Things are going well. We have settled into the apartment. We are pretty much unpacked. Adagio is scheduled to get moved from the storage yard to the work yard at 1:30 Monday afternoon. That will give us a chance to get to the Immigration office in Guaymas and hopefully get Janie's papers in order before her FM-3 card expires. Of course I'll have to renew mine too.

We are slowly acclimating to the heat. Yesterday's high was 88 and today looks like a repeat. We are drinking lots of water and trying to use a minimum of AC in the apartment so that our bodies will not revolt when we ask them to work out in the heat.

The photo is of Jeff unloading 300' of anchor chain out of the Explorer and onto a pallet. We had to take all of it home last Spring to be re-galvanized. Of course, his slightly improved back has had a bit of a set back....

We have just arrived in San Carlos after a four day drive. We don't have much to report in regards to cruising. But here's how our drive south went.

We left Oregon on Monday, October 29. It was pouring. The windshield wipers were barely able to keep up. As we climbed the hill towards and past Detroit Lake, on the way towards Bend, there were little rivers of rain water crossing the road. The rain lightened up as we drove further east and south. With Bend in the rear view mirror, patches of blue appeared between the clouds. By the time we made Klamath Falls the sky was mostly blue with lots of sunshine. And it only got brighter and warmer as we drove south. At some point it was necessary to turn the AC on in the car. But the tops of the mountains we were passing were dusted with snow.

We stopped for the night in Susanville, CA; Las Vegas, NV; and Phoenix, AZ. Normally we like to go all the way to Green Valley, AZ before making the border crossing, but this year one of our grand daughters is a student at Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, so we stopped there to tour the campus and spend some time with her. As it turned out our hotel was having a Halloween Party. With a Flamenco Dancing dinner show. The dancers were in Day of the Dead make up. And they were really great! The setting was very intimate. Our chair legs were actually touching the dance platform. There was a male and female dancer, a drummer/percussionist, a lead guitar, a bass guitar, and a male singer. They were fantastic. What a night!

Our Ford Explorer was so full of boat parts and supplies that we only had the two front seats available for passengers. The back was full up to and a little past the window sills. So we had to shuttle Janie and our grand daughter to and from the campus one at a time.

From Phoenix to San Carlos is about 450 miles, or 8 hours of driving time plus the delays at the border. So we got up at 0330 hours and were on the road way before dawn. Which was a good thing. Because even then we had some horrific traffic to contend with until we were well out of Phoenix. We stopped in Green Valley for breakfast, and were at the border by around 0900. We stopped to get our passports stamped. Last year we had to pay a $100 USD fine because we did not get the stamp at the border crossing, and because by the time we made it to the Immigration Office in Guaymas, Jeff's FM-3 card had expired.

We got green lights at all the custom's stops, and so did not have to stop to be inspected by the customs agents. There was an extra inspection center alongside the road a little south of the KM 21 Immigration/Customs Inspection Station that was not one of the regular permanent stops. It was just a group of Federali cars parked alongside and on the road, creating a sort of blockade/slow down barricade. We think this was a drug/contraband inspection. A white VW sedan with Mexican plates had just wizzed past us at about 90 mph. He was still going pretty fast as he approached the inspection place, and the officers picked him to be inspected. Banging on the hood with their hands and arms to stop him. We slowed to a crawl and kept a close lookout to see if anybody was interested in looking us over. Nobody did. And when we got past the station we slowly accelerated back up to 70 mph.

We arrived in San Carlos a little before 3 PM. This is our 5th cruising season in Mexico, and so driving into San Carlos was a little like arriving home after a long trip. We pulled into Jax Snaks for a late lunch. Janie had fish tacos and I had Chile rellano. Then it was a quick stop at the real estate office to pick up the keys to our apartment, and from there we went to Marina Seca, where Adagio has been resting on the hard during the off season. Lots of friendly faces. Big smiles. Catching up on how the summer months treated us all. And discussing the work we need to get done before we can launch Adagio for another cruising season here on the west coast of Mexico.

When we finally arrived at our apartment, we only un-packed what we needed for the night. Had a drink on the patio overlooking the bay where two sailboats bobbed at anchor. Watched the sky light up with the setting sun and fell into a familiar bed for a well deserved sleep.

This is a test to see if the remote from Airmail works.