Mt. Vesuvius, which erupted in 79 A.D., killing...

Rome, a Modern City Built on Antiquity

by Jillian Coleman Wheeler | Sep 17, 2021 | Italy, Rome | 0 Comments

As we’ve seen over and over in Europe, different eras of history coexist side by side, and nowhere is that truer than in Rome. [video width="426" height="240"...

Bari to Rome

by Jillian Coleman Wheeler | Sep 16, 2021 | France | 0 Comments

On September 17, our ferry arrived in Bari. We took a cab to the train station and booked ourselves on the next train to Rome. While we waited, we explored a bit and had an excellent, inexpensive lunch. Late in the afternoon we arrived in Rome. Our hotel is situated...