We've Landed Again....

We spent five weeks in America visiting family and friends from mid-September to mid-October. We visited Houston, Austin & San Antonio, Texas, New Orleans & Lafayette, Louisiana, Tampa & Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. It was great fun to see so many people! We spent some good quality with Mike & Craig. We also helped celebrate Betty's (Jim's mom) 93rd Birthday in Austin. When we returned to Doha, we had two weeks to sell our Hummer trucks, and have the moving company pack our house, and get the cats ready to go. Everything worked out, but it was a lot of stress, especially the last week! Unfortunately, I was involved in an accident about three hours before the sale was going to take place. As I was traveling through an intersection, a woman ran a red light and his the back side of my truck. One or two more seconds and I would have made it through the intersection. Fortunately, no one was hurt in the accident. In the other car were two women dressed in abayas with only their eyes showing and a little boy about 8 years old. All were not wearing seat belts. Her car hit the tow hook on the back of my Hummer. This is what her car looked like:

Here is what my truck looked like:

Being Egyptian, she lied to the police, and told them her light was green. Because of that, the police wanted to wait for the photos to come back. Her husband come to the police station after the accident and managed to make the police chief mad within about 2 minutes. He was so mad he had to go into another room. He knew at that time that she was lying. About two days later, her husband tried to negotiate with me. He said that his wife would admit she was at fault if I would get 3 estimates and he would pay the cheapest one. Why would I do that!?? I waited until the Qatari that was buying my trucks to return from a business trip. He had already purchased them, and was waiting for the police report to transfer ownership. A Lebanese friend of mine was helping me communicate with the police, however in the week that the Qatari was gone, no decision was made. It was fun to watch how the underground in Qatar works. Within about 20 minutes, the Qatari and I walked out of the police station with a police report in hand. As all of this was going on behind the scenes of our packing up and trying to exit Qatar, you can see how it would have added a little stress to our lives. We were both very happy when we received our exit permits! Yes, you have to get permission to leave. We have heard many horror stories about people being detained in Qatar for some pretty dumb reasons.