I can’t quite believe it either – we’re driving north again to get one last load of stuff.  Business stuff this time – our bobcat and scaffolding so Grant can do some building.  And my BBQ and Christmas stuff which didn’t make the last load.   We have combined it all together with a graduation in Tepic, a wedding in Penticton, a visit with my sister in Squamish and our daughters in Vancouver, time with family in Regina, and a work retreat in Moose Jaw.  And if we have to drive through Mexico, we decided to add a few vacation days and check out some new territory.  So this is a combination family/vacation/work trip and we will be gone about a month.

Our first stop was to say goodbye to the kiddos at the orphanage.   On Thursday when we told them we were leaving, they were not happy.  Samantha just mostly glared, “you said no more Canada, you said you live in Bucerias now”.    Yes but we need to visit our daughters and our parents.  We’ll be back, we promise.  We hugged and kissed goodbye and reminded them to be good for the English teacher sub Luke.  We will be back – this is our home now.

After driving 2.5 hours through crazy winding mountain roads, our first stop was Tepic for our friend Diana’s graduation from Vanguardia – a Bible school connected with La Fuente church.   After spending so much time every day seeing children and teens who seem to have so little hope, it was refreshing and emotional to see a room full of young adults passionate about their futures, all of them eager to start internships where they will care for others and live out their faith.

This 113 km trip takes almost 3 hours because of crazy roads and crazier drivers

We then headed to the historic center of Tepic to start the vacation portion of our trip.  We hadn’t been in Centro 10 minutes before we were pulled over by the police – who knew you couldn’t turn left at any corners?

Good morning view from my bed

Today we are heading to Guadalajara – the adventure begins!  We are taking a different route this time so we can see some new places.  Some gardens and waterfalls and historic towns.  Some Pueblos Magicos – magical Mexican towns.  Stay tuned – you know there’s going to be entertainment along the way!