#8 - One Night and Off Again!

After one short night in my very cozy bed, I had the pleasure of hittin' the road again.
This time with Becki B!

The plan was to leave bright and early so we could play our gig that night... about 7 hours away.

By the time she arrived at my place I realized this may be a super "stressful" trip of pushing it with minimal stops so that we'd get there on time.  It was cutting our drive time pretty close but figured I could still make it on time.

As we cruised through Morris, a quick skip and jump from the boarder, I remembered;

"Oh man!  My insurance is almost up!!"


Thankfully that only took 2 stops to find the right building and about 15 min.

I can easy make that time up!


We DID have to pull over by the abandoned car, from the night before, since I forgot a couple things in it.  We arrived just on time as the tow truck was about ready to take it away.

Ok, I can still make this time up and get to our gig...

Unlike most of my border crossings, we weren't searched!
At first the old man was more confused about why he couldn't read my license plate in the photo... after much discussion on how to get a clear shot on the computer with someone he finally moved onto us;

"Becki, can you take your glasses off.  Hmmmm... this photo doesn't LOOK like you"
"That's because it's a couple years old and I'm a hairdresser"


Seemed like a good reason to me!
I guess it did to him too since that was pretty much all the "hassle" we got.

As he opened the hatch of my car and saw everything that was in there, it was clear he didn't want to be bothered as he gasped;

"Oh boy!!"


And at that he tried to slam the hatch shut.
I didn't bother telling him my trunk doesn't actually lock shut... I let him slam it a couple times and then said;

"Oh, weird... It does that some times.  I'll just pull over up ahead and close it."


Probably best not to tell him that I use duck tape to keep it shut!

As we flew past Grand Forks and pulled into Fargo it was coffee time and most importantly, oil change time.  Since the break down the night before I wasn't able to do ANY of the prep I wanted to for this trip.  No biggy... I used my spidey senses and found a 10 min oil change place in no time.

Most of the men were too cool, and took their job WAY to serious... calling out random number counts like the time it was taking them and such.  It was like they were working at a Nascar event!
One of the cowboys looked like he really wanted to have fun and laugh but no... he could only smerk.  There's no place for fun.
10 min oil changes are very serious.

I also duck tape my bumper

One quick loop around, grab a coffee, hassle the coffee guy for not telling us BEFORE we ordered it was "happy hour" and we could have gotten fancy drinks for cheaper, Becki realizes AFTER we gave him a little sarcasm he DID tell her before, and we move on... oops!  Sorry guy.

Shortly after this we concluded that we probably wouldn't make it on time...  I could speed.  I could push it... But at the same time I just wanted to relax with it.  I HAD been on the road for almost a week already...

Becki was good with that decision.  If we don't make it on time, we'll just jam wherever we are!  At this point it was going to be some random place that Becki hooked up with on the online couch surfing community.  GREAT way to travel when you're being even more random.  Not too good when you have limited time and want to fit a lot in... but then maybe that's just me being a princess and liking a hotel from time to time...

Ok, so, we're not going to play the gig?  Awesome.  I really want to stop at the Albertville outlets!
(Shocker.  I know)

We did a quick look around and then I did a quick change in the bathroom. I found Becki in Zumies with a very friendly sales man.  I mean boy.  And did I say friendly?  Ok, he thought he was friendly, but in reality he was SUPER annoying and kept following us around, talking AT us, and swearing a whole lot!

Hmmm... I guess that works on the young girls?  You're awesome.  And yes... "your store"...


This time when we hopped back in the car there was a funny sound and vibration... was the tire flat?
Checked and nope!
Was the timing belt coming off?
No.  Doesn't make sense.
Was the steering funny?
Nope.
Maybe a ball joint or whatever it's called... bering?
Maybe but didn't seem like it.
Hmmm.... maybe it'll go away.  Let's just keep driving!  (smart)

We finally arrived at a fabulous little studio in Minneapolis where we had a taste of surprisingly good local beer and a nice little jam broke out!  From there on... the mayhem continued.  Did we make it to the couch surfing place?  No.  But my buddy Mat ended up getting us a room at a hotel... I like that!

Had a little text fest in the middle of playing...

Mat brought us to the film studio he works at... we put on legit army helmets and ran around

Some empty pub we ended up at... laughed the entire time... not even sure what we talked about

Becki loved the sticker

Partyin', partyin' YEAH! Fun fun fun fun (And... it wasn't even Friday)

Tooth brush shower cap dance to end the night.
Oh wait... we ended up playing music together until 4 AM!

#7

Soon to be a usual scene...

That morning we decided to eat our free breakfast and make some time early so we could relax later.  We made a couple new "friends" and ended up talking "politics" and how AMAZING it apparently is to be able to drink in Canada when your 18.  Our buddy regaled us of all his "crazy" drunken cop adventures he had up in Winnipeg at the horse tracks... 

Fascinating

If it's cool, can I please just eat my cheerios?

Thanks

You're the man...

One of the places Dad really wanted to check out was the infamous Willie's Place truck stop.

We took a quick detour off our current path and found, what looked to be, a big saloon truck stop.

Only thing was... it felt like a ghost town.

All the doors were locked, only 1 u-haul truck sat on the driveway, and the sign in the window said "new owners". 

I guess Willie's Place didn't work out as much as Bill Mack and Sweet Cindy hyped it...

It was a Wally World let down... Dad walked around, looked in a couple windows, nothing.  He'd wanted to stop by there ever since he heard about it, they talk about it a lot on that station, and when he finally got too... Closed.

From there on nothing TOO amazing happened for the next while... we just drove.

Somewhere in Oklahoma the party began.

That's right, the car overheated!

Yay!!

At that point we used up most of the water we had along, all took turns taking a little bathroom break in the ditch,

yup, we're country

and then, fingers crossed, we were off!

We stopped at an EXTREMELY classy joint for lunch.

The servers were over weight, yelled at you from across the restaurant, waddled around with their chests out (trying to show their "assets"), and the regulars went behind the counter and served themselves.

As I said... classy.

The food was fantastic too!  I'm not sure how you can screw up a grilled cheese with fries and gravy but they sure did.

On route from there we found these treasures!

Papa Troll

Mama Troll

Angry Troll

I don't even know, we broke down 1 or 2 more times but managed to make it through Tornado Ally (I think that's what it's called) and up to Iowa to find a cozy hotel after a super long days drive.

The next morning began like the same, free hotel breakfast and terrible coffee, except this time we could feel we were gettin' back up to our winter "wonderland".

Quick stop for fuel, filled ALL the empty water bottles we had at this point, and hit the highway.  5 min later... over heated.

Filled it up.

5 min later...

Over heated.

Seriously?!  This may be a problem... do we need to stop at a shop?

We waited it out a bit then concluded the temp. change was so different from Mexico the thermostat may need to get used to it... once the car came close to overheating again I just slowed down until the thermostat figured it out and the gage dropped down.

Good?

Good.

The heat in the car?  Not so awesome but as long as we got home before night fall we should be fine.

We made it up until the roads got a little icy and the snow started blowing when I finally decided to let someone else drive.  I DID have to hit the road in the morning to go to Montreal with Becki... maybe I could take a couple hours off.

We pulled to the side and switched.  Before my Dad even had the seat adjusted there was a tap on the window... cop.

I wondered if we were in some random trouble but no, he was just checking to make sure we were safe and sound since it was icy and blowing snow.  Turns out this is a common theme for police down in the states.  If there's a storm, they cruise up and down the highways making sure to help out... it was amazing!

A little past Grand Forks same scenario, except THIS cop told us he'd be driving between there and the border so he'd keep an eye out.  And if anything was to happen, just call 911 and the nearest cop would come rescue us from the stupid car.

5 seconds later (please note, I'm not kidding, we literally pulled back on the highway and it would start flashing again) a semi truck pulled over.  He backed all the way down the highway towards us and then said he would stay behind watching until we got to the border.

A semi truck?
That's amazing!
Every time we pulled to the side of the road, he pulled to the side...

After many overheating stops we finally got to Pembina (small border town).  I could hardly walk with my frozen toes, couldn't feel my fingers, and my face was starting to freeze... the sun had long been down, the snow blowing, and even the little fuzzy blankets we bought in Fargo were barely keeping us warm.

With next to no options we had to do what we set out for... get that stupid car into Canada.
So, we hoped back in and headed out... this time a new truck driver offered to follow us across.

The border was surprisingly easy.  I got a little "Ma'am, you understand my concern about a car being in Mexico for 5 years... do you know EVERYTHING that is in that vehicle"

pause

pause

"Well no, I guess I'd have to say I don't"

blank stare

"Have a good night Ma'am"


Awesome!  Made it!
2 min into Canada car acted up again, at this point Mom couldn't handle it anymore and jumped in the the heated truck.  Dad and I were determined to get that car home but a couple miles in enough was enough, pulled onto a side road and left the car.

I honestly couldn't feel my finger tips when I was looking for the key in my purse.
Frozen.

It was amazing how there was someone behind us every time we pulled over... it really got me thinking the next couple of days...

It honestly felt like little guardian angels... but made me think of my relationship

"Ok Melissa, you keep doing what your doing... but I'm here.  Just so you know I've got your back, you're not alone in this and you can always bail out and let me help..." -God

#6 - Coast to coast...

Ok, where was I? 
Aw yes... And all the way up we go!

We arrived in Texas safe and sound.  The only thing left to do before we settled in for the night was eat some good ol' American food.

After we enjoyed THAT heart attack we nestled in for a cozy night sleep.
Game plan for the morning?
Get some breakfast, Sandra and Jen to an outlet mall, then head on up to Austin so I could explore.

What happened?
We had breakfast.
We got Sandra and Jen to the Outlet Mall.  (Yes I had to do a quick lap and buy a few things)
But then, instead of straight up to Austin, we decided... we're so close to the Gulf why not go all the way?  West coast water to east coast water in 2 days?  Yes please!

I guess the car didn't like the idea... or it didn't like being without Jen and Sandra... OR it didn't like being in a different country.  Who knows, but a quick fuel up and maybe 5 min away from where we left them, it decided to over heat!
Whhhhhat?!

Pulled over.
Filled it up with water.
Tightened the cap good and hard and we were off!
Seems as though the cap hadn't been put on properly that morning when they checked the level... all good. Problem solved.
Or was it?

Maybe 45 min later we found ourselves on South Padre Island.
Must have been the wrong time of year to visit... even though there were people, it felt deserted.  Majority of hotel windows were sealed up, it felt eery and certainly not the place you wanna be when a hurrican comes through (Which apparently it was the season for). The only way in and out of the place is a 2 1/2 mile bridge.

An image you wont find on their website

Why do I look like I need to pooh...

The hurrican is coming

Finding shelter

Ok ok so we made it look a little worse then it was...
One last photo and it's off to Canada!

We made it to Austin that night... beautiful architecture, the buildings were lite up so colorfully at night.   We arrived much later then planned but it was ok, I'll just explore in the morning!
Or...

#5 - Going Back a Bit

Now that's how you end a set!

#4 - The Drive on Up!

After spending wonderful time on the beach it was time to do what we went down there for... drive the car back up to Canada.

Unflattering Photo

On the way up we stopped at a couple other beaches to scope out where we'd like to stay next time.  Of coarse we had to stop in at Sayulita ( our old stomping ground ) for an amazing cup of coffee and fresh baking at favorite little bakery.

It was great to see all the dogs roaming the streets (literally), hippie's selling their "wares", and the crazy surfers trying to teach the tourists how to ride... in an hour.

Sorry tourist.  Not gonna happen.
But you look good in all that fancy surf gear you bought.
Well played... well played...

Once we got back to Guadalajara we stopped at "Chai" for, what I remembered to be better, salad.  Then, back to Sandra's place to hype ourselves up on the terror of the Mexican drug trade, how we were planning on driving through it, and how we should really stay on the toll roads as those should be the "safest".  Once we'd worked ourselves up in a bit of a panic we figured, lets go to bed NOW so we can get up and start out at 2 in the morning.

Apparently you want to get to the boarder BEFORE sunset and it was a bit of a haul up there.
What... 14 hours or so?

So that's what we did.
Since it was decided I was taking the first shift ( I honestly love driving at night) I thought the earlier I sleep the better.  Turns out I couldn't sleep.  Bad dreams?  Over active imagination?
Yup!

We set out in the morning, ok middle of the night, and it didn't take long til we were out of the city.  One set back is that the car had been sitting a long while and apparently in that time the cruise control stopped working, and the fuel mileage was STUPID low.  200 KM to a tank?!  (We found out much later that was a load...)

It was interesting being the only car on the road amongst all the semi's.
Tiny, narrow, 2 lane highways, NO shoulders, random speed bumps (before, during, after towns and the middle of nowhere corners), it sure was something.
Apparently when the truck ahead of you has his signal light on, it's not cause he's changing lanes... nope.  He's telling you it's safe for YOU to pass.
Yup, I sat there getting secretly angrey at him for not passing already...

If you're signal light is on GO!!! The sooner you go the sooner I can! Arrrrrh!!
(I'm apparently a pirate in this memory)

Thank goodness Sandra wook up soon enough, noticed this and piped up "He has his blinker on so you can pass..."

LONG drive story short... nothing happened.
Safe the entire time.
Even the "guaranteed" check stop we were going to pass was closed.

Once we got to the toll plaza, just before Monterrey ( currently one of the worst city to drive through in Mexico), even the girl working the gate pointed us in a different direction!

"Are you GOING to Monterrey?"
"No... we're passing through to Texas"
"Well then you don't want to take the highway through... take that highway that goes all the way around the city.  I'll have security open the fence for you"

So that's what happened.
They opened a side fence that lead us to a highway which completely looped around the city.
A city that is known for being entirely corrupt sure had a nice lady help us out!
Only thing out there was 3 amazingly flashy cars that raced past us in a pack.
A charger, new BMW, and some other expensive car ( I can't remember ) that made me feel I was either in a car commercial or a scene from the next Transformers.

Driving THAT fast... in such new sports cars... they were either running from the law, or Americans that quickly realized they needed to get out of there.  Maybe driving their brand new cars SCREAMING "we have money" wasn't the best idea in Monterrey.

We arrived at the highly fenced and barb wired boarder, safe and sound!
The Mexican customs were surprised a car full of extremly white people did the drive, and the Americans were just happy to finally have someone to talk too.
There certainly aren't a lot of cars crossing over.
And as they searched our car, they chatted about how they often hear gun fire and such on the other side.

Comforting.

But, we were over.  Without a single ounce of trouble...  the car decided to let THAT happen in the states.

Awkward Boarder Dance

#3 - Mexico!!

The rest of our time on the beach was filled up with food, shopping, tequila sampling, cards, and laughter.

Thing is, you know you're getting old (and totally fit into the senior lifestyle of our hotel) when you look at the clock, HOPING it's time for bed, and seeing it's only 830!

Oh man... ok,  one and a half more hours.  If I can just stay up an hour and a half... that's a "normal" time to go to bed right?

It used to be I couldn't wait until "family time" was over and I could go exploring.  Stay up all night.  Go dancing, walking, WHATEVER!  Now, I'm just as happy putting on my pj's and hanging out until I fall asleep.  If I don't have somewhere to go, then why go looking!

Apparently mornings are quickly becoming my favorite time.  Everyone's still asleep... the day is fresh.  Clean slate.  You have that tasty cup of coffee in hand and it feels like you have all the time in the world to do whatever you want!  There haven't been any problems, set backs, or oops's... I love mornings.



From here down it's a mash up of photos from our time on the beach... some images I didn't catch, that I now wish I had, were of the fabulous bakeries we found, hole in the wall corner stores, fancy restaurants in the midst of what seemed like garbage piles and, well, I guess all things "Mexico".  Aw well, if you check out my facebook you can see albums of those things from past years!

Mom and Dad beside the pool

SPRING BREAK!!



Dad rockin' his godfather look

Dolla dolla bills yo

Kissing Ally

Mom showing us her sexy kittne pose

Dads sexy kitten pose

I look confused... Sandra's perfecting the look

Our last supper out on the beach.

Our last actually supper by the ocean was at our hotel the following night... They were having a band and pizza party.  That's when the seniors REALLY got wild.
Video to follow

#2 - Arrival

After a seemingly long flight, I found my sister waiting amongst all the cab drivers, esnorkling guides, and cheapy cheapy tour men... needless to say, she stuck out like an arthretic thumb.

It was a nice change to get into a clean, air conditioned car, from the usual small and dingy cab.

Plan: Quick stop for some "spring break" essentials, toothbrush and what nots then off to meet Mom and Dad on the beach.  As we turned down the pop isles I heard;

"Mahleessa!!"   (Melissa... but they obviously weren't calling me)
Then...
"Sandra!!!"

What the...?

I turned around shocked, confused, and a little uncomfortable to see a chubby, extremely happy man, BOUNCING down the isles as he ran to hug us, kiss us, hug, kiss kiss...

Think Melissa think... who the heck is this and why is he so happy to see you?
Why is Sandra giggling?
WHAT'S GOING ON?!!

"Oh Mahleessa, I'm so happy you're hear.  You play guitar?  You will tune my guitar."

Ummm...

Sandra quickly jumped in and started to explain that this was Peppy, the owner of a restaurant they had been to the night before and how he had hung out at their table all night.

"Aw yes... Peppy.... it's been SO long."

After breaking away from his ecstatic clutches we finished up and headed out.  Only to see Peppy waiting at the door with his cart full of, whatever he was going to cook that night.

"Girls, how are you getting back to the hotel?"
"... in our car...?"
"Oh, that's too bad... I was going to offer you a ride!"

We had to promise we'd visit his restaurant that night for some special veggie meal he was going to make us and yes... so I could tune his guitar.

We then found Mom and Dad on the beach.  Ooh sweet beach...

On route to our room Sandra felt the need to tell me this was going to be a "different" kind of holiday.  When I asked what she meant, she assured me I'd know once I met all the people at our hotel...

Seniors

Oh man... makes sense I guess, who else travels at this time of year?  Good thing I didn't go down there to meet anyone or hope to pick up a "hottie"!  Ha.

We had a VERY "classy" room... swans on the beds and even a swan on the gas stove!

Yeah... I'd say that screams classy.

Shortly after we decided we would in fact go to Peppy's restaurant.  They all had such a fun dinner there the night before. Why not!



My Dad played the role of Mobster



We had just sat down... no one had asked for our drink order or anything yet but, sure enough, he brought out his guitar.  No question of whether or not I would tune it.  Just an apparent "given". 


A blurry photo but funny all the same!

Once I was done he quickly came back, took his guitar inside, and THEN we were allowed to order.

A pretty successful first day back in Mexico.  They do things differently down there but man... I love it!

#1 - Let the Adventure Begin!

My adventure begins with a last minute trip down to Mexico where my sister's been living for a number of years now.  Needing her old car brought back up to Canada I, being the only transient member of the family that drops her life at a moments notice for adventure (aka not having a real job), managed to get down there to help out.
If it was left up to my dime there's no way I could afford it.  But I have a wonderful friend at Westjet that graciously gave me a buddy pass.  Thus, making it doable.

2 days before I left, my parents decided they wanted in as well.  However, if they were going to come down, they wanted to spend some time on the beach.  Clearly this wouldn't work in with my non existent budget so they offered me a spot in their room if I would stay with them a few days.

Um... free room on a beach?  Yeah.  Pretty sure I can make that work.

However, funny things happen when you try to "mennonite your way"... they got to Mexico before me.
Since buddypass means standby and it was apparently reading week (only finding this out at the gate), I kept getting bumped off of one plane to the next. 
It was beginning to look like my adventure wasn't going to happen...

When I called Westjet even the client rep asked; "Hmmm... does it HAVE to be Puerto Vallarta?"

Yes.  Yes it does.

I finally decided to check out what Air Canada could do for me and, I don't know.... is it better to book flights at the airport?  Or was this a random one off thing... 
AirCanada could book me on a flight leaving within' the hour to Toronto and then in the morning to Puerto Vallarta. 

First he quoted me 900+ dollars and, well, that's almost the value of my car.  So THAT wasn't going to happen.
As I stood there blankly, actually thinking I may just go for it... KNOWING I didn't have anywhere near that kind of money and my line of credit really isn't designed for this... something changed.  I have no clue what he did, worked something out, and my flight was suddenly $350+

Sold.

Once I arrived in Toronto I tried to factor in the cost difference between going for an adventure downtown and sleeping in the terminal, too getting a room at the airports Sheraton and resting up since I caught a nice little cold playing at Festival du Voyageur. 

"Hi there, how much for your smallest, least expensive room?"
"All our rooms are the same price and they're $250 plus tax"
"Uh huh... hmmm... ok.  I'm just going to walk over there and take a moment to process this."

WHAT?!  That's crazy!!

Plan B, walk aimlessly around the airport until I figure out where I should go, and what I should do until tomorrow morning!

I headed over to the airport information booth and asked the on site volunteer where the least expensive hotel was closest to the airport.

"Once you've paid for the cab fair, checked in, and taken a cab back in the morning it's no cheaper then staying at the Sheraton."
"Yeah, that's 250 bucks"
"Not if I fill out this form for you and get you a room for $90."
"....seriously?..."

Tell you what... that room was NOT worth $250, but it was worth more then $90.  And I had the best day sleeping, watching tv, and eating greasy take out food in those extremely bleached white sheets.