Alabama Aug 2007

Driving back to Alabama to spend a little time with Corey, Candy, and Gaby was surprisingly easy and uneventul. We left Zacatecas later than we'd hoped to. (Complications over getting the dogs back from the boarding kennel--another story). But there was a straight road ahead of us, about 5 hours to Saltillo where we would pick up the autopista again. Even though the road from Z. to Saltillo was not four-laned, it was very well-maintained and had extra wide paved shoulders. This is really important in Mexico because when you're driving along at a certain speed and you see someone coming up behind you who's clearly going faster than you are, you just steer toward the right, and the faster driver passes you somewhere in the middle of the two lanes. For all practical purposes, this actually creates three lanes of travel, with a passing lane when needed. There's plenty of room (usually) and everybody understands the procedure. If you're on a two-lane highway coming up on a slower vehicle, if the slower vehicle turns on his left turn signal that means it's safe to pass him--usually. Likewise, he might turn on his right turn signal to indicate there's not enough room to pass. Very sensible--most of the time. Anyway, we drove as far as east of San Antonio that day and were in Fairhope late the evening of the next. We've discovered that La Quinta motels are dog-friendly so that's the only place we stay while on the road in the US.

Had a great time in Alabama. It was just as hot and humid as we expected. It was August, after all, on the Gulf Coast, but air conditioning saved us. When we got there late in the evening, Corey and Candy had a cold bottle of champagne waiting for us. There were candles lit, even in the fireplace, and the whole house sparkled. They've (esp. Candy) done an amazing amount of settling in for such a short time. Bob, Corey, and Candy worked on several house and yard projects. All three dogs took turns running through the screens on the screened porch, so that took redoing. Howdy and Eliza (C & C's lab) got along fine--sometimes too fine, getting rowdy in the house. And Howdy couldn't resist the temptation of all the toys in Gaby's room, especially the stuffed animals. He didn't really make himself very popular while there. Daisy was better, only peeing on a rug once. (Sigh.) I had the extra special pleasure of babysitting Gaby while everybody else did projects, ran errands, etc., so I really got exactly what I wanted--major quality time with Gaby. And, at 21 months, she kept me on my toes. She's extremely bright (of course!) and verbal, beginning to put whole sentences together. Nothing gets past her and she's an absolute delight. Most of the pictures in this link are from Corey's camera because ours stopped working while there. For more images, click here.

Our trip back was fine. It was great to get back to the cool temperatures and lower humidity of the highlands. We could really get used to this climate. The day we crossed the border, we went from 98 degrees in Laredo to about 71 past Monterrey. Melinda and Mark are flying in this evening to spend Labor Day weekend with us. We can't wait to see them.