Taking Ned to Mexico

This blog is coming to you from San Miguel de Allende. Yes, I'm back. Arrived Sunday afternoon. The last few days in Houston were kind of crazy. I was worried about how to get most of my clothes that have collected in Houston over the last two years back to SMA. Would my two suitcases be overweight? What about my camera equipment? But my biggest worry last week was Ned's ashes. I wanted to bring some of his ashes to SMA.

The Funeral Home told me that they had sent cremated remains back to Mexico and they would provide the proper documentation for Mexican customs. I received a sealed box, a death certificate in Spanish and a letter in Spanish stating that the deceased had no communicable diseases. Okay. But I was still worried. I know that "rules" change from location to location, from day to day and from agent to agent in Mexico. I could just envision Mexico confiscating Ned's ashes from me and who knows where they would end up. The last couple of nights I was in Houston I took sleeping pills!

Okay, so I'm prepared for anything that might happen in Mexico. Little did I expect a problem North of the Border.

I get to the security line and I found out that since I'm 75 years old, I don't have to take my shoes off. I don't like being old but not having to take your shoes off is an advantage. I dutifully load up the plastic trays with shoulder bag with Ned's ashes and a carry-on. I have to go through the scanner and then turn to collect my stuff. The security person tells me to move over to the table that they have to check out the shoulder bag.

"Mam, what is in this bag?"
That official police voice which means she will not tolerate any objection.
"My purse, my Kindle and my husband's ashes."
She takes the sealed box out of the suede bag provided by the Funeral Home.
She wipes the inside of the bag with one of those explosive wipes.
"Mam, I'm going to have to take this box for a special scan."
She starts to walk away with the box.
"Where are you taking my husband?"
 Tears start rolling down my cheeks.
She gets a wire basket and puts the box in it.
"Over here for the special scan."
Now my nose is running and my breath is coming in hiccups.
She is back in less than a minute and gently puts the box back in the suede bag.
In a kind and gentle voice
"Mam, I'm sorry for your loss."

The flight was uneventful. In flight I fill out the entry form and the Custom Declarations form although I was not quite sure how to check it to declare Ned's ashes. I'm afraid if I don't tell them that I have the ashes and I get the red light that they will surely confiscate Ned's ashes.

Now Mexican Immigration and Mexican Custom. No problems though immigration. I get a porter to help with the luggage. I get to the Customs Agent.

"I'm not sure how I should fill out this Customs Declarations form but I have my husband's ashes."
"You have your husband with you????"
"No, my husband has died. I have his ashes with me and the paperwork to bring them into Mexico."
"Oh, push the button."
I pushed the button and got a green light.
She said
"Buenos Dias" and reached for the next person's Declarations form.
The porter and I walked out with my luggage and Ned's ashes.

I think that Ned is happy that at least a part of him is here in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico, a place he loved dearly.

Re-entry

We are back in San Miguel de Allende. We arrived last Friday but I just haven't been in the mood for updating the blog. It is so hot it just kind of sucks out any initiative to do anything. We are usually gone during this time of year but it didn't work out that way this year. It is so dry and hot. Some friends of ours who live near the Canyon said that it was on fire yesterday. I'm hoping the rainy season starts early in June.

It didn't take long for San Miguel to welcome us back. There were some fireworks on Friday night but Saturday night there were major fireworks and bells. They seemed to be on a schedule from one church to another then back again. They didn't bother Carly until the neighborhood church did their round of fireworks around 6:00 AM. Now they were loud. It was like they were in our street. She cried a bit so we let her out of her crate and on the bed. The next night she tried the crying again at 6. This time there were no fireworks but who can blame her for giving it a try. This time Ned just told her to be quiet. She settled down again until it was time to get up.

All of the roosters and chickens are still here, crowing and clucking but now a turkey's gobble has been added to the bird symphony. So far I haven't figured where the turkey lives. . .to our right or to our left.

I went to the San Juan mercado. My chicken lady was still there. I have walked into town. It is hard to get a cardio workout with the walking because you keep seeing friends and you just have to stop and talk. And so the social schedule has started again. Cocktails one night, lunch with a girlfriend, and a comida one day next week. We had friends over for shrimp, just boiled shrimp and we sat at the patio table and peeled shrimp, ate and talked.

Most of our meals have been simple grilled chicken and salad and/or grilled vegetables. It is just too hot to heat up the kitchen with cooking and too hot to have much of an appetite.  Today I walked out Ancha de San Antonio/Celaya to Queso Luna. I needed some Kalamata olives and as long as I was there I popped into Maple bakery for a couple of rolls to go with our dinner tonight. It it going to be a Romaine lettuce, celery, olive, shrimp salad with a light French Vinargette dressing. While at Queso Luna I noticed that they are selling the Brianna salad dressings. They are my favorites, especially the blush wine dressing. I pay about $3 for them in the States. Here they were selling them for 72 pesos....maybe $6.50 US. My first thought was NO I'm not going to spend that much for a bottle of dressing. But you know I didn't have to cart it down and if I don't have it and I really, really want it . . . who knows. Just might do it for a special treat.

We are home and re-entry wasn't difficult at all (except for the heat.)

PS, The picture of the chickens was shot in 2004. I thought about them as I wrote about the chickens. Now with my new Lightroom setup, it is so easy to go look for an image, work it, save it for the net and there it is on the blog.

And a thanks to Jennifer for a heads up on the price of the salad dressing. 72 pesos not 720 pesos.  What would I do without friends!

Getting Ready to Move On

I can't believe that we have been in Houston for seven weeks but then I look at what we have accomplished and we have been busy. Lots of medical tests, lots of doctor visits, two eye surgeries (one for Ned and one for me), boy sitting with Jack and Will, seeing Dexter and Maxwell and getting to hear Maxwell's rock band, some shopping, and dinners with friends.

In addition I've completed the move to Adobe Lightroom, transferred 550 GB's of photo files to three external hard drives so now I have a working, a backup and an archive of the 550 GB's. This means that I can take all of my photo files with me on one external HD between SMA and Houston. None of this is quite as simple as it "reads." There were bumps along the way but I'm glad the job is done.

And the other big accomplishment while we were in Texas was spending some time in Port Aransas and figuring out that my idea for a project tying the Mercer Logs in with my photographs could work. It will just take time and a lot of work and a bit of help from some people in Port Aransas. I can't begin to tell you how excited I am about the project.

Now it is time to get the apartment straightened, stuff that is going to San Miguel organized. Before long we will be back to living on Mexican Time.

Crossing the Border One More Time

Yes, we made the border crossing at Laredo one more time by car. Other than seeing a lot of military convoys headed South and Federal Police convoys headed North all was quiet. Don't misunderstand. Just because we didn't see any bodies piled up on the highway doesn't mean that everything is safe in Nuevo Laredo. Yet, there was a big softball game going on as we drove by parks along the river. The Ford car dealership and other businesses were open. I always wonder how I could live in a war zone or endure what the people in Japan are living through. Would I be a survivor? Someone who could go on day after day under the stress of such living conditions? I hope I never have to find out.

So many times we have waited to cross the border but this time we sailed right on to the bridge and waited for about three cars to clear out in front of us. A long day of driving but an easy border crossing.

This is the first time we have made the trip with Carly. She is a good traveler. Once the car is moving she curls up in the back seat and sleeps except when she is braced on the armrest between the seats and looking out the front window.

Carrying Baggage

We are back in San Miguel. After a flight of a little over two hours, we still had another one and a-half hour van ride to our house. It is always interesting to meet who is on the van. Sometimes it might be someone you know or who lives here full-time but usually it is visitors. This time we had a couple who had rented a house for 10 weeks and another lady who comes from Oregon every year to stay for three months. The couple who were staying for 10 weeks must have a full social calendar because they had at least four huge suitcases and then some smaller bags.

It made me giggle because we basically have been in Houston for  four months with so few clothes that we brought most of them back in our two small bags that could go overhead if we had wanted to put them there, a brief case and a backpack. Somehow we managed to be dressed for everyday during that four months and even for a few special occasions. Probably not as fashionable as this couple but the travel was easier.

This week it didn't look like the airlines were inforcing baggage rules. One lady in front of us had an overhead bag, a stuffed clothes bag, a shopping bag in the overhead and then a huge purse. It was all she could do to get down the aisle of the plane. I think I saw her in the baggage area pulling two gigantic suitcases off the luggage conveyor. I wonder if she had to pay for the extra checked bag and for being over the weight limit for both of those huge bags. She was only one example. There were others who got on the plane with an overhead bag plus more than a briefcase or purse.

I don't want to have to hassle with that much stuff and I do resent being hit and shoved with their stuff as the baggage overloaders try to get on and off the airplane.

Oh, and speaking about flying, we didn't get a pat-down or have to go through the x-ray machine when we went through security. We did see people going through the x-ray machine but I didn't see anyone getting a pat-down. People seemed to be moving through security just fine although it is a hassle to take out computers and take off belts, coats and shoes.

Flying just isn't glamorous anymore.

Carly Can't Fly

Carly can't fly on Continental Airlines. Maybe I should say I won't let Carly fly on Continental Airlines from Mexico to Houston, Texas. And if some of you are wondering who the heck Carly is, Carly is the little dog we rescued in July. She is a cute little thing, dark gray and white. Maybe a poodle/Lhasa or poodle/cocker mix. Who knows. She weighs about 15-18 pounds and is like a fluffy teddy bear curled up in your lap.

Three weeks after we adopted her, we left her for five days to go to Mexico City. And then our lives turned upside down and we were back in Houston for seven weeks. She stayed in San Miguel. Back home for three weeks and then we left her again. All of this time she is being left, she is in a good place but it wasn't with us.  The poor little dog was getting traumatized with having a home and then not having a home. She needed to be with us and we needed her.

I thought it would be simple. I had read Continental's website about traveling with dogs and I bought a crate that complied. She is just a little too big to fit under the seat so I knew she would have to go in cargo. But then I called Continental to book her. It wasn't going to be simple. They gave me numbers to call at the Leon airport because they could not book her out of Mexico. The first number didn't work. It "no existe." Then they gave me two more numbers to call. "No existe." Finally I reached someone who told me I would have to get a customs broker to get her on the flight. That number worked.

Between my poor Spanish and the custom brokers poor English and the bad connection, I was hearing that I had to come to their office which wasn't at the airport and fill out the paperwork several days ahead of time. There was something about they had to have the dog so many hours before the flight and I never could figure out what their address was even if I went over to Leon to fill out the paperwork.

I was so frustrated that I asked a friend of mine to help me. Darlene was amazing. She was like a dog with a new bone and she wasn't going to let it go until she had it all figured out. She made phone calls to Continental in DF and the Customs brokers in Leon and it all came down to was that to fly Carly from Leon, Mexico to Houston, Texas was even worse than what I had understood and it would take two or three trips to Leon to set it up (a three hour round-trip drive from San Miguel), it would probably mean leaving Carly overnight with the customs broker and it would cost almost as much to fly her from Leon to Houston as my round trip ticket from Leon/Houston and back again.

The wonderful thing about San Miguel is how friends rally around when someone needs help. Darlene made some phone calls and found someone who would bring Carly to me. Kelly with Save a Mexican Mutt also found someone who would bring her. Neither of these people who said they would bring her had ever laid eyes on Carly and one of them did not know us at all.

I flew into San Miguel to take care of Carly and also to take care of some business but I had to get Carly ready to go the next morning. As soon as I reached the house, I went to pick up Carly and took her to the Vet. Another thank you to Darlene for getting me a quick appointment on a Friday afternoon. I got her health certificate just in case anyone asked for it at the border although that has only happened to us one time in all the times we have crossed the border. Early the next morning I took Carly to meet her driver and off they went. I wonder what thoughts were going through her little head. First she is here and then she is there and then somewhere else.

I flew back into Houston Sunday afternoon and Carly arrived in her "car" about an hour later. The whole family is together again and other than a little separation anxiety when we leave her, Carly seems to have survived being left here and there.

Don't ask me how we are going to get her back to San Miguel. I'm going to be like Scarlett O'Hara and I'll worry about that when the time comes.

UPDATE: There may be some hope for flying a dog that is too big to go under the seat out of Mexico in Cargo because American Airlines has announced that they are going to add some more routes into Mexico. And Southwest has also announced some flights into Mexico. BUT American will be flying a Queretaro/Dallas/Ft.Worth route and Southwest will be flying to some Mexican locations from the West Coast. Not much help for Carly but it might be good for some of you other doggies owners. From what I have heard they are not sending the dogs through Mexican Customs when leaving the country and their charges for a doggie ticket is much less than on Continental. Of course, just like anything else in Mexico this can change without notice or vary from official to official, or location to location.

Mexican Immigration Takes Big Step Forward

We have been doing the FM2/FM3 thing for eight or nine years. Thanks to Ned, we have been doing them on our own. Sometimes it has taken more than one trip to get all the right paper work turned in. And I do mean paperwork....copies of every page of the passport and old FM2 or FM3, copies of bank statements or something to prove that you had a sufficient income level, a utility bill to verify where you live and so on. Most of the time it has been smooth even if three to five weeks slow. Last year everything speeded up. We were down to being able to get the FM2 and FM3 back in a week to 10 days. But the immigration procedure changed big-time this year and Ned just renewed his FM2. WOW! Let me walk you through Ned's FM2 renewal.

The old booklet has been replaced with a laminated card so he had to get a picture made for it. Since he was going to be at the escritorio for the picture, he just let the excritorio fill out the form for him but he could have done that on-line. By the way, Immigration is very particular about your photograph. No smile, no hair on the face, no earrings....just the unglamourized, unretouched YOU.

He got the voucher to make the bank payment and went to the bank and paid the fee.

Came back to Immigration and turned in the pictures, the form and paid voucher. If he had done the form on the computer all he would have had to do was take the pictures and paid voucher. He also took his passport. The agent looked at it but handed it back to him.

The agent gave him a piece of paper that had a tracking number on it so he could go on line and see the progress of his application. And he told him the FM2 would be ready on Wednesday. It wasn't ready on Wednesday but it was on Thursday.

Ned showed his passport, and gave them a fingerprint when he went to pick up his FM2 on Thursday. Now he is good for another year and then he will be eligible for inmigrado status or apply for Mexican citizenship.

How easy is that? Turn it in on Monday, check on the progress on-line and pick it up on Thursday. Just one little problem with the card....it is slightly larger than a credit card so it doesn't fit in a wallet.

Now there is one thing I wonder about. On the old FM2 booklet it was stamped everytime you left and returned to Mexico because, you are not suppose to be out of the country more than 18 months during the five years you hold an FM2. I don't know how they would ever be able to match up all the dates because some were very faint, some were stamped over others. I think it would have taken me all morning to go through Ned's FM2 booklet and figure out how long he had been out of the country in the last four years. So did they do that and is that information stored on the card or in a computer somewhere? For the last two or three years they have been scanning the FM2 and FM3s when we come and go so maybe they were already storing that information. I don't know but this I do know, Mexican Immigration is becoming very computerized.

Bridge Crossing

No this isn't the bridge over the Rio Grande. This is the bridge crossing the Mississippi River near Baton Rouge. As we approached and crossed it I just kept snapping images. I love the feeling I have when crossing these structural steel bridges. The car eating up the pavement and the rush of the steel girders overhead. I put up three images hoping that maybe they will give you a bit of the feeling of charging across the bridge.

In my photography collection I have a monotone 36x36 inch image of the underside of a bridge. The image was made by my friend David Fokos. I love that image because of it's strong graphic design. It speaks of strength and power. Shooting out the windshield of the car at 60 mph, my images don't hold a candle to the beauty of David's image but I like the crisp design and the feeling of moving through a tunnel (or door) to the other side, another place, a new adventure.

Blues and Purples

What a palette of colors I found in the Garden District in New Orleans. And we only walked down Coliseum Street. Who knows what other hidden treats are tucked away behind wrought iron fences and flowers.

The Big Easy

Yes, we are in New Orleans for a few days. Although the weather hasn't been very cooperative, we have still had time to walk our legs off. The afternoon we arrived we walked Bourbon Street. Let me be honest, Bourbon Street stinks. Literally and figuratively. At 5 PM the smell was not pleasant in many places. Bourbon Street has always included strip shows and bars but there also use to be wonderful places where you could hear New Orleans jazz. Now it is pretty much strip shows, bars and people who are well on their way to being very drunk by 6:30 PM.  Bourbon Street is a strange, dirty, smelly and very tacky place.

Yesterday we walked and walked in the Garden district. I love walking through neighborhoods and these are such colorful neighborhoods. The New Orleans palette includes purples, blues and lavenders. I just love those combinations with dusty pink crepe myrtles or the blue of agapanthus. There are also houses painted in rosy warm colors accented with green doors. Another great combination. Yes, I've taken lots of pictures and I'll have them processed later....it may not be until we are back home.

Today we covered more of the French Quarter and downtown. I especially wanted to see the Roosevelt Hotel where we went on our honeymoon so many years ago. We talked to Ray who works in the hotel and he told us that the hotel has only been reopened for a year. During Katrina it had water in the lobby for three months. He said that mold was everywhere and it took a long time to restore it. Hard to believe. But it is beautiful now. We asked if at Christmas time they still decorated the whole lobby which runs from one block to another. He told us how many Christmas trees, birch trees and lights they used. It must have been something to see even if they didn't cover the ceiling with angel hair because of the fiber glass.  Maybe we'll have to go back at Christmas time again. I'd love to see it.

And then there is the food......but that will have to be another entry.

Day Trip to Guanajuato

I've been wanting to go to Guanajuato but it always turns out that we get lost in that city. All of a sudden you are in a tunnel that you didn't expect to be in and the next thing you know you exit and can't figure out where in the heck you are. Even places that we have been several times before, like Gorky Gonzalez showroom. So rather than drive over, get lost, and pay a cab driver to lead us to where we want to go, we decided to take the bus and leave the driving to them.

The Mexican bus system is really a great way to travel especially if you take the direct first-class buses. We left San Miguel early in the morning and when we arrived at the Guanajuato bus station we took a cab direct to Gorky's showroom. The cab driver took a route that we didn't know about....and probably couldn't repeat...but we ended up at Gorky's door and didn't have to worry about parking which is also tricky in Guanajuato.

We had broken most of our cups from Gorky so we ordered some more and of course there were some other pieces that I couldn't resist. Gorky will have them delivered right to our door in San Miguel when they are ready.

Out Gorky's door and into another cab. I wanted to go back to see the Mercado Hidalgo. I remember being there about 25 years ago and it was a huge building busting with fresh produce, meats, seeds and spices. From the mezzanine you could buy shirts and pots and dishes and look down on the riot of color below. I wanted to get a photograph from the mezzanine of that colorful scene. Oh dear, it wasn't as I remembered. Many stalls are closed and it seemed darker and dingier that I remembered.

Back outside, we found a procession! Surprise, surprise! How can you possibly go anywhere in Mexico without running into some procession. This one commemorating the death of six miners who in 1937 helped organize the miners union.

After the procession we walked. Every church needed to be explored as did every government building. We had to stop by the basilica at these pretty green umbrellas for a bit of cool refreshment. Then once again on to explore other plazas and places.

Although this isn't a picture of it, we ended up in the Plaza de Union where we sat under the shade of trees and had comida.

Guanajuato is a beautiful city. Very different from San Miguel.  I love all the shaded plazas and sidewalk cafes. I love the colors of the buildings which include blues, greens and aquas. Exterior colors that you seldom see in San Miguel. It seems very European compared with San Miguel. More grand buildings from the 19th century.

We left home a little after 8:00 AM and arrived back a little before 6:00 PM. It was a good day trip. You can see my tourist photos here.

Traveling Photographs

The huisache is in bloom along MX 57. I saw so many of these trees with their bright yellow blossoms. Sometimes in clusters and sometimes a single tree with the sun making it glow like a lamp. I wanted to stop hundreds of times to photograph the spring colors in the desert landscape or maybe a single, tiny, brightly-colored house with plants in tin-cans growing around the door. A single house with the desert spreading in all directions to a backdrop of blue mountains. My eye is constantly framing images as we barrel down the highway. You would think that as many times as we have traveled MX 57 that I would have taken all the imaginary pictures there are to take. There is always something new.

I tell myself that maybe next time we will have time to stop along the highway for me to take photographs but it doesn't happen. We have a nine hour drive between San Miguel and Laredo if we only stop for bathroom breaks and gas. If we are going into the USA, we will have a wait to cross the bridge at the border. Most of the time not a very long wait but you never know. We want all of this drive to be in daylight.  One of these days maybe we will plan to divide the drive up into several days so there will be some photoing time. I hope that happens before too long. I'm not getting any younger.

Driving North

Mexican Highway 57 doesn't look dangerous does it? But near the Texas-Mexico border peridocally it is because the Mexican drug cartels battle each other to control routes and the Mexican government battle the cartels to try to stop the flow of drugs to the USA. About a week before we drove back to Texas, we read that the cartels had a battle in Nuevo Laredo near the zoo. If the reports are correct the battle included military assault weapons and grenades. The US Government periodically issues warnings about travel along some highways or in some Mexican cities.

Our route to the International Bridge II takes us near the zoo. So we were on high alert as we drove along the Rio Grande. We didn't see any building that looked like it had been damaged. We did see men playing golf and on the other side of the road there were baseball games in progress.

I'm not minimizing the terrible situation along the border. Too many people have lost their lives and too many people have businesses that have failed because the tourists aren't coming south. I just wonder how the majority of people who live in the cities like Nuevo Laredo, Reynosa, and Juarez can live with the stress day after day.

But there is something else that I don't understand. The cartels are battling for the routes to the US so what happens once the drugs get across the border? And they must be getting across the border or they would not be so profitable that the cartels fight about them. After they get across do they just magically move across the US? Is there little need to pay bribes, corrupt police or kill many people to protect their routes?

I'm just asking.........

Flying South

Although we know from having lived in Houston that icy, snowy weather seldom lasts more than 24 hours, we were worried that we might have ice on the freeway overpasses when we headed to the airport at 8 AM on Saturday morning. It was sunny but below freezing. The water had for the most part dried up on the roads and we only saw one car that had spun out on an overpass. There was still a sprinkling of snow on the ground and some little puffs of snow remained on the trees. We made it to the airport just fine.

We did run into one problem once we were in the airport. The overhead train that takes you from one terminal to another wasn't in operation because of icing so we had to take the underground train and go through security in Terminal B. This meant that terminal B security was way overloaded and the lines were long. I was delightfully surprised with the TSA people who were directing traffic and checking passports and ID's. They were smiling and friendly, working as fast as they could. Their attitude kept everyone in line relaxed and sure that TSA was doing the best it could under the circumstances. Once we got to the scanners the TSA agents were focused but still operating at a good speed. So what we thought would be a bad experience when we arrived at Terminal B and saw the long lines, turned out not to be so bad after all.
The first picture is shortly after we took off in Houston. Houston is flat and green. And the last one is our approach into Leon. I love to see the mountains from the air.....the folds and ridges. I'm so lucky to live in two such different places.

Fashion vs. Comfort

We are flying back to San Miguel today and I'm laughing at what I'm thinking about wearing. Jeans, shirt, sandals and socks. The sandals and socks are the really laughable part because my socks have the "gold toe." Sandals and socks are bad enough; gold toes really, really unfashionable. The only reason I'm doing it is because of airport security. You have to take off your shoes. Lace-up shoes are a pain to get off and get back on. Sandals are easy to slip off and on but if I don't have on socks I'm walking around barefooted on the floor where lots of other people have walked around barefooted. Yuck! So I'm going for the "unyuck" factor and comfort over fashion. Never would have done that when I was younger and glamorous but today I have my priorities lined up a little differently.

I brought my camera with me but we have been in such a dither it hasn't even made it out of the case since we have been here. So this is another photograph from the campo outside of San Miguel de Allende.

After a Long Journey......

One week ago today we arrived back in San Miguel de Allende after being gone for almost four months. We left for three weeks and ended up being gone for way too long.

On the first day we drove from Houston to Saltillo. We crossed at Bridge #2 in Laredo and had no stops at customs or immigration. The traffic was light and we had smooth driving except when we turned from the cuota road to head into Saltillo. There is a lot of construction on the road heading into Saltillo. It will be a much better road when all of the overpasses are finished. We spent the night at the Camino Real Hotel. The hotel was a good reminder of the differences in architecture between the two countries. There are stairs everywhere. Sometimes only 5 or 6 steps, sometimes winding steps, sometimes whole flights of steps but almost always no hand rails. If you are in a wheelchair or not able to navigate steps easily, the Camino Real is not for you. In fact Mexico may not be for you.

I can't begin to describe how wonderful it was to start down the hill from the Caracol and see the town spread out in front of us. First I see the Parroquia spires, the Monjas church, the Oratorio, the San Francisco but the best is when I spot the San Antonio church in the middle of our Colonia. Then I know I'm really almost home.

Everything in the house looked great but it was very quiet. The pump on the pond had gone out and the fish had been eaten by birds. Our birds were staying with friends. And of course, we were reminded of Taylor when we walked in. I still miss my doggy friend everyday.

We're back in the swing with cooking and seeing friends but I still haven't gotten all our stuff put away. Today I'm cleaning out our closet. It needed it before we left. So as leverage to get it done, I'm not going to put anything back into it until it is clean and tidy.

I've also got to figure out how to keep up with the growing "library." When we first bought the house I brought down a few books but now my obsession for books has filled up the spaces. Also when we remodeled the kitchen, I thought I had enough room but the new enameled cast iron pot and the wok are overflowing the storage space. I had sworn off buying stuff except what I really need. Well if it is a book or something for the kitchen, I always seem to be able to convince myself that I really, really need it.

It is good to be home. Home with the windows open to life on the street. Home with the fireworks and church bells. Home with the cool nights and glorious blue skies.

Big Sky Country

We crossed the Rio Grande on Monday and now we are in Texas. In Houston. I must keep this short and sweet before I lose the internet connection. Not only having problems with the internet but some problems getting my computer and monitor connected. That one is now fixed but I not sure if this monitor is properly color balanced. I think it is okay. I don't know when the internet situation will be fixed. I can't begin to tell you how anxious I've been not to have all my gear working properly.

I am doing some test shots for the two or three book ideas and hopefully will be ready to start on SoFoBoMo in the next day or so.

Opportunity Almost Missed

Sometimes I miss opportunity when it knocks. This time it knocked twice and fortunately I took it on the second knock. I was with friends and we were walking through the market. I saw this little girl surrounded by these lush colors but studiously working in her book. I was in the middle of the group and I hesitated to stop and walked on by. Tom was a little behind me and he caught up with me and said, "Take a picture of this little girl." Boing! He was right. I took this one, another one and then she looked up.

Thanks Tom for giving me a second opportunity.

Sunset

Valle de Bravo from above the town overlooking the lake. Oh, the lengths I have to go to find new photographs for you!

Travel Advisory

No, not a government travel advisory but a real life advisory from our recent travels on Mex 57 between San Miguel and Nuevo Laredo.

In the past on Mex 57, we encountered lots of check points where you had to pull over. Most of the time we were just asked a few questions and then waved on through, sometimes we had to open the trunk so that they could look in and once soldiers climbed into the car and hit on the roof, floor board and opened the console. But this trip we only saw one check point and there were no soldiers there when we went through early in the morning. On our return trip, we passed there in the afternoon and cars were being pulled over.

However, we did get the red light when we crossed the bridge back into Mexico. We pulled in and they had us open the trunk, asked where we were going, then waved us on. At the immigration check point outside of Nuevo Laredo we got a red light and it looked like most cars were getting the red light. They wanted to see our "permiso" for the car and they checked that against the car sticker and the VIN on the car. They opened the trunk, opened one suitcase and waved us on.

Of course, it probably helps that Ned gets out of the car and chats them up a bit. He told them that we had been to Texas for a family wedding. His nephew got married. Now we were on our way home to San Miguel de Allende. The dog helps too. He is a pretty dog and they often ask his name. At least he gets us a smile.

Then we were stopped again, by the Federales this time, just as we came through the toll booth near Matehuala. They too, wanted to see the permiso and they checked it against the car sticker and the VIN. He waved us on as well.

What I didn't understand is that the permiso is only good for six months unless you have an FM3 or FM2. Then the permiso is good as long as the FM3 and FM2 are valid. So I would think that they would ask to look at the immigration documents as well but they didn't. I did notice that one of the officers looked at the Mexican emissions sticker which you have to renew every six months.

Now we are trying to figure out what is going on. All I can say is, have your car papers in order before you leave home.

On our trip North we saw many Federales along the highway waiting....just like our Texas State Highway Patrol. And just like in Texas, they were pulling people over. We noticed that a few of the cars pulled over had passed us at airplane take off speeds but flying down Mexico 57 has never been noticed before by the Federales. We are thinking that maybe things are changing but when we came South yesterday, we only saw one or two patrol cars on the roadside.

All and all, it was a good trip but it is good to be home.