October expenses

Here we are at the end of November and we haven't even posted October's expenses yet. I was thinking about not doing it anymore, but obviously some people are interested because we've had a couple of reminders. So we'll keep posting them every month.

They had the parts!

Yesterday morning, we went into Mazamitla to go to the bank, and on the way back we stopped in at a little auto parts store to see about getting new brake pads for Sherman. There's another store in nearby Valle de Juarez, but we figured we would stop at this place because we were driving right by it.

Playing mechanic

Well day two of playing mechanic didn't go quite so smoothly. I found out what was causing the brake squealing noise, and I'm going to need some parts.

I must be a pretty good mechanic!

Woke up to a bit of a misty morning yesterday, but by the time we finished our power walk and exercises the sun had burned through and it became a nice day.

Happy Birthday Ruth!

A week or so ago, I took apart the front brakes on the little blue car because the slide on one of the calipers was seized. Cleaned and lubricated where it was needed and put everything back together. No problem.

Weekend happenings

Saturday was market day, and we went back to the same vendor that we always go to for our weeks supply of fruits and veggies. This week's order came to 110 pesos ($8.80).

Back to Iceland

It's hard to believe that it was only seven weeks ago that we were in Iceland. We were thinking about that yesterday and Ruth reminded me that we never presented part two of our day trip to the Snaefellsnes Peninsula. So for today, we're going to take you back to Iceland!

Drive to Guadalajara

Yesterday we took Sal to the Guadalajara airport. Fortunately, the airport is on the south side of the city, so we didn't really have to drive in the city itself. And we've been to the airport twice before so we were familiar with the area.

The Queen goes RV'ing

Rainy season is pretty much over, and it wouldn't have surprised us not to see any more rain until spring. But we've had some clouds hanging around the last two days, and yesterday it finally opened up on us!

I Can't Stand Graffiti!

We've been in a lot of different cities this year and one of the things we notice is graffiti. In fact, we even notice it when there's a lack of it! We really noticed it in the city of Pittsburgh. Why? Because there isn't any!

Well that was a fun parade!

Yesterday morning, we had planned on going for a walk along one of the back roads near here. But when we spoke to Sal, he said that there was going to be a parade in town starting at 9:00am, so we decided to take the little blue car into town and see what was going on.

Hacienda Contreras RV Park

Most of our long time readers know that we're not really "RV park" kind of people. Two things turn us off the idea. One, most RV parks are overpriced for what you get. And two, most RV parks have you stuffed together like sardines. We like our space! We think that there is nothing worse than opening your blinds in the morning only to see another RV parked 10 feet away!

What a drive!

We took the little blue car for a drive in the mountains yesterday. We had done this drive in March of 2009, but we were with another couple who had a Jeep 4x4. We remembered the road was pretty rough then, but we figured the little blue car could do it!

Market day

Saturdays are market day in the nearby town of Valle de Juarez. So we went in and got our weekly supply of fruits and veggies, and we stopped at the carneceria (butcher) in the central plaza.

Drive to Sahuayo

We took the little blue car for a drive yesterday. The nearest large grocery stores are located in the city of Sahuayo (pop 60,000), about a 43 km (27 mile) drive from here. There is a large Bodega Aurrera (owned by Walmart) store there as well as a Soriana grocery store.