Making a home here

Well, finally here is a pic of the van in front of my little departamento. it's not little; I have 2 bedrooms and a living and kitchen area.
I finally got a great heater and am over the cold I had. Really, it aint all warm and sunny in SMA at this time of year. Last year must have been an unusual two weeks when I came to visit in November.
Fog in the morning and sun around noon and chilly nights. Too bad the patagonia is at Georgia's house; I could use it here.
I've shopped and shopped. We go to a city about an hour away with Walmart, Costco, Home Depot. The whole cheapo thing. Got some lamps, bulbs, a rug, a water holder, scrub brushes, etc.....
So I am making a home here but tonite I am really missing all of you.
I cant get my vonage phone to work so I can call but I did talk to Courtney tonite via Skype. That was nice altho we had a large lag between each other so we just laughed together.
more more more later.
georgia/mom

Jesus and the water bottles

A picture that a friend took at an AA meeting in San Miguel de Allende.
They do it differently down here...

a windmill shot that never got included

These guys were mysteriously humming all around us while we peed...Quite a feeling.

Almost home....

Our last Day on the road...
Time has dissolved into toll roads, skinny roads with huge trucks zooming by, topodoros which are big speed bumps that will appear in the middle of a 100 k/h toll road. Pemex the oil company and Oxxo, the snack shop that is always at the same truck stop all begin to look the same.
We left Guadalajara, population 2,250,000, second largest city in Mexico, exhausted. There are no real by-passes and if there are, suddenly there might be a big detour because of road repair.
We went thru at rush hour, stopped during a detour for gas and found we were just about on the road to Leon, our last stop. Leon is where the plane from LA flies in. We decided to stop after Guadalajara for the night but then got on a pay road and it was in beautiful shape with little traffic.
On we went deep into the night. AAA says never travel at night in Mexico but Courtney was behind the wheel and very determined to get to Leon. We flew, it seems. I was in the front seat praying and watching a planet in the west that seemed to be leading/guiding our way.
We made Leon and then found ourselves in an industrial section of the city, more construction, no hotels, no walmarts. This was going to be a hotel night anyway.
In the middle of detours and broken up roads we saw a sign, "Auto Hotel" with a tiny entrance. Slammed on the brakes and drove into ??? A casita was there with an office sign, Quanto Costa? 250 pesos!! Bueno. The senora sent us around to number 167. Which consisted of an open garage which we pulled into. A door off the garage opened into the most amazing luxurious marblefloors.
So pull down the garage door and one is self contained to the extent that if you order food it is delivered in a kind of lazy susan thing that is open on one side and closed on the other. One turns the open side to the outside and a plate of food is put on it and then it's turned to the inside so that the outside is now closed and your order is on a plateon the open side in your room. No way to sneak in and rob the visitors.
Courtney slept in the van and I slept in this luxurious bouderoir.
Here's a the autohotel

Colorado River stop

So Far Dear ole Sugah has put on 2000+ miles.

Sunday night was a gravel parking lot at an intersection which we found by chance. We drove all the way to the colorado river and turned south towards Nogales. At "Blythe", it was pitch black outside, great stars tho, and we couldn't pull off the road so just stopped where a bunch of trucks were parked under orange lights.
Awoke to gravel and arroyos. Bella was in heaven with the smells and birds.

Courtney drove and I'd crash in the back and vice versa. Hardly spoke most of Sunday. We don't know each other very well and both of us are loners. I didn't want to stop in the sand along the road, Courtney was sure that we would be able to. At least her 20 yr old Toyota would have been able to.

It got real tense as night literally fell upon us. So the parking lot was a blessing and we didn 't much care as long as it was "off the road."

Getting the top up in the dark while tired required alot of patience, shall we say. Actually, I'm thinking this trip is much more than just a drive to San Miguel de Allende. It's about acceptance of another when I am tired, scared, misunderstood and hungry.

There has to be some humor in it all. Otherwise why bother. Sometimes I get above it and see how silly we are when it is a clash of egos. Other times, I'm ready to defend some little turf I think I can claim. Courtney is a tough cookie. I'm, of course, a sweetie.

So, on to humor....

Caught a couple of good signs as we flew by...

"Sore Finger Road"
Got off freeway needing a latte and right in front at intersection, "Java Detour" which was what we were doing!!

Great pee with windmills looking down upon us.

Beginning of Beginnings

movin on to san miguel

November 5th, Full Moon Beginning.....

This has been one heck of a start....Downpour from Sequim to Portland which Courtney drove thru for 5 hours. Spent night with her niece and husband and cutie pie 2yr old. Left at dawn to drive to SF. We got to her brother's house at 7ishpmish. Doug lives on twisty back oneway roads under the shadow of a massive round rock that looks like several buddhas in repose on top of each other.
Great spot to sleep in and recollect. Bella especially liked their cat which she chased thru the house unmindful of things falling and papers flying.

I met Georgia at our favorite Whole Foods for dinner and into San Rafael to see Milarepa. Movie on the life of a Bhuddist Poet and Saint. Incredible views of Tibet, the small village overshadowed by snow peaks. Milarepa started on his path to learn magic techniques to revenge his uncles who almost destroyed his mother.

We all know that resentments acted on can create a lot of trouble and M. created destructions and deaths with his newfound skills.

The film was visually immense; it's silence within the sound track conveyed more than could be spoken. Georgia B and Georgia S were moved by it and the lesson that you never know who may be the buddha that you meet on your path. See it.

All the folks in Marin were moving too fast for me to be touched by a their buddha nature.

November 9th!! Was spent behind the Fairfax library where Sugah was totally unpacked, down to her bare bed platform. Plenty of room and space to lay it all out on the ground. Then I got to work, stowing my stuff! In the refrigerator (books) in every cabinet she had, under the pullout seat, between the battery and water stowage areas under the bed, everywhere. Still a few bags of stuff that I HadtoHave in SMA. Like all my cooking utensils, journals, lots of photos and even three lamps. Two are funkly and one my green Buddha lamp which some of you may know.

Lots of pillows and layers of blankets, duvets, a resurrected bedspread from our house in Hancock that Bluie had made for me. Wooden shelf Georgia gave me long ago which held little naked men. (Probably imported from Mexico).

Happy Birthday calls from my boys and I even got to pick up Anna and Jock at the SF airport late in the last hour of my birthday. Sam and Georgia cooked me an exquisite fish dinner at Sam's neat house in Mill Valley and started my trip with a sparkling card and big dark chocolate star which will inspire us on our drive south.

November 10th
Left Sugah to get her transmission fluid changed, oil changed and new transmission and oil filters to be installed. And, yes, Michel, they hooked up the back water hose!!

Into SF to the Hotel Nikko, coffees and a short taxi trip down twisty Lombard and into Chinatown. Anna got a new umbrella and satin shoes and Bella got lessons on heeling and learned to stay close to Anna on her leash or else!!

Busy, busy. Picked up Sugah in Larkspur and instantly she became the center of interest for Jock and Anna. Jock drove her and put up the top. Anna spent a lot of time straightening the inside.

A supreme dinner at FISh in Sausalito which is a smaller version of the restaurant in cambridge. Children all over the place and picnic tables of happy familys.
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movin on to san miguel

November 5th, Full Moon Beginning.....

This has been one heck of a start....Downpour from Sequim to Portland which Courtney drove thru for 5 hours. Spent night with her niece and husband and cutie pie 2yr old. Left at dawn to drive to SF. We got to her brother's house at 7ishpmish. Doug lives on twisty back oneway roads under the shadow of a massive round rock that looks like several buddhas in repose on top of each other.
Great spot to sleep in and recollect. Bella especially liked their cat which she chased thru the house unmindful of things falling and papers flying.

I met Georgia at our favorite Whole Foods for dinner and into San Rafael to see Milarepa. Movie on the life of a Bhuddist Poet and Saint. Incredible views of Tibet, the small village overshadowed by snow peaks. Milarepa started on his path to learn magic techniques to revenge his uncles who almost destroyed his mother.

We all know that resentments acted on can create a lot of trouble and M. created destructions and deaths with his newfound skills.

The film was visually immense; it's silence within the sound track conveyed more than could be spoken. Georgia B and Georgia S were moved by it and the lesson that you never know who may be the buddha that you meet on your path. See it.

All the folks in Marin were moving too fast for me to be touched by a their buddha nature.

November 9th!! Was spent behind the Fairfax library where Sugah was totally unpacked, down to her bare bed platform. Plenty of room and space to lay it all out on the ground. Then I got to work, stowing my stuff! In the refrigerator (books) in every cabinet she had, under the pullout seat, between the battery and water stowage areas under the bed, everywhere. Still a few bags of stuff that I HadtoHave in SMA. Like all my cooking utensils, journals, lots of photos and even three lamps. Two are funkly and one my green Buddha lamp which some of you may know.

Lots of pillows and layers of blankets, duvets, a resurrected bedspread from our house in Hancock that Bluie had made for me. Wooden shelf Georgia gave me long ago which held little naked men. (Probably imported from Mexico).

Happy Birthday calls from my boys and I even got to pick up Anna and Jock at the SF airport late in the last hour of my birthday. Sam and Georgia cooked me an exquisite fish dinner at Sam's neat house in Mill Valley and started my trip with a sparkling card and big dark chocolate star which will inspire us on our drive south.

November 10th
Left Sugah to get her transmission fluid changed, oil changed and new transmission and oil filters to be installed. And, yes, Michel, they hooked up the back water hose!!

Into SF to the Hotel Nikko, coffees and a short taxi trip down twisty Lombard and into Chinatown. Anna got a new umbrella and satin shoes and Bella got lessons on heeling and learned to stay close to Anna on her leash or else!!

Busy, busy. Picked up Sugah in Larkspur and instantly she became the center of interest for Jock and Anna. Jock drove her and put up the top. Anna spent a lot of time straightening the inside.

A supreme dinner at FISh in Sausalito which is a smaller version of the restaurant in cambridge. Children all over the place and picnic tables of happy familys.

some happy folks wishing Grammie G bueno viajo