What an incredibly wonderful and awful month it has been!  We have traveled over 15,000 kms  – through 3 countries,  6 Mexican states, 3 Canadian provinces, 13 American states and 3 time zones.     That doesn’t include the side trips we took to see waterfalls and mountains and lakes and wineries and deserts.  We have seen some beautiful sights and met many kind and interesting people.  Lots of weird powdery eggs in free hotel breakfasts and crazy gas station snacks.   We have been to a graduation and a wedding and a planning retreat.  We hung out with our daughters, our parents and all our siblings but one (next time Connie?).   We visited 3 different welders for trailer repairs and replaced one bulging tire.   It was a great trip and it is almost over.  Unfortunately, the last leg is the toughest – getting all our building supplies and equipment imported and driving it all through Mexican mountain roads.  But we are close and this last load represents the end of the transition.  The start of the forever life.

Heading up to Canada

Heading back to Mexico

Jungles and Waterfalls and Cities

Diana’s graduation and Jason & Bailey’s Wedding

Family time

I have learned a lot during this trip:

• Hotels never have enough electrical outlets for all our devices
• Americans still don’t know where Canada is
  • Guy:  It must feel pretty hot for you being from Minnesota
  • Grant:  Actually we’re from Canada
  • Guy:  Yeah same thing
• People eat too much sugar
  • Girl in hotel breakfast room:  Dad, what are Corn Flakes?
  • Dad:  That’s Frosted Flakes without the Frosting – you have to add your own.  Proceeds to dump A LOT of sugar on daughter’s corn flakes
• Avoiding mountains when you’re pulling a large trailer adds a lot of miles and states to the trip. In order to avoid Colorado we visited:  Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Iowa, Arizona, New Mexico
• There is no place on earth where you will not see a Rider fan wearing his green
• Oklahoma is really good at summer storms and Arizona is really good at summer heat
• Apparently Google Maps doesn’t know about all the new highways and interchanges….. rerouting…..rerouting…….
• You get what you pay for when you book hotels online, no matter what the pictures look like – we’ve had some nice ones and some really NOT NICE ones
• USA has not embraced whole grains – almost every hotel offered white bread only for breakfast
• Big dreams come with big challenges – I have never considered quitting on this dream, but I acknowledge that it has been difficult and somedays are downright scary. I don’t know if I could keep moving ahead if I didn’t have faith that this all part of a divine purpose.
• When you’re traveling with your best friend even the bad days are fun – or at least manageable!

Road Trip Sugar Overload

Crazy weather didn’t slow us down

I think the main thing I learned is that Bucerias has become my home.  When I learned that we would not be able to meet with the broker on Wednesday but would have to wait until the next Monday, I bawled like a baby.  I am so ready to be home.  I miss hugging children and eating tacos and hearing Spanish.  I miss our garden.  I miss my friends and my church and my crazy neighborhood.  We were so fortunate to see our family this month but we are definitely ready to settle back into our new life.

Tomorrow we will meet with two different brokers.  We will unload the trailer and the truck and will get inspections and will pay all kinds of fees and duties and ‘honorariums’.  It will take a couple of days and then we will be on the road to home.  If all goes well, next Tuesday. we will go to Jose’s Kindergarten graduation.  We will meet Ibet’s new baby who will arrive any day and Mateo who was born last month.  We will celebrate little Ivan’s final adoption by his wonderful California parents.  We will congratulate Peter on getting his Mexican citizenship and Verito on graduating from Veterinarian school.  We will celebrate with Carmelo and Paola on their recent engagement.  We will go dancing in town squares and exploring around town in our spunky blue golf cart.  We will reach out and make a difference wherever we can.  And we will eat tacos!