Welcoming in 2013

We went with Chris to Sahuayo yesterday morning. Had to pick up some minor grocery items for last night's New Years Eve party, as well as some wiring and special nuts and bolts to fasten Chris and Juan's solar panel to the roof of their trailer.

But it was a rare cloudy, overcast day here. We got started on the solar panel installation with help from Croft, Jerry, and Keeble. Got the brackets installed on the panel itself, as well as the cabling and figured out how to run the wires from the roof into the trailer.

Doing a solar installation for Chris and Juan.

Then, at about 3:00pm, it started to rain.

It's not normal to have rain here at this time of year, especially a storm system that lasts more than an hour or so. This one started out as drizzle, but soon became a steady rain. In fact, it was still raining when we went to bed after midnight!

Calling for rain for most of the day today, but tomorrow should be nicer.

We're thinking of putting off our departure for a day. We were going to leave here tomorrow (Wednesday) morning, but now we think we'll leave here Thursday. I still want to change the oil in the little blue car, and Ruth has laundry to do and we really don't want to be packing up during the rain today. And we can't finish Chris's solar installation in the rain! We'll see how today goes and play it by ear.

We all gathered in the camper room around 8:00pm for a pot luck appetizer New Years Eve party. Everybody brought something to eat and as is usual with these types of events, there was a lot of food! We had a good time and only two couples called it quits before midnight! We played a few games and there was music and dancing.

Lots of food and beverages.

You know the party is getting good when Sal starts dancing with a bottle of tequila on his head! (Sorry for the fuzzy picture!)

It was one of the best New Years Eve parties we've been to in a long time. In fact, we haven't stayed up past midnight on New Years Eve for quite a while.

Reflecting back on 2012, it was a pretty good year for us. Not great financially, but it's only money...we can make some more in 2013. Good thing we don't spend very much. In fact, our total expenses for the year came to only $16,367 ($1,363 per month average). When you consider that we were in 13 different airports and 8 different countries this past year, that's pretty darn good.

What will 2013 bring? Well, we never know for sure. In the short term, we're going off to explore more of Mexico for the next two months as well as a possible trip into Guatemala. Then we're going to head north on route that will take us through some of the United States that we've never been to before on our way to working for the summer in either British Columbia or Alberta. What will happen in the fall? Who knows...we can never seem to see that far in advance. Either way, we're going to be having fun. Life is too short not to!

Received an email yesterday saying the Travel with Kevin and Ruth has been nominated for a blog award. Guess we'll find out at the end of January who the winners are. Thanks to everyone for your support and interaction over the last year! We love telling you what we're up to and hope to keep you entertained for many years to come!

Happy New Year!