Happy Thanksgiving!

This year I've got plenty to be thankful for, and I spent the day remembering each and every blessing in my life.

Mexico--Day 2

After spending an incredibly restful (no, I'm serious, that was one comfortable bed) night in the Residence Inn El Paso we got up bright and early so we could be in Chihuahua by afternoon.

Breakfast was provided by the hotel, and when I discovered the waffle maker I just couldn't resist!



We got the green light *HOORAY* crossing the bridge. I guess we didn't look much like terrorists or smugglers. After a short drive through Juarez, and lots of comments about me falling through the looking glass we were on the PanAmerican highway headed to Chihuahua.

It's about 350km from the border to Chihuahua and the first order of business was stopping at the Visa Checkpoint. We provided our passports/birth certificates and got the car approved. I was told that since there weren't many places to stop I should use the restroom there, but let me tell you. I will never, never (and I mean NEVER) complain about the state of a public restroom again! I found it all too common for there to be no toilet paper, no soap, no paper towels, and sometimes no toilet seats. It looked like those bathrooms had never, ever been cleaned. Thank you very much, I'll wait.

On the way to Chihuahua there's a tiny town that used to be a major stop on the rail line. Lots of tiny shops lined up across the street from the train station. We stopped, bought some Cokes (Coca in Spanish) and some cheese and stopped at a little restaurant that supposedly had clean bathrooms. They were marginally cleaner than the checkpoint and I went ahead and used them, but *shudder* it was not good.

Since they had no soap, I decided to get the Purell out of my bag in the trunk. That was a very unfortunate decision because I cut my hand...badly...on something in the trunk and bled profusely for the next 200 kilometers. When the bleeding had subsided enough for a Band-Aid I dabbed some of the Purell on the wound (Oh you should have heard the profanity that escaped my lips, but that stung like a m@#$!*-F$%^&*!!!)

When we finally arrived in Chihuahua it was about 1:00 p.m. Carmen made us a lunch of barbacoa (it tasted kind of like potroast) and marcaron. I found (somewhat suprisingly) that rice is not that prevalent. After lunch there was napping, reading, and a lot of reminiscing, followed by what felt like a thousand visitors from Ana's extended family.

I went to bed very early, very tired from all the driving, all the Spanish and the total, fundamental different-ness of Mexico.

Mexico--Day 1

Day 1 doesn't actually involve Mexico at all...it started with a really, really long drive to El Paso. (If anyone who has any sort of highway building clout is reading...Please Please Please build a freeway between Spanish Fork and Albuquerque...I'm begging you!)

Seriously, we stopped in Moab around 10:00 for breakfast and basically didn't stop again until we hit El Paso around 9:30 (for a total of 15 hours, people). Ana had arranged for her Uncle "Bob" (actually Roberto, but everyone calls him Bob) to catch the Chihuahua/Border bus so the next day he could accompany us on the rest of our journey.

Stephanie (Ana's 18 year old daughter) had been sick the last part of our drive (I chalked it up to the fact she pounded down 2 pounds of beef jerkey, but whatever) and just wanted to check in to the hotel and be done. But since Bob's bus was supposed to get in around 8:00 p.m. Ana thought Steph could suck it up long enough to retrieve him. When we got to the bus station, Bob was nowhere in sight. Very unusual I was told, but Ana checked with the ticket people and another bus was due in at 10:00. Given the extra 1/2 hour, we decided to check-in at the hotel, get Steph and Lola (Ana's Mom) settled and then Ana and I would come back to the bus station.

We got back to the bus station about 10:15 and still, no Bob! Apparently, there is more than 1 bus station that services the border so we (not yet really worried) drove to the 2nd station. It was just closing down, no Bob, nobody at all actually. Ana asked the proprietor if anyone had come in on the last bus. He said yes, 2 young kids. Bob is in his 70s. So back we drove to the Greyhound Station. Now Ana was really worried, wondering whether something had happened, if he even got on the bus.

Ana called her Mom back at the hotel with the directive to call her Aunt Carmen and see if Bob even got on the bus. Lola's response, "I don't want to call and worry her." Yeah, seriously, he's now 2 1/2 hours late, so it's time to spread the worry around, I'm thinking.

When we made it back to the Greyhound Station Bob was waiting for us...YAY!! Apparently his bus broke down somewhere between Chihuahua and Juarez and they had to wait for a replacement. (And now, speaking from experience...there is pretty much NOTHING between Juarez and Chihuahua.) Then as they were crossing the bridge another bus broke down in front of them and they couldn't pass. Eventually they pushed the other bus out of the way....and one of the two "young kids" totally Bob.


Uncle Bob

Update on Mexican Vacation

I've managed to get *most* of the photos edited and posted on Flickr. Hopefully, tomorrow I can post a word or two about the actual trip. However, I'm off to Los Angeles on Friday (a birthday present to myself!) for a couple of days so I'll still be trying to catch up all next week.


Cascada de Basaseachi

I'm Back

And I had a lot of fun...but I'm also very tired so until I have time to upload the vacation photos, here is one of my favorites...