It's a good thing Igor broke down!

Wow, lots to talk about today! And so, a long blog post with lots of photos. And lots of good news!

The mechanics didn't begin work on Igor until about 10:00am, which was okay with us. We left them to do the installation of the fuel pump and re-install the gas tank, and we decided to do a 10 km (6.2 mile) walk to a nearby lake.

Progress!

Man, we've had a lot of bad luck lately. First my laptop breaks, then my Amazon account gets closed, then Igor breaks down. It helps that we are pretty good at rolling with the punches!

By the same token, we've got a lot of great things on the go as well. Number one is that we're in Mexico!

Stuck on the side of the road...

We headed out from Chris and Juan's at about 9:45am... about 15 minutes later than planned. We always try to have a plan that sees us arriving at our destination by 2:00pm or so. That always gives you lots of daylight hours in case you have problems.

Well.. we had problems.

Time to head further south

Yesterday morning we said goodbye to Bjorn and Freya. Chris and Juan drove them to the bus station in central Monterrey and they took the bus from there to Nuevo Laredo at the border.

They then walked across the border and into Laredo, Texas. They said it was the easiest border crossing ever.

Very frustrating...

First off, let me tell you part two of our laptop story.

Because the card machine wasn't working properly at the store, I had a look at Amazon Mexico and found an identical laptop that suited my purposes, and I ordered it to have it delivered to the hotel campground at our next planned stop in Matehuala.

Bjorn's birthday, laptop shopping, and tour around Santiago

It was fun to be able to help Bjorn celebrate his birthday yesterday!

We all went out in the morning to do some laptop shopping. Here in Mexico, they do a thing similar to Black Friday that starts the weekend before Dia de la Revolucion (Revolution Day), so there are a lot of sales on.

A great day in Mexico

I'm thinking that there will be a few blog posts with that title this winter!

We hung out at the house for the morning, and then early afternoon we set off to the Cola de Caballo waterfalls. But we had a stop to make along the way. 

Reunited with Igor... and into Mexico!

We were up at 6:00am Wednesday morning, and down for our included hotel breakfast at 6:30am. It was actually better than expected, with lots of eggs, cheese, fruits, cereals, and yogurts.

Then we had to figure out how we were getting from the hotel to the border crossing. Uber apparently works in Reynosa, but the system showed that any available drivers were quite far away.

Cancun beach time, and flight to Reynosa

We hung out at Carmen's apartment for the morning, and then took the local bus from there to the hotel zone where she works as a property manager, renting out condos to vacationers.

It cost 12 pesos ($0.80 CAD, $0.58 USD) each for the half hour ride.

Welcome to Mexico!

We were up at silly o'clock (3:00 am!) in order to get ready for our 6:00 am flight to Cancun.

We planned on getting the 3:30 am shuttle from the hotel, and we were down there at 3:20, waiting in the area specified by the front desk. But at 3:30 am, the shuttle hadn't arrived!

Next stop, Cancun!

Writing this Sunday evening from our hotel at Ottawa airport.

The hotel was actually paid for by our house sitting hosts. They had asked if we were willing to stay past our original flight date of November 1st, and we couldn't get a rescheduled flight until November 11th. But their returning flight arrived on the 10th (today).

Dinner party

We've spent much of our last week here in Canada visiting with friends, as it could be a long time before we're back here again. 

We had Bob and Denise here on Monday, but forgot to get a picture!

Settle down...? Why would we want to do that??!

We actually missed it, and Ruth only reminded me the other day that we began our 18th year of alternate lifestyle travel on October 15th. In fact, you can go back and read our very first blog post to see when we set off across Canada with our motorhome Sherman.

We're often asked "when do you plan to settle down", or "what is the end game"?

What's the plan for Mexico?

One week from now, we will be sitting on an airplane flying direct from Ottawa to Cancun. We are sooo ready to go! Yesterday, after the ridiculous one hour time change that they still do here in Ontario, sunset was at 4:50pm! That is way to early to be getting dark. And it'll be even worse a week from now. So yes, we are ready!

Then, we have one night in Cancun staying with our friend Carmen who lives there. The next afternoon, we fly Cancun to Reynosa. 

Igor update

We are happy that we receive regular updates from Bjorn and Freya as they make their way to the Mexico border with Igor. It's almost like being there. And, we've been to many of the places along their route, so we are able to give them some hints on things to see and do, although they are doing pretty good on their own!

Friends from the Mexico RV caravan

The other day, I noticed through a facebook post that a couple of our Mexico RV Caravan friends were going to be arriving in Ottawa.

Michel and Louise were on our spring 2018 Yucatan caravan trip. They are the couple who took over when Sherman broke down and we had to gets some repairs done.

October Expenses

Financially, we completed Igor during the month of October. With the mechanical repairs finished, and the new fridge and furnace installed, the major items are done. All of that has been included as a "capital expense", which now stands at a total of $26,325 CAD ($19,000 USD). Anything else that needs to be done will be included as repair and maintenance as part of our monthly expenses, unless it is something that we feel will increase Igor's value.

Will we ever recoup that much when we sell him? It's difficult to say. That figure is certainly higher than we expected it to be when we bought him, but we did a lot of improvements for our own comfort and not necessarily expecting it to be returned to us. Time will tell.