Despite the nasty cold I came down with a few days ago, my trip back home to Cetus in Santa Rosalia went very smoothly.

I had 3 large duffel bags full of "stuff" in addition to my 2 carry ons and I was a bit concerned first of all, how I was going to manage schlepping them from place to place, but most of all how I would get through customs without any problems.

I had a 6 am departure scheduled from SeaTac and my original plan was to be dropped off at the Inn at Gig Harbor where I would catch the Airport Shuttle, but my wonderful friend Liz bought me a trip to the airport in a town car -- she really saved the day! He was able to drop me -- and my heavy, awkward bags -- off right in front of the terminal where I could get a cart to push them in, where if I'd taken the shuttle, they let you off down in the bottom floor of the parking garage and it would have been a much bigger struggle to get them to the check in counter.

Check in went well, too. I was afraid a couple of my bags would be over the weight limit, but the heaviest weighed in at 49.5 so I was good to go and by the time I got through security and walked down to my gate, the plane had begun boarding so I walked right in without having to wait. Perfect!

I had a brief lay over in LA for my flight to Loreto then we were off. Once we touched down in Loreto the next major hurtle would be getting through customs because I did have a few "boat parts" with me. They did ask me about what was in the big bag after it went through xray and I said I had a couple things for the boat but that I had a list (friends had told me that having one might help if there were questions) and when I pulled out the list that was with my 10 year temporary import certificate that we got when we entered Mexico, he said that's all he needed to see. But I still had to push the famous Red Light/ Green Light button.

That's Mexico's system for determining who's luggage gets searched (though they will look if there's something odd looking on the xray) and it's always a bit nerve wracking -- for even though I'm not taking anything illigal into Mexico, it's still a very time consuming orderal and who knows what they might find suspicious and want some examination on. But luck was with me and I got the green!

Then it was off to the bus station. I had no idea when the next bus to Santa Rosalia would be leaving and figured I'd probably have a three or four hour wait in the small station, but once again things went smoothly and as I was purchasing my ticket, the bus pulled into the station! I bought a bottle of water and made a trip to the bano (bathroom) and I was on the road again.

Three hours after boarding the bus, and 14 hours after leaving Liz's house, we pulled into the terminal in Santa Rosalia and Terry and I lugged the bags the short distance (maybe about a block all the way to the boat) and we began unloading all the "stuff" -- it was like Christmas in July!