APRIL 2013

Arrived safely back to the beach April 4th from Florida.  Opal was glad to see me BUT sticks pretty close to Mike.  Maybe she thinks I will desert her again!  There were only 3 camps plus ours on the beach.  Time to go to the RV park.

 Mike had a robbery before I returned.  Lost a VHF Radio, gas can, battery out of the boat and something else I think.  Mike's friend Dean was here a couple weeks.  He helped Mike with a lot of the heavy tearing down of stuff before he left for the states.  On Mon Apr 8th He yelled about a snake in front of my front door steps.  He was about 4' with 16-17 rattles and a button!  They wanted to know if I wanted to see it!!!

And then last night Mike was robbed again.  This time a battery and 2 propane tanks.  Plus his bicycle. 

This afternoon, Thurs the day after the 2nd robbery, we finished packing up the last of the stuff and are now at the RV park by the Modelorama store.  Will stay here until May 5th or 6th before heading north on the 7th or 8th.  I am so glad most of the work of breaking camp is done.  Won't be quite as much to do when we are ready to head north.

May 5,

 
For the last week I have had a meltdown every day!  After buying a new laptop and printer, going from XP to Windows 8 was a challenge.  Things I used to be able to do, were in a different place with a different name so it would take me 3 times as long to accomplish ANYTHING!!  When I bought the new printer, I bought what I thought was enough new ink cartridges to last through Loreto Fest.  However! the printer started gobbling them up.  OK. No big deal, just get some new ones in town.  WRONG!  This printer is so new (although it was only set up for Windows 7 & my computor man had to get a something off the internet to connect it) there are no replacement cartridges for it here in Baja!!!   Then there was the day the new printer would not print!  Only took me an hour to discover I had not plugged it into the computor.   Next crisis that happened the day I was to print bid sheets for all the auction items was MY MOUSE DIED!!!!!  This is the day before Auction opening.  After a full day of stressing and OK I can wait til Mike goes to Loreto tomorrow and brings back a new one, someone suggested I go see Jim.  Halleluja.  He had an extra I could borrow.  I plugged it in, enabled my touchpad (I turned it off because I keep hitting it when typing) and I can now use my laptop again.  Printed all my sheets and am still on the ink cartridge that said it was empty.  I had to print one last colored picture and did have to change the color cartridge. 

Everything went much better from then on.  Some slight confusion with the auction now & then but it all went well and I had the best helpers one could ask for.   We collected somewhere between $18,000 & $20,000 pesos (which translate to $1800-$2000 usd).  And everyone came to pay & collect their successful bids!  These monies go to educate some of the students in our area.  Without an education, these kids to not have much of a future to look forward to.  The jobs of their fathers and ancestors are disappearing rapidly.

This is my last time of running the auction as I have some family commitments I want to do.  We are getting packed, storing things away, and getting ready for the trip north.  With luck we will leave Tues May 7th after Mike's final dental appointment for his new crown.

Will be seeing or talking to many of you soon.  Hugs & Love, Patty.

P.S. May 21.

Had a safe uneventful trip home.  Took the hiway along the California/Nevada border, saw some much nicer scenery than when going up I-5.  Stopped in Walker to visit friends and was finally able to get a ‘Walker Burger’.  Every bit as good as at ‘CZer’s in Elgin!

Finally home in the Pacific Northwest and have been on the go ever since.  You probably won't hear from me for a while.  I plan on being on the move most of the summer!

Until next time,  Patty.