Casa Update 35

Friends,

It has been a long time since my last update. Seems that with the heat of the summer along with our two week road trip I just got behind.

We spent almost all of August either at the pool or inside keeping cool. Much can be said about getting out of the heat and humidity. The heat was not that bad with constant 100+ days and 90+ nights. But the humidity was a killer. We have adapted a little better as our bodies are adjusting to the weather. We have been told that it takes a few of these summers to finally get your blood in order.

I took some pictures of the August Water Volleyball tournament and the results. We made a trip to El Centro for re-stocking on all of those American things that we cannot get down here. This is a typical trip except we stopped at the Costco in Mexicali for a few things (like the 30 pack of beer for $270). We also stopped at our favorite meat market and loaded up on molida and tried out their T-Bone steaks. You can do the math on the steaks but I would say that they were very well priced.

We left for our long planned road trip (don’t tell anyone that we flew) on September First which was also our 30th Wedding Anniversary! We would have loved to have had a party here but with all of the schedules of others, we had to travel on the first.

First stop was Columbus Ohio to visit with Leslie. We had a great time with her. She just moved into a townhouse (called a half double) in an area called German Village. The streets are still paved with bricks! It is a real quaint part of Columbus. There is a chocolate store on the next corner and a park only a block away. Leslie treated us to a dinner (she tried to just drop us off but we insisted that she stay) at one of the five star restaurants in area. We had a wonderful time. Great food, great wine and great company! We had the opportunity to attend a mini-reunion with some of Regina’s relatives in Brookville OH. We also saw a play during the Shakespeare in the Park Festival. Our week ended too quickly and we were all off to Tennessee in the rain.

First night was a stop-off in Knoxville to see Leslie’s Godmother. It had been way too long but our short stay was fun. We left in the fog.

We then headed to Cookeville where we rented a car for the duration of the trip. Leslie was only able to stay a few days with us and then she had to get back to her unpacking and school duties. We stayed at Regina’s oldest cousin’s house in Monterrey. Beautiful house, wish we would have taken more pictures! We spent most days with Regina’s Dad and evenings with our hosts, the Milligan’s. We took a day trip to Athens Alabama to see the newest addition to the McCloud family. It is Regina’s first Great Niece Chloe. Another week went by before we knew it. You will find the pictures here.

We said our goodbyes and headed for the Nashville airport in the pouring rain. San Diego was cool when we landed. We got our car from a friend who was storing it for us. We then headed on to El Centro to spend the night. We were planning on getting some shopping done in the morning and heading to San Felipe. Regina called the friend who was looking after the “summer house” while we were away. She told Regina not to panic. It was all dry now except for the rugs and they were out on the wall drying. We didn’t panic. We just got up early and shopped like crazy and got to San Felipe just after noon. First stop was to order water. Then headed up to the summer house to see what happened. Yup, the house was essentially dry. You could see watermarks from where the water had risen to. Next was a call the contractor and get a plumber out ASAP. Plumber arrived and found a broken off water valve under the kitchen sink. Plumber fixed the valve, the water guy brought us some water and the rugs were dry. I thought in my mind “Welcome home Williams family, welcome home.”

We spent the next two days cleaning and getting the summer house back in order. With that done, it was time to think about getting ready to move back into our house. We first met with the Ranch staff and convinced them that a different generator was in our future. They promised a smaller but quiet diesel generator that we could run longer. It will not run all of the AC units we have but enough if we needed them in a hot spell. Well the generator was swapped out a week earlier than planned. We tested it out and yup, it will only run about three tons of AC before we see problems. But it is very quiet and looks durable. At that time the house was still about 95 degrees inside and the weather still had not broken. The long range forecast looked like we would finally cool off on the first week in October.

So we set a plan on being back in on the seventh. We found a cleaning lady thru some friends and had her scheduled for the third. She spent five hours non-stop cleaning and she did a beautiful job! When it came time for payment, she couldn’t come up with a price. She finally quoted $30US which we immediately raised another $10US. She spoke no English and we struggled with our poor Spanish in agreeing for her to come back every three weeks. She even did windows!

We took our time and over the course of a week, we were completely moved back in. Home, sweet home. It is so good to be back in our bed again. The house was about 85 degrees when we started moving back and it is now a pleasant 77 degrees. You have to remember that we are getting acclimated to the heat down here and 60 degrees is down right chilly. The temperature has moderated with highs in the 80’s and lows in the high 60’s. Looks like summer has bid us farewell and autumn is here to stay.

The snowbirds are starting to arrive so it looks like the party season is going to begin. Pete’s Camp had their annual Poker Run this past weekend. We hear that there were over 300 entries. It was a 50+ mile trek over the desert, maybe next year.

Shrimp season has also started. A new regulation for “dolphin safe” nets is going to raise the price this year though. The small Pangas used to be able to drift with their nets out. Now they have to troll. Prices started out at $15US for a kilo of Grande as opposed to $10US last year. We will be checking out more places to buy this year. Bargain shopping for shrimp, what a concept!

Well that is about what we have been up to. I’ll not bore you with all of the regular stuff that we do as I have stated them in almost every post lately. Here are a few fun photos we took.

We have a spare bedroom that really looks lonely. Maybe someone can come down and keep it company?

Upcoming attractions:

Dia de los Muertos: November 2
Shrimp Festival: November 6-8
Baja 1000: November 19-22


Larry and Regina

p.s. We have a new address for UPS and FedEx packages. If you are interested please email us for that address.