May 29

We head to the airport and find that Balmaceda is open.

It's -4 (centigrade) when we arrive. Apparently it was a freezing fog yesterday. Everything is coated with a thick layer of frost.

We wait an hour for our bags to be unloaded. I have no idea why, there is only one plane (ours) and it's not more than 50 yards from us to the plane.

All the transfer vans are full. Everyone had reservations so looks like we'll be stuck till the next flight comes in (in the afternoon) and see if anyone has 2 openings then.

A van driver finally comes up to me and says he had 2 no-shows. We load our 9 pieces of luggage and pile in for the 2.5 hour ride home.

We finally arrive at our house around 4pm. Almost exactly 48 hours since we left Springfield, MO.

The gate is open so we head on back to the house. We note that there had been wind damage as a lot of our trees have broken limbs. House is in fine shape inside and the van driver even helps me bring the trunks inside.

Someone has been in our house.
On the kitchen table is a bottle of coke, sugar cubes, tea, and potato chips along with a note welcoming us home!

We scarf the chips and coke.

I turn the water back on then run around trying to find all the faucets I left open.

I manage to finally get all the padlocks open, I only had to cut 2 of them off with a grinder. And connect the propane back up.

I connect the battery to the car, air up one of the tires, take if off the blocks. It fires right up! It does, however, smell horrible inside. There has, in the past, been water inside. Rain from our feet, snow, once even a river flowed through it. No kidding. I guess being closed up for 14 months allowed all kinds of goodies to grow.

It's good to be home