"We've been passport naked."

Last week Mick made the comment that he’d love for us to get away for a few days. I told him that we couldn’t leave Bob. He replied, “We can’t anyway because we’re “passport naked”. Our passports pages were full and we had only a few months left on them. Since we were in a travel lull, we decided that it would be a good time to renew them. The passport returned yesterday. We had them expedited and they were promptly returned in all their splendor. We're no longer passport naked. However, there are some changes since our last renewal. I was extremely disappointed in that this is the first time our old passports did not accompany the new ones. Being the pack rat that I am, I like to save them.

With the old passports, the picture and information was on the inside cover; now it’s on the next page. The primary difference is that it is micro chipped. The cover is much thicker, more cardboard-like. So we are no longer naked and are now ready to travel again.

This is a look at the old versus the new passports.

I spoke with Gabriella this week regarding what we should bring when we visit next month. We need our passports and a marriage certificate that is validated from the Consulate in Washington. She suggested that I call Marco Farfan. The marriage certificate that we have is not sufficient it must have the stamp from the Secretary of State in which we were married, which is Florida. This afternoon, I called the Clerk of Court’s Office in Kissimmee, who said that I needed to send our certificate to Tallahassee for an apostille. Tomorrow, Mick will get that off to Florida and hopefully by the end of next week, it will be in our hands to forward to Marco for our stamps.

Other happenings this week have involved dealing with Bob’s estate. We’ve decided to sell everything, including the property at auction. Things that we’re having difficulty selling will be transported to Lexington to be auctioned. Mick has been extremely busy this week handling all the legalities involved with the estate. It’s as if we’ve suddenly increased our speed from gridlock to the autobahn. We’ll slow down and smell the roses when we get to Cuenca. The first trip is less than a month away.

Until next time,
Mick and Kathy