Home Again

As General MacArthur once said “I have returned!” Yes, we've been back in the US for around five days now. This is the first chance I've gotten to blog. I suppose I could have before, but the move really took it out of us and we had a lot to do in our first few days here. Even today we went back to the old house to pick up a few more things that had been left behind. Now that the dust has begun to settle it looks like we're still going to have most of the things we owned before we left. That is a true blessing.


You see, when we moved we meant to MOVE. We had no intention of coming back and needing any of our old appliances or furniture or what have you. However, things didn't work out that way. Mainly due to the fact that we really missed our friends and family back in the US. (Of course, now we're missing our friends and family in Dominica!) Either way, we're back for the time being and all the stuff we already own is certainly going to come in handy once we get in a new house. I thank God for it all, as well as the hands that were so willing to pack it up after we were gone.


You've probably noticed by this point that the pictures don't match the dialog. Well, it's going to be another of those posts. Some of you may also have noticed that I talked about ending the blog in my last post. I've decided not to because now we have family in Dominica that want to keep up with us, just like our family in the US did before. So, if you're wanting to keep up with the Aaron Ethridge clan this blog should still be around to help you do that. It will still be called “Coming To Dominica”, but will include a lot of non-Dominican things as well.


All that having been said: On to the story of our homecoming adventure! So, as many of you know the ball was “kicked off” last Sunday when our DSL modem was struck by lighting. I decided it was the straw that broke the camel's back and that we needed to get back home so I could finish my work on Worlds of Magic. I called Mom Y. and told her I needed to get in touch with my parents. For one thing I had to tell them that I had inadvertently ruined their vacation. (Dad acts like he's not upset, but he is, I can tell, lol). About an hour later I was on the phone with Dad discussing return tickets.


It took him hours to line up flights and reserve rooms and vehicles. While the “home team” was handling that we began to pack and clean. It took us all day and I was still packing up computer equipment at around 8PM. We watched a little TV on Libby's laptop and I went to sleep around 9PM. A little after Midnight I woke up with insomnia. I was up until after 2AM, but finally managed to settle down enough to fall back to sleep. At 6AM the alarm went off and shortly after that we were all up cleaning and packing again.


We thought our flight was leaving at 11:45AM and so brother David, along with Dilian, Josian, and DJ, showed up a little after 9AM. We loaded the bus (which had enough room for all of us and the luggage, but not much more) and headed for the airport. We got there around 10:30AM only to find out that the flight was leaving San Juan at 11:45AM, not arriving in Dominica at that time. Our flight wasn't going to leave until 2:10PM. So, we had hours to wait with a load of very tired and very hungry children.


Dilian made the wise suggestion that we ride into town and buy something for everyone to eat. We were only gone a little over a half an hour and returned bearing food and drinks. Before I had a chance to dig into mine I had to go get in line to pay our “exit tax” or whatever they call it. It cost me a little over US$100.00 to be allowed to leave the country with my wife and children. It took me completely by surprise. Needless to say, we don't have anything like that in the US.


After that was done we headed through security. Sadly, we had to say goodbye to the Bellots and brother David at that point. It took almost half an hour to get all our luggage through with me saying “Caleb stop that!” and “Isaac come here!” the entire time. It was a little after Noon by the time we were seated in the terminal waiting for the plane to land. There was about a half hour delay due to the weather, but other than that things went rather smoothly.


After we landed in San Jaun (around 4:30PM) we had to go through customs (which went very fast considering how many people were going through. We then went and found our luggage. We didn't have enough money for a porter and were talking about what to do when a porter starting loading up our luggage anyway. He called a partner and between the two of them they took most of our bags to the hotel. I had told them we couldn't pay them to begin with, but they carried everything anyway. Once we reached the hotel I tried to get money out of an ATM, but it was no use. I couldn't get any money. They didn't worry about it, they just went on their way. I thanked them profusely as they left :)


A flight had been canceled and so the motel lobby was filled with people trying to get a room. By this time it was around 6PM. I told Rachel to take the kids and get food, but she came back a few minutes later upset about the price of food in the airport. I finally made my way to the front desk only to find out that there was a problem with our reservations. Abraham (the very nice gentleman at the desk) told me not to worry about it and that they would get it fixed up. He suggested I take the kids to eat, so I did.


We ended up eating Mexican because there was a taco joint that had a “Twelve Tacos for $12” kind of thing. We ordered two of them and 10 drinks. The guy at the counter realized we were trying to feed an army and so he didn't charge us for the drinks. I don't remember his name, but the Lord does and I hope he blesses him. After dinner we went back to the motel and our rooms were ready. By that time it was around 8PM.


I don't remember much after that. I laid down with the TV on and before I knew it the sun was up. It was a little after 6AM when I started stirring. Around 7AM I started getting everyone else up and before long we were all sitting at a few tables enjoying our free continental breakfast. I don't know how much I ate and drank, but it was a lot. I only had money for one more meal before we flew out and so we all had to hold out until late afternoon.


We spent the rest of the day relaxing in whatever way we could. Rachel and I both tried to nap against the coming weariness, but with motel rooms full of kids it really didn't work out. At around 4PM I went out and bought a couple of Dominoes pizzas. After we had eaten them I was just getting into sleepy mode (after all we needed to get up at 2AM to get ready for our flight back to the US) when Ben came in and told me something was wrong with Alec.


I went to their room and found him face down on the bed unable to lift himself because his neck hurt so bad. I tried to move him and he screamed in pain. Slowly and carefully I got him into a sitting position only to find that I couldn't get him anywhere else. He just couldn't turn his head. All he had done was move from one bed to the other and something had happened and he couldn't turn his head. Our flight was leaving in less than 12 hours, so I knew I had to do something immediately.


I called the front desk and they called the paramedics and a few minutes later an ambulance arrived. The EMS guys couldn't be sure if Alec was injured or not, so I asked that he be taken to the hospital. They loaded him in the ambulance and I hopped in the front seat and off we went. San Juan seems like a very pretty city. At least what I could see of it at night flying down the street in an ambulance was beautiful.


After a couple of hours and a blood test it was decided that Alec had merely had a severe cramp in his neck probably brought about by dehydration. He was given ibuprofen and released. He and I hopped a cab back the hotel and by 10PM we were in our rooms. I ended up on the phone for one reason and another until around 11PM. After that I crawled into bed, slept for three hours, and got up at 2AM. The airport was empty and I have to say that the next time we go to fly I want to aim for early flights. We were five bags over our limit, but by the grace of God my debit card, which hadn't been working the entire time, worked and we were able to pay for them all. After we got through security we only had to wait about 20 minutes before they were loading us onto the plane.


We arrived in Orlando and ran into Mom Y, Mom E, and Dad E. within about twenty minutes. We got all the luggage loaded up with very little trouble and started the nine hour car ride home. We did stop to eat once and made a few bathroom and gas stops as well as one desert stop. All things considered we got home very easily.


Since then time has flown by being eating away with packing and unpacking, moving and fixing. It's all too long a story to go into now. This morning we went to Church in Williston and once we came home I got to work. I still have work to do tonight, but I'm slowly getting through it. Now that I'm back I plan to really launch myself into my Worlds of Magic work. I want to get the game into beta in the next couple of months. It's going to take a lot of work, but I think we can do it.


Either way, this is enough for a “come back” post. For the moment I need to run. So, for the first time in what seems like a long time, goodnight from South Carolina!