#733 It's a Small World

The world just isn't that big and the shipping industry ties us all together.

We often see Hamburg Sud containers loaded on rail cars passing our historic Aurora train depot in Missouri, 4,714 miles from their home in northern Europe.

Even since this little guy came into our lives, we pay extra close attention to these trains coming to town.  Sometimes we stop and watch so we can see just who (JB Hunt, Hamburg Sud) is rolling by.

Hamburg Sud, mercifully short for Hamburg Südamerikanische Dampfschifffahrts-Gesellschaft ApS & Co KG, ranks among the ten largest container shipping brands and is part of Denmark's Maersk Line, the world’s largest container shipping company. It employs 25,000 on land and 7,000 seafarers on 800 vessels.  [from Wikipedia]

In 2008, we spotted this Maersk ship in the Baltic Sea.

And in 2014, we found this Maersk container welcoming us back to our ship, the MV Explorer, after a day spent exploring Isafjordur, Iceland.

Yours in following the shipping lines from our home to the world,
Mary Jo

#732 The MV World Odyssey, The Dream Ship

 SEMESTER AT SEA SHIP HISTORY

MS Seven Seas, 1963-1966
SS Ryndam, 1966-1971
SS Universe, 1971-1995
SS Universe Explorer, 1996-2004
MV Explorer, 2004-2015
MV World Odyssey, 2015-present

During our previous Semester at Sea voyages when the program was sponsored by the University of Virginia, the MV Explorer was our shipboard home for more than 500 days/nights.  We have a gazillion photos of this modern ship built in 2001 but the beautifully photographed article in Maritime Matters is the place to go to best understand the contemporary style of our previous home.

MV Explorer

The MV World Odyssey is the sixth shipboard home of the SAS program and we are eager to see it up close this fall.  In 1998, she was built in Kiel, Germany - just north of our embarkation point in Hamburg.

MV World Odyssey

We have a lot to learn about our new ship, but we already know that she has a cinematic history. The German television show Das Traumschiff ("The Dream Ship"), based off the American TV series "The Love Boat", was filmed on board for 15 years.  Fans of The Dream Ship have the opportunity to sail during the summer when the MV World Odyssey is not used for SAS.  It would be fun to sail on The Love Boat, ie, the Pacific Princess, but it was decommissioned and taken apart for recycling in 2013.

I've done some serious cinematic research of films set on ocean liners, so I'm happy to have found this cinematic connection with the MV World Odyssey.  For the official results of my research, see my Top 20 Films at Sea and even More Films at Sea. Spoiler alert: My favorite is One Way Passage, 1932.

Yours in dreaming of The Dream Ship,
Mary Jo

#731 Deck to Patio

Converting the deck to a patio is a BIG project!

Thank goodness we have friends and family to help.  When we find the ideal limestone ledge rock at a farm auction south of Aurora last fall, we win the bid for a whopping $50 and start planning a patio.

With the help of our nephew, his skid loader and trailer, the ledge rock is soon residing at our home. Some say the pile of rock even begins to taunt us as we take our time planning our course of action.

The large, well-constructed, 2-level, wooden deck was built by the homeowners two times removed and was starting to show its age.

In removing the deck, we work toward three goals: reduce annual maintenance, increase yard space, and expose the rock foundation on the east side of the house.  We get to work removing the wooden structure with the help of our friend Randall. 

And we find a good home for the lumber too!

We borrow our nephew's hydraulic Deweze hay truck to help extract the deck posts.

And voila!  The wooden deck is gone.

A lot of work is needed on the former-coal-chute-turned-basement-window now revealed by the removal of the deck.  The plywood window covering is replaced with masonry and glass blocks.  The dryer vent, electricity, and sump drain are re-routed through the glass block. 

We are happy to learn that our great-nephew excels at washing basement windows.

Finally, we get to examine those individual pieces of ledge rock up close and personal as we figure out the puzzle of making them fit, lay them down, and make sure each one is level with a slight tip away from the house. 

After we fill in some gravel around the rocks and dirt around the patio,

it's time to enjoy a well-deserved hot dog - on the patio, of course.

Yours in appreciating family and friends in our transition from deck to patio,
Mary Jo