Sunny Lockwood wrote a guest post about her new book Cruising Panama’s Canal. Cruising the Panama Canal was on Sunny and her husband’s bucketlist, but it wasn’t until they had a life changing event that they decided to set off on this fun-filled trip. I hope you enjoy this post.
Cruising Panama’s Canal
When a texting driver slammed into us in the summer of 2012, she ruined not only our car, but our summer. Totally.
We were sitting at a red light in the early evening of July 8. A van sat in the lane next to ours. And the texting driver crashed full speed (60 mph) into us both, totaling all three cars in an explosion of glass and metal.
Thankfully no one was killed, but the rest of our summer filled up with doctor appointments, pharmacy visits, wrangling with insurance companies, and lots of complaining about people who fool with their phones while driving.
And the wreck brought home to us how fragile life is. How in the blink of an eye we could be lying in the morgue or hooked up to monitors in a hospital.
Because of that realization, we decided we should start doing some of the things we’d always dreamed of doing someday.
Our first “someday” dream was to visit the Panama Canal.
My husband, a retired engineer, has always been fascinated by the Canal (considered one of the great engineering wonders of the world).
Research revealed a 17-day cruise leaving from San Francisco. We live just north of San Francisco, so we signed up. And on Oct. 2, 2012, we boarded Holland America’s MS Zuiderdam for the trip of a lifetime.
Sunny and Al eating dinner on the ship.
During our cruise, there were stops in San Diego, Mexico, Costa Rica, Columbia and the Bahamas. And for one entire day, our ship made its way across the isthmus of Panama through the historic and beautiful Panama Canal. For us it was an unforgettable experience!
We had such a great time on the cruise that we wrote a book about it: Cruising Panama’s Canal, savoring 5,000 nautical miles and 500,000 decadent calories.
It’s a fun, easy read packed with information and good-humor.
It is getting very nice reviews at Goodreads and on Amazon.com, where it is for sale in both ebook and paperback editions.
For example, William D. Curnutt (a top 1000 reviewer at Amazon.com) wrote: “After reading this I WANT TO GO ON A CRUISE. Not only do I want to go on a cruise, I hope to run into the Lockwood’s on the cruise. They sound like they would be just wonderful to get to know and spend time with…. Their writing is inviting, funny, contagious and just flat out a joy to read.”
New York Times best selling author Antoinette May reviewed our book, and said, “It’s a charming summation of 17 delightful days by a couple who truly knows how to enjoy themselves.”
One reader wrote that he read our book twice. The second time he read it aloud to his wife. “I love this book!” he declared.
Such lovely words coming from readers around the world warm our hearts. They are like the cherry on the top of an ice cream sundae. A little finishing touch of sweetness, assuring us that our dream trip strikes an echoing chord in the heart of others.
Starting with the unfortunate car crash that led to our cruise that then led to our book that is now leading to wonderful connections with readers in the USA, UK, France, Canada and Australia, I have learned that doing something you’ve always dreamed about brings all kinds of rewards.
Not only did we fulfill a dream, but through our book, we’re sharing that dream with lots of other people. And they’re loving it, too.
The back cover
If I have any advice to share, it’s this: You know that thing you’ve always dreamed of doing? Do it. Do it now, while you can. Believe me, you can’t imagine all the good things that may result from the action you take to fulfill a dream.
And if you’d like to look at our book and read some of our reviews, here’s the direct link.
share this:
Greetings from California! I’m bored to death at the job therefore i chosen to take a look at your blog
on my small iphone during lunch break. I love the information you present here and can’t wait
to take a look when I return home. I’m shocked at how quick your blog site loaded on my mobile ..
I’m not using WIFI, just 3G .. Anyhow, amazing blog!
Thank you for any other informative blog. The place else may I am getting that type of information written in such
an ideal manner? I’ve a mission that I’m simply now operating on, and I have
been at the look out for such info.