Answers to some Questions

Thanks, all you who have read what I posted last night! 25 messages from folks who checked on it already (or so I have heard from via email, at least.)

I think I have adjusted the settings so you can actually post comments, so try again and let me know.

As to some of the questions:

• I am presently still in NC, having left California in July/August. Not knowing what I was coming back to or where I might be heading next, I'd made lots of donations to charity shops, left some things my quasi-sister-in-law thought some friends at her church could use, and shipped boxes (books!!) back. Then Mom - who had flown out to do this - and I packed my Subaru Forester full, and drove it back across the country. We took about 10 days, exploring some of Yosemite, Devil's Postpile, the Nevada badlands, Bryce Canyon, that beautiful drive up exceedingly scenic (and deer/cow occupied!) Hwy 12, Capitol Reef, Goblins, Arches, then into Colorado and another beautiful drive (this time thru rain, but that let us take it slowly!) from Ouray to Durango along the San Juan Skyway. We dropped south thru New Mexico, visiting Angels Peak and trying to visit Chaco - that washboard road was just too bad, I was afraid everything in the car would be shaken to bits and our speed was about 5 miles an hour - and stayed that evening in Santa Fe. A bit of exploration in the morning, then up to Taos and Taos Pueblo - then we just drove east for home.
• I am going to a job as a planning officer with the Dept of Planning for the Government of Bermuda. That holds a 3-year contract, and is with the 'Development Control' rather than the 'Forward Planning' side of the house.
  
• Yes, visiting Bermuda requires a passport; the entry stamp is provided as you come in thru pretty standard Immigration and Customs. One of the nice things is that you go thru US Immigration and Customs there in Bermuda, which is typically much less time consuming and much less of a hassle than going thru it on this side - once you've cleared there you are free to catch your next flight or leave your arrival airport or whatever here.
• You do have to have a return ticket AND the name/address/contact info for where you are staying while on the Island - no open-ended, "I'll figure it out once I get there" visits.
  
• Two invaluable resources for those Bermuda-bound: www.bermudarentals.com for lodging in homes, guest cottages, small inns. The woman who operates this is a wonder, in my experience - she got me something in very short order when I flew over in late September. (I decided to go one afternoon, and flew out about 6 the next morning.) She has also arranged for my temporary arrangement, at a special rate. The second resource is www.e-moo.com, which is the nation's advertising 'paper' - this is where rental and sale housing is listed, among other things. Often there are pictures to go along with the listings. (You too can find a rental for $6000/mth with water views!)
• Yes, the pictures are mine, not 'borrowed' from anywhere else. The town of St. George (a UNESCO World Heritage Site) mostly, and a view from the upper porch of Camden House (the prime minister's official residence). Hamilton, the capitol and the location of my soon-to-be office, is a city and not my idea of pretty, overall.