One of the hardest things I have had to do is say goodbye to my family before moving down here to Mexico. I basically did the denial thing up until the week I left. I had waited so long to finally join my husband, that it really didn't seem real. I think it finally hit me that I was leaving when the pastor of my home church told me that my last Sunday there, he would like to say a prayer for a safe journey and blessings for Alberto and myself. That is when I realized that I was going to move away from my my hometown. my family, and my friends for at least 2 years and I wouldn't be able to hug them and spend time with them for quite a while.

Let me digress for a minute - The separation between Alberto and me had many negative aspects (obviously) but one good - no, one absolute blessing - that came out of it was that I grew extremely close to my family - especially my mom, my dad, my brother Todd, my sister-in-law Becky, and my niece Andrea, among others. I also feel that I grew up a lot through this experience and began to see how blessed I was to have such a supportive loving family in my life. My mom and I especially became very good friends - my nightly calls home to her (many times crying from the desperation of missing Beto) were what kept me sane and not quite so lonely.

Back to my story. On Monday, February 10, my brother, sister-in-law and 4-year-old niece came to say goodbye. At 4, Andrea changes every minute, and she also is in the stage where she hates to talk on the phone, out of mere spite I think a lot of times. When we first told Andrea I was going to move to Mexico to live with Uncle Beto, she spent MONTHS- honestly, months - angry with me. If anyone reminded her of the fact I was moving, depending on her mood, she would often say "Good! I don't want her here anyway!". If she was in a good mood, she would come give me a hug and ask me why I had to move and beg me to stay. Besides being mad at me, she was (and I think still is) mad with Alberto because she knows he is the reason I moved her, and so in her eyes, he is to blame. Pretty amusing coming from a 4-year-old but also heart-breaking for me because I knew this wasn't something she could understand really and that she was sad because of it. Saying goodbye to her was the goodbye I dreaded most out of all. And it was just as hard as I imagined. I tried not to cry because I didn't want her to be upset. When I hugged her, she saw I was crying and patted my arm and said "Becky don't cry. We will come visit you, I promise." What a sweetheart. My favorite picture of her is of her asleep in the van clutching the teddybear I gave her the weekend before I left. When I gave it to her, I told her that when she missed me, she should give it a really tight hug and I would be hugging her back at that moment and thinking of her.

Finally I was able to say goodbye to my brother and sister-in-law too and they left. I finished packing the few things I had left (or should I say I had room for) and went to bed exhausted.

The next morning (Tues, Feb 11) began early, as I wanted to get an early start. My parents had dentist appointments at 9am, so I knew that was when I would probably leave. I spent a little while with my mom that morning and then my dad came down to shower before their dentist appointments. When it came time to say goodbye, my mom asked my dad and me to join her in their bedroom to pray for me before I left. I was very touched but honestly I dreaded it because I knew it was going to make me cry even harder. Which it did. I am glad and touched that we had that moment though because I saw just exactly how hard it was on them that I was leaving. My dad even cried - and that has only happened 3 other times that I remember in my 26 years of life. We had a "family hug" as my neice is so fond of these days, and we all left at the same time. My last sight of my parents was on the overpass of 88 as they drove into town and I turned onto the interstate. I wasn't officially off on my road trip yet - I still had to go say goodbye to my Grandma. She lives in a nursing home in a nearby town, and while she is not always very with it, I had promised her I would stop to say goodbye before I left. She is 89 years old, and I knew I couldn't forgive myself if I didn't say goodbye to her. Although this sounds extremely morbid, to be honest, at her age and in her condition, I am not entirely sure that I will see her again. So sad to think that, but I wanted to be sure that she knew one more time how much I loved her just in case. You never know.

Finally at 11am, I headed off. The road trip has officially begun!! I got into Peoria right around lunch time, and since I lived there the previous 3 1/2 years, I knew exactly what I had to eat one last time - Famous Dave's Ribs! I ran in to Bob Marcacci´s wife, Linda in the restaurant oddly enough. Bob and his wife are close friends of mine- Bob worked with me nearly my entire career at CAT.) I ordered my ribs to go and after chatting for a while, took off. I gassed up, bought some drinks and snacks, and off I went again. That was my last stop for the next 6 hours. I was supposed to make it to Tulsa, Oklahoma that night to stay with a cousin, but because of my late start and extra day of travel time, I decided there was no reason to push it. I made it to the other side of Springfield, Missouri, when I finally stopped at a Holiday Inn Express at 7pm. My goal was to not drive after dark and have some time at the hotel each night to unwind before bed. Not bad progress for the first day - I made it to within 2 hours of the Oklahoma border.

I had to include the Lincoln´s birthday thing - when I was little, I always loved Abraham Lincoln and read everything I could get my hands on about him. I read every single book in our hometown library that mentioned his name, I think!! :) When an old family friend and my dad´s former schoolteacher, Berneice Meighan, died, she left me all of the clippings she had on Lincoln. It was really interesting and I still have all of them to this day packed away at my parents' house. Along with nearly all the rest of my worldly belongings. Not much fits into a 1993 Volvo sedan - ok, well, yes, a lot fits, but not when you´re a pack rat like me! My dad said I needed a semi-trailer for all the stuff I wanted to bring with me - and that doesn't include furniture. Needless to say, that didn't happen and I brought only what fit in the backseat and trunk of my car.

This is a fairly short log, as it was a fairly boring, though productive, day. I made it to the other side of Dallas Ft. Worth without many problems, although I did make a lot more stops to break up the day. In Vinita, Oklahoma, I stopped at a McDonalds in what is billed as the world´s largest Glass House. It is built over four lanes of the Will Rogers turnpike. Very interesting although showing its age. For more info about the glass house, see http://www.grandlakemagazine.com/grandlakelife/architecture.html . Also here is a tip: If you are driving through DFW, go through Ft. Worth. It was fairly easy and that is from someone travelling alone who had to drive and read the map at the same time!

I stopped around 8pm somewhere between Ft. Worth and Waco, where I stayed again at a very nice Holiday Inn Express. These hotels rock - cheaper and have a great continental breakfast in the morning - much better than most hotels.

My goal on Thursday was San Diego, Texas - where my sister-in-law is from and her parents still live. My brother's in-laws are great people and since I have met them, they have treated me as if I am one of their own family, even though they are my brother's in-laws. They treat all of my family this way - my parents have been to visit them before without my brother or sister-in-law and everything. They really wanted to come to my wedding but weren't able to unfortunately. They are very cool people.

When the Ramirez´ found out I was passing near them on my drive to Mexico, they insisted I stay with them. For me it was especially nice to have a chance to see them, get to know Becky's hometown and some relatives I hadn't met before, in addition to not pay a hotel for one night of the trip. For someone who just quit their $56,000 dollars a year job to move to Mexico to earn (hopefully) $8400 dollars a year, their hospitality was greatly appreciated, to say the least! I had a great visit with them, arriving about 3-4pm and getting to bed about 10-11pm that night. Meanwhile Alberto left Querétaro around 6pm on a bus headed for Nuevo Laredo where we would meet up the next day --- on Valentine´s Day!!

It just happened that the day Alberto and I met in Nuevo Laredo was Valentine's Day. Really - I swear! I had to work through the end of January at CAT, and wanted to spend a little time in my hometown with family before leaving, so the date we chose was the 2nd Friday in February. Then we realized it was Valentine´s Day and decided it was definitely perfect! What better day to start our new life TOGETHER?! That´s right, none. ;)

I got up early as I wanted to hit the border around 10am, as I had to stop at the Sanborns´ Car Insurance agency in Laredo, TX to buy Mexican car insurance. They were great to deal with and very helpful. They even gave me maps of Nuevo Laredo which came in really handy when finding the hotel Alberto and I were to meet at. This was so appreciated when you realize that I was extremely nervous about crossing the border by myself in my car - something I had never done before. I got to the border actually around 10:30am, and while the traffic from Mexico to the US was backed up, there was no line the opposite way. In fact, I stopped my car as I got to the Mexico side because no one had wanted to see my passport or asked me anything and like I said I was nervous. So I stopped the car and rolled down the window to show the Mexican Immigration officer my passport and he told me to move on. Because of research I had done on the Internet previously, I knew that I had to go somewhere in order to get a car import tag as well as the tourist visa I needed to later transmit the work visa I would hopefully get. Thanks to the Sanborns map I knew to turn right, and found at least one Immigration officer who then sent me on to another office - the correct one this time.

With all of my worrying about bringing my things into Mexico in my car, no one ever even looked at it!! No ONE! They never even verified I really had a car I was bringing into the country. I did have to pay $20 for the permit and I think $12 for my tourist visa, but it was all easy and done within 20 minutes. Whew!! What a relief. Giddily I called Alberto´s cell phone from my cell and told him I was on my way. He was sitting in the hotel´s lobby restaurant eating breakfast and would wait for me there. Finally I felt like this all was real. You would think that after 2000 miles of driving in 4 days, that I would have realized earlier this was all real, but it didn't really hit me until I was driving to the hotel.

Alberto and I thoroughly enjoyed the day together. Once we met up, we rested some before Alberto spent some time checking out my car - even though I had owned it for over a year, he had never seen it, so it was fun to watch him check it all out. He needed to know it pretty well, as my portion of driving was over - it was his turn to drive us the rest of the way to Querétaro. But not until the next day - we were staying in Nuevo Laredo to enjoy Valentine´s Day and rest up for the next part of the trip. At lunchtime we went to a good Chinese buffet downtown Nuevo Laredo, and then went back to the hotel where we spent the rest of the day/night.

We woke up early on Saturday, Feb 15, as we wanted to leave Nuevo Laredo at 8am sharp. We even had planned to just pick up some donuts or something at the Oxxo a block from the hotel in order to get going earlier. In the morning, we took everything out to the car where Alberto turned it on to let it warm up while I arranged things to fit Alberto's stuff in the car (I said it was full, remember!) He went in to check out while I finished the packing and getting out what we would need for the trip. We left the hotel right on time but what is the saying? The best laid plans go astray?

When we stopped at the Oxxo to get the food, Alberto, who is used to stick-shift, tried to turn the car off with it in drive. Needless to say you can't do this. My car won't even let you take the keys out of the ignition. As we tried to figure out what was going on, all of the lights on the dash came on and wouldn't go off. I thought it was some unknown security feature, and freaked out that my car wasn't going to work now. I did not handle it well to say the least. Finally we realized the car was in drive and could take out the keys. We went in for the food but when we came back out, the lights all turned on again. Zoom ahead to 20 minutes later when Alberto finally decides to open the hood yet again to look at the same time that I read that these lights will come on when the alternator belt breaks. Sure enough, we quickly saw the pieces of the alternator belt. Thank God, and I do mean that literally, my dad is so smart and handy that he had put an extra alternator belt in my car in case of this exact thing happening. However we didn't have the tools to put it on. So we borrowed the Oxxo´s phone book (we are still in their parking lot this whole time, mind you) and found out there was no Volvo dealer in Nuevo Laredo, but did find a small service station about three blocks from where we were. We quickly went there, where I had to unpack the entire trunk in order to get to the alternator belt (which was in the storage spot with the spare tire - under all the boxes) Luckily we found the belt, I packed everything back up, and the mechanics began looking at the belt. I have to interject at this point that Volvos have only been sold in Mexico for the past 2 years, so they are not very common and probably even less at this Jiffy Lube type mechanic we went to, but they did their best. Of course first the mechanic insisted that this was not the correct belt and it wouldn´t work, but I quickly proceeded to show him that it matched the old broken one and over which parts of the car it should go (I knew it had to be the right belt as my dad had marked it ALTERNATOR BELT in big letters - what can I say? I trust my daddy!) Once he realized I was right (*smirk*), they quickly put the belt on and we paid the $8 bill and we were off. After a quick call to my dad that is to tell him everything was all right. Remember that freak out I had in the OXXO - well I called my dad right then to tell him the alternator belt had broken. What can I say - I was freaking out. Wouldn't you if you were 2000 miles from home and still 600 miles (10 hours) from your new home. I thought so.)

At 10am we finally left Nuevo Laredo as good as new, and the rest of the trip was fairly uneventful. Well that is until we filled up for the first time and I realized it was now going to cost me $50 dollars every time I had to fill my tank, thanks to the lovely PEMEX high prices and the need to put in Premium gas instead of the cheap stuff - it costs double what I was paying in the US when I moved.) I forgot to mention too that you can't pump your own gas in Mexico, it is flat-out not allowed. Ah yes, let me continue my story of our first time filling my car in Mexico- The guy who pumped our gas somewhere on the other side of Monterrey also decided to comment that my tires are filled too full. I again doubted this was right as my dad was the one who had filled them and I trust him. But to be sure and avoid any problems in the middle of the highway, I called my dad again to ask him what they should be filled to and why they were so full. He quickly reassured me they were fine and he had did this on purpose due to the heavy load my car was carrying and the miles I was putting on it. Whew - crisis averted yet again. What a great dad, right? :)

Well with one stop off for lunch, we finally made it into Querétaro at 9pm. At 7pm when we hit San Luis Potosí, I truly felt that we were never going to make it. I suddenly felt every one of those 2600 miles and every single minute of the past five days in a car. Luckily we made it into Querétaro at 9pm. The endless city lights up the hills as you come into Querétaro are always beautiful to me but even more so this night. My road trip was finally over - but the adventure was just beginning.