Saturday, October 29, 2011
An Easy Day
Today Cloyd and I left at 8 am to drive to Cabo San Lucas to get the oil changed and have the suburban washed, and finish up by going by the airport to pick up a friend coming down to build a small house down here, they live in Montana.
It was a nice trip down and we continued with checking out which stores are the ones with the best deals for items needed and groceries.We think we know now. We have found out that since so many Gringos (yep, thats me!) have moved down here, and in the two Cabo's that the prices have went up a lot even in the Costco, Sam's Club, Wal-Mart etc. The only thing that we have found to be cheaper is housing and utilities. I have also learned in three weeks that we don't need as much as we thought to live happy and even comfortable, that if you are eating the tasty locally grown food that you get full faster, stay full longer and not get hungry as soon. Cloyd is still very happy with having his Seattle best coffee brewed at home with double stuff oreo cookies dipped, and only get a Mocha when we go to Cabo. Then perhaps one meal a day, all depending on the day.
Now, if I can just find something to make me sleep at night, since I am out of my sleeping pills, that would even be nicer!
The Pacific was beautiful as usual, no crowed beaches, white sand and the water the color of blue and green you just can't imagine, with the white caps of the crashing waves on the black rocks.
Marcie is doing well in her new home, she was quite bored for a while as she is in a quiet area for the most part until the 4 dogs across the fence start barking and then she has to add her 2 cents. She did chase a cat out of her yard and then found that she could look through the decorative cinderblock fence to watch the going ons next door. The iguanas and geckos don't bother her any, so she is good.
We have been looking for her some pup-a-roni sticks down here, but not found them yet, so it will go on the list for when we go to Cody for our stuff in March. She has also decided that she loves the chocolate pill pockets as long as you don't try to hid a pill in there!!
Friday, October 28, 2011
So many things happened the last month that we were trying to prepare for our move. It seemed that nothing was going right for us, and everything was going against us. We kept telling ourselves that everything will be fine, and that we know that what we are doing is right and for the right reasons.
Most of you know that as one of Jehovah's Witnesses we do the door to door work.Knocking on your doors and offering home bible studies. When we visited Mexico in March, the English group met at the Spanish Kingdom Hall and was only a group and not a congregation as there were not enough brothers in the hall to take the lead and do the meeting parts. We committed to a year to come down and help in the door to door work, (we are looking for the English speaking people among the Mexican people), and Cloyd was able to help with talks and duties it takes to have a congregation. We came home to start selling and downsizing. We heard that on Aug. 1 they became an English speaking congregation since us and the other couple committed to coming down and help.
We thought that we had downsized a lot, but the house was so big and everything spread out, that when we cleared a room we had more than we thought, so it took us 3 days longer to get the house emptied. We ended up renting a storage unit but we will be going and selling and bringing the rest of it down here, that won't be till March. We decided that we were going to leave Cody after 5 that night that we emptied the last of the house, we didn't care if we only made it 50 miles down the road!! Well as Murphys law would have it, the right brake on the trailer locked up and we couldn't not get it freed, to make a long story short, at 10 pm that night we spent the night with a family there in Cody, and we started our journey the next day. The trailer we were pulling was very loaded down as it was a friends trailer and the weight of their two 4 wheelers and their things and our things, made for a heavy load. We made it to my brothers below Salt Lake City, Utah to spend the night, we were 2 days late, but we made it non the less. We had a nice dinner, visited and up and on the road the next day. We met up with the friends that bought the house down here and it was their trailer we were pulling and they followed us to the next nights stop in San Ysedro, Cal. about a mile from the boarder crossing.The trip was so much longer than expected because of all the mountains we had to pass over and we went up at about 35 mph. Several were like that!! Mom was already down there waiting for us at the motel.(She is here until March)We got a nights sleep and the next morning went across the boarder. We pulled the trailer over as customs wanted to inspect what we had. They looked and told us to park as we had to get our immigration papers made out. We finished that and thought we were free to go and they wanted to inspect the trailer again. Even though we had nothing to hide, it is a little intimidating to see military guys with big guns standing there, about 4 of them and then 3 checking the trailer and one talking to me about what we were doing and how long we were staying. FINALLY we were on the road to our destination. We had no idea what we would find along the way, but the first part of our trip the road was not too bad, windy roads and very narrow, but that evening it was a bit scary.There were several roadblocks set up in the middle of nowhere and we would get pulled over, they would inspect the trailer and then we were told we could pass.
We made sure we fueled at the last gas station that we were told was available. We knew the motel that we would spend the first night in Mexico in, but what we didn't know was the afternoon driving was through many small towns a few miles apart, so a lot of stop and going, then many, many steep grades to pull and it took so much more gas that anticipated. Each time I would see another grade, I was praying not that we didn't run out of gas, I was convinced that we were going to, that I would just pray that there was a safe place to pull over as there were not pull over spots! We thought we had made it to the town with the motel, but it wasn't, and we were on empty and no gas stations in site!!! HOWEVER, there was a place that had gas in barrels and the lady at the little mexican store did a nice job of cyphoning and we got 5 gals of gas which took us to the next stop. We seen a gas station, filled up then seen our motel!! We were all so hungry and tired we had a nice dinner at 9pm and then a nights sleep.
The next day, we had another 500 miles to drive, just like the day before! We thought we were prepared for anything. The grades were steeper, there were a lot of trucks and busses on the road. At one point we were going down a very steep windy road and following two tanker trucks when a big bus was passing us and the two tanker trucks!!! The roads are so narrow, most of the time the wheels of the trailer we were pulling was on the center line and the white fog line if there was on, many times the roads brake off and there is only a very very steeep ditch or drop off, so here the bus comes around the trucks and we see something go flying off the bus right in front of us, luckily it didn't go through our windshield. It was the bus' extended mirror, he got too close the the load of the truck ahead of us and it came flying off!!
Construction was everywhere, roads seem to just disappear into nothing and I can not believe things we were forced to drive on. We finally made it to Spa Buena Vista at 1:30 am. The property management lady was so kind and said she would just leave the gate open to go in the back door and it would be unlocked. We told Mom to just spend the night at our house and we would take her to hers after a nights sleep. We were very shocked to see the house was not clean, and when we went to turn off the front porch light the wall was crawling with cockroaches!! We were so exhausted, we turned the light off and went to bed, at least they were made. We told ourselves that we are in Mexico and things are different.
We arrived on a Wed morning and went to meeting at the new congregation that night and after talking about our cockroach problem (told property management and they said they would get someone over to spray but didn't know when) we talked to the brother that we knew did pest control and he could come in a few days. In the meantime we showed him where we would see the roaches go in and out, now we are talking about 2 inch long roaches!! The handy man in the Spa development was sent over to trim the palm trees and we showed him and he immediately said he would contact the owner and it would be fixed!! 3 places under an ill fitting lid was the pipe that the raw sewer would dump from the bathroom and kitchen and shower, and run through that concrete box and feast for the roaches. Cloyd and Mark put pvc pipe to enclose the raw sewer and put concrete around the pvc so the roaches cant get in or out!! Now, let me tell you how creepy it was when he sprayed. He did the first hole and they were coming out like crazy, but when he went to the second hole, it was in the top of the car port and they were coming out so fast that the walls, ceiling and floor was alive!! The one spraying said he had never in his life seen so many cockroachs, he even had nightmares about it that night. I am not telling a fish story when I say there were about 800-1000 dead ones the first day. Then we swept them up for the next 4 days. I had to purex everything before I put things away unpacking, I had to wash all their dishes, etc so it took 3 times as long to unpack. Oh,and we had 4 scorpions in the house.
I think that we have weathered the worst of it! I was told by the locals that if we can endure that, we can endure anything!
So the beautiful weather, the sandy beaches, and now a clean house that we can keep on top of the spraying every 5 months, it is good. We are getting use to shopping by photos as we don't know spanish yet, but it is working for us. We have beautiful produce, it is so yummy being freshly picked that morning, fresh salsa made, and I have learned how to make it, we are finally recuperating from it all.
I will put photos up so you can see some of what we seen. While you are enduring the freezing weather already, we are cooling down to the upper 80's.
Most of you know that as one of Jehovah's Witnesses we do the door to door work.Knocking on your doors and offering home bible studies. When we visited Mexico in March, the English group met at the Spanish Kingdom Hall and was only a group and not a congregation as there were not enough brothers in the hall to take the lead and do the meeting parts. We committed to a year to come down and help in the door to door work, (we are looking for the English speaking people among the Mexican people), and Cloyd was able to help with talks and duties it takes to have a congregation. We came home to start selling and downsizing. We heard that on Aug. 1 they became an English speaking congregation since us and the other couple committed to coming down and help.
We thought that we had downsized a lot, but the house was so big and everything spread out, that when we cleared a room we had more than we thought, so it took us 3 days longer to get the house emptied. We ended up renting a storage unit but we will be going and selling and bringing the rest of it down here, that won't be till March. We decided that we were going to leave Cody after 5 that night that we emptied the last of the house, we didn't care if we only made it 50 miles down the road!! Well as Murphys law would have it, the right brake on the trailer locked up and we couldn't not get it freed, to make a long story short, at 10 pm that night we spent the night with a family there in Cody, and we started our journey the next day. The trailer we were pulling was very loaded down as it was a friends trailer and the weight of their two 4 wheelers and their things and our things, made for a heavy load. We made it to my brothers below Salt Lake City, Utah to spend the night, we were 2 days late, but we made it non the less. We had a nice dinner, visited and up and on the road the next day. We met up with the friends that bought the house down here and it was their trailer we were pulling and they followed us to the next nights stop in San Ysedro, Cal. about a mile from the boarder crossing.The trip was so much longer than expected because of all the mountains we had to pass over and we went up at about 35 mph. Several were like that!! Mom was already down there waiting for us at the motel.(She is here until March)We got a nights sleep and the next morning went across the boarder. We pulled the trailer over as customs wanted to inspect what we had. They looked and told us to park as we had to get our immigration papers made out. We finished that and thought we were free to go and they wanted to inspect the trailer again. Even though we had nothing to hide, it is a little intimidating to see military guys with big guns standing there, about 4 of them and then 3 checking the trailer and one talking to me about what we were doing and how long we were staying. FINALLY we were on the road to our destination. We had no idea what we would find along the way, but the first part of our trip the road was not too bad, windy roads and very narrow, but that evening it was a bit scary.There were several roadblocks set up in the middle of nowhere and we would get pulled over, they would inspect the trailer and then we were told we could pass.
We made sure we fueled at the last gas station that we were told was available. We knew the motel that we would spend the first night in Mexico in, but what we didn't know was the afternoon driving was through many small towns a few miles apart, so a lot of stop and going, then many, many steep grades to pull and it took so much more gas that anticipated. Each time I would see another grade, I was praying not that we didn't run out of gas, I was convinced that we were going to, that I would just pray that there was a safe place to pull over as there were not pull over spots! We thought we had made it to the town with the motel, but it wasn't, and we were on empty and no gas stations in site!!! HOWEVER, there was a place that had gas in barrels and the lady at the little mexican store did a nice job of cyphoning and we got 5 gals of gas which took us to the next stop. We seen a gas station, filled up then seen our motel!! We were all so hungry and tired we had a nice dinner at 9pm and then a nights sleep.
The next day, we had another 500 miles to drive, just like the day before! We thought we were prepared for anything. The grades were steeper, there were a lot of trucks and busses on the road. At one point we were going down a very steep windy road and following two tanker trucks when a big bus was passing us and the two tanker trucks!!! The roads are so narrow, most of the time the wheels of the trailer we were pulling was on the center line and the white fog line if there was on, many times the roads brake off and there is only a very very steeep ditch or drop off, so here the bus comes around the trucks and we see something go flying off the bus right in front of us, luckily it didn't go through our windshield. It was the bus' extended mirror, he got too close the the load of the truck ahead of us and it came flying off!!
Construction was everywhere, roads seem to just disappear into nothing and I can not believe things we were forced to drive on. We finally made it to Spa Buena Vista at 1:30 am. The property management lady was so kind and said she would just leave the gate open to go in the back door and it would be unlocked. We told Mom to just spend the night at our house and we would take her to hers after a nights sleep. We were very shocked to see the house was not clean, and when we went to turn off the front porch light the wall was crawling with cockroaches!! We were so exhausted, we turned the light off and went to bed, at least they were made. We told ourselves that we are in Mexico and things are different.
We arrived on a Wed morning and went to meeting at the new congregation that night and after talking about our cockroach problem (told property management and they said they would get someone over to spray but didn't know when) we talked to the brother that we knew did pest control and he could come in a few days. In the meantime we showed him where we would see the roaches go in and out, now we are talking about 2 inch long roaches!! The handy man in the Spa development was sent over to trim the palm trees and we showed him and he immediately said he would contact the owner and it would be fixed!! 3 places under an ill fitting lid was the pipe that the raw sewer would dump from the bathroom and kitchen and shower, and run through that concrete box and feast for the roaches. Cloyd and Mark put pvc pipe to enclose the raw sewer and put concrete around the pvc so the roaches cant get in or out!! Now, let me tell you how creepy it was when he sprayed. He did the first hole and they were coming out like crazy, but when he went to the second hole, it was in the top of the car port and they were coming out so fast that the walls, ceiling and floor was alive!! The one spraying said he had never in his life seen so many cockroachs, he even had nightmares about it that night. I am not telling a fish story when I say there were about 800-1000 dead ones the first day. Then we swept them up for the next 4 days. I had to purex everything before I put things away unpacking, I had to wash all their dishes, etc so it took 3 times as long to unpack. Oh,and we had 4 scorpions in the house.
I think that we have weathered the worst of it! I was told by the locals that if we can endure that, we can endure anything!
So the beautiful weather, the sandy beaches, and now a clean house that we can keep on top of the spraying every 5 months, it is good. We are getting use to shopping by photos as we don't know spanish yet, but it is working for us. We have beautiful produce, it is so yummy being freshly picked that morning, fresh salsa made, and I have learned how to make it, we are finally recuperating from it all.
I will put photos up so you can see some of what we seen. While you are enduring the freezing weather already, we are cooling down to the upper 80's.
Sunday, October 16, 2011
MEXICO SUNRISE
A lot of things have changed on this blogsite since I was last here. I am trying to figure out how to do everything again as I am not real fluent on the computer like most of you know. I will just start out by sharing a beautiful sunrise this morning that I watched as Marcie and I did our morning walk on the beach. I will soon have more photos uploaded when I can figure out how to upload more than one at a time. Bear with me, and I will get back into the swing of things.
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