As we were getting ready to go on the bus from Santa Rosalia to Tijuana Cortez just slept on the setee. He was blissfully unaware as to what was about to transpire. After I tore apart the boat to find his cat carrier he was tricked into going into it with some kitty treats. He does not like the cat carrier after the air plane trip. I think that scared him for life. We carried him to the bus depot and hid behind a pillar so the workers at the bus terminal couldn't see him. He was not happy but he was quiet. Amy sat next to him and told him stories of great fish and all the squid he could eat. This seemed to keep him calm. As the time neared we pulled up the canvas duffel bag around his case. He was not pleased but he was still quiet. Rich carried the moving duffel bag onto the bus and I put it on my lap. As soon as the bus started to move, I unzipped the case and got Cortez out of his prison. He was panting and none too thrilled. I had him sit on my lap while he calmed down. He had his harness on and his leash was pulled up really short in my hand. He wanted to roam but since he was officially supposed to be underneath the bus with the luggage we kept him as close as possible since we were afraid that the bus driver might pull over and put him down below. That would be BAD. He went over and sat on Amy's lap for a while when he had calmed down.
The sun went down and the movies started on the TVs overhead. We could only hear about half of the words that they were saying over the loud rumble of the bus. One movie was in English with Spanish subtitles and one was in Spainsh. We all tried to close our eyes to get some sleep. I had Cortez back on my lap. He was finally getting relaxed enough to close his eyes too. Then Amy saw that up ahead was a military check point. We rally into action and get Cortez into the cat carrier and put him down at Rich's feet. Everyone had to get off of the bus so the soldiers can inspect it. I silently said a prayer that Cortez stayed quiet so he will not have to get put down below. After the inspection we all get back on the bus and Cortez was just fine. There were 5 military inspections in all. We had to get off of the bus for 2 of them. I woke up from my quasi sleep with a nice young officer walking by with a flash light in hand. Cortez was on my lap and I pretended to be asleep. He said nothing about the cat. My prayers were answered.
The best sleep we got was when we were stopped for the check points when we did not have to get off of the bus. Otherwise we were going around some sharp curves and really bumpy road. My teeth were clanking together at times and my seat would not recline so I am sure that was part of my lack of sleep problem. Cortez laid down across my lap and finally snoozed. He only shifted a bit as we both slid down the seat at times but he was my blankie. We kept each other warm.
I think that our next trip north will be by rental car as it took all of us at least a day to get back to normal. Cortez, as well as the rest of us are not looking forward to the trip back down south.
I was not able to take any pictures of Cortez on our trip as I was too afraid to draw attention to him on the bus.

With my Ham radio, I can post blog updates from anywhere in the world that I can connect to a HF radio. Then I bought the TelCel Mexican wireless card and form the deck of THIRD DAY was able to not only send in text only blog updates, but upload photos as well. Now here I am at the moment in seat 45C flying from Salt Lake to Annapolis and I'm able to not only make a blog update but surf the web and check email. Is there nowhere that I can't make a blog post from these days? Is the world of WiFi that dominate a force today that I could strap a webcam onto my head and have the blog follow me anywhere?

With the ability to update the bog from literally anywhere now, the question that needs to be asked and perhaps answered, "Do I actually have that much of interest to talk about"? The answer of course it no, but I've never been one to take the answer "No" seriously. I've had a few emails asking if I have tried to make some extra cruising kitty cash (drink Steve) by submitting any of my ramblings....ah....I mean writings to some of the cruising magazines and if not why. I've only sent things into Latitude 38 and those have found their way into print but I don't have a big desire to go that route with my writings for several reasons. First, I'm not really a writer. I'm more of a thinker and find it much easier to think of a great topic to write about than to actually stay focused and carry a thought from conception to finish. I've been called a BS Artist by more than one blog reader and I much prefer that label than I do writer. Besides, a writer can spell, I can't. A writer understands and uses proper syntax and doesn't mix past, present, and future tense verb conjugations, I don't and do. And a writer, at least one writing for a cruising magazine, feels compelled to stay on script, color between the lines, and make cruising sound like something more than it really is and to make cruisers sound special, when we are not.

Cruisers are just people that for whatever reason have done something that a lot of people dream about, but never actually do, step out of the Box. Don't get me wrong when I say this because cruising is indeed a blast and fun, but the THOUGHT and DREAM of cruising almost beats the real thing at times and I think the longer you stay out cruising the more differently you view it. When we came back to the States during the early part of our cruise, it was exciting to tell people (almost anyone) that we lived in Mexico on a boat, but now it's almost too hard to try and explain, so when the cashier at Radio Shack asks for our zip code and address so they can send us marketing stuff, I just make one up rather than try to explain that we live on a boat in Mexico, it's easier and I'm lazy. When the guy crammed into seat 45B asked me where we are from, going into the detail that we left our home floating in Mexico just didn't come up. Not because we don't love it, but because it's not the type of lifestyle people have in their minds, true it's even better, but not because of the boat, the anchorages, the taco stands, or the sandy beaches, but because of the lifestyle we don't have and don't want anymore. I'm not sure now what is worse, being caught in the box and looking out or having escaped form the box and having to look back in from time to time?

Unless there was some kind of "incident" at airport security, we should be somewhere at 40,000ft heading first to Atlanta for our connection to Baltimore Maryland when this post comes up on the blog. The 6AM flight, seated in what I call "pigs and chickens", isn't something I'm looking forward to at all because this trip across the country won't be like the ones in the old days. In my old life there was the platinum security line, Platinum upgrades to first class, and the Platinum airport lounge. Now when I fly, the perks that went along with frequent flying are about the only things I miss about my old lifestyle. The high cost of spending more nights in a hotel room than at home each year with my family wasn't worth the free drinks or having real silverware up in first class. Give me a Pacifico at a Taco cart and I'm happy.


We will be covering about 2500 miles today, which is roughly about 1/3 of the miles we have logged on the GPS during our last two years of cruising. As if we needed a reminder, a cruising sailboat isn't about getting anywhere fast. Even when the fastest of cruising boats reports a fast passage, 7-10 knots or speed couldn't get you a ticket in a School zone!