Personal

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Dead Silence on Isla

I went to bed around midnight to the sound of loud, but not obnoxious, partying. I was so tired I didn’t even need earplugs!

Next thing I knew, it was 9:30. I can’t remember the last time I slept straight through for that many hours! I know I’ve bee feeling run down, but didn’t think I was that sleep deprived!

Isla is eerily quiet this morning. We’ve had quiet mornings, but not like this when even the roosters are sleeping in!

I’m taking today off to take care of chores, watch movies, do a puzzle, read, and go for a walk. My state contract begins on or about Tuesday next week and will keep me busy full time with decent income till I get home, so a day or two to breathe (I do have work for the weekend) is well earned.

I try not to make a big deal over an arbitrary change in numbers, but I can’t help remember where I was this day 15 years ago, at the dawn of not just a new year, not just a new century, but a new millennium.I was on the cusp of making the first major change in my life’s direction (leaving university to go to trade school), the first step to asserting the person I wanted to be rather than the person I was told I should be.

That bright young thing of 20 would have still be in utter disbelief to know of all the places she would see in the next decade and a half, much less that she would be ringing in 2015 from Mexico.

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Delayed Flight Adventure

My cousin and her son were arriving from Monterrey (MX) today, due to arrive at 11:50. I left at 10:40 and didn’t think to check the flight status. I’m not kicking myself over that now that I know that the THREE HOUR DELAY was not announced until the flight had boarded at 11:00!

So there I was a the airport with absolutely nothing to do for three hours and no desire to pay for parking for all that time, especially since it’s a crappy airport for waiting because there is very little seating and no WiFi (I only have a little bandwidth left on my phone). The thought of making the 1.5 hour round trip journey to home on The Road to have an hour and a half there made no sense to me. The Road was actually in decent shape and I drove large chunks of it at 30KPH, but I really didn’t want to do it four times in one day!

I wanted to pick up toilet paper and paper towels, bulky items to carry on the panga since I like to buy them in bulk, and I knew that there is a Soriana about 20KM from the airport right off of Mx-15. So I headed there for my first time to actually shop in this Mexican equivalent of Walmart.

I knew that Soriana has food to eat on site, so I figured I could grab lunch there when I arrived. There was actually a little food court out front with Chinese, Mexican, Japanese, and Italian options! The sushi was too pricey for my current tight budget and pizza was really appealing. 30 pesos for a slice with a drink was expensive, but affordable.

The pizza wound up being surprisingly good! It had a very light spreading of a mild sauce very similar to what you find on New York style pizza and the cheese was also close to that. The crust was doughy, but okay. This was my first pizza since I left the US and it surpassed my expectations! The price included a drink and you couldn’t get a lower price for just a slice, so I had the gal run through the options and accepted strawberry, which I thought would be a juice. It wound up being carbonated and surprisingly refreshing and not too sweet. I still didn’t drink the whole thing, but it was very nice!

I then spent almost an hour going through the aisles at Soriana. It really is very similar to a Walmart. There were more options than at Ley, but the prices were higher. Not much, but enough for me to notice (eg. 17 pesos versus 15 for a bag of totopos (tortilla chips) and 28 pesos versus 25 for 200g of Oaxaca cheese). There was LOTS of NOB (north of the border) food, too, like Ocean Spray cranberry jelly! I’m getting a little bored of what I’ve been making, so a trip to a Soriana at some point to get some variety would be nice, but I’ve been correct in my assumption that heading to a store like that would stretch my food budget.

It was about 1:30 when I left Soriana. I thought that since the plane would land at 3:15 and my family would be off by 3:30, I could get to the airport for about 2:30 and only pay for an hour of parking there (I’d already had to pay a full hour for the 10 minutes I’d been there earlier). I was half an hour from the airport, so I decided to head back there, pull over in the shade, and do some reading on my phone.

By the time I got back to the airport, it was 2:40. A man in the parking lot saw my SK license plate and waved me down, asking if I knew how to pay for parking. I took him into the terminal and showed him how to use the parking ticket machine. He thought it’s a weird system, but I’m used to it, where you get a ticket at entry that you pay in the terminal and then insert into the exit machine. Soon as we were done, the power went out in the airport for a whole minute!

When the lights came back on, the plane was still marked as being on time for 3:15 (I’d also been monitoring the flight status on my phone). There is a coffee bar at the airport, so I decided to spring for my first cup of not-made-by-me coffee since I got to Isla. I had lots of time to peruse the menu thoroughly and settled on an espresso helado, just a shot of espresso over ice.

I was asked if I wanted ‘sencillo o doble’. I knew what she meant because you get the same question when you order ice cream, but that gave me something to do to kill time as I sipped my incredibly delicious and oh-so-worth-the-25-pesos iced espresso, Google sencillo. The translations into English made absolutely no sense, with the main equivalent popping up as ‘easy’ and then ‘simple.’ Once again, I was reminded to translate into French because, in French, ‘simple’ means one/single, at least in the context of ice cream scoops or espresso shots.

It was coming on 3:15 when a gaggle of women came by where I was sitting, muttering to themselves about the absurd lack of seating in the terminal. I stood up and offered them my seat, giving them a bench where three can squeeze in, in addition to another such free bench.

3:15 came and went and the flight status went from delayed with an ETA to delayed with no ETA. I started to get worried. It gets dark at 5:30 here and there is no way I would do The Road at night, not just because of its condition, but also because of the risk of banditos on this very isolated stretch of road. In ideal conditions, it would be about 1 to 1.5 hours from the airport back to The Road, so I would literally have to drop my family off without stopping to breathe and say hi! I decided that we would go to Isla and take a panga and pulmonía to hotel. It would only add about 20 minutes to the travel time and I could leave my truck at the embarcardero on the right side of the water.

The flight status finally got changed to landed around 3:45 and they came through the gate around 4:10. Whew! What a long day for everyone involved! My cousin is well traveled so she’s very flexible and easy going. She was glad to see me, having told herself many times that I would figure things out and, worst case, she could surely get a taxi.

We paid for parking (60 pesos by that point) and got the luggage to the truck. It was a tight fit, but we got everything into the back and then she took the jump seat while her son took the front seat (she’s tiny, he’s tall like a grown man). The Road seems easier with company, but still took 40 minutes. Parking at my place is a pain and we were all tired and famished, so I went straight to the panga, my first time driving to ‘downtown’ Isla!

As I expected, we soon had help at the panga to load the suitcases onto the boat. I made sure to tip the pilot on the other side.

Then, it was time to negotiate a pulmonía. I was quoted 100 and offered 80. He accepted a bit too quickly, but we had heavy luggage and were going quite far into the Golden Zone, so I was okay with the price even though I have a sneaking suspicion that we could have had the ride for 70. Anyway, I negotiated a better rate than quoted! My cousin decided to pay 90 when we got there since her luggage was so huge and heavy (she got loaded down with gifts in Monterrey and needs cold weather gear for the New York City part of her holiday).

This was my first time going so deep into the Golden Zone and let me tell you, once was enough. It looks like Gringo Land in there, not my type of place at all!

We got to the hotel around 5:30. Check in and all that took ages (all inclusive resort, so she got blasted with information). By the time they were settled in, we were all famished and we went to the first restaurant we passed in the hotel.

Their meal was included in their resort package, but the cost for me was THREE-HUNDRED FIFTY for a frankly terrible all you can eat buffet. My cousin told me she had this one because it was her choice and I can buy us all supper from a cart here on Isla tomorrow (thank you!). I’m still reeling from shock at the cost. I can eat for two weeks for that kind of money here, seriously! Most of the food was terribly over salted, but there were a few good things, like the squid and this interesting marlin turnover thingamabob that was savoury/sweet. But we were all famished and exhausted (I’ve been up since 5:00) so it was what it was.

It was time for me to head home after as it was getting on 8:00 and we were all just done in. My cousin made sure I was okay with going home alone in the dark and I truly had no issue with it. I walked down to the street and flagged down a pulmonía. The driver was not interested in taking me to the embarcadero. Same thing with the second one. The third guy said he would take me, but for 100, absolutely not negotiable, so I got in.

With my previous two rides down the malecón to the embarcadero, we took the exact same route. This time, we turned off the malecón very early and found ourselves in very quiet, almost traffic-less streets. I figured that he was trying to avoid traffic and cut some transit time, but the trip started to take quite a lot longer than I thought it should and I had no idea where I was.

I started to look for a landmark, anything to situate me on my mental map to get an idea of whether I was being taken for a ride or whether he was, in fact, just avoiding traffic. Shortly thereafter, I saw the Mega store. I’ve never been, but I knew, very roughly, where it is located, and decided to give him a couple more minutes to get to a road called Ejército Mexicano that, in part, parallels the malecón. If we wound up there, I knew exactly where we were going to end up.

Sure enough, that’s exactly what he did. At this point, I told him that this is a very different route than what I’m used to and he literally turned to gape at me, then said, “You’ve done this before?” I knew exactly what he was thinking, that I thought he had taken me for a ride. I reassured him that I knew where I was, understood the route he took, and that there was no problem. We then chatted the last couple of minutes to the embarcadero about where I’m from, the weather back home, what I do, etc.

I was glad to reach the panga because it was chilly and I was quite tired. I didn’t have to wait for a boat, so I was back on Isla in record time. It was very strange to drive home from there and a ridiculous amount of effort, truly, what with having to dodge chickens and dogs and kids and having two people with no headlights on flash their lights at me, which, I think, meant that they wanted me to turn mine off. No can do. Canadian vehicles have running lights!

Back home, I had to wrestled with the gate and the garden hose blocking the gate and I was just glad to finally get in!

My cousin and her son are coming to meet me here tomorrow around 6:30 (I’ll meet them at the panga). I’ll take them for an after dark tour of Isla, buy them a papa loca (crazy potato) or taco from a cart, and then we’ll come back here for a beer or two.

My cousin is here for vacation and wants to enjoy the resort amenities, so we won’t be spending that much time together. I am going over to the resort for New Year’s Eve to attend a gala with her and will spend the night. It’s so good to have the two of them here and we will cherish whatever time we have together!

It’s been a long day and I have three hours of work due for 9AM, so the day isn’t over yet. But what fun and, yay, they made it!

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A New Blog

The day has come that I’m sure many of you saw coming.

This is the final post for Travels With Miranda. While RV living continues to be a huge part of my life and I do eventually plan to travel in an RV again, RVing is no longer the focus of my life.

I’ve been wanting to start blogging again more regularly, but have been hesitant because the subjects were not pertinent to an RVing blog. There is so much going on in my life right now, work, impending travel, and Haven projects that I need a blog that reflects my suddenly much fuller life.

So I can now be found at A Life By Design. This new blog is very much a work in progress and doesn’t have much content yet, but it will grow and expand as needed. I am going for a more minimalist look that focuses on the narrative. I also will be categorizing posts so that folks who are only interested in travel or RVing or Haven projects can just follow those categories.

You will find at the top a link to the new blog’s RSS feed as well as my new Twitter. I am keeping the Travels With Miranda facebook page for the time being and will continue to post on there regularly, as I have been doing for the past few months.

I hope that you will all follow me in this new chapter of my life and that my life will continue to interest you. Frankly, I look forward to writing about my experiences buying groceries in Mexico this winter instead of yet another season of blogging about how cold it is and how expensive propane is getting. 🙂

For those of you who choose to leave, thank you for sharing the journey to this point and best wishes in the future.

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A New Blog For a New Chapter

Sitting here at my property, Haven, in early September 2014 on the cusp of leaving for a winter in Mexico, it is time to concede that my old Travels With Miranda blog is no longer relevant.

My life has grown to encompass so much more than the RV lifestyle. While I am still living full-time in a motorhome, I am not traveling in it, and it is parked on my very own little prairie homestead.  I am surprised to have taken root in this place, I who wanted so badly to know only the uncertainty of the open road. But now I know that the very thing I feared is the only thing that could truly set me free.

This new blog will be more all encompassing of this new direction that my life is taking and will be one where anything I wish to share will be relevant. I look forward to chronicling not only my Mexican winter,  but also the cabin building on my property, the things I will see in between, and the more mundane moments of life that make the extraordinary sparkle all the more.

It is not a new life that is beginning with this new blog, but one that continues to evolve and improve. I hope that my Travels With Miranda readers will follow me here even if RVing is no longer the focus of my life. As it turned out, RVing was a bridge more than a landing place, a way to expand my horizons, make me reexamine priorities, and determine exactly how it is I am meant to live if I am to feel whole, happy, secure, and fulfilled.

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Moving Forward

I thought I’d give a status update, an indication of where my head is in terms of Haven and future travel plans in response to some comments I’ve received.

Let’s start with Haven. My goal with this property is to develop it slowly over time so that when Miranda is no longer liveable, I will have a paid for home to move into. So converting the grainery into a liveable house is a long-term plan for me, but there are immediate things that need to be done to ensure that the structure does not deteriorate.

As for the property itself, I want it to be very, very low maintenance. I intend to be away from Haven during the winter months from now on and eventually take even longer trips that could see me away for years and do not want my neighbours to be stuck with the sight of a neglected property, nor responsible for doing my maintenance (it’s not like I can hire a landscaping company out here!)

So I am researching xeriscaping and beginning to collect hardscaping materials so that I can start pulling weeds and sod and replace them with plants that won’t grow out of control and/or inorganic materials.

I’m therefore spending a lot of money, time, and effort on Haven this summer because I am going away soon, and for a long while, and I don’t want to be overwhelmed when I get back.

Going away?

I had a thought for last winter that was too late to pull together after Neelix died unexpectedly. That thought was to drive to Mexico in my truck and rent an apartment for the winter.

I’ve come to realise that the only big bucket list item right now that is overwhelming anything else is the wish to live in another country for a while, one where the main language is something other than English or French, and with a different culture. Mexico is within reach right now and would definitely satisfy that itch.

RVing to Mexico is just too daunting a prospect, what with two vehicles and two borders. Plus, staying in RV parks wouldn’t really be living in another country, but rather living with a group of like-minded ex-pats. Renting an apartment in Mexico in a Mexican community is much more what I have in mind.

A few weeks ago, a blog reader sent me some information on apartment rentals in an area she goes to every winter, as well as leads on what would be the perfect apartment for me. I’m not quite ready to contact the owner of the place yet and make arrangements to rent (the size of the apartment being so small that there’s little fear of it disappearing), but I’ve started my research and am committed to leaving for Mexico in October!!!

So the cat’s out of the bag and you can all breathe easy now that you know that my nomadic tendencies are alive and well. 😉

There is a lot to think about, especially banking and internet matters.

I know that Scotia Bank exists in Mexico, so I will go to a branch in Moose Jaw and Regina to see about opening up a secondary account with them so that I don’t have all my money in one bank and so I can get help locally if needed.

Internet is going to be extra important now that I have my new amazing client that requires tons and tons and tons and tons of bandwidth a month. So I have to make sure that I can get in Mexico the 40 to 60GB of bandwidth a month I will need, reliably and without going bankrupt. And, please, no suggesting that I find a place with a WiFi hotspot I can tap into as I am not a thief. 😉

I am so excited about the winter ahead, even if the thought of leaving Miranda behind for eight months is more than a little daunting! But she has taken me where I needed to go and it’s time to continue my traveling adventures with Moya. I am so looking forward to an easy drive straight south through Wyoming and Colorado without worrying about taking a huge rig through all those mountain passes.

Eight months? Thereabouts. I’d like to tag a month in the States on both sides of the trip. There’s no problem taking my truck out of the province that long and a letter to SK Health will ensure continuity of my health coverage. I’ll have been in Haven eighteen months when I leave in October. I don’t think an eight month absence will be excessive, but rather a much needed mental health break. 🙂

So all that to say, I’m pretty sure my travels with Miranda are over. I want to continue blogging, but I don’t know yet if it will still be on this blog or if I’m going to start a new one. I’m not in a rush to make that decision since I am still living in an RV and will continue to write about RV life.

Right now, I’m about five years ahead of where I thought I would be today, but in an even better place than expected. Having a property I own outright never factored into the new life plan I put together in 2008. How secure this place makes me feel is incalculable. It makes me comfortable taking risks, making big plans, and continuing to live as I am determined to. This place is true financial security.

That my RV travels lasted five years instead of ten does not feel like a failure to me, but more like a triumph and a reminder that when I set goals, I move forward doggedly, obstacles be damned. And I’m most definitely in the market for a little travel trailer. Probably not this year, but likely the next. Maybe it’ll be the Miranda II. With me, who knows? 🙂

There’s lots of good stuff coming down the pipeline. So just remember that every post that has me expending energy into my property is a reminder that I am thinking of pulling out, not that I am getting rooted. Much as I love this place, and I do, it is a port of call, not a final destination.