Visit to Atlanta....SUCCESSFUL

We headed out Thursday for Atlanta where we had an appointment to pick up our new Pensioner's Resident Visas at the Ecuadorian Consulate. We left plenty of time, having booked a reservation (free, thanks to points) at a Best Western less then an hour from where we needed to go. We did a little shopping along the way, had lunch & dinner courtesy of Subway.

The sunset coming into Chattanooga was gorgeous and I took a bunch of photos with my phone. Hope you enjoy some of them...

Our trip down to the Consulate on Friday morning was hectic, it is Atlanta after all, but not unbearable. We easily got parked in the parking garage and wandered into their office about 30 minutes early. We filled out a basic information form, handed over our documentation letters and passports, then our payment for the Visas and less than 90 minutes later we walked out! Painless...mostly thanks to our wonderful facilitator, Maite Duran.

From there we grabbed some lunch at Longhorn Steakhouse and then went to see the movie, "Thor", which we thoroughly enjoyed. Oh, if you go to see it - do NOT leave before the credit end. Honest!

From there we drove to my youngest daughter's house and the next 48 hours are a blur of grandkids and dogs. Some of the highlights....

• playing balloon volleyball with my middle granddaughter, Amanda
• meeting Boone the Mastiff and Samson the Great Dane, both rescue dogs
• watched Stu lean over to pet Boone and have the chair break underneath him
• watching "Pitch Perfect" and "Man of Steel" with the family
• getting my FIRST EVER pedicure with my daughter, a little enjoyment time

On our way home Sunday we decided we wanted to get iPads before going to Ecuador. Stu wanted the new iPad Air and I wanted the new Retina Mini. Well, after several false starts at the Sam's Club in Chattanooga (power off, waited almost an hour to get in to find out they had none even though online it showed that they did), Walmart in Chattanooga (waited 20 minutes for someone to wait on us, gave up) - we lucked out at our local Sam's Club in Cookeville and Stu walked away with not only his 32GB iPad Air but a great cover with a Bluetooth keyboard from Kensington.

Once home, before the bad Sunday storms rolled into our area, we unloaded and I went online to order my iPad Mini from the Apple Store (the only place it seems to be available right now) and am getting it shipped to our friends in Florida.

Tomorrow we visit a local attorney to get our wills redone here in Tennessee and start on the now growing TO DO lists. We will get it all done...we have to! We leave here on Monday! Yipes!!!

Almost a week....

It's been almost a week since we last blogged but it feels longer. Why? Because we've been so busy! While we've gotten a lot done, there is still a lot to do before we leave town. But I am sure we'll get it done...the good thing is we do have a couple of days leeway. We hope to be with friends for Thanksgiving but if something holds us up, our cruise doesn't start until Sunday.

BIG news! The second book in the Klondike Mystery Series, "Barely a Spark", is now available in print as well as electronic. Check it out on Amazon. Great Christmas gift!

Friday we visit the Ecuadorian Consulate in Atlanta to pick up our Ecuadorian Visas...we're both excited! The biggest hurdle now is fitting everything into the trunks...really think we're going to have to scale some stuff back. Oh well, it all will work out!

A cold front is moving into the area tonight and tomorrow. Rain changing into snow flurries tomorrow with a high of 38 and a low of 21 (and we're usually 4-5 degrees colder for the lows). Brrrr.....

So what are we up to?

Our daily life is pretty much full of things on our To Do Lists....many getting crossed off and a few more getting added. The weather is cool as winter approaches here in north central Tennessee.

Stu is working hard to get all the vehicles ready for winterization and storage. I'm working on another long list of legal and financial issues. But we're working our way through it and hopefully everything will pull together soon. Timing is key to getting out of here and down to Florida for our cruise and then seeing Florida families before our flight to Ecuador.

We're really excited about the apartment we've rented down there, albeit unfurnished. We'll slowly get the basics and we have a month to do that since we've already rented a full furnished temporary apartment for our first month.

Want more details? Visit our other blog, http://retiredincuenca.com, and follow us there so you don't miss any new posts!

I am waiting for the paperback proof of "Barely a Spark", and will post when it's available. Still getting good reviews for it and the first Klondike mystery, "Not a Whisper". They'll make great Christmas gifts and my children's book, "What Do I Count", is perfect for the grandkids under age five. The print version has added pages to help reinforce the number learning. You can see all my books on my Amazon author page. Thanks! Oh, and tell your friends....giggle!