On the Road at Last!!

We finally got to leave home the day after Christmas. Saying goodbye to the family and heading south towards our winter home in PaaMul, Mx. Overnighted in Santa Fe, Tx with Pauline and Chuck then on down to the RGV for 2 days over the weekend. Had some difficulty getting our permits...only because we got to the Aduana office at Los Indios about 8 minutes after 5pm! They were out the door! So we stayed until Monday, met a neat couple headed down to Panama to house sit for a year!
Left out of First Colony RV resort at 8:30 Monday, Dec 29th and made it as far as right outside Tampico for the night. Staying at a big Pemex. We cause quite a lot of stares in this big MH, but it sure is comfortable. Roads have improved somewhat since last Spring. We still cannot seem to get everything to work right at the same time. The Motosat is temperamental and Direct TV is unavailable. Going to watch Mary's history DVD she gave us for Christmas. 8pm and we are ready for bed!! Pop does a wonderful job of driving this rig but I know it is tiring...must watch the road every second. We should be on the emerald coast at the De Alba RV park that we stayed at last year by tomorrow afternoon. Probably early evening. We need to walk on the beach! Life is good.

Thanksgiving 08 at Home

We had a beautiful Thanksgiving this year. Pop is recovering so well from his heart surgery; we have so much to be thankful for. Cindy and her family were here and her in laws. We had a lovely visit, good food, brisk fall weather. Allan duck hunted each morning and brought home the ducks! Diana and Bill and Trig joined us for dinner. We are blessed.

Stuff Happens

I feel like we fell into a blizzard while out going for a walk thru the woods! Our travel plans came to a screeching halt when Pete got the results from some medical tests. His coronary stints had all occluded and he was sitting on a massive heart attack that he could not have survived. So..he had triple cardiac bypass done on the 16th of November and is now in rehab and doing great. Meanwhile, his poor mother passed away this Sunday, Nov. 2nd. She had suffered the ravages of long time Alzheimers disease that had left her in a pitiful state in the care facility. It was a blessing that she is now in Heaven. Her funeral is tomorrow. Friends Pat and Doc are stopping in on their way down to PaaMul for the winter. Maybe we can join them later. We should know by Christmas how Pop is doing. The doctor said to give him that long and then he will decide if he can "cut him loose".
Meanwhile, all the family is gathering at our house and we should have about 20-25 people here. Pop and I have been sleeping in the Motorhome for about 5 days now. He was bound and determined that we were going to try it out so he moved his bacon and eggs and medicine box out last Thursday night.
Life goes on but I will be so glad when the stress is gone. We will just keep on keeping on until we can head south again.

The "Daytripper"

The new Motorhome has arrived! We have spent the past couple of weeks dragging our belongings out of the house and stuffing them inside. It has so many cabinets and nooks and crannies....much more than the previous bus had. We are actually doing a spread sheet to help keep track of things stored below in the cargo holds...I am trying to keep household items in the same general spots as the last coach. If I didn't, we would never find anything!

Back on Blogger

Hooray..Our new beautiful, big Motorhome is here and in our driveway. As soon I can find my camera, I will post pictures. It is a 43' Tiffin Allegro Bus and it is BIG! Years ago the girls used to all laugh and dance around to the "Trogolodytes" silly little tune, "Big Bertha Butt" and that is all I can think of when I see this monster sitting in the driveway! We brought her home last Thursday from the dealer in Shreveport, La. We have slowly started to carry our "stuff"into what will become our new home and begin the next phase of our senior life. Can't wait!
I am so tired of Dr's checkups and we both are just counting the days until we leave for Mexico and the Yucatan again. Plan on departing Nov 5th from home, meeting up with Doc and Pat in the RGV and crossing the border about the 7th heading south! Should arrive in PaaMul by the 15th! Yippee!! Paradise awaits.
We have a new Toad that we call " Sapo"...a new Explorer to pull behind the Bus. Papa has already put in his contribution to the show...the Rubber Duck and her new trailer! He crammed all of that in the storage bays underneath along with the 15 hp motor and a gas tank. I don't know where he is going to try and put his tackle?? Not inside my Bus!!
I have had a bout with age related symptoms but feelin' fine now!! Watch our dust!!

Summertime in the Florida Keys

We are currently staying in a lovely home on the water in Summerland Key, Florida. We have the boat with us and are having fun with our families and grandkids this summer. Pop is through with his treatments and we are both enjoying the fishing and beautiful snorkeling. We have not ordered that new motorhome as yet but we have done lots of homework. We toured the Tiffin factory on the way down from Texas to see the new Allegro Bus..beautiful coach. We have not been able to see the 09 DutchAires as yet but hope that they will have them at some of the dealers here in Florida . Perhaps we can see one before we get home. We will be leaving here the last of July. Hope the hurricanes hold off until we leave. So far the weather has been very cool with afternoon showers quite often.

April Showers

We are still at home in Texas waiting for Pop to finish his prescribed weeks of treatments to get rid of any lingering prostate cancer cells. He never complains and is doing well in spite of a sore bottom. He is determined to get on with it and kill that disease once and for all. Only about 3 weeks left to go. Yea. He is heavy into researching a new motorhome for '09 and deciding to put our beautiful Dutch Star on the market. I have mixed feelings. I have loved that motorhome and it is still beautiful, I think. but he wants that bigger engine and I want tile floors...so the only thing we can consider is to trade up and get the new Dutch Air. What a beautiful coach that is! We have the new brochures and he has spent hours researching and reading links and talking to our salesman at Lee's RV in Okla. City. They should begin to hit the showrooms the last of April.

It has rained and rained here. The trees and flowers are beautiful around town and in our own back yard. We are marking time until we can leave the last week of May for the Florida Keys and our summer home in Summerland Key. The children are all excited and have their dates on our calendar. We are taking the boat out of storage next month and getting it seaworthy again. We didn't get a chance to use it last summer as we were gone until September. Meanwhile Pop is at the business every day! He never slows down. Keeps him out of mischief, I guess. Will be glad when we can be on the road again. I miss it!

Leaving the Yucatan

With a certain amount of sadness we had to leave Paradise and return home to Texas to have some medical problems tended to. But we want to mention one particularly lovely spot that we stayed overnight at on the way back from Quintana Roo. Right vefore reaching Escarcega, there is a little town called El Centenario. It is right on a new portion of the road(186) and on the left side, well marked, named "Las Papapas". The entrance is through a gated little road that goes back about a block to a beautiful manicured lawn and a little restaurant surrounded by huge trees and sitting on the shores of a lovely lake. We enjoyed a wonderful afternoon watching the many beautiful birds and water fowl. Across the lake were the boats being poled by the fishermen using nets. Lots of peacocks, turkeys, etc. wondering thru. They fed us dinner down by the lake. We camped free of charge in their front yard along with another couple in a small van. There was lots of room. The food was delicious and we ate breakfast the next morning hoping to compensate for spending the night there. The hosts were most gracious.

Xel-Ha

We finally made it to Xel-ha today! Such a beautiful water park. It is actually an underground river that emerges from the limestone and flows out into an incoming salt water lagoon and flows out to sea. There were hundreds of people but it is meant for crowds and there were excellent facilities. 5 restaurants and 3 bars and lockers and bathrooms and snorkel gear all over the park. We tanked up first with a delicious buffet breakfast, got our gear and then entered the water at the beginning of the river. We began with their double innertube floats but quickly decided that it was too cumbersome and you couldn't snorkel on that big thing! We quickly disposed of it and enjoyed the gentle current in the lagoon to explore the underwater world. After about an hour and ahalf, we were ready for a break so we warmed up a bit in the sun and went to lunch later. Once again, delicious food, then we found the hammocks and snoozed out for about an hour. Ice cream helped get us going and we went down to the entrance from the sea to check out the floating bridge. They were doing the snuba walks down by the bridge and the fish there were just incredible. Pop and I walked over the floating, heaving water bridge to snorkel from the other side. There was a "cave" on the other side that was nothing compared to the ones at Excaret so we snorkled back across and saw all the huge fish under the bridge. Saw one huge grouper, lots of tuna looking fish, big Jack Crevalles, and a world of snappers. We crawled out on the other side and decided it was time to head out.

It has been another wonderful day with a new experience under our belt. We should sleep well tonight.

Sunday

Here it is another Sunday in beautiful PaaMul. No matter how many mornings we have had here, I love to get up early and drink my Mexican coffee that our sweet neighbor brought to us. with real cream and raw sugar...yum. The orioles are constantly flitting among the trees and the birds are all singing early in the day. I hate to think of leaving but we must be on our way in only 2 more weeks. One of our neighbors just bought one of the beautiful palapas that was for sale here. They are so thrilled and invited us over to see it this morning. I'm envious as it is so lovely. May they enjoy it for many years to come. We had dinner at Gringo Dave's again this evening with Pat and Doc. Always a fun place.

Had planned to go to Xel-Ha but Doc has an ear infection so will wait until it is healed before we snorkel again. The water has been turbid lately but yesterday it was quite clear on our beach here. The trip to Cozumel is on hold also. I took pics of the sea lions and manatees over at Puerto Adventuras this afternoon. Hope to have dinner in the underground cave restaurant over at Playa maybe one day this week. Sounds interesting! We continue to have beautiful weather and no rain here in Paradise.

The Pretty Women come to visit

Daughter Cindy and bosum buddies, Anna and Kathy, came to visit us in PaaMul and we had a great weekend. They stayed in the hotel right on the beach and we hit the ground running every morning. The weather was alternating sunshine and rain. We met them in Playa after they came in from the airport on the bus. After doing the walkabout. we payed a visit to Senor Frog's on the waterfront before carrying everyone and their luggage in the jeep back to PaaMul. Sat. morning we had decided to take them to the lagoon at Yal-Kul which is at the end of the road in Akumal. Anna learned to do some fantastic snorkeling. Kathy wasn't ready to get wet so she enjoyed the sights and fought off the iguanas. Dinner at Gringo Dave's in Puerto Adventuras was great with the little band playing some great sounds and a fire twirler doing her thing.

Sunday morning, after banana pancakes at Dave's, we headed for Xcaret which is like Disney and 6 flags in one. Beautiful place. We floated the underground river, walked the trails through the jungle, enjoyed the butterfly pavillion, saw the jaguars, monkeys, tapir, dolphins, turtles, old mayan village, and wound up at the fantastic presentation in the theater that night.

Hated to see them leave but Monday morning brought rain by the bucketsfull. We carried them to the airport in Cancun and said our goodbyes. Stopped in Playa at Sorianos then back home to a messy RV. Feels so quiet now. We are so glad they came.

crab races!

What do the folks here in PaaMul do for a wild night?? why, we go to the crab races, of course. Last night was our first visit to this athletic occasion. "Well trained athletes"(the crabs) compete to see which ones can escape over the rope to touch feelers upon the white sands at the restaurant. Prizes vary and are mostly donated by the restaurants and shops at Puerto Adventuras and here at PaaMul. The numbers of the crabs are written on their shells and the winners may be composed of: the first one over the "wall", the 7th one over the wall, etc. Cash prizes may consist of $340 pesos and one is awarded each race plus the usually restaurant prize mentioned above. Families and little kids cheer their favorite on until the night wears them down and they dissapear back into their palapas or RV's. To make it fair, only one prize per family can qualify. Lots of fun and games.

Pop isn't feeling too well today...I think he has the flu crud that seems to be going all around the campground. Had 3 huge Motorhomes come in after dark last night with overflowing blackwater tanks and no fresh water. Talk about not doing their homework!! Pop helped them to drain their tanks and get water while they ranted and railed about how bad the places are!! I say good riddance...I think they expected Las Vegas in the jungle! They parked in overflow for the night. As for Pop, I am treating him with Zycam and Theraflu hot tea. It dries him up some. I went for my usual morning walk and saw a pretty little buff bellied hummer down in Mamacita's garden. We met her last night up at the crab races. Tiny little woman but she carries a big stick! Doc out diving again today. The last 2 days have been really gorgeous with very little wind and crystal clear water. Had planned to get the Duck back in the water today but Pop has got to be feeling better before we do. TTFN..

Back in the Costa Maya

We made the flight back on Sat., Jan 5th. Beautiful day to come back . We were so glad to see our friends and walk in the sunshine and watch the sunsets. Sunday we went to see Tulum. What a magical place. There were a lot of turistas there and the grounds were full. We did get some nice pictures and enjoyed the few glyphs that are still visible on the walls of the palace. Such a place it must have been 700 years ago. We had lunch at a great little restaurant in downtown Tulum. The palapa they were building has been finished and the couple have moved their travel trailer underneath. There are also some 6 construction jobs going on around the park. It is a busy place!

Found rooms for Cindy and her friends at the hotel. Every weekend it is filled up. There was a good crowd around the pool today even. I am going to try and attach a little video I made of Tulum. Pop and I drove down to Akumal to look around today. That is ALL we did. We were looking for the beach but all we saw were condos and private homes. I am sure it is there..we just couldn't find it! Security and traffic cops everywhere. So we came back and swam in our own beach.

After Christmas

Well, it has been over 2 weeks now since we left beautiful PaaMul and I am wondering if we will ever get back. Been held up at home for a while ....we have to sort through some medical problems. Tomorrow we go to see the radiologist and hopefully get some answers to help make our plans a bit easier. The weather in Texas remains cold and dry. We are having some pretty frigid weather for our part of the world..in the 20's now at night. How we both long for the sunshine and warm weather back in Mexico! Mary had about 3 feet of snow on the ground so I guess we should not be complaining. I think it is just after Christmas blahs.. Diana and Bill took us for dinner tonight at the Olive Garden. It was very nice. They are into wine and wine tasting and learning, etc...and taking a wine class for a 6 weeks course starting soon. We have heard from friends all over the world this winter..some in Europe, Mexico, stuck in the snow in Canada and even off the coast of Africa. Seems like the older we get, the smaller our world becomes. Yet..we keep on going because there is so much more to life and you never get too old to learn and to enjoy something outside our own little island. How rich our life has been. Not with money but with friends and places and adventures. I wouldn't change it. We may have to leave PaaMul earlier than planned but we shall definitely return next year. We have only just begun to explore this wonderful place.