Next steps.....

The decision is made, the family and friends have been notified and a tentative date has been picked. So what's next? First we have to continue living our daily life here in the US - family and friends to visit, motorcycle trips to be taken as well as trying to continue good eating and exercise patterns.

That said, we know that December will be here before we know it. As in the joke, "How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.", we will work slowly through the things that need to be done. Some of that has already started, watching for sales on items we want to bring with us. Since we do plan on coming back in 5-6 years, we don't want to strip all our belongings to take them to Ecuador. Plus, that would be too much weight and too much luggage.

The things we plan to bring, other than the requisite clothing items, are:

• Pots/Pans (good ones are available but quite expensive)
• Coffee grinder and French coffee press
• Single serving size George Foreman grill
• Tableware and kitchen knives
• Sheets and towels
• Electric blanket (maybe only a throw, not sure of size yet)
• Oven thermometer/Hand can opener/Cooking utensils
• Electric teakettle
• Laptops, Kindles, iPhones, iPods, cameras (VERY expensive in EC)
• Reusable shopping bags (used them a LOT during our visit)
• Electric toothbrushes
• Scuba gear

Some of the things we know we can get reasonably are:

• Pillows
• Blankets/Spreads
• Dishes (definitely getting most of those at Artesa at the outlet on Fridays)
• Glasses
• Misc. general kitchen/dinner ware
• Crockpot, toaster, blender & electric frying pan
• Basic office supplies (pens, paper, rubber bands, paper clips, etc)
• Printer (better to get there due to cartridge availability)

Some of the unknowns will depend on space/weight:

• Silicone baking pans (may bring due to light weight and packability)
• Travel iron (small but hefty, will we really need it?)
• Dustbuster (handy but how much will we use it?)
• Portable scanner

We will also be bringing some of the harder to find OTC meds like Benadryl and Tylenol as well as tooth flossers (Stu has one favorite brand), favorite toothpastes and Polident tablets (never found anything like that). Probably toss in a couple of boxes of baking soda, too, since that is regulated similar to Pseudoephedrine here in the US.

Most of the new items have already been purchased, next is to pick up a couple of Sterilite Foot Lockers from Wal-Mart. The come in a set of two for $40 and we know one expat that moved with a LOT of these. We figure these will be great for the heavier, bulkier, oddly shaped items with sheets and towels wrapped around them.

We plan to fly business class on American Airlines combined with our AA credit card, that means 3 free bags each - up to 70# each. We may have to do one more bag for Stu's scuba gear, that takes a bag by itself for the most part.

The other item that needs to get started is receiving the paperwork for our pensioner's visa. We will each apply rather than my being a dependent on Stu's. Next week I will write a letter to the four folks on our short list as facilitator's. Then we will make a decision on who to use.

Phew...I'm tired already! ;-)

PS. As always, feel free to post questions and we'll try to answer them in a new post.