Back in the saddle...

I'm sorry that I haven't posted anything recently.  Emily and I have been in the States for the past three weeks, and I didn't want to announce that our apartment was sitting empty.

As I mentioned in my last post, we have finally received our residency visas.  It wasn't without drama, of course.  Our flight from Guayaquil to Miami was booked for Wednesday, August 28th.  We had submitted our final visa request on the previous Thursday (August 23rd) and were told to return on Tuesday, the 27th, after 3:00p.  (Visas are not processed on Mondays.)  We arrived with our facilitator, wondering if this would actually happen or if we would have to reschedule our trip; fortunately, however, our visas were ready!  Back to the apartment to pack.

Our arrival in Miami was interesting.  The customs agent that we met asked what was in the four storage lockers that we were packing.  When we told him that one had our clothes and the other three were empty (for our return trip), we were sent to secondary inspection.  After explaining our case to the second immigration officer, we were allowed to leave.  (Who else flies with empty suitcases?)

We spent the next few days with our daughter, hubby and grandkids in Fort Myers.  They had recently purchased a house there, and we were able to spend some time reconnecting with them.  The new house also has a pool, a very welcome addition on hot Southern-Florida afternoons:

From there, a drive to Minnesota!  (What's a visit to the US worth without another 2500 mile drive?)

We needed to do this to get the truck back to Minnesota.  It was necessary for unloading our storage locker and other tasks.

The primary reason for our visit to the States was to attend my brother's wedding.  Lee and Erin had a simple and very beautiful ceremony in their backyard with about 70 people present:

While we were in Minnesota, by the way, we rented a house through AirBnb.com.  This is Katherine's house in North St. Paul:

(The picture was taken through the windshield of the truck; it doesn't do it justice!)

Emily found this service, and, for a long term stay, I don't think I'll ever purchase a hotel room again.  $57/night, fully furnished and a yard to walk around in.  It was also walking distance to Cub Foods (a Midwest grocery store fixture) and a local pub where we did what the locals do:

We also spent a great deal of time with other family members and a weekend down on Emily's folks farm. That's my niece, Olivia, in the "apple picker":

With that done, however, it was time to finish phase two of our move.  We had placed a great number of items in a Bloomington storage locker, and it was time to pack it up:

We were able to pack almost everything into the storage lockers that we had brought with us.  In addition to clothes and kitchen items, I was able to pack some of my hand tools that I would want here in Ecuador.  That, however, made the lockers quite heavy:

(A special shout-out to my brother for taking us to the airport at 3:00a in the morning.  He is a police officer who works many long days, not only doing his job but also providing training for others in his field.  Thanks, Lee!)

We flew business class from Minneapolis to Guayaquil specifically for the luggage allowance.  In business class, Emily and I were each allowed three bags, and the weight limit of each bag could reach 70 pounds without penalty.  (Yes, we weighed each locker as we loaded them to make sure that we didn't exceed the limit.  The other suitcase was only 45 pounds, so it didn't require the special weight tag.)

I also had possibly the most interesting carry-on bag in my history.  It had DeWalt batteries for my drill, gloves, sandpaper of all grits and more wires (cables) than AT&T.  It passed the TSA inspection twice (in MSP and MIA), but not without question.

Finally, on Tuesday, September 17th, we arrived home in Guayaquil with our stuff.  This is a photo of our luggage carts in GYE while we're finally relaxing and having a Heineken:

I think the Ecuadorian customs agent was going to inspect the bags, but once I mentioned that I was "con mi esposa" and he saw that she was pushing a similar cart, he let us go.

We're back home!  Next on the todo list:

• Get our cedulas (residency cards)
• Purchase a vehicle (we're shopping this weekend)
• Get to the Pacific!  (Can't call it "the coast"; thanks to Jos Lips for giving me the right terminology)

Back in the saddle and moving forward!