Travels with Lynne & Greg

Sharon and Allen Visit

2010-05-18T20:05:00.001-07:00

Sharon and Allen arrived for a six day visit on May 12th. They chose to rent one of the casitas on the ranch rather than stay in our spare bedroom. We took them to Guadalajara for a day in steaming heat but we managed to see all of the sites and ate in a wonderful restaurant called the Adobe which is at the back of an amazing shop. The service and the food were excellent.

We walked for miles around this town as well. Greg and Allen ran or climbed the mountain every morning while Sharon and I ate muffins at the Lake Chapala Society. We played cards and dominoes in the evening. One evening we invited our "new" friends Donna and Douglas over for drinks and munchies and then we went to our favourite pizza place called La Toscana. We ate dinner out almost every night and had a wonderful time one evening at the Chili Bang Bar.

On Sunday we walked the Malacone (boardwalk) in Chapala and ate lunch in an authentic Mexican restaurant along the water.

Greg and Allen took Lucky yesterday to have Dr. Memo remove her stitches from her spaying. She is leaping and running and has become a regular ranch dog and we have no fear now of her getting pregnant by Samson who is her father. Dogs don`t seem to care much about incest.

Sharon came to the orphanage with me yesterday and one of the kids Filiberto really took a shine to her. Sharon is a social worker and I`m sure the whole experience was an interesting one from her professional perspective. While we were at the orphanage, Allen went to the local barber shop for a 4 dollar hair cut and attended Spanish class with Greg.

We laughed and gossiped and generally had a lovely time with S. and A. They left this morning to go to West Palm Beach for their son`s graduation from University. My cousin Shelly arrives tomorrow and we plan to have a ``spa`` type time together with pedicures, manicures and massages planned. Everything is so reasonable here. A manicure and pedicure is 150 pesos about 12 dollars.

Sharon wrote a much too complimentary blog of her own about their visit, but it`s too embarassing to share it all. I have extrapolated some of what she said below:

``How does one describe the magical Garden of Eden........We wake up greeted by the cheery musical orchestra of birds of every colour. The sun is warm and soothing and our eyes do not know where to look first. There is the natural vegetation - mother nature`s gifts - of bushes, trees and flowers. The fragrant smells of these flowers is dizzying. The visual expanse of the mountains, the lake and the charming casitas and the tidy store fronts in town and the proud-standing church in the town square were all delightful to see.

Thanks to Lynne and Greg for this amazing experience and for showing us this beautiful and luscious part of the world.``

I think Sharon and Allen enjoyed their stay. They were a pleasure to host......very generous and appreciative of our efforts.

Did I mention....it`s stinkin hot here!

May 3 Update

2010-05-03T13:26:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to work out some sort of training schedule for myself for the marathon(s) this fall. I've been getting my butt out of the door over the last few days anyway. Friday I ran for 40 minutes and then did a combination of running and walking up the mountain. I ran up to the Shrine, then walked to the Cornfield and then the Saddle. Between the run and the climb, I was out for 2 1/2 hours and I thought, as the pain in my legs seemed to be saying, that I should take it easy on Saturday.

Saturday morning my legs were killing me, but I knew if I went our for a walk they'd feel OK. I decided I needed a project so, I walked and photographed the Shrine walk, from our Casita.

I took the GPS along too so I could get some data on the walk. It turns out that the door to door distance is 5k with an altitude gain of a little over 650 feet. 3k of the 5 is from the house to the trail head. The climb is 1k with about a 300 foot climb.

The GPS data is here.

I tried to take each image from where the last image left off. the first few are from the house. I love the picture of Pedro. Pedro is the father of 4 of the folks who work here on the grounds. That is one of his standard stances!

Here are the pictures of the climb.

San Antonio Trip

2010-05-01T18:36:00.003-07:00

On Thursday April 22nd, Greg, Lina and I head out at 6:00 in the morning to begin our 17 hour driving trip to San Antonio Texas. Lina is our Spanish teacher and she was going to visit her kids. Greg and I needed to leave Mexico to renew our six month visitor's permit and our car permit.

We passed through several Mexican states of which I can only remember some. We live in Jalisco, next came Aguas Calientes and then San Luis Potosi and Nueva Leone. That's enough geography. The Sierra Madre mountain range was stark and beautiful. We watched the vegetation change and Lina taught and reviewed our Spanish which was an added bonus.....free lessons. We only got stopped by one policia....a state cop in the state of Nueva Leone. He took Greg's licence and said we'd have to back track to the town which was two hours back towards home and go to court the next day to pay the ticket. I felt sick. Lina turned on her charm and of course the fact that she speaks fluent Spanish helped too. The outcome was a good one. He let us go. By the way, we offered to bribe him, but he said he was a new breed of police and that they were working hard to change the image and he didn't take bribes....refreshing.

We got to the border at Nueva Laredo in daylight which was an important goal. Border towns are notoriously dangerous, especially at night. There have been many Narco-trafficking incidents in Nueva Laredo. They made us take off our car sticker and we crossed into the United States without incident. Life changed immediately on the other side. Two totally different worlds with just an imaginary line separating them. Actually they are separated by a river called the Rio Grande on the Texan side and the Rio Bravo on the Mexican side. I have to admit my heart did a little flip at the sight of "more" familiar signs displayed on fast food restaurants and everything written in English!

After the border we still had a three hour drive north to get to San Antonio. We arrived at our Comfort Inn at around 10 p.m. We were sweaty and exhausted. Lina's friend picked her up at the hotel and Greg and I headed to bed.

We couldn't wait to get to the MALL the next morning.....The Gap, Old Navy, Macy's and T.J. Max. We both bought some new shmatas to wear in the heat of Ajijic and sated our need for some good old home style retail therapy. We spent the next couple of days on the famous San Antonio River Walk, truly candy for the eye with beautiful hotels, shops and restaurants all along the banks of the San Antonio River. We took an informative boat tour, we ate, we ogled, we walked and we were delighted by this incredibly beautiful part of the city. Everyone who has never been needs to put it on their "Bucket List."

San Antonio Trip Pictures

We also visited the Alamo, had a very lovely reunion with Greg's old working buddy Cindy Leeming who now lives in Florida but happened to see my facebook blurb about going to San Antonio and was going to be there with her beau Ed Womble. Two lovely people. We brunched together and had drinks on the River Walk. Lina took us for a lovely dinner at her daughter's restaurant.

We left the grand town of San Antonio late Sunday morning. We arrived at the border and renewed everything without too much hassle....so great to have a fluent Spanish speaker in tow. We drove until just before nightfall and stopped in Saltillo (they mine salt there) Mexico for the night. We stayed near the square at an old Colonial Hotel.....very different from the Comfort Inn. We got up at 6 a.m and headed out arriving in Ajijic at around 2 in the afternoon. Mission accomplished.

I went for a walk one Sunday morning and just took pictures around town and of the Spring flowers. I've broken them into two albums.

Spring Flowers

Ajijic Walk and Puppies

April 4 Update

2010-04-04T09:09:00.001-07:00

I've got to admit, I was a bit worried about having two kids here with us for 10 days. I'm not that good with kids (big surprise right!). What a great surprise for us. Nadia's kids Nicholas and Jacob were a blast to have around. They never did any of that sucky whiny stuff that makes me crazy. Nadia and the kids left a couple of days ago and both Lynne and mentioned at dinner that we missed them all.

Nadia and I did some good training together. Ron and Bev and coming next weekend for a few days. I should get some good runs in with Bev too.

So, I've taken a bunch of pictures lately. I spent the afternoon sorting out 1200 pictures, tossing out about 1000 of them and breaking the rest into albums. I'll post a few now and more later in the week.

There was a very cool reenactment of the whole Easter story here in town. On Palm Sunday, the main street past the town square and into the church was covered in palms and grass and stuff for Jesus to ride the donkey into town.

This set of images shows all of that.

This Friday, Good Friday was the reenactment of the Crusifixation.

Here are the images from that.

On a much lighter and fun note though are all the pictures we have from Nadia and the boys visit.

I've got some great pictures from the dinner we had here with all the gang who left to go back home after spending the winter here.

Click here for the dinner pictures.

It's spring here too and the flowers are absolutely amazing. I've still got to sort through those pictures as well as some picture of a new born colt. I'll try to get them done shortly.

Nadia 2nd Update - March 31

2010-03-31T12:18:00.001-07:00

It's Wednesday afternoon and the boys and I need to pack for our 10am flight tomorrow morning for Toronto. As I sit here trying to decide what to write about I can barely think over the noise. Birds, hundreds of birds chirping, dogs barking, the wind blowing lemon and lime trees gently and the occasionally lemon dropping to the ground.

What I want all of you to know is that the Mexican people are as warm and welcoming as the beautiful climate. Smiles and twinkling eyes greet you almost everywhere.

We visited an artisan community (Tonala) and bought some lovely pewter, glass at the glass blowing factory, trinkets and mementos at various town markets, walked the boardwalk in Chapala, went horseback riding along the lake, had dinner under a rubber tree (no relation to Trojan, a real rubber tree), watched Jesus ride a donkey over a palm leaf covered road to the community square and Basilica, spent a day at the Mineral Spa and spent 2 ½ hours moving from one mineral tub to another including a mud bath. God bless the 90 year old gentleman who decided he needed to help me rub mud on my back and butt!

Had a lovely going away dinner party for the departing ranch residents and managed to get drunk on 2 Corona (b.t.w, Corona on sale at the local Wal-Mart, 24 Corona for $16Cdn...no, I don’t have any room left in my suitcase). The boys 9, & 12 had a couple of massages each! I think I'm in trouble because they are already asking when they can have one at home....

I need to pack and really don’t want to. Nicholas, Jacob and I truly had the best time. We managed in our short time ( okay not so short if you ask Greg : ) )to develop a routine... fresh mango’s for breakfast, walks to the mountain, laying by the pool, drinks on the patio with friends at happy hour. There is no question as to why Lynne and Greg decided to end their search here in Ajijic, its a beautiful magical place that has everything you could ask for, everything except all of you.

A huge thank you to Lynne and Greg for the best 10 days, laughter, friendship, and hospitality. A teary good bye to my great friends and their beautiful new home.

Thank you.

p.s To those of you with children, I think Greg is turning a new leaf and wants to spend quality time with your kids. Consider Mexico as a summer camp for your kids!!! Trust me, Greg will love it. : ) xoxoxooxox

(Greg Note: - Obviously, Nadia spent a bit too loing at the happy hour bar and has me confused with some other kid lover!)

March 29 - Nadia Update 1

2010-03-29T15:08:00.000-07:00

Okay, I complain regularly to Greg that he and Lynne had become very lax about updating the blog, after all what did they do all day anyway???

Well, I can tell you first hand that doing ‘nothing’ is very time consuming!!!

The boys and I arrived Monday March 22nd in the afternoon. Greg picked us up and we drove the 30 min from the airport in Guadalajara to where Greg and Lynne live in a paradise community called Ajijic.

When I envision paradise, this place, the ranch is what I pictured. The flora, greens, pink, yellow; lemon, lime and pomegranate trees, vibrant colour everywhere you look. The back drop, the mountains on one side the lake to the other. Breathtaking.

After settling in on Monday and making sure Greg could be left alone with the kids without fear that he would not tie, or duct tape them to one on the nearby trees we began exploring.

Tuesday Greg, the boys and I climbed up the mountain to the shrine. Elevation? From the ‘casita’ to the base of the mountain we had already climbed 200 feet. We climbed up the mountain to the shrine, aprox., 5700 feet above sea level. I was breathing hard, and trying to get a deep breath was almost impossible. We spent the rest of the day by the pool and enjoying the day.

Greg & I ran the hardest 5k (30:30) I have ever run. 5k over uneven cobble stone, uphill and with what felt like no oxygen in 26C heat.

Thursday we went back up the hill. Greg and I made it up to the corn field, another 20 minutes higher than the shrine. View, awesome! And cross training takes on a whole new meaning after walking in altitude for 2 hours.
Saturday we ran 14.5 km. It took 3km just for my panting to subside. It’s impossible to get a deep long breath. You find yourself panting and breathing hard at the least bit of exertion. We found a comfortable pace and ran for 1:34

This morning we thought it would be fun to race up the mountain to the shrine. Greg kicked my ass and got there 30sec before me. I was bent over and breathing hard when I finally got to the top (no comments you perverts). There was a kid sitting on top of the shrine enjoying a joint eyeballing Greg and I for the nut cases we were. The kid had ridden his bike up the mountain Some sections of the climb are so steep, I guess you gotta be stoned to ride back down. Anyway, why not race down the mountain???? I redeemed myself though and made it down in 6min 30 secs! (Greg behind me : ) )

We checked the Around the Bay results when we got back, we were thinking of you guys all morning. Congratulations!!! Kind of bitter sweet thinking back to last year when we were both there running the mountain.

If any of you are wondering, the kids are still in good health, and Greg has yet to make good on his treats to duct tape them to a tree, or sell them into slavery to the locals.

We are having the best time. The weather spectacular, almost 30C everyday. I honestly can’t thank Greg and Lynne enough for taking us around to the sights and for their incredible hospitality. This week has flown past, and honestly doing nothing is very time consuming....................!

March 26 Update

2010-03-26T07:52:00.000-07:00

Nadia and the boys are here this week and we're having a blast. Her boys are great . . . well . . . . as great as kids can be anyway!!

Truthfully, they are so well behaved it's unbelievable! They are a pleasure to have around. We've done the Wednesday market and the Tonala visit. We watched glass bowls being blown yesterday and picked up tons of Pewter stuff while we were there. The boys are having a great time in the pool.

It's springtime here as it is back in the 'old country'. I think we talked about the purple Jacaranda trees the other day. I took some pictures (for a change) of them and the strangest looking pink feather like flowers I've ever seen. I haven't found out what they're called yet.

Here's the pictures of them.

I weighed Lucky today. She's up to 28.5 pounds already. I don't know if that's a lot for a 4 month old German Sheppard or not. We're just all happy as hell she's doing so well.

Most of the other folks who spend the winter on the ranch are leaving next week. It'll be a mixed blessing being here alone. It should be interesting.

Nadia is doing the next update.

2010-03-09T10:49:00.000-07:00

There hasn't been a lot going on here since we got back from our Puerto Vallarta trip. The first week back was a sad week as puppy number 6 and number 7 died from Distemper. We'd pretty much adopted the puppies after they were born so, it was heartbreaking to see them die like that.

It seems that the Mexican culture is such that they think of dogs and cats about the way we think of squirrels and raccoons. They are animals but, it doesn't matter if they live or die and they certainly aren't going to spend hard earned cash on getting them shots or anything.

I've decided that if they dog has pups again, I'll take them myself to the vet for their shots.

The following week was great. no more sadness of dying puppies but, time to start teaching the last remaining puppy some tricks. I had named the pups a long time ago. The last one's name had been Bandit, but the folks renamed her Lucky when we were away. We decided to keep that name seeing as she'd won the Ajijic Survivor Series!

So far we've taught her to sit and to come when she's called. She HATES the collar and leash. She just shrinks into the ground when I put the collar on her. I guess I should leave it on her but, i feel bad looking at her scratch at it. I put it on for short periods of time and extend the time each time.

I decided for sure that I'm going to Lake Placid this summer to watch Ironman. Michelle, Gavin, Kathryn and Derek and a bunch of my mates from back home are racing. I emailed the "Swim" captain and got my old 'peeler' job back. Now all I have to do is find a place to stay when I get there. I expect I'll be able to pick up a last minute cancellation. I wonder if the hotels have waiting lists? Maybe I should email a bunch of them.

We've got LOTS of company coming over the next few weeks. Kevin and Jennifer arrive this Friday for a week. Nadia and her kids arrive the day after K & J leave. They'll be here for about 11 days. We have a week to ourselves after that and then Ron and Bev come for a week.

e're both really looking forward to seeing everyone. We've been looking at each other since . . . . . August. Gee, no wonder we're starting to get on each others nerves a bit!

Puerto Vallarta Trip

2010-02-22T13:07:00.000-07:00

You can't imagine our shock to wake up Monday morning one half hour later than planned. It was 6:15, which was the time we had planned to leave the ranch to walk to the corner where we were supposed to meet the bus. The alarm clock was definitely calling out to us but we slept right through the buzzing. We didn't get much sleep due to a pesky buzzing mosquito in our bedroom which we couldn't manage to find. So, no showers, no coffee, definitely no breakfast. Thank God we had packed the night before. We were out the door by 6:30 (which was the time we were supposed to be at the bus) and ran to the bus where everyone was waiting for us. We were justly rewarded for being the last to arrive by getting the two back seats.

I slept for a while then woke up to most of the folks opening bag lunches that they had sensibly packed for themselves. I always make a travel lunch but for some reason didn't this time. Now I felt even more miserable......no coffee, no breakfast and now no lunch.

We arrived in Puerto Vallarta at around 1 oclock. It took a while to get 30 couples checked in and wouldn't you just know it....our room was the last to be ready. Fortunately though, lunch was still being served and we were able to eat something, at last. We went for a walk and returned to a "bonus" room, one with an ocean view. That was to thank us for our patience. Room with a view and a lovely little terrace to sit and watch the rolling waves.

Our hotel, The Buenaventura, was on the main road running through downtown P.V. The front doors were on the equivalent of Yonge Street the backyard was on the ocean front. We loved it. Two large HEATED pools, and a short walk to sea and surf. I'm so happy that our hotel was in the heart of town and not in Nueva Vallarta where most of the big all inclusive hotels are located.

Although it rained for a day and a half of our 4 day stay we managed to enjoy ourselves very much. P.V. has a heartbeat. The Malecon (boardwalk) is wonderful. The time share guys are a hoot once you learn how to manage them. We walked or ran on the malecon every morning, rain or shine. We shopped, drank and ate to our hearts delight. We chatted with new people , we drank margueritas and daquiris. I had a bath which was a real treat as our casita in Ajijic boasts a shower only bathroom.

We ate dinner in two of the specialty restaurants. One an Argentinian "meat house." There were about 10 courses, each a different kind of barbequed meat brought to the table stacked on a huge skewer. I don't eat meat but managed to enjoy the shrimp and salmon courses very much. Greg was in heaven.

The last night we ate at the Sunset restaurant and watched the sun do exactly that. Our table was right beside the waves, the food was wonderful and the service impeccable.

We didn't leave on Friday until noon so Greg and I did our usual walk along the malecon, photographing all the sculptures, including the amazing sand sculptures that artists had built on the beach. We crossed the river and walked right up into the old town. Very European. Lovely little hotels, restaurants and shops. The last morning was sunny and hot. We did one last beach walk and then got showered and ready to board the bus. We were certainly mindful of being on time.

Unfortunately, the lady behind us had had three margueritas before boarding the bus and snored for 6 hours of arduous, twisting, mountain road driving. We both wanted to slap her but managed to restrain ourselves.

We arrived back at the Rancho on time for Happy Hour. Everyone stood and gave us a warm welcome. Greg whistled for his pups who came running to him. The two sick ones had survived our absence under the fine care of Ray and Marlene. They did seem to be worse though now then before we left. A vet had been called but did not show up. Lucia and Concho came to get them the next morning and took them to the vet in Riberas. He gave them shots, special food and medicine for the next four days. If they are not better in the four days they will have to be put down. The one pup who is showing no signs at all of the distemper which is what all the others have had, is healthy, strong and lively. She has been renamed "Lucky."

Click here for to view the Puerto Vallarta pictures.

Lynne and I went to 'Carnival" in Chappla the day before we left for Puerto Vallarta. Here are the pics from there.

2010-02-22T08:49:00.000-07:00

This week is going down as the crappiest week that I've had since we arrived here 3 short months ago.

I eat something on Saturday night that didn't agree me. I'd figured it was time to get brave and eat some actual authentic Mexican food. That turned out to be a VERY BAD decision. I don't have a strong stomach at the best of times.

I don't want to get too descriptive here so, let's just say, I stayed very very close to the bathroom all Saturday night. We were going out on Sunday with friends to the zoo in Guadalajara. Lynne wrote all about that in the last update. She gave me a couple of Immodium pills and did they ever dry me up. I could almost not even talk my mouth was so dry, but it did the trick. We had a safe day, but the effect of those pills had worn off by bedtime Sunday night.

I spent Sunday night in the bathroom and Lynne suggested that I just stay in bed all day Monday. Monday night was about the same. Tuesday wasn't much different except I got a fever at night. At this point I started thinking about the flue - swine flue and how we'd not had shots for it. A friend from home told us her experience and how it was worse than the chimo she'd gone though.

Wednesday morning the fever was gone. I laughed when I looked in the washroom waste basket and saw that it was completely full of empty toilet paper rolls! Thanks God I bought the more expensive but, 'oh so soft' good stuff!

Thursday morning we decided that enough was enough and we should head over to the local hospital. Thought of home and never ending waits in the waiting room came to mind. I expect that the fact that we don't speak the language yet would add more time and aggravation to the situation.

So, here's the hospital story.

9:00 - Arrive at hospital and go to reception. (Well, Lynne went to reception, I had to find another bathroom.)

9:02 - Doctor comes out to get us.

9:10 - exam done, prescription written

9:12 - pay the bill. $12.00 Cdn

9:15 - back in the car

That's what I call "Health Care Reform"!

So, some crappy (hummm, maybe a poor choice of word there) medicine to drink for a few days, Some pills for a week and . . . . I went to the bathroom and peed this afternoon, and nothing else. What a nice treat that was for a change.

It's raining here tonight (Thursday) but the weather is supposed to clear up and it looks like it's supposed to be a nice sunny week in Puerto Vallarta next week.

We're both leaving our computers here at the house while we're away. We're looking forward to a totally offline week.

Here's the pictures from last weekends adventure.

Weekly Update Feb 1 -7, by Lynne

2010-02-07T14:14:00.000-07:00

Three days of rain proved a bit challenging especially with almost non existent internet access and poor t.v. reception. We didn't even make it to the tienges (outdoor market) this past week because the thought of doing our shopping in a downpour just wasn't very appealing. We did attend all of our Spanish Lessons and various other groups. It was the perfect time to Skype and email people back home and get caught up on all of our correspondence, banking, Greg's web work etc., but without the internet that proved impossible. Grrrrr! Mucho frustration. Gonzalo, the Remax rental manager brought us (and some of the others on the ranch) individual modems but alas everyone else's kicked in through the phone company in 24 hours except ours. (When Bad Things Happen to Good People.) Ours is finally up and running today. Yippee!

This was not the only bad news. On the second day of rain, Little Wolfie, one of the pups who had seemed quite sick for several days, lay on our door step in a wet mass, barely breathing. Greg brought her in and towelled her dry and held her and we tried to give her warm milk but when she seemed completely non responsive we went to get Lucia who promised to take her to the Vet. Today when Lucia came by with a new piece of furniture for our casita, we asked after the pup and found out "es muerto." Greg especially, is very saddened to lose another of the original 8. And then there were 3. They lie on their mat in our house throughout the day and we feed them but feel we have to put them out at night because they haven't been cared for very well and are probably flea infested and we can't give them the run of the place while we sleep. A new critter has joined us. Roxy, (Greg Note: real name Satan!) the tea cup chihuaha who belongs to one of our Canadian neighbours, was purchased a couple of weeks ago at the tienges. She's a wild little thing, but adorable and she climbs on top of the Shepards and tries hard to be one of the girls. The funniest thing though is to see Smokey curled up in the little chihuaha's bed. She barely fits but doesn't seem to mind her head and rear end hanging over the edge.

One of these things don't belong with the others.
Can you spot it? :-)

On Saturday I had invited three of the women from my Miracles group over for wine and snacks after the class. Dorothy, is turning 80 this month and has taken quite a shine to Greg. She flirted with him outrageously and he is a big flirt too but doesn't quite know how to respond to this chick who is old enough to be his mother. After they left, we were heading out to the movies to see "What About the Morgans?" I think that's what it's called, and the Mexican's up at the top our property were having a Baptismal party and it was Anna's (the girl who cleans our house once a week) baby who had been baptized so they insisted we come and "gusto" with them.....that means eat and party. We sat around a bit like bumps on a log because our Spanish is not good enough yet to really communicate. Then Gonzalo our Mexican property manager from Remax arrived with his wife and daughter. He speaks English. We loved their company. He's so adorable and his wife Maria Elena is lovely and speaks a fair bit of English, as does Helena, the 7 year old daughter.

They invited us to join their family the next day to go to Guadalajara to the zoo. We said sure and met them in Jocotopec (a town about 30 minutes down the road) at 8 in the morning. The family included the wife's sister and brother in law who is a gynecologist and their two children and the Abuela and Abuelo (grandparents)......we arrived in Guad in two cars at about 10 and quickly headed to the big Cathedral there for mass. It was interesting. We participated as best we could except for taking holy communion, although Greg was starving and really wanted one of those wafers.

After mass we had breakfast at an outdoor restaurant in the square .....and then off to the zoo....and quite an impressive one I might add. Greg and I, though, were quite exhausted after about 2 hours but we spent about 5 hours at the zoo. We saw every animal in the place and fed carrots to the giraffes who were head to head with us, leaning into our Safari truck to get the little morsels.

The zoo is definitely world class. Lovely grounds and well thought out environments for the different species. However, we were more impressed with the human family interaction. Three kids under the age of 7 and not a single whine, tantrum or complaint all day long. Now I know everyone in Canada is getting ready for family day on Feb. 15. The Mexican's would laugh at that notion. Every Sunday is family day here. And that doesn't mean just your immediate family. It includes the grandparents and the sisters and sometimes the brothers and their children. I say sometimes the brothers because it is customary here for the men to go with the wives to their families. You have to feel sorry then for clans without daughters. Church together is always the opening activity. Greg and I were honoured to be "part of the family" even if only for the day. They told us we are welcome to join them any Sunday we feel inspired to do so.

The activities ended with dinner at Kentucky Fried Chicken and the ride back to Lakeside in the dark. Greg and I fell into bed. He hasn't been feeling great since eating Mexican specialty beef at the baptismal party on Saturday night.

Nadia and the boys have confirmed their flights and will be arriving on March 22nd. My BFF for 52 years, Susie Neudoerffer celebrated her 60th on Feb. 2nd and my cousin Brian Gold celebrated his 65th yesterday. Michelle and Gavin got a new dog, a sister for Sneakers called Shasta. Jordan needs money, but that's not really news.

And so a new week begins.

Weekly Update Feb 2, 2010

2010-02-02T15:04:00.000-07:00

I had a pretty event full week this week.

I went out one day this week and climbed back up to the shrine, then carried on to the cornfield and then hit new territory finding new trails to descend back to town from.

I pushed a bit heading up to the shrine and made in 11 minutes. I rested a bit there and saw a women come down from higher up the mountain. She was dressed totally in white coveralls including white hat and scarf. Only her face showed and she carried a few plastic one gallon water jogs. She asked how far I was going. I told her I was heading up to the cornfield, but I didn’t know where I was heading from there. She asked if I’d help her group out. I’d seen small trees that were planted along the trails on previous hikes. I had no idea where they were from. I’d joked with Lynne once that they were part of the Mexican reforestation project. It ends up that was about right. She and her group were planning all along the trails. There was a fence that I had to cut through to get up to the cornfield. She asked if I’d help out by taking one of the jugs and filling it from a large container that was next to the fence and then carry it up to the cornfield. I guess she had carried the half dozen or so jugs she had up to that fence. I said sure. Why not, it was all I could do to get up to that cornfield the first time I’d done it. I might as well try it with a big jog of water in one hand at the same time. In the end, it wasn’t has hard as I thought it would be.

I hung out at the cornfield which is about 1300’ above the town, which is about 5200’ above sea level. I took some bars and a few water bottles with E-Load. I felt good. I took a bunch of pictures looking up the mountain and down to the town. The mountain continues up another 2000 feet or so. There are a couple of climbing groups around, but I’m going to continue exploring on my own. I’ll go a bit further and fine new trails each time until i get really familiar with these hills over the next month or two before going back to running.

On the weekend I headed out by car to the town or Morelia. Morelia is about 500k east of here, about half way towards Mexico City. Morelia is the town that the Monarch butterflies migrate to each year. Now, I must admit, I really couldn’t care less about butterflies, but I figured that, seeing as I’m this close and it is pretty amazing that these bugs fly from Canada to here each year, it was something worth going to see. Something I found interesting is that the butterflies fly down from Canada to the same mountain in Mexico each year. They get here; they breed, and then die. The butterflies that are born here fly back to Canada in the spring and breed, and die there. The butterflies make the several thousand kilometre trip by instinct, arriving at the same area year after year, generation after generation.

Lynne wanted some time alone. We’re together pretty much 24 hours a day. Some time alone would be good for both of us. I drove out on Friday morning. Within a hundred kilometres the landscape changed from the mountain ranges that we live in to old volcanoes jutting out of the otherwise flat green land. The skies were overcast. The overall appearance reminded me of pictures of "the land before man". I’m told there are some live volcanoes in the area. I’m going to research them and visit one soon.

The GPS put me on the toll roads pretty quickly. I turn off after a few hours and headed south towards the town of Patzucuaro. John and Joan told us it’s a beautiful town and that I should check it out on this trip. It was getting late in the afternoon. It was going to take me another hour to get to Morelia from there so, I just drove through and looked around from the car. The town did look inviting. There were tons of wood working shops, wood carving actually. Almost every corner was another shop. I don’t know why i didn’t get any picture. I’m sorry now that I didn’t, but I’m sure Lynne and I will head out there for a weekend soon to spend some time exploring the town.

I notice the first strip joint I’ve seen anywhere in Mexico too. The building was huge and the music was really loud. I could hear it from the car from the middle of the road. I looked at the place, thought about all the stories I’ve heard of gringos getting killed in joints like those and, kept on driving!

Lina, our Spanish teacher kindly forwarded a newspaper article that spoke to the 2600 people who were killed in the first 6 months of last year due to drug wars in the area. I think that prompted me to stay in the car too! I didn’t see any traces of drugs, drug lords or drug wars while I was away. Lina did email me when I got home to tell me that 8 people were found beheaded in that state over the weekend. I’m glad she waited until I was back home to tell me!

The drive from Patzucuaro to Morelia did take about an hour. The roads twisted and turned everywhere. It was a fun drive. It was interesting that, as many woodworking shops I’d seen in Patzucuaro, there were as many, if not more, stone carving shops on the roads to Morelia. There were stone carvings of everything from small animals and birdbaths to huge pillars that would sit in front of massive cathedrals. I’d love to go back again another day and explore some of the shops in both towns.

Morelia was an amazingly busy town traffic wise. It took an hour to get the 3.5k to the hotels when I got to town. The GPS showed me that there were a number of hotels all in the same area. What it didn’t tell me was that they were all the high-end hotels at the centre of town. I was too tired to head our again when I realized what I was in for, so I took the $120. Room and spent the night there at the edge of the incredibly beautiful town square. $120.00 isn’t a lot for a hotel at home but, it’s a fortune for Mexico.

I tool lots of pictures of the hotel and the room, but headed out early in the morning for ‘Butterflyville! It ended up that I was still a couple of hours drive from the sanctuary.

The place was high in the mountains. The temperature was only about 8 or 9 degrees. The skies were overcast again. I found the place, parked the car and walked through the woods for about 30 minutes. Up and then down the mountain to the end of the path. I was a bit pissed at first when there were no butterflies in the air. All the stories I read about the place talked about the millions of butterflies. What I didn’t know at the time was that, when the weather is cold, they group together high in the trees in hugs clumps, huddled together to keep each other warm. Eventually I notice hundreds of dead butterflies on the ground. I did see one butterfly in the air. I laughed when I realized it had died and was only falling to the ground! I headed back when it started to rain.

Oh well, I’ve seen it!

I headed back home, but stayed on the main highways all the way. Again I loved looking at the landscape that kept reminding me of those "Land before Man" scenes.

Traffic laws here aren’t what they are at home. The speed limit is posted at 110, but most people drive at around 130 - 145 kph. I followed a pickup truck for a bit. Mom and Dad were in the front. 4 kids were playing in the open cab in the back. At one point I clocked us moving at 160 kph. The kids played in that open cab as if they were sitting in a playground. I kept waiting to see one of them or their toys go flying out onto the road!

I got a couple of good shots of the red sunset sky on the way back. I was home by about 8:30pm. It was a fun trip. The butterflies sucked, but the adventure of exploring the land was great. I think next weekend I’ll stick closer to town and head back up into the mountains or over and explore the town of Chapala.

Our neighbours John and Joan left for California on Monday morning. Like us, they sold there house and are traveling around deciding where to settle down. We’re going to miss them. They were the first friends that Lynne and I made since we left Aurora in July. Hopefully we’ll keep in touch by email.

Click here for the Cornfield Hike pictures.

Click here for the Butterfly Trip pictures.

Jan 24 Weekly Update

2010-01-24T20:54:00.000-07:00

Well the weather warmed up this week and we have not had the space heater on for a couple of days. I even opened the bedroom window last night. The puppies haven't been seen in a few days now and we haven't asked anyone but we have a feeling that they are gone.

We met up with our new Gringo friends Donna and Douglas on Wednesday evening. We had a couple of drinks at La Tasca and asked all the requisite questions. I think we all hit it off because Douglas suggested we go for dinner. We went to Reubens, a newly opened restaurant in town. The food was delicious and the owner regaled us with great stories about his life. Born in Jocotopec (just down the road). He lived in L.A. for several years. Consequently his English is great. He is also a singer and he serenaded us with a few of his favourite songs. He gave us some good information about his home town. It's the raspberry growing capital of the world. I've been eating raspberries every morning for breakfast and they are plump and juicy. Anyhow, those Briscoes raspberries we eat at home in Canada in the plastic boxes are grown just ten minutes down the road from us. Now we know what's growing under all those plastic sheets on the acres of land just down the road on the Lake side.

Greg has decided to give up running for a while because his knees and his back have been aching lately. It must be the bumpy roads. As I mentioned in the last blog, we climbed the mountain to the chapel. Greg has been out the door early and up the mountain about 3 times this week. On Friday he climbed to a cornfield about an hour past the chapel. I went with him again this morning but didn't make it much past the chapel. Greg is in much stronger shape than I am. I will go with him again and try to add some distance from today's destination. Our walk today was just over 5K. (all uphill.) I used the broom handle as a walking stick. Some Mexican man was coming down the slope with a rake as we were going up. He had raked all the gravel off the trail which made the walk a lot easier. How nice was that!

On Thursday we went with our neighbours John and Joan to Tango a wonderful restaurant here in town. It's an Argentinean steak house. I ate vegetarian Lasagna. Greg gobbled up his steak with glee. I brought home half of my meal and ate it the next day for lunch. Joan and John had their birthdays on Tuesday and Greg had his on Saturday, hence the celebratory dinner out.

We saw Avatar twice this week. Once in town here where it was shown in English but not in 3D. Today we drove into Guadalajara and went to an Imax theatre and watched it in 3D. We are now done giving James Cameron our money.

We've booked a trip to Puerto Vallarta in mid February. It's a bus trip that leaves from town and takes us to a beautiful all inclusive hotel on the beach. Everyone raves about P.V. and some of the surrounding villages. Lots to see. It will be lovely to walk on the beach and swim in the sea and to have someone else do the meal preparation.

We have some company coming to visit. Kevin and Jennifer have booked tickets for mid-March. Ron and Bev are coming in April. We are waiting to see if Nadia has booked anything later in March. She hopes to come with her boys. I can't wait to watch the kid's reactions to some of the wacky sites in this town. Sharon and Allen are talking about coming as well. It will be exciting to see people from home and be able to show them the town and the surrounding area. There's so much to experience. It will be fun to share it all with some of our B.F.F.'s

On a final note. Jordan turned 20 on January 23rd and today is Christine's (Greg's younger daughter) birthday. She turned 33. We're all getting older.

PS.
Lynne got a GREAT haircut this week. I guess she didn't want to talk about it though!

Sunday Jan 17 - Update

2010-01-17T07:06:00.000-07:00

No big adventures this week, just life on the ranch. We both continue our Spanish Lessons with Lina. She has found a way to address Greg's learning style which is much more kinaesthetically. They are now making puzzles to put together and using flash cards which seems to be better for him. I met a guy named Douglas who takes the lesson after mine and often gets there early, hence our meeting. I was immediately attracted to him because he was "young" which around this town means somewhere around 60 and not the more mature 70 and 80 years olds that we tend to be meeting. I guess people are working longer and don't have the funds to retire in their 50's or early 60's. We're lucky. Anyhow, Douglas and I joked about our "relative youthfulness" and he gave me his phone number and said we should call him and his wife Donna and get together. I can't believe how difficult that call was to make. I felt like I was calling for a blind date. I procrastinated all week but finally did phone and Greg and I will meet Douglas and Donna for drinks this coming Wednesday night.

Greg has taken to bringing the puppies into our casita. He gave them a little mat to lie down on and I think they like it here better than in their cage behind the Mexican motel as we've come to call it. Last night we had all four in here but only two spent the night. Those same two are back tonight.....asleep in the spooning position on their little mat in our living room.

We went to the local cinema to see House 39 which we thought was a story about a social worker. We didn't realize it was a horror flick and we are not fans of that genre. I spent most of the movie with my eyes squeezed shut and my hands over my ears. I DO NOT recommend this flick. Avitar has arrived this weekend in English finally, but alas not in 3-D. We'll probably see it anyhow. At 2 bucks a person it's hard to resist seeing everything that comes to town.

I experimented with some recipes this week that my sister-in-law sent me and made a wonderful tex-mex salad which I ate solo. Greg is not a big salad eater. He cooked himself shrimp. Oh, how we'd love to pay someone to take off the shells and remove the veins. It's a very tedious job and somewhat gross as well. Greg buys a beautiful floral bouquet every week at the Tienges. He just gives the vendor 8 bucks and asks him to make something up for him. Each week we have a gorgeous and different arrangement on the side board in our dining room. We save our small change during the week to take to the market and give to the people who are there begging. It's the same people every week and I guess it's just their job.

My article came out today in the Chapala review. It was quite thrilling to see the magazine at our local grocery store and flip through it until I found my piece. I like seeing my name in print. I've got another assignment and a deadline of February 14th. It would be great if I could start it and not be sweating on the 13th but I know myself and I am a procrastinator.

We got Greg's mom to sign up for facebook this week and that's been fun, watching her connect with the grandchildren. At 85, I think joining Facebook is a wonderful venture.

Greg's 60th birthday was today. I can't believe I married someone so much older than myself! He ran to Chapala and back and when he returned announced that he was giving up running for now. That really scares me but because there will be something else for sure and I brace myself as I await his next hobby. I bought him a dangling earring which he had mentioned wanting and some of his favourite food treats. I also bought a cake and two bottles of Champagne to take to Happy Hour with all of our other ranch Gringos. We sang Happy Birthday and took pictures and enjoyed the company. Greg really wanted a big flat screen t.v. but I'm the frugal one in this relationship. He calls it cheap but he's not one for being politically correct.

Tomorrow we are getting up early, at least by 8:30 and climbing the mountain to the Chapel. We will pray for all of you while we are there. After the mountain, we will drive to Guadalajara to the Galleria Mall.....yup you heard correctly, and Greg wants to buy himself a new pair of jeans as his old ones have got a hole in the tush.

It was warmer today and the winds died down. We've had a very cool and miserable week, weather-wise, but the forecast for the coming week looks promising.

Jan 10 update - South Lake Trip

2010-01-10T02:39:00.001-07:00

We've been having some cool weather here. We had to buy a space heater to keep warm in the evenings in our little casita. I think the cool weather has turned us into "home bodies" and since Jordan and Sara left we've haven't been doing much more than eating and watching very bad t.v. We only have 4 English speaking stations....and re-runs of Miami CSI are starting to become boring. Greg can't stand Horatio at the best of times. Greg has been doing some web work and I have taken up knitting again and have been doing some writing. We've both started Spanish Lessons with Lina, an American gal, about our age, who was raised here in Ajijic by parents who moved here in the early 60's. All that being said, we haven't done much adventuring lately.

More Puppy Pictures

Yesterday, the sun poked out again in the morning and Greg was inspired to drive around the lake. We set out at around 10 p.m. When we got to the cut off on the highway for Mazitmitla we decided to check it out. Our rental agent, Gonzalo had told us it was a really interesting and very different little town. The road took us up a mountain and I mean ear-popping up and up. Once again, the change in vegetation was very interesting. The higher we went the more pine woods appeared. We drove past Mazatmitla to the little town of San Jose de Gracia. It was quaint and of course had a big chuch and a lovely square with the pervasive shops surrounding the square. These were a bit more high end stalls than those we have become accustomed to in our area. We also notice more indigenous people and the town seemed cleaner and there were less stray dogs roaming around. I had packed a little lunch for us and we sat on little benches in the square facing the church and watched as proud parents exited the church with their newly Christened babies, dressed in miniature bride gowns. Children flocked around the entrance of the church and called out for candy to get thrown which happened over and over again. Greg asked permission to photograph one of the more elaborately dressed babies and we chatted with the proud Papa who is Mexican but lives and works in Missouri so spoke perfect English. We used the banos publicos in the Town hall. The mayor's office seemed modest at most.

Greg bought his third Mexican hat in a store on the square. I think he finally got the one he likes.....and says he know looks like a happy Mexican instead of a mean cowboy.

South Shore Trip Pictures

We left San Jose de Gracia and headed back down the road to Mazitmitla. We chuckled to find a combination Gravenhurst, Lake Placid, Swiss Alpine town here in the interior of Mexico. Because they have pine woods, they use the lumber to trim and decorate their white adobe houses giving them a very Swiss Chalet kind of look. The high fences and gates of Ajijic and Chapala were not as prevalent. A beautiful church and square and the requisite shops were the scene of much activity, laughter, and general life with a buzz. We talked about how different life is here compared to at home where everyone has their own electronic device to plug into and interactivity seems to occur only as a planned event. That's part of what we love about living here. There is exuberant, racous life on the street and especially in the town squares and around the churches.

I bought some fresh ground coffee to bring back home and a pair of dangling earrings that I've been wanting to buy since arriving in Mexico.

We drove down the mountain and stopped in one last village before heading back home. San Pedro was a dusty little place with a vacant square, no vendors and an empty church yard. We aren't sure if it was the time of day....maybe everyone was having their siesta, or a small population that contributed to this phenomenon. We photographed the interior of the church and the list of donations made by townspeople to the church. This was all written by hand on paper ripped from a notebook and displayed for everyone to see in a glass case set into the wall of the church. Interesting.

I didn't feel like cooking last night so Greg bought himself 3 pieces of chicken and a big tub of cole slaw for 35 pesos.....about 3 dollars. I did however notice him spending an unprecedented amount of time in the washroom last night.

And so, dear friends and followers, that is the latest chapter of La Vida en el ranchero.

Puppies and Christmas Pictures

2010-01-07T10:48:00.000-07:00

I finally got around to posting some pictures. The first group here are the pictures from Jordan and Sara's visit. I HAD to start them off with the picture of the fellow we found asleep in the middle of the town square at noon on Christmas day.

Too much Christmas cheer?

The second group are of the puppies. There are two German Sheppard's here on the ranch. Samson and Delilah. Delilah had pups a couple of weeks after we got here. One of our neighbors complained about the noise, so the puppies were moved up behind 'The Motel' as we call the building that the local resident groundskeepers live in.

We don't see the puppies much unless we walk up there. They are kept in the backyard of the building there. We don't like to intrude. The other night, the puppies got out.

All night long we heard the whining as they chased Delilah around wanting to get fed. I went out for a run in the morning. When I got back, two of the pups were playing by or front door. I grabbed them and brought them in. I was waiting for Lynne to yell at me to get them out but, she fell instantly in love with them too. We played with them for a while. I fed them a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios. Lynne, being a bit more thoughtful, warmed up some milk and broke us some bread in a dish and fed them that.

Click here for Puppy pictures

They hung in here for about and hour and a half. They'd play, then snuggle in my arms and fall asleep. Delilah came around looking for them eventually and they tore off after her again.

Sun Jan 3 - Two Week Catch Up

2010-01-03T17:14:00.001-07:00

Wow - I can't believe that it's been so long since we've updated the site here. More so - I can't believe I haven't re-designed it and cleared out a lot of the old stuff yet!

I've done a TON of studying on different technology from what I've been using for years. I'm looking forward to introducing it all on the new site.

So - what's been happening since we updated last?

1. I climbed the mountain.

2. Jordan and Sara visited for 8 days.

3. We installed Windows 7 and have both computers running again!

4. Christmas came and went.

5. So did New Years.

6. More people moved into the ranch here.

7. We signed up for Spanish lessons

1. The Mountain.

So, there is a Shrine part way up one of the mountains from here. I was talking to a guy who hikes around in the mountains and he invites me out to go with hi. I'm told it's about 20 minute up and 20 minutes down. A great introduction to climbing in the mountains I think.

Well, I've got a lot of catching up to do here so, to make a long story short . . 6 hours later we return from the top of the 8,000' mountain. (We're at 5,000' here) Cuts bruises scraps and legs muscle aches from muscles that I didn't know existed. Holy crap - what an adventure.

The really fun part was when we lost the trail cut through the bush, got all tangled up in vines and then slipped on the loose gravel and slid on my back until I could catch a branch to hold me until Doug came back and tossed me a line.

Yup - mountain climbing - something new to add to the list of somewhat insane things to fill in time doing!

2. Jordan and Sara Visit

We picked up the kids from Guadalajara on the 22nd. It was late in the day so there wasn't much for them to see while we drove the 30 minutes back from the airport.

It was really fun having them here. Sara hadn't traveled at all prior to this so everything was a new adventure for her.

We took them out to all the local, 'way cool' restaurants We did the Wednesday 'Tiengas' local market. The next day we headed off to the Hot springs and the Spa. The hot springs are only about 10k from here. The springs themselves were a bit of a disappointment because the springs now feed manmade pools and hot tubs, but it was great to be able to swim in huge warm pools!

The Spa was a riot. They offer two packages. A 1.5 hour or a 2.5 hour package. It cost 40 or 60 pesos for the packages. 60 pesos is $4.80 Canadian so we figured, 'Go big or go home' and spent the $20.00 for the bunch of us.

Now - I'm not a Spa guy. I'm really not sure about all this laying in hot tubs of with all sorts of minerals, or flowers or teas leaves or whatever sort of plant they can think of. There were signs beside each of the first 6 hot tubs explaining what was in them and what they were good for. All I know is that and hour and a half later, I smelt something like tea and flowers, was wrinkled like crazy, and pretty damn relaxed!

Then we headed over to the other side where we covered ourselves in mud, ad I mean covered. Hair to toes - crazy! Just these little white eyes blinking through all this crap! Then sat in the sun while it caked dry. More hot tubs to wash it off, steam rooms, inhalers and saunas. All in all, quite the adventure. We all fell asleep totally relaxed pretty early that night!

We did the Tonala and Tlaquepaque tour with them. We went to the movies, we spent some time just hanging out, we did Christmas dinner at the local hotel restaurant.

The last day here the kids opted for going back to the hot springs over going and touring the town of Tequila. I guess Lynne and I will go there ourselves again one day and do the tour.

We took them back to the airport on the 30th. They had wanted to be home for New Years. We were both pretty sad and lonely for a couple of days after they left. They're god kids and they were a blast to have around!

3. Windows 7

Yup - It works. It seems pretty stable. It's always such a pain in the butt to reinstall all that software, but it seems like it was worth in. Now if we could only get a solid reliable internet connection, computer life would be perfect!

4. & 5. Christmas and New Years

Christmas pretty much didn't come to Ajijic. I've always wanted to live somewhere that there wasn't all the snow, the cold, the hustle and bustle of running to the mall, shopping for all kinds of stuff and running around like a crazy person. Now I had the experience, I missed all of that frenzy. We both missed all of the people, our friends.

Christmas here is very subdued. Santa doesn't exist in Mexico. Almost every house has a 'Creche', a nativity scene all done up with lights. The one here at the ranch was huge. Not the size of the people and animals, but the ground that it tool over and the number of people and scenes within them. All of these had the flashing colored tiny lights, but you houses aren't lit up like at home.

New Years was quiet for us. We usually don't do much. I did my 5k Resolution run in the morning of the 31st. I thought about that unbelievable cold windy Running Room rn we'd done with a few friends the year before. I missed 'the gang' again then. Oh well, there is a cost of living here with all it has to offer!

6. The invasion of the Other People

The ranch here has 6, one floor buildings. There are a total of 10 rental units within these buildings. Several of the units are duplexes. Ours is a single unit. I think we have the best one on the ranch actually. It's not big, but we face east. We get the morning sun in the front and the afternoon sun in the side. Our front room runs the length of the building and is made totally of patio windows.

We were the 2nd couple to move in. It seems the place is pretty much empty during the summer months.The couple that were here when we came, John and Joan, were quiet but friendly. They seemed a tiny bit stand offish, keeping to themselves, but nice folks. The more we get to know them the more we're enjoying them.

A coupe of weeks ago, Paul sand Kay from Nova Scotia moved in. They have been combing here for years. They have a ton of friends here and seem to be out almost every night. Great folks! Fun. Stereo typical 'down east' folk. We're liking them allot.

The day before yesterday another couple arrived from Toronto. We were eager to meet some folks form 'home'. We don't know them well yet, but, it was a bit disappointing that they seem to be complaining and demanding. Nothing is good. There's problems with everything. they are making lists to 'get things straightened out'.

It's very interesting to see how, slowly our little ranch is acquiring every bit of all of the entities that make up the world.

There's another couple arriving today. The locals at the ranch here have been working furiously at getting their place ready for them. They are moving into the building directly across from us. Paul and Kay know them and say they are nice. I understand he's a photographer. I'm looking forward to learning some stuff from him.

7. Spanish Lessons

It's always bothered me at home when I met people who moved to Canada years ago, but they had no idea of the English language. I felt they were rude in not at least attempting to learn. Well, time to put up or shut up I guess!

Lynne has been doing great with her Spanish. I on the other hand . . . . not so much.

We found a teacher who does 'one-on-one' classes. She's taught people for years and says that "everyone can learn, but we all learn differently". I hope she's right. I feel like such a dummy. I start tomorrow (Monday) going 3 times a week for an hour each time.

Ok - that's it. All caught up. Happy New Year to everyone from Lynne and I. Here's hoping that we all have a great 2010. "Thanks" to everyone who has been keeping in touch. We love hearing about what everyone is doing back home too.

Wednesday Dec 17 - Tonila and Tlaquepaque

2010-01-03T09:21:00.000-07:00

by Lynne

Today was a wonderful day. We woke to the sound of the alarm at 6:30 a.m. - first alarm clock awakening since arriving here 5 weeks ago. We walked up to the Carretera to the corner where the Lloyd's bank is to meet our van for our day's outing. We were early, so we went across the road to Donas Donuts where I bought myself a coffee. We chatted with another fellow who appeared to be waiting as well and sure enough he was booked on the trip. His name was Marten, born in Mexico in Jocotopec, a couple of towns down on the Carretera and now living in L.A. where he teaches kindergarten. He's home visiting his father's family. He spoke fluent Spanish and English. Then Vivienne arrived. She is a tourist from Boston and today was her last day after being here for two weeks. She has the Lake Chapala fever and is already scheming to get back here as fast as she can. Our driver Hernandez, was a lovely man and he spoke English fairly well.

We drove to Tonala where we were in huge traffic jams. The Tienges (open air market) takes up several streets there and seems to go on for miles. The item that was available there that we don't see at our own market was birds in cages and on sticks and in wooden cages on men's backs. Fascinating.

We stopped first at a Potter's studio. His name is Salvadore Vazquez and he works in a dark, cold dingy space producing beautiful work. He learned his art from his mother and his grandmother and the work he produces has been shown in galleries in Sante Fe, Albuquerque, and San Diego. Everything is hand painted, the colours are burnished and gorgeous. He has a metal tool used to polish the completed pottery to give it a glazed look, that was handed down to him from his grandmother. The home gallery where his work was displayed wasn't a very lovely space either. The ceiling was leaking and the paint was peeling and there was dog poo on the mirador......such a disappointing and very humble space for a renowned artist. We ended up buying a gorgeous plate, 22 inches in diameter - lunes et sol....moon and sun. We will hang it in our rental for now, but if we ever own a home again, I will be proud to own it. Greg took a picture of me and the artist holding our purchase. It cost 800 pesos, about 65 dollars.
No wonder his space was so humble.

Next stop, the paper mache factory. Not the kind of paper mache we all did in grade 3 although much of the process is the same. The layers and different glues produce a finished product that looks like ceramic.....all also hand painted and glazed. There were 7 foot giraffes and a lion lying on it's back so that it's feet produced a base for a piece of glass and voila, a coffee table. We didn't love this stuff and didn't buy a thing.

On to the glass blowing factory where about 20 young guys were working in scorching heat. No work place safety here. Everyone was running around with metal rods with burning globes of glass on the end but somehow they seem mindful of each other and as Greg said, they don't need government mandates, they just use common sense. It was fun to see the shapes being formed by blowing down the metal rods and rolling the blobs on metal slabs and voila all that gorgeous Mexican glass that I've always loved. In the shop here, I could have easily bought 12 drinking glasses priced at about 1.50 each and in great colours, but with no home of our own it seemed pointless. Greg bought one glass for him and one for me although we do have a set in our casita, these are our own. The "stuff" thing is a challenge. When we had roots and owned a home we were always buying more stuff. Now we don't have a home and all of our "stuff" is in storage and yet we still seem to want more lovely things when we see them. Consumerism is a hard habit to break.

We left Tonala, again through snarled traffic. We were starving at this point. Hernandez dropped us off at the Tlaquepaque and we went to a traditional Mexican restaurant called El Patio. We ate delcious lunches. I had sole diablo but told the waiter to go easy on the diablo. Greg, the carnivore, ate steak and sausage in a sauce. There was a cactus plant on his plate. We've seen them for sale at the market and haven't tried them up til today. It was interesting....a bit bitter. The setting of the restaurant was gorgeous with a fountain in the center and the lush gardens that you see everywhere here and start to take for granted. There was live music.

We walked around Tlaquepaque looking in wonderful galleries at lovely pieces made by very creative people. Greg brought his G.P.S. to enter the way points so we can now get to these places on our own without any difficulty. The square in the Tlaquepaque is delightful and the feel of the whole area is very European. We could have been in Italy.

We were like worn out kids after a day at the playground on the ride back to Ajijic, all of us quiet and tired after a day that nourished our senses.

When we got back home we joined the neighbours with a glass of wine to watch the sunset over the lake at the back of the ranchero.

Here, finally, are some pictures from the day.

Dec 15- Day 30 of 30 Runs for 30 days

2009-12-18T08:04:00.000-07:00

And so ends (almost) another crazy experiment in how to ruin ones body!

I met Mike Cheliak this summer while playing 'Race Announcer' for a couple of the HSBC Tri weekends. Crazy, fun, big guys who ended up adopting Puppy Puppy from us.

About a month ago, Mike came up with this crazy idea of running 30 runs for 30 days. He tossed the idea up on Facebook and I saw it, his buddy Ted and his sister saw it. 4 people without the common sense to say "That's a dumb idea". Nov 15 we started. We all updated each other by adding onto the Facebook thread.

What a ride. I started out actually 2 days early and was shocked at how hard it was to run. Was I just out of shape? I hadn't done much at all since Ironman in late July. Was it the altitude? We're at a bit over 5000 feet above sea level. Just about exactly 1 mile up. Hummm - the mile high club with a different twist!

I did a bit of Google searching and found a few articles on running at altitude. If I have it right, it seems that at 5000' one can expect to loose about 10% of their ability. The blood thickens and it's much harder to get the oxygen that we need. I don't know if I'm glad I read that or not. I instantly felt better about myself and how hard it was to run, but then it quickly became an excuse for me too. The things I read said that one will feel like superman if they race at low altitude again shortly after returning. I can't wait for that one!

I worked my way up to 10k at a somewhat reasonable time last weekend. Actually, the 56 minute 10k was a great time for me! (I always remember my abilities much greater than they really are!)

I thought for the last 10 days I'd increase the distance by 1k, and not really think about speed at all. That lasted for a few days (as the chart on the right shows) but quickly I ran out of steam and ran the last couple of days at much shorter (recovery of sorts) distances.

I felt like running 21k shouldn't be that big a deal for me. I've raced a half dozen half marathons before and run, God knows how many 21k training runs in the past. For some reason I was nervous though.

I headed out this morning after a good breakfast, loaded with 2 litters of E-Load water, and the last 3 Gels that I could buy here. (Power Bar gels are crap aren't they? Who decided that 'Oh yea - this taste is great" Man oh man I can't stand that stuff. (Dear God - please open a Gu store within a days drive of here for me!)

I had a knot in my right calf from the get go. It lasted almost 5k into the run. I ran over to the town of Chapala along the highway. The highway is the only road that isn't 200 year old cobblestone, so it's easier to run on. It's about 7k to Chapala but, in town, there is a paving stone boardwalk along the waterfront that runs about 1.8k return. I did that 5 times and headed back. I watched my pace decrease slowly from about the 12 - 13k mark.

By the time I got back to Ajijic, our home town here and the start/finish line, I was bushed. The last 4 - 5k had turned from just going at whatever slow pace I could to, Holy Crap - I'm going to puke and pass out! I go to my start point to see I was still about 40 meters short. I'd added a couple of return laps along the way so that once I hit the start, I'd be done. Event hat idea didn't work out. I turned and ran back a bit more to put in the distance. Heaven forbid I'd be short by a few feet!

I walked back home, about .5k and had the only 2 packages of E-Mend that I'd brought with me. (Will someone tell Dr Doug that he needs to open a store here too please!)

The finish of this experiment for me is going to be taking a couple of days off, doing a couple of short runs and then something long a quick. Does running endlessly for a month build muscle, endurance and speed, or, did it just knock the crap out of me? I'll let you know.

Thanks to everyone who send good luck wishes along the way for me!

Oh yea - almost forgot to mention that I posted the totals from the month at the bottom of the table at the right.

Saturday Dec 12 Update

2009-12-15T14:09:00.000-07:00

The weeks seem to fly past quicker every week. I guess we're settling into a routine. I'm not sure I'm entirely happy about that. I like to be adventurous, but, at the same time, it's nice to take it easy and relax too. "It is what it is" I guess!

I decided to push the heck out of myself for the last 10 days of the '30 days and 30 runs' I've been doing with Lynne, Mike and Ted back home. I pushed a pretty good time (for me) on a 10k run last weekend and thought I'd add 1k a day and then do 21 on the last day of the 30.

Where do these idea's come from, and how can I keep them there! I did reasonably well for most of the week. I skipped 13k because, well, 13 is unlucky. I watched my pace stay close to the same every day as I added more distance. I ran further and further into the town of Chapala. On Thursday, I hit the fence. (not to be confused with hitting the wall) View Run. A 15k out and back is all I can do along that route. The road at the far end dead ends at a fence.

Friday I did my 16k run by doing the same route, but cutting back and forth at a few spot sot make up the extra 1k.

Today was something else though. I was missing something when I headed out to start the run. Energy - yea, that's what's missing. A can of Red Bull didn't help either. I started running and remembered that my right leg, calf and hamstring were tight. They were tight the day before, but had loosened up after a couple of kilometres. I got to the 5.25k mark today and they were still tight. My energy level was dropping fast, my chest hurt, my leg, my foot . . . . you name it, it hurt.

I'm not sure if I was sending too much time thinking about the total mileage for this week that I'd done (90 as of today). I thought about the last month and how close we are to the end. I thought about this stupid toenail that STILL hasn't completely fallen off since Ironman and how it bites into the toe. (Isn't 4 months a long time for a nail to drop off?) Obviously, I was just thinking about all the wrong stuff. I turned back at the 5.25 mark, did a bit of a back and forth near the end and ended up running 12k today instead of the 17k I was planning on doing.

Tomorrow's another day. 3 runs left. The initial plan calls for a 18k, 19k and then a final 21k. Hummmm - 2k short of 150k in 10 days . . . . . Hummmmm :-)

Sunday update:

How do you tell when you're being a suck, or when you are making the 'msart' move? That's always the tough question for me.

I really wanted to run 1k a day more every day for 10 days but, I didn't make it happen.

I dragged my sorry ass out of bed this morning. Checked my email, looked that the weather channel, CNN, Toronto Star, Globe and Sun, long term weather forecast for here. I managed to waste an hour and a half and I still didn't want to go and run.

Maybe all this was like a "Message from God" - "You're tired Greg. You need to rest a bit. Go and jog a nice slow even paced 5k and just keep those tired old leg muscles loose!"

Well, who the heck am I to argue with God? OK big guy - you and me and a slow 5k coming up.

Off I went, back out along the back roads to San Antonio. If I'm not going to run far, at least it can sound like it is!.

Oh My God. That knot in my hamstring turned instantly into a burning ball in the back of my leg. My back felt stiff. I couldn't get a good breath. At the 1k mark I looked down to see I was running a 7 minute pace. My pace always stows down over time. I CAN"T do 5k at 7:00 mpk. I picked up the pace a bit, then a bit more. I ran through San Antonio and out the far side to the 2.5k mark where I turned around. 6:40 pace at that point. I totally forgot about running slow and easy to recover a bit from the last 28 days of running. I ended up back at the ranch with an average pace of 6:20.

This is the first time I've ever looked at the Garmin data (http://connect.garmin.com/activity/20478030) and seen every split be faster than the one before!

I'm a bit disappointed that I'm not going to clock all the mileage I'd originally planned to do but, I'm back home and I'm no where near as exhausted as I have been after the last few runs. My legs are loosened up, but not killing me like they have been.

I think I'm going to do about the same run tomorrow, then go for my second chiropractor appointment, take it easy for the rest of the day and see what sort of time I can get on Tuesday, Day 30 of 30 ending with a 21k run.

(I think sleeping in Wednesday is going to be delicious!)

Sunday Dec 6 - Lynne Update

2009-12-12T12:21:00.000-07:00

Well our life here in Ajijic and on Ranch el Rosario is starting to unfold as is evidenced by the fact that we seem to have more to do now than updating the Blog.

Last Sunday, we drove to Guadalajara and did a bit of exploring. We didn't find the Tlaquepaque which is what we were looking for but ended up in an enormous mall that could rival any American one and it felt like we were home especially when we saw Santa Claus and heard the Christmas Carols over the sound system. There was a Chili's and an Applebees and we could have been anywhere in the States or Canada.

We also found the Center of town with it's beautiful Church and square and was a bit more in keeping with our taste. We will do more research and return to Guadalajara soon.

I'd like to report that other than a giant cucaracha on our bedroom curtain, there have been no more animal births or deaths in recent days.

Greg does a few hours of web work each day and I have managed to plug into the spritual community here. I've been to couple of Course in Miracles meetings and a couple of Science of Mind meetings. I've been meeting lots of good people. Greg even came with me to a Gratitude Service on Friday night and although it's not his thing, he was a very good sport about it. It was in a private home that is the most beautiful home I've ever seen, built in a U around a lush garden and pool and all the walls of the rooms are open to the garden. Someone told me this is a true Hacienda style home.

New neighbours arrived last week. Kay and Paul, a lovely couple from Annapolis Royal in Nova Scotia and this is their third year staying on the ranch. New people to play dominoes with.

I was very excited this morning when Greg tried to shower and realized there was no hot water. I went out and found Ramon and said....L'agua en el bano es frio. He understood and got the problem resolved in no time. No pantomime and no sign language. I got the message across in Spanish.

Today we treated ourselves to massages at a place called "The Hidden Garden." I haven't felt that relaxed in weeks and I will definitely return. After my massage I had a half hour before my Course in Miracles Meeting and I went to the town square and sat on a bench and just watched the activity. I was awed by una mujere who turned a simple mango into a flower on a stick, like a popsicle, but better for you. They sell all kinds of fruit and veggies in the square in plastic containers to munch on instead of junk food. And the plastic containers are good for capturing those cucarachas I mentioned earlier.

We went to the Chapala Society, the other day to join. It is a Gringo organization that plans events, has a library and many Spanish classes and is in a gorgeous park like setting. It's where I do my yoga. We started chatting with Howard Feldenberg from Rochester N.Y. He's running for president and was shmoozing us. He asked me if I was Jewish (damn it, I thought I didn't look the part) and his friend came over and they invited me to services at the 'Gogue. There is a chapel (reform) in the town of Chapala....which is to Ajijic what Newmarket is to Aurora. He also invited us to the Chanukah party for Latkes.....we will definitely go to that.

Tomorrow morning we are going to something at the Chapala Society called "Open Circle". They serve coffee and someone speaks about their life. The only restriction is that your story has to be inspirational and uplifting. The guy who is speaking tomorrow is David about the stroke he had 10 years ago in his 40's that left him totally paralyzed and unable to function and his eventual return to total functionality. It should be an interesting story. I've met the guy as he comes to the Science of Mind meetings.

Yesterday Greg and I had the most wonderful lunch in a restaurant in yet another "secret garden." He had something called a Mojeta (not to be confused with a Mojeto which is some kind of fancy drink) which is shrimp and cheese and avocado done in a Lava pot and it looked delcious. I had a Caesar salad cause I'm boring. The waiter was lovely and he practised his English and me my Spanish and we had a few good laughs.

Life is good. I feel like we're finding a bit of a groove for ourselves. Yippeee.

And Jordan and Sara will be here in two weeks and two days. Yay!

"Life" on the Ranch

2009-11-30T13:13:00.000-07:00

I think Lynne and I really lucked out when we stumbled upon this ranch that we're staying at. When we were still in the hotel, we;d figured we needed to find something quickly, so we could take anything that was OK that we tripped over for a couple of months and that would give us time to find something we really liked.

We'll, we've been looking around at other houses over the last week or so. There are lots of nice houses. There are lots of nice communities but, this place is like living in the cottage on wildlife preserve park.

The grounds are impeccable. The Mexican families (3 I think) that look after the place live at the far end of the grounds. THey are always cutting the grass, trimming the bushes, cleaning the houses or, playing with their kids and the animals.

I think it's the animals that make this place so special. There are dogs and cats and chickens all over the place. Not overrunning the place, but I nice bunch around.

The cat had kittens just before we got here. I'm not sure how many, but we see two or three every once in while. There are a few chickens and roosters. the roosters were walking us up every morning when we first got here. I guess we're used to them now. I never hear them anymore.

Dogs: Two German Sheppard's, Samson and Delilah. I miss puppy so I've made friends with these two dogs. Milk Bones help! There is a sprinkling of other small dogs too. Most looking a little mattie Dogs seem to be looked upon as livestock more than family pets that are pampered and brushed.

One of the hens hatched 11 chicks about a week ago. She's a funny looking hen with feathers on her head that make her look like she's got a hat on. Now we watch her walk around the grounds with these little chicks in hot pursuit!

Delilah was barking and barking the other night. I couldn't figure out why no one went our to shut her up. The next morning we found out that she'd had 8 puppies that night. She's crawled under one of the bushes here and practically made a nest for her and her babies.

There is only one other couple renting a place here at the moment. We understand that the other 8 units will fill up in December and JAnuary. In the meantime, all this 'life' on the ranch is great to be a part of it.

Thursday - Short Run and US "Turkey Day"

2009-11-28T09:54:00.001-07:00

I had a terrible sleep last night. I'm behind in some work I need to get done. I guess that was on my mind. The dog barking in the background for an hour didn't help the situation.

i tossed and turned for a while, then got up and did some work for about an hour and a half. The mistake I made was going back to bed and sleeping for a bit before I got up again to run. I felt really crappy when I woke up that time. The only good part was that I got some work done. I don't know if my customer will even notice, but at least I know it's done and it's right!

Lynne was already out running when I got up. She came back just as I was heading out the door.

I took my time running into San Antonia, and then kicked it up a notch on the way back. I had an average pace of 6:20 at the half way mark, but ended with a 6:03.

I can't wait to see how the pace changes when the chiropractor loosens up this hip next Monday.

We made an appointment on Monday with a realtor to show us some rental properties here. We were to meet at 10:00 am and he was to have a list of places to show us. We walked in his door at 9:59, and was met by one of his co-workers who explained that Jorge had car trouble but would be in later. He was going to take us out.

We looked at a place at the other side of town that, if we were interested in buying would have been great. It needed all new furniture and a paint job. The back garden was gorgeous. 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, bright big kitchen. $750.00 a month rent. Yup, if we were buying it would be great; but we;re not buying. We have no interest in buying furniture or decorating a rental property.

He took us over to another location, but the owner said we couldn't see it until after Dec 1. He drove us back to the office and told us Jorge was there now.

Yup, he was, but was finishing off a deal with some other clients whom I suspect were the reason he couldn't meet us. He kept us waiting for 15 minutes, (a life time in my world) and then explained he'd make some calls and set some appointments. (I thought that was what he was going to do between the time we first met him and then came back of our appointment.) Lynne and I left and did a little grocery shopping and went back in 30 minutes to meet him again.

He explained where a property was, what the unit number is,a and who we should meet in an hour or so.

We'll go look this afternoon but, I think Jorge translates from Spanish to English to be "Turkey". I guess, as it's Turkey Day in the US, we had to have some turkey in our life today too.

We're done with Jorge!

Day 10 - Recovery Run & Dentist Report

2009-11-26T11:25:00.003-07:00

Today's run was an easy one. I'd decided before I left the house that I was going to take it really easy and . . . . I succeeded!

I ran our to San Antonio to where they told me the Chiropractors office is. I turned around when I found the address and jogged back.

I had to purposely NOT look at my Garmin. I knew if I did, I'd see the low heart rate and the really slow pace and push myself. I'm pretty sure that running every day for 30 days with no days off for muscle recovery isn't a really good thing to do, but I said I would and I will. No where did we say we have to be faster or longer every day!

I was a few blocks from the house when I saw Lynne running towards me. She turned when we met up. We jogged together for a bit. I kept going when she stopped to walk for a bit. I was surprised at how well she did and how much she ran. I think that was her first time out in months. "YEA LYNNEEEEE"

Back home for a quick shower and then out for market day. We got lots of fresh veggies, fresh flowers and some really fresh Smarties and Jube Jubes! Got to love market day.

There was an open house almost beside where we live so, we stopped in and looked around. That got us in the mood so we headed out in the car to check on mail and then some more open houses. The mail got sent tout to us about 10 days ago now, but nothing has arrived yet. thanks God for online banking and payments or we'd be cut off from everything before we even got the bill! Humm, come to think of it, we haven't actually seen a piece of mail since the end of September when we left home!

We drove a bit and found some more open houses. i'm not sure why we're looking. The market is pretty dry here and I think we'd be nuts to take our money out of our investments at home and buy a house here, even if they are so much cheaper. We looked at a 3400 sq ft house here today for $235,000. and then a little 1200 sq ft place for $109,000.

Lynne's temporary crown seems to be fine. We . . . well, she, gets the final crown on Friday. We circled back to the Chiropractors office (through the big black garage doors, through ANOTHER amazing yard) and got an appointment for Monday. I can't wait to not feel this hip and shoulder!

It feels a bit cooler here today. I just checked our weather and saw that it's only 19 degrees - then I checked the weather online at home.

Sorry guys!

Slow Run and Dentist

2009-11-25T12:51:00.000-07:00

I went for a very interesting run this morning. I felt like a million bucks yesterday and was considering doing a 17k (I think it is) loop from Ajijic to Chapala.

I leapt out of bed with a Charlie Horse in the middle of the night. Lynne and I had an appointment at 10:00 to look at a bigger house to possibly rent and . . . . I just didn't feel like that long a run this morning.

Truth be known, I didn't feel like a run at all this morning but far be it from me to not finish this damn 30 day running thing I'm doing with a couple of folks back home. The 30 day facebook challenge I think I'm going to call it. The four of us are checking in daily on how we're doing.

Anyway, out I went heading towards Chapala. Chapala is the next large town east of us. I'd run that direction the other day but turned around at the 5k mark. I'd set out that day for a 10k run. Today, I kept going into town. I got just about to the center of town when I hit the 6k mark.

I'd also hit the wall. Bang, there I was, just about ready to sit down and call Lynne for a ride home. Instantly I went from feeling good to "Holy carp - I'm done!"

Unfortunately, I was 6k from home with an appointment in an hour to get too.

I did a bunch of walking on the way back. I played a game for a bit of walking 50 steps then running 50, then walk 40 and run 60, run 35, run 165. It's funny the crap I come up with to take my mind off the fact that I really would like to lay down under a tree and have a little nap!

i played with that "Your slowest run is quicker than your fastest walk" idea for a while and jogged slowly for a while.

2.5k left - 2k - 1.7 - "I can do anything for 1.7". 500 meters and eventually got to the wailing wall. There's a wall at the side of the highway where I start and stop. I hang off it for a bit at the end of every run and try to catch my breath again. I seem to always try to make up for lost time during that last 500 meters.

It practically kills me every time.

We're off to the dentist for Lynne this morning. We're both a bit nervous . . . . she more than I!

"This is It" - (The movie)

2009-11-24T10:01:00.001-07:00

Lynne and I did a little hours shopping today. There are almost 500 houses on the market today and they have sold 216 in the last 12 months. December is a big sales month, but, non the less. If we buy something it could easily take 2 years to sell it again later. I think we're better off with our money invested as it is and keep renting!

We went to see the Michael Jackson "This Is It" movies tonight.

I must admit, I've never been much of a Michael Jackson fan. I never bought an album. I read all the hype and crap in the papers and, I expect like a lot of folks, I wrote the guy off as the strangest individual alive. Was he a freak, a child molester a weirdo. Who knows. I am really glad I went to see the movie. For everyone who felt the same about him as I did, but believes there are many sides to everyone, this is a must see movie.

How amazing to watch this musical entertainer genius at work. The rest of the crap doesn't matter. Heck, don't we all have that side of us that we don't want anyone to know about. Regardless of if you set fires to mailboxes in the country as a kid or if you needed to ask someone to get the key to open the door for you, we've all got our own level of shit behind us. If we were famous enough, it could be blown up beyond anything reasonable too.

All my true musician friends have always talked about his musical genius. What a great opportunity this movie is to see him in action. to watch him take an idea and in a breath, take it to a level that gets anyone toe tapping in their seat. Great flick in my opinion!

We left the movie and headed home. I guess this bull fight ring between our house and the movies is the happening concert place in town. It's where they blow up all these fire works celebrating the revolution (Thanks John!). I still think they may be grenades, but I'm not positive yet!

Tonight there is a rock concert along with all the explosions.

Now - you have to remember, we just left the Michael Jackson movie. The movie sure wasn't "Shine the Light", the Rolling Stones movie by Martin Scorsese , but it sure was good music. Coming out to and listening to Mexican Rock, well, Lunch Bag Letdown" doesn't cover it. I did enjoy people watching though.

What a country! What an experience! We're so lucky!!

Sunday - Easy Morning Run

2009-11-22T18:32:00.000-07:00

The neighbors warned us that the festival that started with he parade on Friday ends with 11 days of fireworks. The parade was cool. Friday night we heard a few bangs. Saturday a few more. I thought of fireworks sort of like Ontario Place on May 24 or something. I didn't see any big colorful bursts of color in the sky, but we also didn't hear never ending explosions either . . . . until this morning!

6:00 am, there we were, sleeping soundly on this big beautiful bed. A nice cool breeze flowing in through the bedroom window and BANG . . . BANG . . . . bang bang bang. Holy crap! These aren't fireworks, these are just explosions.

I often count step when I run and for some reason I started counting explosions too, guessing ahead at how many times the bed would shake with these war type sounding explosions. Who would have thought they'd end at 200! 200 frickin' bombs going off a block away from my bed! I still don't k now what these folks are celebrating, but they sure don't want anyone to miss it!

I was tempted to get up and go and watch but, I managed to roll back over for another couple of hours sleep instead.

Today is day 6 of this '30 minutes for 30 days' running thing I'm doing. I'm not sure why I'm doing it. I guess any goal is better than no goal at all. I'm having fun reading Ted and Mikes stories on Facebook as we're all doing it together. Mike's sister Lynne is 4 days ahead of us.

I did 10k for the first time in months yesterday so, I thought I'd do a slow recovery run today. I thought I'd just head out the back way along the cobblestones to the town square in San Antonio. I love the sound of "running to San Antonio". It sounds so far! In fact, it's only about 2k. I took my time, ran to, and then around the square, and headed back. When I got tot the gates here at the ranch, I saw I had been running for 24 minutes. I was going to stop at the gates but then I figured - just a bit more and I'll have that 30 minutes in.

I ran down to the end of the block which put me at the shore of the lake. I often see fishermen, just like in those old bible pictures, tossing their nets out into the water and pulling them back in. There was a guy just coming in to shore with an entire 5 gallon plastic pail, full to the brim with fish. I wonder what he does with them. They tell me the lake is polluted and every fish market tells you that their fish aren't from the lake so, . . . . what does this guy do with these fish??

Oh well, back to the gate but that only took a minute or so. Off I went around the block on the cobblestones again. Actually, the block right around the next block has a curb that extends about 16" into the road. I can run along that. Two American women were walking their little dogs along the sidewalk. I was amazed when I got 10 feet from them, one of the women stepped down onto the part of the curb I was running on. i contemplated letting the women know what I thought of her, her dog and her pretty pink cotton jogging suit, but decided to just run carefully around her and keep my comments to myself.

What's happening to me? That's not what I do!!!!!

I finished off the run and weighed in 0.1 lbs lighter than yesterday. This running doesn't seem to be doing anything for my weight. My shorts sit a little looser around the waist though.

We're off "Open House" hoping today.

Friday Nov 20 - Party Time in Ajijic

2009-11-21T10:03:00.000-07:00

I got out early this morning for a run on pavement for a change. I have been doing this 5k route along the cobblestone streets and have been somewhat disappointed by my pace. I warmed up by walking quickly the 500 meters to the highway and then did a 2.5 out and back along the paved bike path. i was gasping at the end, but I did manage a 5:35 pace which, at the moment, I'm happy with.

Lynne has wanted to get a crown on a discolored tooth for a long time. Her dentist at home wanted about $850.00 for it and, to brighten a tooth color just never seemed worth the expense. We know a number of people who come to Mexico for dental work so, we had made an appointment with a guy beside the bagel shop that we found the other day.

$20.00 for a consultation including 2 x-rays and the verdict was, he would do it for about $650. That didn't seem like the kind of deal we`d heard about so, we dropped in at another dentist around the corner from our house. No charge for the consultation and x-ray and $250.00 for the crown! He took the impression on the spot. She gets the temp on Tuesday and the finished crown on Friday. What a country!

There is a festival starting today that apparently goes on for the next 11 days. We don`t know what it`s for. Everyone has warned us that there will be fireworks non stop for the next 11 days. We went to the opening day parade this morning. What a hoot. There were groups of kids of all ages parading down the street. The young kids were dressed up. Most kids had on their school uniforms. There were a couple of bands. There were a few pickup trucks, decorated with balloons with kids in the back waving to the folks along the edge of the street. I found those pickups the most fun. For every kid in the truck waving, there was a mother running along behind making sure their kid was OK!

For those of you at home who have ever been to the Aurora Santa Claus parade, this next part will thrill you too. There were no Fire trucks. No Mayor (Sorry tim - YOu were great), No bunch of town council folks, no businesses advertising, just tons sand tons of kids. Soccer teams, dance groups, kids and adults on horseback. I guess the schools don`t have a ton of money to use for musical instruments. Some groups clapped together as they marched. Some tapped out a beat with their feet as they marched. One group had small wooded pieces of wood, maybe 3" X 2" with straps stapled on that they use to clap out a beat with.

It was great to see so many people having so much fun, proud parents along the side lines cheering for their kids and their kids friends, all at almost no financial expense what so ever! The town square was totally packed with young and old after the parade was over.

We really have to find out what the event is! Also, It's almost 10:00 PM now and, so far, no fireworks!

We're going to look at a few open houses over the weekend. we're pretty sure we're not going to find anything nicer than the place we're in now, but we figure we need to look anyway.

We went to the movies tonight to see the Michael Jackson movie. We got the time wrong and God knows we could stay up and go to the 9:30 show, so we saw The Soloist" at 7:00. Great flick if you haven't seen it. We'll see St. Michael tomorrow. Oh, yea - I was wrong about the cost of going to the movies here. I told everyone it was $2.00, but I was wrong. Converted back to Canadian dollars it's . . . $2.96! I'm thinking we'll see a lot of movies here. It's very nice that the theatre is at the top of our street, just past the Bull Fight ring and the soccer fields!

Tuesday November 19 - Mid Week Update

2009-11-20T20:25:00.000-07:00

There's not much to write. The pictures below tell the story other than I did start running everyday, 30 minutes for 30 days.

We've been to the Wednesday outdoor market and bought fresh fish and fruits and veggies. We've been eating very well.

Lynne has started a Yoga class. We discovered the local cinema and went to see Inglorious Bastards which was in English with Spanish subtitles but unfortunately about half of that movie was in French or German and the subtitles remained in Spanish.....so we did get the main idea but missed the little inuendoes. Lynne hated the blood and gore.

Speaking of blood and gore, a couple of days ago they brought a cow to the ranch....there was this big black cow lying around on the sidewalk or grazing on our beautifully manicured lawns. When we asked Lucia about the cow she said it was sick. Forget Swine Flu....now we are worrying about Mad Cow. Last night on the way to the cinema we walked by the Mexican haciendas on our ranch and lying there with bound legs and a slit throat was the old black cow. We are missing Loblaws and those white styrofoam trays with meat in them. Tonight we can see the barbeques up at the Mexican's and the smell of cooking beef isn't quite as tantalizing as it usually is.

Tomorrow begins the 11 day celebration of Ajijic's Saint. Apparently they celebrate by lighting fireworks for all 11 days. Should be interesting or perhaps aggravating. We'll let you know.

Oh and last but not least, we discovered "Coffee and Bagel" actually the name of the little cafe. Lynne had a bagel and cream cheese and lox and I thought she would die from joy. We went there this morning again for breakfast. I had an egg McBagel and it was delicious.

Getting Used to Life In Ajijic

2009-11-14T18:37:00.002-07:00

It's been a few days since I've written. I guess we're getting used to life here on the ranch in Ajjic. We seem to be getting up at around 8:00 or 9:00 in the morning. I'm starting to get a bit of exercise in first thing. I managed to get my ass into a gym bike yesterday for a half hour and went out for a half hour run this morning. Running is really tough here. They call the roads "cobblestone". I think it's more like 1700th century earthquake! Huge stones, smoothed off on the top, with massive spaces between them. It's going to be really easy to twist an ankle!

I managed to find pieces of reasonable level sidewalks along with bits of road where the cement curb turned back into the road for a foot or so in width. When I got out to the town square, there we're paving stones laid along the tire tracks in the road. They were fairly safe to run on. I ran at a 6:30 pace this morning. It was a far cry from the 5:45 - 5:50 that I was running at back at home, but, I guess it's OK for somewhat starting over again!

I got on the scale today and found that my weight was only up about 8 pounds from since I left home. After 5 weeks in the car eating . . . . whatever, I think that's OK. I'm starting to run 30 minutes for 30 days starting on Monday. I'm guessing that will get me going again and knock a few of those extra pounds off.

We went to a "Bull Fight" yesterday. Apparently, "Bull Fight" translates to from Spanish to English to mean "Rodeo". I've never been to a rodeo before. I guess you have to be into that for it to appear interesting!

Today we managed to get cell phones. It took about 6 hours, but, luckily for us, the store is right at the top of our street, less than 5 minutes away. I've put the phone number on the contact page.

Here's some pictures of our place and the grounds.

Day 36 - Rental House

2009-11-10T19:32:00.000-07:00

We found a house to rent for two months today! What an experience!

We met Gonzalo the Remax agent at 9:15 - by 10:00 am he'd shown us two places and we'd decided on the first. 45 minutes to decide where we'd live. That's the way I love to do stuff, so that worked out great in my books.

We asked how we'd pay. They would have taken a US cheque, but we don't have a US account. They wouldn't take a Canadian cheque. Apparently, it takes 3 weeks to clear. We needed to go to the local bank and open an account. No bit deal - right? WRONG!!!

6 hours later. 4 trips back to our hotel for but yet more information or documents. 1 trip back to the Remax office and a trip over to the ranch where our house is. Holy crap!

After all that, we have a bank account in Mexico, but now we have to wire transfer money to it. We got online to move money, but we couldn't do it. We had to talk to our branch. The girl we usually talk to wasn't there. The girl we did talk to said we had to come in! This isn't getting any easier!

We've now emailed the bank with the info and, hopefully, they will look after it in the morning.

Meanwhile, Gonzalo has told us it doesn't matter. We can move in tomorrow around noon, and pay him later in the week.

Pay him later in the week? WOW - That's sure as heck doesn't happen at home! Cool!

So that's our day. no pictures, just miles of walking aback and forth over these rough, and i mean ROUGH, cobblestone roads. I've been thinking I need to get my lazy ass out the door and start running, but I think I got enough exercise today.

We'll take pictures tomorrow.

Day 35 - Arriving in Ajijic

2009-11-09T16:08:00.000-07:00

Before I begin the Mexican Chapter of the Blog, let me take a moment to thank Ron and Bev. They went beyond the call of duty looking after us in Green Valley, with food and drink and games (Mexican Train - so much fun). Ron took Greg to buy Mexican car insurance, medical insurance and get the car serviced. Their villa in Green Valley is in an adult community and they have a sweet two bedroom. The community is pristine with lots of amenities. If you know anyone who might be interested this is the URL is www. ArizonaVacation.ca

Our 3 day Mexican journey was much easier than we anticipated. Of course the fact that we only stayed in 5 star hotels certainly helped. I'm afraid we're not quite the old hippies we thought we might be. We value our comfort and mostly our safety.

The second night out we stopped in Mazatlan which I'm sure most of you have heard of as it's a vacation haven with a million time shares. When we stopped in front of what we thought was an Ocean side hotel, we found out it was indeed ne of those time shares. From the moment we checked in there were angles and schemes to save us money if only we would attend the infamous meeting in the morning. We have been down that time share road in Ontario so we declined as our experience is that they become very mean when you tell them you are not "buying."

We had a little two bedroom suite....quite ugly, with a sliver of ocean view. You'd think that if they were trying to sell you they'd give you the nicest suite in the place but I'd take a guess that our suite was not close to being the nicest. We took a beautiful walk on the beach and watched the sun set. The weather was lovely and so was the beach. We ate dinner in the dining room at the time share and it was shrimp night so we ate well and but it wasn't cheap either. This was the first place we stayed in that didn't have wifi so we bought some time in the internet cafe and that just proved aggravating. We rented ping pong balls and paddles and had a half hour of playing.....and I beat Greg 4 times.....I had to say that because there isn't much in the way of competitions that he loses to me or anyone else for that matter. After that we went back to the ugly suite, watched some t.v. and fell asleep. We were happy to leave in the morning.

Our drive yesterday was long and somewhat arduous. We went through many villages. Our only experience of the Mexicans is that they are kind, courteous, helpful, friendly, honest and generally lovely. We had some more mountain roads to traverse and we were very low on gas so we (mostly I) had some very tense moments. We drove into a small town called Magdalena and finally found gasolina.

We drove through the outskirts of Guadalajara which is the second largest city in Mexico. Greg really keeps his cool driving through these big centers especially with me pumping my imaginary brake and holding on to the door handle. After Guadalajara it was a breeze to get to Lake Chapala. We immediately came to the town of Ajijic (pronounced Ah-hee-heek.) We managed to find the hotel (Nueva Posada) that Greg had found on line and got their last room, the honeymoon suite which is gorgeous with a balcony overlooking the lake. We had dinner outdoors...under a huge old rubber tree. Greg ordered Beef Tenderloin and I had Sea Bass. Both were delicious. We each had a drink and our bill was approximately 29 U.S. dollars. Our bed was somewhat disappointing, like a sack of old laundry but we managed to sleep like babies anyhow.

We had our included breakfast this morning under the same old rubber tree. Comfort Inn, you've been put to shame. This is a three course hot breakfast including eggs benedict. We walked around the town a bit after breakfast and there are some breathtaking views, exotic birds, and although the houses look horrible from the outside when you peek into their courtyards they are just charming. We have arranged to meet with a real estate agent tomorrow to look at renting a place for a couple of months. I'm writing today as Greg had web work to do for a client.

Click here for today's pictures

Day 33 - Alive and well in Mexico

2009-11-08T10:35:00.000-07:00

When I update this blog, I copy yesterday's new over to the Google Blog thing and then write today's whatever into my site here. I got a surprise tonight when I went to copy over yesterdays text. All the Google Blog info is in Spanish! Google must pick up that I'm coming through a Mexican IP address and switch the language over! Good thing I've been using this for a long time and can use it without looking!

Well, today was an exciting day. We crossed the border from Arizona into Mexico first thing this morning. EVERYONE warned us of how terrible it would be and more so, how dangerous. "Buy a gun." "Buy a machete". "Don't stop at anytime for anything" All great advice from all of our friends who love us, but really just scared the crap out of us. (Almost literally, but that's a story for sitting around the bar to tell!)

We got to the border at Nogales. A horrid little town that looks, well, it looks exactly like the sort of killer village that we all saw all of our lives in the movies. We were pretty sure that everyone's warnings were exactly right at that point.

Oddly, the dude at the border they asked if we had insurance and when we showed him our policy that we'd bought the day before, he told us to drive 21k down the road and check with the immigration folks.

Drive 21k? Yup - this is going to be an experience for sure. We drove to immigration, got our visas and our car sticker and were out of there after a somewhat confusing, disorganized 45 minutes.

That was the end of the weirdness for us. We drove about 600k today and are in the town of Cuidad Obregon tonight. We found a beautiful hotel where "Yes" they have a guard outside all night watching the cars.

We did see a few border patrol army type folks out on the road. We found it odd that at one of the gas stations along the way, they would not accept US cash! (I thought the entire WORLD wanted that!)

The roads were great. We drove the toll roads where it seems to be costing about $10.00 US at each of the 3 we drove today.

The countryside is nice. None of the majestic beauty of the Rocky's, or the Redwood Forest of the Red Rock mountains in Arizona. The desert seemed more sandy. Lot's of Cactus, beautiful blue sky's again. There was the odd cloud. (Yesterday was the first day we'd seen any cloud in the sky for about a week. The temperature was in the high 30's most of the day. It seems to have only dropped down to the high 20's tonight. I did just check the weather back home. :-(

I don't know if I've mentioned this in the Blog or not, but we have a bit of a change of destination at the moment, or a new layover anyway.

Lynne was searching for blog's the other night from folks who have driven all the way down here and ended up on a site about a town in Mexico called Lake Chapala. Weather is great. Cost of living - excellent. Big expat community. So . . . . now, after almost 5 weeks on the road and closing on on 9000k, we're going to be in Lake Chapala this weekend and probably staying there through the Christmas holidays.

We're both getting really tired of driving. Beautiful sights just blend together after a while. I can't wait to unpack the car and see what's in there. We need to get to a place soon so that we can book a ticket for Jordan to come visit over Christmas so, unless we get there and don't like it, it looks like we're going to stop driving and adventure around there for a while. We found a great spot online tonight to start from. If it is a good when we get there as it appears on their site, we may just stay in one of the two bedroom villas for a while.

Lake Chapala Info

Nov 3, 4, & 5 Pictures

Day 32 - Green Valley Arizona

2009-11-05T20:07:00.000-07:00

Yesterday (Tuesday) we drove south from Flagstaff to Green Valley. Green Valley is about 2 hours south of Phoenix, 4 hours south of Flagstaff. It was interesting watching the changes in the vegetation from some places that almost reminded us of northern Ontario, so dry rocky desert, to sandy desert. Some places where nothing but tumbleweed grew and other places where all sorts of different cactus grew. Around Phoenix, those tall cactus with fat arms reaching out and up grew, but I guess they need just s certain kind of soil. They seem to only grow in particular areas. We'd see a bunch of them, then 5 minutes down the road, none!

We got to our friends Ron and Bev's about 4:30. Yea, if you recognize the names, they are our friends that we stayed with in Victoria a couple of weeks ago also. The timing of our trip worked out so we saw them the weekend before they came down, and then a week after they got to their vacation home here.

Bev and I went out for a 9k run this morning while Lynne and Ron went for a hour and change walk.

We're planning on spending the day here today and heading off for Mexico tomorrow morning. We knew we'd have internet connections every night along the route so far. We're not so sure about connecting over the next couple of days. We're heading to Lake Chapala. We plan to be there by Saturday or Sunday. I'm sure we'll be able to connect and update the blog again from there then.

I guess, tomorrow the vacation ends and the adventure begins!

Day 30 - Sedona to The Grand canyon

2009-11-04T08:47:00.000-07:00

We took a day off from blogging our daily adventures. We had a great time yesterday, but we were pretty darned tired by the time we got back to our hotel at night.

When I woke up in the morning I’d decided that I really needed to get out for a run, for two reasons. Firstly; everyone at home was running Angus Glen, the last great run of the season, or, Bern and Steve were running New York. I would have loved to have been with the gang at either event... The second reason was, if I didn’t get out and run soon, I was going to have to roll myself around the next race course.

I went out for a one hour run. I felt OK for most of it, although I could tell I was running slower than I wanted to be running. I don’t know if that’s because the first half hour was all uphill, or if it was because Sedona is about 4000 feet above sea level, or a combination of the two. (I’m sure it’s not because I hadn’t run for two weeks!). Whatever the reason, I ended up only doing 8.6k in 55 minutes. Maybe I need to start running regularly again and worry about speed later.

I got back to the hotel, grabbed a quick shower and headed out for a quick breakfast with Lynne. We wanted to spend the day exploring the vortexes around Sedona. These vortexes are supposed to be area’s of great spiritual energy. We’d been out to one vortex the night before. I must admit I felt very energized myself, but I don’t know if that was just the excitement of the adventure or what.

We headed out after breakfast to where I had pinpointed one vortex in the GPS. We drove to where we were told it was a 30 minute walk to the top of the point. We could see where we wanted to go, and off we went. The path through the forest and up the mountain side seemed to head off course to us, but we kept going. We just figured the path would bend back to the vortex at some point. About an hour later, we decided we’d made a wrong turn somewhere, and headed back. That first trek was a bit disappointing in that is skirted an exclusive estate home development. We kept feeling like we were off in the wilderness, but then we’d run into a fence or see some houses through the forest.

We got back to the car and decided we needed water and some food would be good too! We drove back to the hotel, grabbed some lunch, filled my Nathan water belt with water and E-Load and headed back out in quest of the vortex again. We picked the other trail this time. It didn’t feel right either, but we didn’t see any other choice.

Another hour later, after a great walk along this trail, we decided that God just doesn’t want us to find this vortex and we’d head back and forget about this one. By now it was 3 in the afternoon; the sun was beating down on us. We were tired, hungry and getting very low on water. A short distance from the car, some guy stopped and asked us if we’d been up to the vortex. We told him our story and he said. “It’s only 10 minutes from here, come with me and I’ll show you the way”

We followed old George along the trail and turned at the elusive path that we hadn’t seen. We was great, telling us about different trees and cactus types. He showed us plants that could be boiled and drank as tea and explained different rock formations to us as he led us up to the vortex. He left us shortly after we reached the summit. I don’t know that I felt any sort of supernatural energy, but I sure felt relief that we’d finally reached the summit and, even more important, we could sit down in the shade and relax for a bit! The scenery all day was amazing. It doesn’t matter how many beautiful vistas there are, we just don’t get tired of them.

We headed back to the hotel and rested a bit before heading back out to the Vortex we’d visited the night before. We wanted to be there early enough to get a good spot to watch the sun go down and get some good pictures. About 200 – 300 other people had the same idea. I’d set up the tripod, but every time I got a good shot lined up, some bonehead would stand between my camera and whatever I was trying to get a picture of. It was cool watching the sun go down from high up on this peak though. We headed out for pizza after that and went to bed early.

This morning, while we were packing up the car, the people in the car parked in front of ours said hello and commented on the Ontario license plates. It ended up that they were from Huntsville. It’s amazing how many people from near home that we’ve run into.
We drove out to Flagstaff and then on to the Grand canyon from there. The canyon is very cool. There certainly are some spots that are scary as hell to look down from. It’s amazing to look at all the layers in the canyon sides and read about them at the museum. We walked along the paved path thinking that, this sure isn’t the rugged hiking we’d done the day before.

All of a sudden, a mountain goat came up over from climbing up one of the cliffs. There it was, 15 feet in front of us, just standing and looking at us. We took pictures fast and furiously. Then another came over. Then another and another. In short order there were six or seven of these animals all together, almost close enough to reach out and touch. They walked across the path and into the trees on the other side of the path. We took moiré pictures. More folks walked along the path and we pointed out the animals to them. All of a sudden, the Ram appeared. His horns were much bigger than the other. He looked about, and ran off immediately. The others followed as quickly, taking up on his lead. I found that encounter even more thrilling than the view of the canyon itself.

We drove back to Flagstaff for the night. We’re off to spend a couple of days with Ron and Bev in Green Valley before we head off into Mexico. Our Mexico destination is Lake Chapala. Lynne found the place on-line a couple of weeks ago. We’re going to stop there and spend some time. If it turns out to be anything like we hear it is, we’ll probably stay there through Christmas so that we have a place for Jordan to come visit over the holidays.

So far, we’ve traveled just a bit over 8700k in the 30 days that we’ve been on the road. As we get ready to head into Mexico, I feel a bit like the traveling vacation is over, and the unknown adventure is about to start. I think it’s going to be a bit more work from the border on!

Day 28 - Halloween In Sedona

2009-11-01T18:50:00.000-07:00

This town and the surrounding nature are pure magic.

Greg had web work to do this morning and I got up very early and setout on my own. The temperature was cool and the air was fresh. I walked the two miles or so until I found what they call "uptown." There is no downtown. It's a very charming little area with shops on street level and below street level and above. I arrived at the trolley depot and bought tickets for two tours, one to the more commercial areas and one out closer to the big rocks.

I came back to our hotel and Greg and I went for a nice swim and hot tub as by now it was about 20 degrees. We exercised our fat little bodies in the water by swimming a few lengths and then came up to get ready for our tour. It lasted about two hours and we got an overview of the history and also of all the sites we wanted to do in more depth.

Many famous cowboy movies were shot here even though this town only came to be in 1902 so of course there were no cowboys here in the 1800's but the rock and surrounding flat ground make it a perfect movie set for those old John Wayne and Glenn Ford movies. We even went to the movie museum to see some still shots of those movies with the now familiar rocks in the backdrop.

There are all kinds of ordinances about the colour people must paint their homes and businesses, all colours have to blend with the natural environment. Even lamp posts, bridges and light standards are all rust coloured instead of the usual silver in most towns. When MacDonalds wanted to open here they were not allowed their golden arches and could only open if they made their arches teal. An earth coloured, adobe MacDonalds with tiny teal arches on the side of the building, it is one of only 4 in total in the world that don't have golden arches.

After our tours were finished we were hungry and had a delicious lunch at a restaurant and sat under umbrellas on the sidewalk where we were disappointed to find out they are not allowed to serve alcohol. We made do with coke because the street was starting to come alive with trick or treaters. You see here in Sedona they do all of their trick or treating on the main street and it is the shop owners who give out the treats. This becomes a street party from 5 until 8 but I'll get back to that. We took the "free trolley" back to our hotel and were ready to pack it in when I remembered that my cousin Shelly had told me to go the the small airport here to watch the sunset.

Greg had also looked up the location of the four vortexes around the town and one of them was out by the airport. We missed the sunset but climbed up the rock to the airport vortex and on the way up caught the most magnificent views with the moon hanging in the sky between the rocks. We took a million pictures and kept asking each other how we felt. I have been feeling very calm and peaceful all day and Greg said he was energized. Now, both of those feelings could be due to the fact that we took a day off from driving today and we've stopped in a very pretty and low key locale. But just maybe it is the vortex energy! As it got darker the scenery changed and Greg even got his tripod out of the car to take some more photos.

Well, we were driving back to the hotel and Greg said "Let's check out the party uptown." So uptown we went and what a festive, upbeat,wholesome event. Every one was in costume, not just the kids. We even noticed old people in dress-up mode. Volunteers were making sure street traffic moved safely. There were drummers, and dancers and singers and kids dancing in the street. And everywhere treat were being given out. I have never seen Hallowe'en celebrated in this way. Here it is an entire town event. There were thousands in the street and the joy was palpable. Our day was sensational. We were thinking of possibly leaving tomorrow but we have changed our minds and we have booked the hotel for another night.

We will visit another of the vortexes tomorrow and possibly drive to Flagstaff and then we have promised each other that we will watch that famed sunset at the airport. Tomorrow should be a full moon too. Oh, and they do not do daylights savings time here so no time change.I know it sounds like a cliche but this town is very special and we both feel so enchanted by it.

Click here to see today's pictures.

Day 27 - Palm Beach to Sedona

2009-10-31T19:23:00.000-07:00

My chauffeur is having another night of exhaustion and so the navigator is writing again. Actually with the advent of the GPS I kind of lost the title of navigator although I've given it up reluctantly. I find myself arguing much to Greg's aggravation with the lady inside the GPS. We are using the Australian Lady the American one was too bossy.

We awoke very early in Palm Springs this morning and caught the rising sun light on the hills behind our hotel. The hills were lit up in an almost neon pink. It started our day off on a good note. Palm Springs looks lovely although we just slept there and did a quick tour through the downtown this morning. There seems to be a lot of empty stores and it has probably seen more prosperous days.

We entered the desert and began to see some of the huge cactus, the ones that seem to be giving you the finger. Big hills of brown dirt that looked like larger versions of the ones you see at a construction site. A bit of a downer after the majesty of the rugged Pacific Coast. Slowly the big cactus were replaced by a different type, smaller ones in clumps with flat leaves and closer to the ground. Then the cactus were gone and we started seeing small pine trees.

Early in the afternoon we started noticing red (rusty) streaks in the hills. Just before we approached Sedona we rounded a corner and saw the most amazing site - big red mountains in the most interesting shapes rose before us like monoliths rising out of the earth looking like something from a Science Fiction movie. It was a very exciting scene. Our first view of Bell Rock, Cathedral Rock and Coffee Pot Rock. We found our Comfort Inn, checked in and immediately (before email) went out to explore. We found many galleries filled with the work of local talent and went into the Tlaquepaque area....a collection of restaurants and galleries made from stone and adobe and filled with Arizona Sycamores. It was lovely. We passed many businesses of psychics, aura readers, angel guides and all the other new age businesses you can imagine. Can't wait to explore closer to nature tomorrow.

Click here to see today's pictures.

Day 26 - L. A. to Palm Beach

2009-10-30T19:03:00.000-07:00

Today was just a plane old travel day. We got up earlier than usual and were on the road by 8:00. We stuck to the main highways and quietly drove past any and all of the things there were to see along the way.

It felt weird to be back in traffic, particularly through the north end of L. A.

The scenery changed from the huge ocean and big cliffs to regular highway and then desert highway.

About 20k out of Palm Springs we drove past field after field of wind turbines. There were thousands of them. The same kind as we have back home by the CNE or Darlington. It was amazing to see row after row and them look off into the distance and see every hill top covered as well.

We got to Palm Springs about 2:00 and went our own ways for the afternoon. I think we need a break soon from driving and a bit of a break from each other too. Tough being this close together for this long. We're both pretty independent folks who like a fair amount of solitude, more than 5 minutes in the washroom which is about all we get these days!

Our next planned stop is Sedona. Lynne has wanted to go there for years now. Sedona is about 600k from where we are now. Phoenix is 400k from here along the way. My guess is that we'll do the 600 and take then next few days off and lay low there over the weekend before heading down to Green Valley to see Ron and Bev at their Arizona home.

Click here to see today's pictures.

Day 25 - Pebble Beach - Carmel - Big Sur

2009-10-29T18:54:00.002-07:00

Lynne and I both thought the same thing when we woke up this morning. We're tired of driving. We want to go lay down in our own bed somewhere. We want to go the store and buy some food, bring it home and cook it. We talked a bit and decided to put some miles behind us today. There are tons of beautiful things to look at, but at this point and time, we're tired "Enough of this beauty, lets get somewhere!"

Well, it was a good idea, but the wrong place for that decision. Pebble Beach, Carmel, and Big Sur! I think this stretch of highway holds the most beautiful scenery anywhere.

We took our time and drove the 17 mile tour through Pebble Beach. Carmel is just beautiful, even if it is the most expensive town in America, and Big Sur! 90 miles of the most coast line vistas!

We got through Big Sur and decided to drive on for another hour to Morrow Bay. We passed more beaches as we got close and, at one beach we both looked at what we thought were hundreds of dead seals on the beach. we pulled in and found they were seals, elephant seals to be more exact. We met a guide on the beach who filled us in on the story of these seals. Their info is at www. ElephantSeal.org The short story is that these huge seals, travel 5,000 miles to breed. When we saw them today, they were females, just resting on the beach., getting ready for the males and breeding season which starts in a month or so.

We'll see if tomorrow gives us less beautiful views. maybe we'll make some miles tomorrow. Our plan right now is to try to make Palm Beach by dinner time.

Click here to see today's pictures.

Day 24 - Santa Cruz and Monterey

2009-10-28T20:44:00.000-07:00

After the excitement from yesterday, today was far less eventful!

We parked in the loading zone at the front door of the hotel last night so no one could get near it without being caught. It worked! We checked before heading for breakfast.

Lynne went to the gym. I sat and got fatter and then headed over to the camera shop to get a replacement camera. I found the exact same model so that's what I got. The guy at the shop was great. He showed me all kinds of stuff. i could have spent the day there, but Lynne was back at the hotel waiting for me and we had a lunch date to get to.

We headed off about 11:00 to meet our old friend Gord. We've known each other for going on 25 years now! We don't see much of each other anymore. Gord lived abroad for years and lives in the US now. It's great seeing him whenever we do though. There's never enough time to catch up completely!

We headed off to Santa Cruz after a great lunch. We drove around a bit and then headed out to Monterey for the night. Off to Cannery Row for some sight seeing and into Bubba Gumps for dinner.

As we were pulling into town, we got lost a bit and saw the most amazing thing. We were on a little side street in town. There were woods on the other side of the narrow street and there at the side of the road was a deer eating. It wasn't 15 feet from the car. we pulled right up and took a few pictures. Amazing to be that close and not have it run away.

I think we'll do some exploring around town before heading out tomorrow. We only managed 185k today. Our daily distances are getting less and less as we get into better weather! We had 6800k on the old GPS. With today's @ 200, I guess we're at the 7000k traveled mark. I plugged in our old Aurora address into the new GPS - we could get back in about 4500k! It's getting tempting. We're both having fun, but starting to miss home and friends. We'll need to stop driving and get settled somewhere fairly soon.

Click here to see today's pictures.

Day 22/23 - Berkeley

2009-10-27T20:20:00.001-07:00

We spent Sunday walking around Berkeley, through the town and around the campus. We went to the local theatre and watched Michael Moore's "Capitalism - A Love Story". What a great town to see that movie in! We loved the movie and we loved the town so much we decided to stay an extra day.

What's the point of a trip like this if we don't just hang out a bit where ever the spirit moves us to do so.

We had a great sleep, headed out for breakfast in the hotel, came back to the room and talked about whether we would go to the gym or head outside for a bit of a run. It's cold here at night so it took a bit of discussing.

As we were talking I saw some people out front looking around at our car. They looked a bit odd, or, I should say the were looking oddly at the car, so I went out to see what was going on.

First I saw the glass on the ground, then I saw the bits of glass left in the drives door, then I saw the wires dangling from where the GPS was attached to the front window. I remembered that I hadn't brought the camera in last night, but had tossed a jacket over it. A quick glance at the jacket in the middle of the drivers seat told me the camera was gone too.

SHIT! Now what!

We got the front desk to call the police, we called the insurance folks and then . . . . . . we waited. And waited. And waited.

It took about 2 hours for the police to call. They wouldn't come, but if we thought of anything else that was stolen, call back and leave a message!

We were tired of waiting for the insurance adjuster to call back, so we called again and got through. "No, car insurance doesn't cover the items in the car, just the window, but the deductible is more than the window will cost". "No, you canceled your homeowner insurance when you sold the house, the items stolen aren't covered either" I'm beginning to feel like I'm trying to make a health claim to an American Insurance company!

By now, 3 hours have gone by and it ends up there was no reason to call or wait for any of these folks. We found a window guy who will come and replace the window. It's now 2:30 pm and there's no sign of him yet.

I always think it's important to look for a silver lining somewhere. I guess the fact that both the camera and the GPS are about a year old and have both dropped by about 50% is a small blessing.

The funniest though it Jordan's girlfriend Sara facebooked and wrote "Wow - I didn't expect that to happen until you got a little further along on your

journey!"

Yea - Us too! Berkeley sure looked a lot nicer yesterday from outside walking around then it does today from inside this hotel room, waiting!

Click here to see today's pictures.

Day 21 - Wine Country - Napa Valley - Berkeley

2009-10-26T11:20:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning. It’s our third weekend on the road. The first weekend that we’re not stopped for a few days visiting family or friends. I don’t think I like the idea of just driving and driving from here on in.

We’re stopping in Berkeley tonight to meet up with Alex Platt. Alex is one of Lynne’s cousin’s sons who are going to Berkeley and who is also an amazing guitar player. I was kind of hoping that he was playing tonight, but apparently he’s not. I don’t know any of the nieces or nephews very well. I’m looking forward to getting to know Alex a bit over dinner. (Just back from dinner – what an interesting guy!)

We decided that we’d have a real easy day today, and stay overnight two nights in Berkeley. Knowing there was some sort of break from just driving felt good.

We left Santa Rosa and took our time driving over to Sonoma through the Napa Valley. We kept pulling over to the side of the road to let people pass. They had places to o, and we were doing the ‘old folks’ tour! Lynne grew up on a farm in St Catherine’s. She knows about crops and stuff. We passed a field. I wondered what that was growing. She knew it was strawberries, without waiting to see a sign!

The drive to Sonoma was only about 30 minutes. Gentle rolling hills mainly covered in grape vines. I guess they had been harvested already. I didn’t see any grapes until we got to town where a small bush was growing on some ones front yard beside their orange tree. We passed a farm from sale. I grabbed a picture so I’d have the web site address to look it up later. Turns out it 13.5 . . . . Million. We decided that, we don’t want a grape farm!

Sonoma was amazing. It reminded us both of Niagara-on-the-Lake, but maybe on steroids. The town just kept going and going, not just the little strip of town along the Niagara Parkway. There were a number of old historical buildings. The town looked old, but very well kept up. We could have stayed for a couple fo days instead of the hour or so that we did.

There was a group of folks with a 350.org sign at the town hall. I didn’t know what that was about, but I took my ‘memory’ picture and checked them out too. Who knew that today was the day that 181 countries came together for the most widespread day of environmental action in history. We stumbled upon one of 5200 events staged around the world today. I wish we’d known. It would have been cool to have joined in. http://www.350.org/

We drove fron Sonoma to Napa, but we didn’t like it as much. The town seemed to be newly constructed, pretending to be old. We walked a bit, had a bite of lunch and slit. I’d wished we’d stayed longer in Sonoma, or even stayed there for the weekend.

We drove on to Berkeley. It’s a great town. I’d driven though it once before, but hadn’t spent any time there. We drove around looking for a nice hotel. We’d decided that we were going to spend two nights there. We’d meet Alex for dinner, I’d finish off some work in the morning and then we’d just hang out in the afternoon.

Americans and college football! Again, ‘who knew’ the town would be full because of “THE GAME” that night. There were no rooms there, but we found a ‘bit too expensive’ room at a Marriott in Emeryville, just a few kilometres out of Berkley. It’s interesting to see how much nicer the service is in smaller places than larger. We’re near some big box store hell here. Lynne is going to go explore them in the morning while I finish off a job. We’ve got a room booked in Berkeley for tomorrow night. We’ll check out the Michael Moore movie in the afternoon and then head over to recommended pizza joint!

Click here for todays pictures.

Day 20 - California Dreamin' - by Lynne

2009-10-24T18:21:00.000-07:00

Greg is tired tonight. He did a lot of driving around crazy hairpin turns with nothing separating us from falling hundreds of feet into the Pacific Ocean except the Grace of God. Greg's driving was superlative. At no time did he pretend to be Mario Andretti. But I'm jumping ahead of myself.

We woke this morning early as Greg had a business call to make and we had a "free" breakfast to eat. It was a good "included" breakfast....hard boiled eggs, yogurt, raisin bread, yum.....you will notice that I talk about food much more than Greg does.

Then we left Garberville and the smell of burning hemp to play in more big trees. The one we drove the car through today was 2400 years old....that means it was on earth before Jesus was born. Yes, it was another drive through tree and drive through it we did. We met a lovely Canadian couple at the drive through tree site and exchanged travelling stories. They hail from Salt Spring Island.

At this point we left Highway 101 and entered what they call the Shoreline Highway. The first 22 miles took us about an hour. The S turns just kept coming and at some points there was absolutely no guard rail. Big lumber trucks come barrelling along those roads as though they are at the Indies. Was the fright worth it? Absolutely, hands down, that's a big affirmative......what views, wild Pacific surf, huge cliffs, sand beaches that go on forever, Arbutus trees, unique to the Pacific coast....they shed their bark not their leaves in the Autumn. We did those S curves from 10:30 this morning until 4:30 this afternoon. We stopped in Bodega Bay and thought we'd stay at an Inn right on the sea but at 250. American with NO included breakfast we thought we'd better pass on the "room with a view."

We drove inland to Santa Rosa, found a little motel and checked in. There's an Applebees across the street. Dinner for two for twenty. We went for the special. Had a much too big American dinner and then I played being American even more by browsing in Target and Marshalls, but with the car loaded to the roof top I didn't buy a thing. That's it for today.

Click here for todays pictures.

Day 19 - Redwood Forest

2009-10-23T20:32:00.000-07:00

We got away about 10:00 this morning after a breakfast of stuff we'd bought at the local grocery store the night before and kept in the tiny room refrigerator. Neither of us noticed that it wasn't turned on when we stored stuff away in there. Lucky, it was a tiny fridge and the stuff we put in stayed cool anyway.

We drove for about a half hour and found ourselves in the Redwood Forest. I remember pictures my dad showed me growing up of where he'd driven his car through a tunneled out tree out there, about 50 years ago I guess.

The forest was absolutely amazing. We turned of the main highway and drove through the trees. We stopped to walk at one point for about an hour or so. We took a ton of pictures again today.

I kept thinking of friends who cycle through the woods at home. (Hi Ramona and Louise) They would have LOVED these trails. I think I was bugging Lynne after a while as I kept asking her to go here, or stand there. I wanted her in most of the pictures to give them perspective. The trees were unbelievably huge. Apparently the average age of those Redwoods is 600 -700 years old. Some live to be over 1000 years old.

We drove out of the forest and into sunshine! We still hit some foggy area's along the coast, but anywhere inland was sunny, bright and warm!

We only drove 180k today. We've stopped in Garberville. It's about 350k north of San Francisco. I think we're stopping there tomorrow and seeing if we can meet up with Alex Platt at Berkeley and take him out for dinner. I want to spend a day there myself. It just doesn't seem right to be there and not get something to eat at Fisherman's Wharf!

Day 18 - Welcome to California!

2009-10-22T18:55:00.000-07:00

We didn’t get away from the hotel in Newport until noon. Lynne wanted to go for a long walk on the beach. I had work to do before heading out.

It was a pretty uneventful day. The scenery along the pacific was amazing in spots, but the weather was very overcast and very misty along waters edge. Inland wasn’t much better.

We found a place to stay in Brookings Oregon. It was the last town in Oregon. We found a great looking place right on the beach again, but they wanted 50% more for a room with a partial view than the room with a complete view last night. We decided to carry on into Crescent City California, about 45 minutes away.

This town seems to be one of the many poor towns that we’ve traveled through. Not our first choice of places to stay, but it’ll do. We’ll head on out to the Redwood Forest tomorrow. It looks like we’ll make San Francisco by the weekend some time.

Day 17 - Aberdeen to Newport - Southbound on Hwy 101

2009-10-21T21:27:00.000-07:00

I had a bunch of work to get caught up on so we stayed until 11:00am at last night’s hotel. It was a good morning. I got lots done.

We headed on out to Highway 101 and followed the Pacific Ocean all the way down through Washington State and into Oregon. What a difference Oregon is from Washington. Maybe it was just the towns that we went through and, we didn’t pass through Seattle, but Washington seemed very poor and run down. We didn’t see anywhere that looked prosperous. Oregon, so far, is totally different. The towns for the most part look like folks are doing OK. Maybe it’s being beside the ocean. Maybe it was having the sun shine almost all day, but today’s drive was a pleasure from what we had just passed through.

I guess we’d make better time a bit further inland, but driving down 101 is great. We love the small towns, amazing ocean views, lush forests, roads twisting and turning everywhere. We’re not making great time or big distances along this route, but the views are breathtaking.

We thought we’d make it to Coos Bay when we headed out, but traffic was much slower than it had been. We readjusted out destination to Newport. We passed through some beautiful towns just before we got here. We wondered if we should stop a bit early at one of these towns but we’re glad we kept going. We found a hotel right on the waters edge. All we see out our window is the ocean. The tide is going out, so the beach keeps getting wider. We’re hoping it will still be out in the morning so we can go walk that beach before we head out.

Day 13 -16 Victoria Weekend and into the US

2009-10-20T21:45:00.000-07:00

We arrived at Ron and Bev’s house in Victoria about 3:00 pm on Friday. Ron and I have been friends since back when we were both married to our first wives! I think that’s getting close to 30 years ago!

R&B moved back out to Vancouver Island about 15 years ago and we haven’t seen a much of each other over the years. Lynne and I both commented when we left them this morning (Monday) that it a sign of a great friendship when, after not seeing each other for so long, that we all felt like we’d seen each other just last week and carried on from where we left off. Comfortable, easy, and having fun!

We hung out all weekend long. Bev made a great dinner for us Friday night. Wonderful to taste a really good home cooked meal again. It’s only been a couple of weeks, but it feels like forever! Saturday Bev and I went for a 6k run together. Bev is nursing shin splints and I’m carrying around an extra few inches around the waste. We took it easy but it felt good to get back out there a bit again. Saturday afternoon we went and looked at condos. R & B are considering downsizing and there were a few open houses in Victoria. The live in Sydney now, about 25 minutes away, but they both work in Victoria. We stopped for a late lunch near the yacht club. It’s always good to be looking at sailboats! Saturday night they introduced us to Dominos. I’d never played before and had not even seen them since I was a kid. What a blast we had!

Lynne and I are on the prowl now for a set for ourselves.

Bev went to church Sunday morning. I went out and did that 6k run again. I thought of the gang back home either running the half or the full or the 5k of the Toronto Marathon. I blasted through my 6k. Looking back, and still feeling these burning quads, I would have been better to take it easy again. Oh well! One day I’ll pay attention to what I’ve learned! Ron, Lynne and I walked all over town after I got back. We walked around downtown Sydney; through the wood carver’s shop, around the yacht club and round the main streets until we got to Ron’s favourite weekend breakfast place. Eggs Benny was GREAT!

Bev was home when we got back. They drove us out to Suke (pronounced souk) We drove a couple of Bev’s Tri bike courses (pretty hilly!) and went to a spot at waters edge that was simply amazing. Huge cliffs but with paths that allowed us to walk down to the water. Ron and I both took some amazing photographs. I’ll try to process them tonight or tomorrow morning. We walked and talked for a couple of hours out there before we came back for Pizza and Dominos again!

Lynne and I left shortly after Ron and Bev left for work this morning. We too the Ferry from Victoria to Port Angeles. Port Angeles is a bit west of Seattle). We were both worried about the customs guys ripping our car apart. The back seats are down that the SUV is totally stuffed with clothes, books, guitars and god knows what. The agent at the far end looked surprised when he looked in the back, but I guess he wanted to go for lunch rather than tear the car apart so he waived us through.

We headed immediately to Hwy 101. That will take us right down the west coast along the Pacific Ocean. The “Pacific Coast Highway” is one of the most beautiful drives I’ve ever been on. I drove from ‘Frisco to San Diego once and I LOVED it. I’ve never driven it from top to bottom before. We headed west until we got to the ocean; played at an amazing beach as we turned south. The beach (see picture soon) was fog bound but beautiful We crawled around through the huge pieces of driftwood for a long time before we headed out again. I’d past a sing that read “Big Cedar” earlier and didn’t turn. I saw it again, but this time we turned. 500 meter into the forest we found the biggest tree I’ve ever seen. We got tons of great shots of it with Lynne standing in front, or in it. I walked in and took a couple of shots straight up through the inside. Absolutely amazing!

We finished off the day at a crappy little hotel in Aberdeen Washington. We went out for diner and found “Duffy’s Bar and Grill” I HAD to eat there seeing as that’s how I answer my phone most of the time. The food sucked, but it was fun to be there!

I’ve got work to do for a couple of clients so, I may stay here later tomorrow morning to get some work done before we hit the road. If I don’t get caught up, we may opt for a short travel day. I should have worked on the weekend but, we really enjoyed catching up with our buds! I’m going to post this, get caught up on my work, then process the pictures. I’m thinking those pictures may mot make it up until tomorrow (Tues) night.

Day 12 - Penticton to Vancouver

2009-10-19T20:18:00.000-07:00

I got up at 7:00 and went out and drove the Penticton Ironman bike course. I started at the waters edge. I thought of sticking my toe in the water, just so I could know that I’d been in that water but, it was still pretty cool outside. I decided to just take a picture. I’d read the course description on the website, but it missed some things that struck me as important as I drove. Yes, the first 35 – 40k seem fairly level. Yes the climb into Richter Pass is high, as is the climb into Yellow Lake, but there were two things I didn’t see explained. Firstly, of no real importance, but of great interest is how amazingly beautiful the course is.

The first that stood out for me was the huge mountains, incredible vistas through the Okanogan Valley, rows and rows of grape vines through the vineyards and peach tree orchards along the way. The scenery in the Adirondacks around Lake Placid are paled compared to the scenery along this course.

The second thing that stood out for me was, unlike Lake Placid, were the number of great downhill runs along the course. There were a lot of spots that I thought were a bit close to the downhill into Keene. The road surface was in good condition all the way. I’m not sure I got the out and back picked properly. If I did, the roads were a tiny bit rough, but still very good. I suspect this course is going to be a faster one for all the LP gang when they get out here next year.

Lynne stayed back at the hotel while I went for the ride, but we went out along part of the course on our way out of town. I was pointing stuff out as we went. She asked if I wanted to come back and do this course one day. I’d love to be in town when the gang were here to do a training ride with them. That would be a blast. I don’t have a sense of wanting to do another Ironman. Not yet anyway. I have nothing but great memories of every aspect of the training and the races I’ve done, but I found it impossible to keep any sort of social balance in my life for those four years. So far, I’m enjoying this new life without all the training. My expanding waistline is proof of that! I plan to start running a bit every day starting next week.

The drive thought the mountains was breathtaking. That’s the only word for it. Valley after valley and mountain after mountain just kept popping up with every turn in the road. We took Hwy 3 rather than going back up to the Trans Canada. It took longer, but it was far more picturesque. We took lots of pictures. I’ll process them over the weekend.

We got to Vancouver about 4:30. We had reserved our hotel online from Penticton the night before. We got a good deal on the price but what we didn’t know until we got here was that it appears to be in the middle of hooker heaven! Life teaches us every day. Today we learned to not book ahead! Hopefully the car will still be hear when we wake up in the morning.

Day 11 - Banff to Lake Louise to Penticton

2009-10-15T20:51:00.000-07:00

We looked out the window from the hotel this morning and saw the most amazing sight. 20 feet from our window was a small enclave of trees. There stood a doe and two fawns, eating the leaves off the tree. We took a lot of pictures from our window, but they didn’t come out. I’m glad I walked out and was able to get a couple of shots from a few feet away.

We left Banff and headed to Lake Louise. There were a couple of inches of snow in Banff and all the way to Lake Louise. Lake Louise was beautiful. I found it unbelievable how clear the water was. I could see the bottom a good 40 meters out. The Asian tour group were loud. We were a bit sorry that we weren’t alone. The chatter took away for the majestic serenity of it all. It was still amazing though.

The rest of the day was relatively uneventful. We drove on to British Columbia, down through the Okanogan Valley and into Penticton. We’re in Pacific Time for the next while. The time changes coming across the county every few days messed up our internal clocks a bit. I imagine we’ll be in Pacific time now for the next two to three weeks until we enter Arizona.

I’m going to head out tomorrow morning and drive the Penticton Ironman bike course. We’ll drive thought to Vancouver when I finish that drive.

Day 10 - Computer Repairs in Banff

2009-10-14T22:29:00.000-07:00

On one hand, I like having a few projects to work on while we’re on our trip. At the same time, particularly when I’ve got software problems, it would be nice to have nothing to do!

I made a mistake a couple of days before leaving Toronto. I had Jordan install some game on this laptop and then I installed some new printer drivers. I’m not sure what screwed up my computer, but Photoshop, a tool I use every day, was running slower and slower, to the point that it was virtually unusable. I tried rolling back with a system restore, but it failed. I tried removing the software and re-installing, but that filed too.

We decided to spend and extra day here in Banff so that I could deal with all of that. It took most of the day to get things running properly again, but, they are!

This morning, Lynne and I went our for a walk around town. There is ice and snow everywhere. Not a lot of it, but just enough to make it touch to walk around without slipping. We love this town. The scenery is to die for. I’d love to see it one day in the summer though. We both felt like the tops of our ears were frozen when we got back to the hotel about an hour later.

We went to the movies tonight. Couples Resort is a funny movie. Great to go and see something light and fun. Great to go to a movie where it cost $10.00 to get it, and they give you a drink and popcorn along with your admission.

Thanksgiving Weekend in Calgary

2009-10-13T20:30:00.000-07:00

It was great to stay in one place for a little while. We checked into a hotel at the south east corner of Calgary. Christine, Evan, Emily and Aidan came Friday night for dinner. We had a good chat in the restaurant and then had tons of fun at the pool until way after Aidan’s bedtime!

Saturday we slept in, had a nice leisurely breakfast and then went and met Ron and Patty for a late lunch. Saturday night the kids all came back over and we did the pool thing again.

Emily slept over with us Saturday night and Sunday we drove to the Langley Golf and Country Club for brunch. It was when we woke up in the morning that I realized we had to unpack most of the car to get one of the back seats down from Emily. We decided to drive slowly. Lynne and Emily shared the front seat. Sure glad they are both thin!

Jane and Tom and Ryan met us for brunch as well. Lynne and I came back to our hotel after brunch. Lynne caught a bit more sleep. I worked for a few hours until it was time to head out to Jane’s house. Jane was my first wife. We get along fine now that it’s been years since we were married! They live in a beautiful, huge house out in Langley. Langley is about 25k out from Calgary. Jane and Tom cooked an amazing meal. Ryan’s girlfriend Danika was there also. Danika and Ryan helped get us a deal on the room that we are in now in Banff.

We visited with our friend McKinley for a couple of hours this morning before heading out to Banff this afternoon. The drive from Calgary to Banff has to be the most beautiful drive in the world. I love watching the mountains appearing on the horizon and then driving into them.

We took picture, but I can’t post them for a bit. I’ve got software problems on this computer. I think I loaded too many games and odd printer drivers the day before we left Toronto. I’ve been trying to fix it over the weekend but, it’s getting worse and worse. Photoshop has totally stopped working now, as has Dreamweaver. It’s pretty hard for me to get work done without those tools so, I’m formatting the hard drive tonight and staring over! I'm glad I can still nhand code to write this anyway! Not really what I want to be doing out here in the ice and snow covered mountains, but, oh well, we don’t have the clothes here to get outside for long anyway!

There’s a nice view out of our hotel window anyway!

Day 6 - Regina to Calgary through the snow!

2009-10-12T16:27:00.000-07:00

We drove down the road. We drove down the road. We drove down the road. We drove down the road. Then there was a hill and then, we drove down the road and drove down the road some more.

Thank God we ended up in Calgary tonight. We can see the mountains on the horizon. That means the end of these straight boring drives!

It snowed last night in Regina. This is what it looked like from our window this morning. The temperature was -7. Unbelievable weather for early October!

We drove to Medicine Hat for lunch and then on to Calgary after that. It was a very uneventful day today. Christine, Evan, Emily and Aidan came and met us at the hotel for dinner. We went and hung out at the pool afterwards.

It was great being able to just hang out and talk to Christine and Evan. The kids had tons of fun in the pool. Emily and another boy her age spent the night throwing a ball at us. Aidan, with his little life jacket on, never went deeper than his waist. Well, except for the time he fell in and floated like a stick man on his back until even jumped in and pulled him back to the edge. He was a little freaked, but fine. He went back in the water straight away!

We’re going to try to meet up with Steve and Patty and McKinley tomorrow mid day, and then spend tomorrow night and Sunday with the kids before we leave on Monday. It feels good knowing I don’t have a bunch of driving to do in the morning again!

We took a couple of pictures today, mostly weather shots. We couldn’t believe the snow storms we went through.. I’m not going to bother processing them tonight. I’ll take lots with the kids over the weekend and post them again Sunday night or Monday.

Day 5 - Winnipeg to Regina, with a Great Stop in Brandon

2009-10-08T19:42:00.001-07:00

We drove down the road. It was straight and long. We drove down the road. It was straight and long. We drove down the road. It was straight and long. We drove down the road. It was straight and long. We drove down the road. It was straight and long.

If that was boring to read, you wouldn’t believe what it was like to drive it for 5 or 6 hours today!

We pulled out of Winnipeg at about 8:00am. 2 degrees and overcast, raining just a bit, but that rain didn’t last long today (for a change). The sun broke though the clouds for most of the drive in the afternoon.

We heard the craziest thing on the radio today. The courts in Windsor Ontario found a truck driver guilty of smoking in a workplace and fined him $300.00. He was alone, driving his truck down the road, and smoking. I find it unbelievable how far the government goes to stick its nose in everyone’s face. I wonder how much tax payer’s money will be wasted when this gets move up through all the court systems.

One great thing that happened today was, just before the Saskatchewan border, the speed limit changed to 110kph. Nice to be able to move at a reasonable speed without worrying about getting a ticket. I think that difference cost us abut 15% more for gas though.

The temperature never rose above 4 degrees all day long. We saw a few flakes of snow near Winnipeg, but the real snow came when we got to Regina. We were having dinner somewhere, looked out the window and there was a blizzard outside. Luckily it only lasted about 15 minutes, but it sure came down during that time.

We drove through Brandon Manitoba today and stopped for a few hours there. Lynne’s dad was stationed there for about 5 years during the war. He was a mechanic with the Air Force. He’d told me a few stories of life out there. We wanted to go and see if we could find anything left from those days.

There is still a big base in Silo, about 20k east of Brandon. We drove onto the base and found an Artillery Museum. It was pretty cool looking at some of the cannons and tanks they had around there. One of the officers on duty told us that we were at the wrong location. We needed to go a bit north of town to the airport. The Air Force Museum was on the same grounds as the public airport.

We got there about 30 minutes before it opens, but the girl who runs the place saw us and opened early for us. The museum is Hanger 1 of the 5 original hangers. The other 4 are long gone. We spent a couple of hours looking around. It was very unique, partly because it didn’t have the commercialized polish that any other museum I’ve ever been too has. It was an old hanger with cement floors and draftee dirty windows.

There were a couple of rooms with uniforms and radios and bits and pieces from those WW II days. The hanger was full of old planes and parts. I knew early planes were aluminium and wood frames covered with canvas, but it was amazing to look at a big plane, and then to feel how flimsy if felt. We can only imagine how cold it was for the pilots. There was a turret from a Lancaster bomber. Again, it was made of very thin Plexiglas. Thoughts of all of those old WW II movies came to mind. It’s unbelievable to think about how thin those planes are; how unprotected the guys were.

There was an interesting story about why the Commonwealth aircraft had targets painted on them. The ‘Roundel’ was developed in WWI by the British for identification purposes. From a distance, the British and the German flags looked similar. Pilots couldn’t tell if the planes coming towards them were friendly or enemy. The British took the colours from their flag and created the Roundel. They placed the image strategically on the plane to cause minimal damage if it were used as a target,

Lynne spent a long time looking through the Barbers Books. The barber on the base cut every new recruits hair when they arrived. He had them all sign his book. By the time the war ended, he had 4 large binders full of signatures of everyone that sat in his chair. Lynne looked for a long time to find her dad’s signature, but to no avail. It was pretty amazing to be walking around in the hanger thinking of Jack working there for all that time, so long ago.

We me Archie just before we left. Archie was the pilot trainer during WW II. He’s pushing 90 years old today. He talked about how, when a mechanic signed a plane off as being repaired and fit to fly again, he had to take it out for a test flight. He made the signing mechanic fry that test flight with him. He figured that made for pretty good insurance that no mechanic would fluff off a job. Jack told me once about being taken out for a flight. The pilot scared the hell out of him apparently. Was Archie that pilot? Who knows? We asked Archie if he remembered Jack Green. “It was along time ago” was Archie’s response.

It was a quiet drive for the next hour or two after we left. It was amazing for me to be that close to that part of history. It was amazing for Lynne to be that close to a part of her dad’s history!

We passed a couple of farms with Buffalo on our way into Regina. I took a real double take when I first spotted them! We got to Regina at about 5:00, which turned out to be 4:00. We’d crossed our second time zone since leaving home.

We’ve traveled 2750k so far over 30 hours of driving. We’ll get going early tomorrow. We want to get to Calgary and to see Christine, Emily and Aidan as early as possible. We’ve got almost 700k left to go.

Day 4 - Dryden to Winnipeg - Where are the natives?

2009-10-07T15:00:00.000-07:00

We got up and went for a run this morning. We headed out in different directions. I wanted to run a bit faster and longer than Lynne. Lynne didn’t want the pressure!

I took off over the overpass right away. Not my smartest move. I’ve hardly run anywhere for a while. Starting out going up a hill hurt! It sure got the heart going quickly though. I ran down to the mill. The wind was blowing away from me, so the smell wasn’t a factor. The fact that it was about 2 degrees outside sure played a factor. I almost didn’t bring running tights. I sure didn’t bring gloves. My hands were cold! There is a nice boardwalk that runs along the side of the river. It reminded me of running along the Rideau Canal with Michelle last year. The scenery along the river was beautiful. (Really glad about the wind direction though!)

I ran out for about 20 minutes, turned and came back. I didn’t put on the heart rate monitor or the Garmin. I don’t know what distance or pace I did. All I know is that, I need to get my ass out the door every morning again!

We knew we had a couple of stops along the way coming up so we didn’t go anywhere for breakfast. We packed up the car, grabbed a Fibre 1 bar and got going. Louise’s friend doesn’t start work until noon so, sorry, we weren’t able to hang in and say Hi.

When Lynne checked out at the front desk, the receptionist grimaced about something. Lynne asked if she had a toothache. “No”, the woman replied “I was ‘doing wood’ on the weekend” Lynne came out tot the car and told me the story. I almost peed my pants. We finally figured out that she was chopping wood for the winter. It sure wasn’t what came to mind for me!

We pulled out of town, heading down the highway once again looking at green trees and rocks through a rain sprinkled windshield. Lynne spotted 3 deer at the side of the highway. They were almost crossing the road. They ran over to the side of the road when we went by. We stopped and turned around. The just stood there until we were maybe 25 meters away before they darted off into the woods. We got a picture. I haven’t checked yet, but I think we only caught the tails!

Our entertainment while driving, besides not committing suicide as we listen daily to a Learn Spanish CD (How do you say “Good morning”? . . . I say “Good morning” you bitch, now leave me alone!” – I’m not doing well with this Spanish stuff!)

Oh yea – the entertainment – We’re on a quest to take pictures of all of these strange huge statues that every town seems to need to put up.

We stopped for a moment in Minnitaki and got a picture of the giant sheep. We got a picture of a starving King Kong in Vermillion Bay. We got a great picture of a VW bug on our way into Kenora and, then, pictures of Husky the (40 foot) Musky in Kenora.

We crossed into Manitoba at about 1:00 and got a picture of a sign showing us we were in the centre of Canada.

It was amazing how, within a few kilometres of leaving Ontario, the ground levelled out so that we could see for miles ahead. Shortly after that, most of the trees disappeared too. We watched Winnipeg get closer from the horizon. I think the next couple of days are going to bring sightseeing boredom to it’s highest possible level!

Lynne and I did notice something as we were driving today. We were stopped, or slowed down a good number of times by the road construction. They seem to be widening or straightening the road all along today’s route. We noticed that there was not a single native person working on any of the construction jobs. We must have seen a couple of hundred or more regular white guys working, but no Natives.

It seems odd to me that I hear news reports about job equity for the police force in Toronto, but the where Miller Paving sends folks up north to make highways, there is no rule about hiring the native folks. Maybe I’m wrong. I don’t mean to single out Miller Paving; I just noticed a few of their trucks. Maybe the native folks don’t want to work construction. I just find it very odd that they tell us that the native suicide rate here is extremely high. The Chief wrote an open letter to the newspaper in Thunder Bay asking for any help for his people that anyone could give, that there weren’t natives on the jobs sites. OK – enough of that!

We stopped for the night in Winnipeg. It’s cold and windy here. We’re into finding a good place to eat tonight, but I hope we don’t have to walk much.

The drummer from our last band, Chris Brown, lives here in Winnipeg now. I’ve lost contact with him over the years. We looked him up online, but there are 45 of them in the phone book. It doesn’t look like we’ll b e able to find him.

Tonight’s experiment will be seeing if I can tack on today’s photos to the album I made last night, or do I have to re-create the thing all over again?

Day 3 - Nipigon to Dryden – Moose Street Party?

2009-10-06T17:52:00.001-07:00

It was a pretty uneventful day today. I’d stayed up until about 1:00am working on a web site for a client. The bed was a bit too soft. I woke up at 8:30 with a sore back and a burning desire to get out of that town. The wind was blowing the light cold rain around us. I think the temperature was about 5 degrees. The skies were overcast, again! That’s what the weather has been like all the way so far.

We drove straight to Thunder Bay and searched around for a while to find a decent place for breakfast. A Western Omelette, 2 glasses of milk and some toast and 30 minutes and we were off again! We headed straight north along 121 to 11. I was supposed to head west for about a half hour to visit Kakabeka Falls. That’s the second travel tip that Wilf has sent me, and I’ve missed them both. Send one more Wilf – I’ll make it to the next one. I promise!

We drove past the Arctic Watershed and got a picture. We stopped at “The Beaver Post”. I HAD to see what that was. It was somewhat disappointing to find they sold souvenirs, moccasins and hunting stuff. We got a coffee, a coke, heard a story about “Good Christian Community” and got the hell out of there. We both had to pee. They had an old fashioned outhouse over by the trees. That’s a smell I won’t forget soon!

We put Winnipeg in the GPS as our waypoint when we headed out this morning. We switched that to Kenora part way through the day, and then settled on Dryden when we got to it about 3:30 in the afternoon.

We’re starting to get bored of the same old scenery. I’m sure the flat open prairies are going to break that boredom for about an hour. Not sure how we’ll get through the next couple of days after that!

We saw a lot more of those 'Night Danger' Moose signs. I got to wondering about moose hunters. I must admit, I’ve never gone hunting but, from the little I’ve seen, they seem to get all dressed in camouflaged clothing. Then they put on a red vest and hat (presumably so they don’t shoot each other, but, I think the moose can see that red stuff too) Then they go walk through the woods like camouflaged stop signs, and spend days and week looking for a Moose. It looks to me tat the moose wait until dark and then come out onto the highway and run up and down the road. Wouldn’t the hunters be smarter to just drive, in regular clothing, and shoot them when they pass by!

Maybe I’m spending too much time thinking of dumb shit while driving 6 hours a day!

I remember Dryden from the Polka Dot Door days. (Kathie, I’ll post that story soon). We’d traveled up this way a few times on tour. It looks pretty much the same as I remembered. I’d posted something on Facebook when we got here and, wouldn’t you know it, I have a friend who grew up here! I’m glad I hadn’t gone on one of my rants about the wonders of the place. I’ll go say Hi to Camille in the morning Louise.

It seems every town has its own big frickin’ statue up here. I went and got pictures of the BF Moose, from the front, side and back. The back faces south, towards Toronto. Are these folks telling us something?

I found a great bag of cheese curds at the grocery store and quickly devoured them. I thought they’d make a good snack along with a half quart of chocolate milk, and then I’d pass on dinner. That should help me loose a few ounces, I thought. Then I read the side of the bag. 880 calories to a bag of cheese curds! No wonder I’m blowing up! I’ll bring in my running gear from the car tonight and go pound the pavement for a wile tomorrow morning to see if I can get rid of some of those curd pounds!

We should hit Winnipeg tomorrow. I’ve got the center o Canada marked in my GPS. I hope to get a picture of that tomorrow too.

Day 2 - SSM to Nipigon & He Who Hesitates . . . .

2009-10-05T20:15:00.001-07:00

Day 2 - SSM to Nipigon - He Who Hesitates . . . .

It was a pretty uneventful day today. It shouldn't have been, but we had a lesson to learn I guess.

We got a tip from a friend that the Agawa Canyon Train Tour was a great thing to check out from Sault St Marie. We looked into it when we first got to the hotel. We lucked out even in the hotel we happened to check into was just across the road from the train station. My buddy told us it left early in the morning. I got the impression it was a half day thing. we both thought it was a great idea. We checked at the desk and there were only two seats left available. It left the station at 9:00am and would get back about 6:00 - 6:30pm. It cost just under $200.00. We were of spit minds on doing it or not. We both immediately went to the "Holy Crap" we can't start spending $200.oo a day at each of our stops over the next 6 weeks. The we did the - Oh, we can't spend all day here or we'll never get to where we want to go.

We looked the tour up online and it looked pretty good. Grand vistas over 180k of land north of town on a great train ride. We talked about it and decided to think about it over night. I got a couple more messages from friends who read our plans online and told us that the trip was amazing. - Decision made, we'll go for it. We called the desk for tickets but, too late. The last two seats were gone. Stupid us. We blew a lifetime adventure worrying about a couple of hundred dollars. Dumb = oh well. Lesson learned!

The drive out of the Sault was beautiful. We could only imagine what that train trip would have been like. There wasn’t a lot to see today. We stopped in Wawa and took a few pictures of the goose. I think northern Ontario holds some kind of record for making huge statues of dump shit. A big nickel, a huge goose. These folks have too much time on their hands over the long cold winter months thinking of crazy things to build. I just checked. The huge fish is in Gananoque. Not Northern Ontario, but long cold winters too!

We stopped in Terrace Bay for a delicious A&W hamburger. If you also wondered where the A&W chain disappeared to, they are alive and well in Northern Ontario. We came up with two unanswered questions today.

1. What makes some leaves turn bright red as apposed to just orange or bright yellow?

2. We passed a great number of sign that read’ Nightly Moose Warning – Next x number of kilometres” What’s with “Nightly” Are Moose nocturnal?

We got to the town of Nipigon by about 5:00 pm. We were really tired of driving. The fall colours in the trees were amazing around Sault St Marie, but since Wawa, they were pretty much just green and yellow. We think it was because we were north for anything other than pine trees and Silver Birch. I guess that’s the third question for the day. Where did all the colour go? Anyway. 5:00pm, tired and bored. We stopped about 100k short of Thunder bay. We got a room at a motel at the side of the road. We drove downtown where we had to make a dinner choice between a run down looking Chinese food joint, or the sub shop. The sub shop won. I think tomorrow needs to include a good meal at diner time!

Day 1 - Is that my life in the rearview mirror?

2009-10-04T16:37:00.000-07:00

We took a quick picture of Lynne on the front stairs of our Toronto apartment and got in the car to head out at 9:15am. We weren't rushing, but I was glad to see we were leaving about the time I wanted to be going. I don't know why it mattered, but it did a bit. Even after all of our packing and unpacking and driving more stuff up the storage unit yesterday, we still had too much stuff to travel with. We got everything (except for two sets of bar bells) into the car, but we couldn't move, or see out anything but the front and our immediate side windows. Off we went to the storage unit in Newmarket on more time to drop off a bit more stuff! We got away from there about 10:15. Headed over to the 400 and headed north.

Goodbye stuff, goodbye fiends, goodbye chiropractor, goodbye . . . yea, we really did say goodbye to everything as we passed by. Goodbye upper Canada Mall. We were remembering how small it was when we moved into Aurora a bit over 20 years ago.

My friend Wilf phoned us as we were just south of Barrie. We talked a bit about how we were feeling. We, or at least I, was pretty excited up until a day or two earlier when I started thinking about all the cool stuff we did and the friends and family that we were leaving. I did look in the rear view mirror and think, Holy Carp - everything we know and love is back there. Up ahead, the sky was dark and dismal. The weather report was calling for rain on and off all day. It looked like we were just heading into a huge storm.

As soon as we got north of Barrie, the trees were all turning colour. Bright red and orange. Beautiful. We commented on the rock at the side of the road where the road had been blasted through. Great coloured veins in the rock and the curves in the rock in this "Canadian Shield". For some reason it stood out more, and looked more beautiful than in the past. The rain came and went all day long. One minute hot and sunny, two minutes later, a bit of drizzle, 30 seconds later pouring for a minute. I spent the better part of the day adjusting the windshield washer.

We got to Sudbury, the Home of the Big Nickel (image)at about 2:00. We filled up with gas and decided that it was too early to stop driving so we headed straight west, out towards Sault St Marie. Strange the trees haven't changed colour much along the way here. There were patches of colour, but for the most part it was all still pretty much green. We past a town called Echo Bay. Those folks obviously have no sense of humour. If I were the mayor, I'd rename it Echo Bay, Bay Bay immediately!

We found a hotel across the road from the Agawa Canyon Train Tour station. Wilf tells us this is a wonderful tour. We're going to see about getting tickets and checking it out tomorrow.

i wonder how long we're going to do what we did here tonight though. We got into our room, immediately unpacked our laptops, got online and started checking email and writing. We're both pretty happy doing that, but I feel like we really should be putting off getting online and get our butts out the door to explore the town a bit.

I have been here before. Back in the Polka Dot Door days we played here a couple of times. The town seems vaguely familiar too as the town where Kevin and I played flip. Flip is where you take out your cigarette package (it was OK to smoke back then) and sit it on the table on an edge. You reach around to the far bottom corner and 'flip' it around so that it turns at least 360 degrees and, if it landed on it's edge, you win the flip and nothing happens. If it falls to the back or front of the package, you had to down a shot of . . . . whatever we had with us at the time. Kevin was good at that game. I remember laying with head on my arm which was grasping to hold on to the top of the toilet seat and being so sick I was wishing I could die. Kevin, Gerry and Cindy got me a blanket, laid it over me because I was freezing, and then left me their while they went out dancing. I woke up the next morning. I don't remember the next day's shows as being that good! I'm pretty sure that was in this town!

So - day 1 is out of the way. We got further than we'd planned to, and it looks like we'll have a 'play day' tomorrow! I expect that soon we'll be back to getting excited about what's out the front window and not that rearview mirror!

Thanks to everyone for their email, Facebook and Twitter 'bon voyage' wishes.

Final Packing day - Goodbye Gang!

2009-10-03T15:49:00.000-07:00

Saturday - Oct 3 -
Final Packing Day - and what a week it's been!

I stopped near the end of Lake Wilcox the other day. I was running around town looking after last minute stuff and was heading over to see Nadia for a few minutes. I stopped the car at the east end of the lake, near where we always got into the water.

I thought back to the first swim in that lake. From the dock, out to the first buoy and back again. Maybe 200 meters. I'd watched some other folks who got in after me and had swam to the far end and back. I was totally amazed, unable to imagine ever being able to swim that 1k lake. I thought of all the solo swims, before the sun came up. Swims with different folks, small groups, big groups, folks who dropped out for of group, folks who went on to decide that Lake Wilcox is a cesspool and they'd never get in again.

I thought back to the first swim at NTT. How scared I was to walk into a group of real athletes, not being able to swim. I remembered walking into the Running Room, meeting Henri and talking about how I'd signed up for an Ironman. She asked me about how I did in each sport, and her look back at me when I explained my skill level (or lack thereof!). I remembered swimming with Steve B one morning. The fog rolled in behind us as we swam to the far end of the lake. We got lost on the way back. God only knows how many circles we swam in before we came up on the south shore (instead of the east end!)

The 4 years that I "Tri'd", in some ways went by in a flash, and in some ways seem to have gone on forever.

The best part? no question here! The folks I met and encouraged me along the way. I don't want to name names for two reasons. 1. I'll miss someone or 2. I'll list them all and the internet will run out of space!

The 'gang' is a big group. From NTT to NYAC, the Ironman gang, the running gang, the weekends from Sharon bike gang, the Timberlane gang, Lake Placid and Wisconsin. The winter running gang. My condo buddies from a couple of Lake Placid trips this year. Amazing folks, all of them just a little nuts, but all of them, I'm proud to know, and honored to have been included with.

Lynne and I loaded the car this morning with everything we're taking along with us on this trip. Then we unloaded the car, and packed in everything that wouldn't fit, and I drove it up the the storage joint. I had to stop in town (Aurora) to pick up something and thought of dropping in to see Willem and Bryan on my way home again. I feel like those two guys were my brothers over the last year as we all trained for LP. I HATE "goodbye's" so I decided not to. I'm a lot better with simple "see you later's" or just disappearing from site.

I did drive a few of our biking and running routes. They didn't seem like such a big deal just prior to Ironman. Today, they felt like amazingly long distances even to drive in the car, let alone to run or bike. I think we loose touch with what it is we actually do out there.

Anyway . . . . . I got all leaky faced thinking about all the close friends, friends, acquaintances and folks I know to say hi, or folks I trained with, but don't see anymore for one reason or another.

I've been pretty excited about the adventure ahead of us and hadn't thought much about the folks we're leaving behind. Most of the folks are training folks only because this sport is so absorbing there was not much room for anything else.

Lynne and i have been able to get together with our non-trainng friends and family over the last couple of months as well. It's been great. The only problem of late is that we've been out for lunch and dinner so many times, particularly in the last couple of weeks, were both gaining weight like crazy and quickly turning into alcoholics!

So - tomorrow we're off. The plan is to be in Calgary next weekend, Victoria the following weekend, then down the Pacific Coast Highway to San Fransisco, across to Sedona, down to Green Valley and then get our butts through Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and then, on to Boquete Panama.

We'll write everyday and post ever day we have Internet access.

Oh yea, while my sensitive feminine side is still showing. To all of 'The Gang' - "Thanks, you guys ROCK!"