So Spank Me

I’ve been a bad bad girl. I’ve been meaning to update forever but the days are so full, by the time I get in bed I have nothing left. To recap, we stopped at Boron and after spending the night in front of the local VFW (what the hell is that?) and being oggled by neighbors (probably wondering What The Sam Hill we were doing there when it was obvious that we were neither vetrans nor firemen nor worldwide or whatever VFW stands for but it obviously is NOT A Family of Six Traveling in a Travel Trailer). The next morning, after ascertaining for the *second* time that the road we were on was not an entrance to the mine (by driving down the road for a mile and then backing up the entire mile to turnaround - Note to Self; much easier in the day than the night but it was fun to confuse to people coming down the road) but a dead-end road that is apparently used as a throughway to dirt/sand roads running off to side (oh, shit, I’m just going to end this sentence here and hope the next won’t be as tangented). We headed out of town. (hey, I did it!) I had just about given up on visiting the mine and tried one more time and found it. Just a note of information. If you’re looking for the mine and/or Visitor’s Center, do not, repeat DO NOT rely on informational signs from any road. You will find none. None, that is, until you’re already INSIDE the damn mine. Passing the 37 1/2 mile/hour speed limit sign (they inforce it!) we dragged the enormous trailer up a steep dirt road and hit paydirt. The view of the mine was incredible and we all LOVED the Visitor’s Center. We were amazed at all the products that Boron is added to.

We spent the next night at Harris Ranch after deciding to get back in 2 days instead of 3 and bypassing the wonders of Highway 25. The kids all cheered when I announced we were in “The Bay Area” (just inside the San Jose city limits) and I know that visions of Aunty Chris, Becky, Katie, Andrew and Sara were dancing in their heads. I was happy to get into Aunty Chris’s backyard without TOO much trouble but once I parked the trailer I wasn’t about to move it again until we were to leave.

We had a wonderful Christmas and were astounded by the generosity of Janet and Grandma Elinor. Thank you cards will be forthcoming. We’ve been getting errand after errand completed and are now only waiting for the replacement espresso machine (Mr. Coffee is replacing the ENTIRE unit rather than a .02 part and Jamie is estatic about that), a trailer part and health insurance cards (!!!!) to arrive before taking off.

When we started our journey, I had contracted with Celtic Health Insurance as I expected (not in reality, but what I admitted to Jamie) to be in Mexico only 3 months (and Celtic only covered 3 months in Mexico). When our credit card was stolen in Mulegé Celtic was no longer able to charge the quarterly premiums and terminated our coverage. Course, we didn’t find this out until August and we received our long delayed (by our stay in Mexico) mail. We hemmed and hawed for quite a while trying to decide what to do and finally I decided to get International Health Insurance. It is cheaper than US insurance and will cover us in both the US and Mexico. We have to be out of the US (Canada or Mexico or wherever) 6 months of the year, but the premium for our entire family is $1934 ($3000 deductible for the entire family) and the coverage is really quite good. Much better than any US coverage we could afford.

So, that’s the 2 week synopsis and I promise to be a better updater in the year to come. Oh, I haven’t taken one single solitary picture since we’ve been here. So sue me. I’ll do better. Love to John and Janet and Grandma Elinor and Dan and Mariluz and Jon and Jody and everyone living in this little box.

Right now, my current project is getting Sirius satellite radio for Jamie. He has to have a daily fix of Howard. As in Stern. As in gag, urp, ugh, oof.