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Showing posts with label adventure. Show all posts
Showing posts with label adventure. Show all posts

Cross country drive

We wanted to leave Tuesday morning. No matter how hard we worked or how much we packed we were just not ready.

To begin with we couldn't fit everything. We had to sort through our tubs and take out the things we couldn't bear to leave. Everything else got set on the curb for the neighbors and passers-by to pick through.  Even though I was leaving those things behind, I hated watching strangers sift through them. Some people even came into the yard and eyed the things we were still sorting through. Vultures.

Tuesday night the landlord came to check out the house. We had almost everything packed and outside. Rusty, his friend, and I had been cleaning like crazy and the landlord gave us back $400 of our $500 deposit back.

We worked until about 2 a.m. packing the trailer. We still weren't ready to go in the morning.

We were up at the cracks of dawn the next day. I took the baby and went to the laundromat so Rusty could finish packing and sorting. Once home the final prep commenced. We carefully finished loading the trailer. We loaded all the essentials in the Explorer. 

We were way overloaded. The trailer was heavy and things were loaded on the tongue. The car was packed to the point where the back doors couldn't be opened unless we wanted things to pop out. The roof cargo bin was at full capacity.

We backed the Explorer up to the trailer and hitched it up. We went to load the bike rack on the tail gate only to find that it wouldn't fit because of all the stuff on the trailer tongue. There was absolutely no room left anywhere else for our bikes so we strapped the bike rack to the back of the trailer. We looked like the Beverly Hillbillies.

It was late in the evening when we loaded up the dogs, cats, and baby. The sun had already gone down so I didn't get to take a last picture of us in front of the house. I was sad about that. It's the house we brought our baby home to. It's where we fell in love. This is a big move and I was feeling a little nostalgic.

I was excited too. I've waited my whole life to leave Tucson. I was upset about leaving my family. I was disappointed with them for refusing to say goodbye or meet my daughter. I was worried that I'll never make it back there and see them again.

There was nothing else to do but to look forward and hope for the best.

We were finally leaving.

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Visiting Mexico

Having grown up an hour from the border I never really felt the need to go down to Mexico.  I could get the great food around the corner, the culture is prevalent here, and there is a huge swap meet full of bargains.
I don't speak Spanish well, although I understand it if it's spoken slowly and simply. The border was a hassle the one time I  went before passports were required and now since the law changed and I never got my passport I never bothered to go back.... until yesterday...

Nogales is beautiful, the food is good, literally everything is for sale and almost all the prices can be haggled over. More than that, the people are kind and friendly.  Even with all this I was reluctant to go through. I was afraid that without a passport I wouldn't be allowed back in the country. With a week and a half before we leave for Illinois what would I do if I got stuck in Mexico?
Obviously, we went anyway, and this is why: cheap prescription drugs. When we leave Arizona I lose my insurance. Hopefully I will find a decent job quickly when we move, but I can't be sure. I'm diabetic, insulin dependent. My doctor here gave me prescriptions to take and get filled when we move, but without insurance, it's more than we can afford.

For less than a one month supply would cost here, I got a three month supply in Mexico. We were also able to pick up a couple months worth of Valley Fever medication for our puppy!

We got post cards for our nieces, we bought a couple dresses for the baby, we had lunch, shopped and generally acted like tourists. We took lots of pictures. Everyone stopped us to smile at our baby and tell us how pretty she is. The waitress who served us lunch just had to hold her and hug her. We had a great time.
With slightly sore feet we walked back to the border. We got in the line for people who didn't have passports and I was so nervous. No passport and a purse full of prescription drugs.... I did have my birth certificate and the prescriptions and luckily that was enough. With very little hassle, our family and our drugs were back in the states.

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