Saltillo, Coahuila

I haven’t posted in such a long time that I don’t think I’ll ever catch up. I almost don’t want to even try; it seems insurmountable. Our computer had such a lovely vacation traveling the country that I don’t think it wanted to come home. I think that when I last left the saga, IBM had promised that the computer would be delivered BEFORE 10am last Wednesday. Or sometime. Really, it is quite irrelevant; promising to deliver on a specific day at a specific time here in Mexico is simply a wonderful joke that you should simply enjoy and not rely upon. I’m certain that no-one is surprised to find the computer never found its way on Wednesday. More to the point, the computer NEVER managed to find its way home. When UPS and IBM realized that it MIGHT be delivered on Monday (that would be tomorrow) they put their little heads together and authorized me to drive 130km to Aguascalientes and 130km back to Zacatecas to pick up the computer. I’m such a lucky duck.
Ellen and I decided to make it a special one on one day and when we arrived at the UPS office 15 minutes after it had been closed for a two hour (standard) lunch, that sealed the deal for us. We had a lovely lunch at a seafood restaurant and Ellen got the shrimp she has been craving for so long. We then wandered about the neighborhood; I didn’t want to drive anywhere as it had taken me 45 minutes to find the office and peeked and poked our noses here and there.

Picking up the computer was so anti-climactic after all the delays and wrong addresses and returns and glitches; 2 minutes with the clerk, a signature and we were gone. I’ve got it just about completely setup so I can give the kids this machine and when we get back to the US (we’re one day away from the border here in Saltillo) I’ll send my Toshiba in for warranty service.

Today we drove from Zacatecas to Saltillo and it was a LONG day. We had planned on leaving at 8am but spent so much time yesterday doing errands and saying “goodbye” to Zacatecas, that we woke with absolutely no preparation done. Jamie and I started packing everything up at about 8am, and by 10:40 all the tires had been topped off, gas tanks filled, lunches and breakfasts packed and we were heading out. The drive was rather uneventful until we got just outside Saltillo where the skies poured buckets and buckets of rain on the earth, uprooting light poles in the middle of the highway, turning road to river and wreaking havoc. We missed the absolute tormenta but suffered its destruction. Fording river (that was once a street) after river, spinning out on rocks on the “riverbed”, we inched towards the hotel and RV park.

The kids talked us into KFC for dinner (first time in a year) so everyone pigged out on greasy crispy chicken and they are now riding around the park. They really love it here and remember it well from last year. I think we’ll be here 3-4 days and then we’ll head to Texas.