Day Three on the Road to DF

It’s hard to believe we’ve already been on the road 2 days! This morning we are waking up in Willows, CA in the northern part of the state, about 100 miles north of San Francisco.

We got a slow start on Wednesday and left Duvall at 1:00. But who cares?! We finished packing the trailer and truck and were thankful that everything fit! The truck is running like a charm and the trailer has not been a problem at all. I’m sure glad we changed to the low-end tires…the ride is much smoother without those giant, over-sized tires. Sitka has settled in and when she’s not sleeping, she is butting her head up against us asking for some attention.

We got to Mickey's & Ginnie's (Mike’s bro and sis-in-law) house (just outside of Portland) around 6:00 on Wednesday. Mike’s youngest brother, Monty, and his family joined us over there. It's something to see the Nickell brothers together - and there are two more of them too! It was Tillie’s (Mickey’s new dog) first time with an overnight guest and after a bit she warmed up to Sitka, but it was funny to watch them do the “alpha female dance.”

Before we knew it, it was time to get dressed and hit the road on Thursday morning. The weather was great all the way through Oregon. I remember thinking how lush and green the I-5 corridor is. And the rest stop restrooms – I had always appreciated how clean and tidy the Washington State restrooms are, but I was VERY impressed with the Oregon rest stop restrooms too! Sitka has been just a princess, with minimal barking, and actively pulling me around the rest stop pet areas. That girl never runs out of energy.

Mike got a couple of great pics of Mount Shasta, just north of here. And the scenery has changed from the varied greens to the scrub brush with a noticeable lack of trees.

We’re staying at a Motel 6 because it allows dogs – and big dogs like Sitka! It is clean and has a strong air conditioner. It was probably around 95F when we pulled in here last night and we needed that blast of cold air.

Our goal today is Indio, CA, but that might be a little aggressive…we’ll see. ¡Adios! p.s. I'm unable to upload any pics, but I will try again later.

Last Day in Duvall

Wow. I can hardly believe we leave tomorrow for Mexico City. We are just about finished with our packing, but we're going to have lunch with my friend, Cheryl.

We still need to attach the trailer to the truck and drive it around a bit. Mike is freaking because he's worried about me driving all the way and not knowing how to drive with a trailer.

Menaje de Casa

The Menaje de Casa is an inventory list of everything we will bring into Mexico with us. Because we have FM3 retiree visas we are allowed to bring our household goods into Mexico without being charged import fees (one time only.) However, there is a process to go through.

Ours involved another visit yesterday to the Mexican Consulate in Seattle with Mr. Diaz. We presented our list of every item (with a dollar value attached to each item), paid a $127 fee and were told to return after 1:30. At 1:30 we received our Menaje de Casa that has the apostille (a stamp that is a verification of a public official's signature) on each page.

Now we just have to get an import sticker for our truck and trailer. We may do this while we are in Phoenix, or we may wait until we actually get to the border crossing in Laredo, TX. Mr. Diaz said we may be able to apply for Mexican license plates because our truck is older, 1992. Does anyone have any info about this??

Dog Certificate of Health

Saturday Sitka had an appointment with her vet. She's doing well for a 10 year old German shepherd and she's current on her vaccinations. We left with her Certificate of Health that we'll need for her entry into Mexico.

We have been taking Sitka everywhere with us in the truck. She is always very happy to get a leg-up into the extended cab of the truck and most of the time she sits right between Mike and me, looking forward out the windshield. Unfortunately, she still is barking at the occasional person walking along a Duvall street - and if that person is walking a dog Sitka gets very excited. We are trying to break her of that habit, using a muzzle and positive feedback for her when she DOESN'T bark. The weird thing is that when we're cruising downtown Seattle, windows down, with many, many people on the sidewalks Sitka has been absolutely perfect - no barking! And why downtown, but not in quiet Duvall??? Hopefully, she won't bark in DF!

FM3 Visas

We were told it could take 2-3 weeks to get Mexican visas while in Seattle. And then Nancy and Paul called from Mazatlan and gave us some first-hand info on how to manuever the visa red tape maze. Thank you Nancy and Paul!

On their advice, we headed back to the Mexican Consulate in Seattle Tuesday morning. We had gone there once, but felt so intimidated we left! But this time we got there before the office opened at 8AM. We met Mr. Diaz who was very helpful.
We left to gather documents and when we returned on Friday Mr. Diaz worked some magic and expedited our visas! We can now cross the border with FM3 visas in hand.

Girls' Night Out

Beth, me, Cheryl & Julie. Last night was Girls’ Night Out. We’ve know each other since grade school. And about 9 years ago (after our 25 year high school reunion) we began a tradition of getting together once a month or so. No husbands, no boyfriends, no kids – well, except one time when Cheryl brought her brother!

We go out to lunch or dinner, or to a movie, or to play BINGO, or to race bumper cars or go-carts, or play putt putt golf, or bowling, or anything to just get together and yak, yak, yak. Every time we go out I have a BLAST!!! We talk about our current lives and reminisce about our past, we complain about work, we share stores about family, we gossip about friends, we describe our latest vacations , we brag about our successes, and we whine about our disappointments.

But most of all we talk to each other and we listen to what we each have to say. I usually cry on the way home because I have had such a good time. I am going to miss Girls’ Night Out.

Farewells

Ten days and counting! Mike and I have entered the "farewell" phase - seeing friends and family and saying our goodbyes.

I mentioned recently that Mike went to Denver to see his daughter and brand new granddaughter when we returned from DF. Plus, we have seen his middle son (who lives not too far away) more frequently. And he has had phone calls from his oldest son in Eastern Washington.

Yesterday we met with my brother, cousins, and aunt for dinner at a hotel in Seattle. Our parents are gone so I hope my brother will keep up with the rest of the family so he doesn't feel abandoned.

Also, on the weekend we had coffee with a Terri and Wes from Duvall. Terri and I worked in the Legal Dept of AT&T Wireless as paralegals. And their doggie, Trotter, likes to play with our doggie, Sitka.

And to finish the weekend, we went to an open house for our friends that teach English in Indonesia. They just finished their first year of teaching and are spending a month in Seattle before heading back for year two. Denise and Billy were our inspirations to teach and we have followed their blogs (see links on my blogroll) throughout the year.
Denise used to work on Mike's IT team at AT&T Wireless.

Carpe Diem

Seize the day. That’s basically what Carpe Diem means. I actually had to look it up yesterday when I read my friend’s blog. That friend is Beth in Toronto and I have added a link to her blog on my blogroll to the right.

Beth is somewhat in turmoil…she wants to move to Mexico and experience more out of life along with her family. But she’s having some challenges and her blog address these challenges in a delightfully entertaining way. Check it out.

So back to Carpe Diem. This morning Mike and I learned that one of the real estate agents I work with has kidney cancer. He found out just about the time we returned from Mexico and although he has had radiation treatments, the prognosis is not good. They cannot operate nor do chemotherapy. Mike and I are very upset about this news.

This man was very generous with his time and knowledge when I was a fledgling, just beginning my short-lived real estate career. He always took the time to answer all of my questions, he gave me pointers, and he made me feel like I could succeed. I have always looked up to him in an industry in which you never know if an agent is going to stab you in the back.

And this man has also lived a great life! He has done so many things, lived several different places, raised a loving family, spoiled a few dogs, and owns multiple classic cars. But now it is all quickly coming to an end.

This makes Mike and me very, very sure that we are making the right decision in moving to Mexico and starting all over – even though Mike had emergency brain surgeries in Mexico, we have never actually been teachers, and we know very little Spanish. We never know when we will find out that our time is up – and some people don’t even get any notice.

Carpe Diem.

The Route

We had planned out our route down I-5 though Oregon and California, taking a left at Palm Springs, heading to Phoenix, and then down to Nogales, AZ to cross into Mexico.

The Mexico route would then hit Guaymas on the Gulf of CA, run down the coast and cut into central Mexico and finally Mexico City (Distrito Federal – the capital of Mexico - known as DF.)

However, the managers of the school we’ll be teaching at suggested crossing the border at Laredo, TX. That leaves about 700 (11 or so hours) miles of travel through central Mexico. We checked out this route and it looks like the better way to go. Also, if you ever need to learn about the Mexico highway system and tolls go to the Secretaria de Comunicaciones y Transportes site and the Traza tu ruta link is a mapping/toll tool that provides information about highways, tolls, kilometers, and driving times.

See the Mapquest map going through Laredo @ http://www.mapquest.com/mq/10-Ee2svgjulVzHnmb17olS (scroll all the way down to see the map.)

If anyone else has any ideas or comments about the route, please post a comment or email us. Help make our trip as fun and safe as possible!

The Tires and Packing the Trailer

When we were in DF we noticed very few non-commercial trucks (we're driving our Nissan 4x4 to DF and towing a small trailer.) And we saw none with the standard Pacific Northwest shiny mag wheels and big, oversized tires. But we did hear some stories about people coming out to their vehicles and finding that their shiny wheels and tires had been stolen. So we decided we'd fare better if we "downgraded" our wheels and tires.

Left - Picture of old wheel and tire.

Right - Picture of Nissan with new wheels and tires.

So we turned to Craigslist and created an ad for a "tire swap." Sure enough a guy from Arlington contacted us. He has a 1988 Nissan truck with stock tires so we met and swapped tires!

And today we unloaded the trailer and created our inventory (in both English and Spanish) list of everything we're taking. We understand this will be necessary for crossing the border and at the different checkpoints through Mexico. It's amazing how quickly the trailer filled up. I just hope we have room for everything.