Our daughter, Helen, finally set off on Monday at 5am, with her friend Bryony, to travel round the world. They are in Las Vegas, travelling to Breckenridge, Colorado as I write this. Last week was hectic, to say the least, as Helen has a tendancy to pack at the last minute and we had our eldest son, wife and our two grand daughters staying till Saturday. Hectic, but lovely.
This week, we have been steadily working through all the things we need to do to prepare for our next trip. Terry is still out working - substitute/ supply teaching most days, so his evenings are very busy.
We are thankful that our friend John - a fellow Brit who travels in the States in his RV as we do - phoned a few days before Helen was due to leave. He wanted to chat to Terry about insurance in Florida and casually asked if we had applied for our Visa Waiver online. Apparently, the USA now require you to apply for your 90 day Visa Waiver online before you depart instead of filling in the form on the airplane and handing it in on arrival in the States. So we duly filled in the form for the three of us. Terry and I were accepted immediately, but Helen was told the decision was 'pending' as she was refused a visa last winter as she had not been out of the USA for 6 months before applying for her H2B visa to enable her to return to work in Breckenridge. She did get her visa a month later. We had to wait three days for a decision, worrying about what she could do if she was refused, until she was told it was approved. Thank goodness John phoned as we were totally unaware of the new rulings and we could have been refused entry on our arrival in the USA. The approval lasts for two years .
We are getting excited about returning to Florida and seeing all the wonderful friends we have made. We are also looking forward to some sunshine as our winters tend to be cold with short dark days - very dreary. We plan to take things easy for the first month, staying in Florida, as we are both still recovering from a nasty virus we picked up over Christmas, before we start sightseeing in other states.
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