Happy Birthday Alicia

This past Friday we were invited to the birthday party for the daughter of one of our friends who lives in the village near our rancho.  Alicia was celebrating her 11th birthday and we thought the party was going to be from 4 to 5 p.m.  Of course everyone needs to understand that we were told this in Spanish and although our language skills have improved greatly, we are still novices in many forms of communication.

We show up at the socially acceptable time of around 4:20 and we find that there is hardly anyone there.  Thus we help Augustina, Alicia’s mother, set up for the party and help entertain some of the children who have already shown up.

It is a lot of fun as I have my camera and Jo Ann gets some of the children to do gymnastics in the yard.  As they are doing summersaults and headstands, I am able to show them the images on the LCD viewer on the back of the camera, it was a lot of fun, and a great way to practice your language skills.

As the party starts to unfold, some of the children bring out Alicia’s pet hamster.  The kids have a great time playing with the hamster, although I am not sure it was reciprocal. 

Around 6p Alicia’s father Arturo comes home and is greeted joyously by both of his daughters.  Although Mexico may not be a wealthy country financially, it is so amazing to see how many families are truly happy and content with their lives.  


Jo Ann and I talk many times about the various places we have lived in the US, from SoCal, to NoCal to Chicago to Minnesota and never have we seen some many communities that financially do not have much, but emotionally and spiritually have so much.  Maybe a number of my fellow boomers should come to Mexico to see what happiness can be all about.

The fun of the birthday party moves from the yard with all the children running around to dinner, where we have a wonderful meal of grilled chicken, rice and these absolutely sinful Rancho Beans.

After the meal, Arturo brings out the piñatas, one for the girls and one for the boys.  Now I have never been to a party where there is an authentic piñata so this was a real treat for me.

Even Jo Ann got into the action and was blindfolded and swung at the piñata, however, I promised to keep those photos hidden as her swing did not look at all like Barry Bonds.

After both of the piñatas are opened and everyone has picked up their candies, we move back to the dinner table for cake.  As you can see below Alicia only had to blow out one candle which she did just fine.

 

However, after the candle was out, her friends helped her to “enjoy” the cake by pushing her face into the frosting.  It was great fun.



Both Jo Ann and I feel so grateful to have been invited into the village of Las Palmas and our adopted new country of Mexico.

Chasing the Burros

Yesterday morning I was running late and was in a hurry but still had to move the four burros out from their pen. So I tried to handle more than one at a time but then our dogs got in the middle of the pack and guess what I only got two of them tied up. The other two, well lets just say that they started traveling around our 50 acre rancho.

I was running after them and they would just bound ahead and then stop to eat. Jo Ann was watching this and I could not tell if she was crying or laughing, probably both. After about twenty minutes of chasing them, they decided to gallop off toward the house. But guess what Jo Ann had left the gate open and they were able to run out of our property into the large (and I do mean large) ejido property that borders our property.

We were lucky that some of the masons working on our house were able to help us, but we finally corralled themand brought them back to where we wanted them to graze for the day.

Such is the daily adventures of living on a rancho in Mexico. Of course those of you who may remember me from my time living in California,will probably not believe that this is where I have evolved to, but it is great. Sorry no photos on this adventure, but I just did not have the foresight to bring my camera nor did I have the time to stop and go get it, maybe another time and place!

Dia de los Locos

Yesterday was the Dia de los Locos here in San Miguel.  What an amazing event where it seems that the entire city is either in the parade or standing along the streets watching the parade.  As you can see below, the streets are packed with people, and this was almost an hour before the start of the parade.


The parade was initiated many years ago, some say in the 18^th century but it originated with masked farmers who marched through town handing out fruits to the wondering residence.  The festival in San Miguel is one of the year’s biggest festivals with over 10,000 people who danced, marched and handed out candy for almost three hours. 

Many of the masks focused on futball this year with the World Cup matches going on in Germany and of course the Mexican Presidential election.  I was surprised that there were no burning effigies of the US President George W. Bush, given the hot issue of immigration.  The following is some images of the various masks and costumes that we saw during the three hour parade.























What a great day to have a festive, the crowds were
wonderful, the colors splendid and the weather almost perfect.  What a great way to spend a Sunday in our
newly adopted Mexican town.

Moving to Mexico, Day Three and Four

Sunday morning in Wichita and we are getting a very early start again.  Our goal today is to make it down to San Antonio Texas so we can make our final assault across the US/Mexican border.  The weather is very nice as it has cooled off very much from the prior day, however the forecast is for the temperatures to escalate again today.

So we are driving down through Oklahoma and then enter into Texas, the landscape again continues to vary from green farm country to more of a high plains and then to the flat boring plains.

One of the few scenes that changes is the various road side signs, we have seen many and several of them just make you laugh.  Also to keep our minds on the job at hand Matt and I play various traveling games, like counting the number of hawks, eagles, cows, pigs, etc.  You can see we are very very bored.



Since we have entered Texas, one thing we have noticed is the lack of quality rest areas.  We finally find one and it is just packed with large commercial trucks as well as cars and other sorts of transportation, such as a bike rider.  It is around 98 outside and we are all over heating from the temperature.



As we come into Fort Worth, the traffic comes to a halt as they are doing road construction work on a Sunday afternoon.  It seems to take us two hours to get through Fort Worth and we are now behind schedule, but I am sure that we will make it up.

As we drive south from Fort Worth, we are amazed at how different the scenery looks, it is less planned, more run down and not very inviting.

We finally make it into San Antonio around 7p and check into the hotel for the evening.  We take the dogs out for a walk but can not find any type of park to walk them, so we have to stay on city streets as we are on the south side of the city and not in the nice Riverwalk area.

Early Monday morning we pack up hopefully for the last time and head out for Mexico.  We are crossing at the Colombia Bridge border which does not open until 8a.  So we leave San Antonio around 6a so we can get down there when the crossing opens.  As we get down to Encinal Texas you can see the various commercial trucks queuing up for the border crossing and we stop at the last gas station before crossing to fill up with sodas, water and chocolates. 

As we cross the Rio Bravo into Mexico we come to the first stop of the border crossing.  Here we get a red light which means that the Aduana (customs) agents want to inspect our vehicle.  The agent was very professional and asked me a number of questions, which was interesting given his limited English and my limited Spanish, but we finally settle on a duty charge for the goods that I am bringing across.

After I go and pay the duty charge, Matt and I have to leave the pets and get our Tourist visas and I need to get my Importacion Temporal de Vehiculos (vehicle permit).  We complete this process and are told that we can enter Mexico.  Then about 25 miles later we come to a second Aduana inspection site.  I am not sure what the purpose of this one is, but we are given a green light and we vamous rapidly.  At this point, all of our research says that we are clear of the border crossing inspections, however about 10 miles later we come across another road side check point and we get waived over.  At this inspection, the agent starts asking me about our contents, but I explain that I have already paid my duty at the crossing and show him my receipt and all of the formal stamps on it.  He then wants to see the health certificate for the pets and only asks about our smallest dog Snickers.  I am glad that both Hershey and Raider are not barking and making a tense situation any worse.  I continue to explain that everything has been taken care of and he checks our vehicle permit, then all of a sudden gives everything back to me and tells me I can depart, which I do as rapidly as possible.

Now that we are through what should be all of the border inspections and have left Nuevo Laredo behind, we start our drive which will initially take us around Monterrey.

One thing that both Matt and I notice is how nice the Mexican toll roads are.  Although I35 was in good condition until we got to Fort Worth, the Mexican toll roads seem newer and in better condition.

Leaving Monterrey we start heading up some steep mountains that lead to Saltillo.  Based on our notes for the drive, this is the most dangerous part of the drive because of the steep elevation and the number of large commercial trucks that drive this road.  We were also struggling with the elevation as our Ford truck and the trailer were fairly well loaded and we slowly climbed up the hill.





One issue that we discovered on our drive is that even on the Mexican toll ways there are no Rest Stops that you are use to seeing on the US Interstate Highways.  However there are very nice facilities in many of the Pemex gas stations that line the toll ways.  Also one other point you notice is the complete lack of any of the typical US fast food restaurants, it was nice not too see the hundreds of McDonalds, Burger King and Taco Bells.



The directions we were using to get from Laredo to San Miguel used a number of old road side signs which were in the shape of a bull and were advertising Magna Osborne.  Matt and I could never figure out what they were advertising, but later we were told that they were advertisements for a Spanish liqueur that ceased doing business in Mexico, but never had the signs taken down.



As we were heading down to San Luis Potosi we saw an experimental farm on the right side of the toll way.  It looked like an oasis in the desert, but again we never found out what they were specializing in or what types of techniques they were experimenting with.



Once we passed San Luis Potosi we exited the toll ways at San Luis de la Paz and drove to Delores Hidalgo and then turned on to the road leading to San Miguel. 

When we were about five miles from our new home, we encountered a long procession of cars and trucks following a large truck hauling an extremely large load, so large that the vehicles on the other side of the road had to pull over so this truck could pass.  Well as luck would have it, we were inching a long and all of a sudden, we get rear ended by a small car who was rear ended by a truck.  Because everyone was going so slow and our trailer had a moveable rear end, we had not visible damage and were able to Rancho La Luz.

We arrived around 7:30 in the evening and were greeted by our contractor Luis Alba, whose crew is doing a wonderful job out our renovation.  After doing the minimal amount of unpacking Matt and I crash after three and half days of driving.  We covered almost 2500 miles, averaged around 14 mpg and had no vehicle problems until we got to within five miles of home.  Not a bad adventure.

Moving to Mexico, Day One and Two

Friday morning June 2 around 7a CDT.  We have finished packing the trailer and the truck, we have walked the dogs and we are getting ready to start the adventure to Mexico as well as for Matt who is going to purchase a new home back in Minneapolis.




So around 7:30 we crank up the truck and start the journey which today will take us down to Minneapolis.  This is the shortest part of our journey as it will only take us 5 hours or so and the remainder of the trip will be averaging between 11 and 12 hours a day driving.  One of the reasons that we took the short trip on the first day is to make sure that the trailer is packed properly and that we don’t have any movement or other problems with the stuff we have packed in the trailer.

We arrive in Minneapolis around 1p and Matt’s closing is not until 2, but it is very hot and humid in Minneapolis.  We do find a good parking spot in a fairly shaded area so the dogs and Keesha will be protected and we go in to Don Pablo’s for our last Mexican meal in Minnesota.  Well it was bland and not at all authentic, but it fills the hunger and Matt is off to his closing.

My sister, Julie, and her youngest daughter, Alexa, also come over to say good bye to me.  It was a very nice visit and I am glad to be able to say good bye as who knows when I will be coming back to Minneapolis in the future.

After Matt completes his purchase we go over to his new home, it is a wonderful house in a extremely nice neighborhood that is close to shops, the lakes and the theaters. 



That evening Matt’s brother throws a welcome back to Minneapolis party for Matt and we all sit on the steps outside the house drinking wine and eating BBQ as there is no furniture in the house and it is still so damn hot.

Early the next morning we load up the truck and start the second day of the adventure.  So far we have gone around 250 miles and today our goal is to progress from Minneapolis to Wichita Kansas, which is around 500 miles or so.

After bidding farewell to Minneapolis, we are tooling down I35 with Matt driving the first leg, actually I did not want to try to navigate the city streets of Minneapolis and I had not had my morning cup of coffee, so Matt was the pilot.



Driving down I35 we see the rolling hills of Iowa, Missouri and Kansas, everything is very green, but the temperatures are still very hot, so we do not stay anywhere long as we do not want to leave the dogs and Keesha a lone in the truck.







We do stop in northern Iowa and while I am checking on the truck and the trailer, oh and of course giving Keesha some food, Matt is out trying to walk the dogs.  As I see him walking back to me, I have to ask “who is walking whom?”



We do pass by Des Moines where I went to college and I am amazed at how the city has grown.  Like all of the medium and large towns in the US, it seems that they have all expanded significantly over the past 25 years.  I am also reminded of our friends the Fifos who live near us in Ely, but use to live in Des Moines.  It is Frank who build the trailer and the doggy sleeping car for us, and I wanted to say thank you to him and Retta for their friendship and help.



So around 6p we pull into the Holiday Inn Express in Wichita.  It is hot and humid (have I already said that several times?) so we check in to the hotel and then take the dogs for a walk.  While we are going to a local convenience store we see some of Wichita’s finish busting some people.  I am not sure what was the cause of the confrontation but clearly something is wrong as there are two police cars and a third showed up shortly thereafter.  Well I am glad that is not me as it sure would ruin your Saturday evening.



As you can see the trip has been fairly uneventful so far (thankfully) and we are on schedule and have not had any problems.  Please continue to read on for the trip update for day three and four.  Also if you want to skip ahead and look at the remaining photos, please go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/sanmiguelphotos/sets/72157594161715579/