So, Day Three….

I was a little crushed for time and I only had one day to spare for any major issues so I could be on time to pick up my wife and kids at the airport in Puerto Vallarta! 

The delays of the previous two days and all the rainy day delays in San Diego were kind of settling in on me and, even though I know it on a cellular level that some things just can't be changed and you have to roll with them, I was worrying a little about getting home to San Pancho without further delays.

I was up early, though, gave Seamus his morning walk and with a little ball throwing in the parking lot as a bonus, double checked everything and we hit the road before the sun crested the horizon over the mountains east of Hermosillo. 

I was more than ready to leave Hermosillo and my easy to clean plastic covered bed and pillows in my rearview mirror and make time to the tropics.

I found an ATM and some pesos and we put fuel in the Rodeo, some coffee in me and we boogied through Hermosillo and got back onto open road in short order. 

Things were working perfectly this day so far!

My goal was Mazatlan, Sinaloa and, fortunately, I had only a short, comparatively speaking, drive as long as nothing happened to add to that time!

                                                  

I know where I'm heading!

A mere 900 kilometers (559 miles, but who’s counting) will put me happily into bed in my favorite malecon-front dive, El Hotel Hacienda, in Mazatlan!

Google mapping tells me that was going to be 9 hours of driving time, uh huh……….. They still haven't figured out Mexico timelines! I know 10 hours will put me there as long as my trip is trouble free. 

I am in Mexico, I am on a road trip with a time frame and I know heading out early is my best insurance to avoid any issues.

It is my personal philosophy that you DO NOT ever tempt the road trip trouble gods. They are a pernicious bunch and if you are rushed, leaving late, not doing all your fluid and air checks, well, they are going to get you.
I always plan for the worst just to appease those bastards. 

I leave early and then, if nothing goes wrong, I get to my destination early and relax! 

So far that hadn't seemed to be working for me so much, though.

Really, this should be a nice, easy drive….

Amazingly enough, things do go GREAT on day three… I just cruised all day.

                                                     

Things go so well that I had time to actually take pictures, not stress about the car or road construction or funny car noises and I was able to take Seamus for leisurely walks and some ball throwing at PEMEX stops while I just enjoyed the drive in my new homeland.

My public service brethren in the open air seats!

I swear my map said I was on Carretera 15.
Oh, that's right. I didn't have a map.

The transitions from stark desert to chaparral covered hills followed by driving up into high mountains to suddenly descending into the tropics are something to see.
Instead of the caballeros herding steer across highways, in what seems like a very short time, iguanas are crossing the highway. Or, attempting to, at least!

Things went well all day and I got to my funky hotel across from the malecon that has, apparently, become my traditional stopping place. 

It is well before sundown and I just can't believe how well the day went!  

If I could've gotten that kook out of the way this would have been a great shot from my hotel balcony!

I decided to buy a few beers, snap a few pictures and take Seamus for a walk. There is nothing like being back in a tropical climate and we both just have to stick our toes into that wonderful, bathwater warm Pacific.

After Seamus’s walk and dip in the ocean I headed on foot into the old part of town where I knew I could get great tacos from one of the restaurants that pop up every night in front of people’s houses.

There were a few busy restaurants to choose from and all of them smelled great.

I like to sport eat I so had a taco here. A few people stopped and asked if I minded if they ate with me so they could practice their English! They told me they don't get a whole lot of English speakers in this part of town. A great start to my dinner!

Where I had the last of my dinner and a very nice family paid for my meal.

They were doing a smokin' business! 

I had nice conversations with people and we talked about our families, where we lived, where we came from, everything and nothing, it was all just pleasant conversation with new friends over some cold beers and hot food.
In fact, it was so pleasant that when I got up to leave the family I had been sitting with had paid for my dinner without even telling me! I was touched by their generosity.

Mazatlan is a very cool city and at night people are out on their porches and sidewalks spending time together and being alive.

My meanderings through that part of Mazatlan have me convinced there is truth to the phrase about “latitudes and attitudes”.

If you are open to it and walk into the non-tourist parts of town you will feel it all around.

I just love this feeling.

A little local color.

After such a pleasant dinner I needed to take Seamus out for his own dinner and walk.
We ended up walking on the beach again and the night sounds of the city, the smell of the warm Pacific Ocean and the feel of that tropical air on my skin were just perfect for getting a good night’s sleep.

I returned to the hotel and opened the windows to the sea breeze and just exhaled.  It felt so good, finally, to have an uneventful day of travel that I could feel the road stress just lifting off of me.

Mazatlan looking south from my hotel room

View to the north side of Mazatlan

After a few photos from the balcony and a quick shower I fell asleep in no time, thinking of what a great day three on the road it had been and how I had an easy five hour drive ahead me the next day to our home in San Pancho and how ready I was to see my family again.

Time for bed.....

Día Dos

Vamos a México!

Whew, a few beers put me to bed nice and tidy and I woke up fresh for the appointment I had scheduled with the facilitator who has processed all the paperwork to import my car, boat and trailer! He was super helpful and reassuring and really a nice guy when we talked on the phone and via email. I was up and on the road at 7 because I was scheduled to meet him at his office near the border in Nogales, AZ at 8am sharp!

Man, I was on it!

Well, he was not.

Not even fucking close.

He showed up around 9:45ish and got right to work, telling me it wouldn't take long! 
He had had me scan and email all pertinent documents multiple times to him so when I showed up he would have everything done. That way I would be on my way into Mexico with all proper paperwork in hand in 20-30 minutes!

So, anyway, after six hours in his parking lot since he had done nothing and had to call to his guy down at Aduana in Nogales, Sonora Mexico who didn't show up to work until 11 to finish processing my papers, he finally had everything done. 

I will say this: He was inexpensive and I got what I paid for!

I will be happy to send you his contact info if you request it.

The upside was that Seamus and I bonded for hours with me throwing the tennis ball for him to chase and retrieve.  

So, day two of consecutive days starting late and I was, instead of crossing the border at 9 in the morning all smiley-faced, crossing at 2ish…. I was still smiley-faced since I was in Mexico, finally, but I was very late and I knew I would never make it to Navojoa, Sonora where I wanted to crash for the night.

Whatever. When things change sometimes you just have to roll with them!

Up next was the intervening rodeo that is the actual importation process once you get into Mexico. I felt like I was really flying blind here and I had a very limited idea of what was actually going to occur.
It is an adventure not to be missed and, if you are fortunate enough to participate in someone else’s process, you would be privileged to observe it.

It was, amazingly enough, much easier than crossing back into the USA where the border folks turn you inside out. Crossing into the USA, plainly speaking, sucks. 

Crossing into Mexico people were welcoming to me and worked to help me out. Thank god for that since my instructions from my importation facilitator left out an important detail…..

So, anyway, this process. This is interesting when you are pulling a fully loaded boat stuffed with all your belongings.

You come to a fenced area where all the other folks waiting to import their possessions, and I mean there are a LOT of them, have ALL of their stuff unloaded and sitting on hot asphalt with people watching over their belongings inside this fenced area. 

I was told to unhook my boat and unload ALL of my stuff and leave it on the ground and then drive down to this area where officials would stamp my papers, photograph my vehicle ID and then to go hook up my boat and trailer and do it all over again.

Fortunately there were people to help me. They were very generous with their help and they swore that they would watch my stuff for me as if it was their own.

I had a few USA dollars left on me and since I was close to the border and had zero intention of traveling back to the states I figured I would offer them incentives to keep a close eye on our stuff. Times are tough everywhere and a few bucks here and there go a long way in Mexico.

So I did this whole loop twice. Once sans boat and trailer and a second time with the boat and trailer attached. Both times with my guitars, TV, bikes, surfboards, tools,kids toys, etc. all laying on the ground with these, hopefully, trustworthy people watching everything…. I was laughing at all this while imagining what Katie would be thinking if she could see this all occurring and how easy the drive would be if all of it is gone……..

The officials photographed serial numbers, entered data into their PDA’s, sent info to and received confirmations from Mexico City, stamped papers multiple times and then proceeded to have me pay the processing fee and tell me I was squared away.

Well, almost. I still had to import all my goods!

The guys that were watching our goods were now offering commentary as I did the mega-speed reload of my possessions. They then asked me if I had the receipt for the importation process that is separate from all the other receipts and stamps I've accumulated and that verifies that all those other stamps and receipts are valid. And, of course, it’s a few more pesos…. That little detail my facilitator had forgotten to tell me...... It would have been a LONG drive back to the border for that piece of paper……..

All I had to do at this point was to declare all my stuff to Aduana so it would forever be legal and to pay an import duty on it. I was getting that "woohoo, I'm on the road in Mexico" feeling and I was excited.

I had done this before so I handed one of my helpers close to $30USD, told him to pay for my receipt and to keep the rest while I kept loading and tying everything down.

I then wrote up a list of my major goods, walked into Aduana and showed them my declaration list. They did a little math, looked to see how much change I had, adjusted it all down since we were all chatting nicely about our respective kids and life in Mexico and then, $312MXN later (about $24USD), I had a stamped receipt of importation in hand and I was on the road with all our goodies!

I can't tell you, well actually I can, how awesome it felt to be totally legal with my vehicle legally imported and my receipts in hand while driving in my new homeland.
Let's just say I was feeling pretty ecstatic. 

I handed what was the last of my USA currency to these people who had safeguarded our belongings, helped me unload and reload them and who generally expedited my whole process significantly and with genuine friendliness towards me as a new resident of Mexico.

I was pumped and I was cruising……

This whole process on the Mexican side of the border I knocked out in close to an hour. Amazing.
I was welcomed into Mexico by courteous and helpful people at every part of this process and welcomed to Mexico as a new immigrant with smiles.
Comparatively speaking, I have sat in secondary crossing back into the USA multiple times while CBP personnel stared down at my family as if they were thugs and as if we were causing them a hardship by providing them employment.
But, that is a whole 'nother story......

Let's get back on track here!

Things just wouldn't have been right if there wasn't major construction happening on Highway 15, though. So, clearly, all was right in the world and there was major construction! 

That will be an amazing road when it is all done, however, at this point in my journey I just wanted to knock down kilometers.

I was getting very close to Hermosillo when the sun was touching the horizon. I am not a big night driver in Mexico when I am alone and on roads I don’t know that well and I am hauling an obvious load of things that might make other peoples' lives significantly easier. 

I just knew I was going to make it to Hermosillo, Sonora before nightfall….. so, many construction detours and stoppages later, I made it into northern Hermosillo an hour or so after nightfall.

I stopped at the first hotel that looked clean and that had a gate with a security guard. $450 pesos later I was holed up in the nicest hotel room with plastic covers on the pillows and bed that I had ever imagined! I really didn't want to imagine, though, why those were necessary but, being a retired career firefighter with limitless imagination, I did.
I think Seamus got the better end of the deal sleeping in the car……

However, being an excellent dog owner…..a veces….. I dutifully took my buddy out for a walk before racking out for the night. We each had a few carne asada tacos from a stand in somebody's front yard right next to the highway and then we crossed the highway to the OXXO for a beer or two. 

That was a lot of fun as I was hit up for money and work and money and money by some serious looking gang-banger guys. I declined to give them either and went for a stroll with Seamus on the streets surrounding my shiny, plastic-sheeted hotel. 

There was a significant amount of artwork on every single wall and sidewalk I passed! Some of it was lovely but most of it was gang oriented.

I am not a man that lives afraid but a couple of decades in the fire service and growing up as I did has given me an acute sense of when I may be in over my head…. The guys hanging on corners and kind of dissolving into the dark as I walked closer to them did not lend me assurance that they were going to be a friendly welcoming committee. I kept my weapon, I mean my big flashlight, ready for use in case someone needed prompt illumination.

After Seamus did what he needed to do we high-tailed it back to the hotel. I locked him down in the car where he slept peacefully all night and I called it a night, where I did not sleep peacefully, in my almost interesting room.

No worries, though. The next day I would be enjoying great street food and sleeping in one of my favorite stopping places, the Hotel Hacienda right across from the Malecon in Mazatlan. 
I am not sure why but I really enjoy that divey, ocean view hotel and part of town!

Heading Back to Mexico!

Day 1

It is normal for me that I don’t sleep well before a major road trip. Add that to the fact that I never sleep well anyway after a career as a firefighter and I was good and tired when I got the wake-up call. That wake-up call just happened to be……. Rain! Really? Good lord……

It was somewhere around 5 a.m. and it was raining like hell. This rain did not start out as a few drops here and there, the skies just opened up! Seriously, what the fuck?! I mean it was just fucking pouring!

I had no doubt the planning gods were getting a good laugh out of this at my expense.

In short order I jumped up and I promptly got my ass to work covering everything up…..straight up fun I tell you. Not.

This took all of about 15 minutes. 5 minutes after that it quit raining….

I enjoyed a little coffee and breakfast while coming to terms with the fact that there are things I have absolutely no control over so I would have to let this go and just roll with it.

After that I towel dried the inside of my boat and parked it in the sun so that it really gets dried out. I did not want any of our possessions sitting in a wet boat for the next few days. 

Fortunately my aluminum boat heated up quickly in the sun and was soon dry so I could get to work.

I finally got to start loading our possessions around 10 in the morning….. I was only behind now by about 4 hours….. so typical of a life effecting day when I was supposed to be getting my ass on the road so I could meet my smiling family 5 days later at the airport in Puerto Vallarta.

I ended up doing the ultimately amazing load job, tied it all down and tearfully said goodbye to my family. I am not good at smiley goodbyes!

I was on the road, finally, around 11:30, and I was a bit anxious but happy and, as always, completely excited that I was heading to Mexico!
It just never gets old……..

I made it, driving slow because of the fully loaded boat behind me, to Tucson, AZ around 9 that night….and I was tired.

I put myself to bed with a can of Foster’s lager from the store up the street and put the day behind me with some rest.

Ok, I lied. Two cans of Foster’s lager……but, what the hell, I'm Irish…..

I'll be up and at 'em in the morning ready to get this show on the road into Mexico!

Rolling with it. Preparation

Rolling with it

 An intro:

There will be no philosophical moments in this one…… see, already I am lying!

My journey by truck to San Pancho, well actually the second of my journeys to San Pancho, was to go to the border and release my Temporary Import Permit(TIP) so I could keep my car in Mexico legally.

You see, we are Residencias Permanentes in Mexico and to possess and drive a car in Mexico legally as a permanent resident you have to either import your current vehicle or buy a Mexican plated car. 
It is not legal when you reside in Mexico as a permanent resident to drive a foreign plated vehicle.

Not having the money to take our car out of the country and sell it and buy an already Mexican plated vehicle left me but one choice.

Drive our 2001 Isuzu Rodeo out of the country, drag my boat behind it since it was included in my Temporary Import Permit and turn around and bring it back in.

Oh, right, our 90 pound chocolate Labrador Seamus had to be along for the ride, too. No trip is complete without a giant chocolate colored mass highly sensitive to moving drooling over your shoulder for days on end.                                                                    

  My buddy Seamus.

There would be no sense in doing that since it was two days hard driving to the border to not add another day each way and drive the rest of the way to San Diego so I could fill my boat to the gills with more of our stored belongings and, subsequently, drag it all back down to San Pancho….the accoutrements of life, right?

I was prudent in every way…. Tires, oil changes for the engine and tranny, wiring all functioning, I was the prepared fireman making sure everything was cool and safe for my journey.

Oddly enough I allowed myself plenty of time in San Diego to not only get everything loaded and inventoried safely but to also have chill time with mi familia who had flown up the day before I drove north to visit with family….. yes….. plenty of time.

Well, also oddly enough, it rained like hell damn near every day those five days I was sitting there in that drought stricken Southern California desert.

What the hell!?

Well, I had fun with my family.

Finally, the day before I absolutely had to leave to import my car, boat and boat trailer into Mexico I got a break in the weather….. a beautiful, sunshiny Southern California La Jolla day…. The kind of day that makes you see why people spend every cent they have to live in that rarified air.

That night I checked the forecast and it was clear except for the slight possibility of rain early the next morning when I was to depart.
Finally, the weather break I needed! 

I couldn’t load everything the night before because my boat was parked on the street and I didn't want everything I knew I would have to so painstakingly load safely to be gone when I woke up.

I spent the entire day prepping. My wife, twins and I all went to our storage unit and we worked hard and with agonizing deliberation over what to bring with us. It was difficult, to say the least, and we were limited by weight and volume.

We had some tough decisions, especially when you take into consideration the hearts of three very sensitive people. My wife, Katie, and my amazing twins Liam and Mairead are all sensitive people with generous hearts and souls.
                                                     

          

Me? I am neither sensitive nor do I have a heart or soul so my needs really are marginal!

So, back to the storyline….. We loaded ALL this stuff, I mean ALL of our valuable items that we must have in our new home 1500 miles south of there, into my truck and hauled it all to my Mother in Law’s backyard where we were staying.

The skies were clear; I piled it all up and go to bed with the intent purpose of waking up early, loading it all up peacefully and getting to Tucson, AZ around 4 in the afternoon.

Weather-wise, things had come together last minute like it seems they often do.

The story continues......

On the Fence

I've been thinking of my brethren in public safety in the USA lately, my firefighter brothers and sisters, and, by extension of the brotherhood, those in law enforcement.

This is for those who are on the fence or within a decade of retirement. This is a little shove to get you off that fence and on a new adventure. Life is a limited resource and your own personal allotment diminishes by the day. And the reality is none of us gets to pick the end point without a willful action to do so.

Those of us who fought long and hard for our benefits, specifically our retirement benefits if still working, are seeing those benefits being significantly eroded and bargained away by those whose memories may not be as long or who don't have enough time on the job to really know and understand the history of these benefits and the struggles for them or who just need immediate dollars to sustain lifestyles that are not sustainable any longer.

In my mind they are not seeing the bigger picture or the endgame. This is a sad state of affairs but it is the reality of the public servant now.

The bigger picture for those in public safety is that exposures to things that can kill you, short or long-term, give you PTSD, damage your body permanently or just plain wear you down as you age are the real reasons that retiring as soon as you can isn't just important, it is critical to living as long as you can and as healthy as you can.

You are not in a job for lightweights. You are exposed to physical altercations, guns, knives, homemade explosives, disease laden bodily fluids, the craziest and most obese people on earth covered in god knows what and things that are only limited by people’s imaginations, of which we all know that there are no limits.

There is not a single one of us that have spent any time in public safety that does not have exposures to carcinogenic materials, physical use and abuse that is not normal and the psychological effects of exposure to chronic death and trauma and the abnormal sleep patterns that the preceding exposures promote and, let alone, our crazy work schedules.
It is not physically normal or healthy to have a work schedule that keeps you at work and on alert for days on end or with your hours rotating throughout a 24 hour period over the course of career.

These exposures take a toll on you, your loved ones if you have any left after being twisted by a career that hardens you mentally and spiritually that really doesn't become truly apparent until you retire. 

You can feel this towards the end of your career when things just don’t seem to matter as much to you but you won’t really acknowledge it until you are out the door.

I was no wallflower, stand in the background emergency operations firefighter. I was a worker and I worked elbows deep whenever I could.  But I also knew that my heart wasn't in it anymore. I had participated in enough human misery, a never ending social drama and enough of what seemed to me more and more pointless fire suppression and risk taking by managers who did not really fully understand or assess risk versus gain. I also knew that I had a very decent retirement option available to me at the age when firefighters bodies and minds really begin to suffer from the job.

We can talk about statistics all day long. How, after the age of fifty, for every year you work your lifespan is shortened or your incidence of significant injury increases. That is just common sense! Heart attacks, cancer, blown out backs, exhaustion, it’s all a reality.

I will tell you this as a certainty. You are going to have dreams about your career. Not the super pretty, feel good dreams……. These dreams will wrench you right out of your sleep. Your mind will finally let you process the horrific events you have dealt with over the course of a career. However your constitution is comprised will determine how long these last and how they affect you.

Personally speaking my dreams have abated significantly but they do come on occasion still. I do contemplate my mortality in a very serious fashion every day. I also contemplate the mortality of people I love on a daily basis and how my death and their deaths will affect each of us. It’s a serious reality and those of us in public safety should know this better than anyone.

You have options and I highly recommend you take them. Why in the hell did we fight so hard for them and argue all those very things listed above and cite all the statistics to prove them if we choose not to utilize them? We paid for those benefits out of our wages! Do not waste them!

Is it fear?  Fear of leaving the routine and discipline of what you know? Fear of being with people for all those hours that you used to spend at work?

Or, fear of just not being that guy or gal anymore…. In a world that is different and comfortable to you where you have a level of prestige that won’t be there when you retire.
Everybody has their own set of fears and everybody can rationalize them.

At the end of my career my fear was a bit akin to taking a walk off a cliff. As long as I stayed where I knew exactly what was in store for me for as long as I chose it to be I had a predictable outcome that was set in stone and I could ride that until I just wore out.

I also knew that to stay would be the easiest thing to do but also the least rewarding. That to stay at a job I was good at, that I could do in my sleep, be looked at positively by society and to help people, at least in theory, was very attractive.

To me, though, that was a lie. That meant acquiescing to the fear of a real life outside of my total and controlled comfort zone.

Well, anyone who knows me knows that is not my path.

I can only encourage all of you on the fence or getting close to really search your hearts for your passion, your love and your dreams and to pull out all the stops.