I haven't posted for awhile......

....as we only recently received phone and internet service here and I've been muy busy with projects around the house; in spite of having numerous urgings to post some humerous responses to mi esposa's posts.

Today everything has changed.

I feel compelled to post. The situation in Alamos as a result of "Norbert" (does it matter if it is 'officially' a hurricane vs. storm, or what catagory it is classified as?) is very tragic in the pure Greek sense of the word. I just re-read Linda's earlier post written before the storm, and am now comparong it to what happened last night and seen for the first time today. Tragedy.

I spent several days preparing for this storm, my first "hurricane". I was tempted to post yesterday before it landed about 'gringo's paranoia'. Last night the wind (my worst fear) howled and the rain battered the windows. In the morning, Linda went for her usual 6 am walk. i arose a few minutes later, anxious to inspect any damage to our casa, which was untouched, when Linda came baxk and said " Oh my God, you believe what happened in town...you have got to come with me!"

I can not do justice in attempting to describe what we saw as we walked for hours surveying the town. The pictures posted are simply that. One would have to be here to witness the true damage. The empty spaces where casas used to stand. Shoulder high boulders that were swept into town (a Mexican friend said he heard them around midnight after the power had gone out). The short-bed pickup truck this morning with a small coffin in the back......

As I introduced this post, I felt compelled. I am now exhausted, feel lucky to be unscathed, and grieve for so many who have lost so much.

Ok...about this Raton pass issue.......

It can't rest. It's been a few weeks, but I can't let it go without comment.

Way back when, almost to the beginning of time (for us, this refers to "before packing the U-HAUL trailer; ie: just trying to get out!), the topic of "let's look WAYYY into the future; way beyond Taro cards and palm reading". [footnote: readers of my previous/first entry (both of you) will know who raised this issue as I was busy getting the house ready for sale and the woman I love was busy getting us ready to cross the border].

Our route south was preordained: we have a daughter in Colorado whom we wanted to visit on our way to our new home {ok, so its an extra bizzillion miles and days of travel; gas is still $2 less that in europe (maybe, depending on euro/dollar and gallon/liter conversion rates; I haven't done the math because it doesn't matter (we are going anyways) and this way I can delude myself that this is alot cheaper (well, she could be living in Germany...)

I digress. So, the topic raised in ancient history (by you know whom) was: "If we are going through Colorado, which route do you propose we take?" "Why?" I ignorantly reply. "Well, because I've gone the south route before and I WILL NEVER GO OVER RATON PASS EVER AGAIN!!!!"

Geez!! Where did that come from?? I quickly try to process. [footnote: Linda lived in Colorado in the early 70's and I did my undergraduate work in that state at about the same time. I made many trips to New Mexico during those years and I have NO recollection of any big passes to cross to get there]. I replied that I had made countless trips from Colorado to New Mexico and had never encountered a problem pass, although I almost always cut off the freeway before the border and took the state route south to Taos and Santa Fe. [Had I ever been over Raton Pass, I wondered: I have no recollection of a bad pass from one state to the other?]

We haven't been together this long and still love each other without learning the primordial lesson early on: dont fight any battles not worth it (are any even worth it?).

So, I calmly reply: "No problem, we'll go another route: west to Utah and then south."

[You know whats coming; I admit I was blind sided]

"Oh!! How big are the passes that way; thats over the Rockies!! Wolf Creek Pass isn't on that route isn't it???"

[but, I know when to let a stew simmer]

Once we left our daughter and started heading via the west/Utah route (I presumed given the fear of RATON PASS!), Linda surprised me with: "Is it shorter to go south on the Interstate (notice no mention of RATON PASS). I replied that it would save a lot of time and gas. Like fishing, you never know when: with a few miles until the turn off to the westerly route to avoid RATON PASS, I hear: "Lets just go over the pass: I want to get to Mexico as soon as possible!" [read: I haven';t worked on these LISTS for so long just to.......].

We passed the turn west to the "safe" route. The signs for "RATON PASS" loomed closer.
The highway here is two lanes each way with a grass divider. Oh, oh...we are beginning to climb....[I have NO recollection of this "scary" pass?!]. I glance at Linda ...she isn't digging her nails into either cat (who are calmly looking at the scenery [ok: poetic license going too far].

Before I had a chance to check my rearview mirrors to see if someone is trying to pass us up hill, I saw a sign that read " Raton Pass" (I cant recall the elevation, but I think it was less than our house in Washington. Tolt Hill up to our house in Washington is steeper and has more curves than Raton Pass. It's almost as long. That's ok; we all have some scary memories from th 70's.

On the way down, I seem to recall comments about how long ago that was...they must have revised the road........... We were now im New Mexico and a step closer.

Bill's 1st post (aka do not miss this or the mattress inspector will call on you)

Months. Many long months. Since we made the decision to take our Adventure, we have spent long grueling months, 24/7, preparing to make the move. I concentrated on each step needed in succession (ie: remodeling the house) to arrive at the ultimate goal of crossing the border. The "one step at a time" approach. Linda concentrated on the ultimate goal of crossing the border; getting nothing but (literally) "green lights" at the border crossing. The "come on/lets go" approach. There is no right or wrong; I am simply giving background.

So, as I was doggedly completing project after project to complete the house for sale, Linda was incessantly organizing for our border crossing. My god this woman I love worked hard! Organizing things to go. Packing everything into boxes. numbering each box. Listing the contents of each box in order to pass through customs. Redoing 30 some boxes because they were'nt properly inventoried the first time, so we feared (she was up til midnight doing that one day, all out of the ultimate fear of being turned away at the border). Segregating those boxes we would need and take down to our new casa on the first trip from those that would be stored at the border for subsequent trips. Thirty years of culled possessions from the house sale, carefully packed, wraped, boxed and numbered. Such long hard work! But absulutetely necessary to be allowed to cross the border: one mistake, one mislabled or forgotten item and it would be "NO CROSSING FOR YOU!"

The ultimate goal for Linda in this process of preparing to get us across the border were the.... LISTS. If the inventory lists for each box weren't perfect she became convinced we would not be allowed to cross the border. No green lights for us. Nada. The lists soon became the most important aspect of our move. More important than whether we had transportation to get there (never mind whether the cats or I (in that order) were accompanying her).

When we were packing the truck and trailer we had to double..triple check the LISTS. At one point I was sure I would be not allowed to continue with her and the cats as I had removed her shoes from a plastic bag (ie: inventoried on the LISTS!) to pack them separately so as to fit in the truck. This was a poignant moment: She stood her ground that we would not be allowed to cross the border if they were removed from the bag, while I stood equally firm stating they would not GET to the border unless packed separately. I saved my own life by promising to repack them in the bag before we crossed the border. She didn't see my crossed toes.

As I said: this is all background...months and long months of background (and long summary as well, I know!). But, you already know why it has been necessary to give such a long background narrative........

We left Tuscon, less than an hour from the border at Nogales, at late morning. You just imagine her increasing anxiety about whether her LISTS were complete and accurate enough to allow us to cross the border the closer we got. We decided to stop for a quick bite to eat before crossing. Due to the anxiety of the moment, Linda elected to have a salad to go. Just as she opened it, an emergent call from our daughter (eg: "What should I do about....?") By the time the call ended, I advised Lida the border was only 10 mins away. Oh my god! I have eat! I dont have time! But this salad cant be taken across the border; its contraband!!...gobble/snarf/swallow without chewing/choking now/quickly hiding the remaing salad in the plastic bag and under the seat as the crossing looms near. "I feel like throwing up I am so nervous!" she said. "Do you have the passports, visas, cat papers and the LISTS handy?' I quietly inquire. Without regard to the other documents, her reply was: "THE LISTS! #!@%$ where are the LISTS?!?"

Just then, there it was. Th border crossing. To the left was the red/green semaphore. I slowed WAYYY down (were we moving so slowly as to attract attention?). What's wrong? I wonder as the light is niether red nor green..is it broken? Oh, oh! the guard!! The guard is sitting on a fokd out chair in the shade to our left..we are now within 40 feet! I am expecting the ubiquitous hand held out in the "HALT!" position....everything is now in slow motion yet transpiring in nano-seconds...a glance at Linda (still searching frantically for the LISTS) tells me we may need medical attention for her soon.....Where is the HALT signal I wonder, as I simultaneously notice the guard's attention is not on us; she seems preoccupied with something down to her left..a strange insect activity on the ground perhaps?, I fleetingly wonder, as just then she languidly raised her right forearm (while keeping her elbows on her knees) and with a very limp wrist motion, without even looking up at us, gave one and one-half waves of her hand for us to proceed into Mexico.

It took a few hundred yards for time/space reality to return to consciousness, at which time I started to howl with laughter at the irony of our (read Linda's) long (so very long and anxious) work on the LISTS, believed to be so very necessary for our entry across the border, received with only an unconcerned wave of the hand. Normally, my laughter would have been my execution warrant, but Linda was so enormously RELIEVED to have crossed the boreder in any event, my life has been spared.