(Domingo 28
Abril - Sábado 18 Mayo) April 27 we left
Fortín by way of taxi to Orizaba, where we took a bus to Mexico City
airport Here we walked across the street to the Hotel Aeropuerto
where we stayed the night. On Sunday we got up at 3am to be the
required three hours early for the flight from the AICM to Seattle,
WA, via Dallas. Flights were good except for very rough weather for
about ten minutes over Texas on the second leg. Dan's daughter,
Heather, picked us up at SeaTac and we stayed with her and the two
girls for three nights. Next, our friend David (and tenant at our
house on Fidalgo Island), picked us up there and drove us to
Anacortes. Here we stayed until Dan's daughter Harmony picked us up
and drove us to her home on Mercer Island to visit with her three
children and husband. She dropped us back at the airport in Seattle
on monday evening to catch the midnight plane to Pittsburgh, PA.
Dan's daughters toured us around the Seattle area environs a bit, and
we visited the grandchildren's schools. We really enjoyed our time
with them. In Anacortes we visited with friends who stopped by and
did some weeding and mowing in the yard to help David out.
Two of Carmen's
brothers, Gary and Guy, picked us up at the Pittsburgh airport – a
4.5 hour drive to our northern Penna destination in Potter County.
We first stayed with Gary and Alice in Coudersport. They toured us
around each day. We visited Letchworth Park in New York state (the
“Grand Canyon of the East”), Pennsylvania's own grand canyon
(Pine Creek Gorge near Wellsboro), and the bible camp at Mahaffey,
where they volunteer often. While touring the Allegheny countryside
which we loved, we saw lots of wildlife, including wild turkeys,
deer, opossums and more. By contrast, we have rarely seen wildlife
in Mexico. Saturday they drove us to St Marys where Carmen's sister,
Cindy and her family live. Here many of the relatives gathered for a
day of eating and chatting, which always makes for a great day! That
Sunday morning there were actually snow flurries! Alan & Cindy
and their two children took us to the Elk Country Visitor Center in
Benezette. We visited the newly constructed interactive &
educational facility, situated on top of a hill, where we could
listen to the elk sounds and then push a button which then put our
picture on the display while we recorded our attempt at calling an
elk. The elk were all in hiding this cold and windy day.
Cindy drove us on
Monday to Guy and Mary Lou's home. Carmen had told Guy that we would
help him plant his garden. Little did she know that it would be two
gardens of more than a quarter acre each. For only two people? Well
– he plants to give to relatives and all who stop by his free stand
out front of the house. After purchasing seed, while Guy, when
necessary, ran the tractor, we three planted two varieties of sweet
corn, green stringbeans, yellow waxbeans, peas, sunflowers, dill
weed, pickling cukes, beets, carrots, three types of squash, and both
red and white potatoes. We had perfect weather! Cool mornings and
sunny afternoons! We were grateful for the exercise. We did a short
walk up his back hillside of forest and a wild turkey ran, then flew
up in front of us. While sitting on Guy's porch, having a picnic
with Cindy and Alan, on the hillside across the road, two woodchucks
came out of their holes and cavorted about for us. The first
breakfast at Guy's, four deer walked past the dining room window.
Wish we were there when the wild strawberries were ripe! Guy drove
us back to the Pittsburgh airport May 19. We certainly enjoyed
visiting with everyone! Wish we lived closer, but we just do not get
everything we wish for. Now, we're hoping for some visitors from the
north, to show them around our part of the world.
Our return flight
home went well until we hit Dallas/Fort Worth where we had a 13 hour
delay. We went thru three different planes, three different gates
and three different flight crews for various reasons. Instead of our
planned night in Mexico City and a bus ride on home after a night's
rest, we took a straight 37 hours getting home from the time we left
Guy's house. Actually that is not exactly accurate, since American
airlines did put us in a hotel for three hours during the night. We
got home just as our work crew was leaving, so Dan drove them to
their bus.
So many stories
could be told about our trip to the US, but this blog is actually
more for the story of getting our lives and house in shape here in
Mexico. So...
While we were gone,
our crew often spent nights in our house, for which we were
thankful. Having them around was more secure than having the house
empty every night for three weeks. The guys used their own linens
and food, and used our stove and frig a bit. It surely kept our
kitties happier, having them around. Frank & Ania supplied the
cats with food & water, and kept the litter boxes clean, while
Artemio watered the plants every day.
The tiles over the
big double gate to our back yard (car parking area) were removed and
the roof there rebuilt. All the broken tiles on the lower roofs were
replaced, and all the clay tiled roofs were pressure-washed and
sealed. Tiles, old and new, that we are keeping for future repair
jobs were moved into the rooftop water tank area for storage, out of
sight. All the old remaining tiles were moved to Coscomatepec, a
gift to the workers to use/sell as they see fit, and the outside
barbecue area where the tiles had been sitting was cleaned up.
The new walkways in the front garden are just about finished. All in all, everything appears to have been well cared for in our absence (none of the plants died during the hot weather we missed here), and it seems we are in the home-stretch on the renovations here. We must say – it felt so good to be back home again here in Fortín. We both wondered how we would feel about our move here, after visiting our former abodes. All is good.
