What with moving, working remotely for J&B Graphics, and life in general, I’ve neglected updates here. Well, part of the process has been completed now, so I’m taking a breath!

I moved out of my house yesterday (on schedule), and am now staying in Tim’s studio apartment in downtown Boquete for a week or so. Our new house only has an air mattress, a 6-foot folding table, and an office chair in the way of furniture as yet, and I haven’t called the gas company to fill our tanks for hot water yet (that’s first on the list for Monday, though). Here are some photos of our new house:

Our landlord bought a brand-new side-by-side Samsung refrigerator, but I can’t get it out of “demo mode” for some reason. In demo mode, the lights come on, but it doesn’t cool, so customers in the store can get an idea of what it would be like to have it in their home, while not using much energy while at the store. He’s sending someone to check it out in person on Monday, but until that’s figured out, I have no refrigeration. Fortunately, I was able to transfer the contents of my refrigerator and freezer into Tim’s refrigerator in his apartment, so nothing was lost in the move.

On the plus side, the cable guys came to our new house last week and installed the internet, so that’s all squared away and I’m able to work from there now. I also bought a very comfortable leather chair and ottoman, nice office chair, and a small TV from some people who are moving away. However, I can’t pick them up until next Saturday, which will give me time to get the refrigerator and gas issues taken care of. At that point, I’ll have enough things at the new house to actually live there.

I’m kind of playing musical chairs right now with my housing situation, while Tim is still in Florida, getting ready to ship his (and my) things here. His sister has been helping him for the last week, and has been a God-send, keeping him motivated and working hard. He was pretty overwhelmed with the magnitude of the process. I can understand – I felt the same way when I moved here in August.

He’s planning to use a shipping service that’s door-to-door – the shipping people will deliver a 20-foot container to his house, he’ll have some guys to load it up, and then it’ll be trucked to Miami and put on a boat to the port in Panama City. From there, it will be trucked to our house in Boquete and their people will unload it. The company will also handle the customs and technicalities of international transport.

Sounds great (a bit on the expensive side – but well worth it, in my opinion). He’s hoping to get the shipping people to pick up his things by the end of this month, and then he can head back to Boquete while we wait for them to arrive at our house.

So, there’s been quite a bit of progress toward getting settled into our new house during the past month. We got off to a rather slow start, but it’s all guns blazing now!

It’s been a busy month in Cocoa, Florida while helping Tim get ready for his big moving sale. He hired a professional estate sale person to run the sale, which was a super idea – it’s just way too much stuff for a few ordinary folks to handle. Her crew will set it up for three days, organizing and pricing the items, and the sale will go on for three days toward the end of February.

Tim had another good idea – we took a hastily put-together road trip a couple of weeks ago to OKC to get the rest of my things out of storage and put items in the sale that I didn’t want to take to Panama. We drove Tim’s Honda CRV and loaded it up completely to bring them back with us. Things were tucked and slotted into that cargo area like puzzle pieces!

I also got to introduce Tim to a few of my friends (I apologize to those we didn’t get around to visiting). It was a true working trip – we took eight days and traveled over 3,000 miles! We spent the first night in Atlanta visiting Vanessa. She had wanted me to see her new townhouse before I left for Panama in August, but I couldn’t make it then. We went from there to OKC and spent three days going through my things. That was a long day of driving! On the way back, we went through Fort Worth, TX, where Tim took care of some personal business. We took three days to get back to Cocoa, stopping in for the night in Marshall, TX and Destin, FL on the way home.

Tim’s sister Maggie came down earlier this week from South Carolina to help sort through some of the family items Tim had stored at his house, and she brought a few items with her for the sale. I had spoken with her on the phone a couple of times, but it was great to meet her in person.

Tim rented a “pod” storage unit to help organize and separate the things going to Panama from those to be sold. He has two driveways at his house, so there was a convenient place to put the pod, Over half of the things I brought back will go in the sale, and Tim stored the things in it that he wanted to take to Panama, so most of the house can be used to display items for sale.

Right now, I’m in the Miami airport, headed back to Boquete. I missed my flight from Orlando to Miami this morning – it was an early flight, and the airport was way more crowded than expected. It took me well over an hour to check my bag and go through security. Fortunately, I caught a later flight and have plenty of time before the last leg from here to Panama City, so it worked out OK.

This sale will be a stressful time for Tim, but at least he’ll have professional help to get it done. He really didn’t want me to go today, and threatened to cancel my flight (not really, but he REALLY wanted me to stay). After the sale, he’ll have to arrange for the Panama items to be shipped (another big project). Then he’ll be housesitting for his landlord while they’re on vacation next month. By that time all that happens, it’ll be near the end of March. Hopefully, he’ll be ready to return to Boquete for good by the first of April.

As soon as I get back, I’ll need to start looking for furniture to go in the big, unfurnished house we’ll be renting starting on March 15 (more on that when it happens). That also means I’ll need to pack my things up and move out of my current house by then. So we’ll both be super busy for awhile. It’ll be really nice to be able to take a breath when we get settled from all this moving and rearranging of our lives!

Since I had never been to south Florida, Tim took me sightseeing around town. Our first stop was at the Ron Jon Surf Shop, which has all types of surf-related apparel and equipment. Apparently, it’s world-famous, although I had never heard of it – but then, I’m not a surfer!

We had lunch at the Fishlips restaurant, located at Port Canaveral. It’s situated on the water near where big cruise ships dock to load their passengers. We had lunch on the upstairs waterfront deck, with a refreshing breeze and a great view. The only downside was that seagulls occasionally divebombed diners, attempting to snatch a snack from their plates. Fortunately, we were further back from the edge of the deck, so we weren’t molested by the birds.

After lunch, we drove down the road that parallels the beach, and stopped at a park with a public beach. We strolled down the boardwalk toward the beach and took in the view of the ocean with tranquil waves and a nice sea breeze. The beach wasn’t overly crowded, but some people were enjoying the sand and surf, with their beach chairs and umbrellas.

All in all, it was a pleasant afternoon of sightseeing. The weather was sunny and pleasant, and it was interesting to see all the condos and commercial developments in this tourist-heavy location.

I decided to go back to the US with Tim to help him organize, pack up, and get rid of some of his things so he can get out of his rental house in Florida and make a permanent move to Boquete. I’ll be here until mid-February, so hopefully we can get quite a bit accomplished before I leave. Tim will stay longer to wrap things up.

I’m in Cocoa, Florida, which is south of Orlando and near Cape Canaveral, where they launch space ships. There was supposed to be a launch today, but apparently it has been postponed. Too bad – that would have been exciting!

Getting to the US from Boquete is a bit of a trek. On Tuesday, we left on the 7 p.m. local bus from downtown Boquete and headed for David, about 45 minutes south. Sometimes these busses are large vans, and some are actually repurposed school busses. Our bus this time was a school bus.

There’s a huge flower festival going on in town for the next week or so. There are tens of thousands of extra people milling around downtown, and our bus was super crowded. Some seats had three people wedged into them, and there was a radio playing latin dance music at the back of the bus.

As we headed out of town, the bus stopped several times and took on almost a dozen more people. In Panama, the busses will stop if they see someone alongside the road (whether at a bus stop or not) who waves them down. Once we got out of Boquete, the stops became fewer until we got closer to David, where people started getting off the bus at regular intervals at the small towns between Boquete and David.

A couple of hours after arriving in David, we caught the 10:45 p.m. express bus, which arrived in Panama City at 4:45 a.m. This is a very nice double-decker Greyhound-type bus, and I was able to get some sleep on this part of the trip.

I had an early appointment on Wednesday morning in Panama City to get my cedula (national Panamanian ID card, sort of like a Social Security card). This is the final step in the documentation process, and with the help of my lawyer, it went as smoothly as all the others.

Our flight left at 2:50 p.m., so we had plenty of time to catch an Uber to go across town to the airport without stressing out. The plane was a little late, but we had a couple of hours layover in Miami, so we made our connection to Orlando with no problem.

Tim’s friend Mary Anne and her husband picked us up at the airport and made the 40 minute drive to Cocoa. So after about 27 hours (including layovers), we arrived at his house about 10:30 p.m., tired but happy to be at our destination.

Admittedly, it’s a bit of a journey to get from Boquete to another part of the world, but I love living in Boquete and wouldn’t trade it for anything. I’ve only been in Florida for two days, and I miss Boquete already!