We just returned from our annual trip back to the States and I want more to record some reflections than simply provide a sequential recitation of events although I will include them.
This year our visit was more than just catching up with family and friends, we needed to not only buy our usual supply stocks but also material for our many projects we plan to achieve this year.
Each year that we return to the States adjusting to the changes gets harder and harder. Flying back from the countries where we are and landing in a quickly evolving culture is shocking for many reasons. The first is the cost. We see it initially with hotels and rental cars. Because there is usually a year between visits the increases are dramatically visible.
For the past almost 8 years we have lived in Central and South American countries where most things just cost less. Inflation in the US over the past few years has drastically widened the gap between what we are used to things costing to what they are in the US and the higher prices reduce our ability to freely enjoy our visit. Here in Colombia and when we were in Panama we enjoy a nice meal out for $30-40 for both of us with drinks. In the US, that can be the cost of one entree. In the US, hotels, rental cars, food and daily necessities are much more expensive. That's why there are so many expats in these countries.
Secondly, in these countries we are visiting everything is chaotic and hectic but there is a simplicity, rhythm and consistency to it. Back in the US it's just chaos. We find people that drive ridiculously fast and people that drive ridiculously slow. TV is a waste. People are totally distracted. Even grocery shopping people are on the phone and not focused on their task. AI has taken over many things and not successfully. Customer-facing services are not customer-focused employing rigid rules imposed by techies that have no idea how things actually work. We have had several issues with that this year. And, trying to actually talk to anyone that knows anything at a big company is nearly impossible.
But, after being gone for 2 months and then landing back home on our boat in Colombia the past 2 months seem like just a dream that came and went. We are back in our reality And, as crude as it is we like it better. It's funny, when we worked and went on vacations to the tropics they seemed like a pleasant interlude and then back to the RW (Real World). Now, the pleasant interlude is our RW. When we walk in the evening and I hear the palms in the breeze I think back to when we used to hear that on vacations and think how exotic. Now, I wonder if a squall is approaching.
We really enjoy all of the places and people we visit. Each place we stop there are more people we want to visit, more things we want to do and more time we want to spend. After last year we thought that we wanted to spend less time away from home so I shortened the time between our flights. Well, even before we flew back we realized it wasn't enough time. Appointments kept getting added to the schedule and that kept pushing back other visits. After we changed our return flight we had enough time to do everything.
It's difficult to convey the mixture of emotions and sensations each time we leave our boat home and travel to a terrestrial being for a period of time. We see things we know but they're different. We see people living in their own realities that is so different from our own. And, we experience immediate price inflation everywhere we turn. People that live with it daily are at least numbed to it but as I said we usually get a meal for both of us for around $40 and there we're faced with paying double that.
Everything becomes surreal interacting with people that have no concept of our lives and I imagine it's like that for anyone living in a foreign culture and then returning to one they have been familiar with. Then, once we're back the dream is over and we're back to what we know and have become accustomed to.
Our trip this year had the usual objectives of visiting family and friends and the usual medical reviews. This year I had the additional medical requirement for a Colonoscopy since it had been ten years. That got scheduled before we got to the States and pushed back everything else in our schedule. But, more importantly this year was buying all the materials for our projects and shipping them back to Colombia. That took on a life all its own.
The project support about which I've written before required many phases. The first was to identify the vendors that would actually perform the work. We spent much of the time doing that before we left for the States. Next, since we were providing all the materials for the work we had to identify the quantities and sizes of the materials required. Then we had to find the best suppliers. Finally we had to purchase them and get them shipped either to us to take back to Colombia or send them to our freight-forwarder for commercial shipping. Of course, just doing that meant tracking everything from shipping until delivery in Colombia and chasing down the occasional mavericks that went awry.
Everything we ordered was delivered without incident. Nothing broken or lost. To minimize domestic US shipping we delivered 8 packages directly to our freight forwarder, but had to ship the 4 largest packages to them because we didn't have enough room in our car. But, we could ship them in Florida that minimized the cost.
This trip we also found several technical glitches that caused more than there share of frustration and expense. The first was when we were leaving Colombia the airline counter agent informed us that we owed an exit tax that nobody else seemed to know about but we had to pay an additional $33 each because we were in Colombia over 60 days. We're still fighting this because we don't think we owed it. I don't think most airlines bother with it.
Next, our rental car presented several challenges that was a constant drag on our time and money. There was nothing wrong with the car and although we had to wait a little while for it, it was relatively on time. So, we left Miami on our way to the Island Packet factory in Largo, FL which is near St Petersburg, FL and I got the sense our SunPass was not working even though we loaded the car tag onto our account. When we got to our hotel that night I checked our account and the license was not listed. I tried to list it and I got a message that the tag was listed to another transponder. I called SunPass and was told that indeed the previous renter had not canceled his registration. I called the Hertz office and the next morning I loaded the tag to our account. But, this was just the first hassle.
Several toll roads later we found out that our transponder was not working. Now we had the challenge of getting a new transponder and trying to pay the tolls before the got back to Hertz where we would have lots of additional fees. We did get a new transponder and I was able to pay some of the tolls but several did get back to Hertz.
The next rental car issue came about when I tried to extend the rental for our new departure date. Normally it would not have been a big deal. But, our credit cards were expiring in a few months and in an effort to be sure we had our new ones before we left I called our bank to try to get new ones. Well, of course I got an automated system that mistook my request and canceled our cards. We got new ones issued right away but I wasn't able to extend the old contract with an extension on the old credit card. I'll spare you the details but it ended up costing us an extra $500 in addition to paying for the additional time.
The itinerary of our trip was similar to last year. A big regret is that we never remember to take all the pictures we needed. We arrived into Miami where we picked up our rental car. This year we had to immediately drive up to the Island Packet factory to drop off the templates for our new counters that they are making for us. The next day we drove back across Florida to visit friends and my daughter before going to Jacksonville for some medical appointments. Then to Asheville, NC to visit a grandson, Knoxville to visit a granddaughter and the to the Chicago area to visit some of Linda's family and our
friends. From there we went to spend a few weeks with Linda's son Seth in Annapolis where we did lots of business. Side trips to PA to visit some of my family and friends, Lewes DE to visit a college classmate before heading back south. On our way south our first stop was Norfolk, VA to visit one of my sons, Beaufort to visit our friends on Stand Down with whom we had stayed in St Augustine for several nights. Then down to Little River, SC to visit our friend Pam from Castalia who was helping a friend through surgery and we spent a night. Then back to Jacksonville, Sanford with a stop back at the factory and then a visit with my classmate and our friends Jack and Dora in Punta Gorda. Then back to Miami and Colombia.
During the 2 months we were back in the States we dealt with 3 major tropical weather systems. The first one, Debbie roared through when we were in St Petersburg starting out with heavy wind and rain and stayed with us for several days until we got to Asheville. Then on the way south we got into an unnamed system after we left Norfolk that was all along the coast down to Jacksonville with heavy rains and wind. Finally, we left Punta Gorda just as Hurricane Helene was moving in and the day after we left Punta Gorda suffered sever flooding. All we experienced was heavy wind and rain bands. Of course a day after that it hit North Carolina.
So much happened in a relatively short period of time and through it all we longed to be home. Now that we're back it was just a dream and we're glad to be home although we had such a great time with our families and friends.
