We're Home!

FINALLY! After a long two day drive we are home. Yesterday, we crossed the border at 6:15AM just as soon as it was light enough to drive. It was perfect because when we got to the place where we had to get our tourist visas and buy the car permit, there was an open wicket-no waiting like last year. That is to say, no waiting for a clerk but it still took 45 minutes for him to process the paperwork. I think they must have old Texas Instrument computers.
The early start gave us plenty of time to drive way past where we stopped last year. We made it all the way to Culiacan last night. We finally stayed in a no tell motel- it was kind of ugly-only porn on the tv but the car was safe and secure in it's own garage attached to our room.
We were on the road again at 6am. The drive was fast until we passed Mazatlan, then the highway was just two lanes all the way to Tepic. After Tepic AGHHH it has to be the worse road in Mexico. We dropped from 3,000 ft to sea level in 167km on a twisting turning narrow two lane road. Just awful. We were stuck behind a truck with no brakes! for at least 30 minutes-so of course he was driving at 5KM an hour. Did I mention how PAINFUL that was?
No matter, we sailed past our house AT 2PM and went straight to Mega to get the basics for groceries, then home to at least an hour unloading the car.
We are here, the phone, internet and satellite are working, I've just had a shower, it's 32C at 8:30pm and we are HAPPY!!!!

Nogales Arizona

Yesterday we drove from Palmdale on I-10 to Phoenix and were making great time-until we hit the outskirts of the city. What a bummer because roadwork caused five lanes of traffic to merge into ONE! That took an hour of creeping along the freeway. Thank God it was Saturday because it must be a nightmare during rush hour. The sun was getting quite low in the sky as we were heading to Tucson, where we wanted to spend the night, so we decided to stop in a little town called Casa Grande. It was lovely, clean and had tons of shopping. We only did a little before dinner (we had our yearly fix of In 'n Out Burgers!) then called it a night. We intended to hit all those great shops this morning but nothing was opening until 11AM so on to Tucson we went. We are now driving through the Sonora desert where all those beautiful saguro cactus are located. I just love them!
We went straight to Costco to buy Cheddar cheese-almost impossible to find in Bucerias/Puerto Vallarta. Gail bought a really nice coffeepot-just like my cousin Cathy's and I bought a pair of sunglasses.
Now we are in Nogales very early-it's only 1:30 in the afternoon. We've unloaded what we need into the hotel room and are heading to Ross! There's a nice shopping area just across the street.
Tomorrow morning we want to be on the road by 6am to go over the truck border crossing as soon as it opens. We avoid going through the city of Nogales Mexico that way. We won't have internet again until we get home to Bucerias-so if you need to contact me-better do so before midnight!
Oh, Mexico falls back time wise tonight.
Talk to you all in a few days.

Horray for Hollywood!

Wow, what a great couple of days we've had in Palmdale with my wonderful cousin Cat and her hubby Daniel. They could not be more hospitable if they tried. They have the PERFECT partyhouse! Fabulous media/movie theatre room and oh boy what a back yard-even including a swim up bar!
Cat took the day off work on Friday and treated us to a tour of Hollywood. We had been in LA years ago but never went to Hollywood so this was a real treat. We also went to the Griffin Observatory to see the fantastic view of Los Angeles from the top. This is where a lot of movies are filmed-people in cars at night looking at the view of the city.
Afterwards we went for lunch-again just great- at a very nice restaurant overlooking the valley.
Alas, we have to get back to reality today and start our drive east to Arizona. We are hoping to get at least as far as Phoenix- and maybe beyond a ways. We are not so much in a hurry any more-at least until we cross the border. If we travel a good distance today we're hoping to have time tomorrow to shop when we get to Nogales!!

Tacoma!

We made it to Robin and Sergio's in Tacoma around 3pm on Tuesday. They were both there waiting for us. It was nice to finally arrive as the drive was kind of miserable. The ferry trip on the Coho across the strait was foggy and the fog horn was sounding during the entire crossing.
Robin had arranged for a dinner party in our honour which was so sweet! All their friends who had visited them in Bucerias last year came: Scott and Nancy, Jennifer and Dan and Sue plus her daughter Jaime and husband Norm-who are coming in the spring with their two boys for a family holiday.
We had a great time visiting and catching up.
Wednesday morning we were up and gone by 9am down I5 to Redding. What a horrible drive it was! The rain was incredible and didn't stop at all until we were over the mountain passes in northern California.
We did see a few odd things on the freeway-like an AIRPLANE being towed behind a car! We saw at least four very large double tractor trailers pulling loads of garlic bulbs (wonder where they were going?)and for about an hour we were right behind a Brinks truck- I couldn't help but think that had to be the same truck that is always late delivering to the centre!!
Then, just like a switch was turned on the rain stopped and the sky was blue and I turned off the heat in the van for the next six months! We stopped in Redding California that night but I was so tired from driving eight hours in the driving rain that I had no energy to update the blog.
Yesterday was another eight hours to Palmdale, just outside Los Angeles, where my cousin Cathy and her husband Daniel live. We'll stay here for a day or two and that will be my next update!
Here are just a few photos from Tacoma and one of the rain!

Here We Go!

Oh wow! How quickly October 19th has come. We are booked on the "Coho" ferry tomorrow morning at 10:30 to Port Angeles. I am so glad that I have taken the last few days off from work. Just about every minute has been filled with cleaning the house, last minute yard work (especially after the terrific rain storm we had on Saturday) packing the van and packing ourselves.

Today, we met Dave and Suzanne, retired teachers from Northern Ontario, who are renting our house for the winter. They are very nice and friendly. Their son,
daughter-in-law and two baby grandchildren live just a couple of kilometers from here so they are delighted with our location. They also love to garden which is a huge bonus for me! They have a beautiful Victorian home that is on the market back in Ontario as they want to move here. We feel very lucky to have them as tenants/housesitters.

This afternoon, Dale stopped by to say goodbye and she actually tried to fold herself into the van. Fat chance-I can't get a cracker in there! And anyway, I thought she was a FRIEND. She actually brought Gail a bag of CHEETOS eat in my nice clean van. Just because Dale and I stuffed ourselves on Mexican Cheetos on the way home in March in Gail's car doesn't mean she gets to eat them in my van!! Anyhow, what ever happened to "What goes on the road, stays on the road"?

I've included some photos of my stuffed van. I still have my laptop case and two backpacks to squeeze in there in the morning. Oh, and my van has dark tinted windows in the side and back windows, so even though it is full-it's hard to see in. Anyway, who wants my Christmas tree except me? :)

Adios to all and we will keep in touch!

Getting Ready To Hit The Road Again!

It's Friday afternoon, October 9th and this is the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend. Gail and I are both excited to get going on our drive south. This summer I bought a van- a second hand Ford Freestar, with tons of storage space so we can take lots of "stuff" with us! And boy oh boy, do we have lots of "stuff", especially my CHRISTMAS TREE!. I am going to have a real Canadian Christmas in Mexico this year, finally. I have really missed having a tree and the having the house all decorated.
We've packed dozens of boxes, are taking a dehumidifier, bed frame, large satellite dish, tons of little appliances to reduce the heat caused when we have to use the stove and so much more I can hardly remember.
Our planned departure date is Tuesday October 20th, so stay tuned for updates on our 2009-2010 adventure to Bucerias!