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Fort Smith’s Unexpected Art

Posted on July 6, 2020July 7, 2020 by Jo Johnston

Day 96, Staying at Home Saturday, June 28, 2020; Fort Smith, Arkansas Once you get off the interstates to cross this country, you drive through hundreds of small downtowns. Sadly, many of them feel neglected. Big box stores have drawn shoppers out of downtowns to strip malls and larger towns

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Between Cruises
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Fort Smith — More Than Just Hangings

Posted on July 4, 2020July 6, 2020 by Jo Johnston

Day 95, Staying at Home Friday, June 26, 2020; Fort Smith, Arkansas With no home of my own (remember, my plan for two years was to live mostly on cruise ships), I retreated to my sister Eloise’s home in Fort Smith in mid May. Fort Smith is the second largest

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Between Cruises
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Wrapping up loose threads

Posted on June 28, 2020July 5, 2020 by Jo Johnston

Day 94, Staying at Home Thursday, June 25, 2020; Fort Smith, Arkansas The funny thing about seasons is that they don’t change in a blink of an eye. A spot of warm weather fools you into thinking that spring has sprung, but winter then returns with a vengeance. It was

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Between Cruises
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For Everything There Is A Season

Posted on June 8, 2020June 19, 2020 by Jo Johnston

Day 77, Staying at Home Monday, June 8, 2020; Fort Smith, Arkansas For two weeks I’ve been mulling over a dozen quilting projects. I pulled them out from storage under my bed thinking this is the perfect time to get back to quilting. Which do I want to attack first?

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Between Cruises
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I’m Just Pausing Here

Posted on May 29, 2020 by Jo Johnston

Day 67, Staying at Home Friday, May 29, 2020; Fort Smith, Arkansas Why is it that a quarter-note rest in music looks like a bird flying away – not a pause? I’ve been trying to write for the past month, and even wrote a blog post 25 days ago in

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Between Cruises
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Finding My Land Legs

Posted on April 27, 2020 by Jo Johnston

Day 35, Staying at Home Monday, April 27, 2020; Dallas, Texas We were warned we would come home to a different world. They were right. Last Thursday marked a month since our return from the “Grand Half-World Voyage 2020” as I took to describing our interrupted cruise. We left after

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Between Cruises
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“There’s No Place Like Home”

Posted on March 25, 2020 by Jo Johnston

Day 1, Post Grand Half-World Voyage 2020 Tuesday, March 24, 2020; Home, Dallas, Texas I know I am really home because the laundry isn’t doing itself. There are no small navy bags to stuff, knowing that in less than 24 hours my clothes will come back clean, pressed and hanging.

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World Cruise 2020
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Going Home One Step at a Time

Posted on March 22, 2020 by Jo Johnston

Day 78, Grand Half-World Voyage 2020 Sunday, March 22, 2020; Perth Airport Terminal 4, Perth, Australia We’re off the Amsterdam and on our way home. We left the ship this morning about 10 a.m., “running a gauntlet” on the outside promenade deck. The captain, hotel manager and cruise director led

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World Cruise 2020
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Getting Us All Home is a Challenge

Posted on March 21, 2020 by Jo Johnston

Day 76, Grand Half-World Voyage 2020 Friday, March 20, 2020; At Sea – Indian Ocean I looked at my original grand world voyage calendar this evening and saw that we should have spent the day in Bali, Indonesia. Instead, our Indonesian and Filipino crewmembers entertained us with their always-popular crew

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World Cruise 2020
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We Face Reality, and We Are Sad

Posted on March 18, 2020 by Jo Johnston

Day 73, Grand Half-World Voyage 2020 Tuesday, March 17, 2020; At Sea – Indian Ocean Three days ago I was simply disappointed that we were ending our wonderful voyage early and crossing my fingers that Holland America would see its way to letting us stay on board back to Fort

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World Cruise 2020
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I’m a writer in love with the sea, sailing, travel and sketching.

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