Update July 10th 2016

Some of our preparations are not planned and they are usually the ones that involve meeting people, striking up conversations about what we are going to be doing - they are the really fun ones!
The other day we were in our favorite local Jallisco tapateria and we were the only people eating there - we had a great conversation with Karla who works there.  She actually drives to her home in Manzanillo in the state of Colimo on the Pacific side of Mexico, twice a year.  Her journey usually takes her about 21 hours and she has no problems - of course the Mexican plates on her car and the fact that she is actually Mexican helps her a lot but still she has not encountered any of the bandits and tricksters that we are always being warned about by other tourists.  I have researched Manzanillo as well as the city of Chapala that she talked about and they are both very interesting places.  She did warn us not to linger in the small towns along the way - fill up and get going again - the cities are usually OK.

We have got excited about our journey again and some of the fear is waning again :)

We are also working again on clearing out things that we will not be able to (and not need to) take with us - Today (7/10/2016) we started working on the boxes and computers and so on in the office - this is two-fold, the stuff needs to go to new homes and we need the room to make a bedroom of sorts for Ian and Sian in less than two months.  Gerald is now so keen to sort this stuff out that he was awake at 5 this morning thinking about it and started working on sorting bits and pieces out in the office before 7 this morning - wow, this is getting intense!  Now we have 3 'piles' - for Karl, for Karen and for Salvation Army.  We still have a long way to go but we are beginning to see progress now - can't say the same for the living room with these piles of stuff !  The plan is to load up the car and drive to Colorado on 19th - wow less than 2 weeks away - the we have a day to visit Gerald's colleagues in Fort Collins, a day for Karen and Karl and then another 2 day drive to get home again.  We are really looking to the Colorado trip, not only for the ability hand over some items, but also just because it will be great to see the kids and even better to get away after the intense, stressful weeks that we have been spending working 60+ hrs a week under pressure.  Sure we will probably have to pay for it when we get back but it will be so nice to get away.

Our shopping list is also getting actioned, helped out a couple of days ago by selling the nu-wave oven and the steam mop - we used that money to buy some items that we will need to take with us.  So we ordered emergency triangles, red reflective tape, a bluetooth speaker (music is so important wherever we are going to be staying) and a few storage bags, the kind that you compress things in without using a vacuum cleaner or anything.  More progress !

Stay tune - this is all fun (stressful, painful at times but fun nonetheless).  We are getting even more in tune with each other and how to handle these situations, than ever before.  It is interesting how stressful situations can bring us even closer together - OK it doesn't start off that way - we stress, we get irritable but we draw breath, look at each other, smile with love, talk about it and just get closer.  It is wonderful to be able to pull together instead of pull apart.