WE INTERRUPT THIS ROADTRIP FOR A TRANSATLANTIC CROSSING FROM NEW YORK CITY TO ENGLAND.

From May 1 to May 8, 2022, I joined my friend Rick, his husband, and 21 of their friends on Cunard’s Queen Mary 2 from Brooklyn to Southampton, Great Britain.

How in the world did I end up on a ship during a pandemic, especially with a compromised immune system? More in that in a minute, but first, Rick.

In 2015, when Retro Renovation reported that I sold the Atomic Abode and hit the road, Rick read about it from his home in Eau Claire, Wisconsin and reached out via email. We met in person in Palm Springs that same year, and the rest, as they say, is history.

I have crossed paths with Rick and Christian all over the country, from Wisconsin to Florida, Austin to San Antonio, Texas, and the Kentucky Derby in Louisville. My life is infinitely more fun and enriching having them in it!

In February 2021 Rick decided a Transatlantic cruise was just the ticket for his 50th birthday celebration, and May 2022 seemed so far away then that I plunked down a deposit for a stateroom. By December of 2021 I got cold feet as Omicron spread rapidly around the country; I requested a refund from Cunard on the January 1, 2022 cancellation deadline. The time away from volunteering was already set aside, so I planned a trip in Vinny – the trip I am currently taking.

In March 2022, Rick phoned to see if I would reconsider about the QM2. Covid appeared to be on the retreat – somewhat, anyway – and I could get a booster before sailing. Cunard required vaccinations and testing to board, and his friend David from Milwaukee had a stateroom he was willing to share. Not to mention there would be no ports of call, so no passengers would be picking up any nasty bugs along the way.

How could I pass up the trip of a lifetime? I said yes.

The month of March was a blur. I made travel arrangements to New York City and from Great Britain, corresponded with my new roommate David, shopped online for formal gowns and at thrift stores for big luggage and accessories like sparkly handbags and earrings I wouldn’t be keeping when I returned, and packed up Hunker Downs while also outfitting Vinny for the road trip starting April 1.

On April 1 Hunker Downs went into storage outside Santa Barbara and Vinny and I headed to Palm Springs. On board were not only all the supplies I needed for a three-month van journey, but also two suitcases full of day wear and evening wear for the ship. Thankfully those bags lived outside under a tarp for the month I was parked in Palm Springs, or I would not have been able to turn around in the van!

As it turned out, Palm Springs was the perfect place to depart for a cruise. It was simple to get my second Covid booster. My friend Ben watched over Vinny in his driveway in Cathedral City, the dogs stayed at a sitter in Desert Hot Springs, and it was a quick and stress-free departure from the quaint little airport.

I was already acquainted with some of Rick’s guests from rendezvousing with him around the country, and I also knew that any friend of Rick’s is worth knowing. You can tell a lot about someone by the company he keeps, and Rick really knows how to pick people.

My roommate David and I got along famously. Our state room wasn’t very large, but it had a balcony, and I was so accustomed to an even smaller bed in Vinny that the cabin’s single bed felt luxurious.

We took breakfast in our room each morning.

There were bridge matches, movies and lectures, dance instructors, spa treatments, gambling, and painting classes.

Here is my attempt at a bumblebee (first watercolor ever), which one of our group said looked like a buffalo wearing a fascinator!

After lunch there was only a short time before High Tea at 3:30,

and then it was time to dress for the cocktail hour in Rick and Christian’s suite before departing for dinner.

We dressed for dinner each night. It all felt so very Downton Abbey.

We departed Brooklyn on a Sunday, and by Tuesday they were rumors that medical personnel in full PPE had been seen leaving state rooms around the ship. The next day we heard the sick were being quarantined on Deck Six, which one of our group, an M.D., confirmed by going down for a look-see. According to him, 30 or so staterooms were cordoned off. Our group became more insular at that point, doing most of our socializing in Rick‘s suite instead of the ballroom, where people were required to wear masks for dancing and to dance only with their own partner, so what fun was that anyway? (I appreciated that masks were mandatory outside the cabins, but it’s very difficult to dance while wearing one.)

We had a particularly memorable evening in the suite on Roaring 20s night. I sang a few Jazz Era tunes (a cappella) for the group.

While most of our party splintered off to various European locations when we disembarked, I was Covid tested on board to immediately fly back to the United States and continue my exploration of southern Utah’s Mighty Five national parks. Thankfully, knock on wood, I did not contract Coronavirus, neither on the ship nor on the journey back to the states.

I’m so glad I sailed on the QM2. It was certainly an elegant bucket list experience. One simply does not get that sort of invitation every day! My bags of fancy wear are at Ben’s place waiting for me to pick them up on my way back to Santa Barbara. What a crazy juxtaposition between van life and a Transatlantic crossing!

I am so fortunate that I was able to change my life at the age of 46, when many of us are slowing down socially and creatively, not making many new discoveries, or meeting new and interesting people. Rick is in my life because of the radical change I made to it. For this and myriad other reasons, I’m very thankful I did.

(Thank you to David Burman for some of the photos!)