February for most in East Tennessee means bundling up against the cold, but some Tellico Village residents spent time in the warm sun.
The Tellico Village HomeOwners Association, working with Travel Partners, provided for 44 Villagers the Feb. 6-17 “Winter Getaway” on Norwegian Cruise Line. The 11-day voyage included stops in Columbia, Mexico and Panama.
Marge and Lance Jensen with Travel Partners have been organizing trips with the HOA for more than a decade and generally plan three trips a year for larger groups.
Marge said new families moving into the Village are looking for unique international adventures, and one major draw for the February trip was the Panama Canal.
A majority of travelers on this trip were also part of a bar hop in Cozumel, a mostly undeveloped Mexican island in the Caribbean Sea. Featuring scenic beaches, the hoppers visited indoor and outdoor bars at four locations.
“It’s a pretty big group, and we had a lot of fun on it,” Marge said.
Lance said a previous group enjoyed the bar hop on a trip several years ago.
The couple is already planning next year’s February cruise to Aruba in addition to trips to Africa and Alaska later this year.
Denise Flanagan and husband Kevin have lived a year in the Village. As former south Florida residents, Flanagan said the couple would take weekend or slightly longer cruises, but never for 11 days. She said they were intrigued to finally see the Panama Canal.
“It was amazing,” Flanagan said. “I think it should be one of the wonders of the world. It’s amazing how it moves so smoothly these huge vessels coming through this canal going from the Atlantic into the Pacific. I was thrilled with the whole experience.”
Flanagan said meeting other people at ports of call provided a unique look at the Caribbean.
The couple went on the Cozumel bar hop, and Flanagan said being able to visit with locals was a lot of fun. Cruising on such a large ship made the excursion with Villagers quite memorable, she said.
“When you go somewhere and you’ve got somebody that’s familiar to you from your hometown or your school or whatever it’s like a special bond,” Flanagan said. “You could run into them in Ingles, but you’re certainly not going to go up to them and hug them. But here on this cruise ship because we were so far away from home, you just never know when you’re going to be surprised by seeing one of the other fellow Tellico Villagers that when you did see them, it was like ‘Oh, how are you?’ And you get a little hug.
“There’s that camaraderie there that they came all the way to see what you see and we came all that way and here we are together experiencing it, and it’s just fun,” she added.
Heather Majka went with Citizens Insurance Solutions coworker Pamela Cripe. As the top performing sales agent for the business, Cripe was awarded the cruise. Cripe also celebrated her birthday during the trip.
Majka said she was astounded by the Panama Canal and went on an excursion in Panama with the Village group. She and Cripe also went on the bar hop and loved their jokester guide, tried homemade peanut butter tequila and enjoyed a glimpse of life in Cozumel.
“We loved it. We just had such a great time,” Majka said. “One of the things that’s wonderful about Tellico Village is that we are so inclusive, and we do so much for one another. We all come from different walks of life — a lot of us from different states. Most of the people here don’t necessarily work, but they are always great when you’re here in the Village and when you’re out.”
Linda Gleckler cruised with friend Susan Smith, who is a Village resident. Both their husbands died within days of each other last year, and the two decided to go on an adventure.
Gleckler had never been on an ocean cruise before and said she would have stayed on the ship if she could. A highlight for her was the Panama Canal — one of the places her husband wanted to go — and seeing how the canal works.
The two also toured a rain forest in Belize and learned how an indigenous tribe depends totally on the forest.
Gleckler said she had never before met so many people in a two-week span and was able to connect with a “solos” group. She said the trip was one of the most memorable vacations she has taken.
“It was a good change of doing something because it had been a year after our husbands had died, and it was just something out of the box, so to speak, not truly out of the box but just something very different to do,” Gleckler said.
