KC Visa Run

It's been 90 days since I arrived in Costa Rica for my KC sabbatical, and that means...

VISA RUN!

This is part of the lifestyle of being outside the country.  US citizens are generally welcome in other countries as tourists, but it is common that you can only legally stay for 90 days.  You have to leave the country, come back, and get a fresh stamp in your passport to reset your 90-day clock.  Since there are so many "permanent tourists" in Costa Rica, this is a well-known reality here.

I needed to get back to Kansas City anyway to take care of some things, so this was a natural opportunity to do that.  Plus my life is highly seasonal, and even though Costa Rica doesn't have seasons like the US, I still think in terms of the seasonal calendar in KC.

The primary task facing me was packing up my personal possessions for storage.  This was very hard, and I'm learning that more people than I realize have dealt with something similar.  Going into my former home of 12 years, pick through the stuff to figure out what to store and what to throw away, and putting it into storage was gut-wrenching.  It was a visceral reminder that I'm "homeless" and "nomadic".  My life's possessions are basically packed into a closet at my dad's home.  And a huge thanks to my friends Amy and Trevor who helped me through it!

This experience helped me see my uncle's life differently.  He's deceased, but when he was a young adult in 1980, he put his possessions into storage and headed to NYC.  He ended up staying in NYC for 20yrs.  When he moved from NYC to Mazatlan, Mexico, I helped him sort through his KC storage for stuff he wanted to either take to Mazatlan or throw away.  At the time in 2002 it didn't make sense to me, but now I get it.  Here is a pic of me visiting Lon in 2006.

Kansas City also gave me an opportunity to catch up with a few people in my life...family...friends...business associates.  I appreciated my friend Jerry hosting me (and continuing to take care of my car!).

One last to-do...I stopped at my lake cabin to transition it back onto the rental program because I have decided to return to Costa Rica for the spring.  My first season down here was a "success", and it felt like the right move to extend my sabbatical another season.  It is unnerving to be unable to put down roots anywhere, but there are people with a lot more struggles than me.  I'm grateful that life has given me this opportunity to rest during the most painful situation so far in my life.