9-19-09 (1st 5 pics of the fair, next 3 of the kids' in uniform/their school, last 2 of Mike's Spanish language school)

9-19-09: Hello everyone! We are very tardy with our blog. We’ve been busy setting up our new homestead in Zacatecas, Zacatecas Mexico. We arrived late on the 3rd after a marathon drive south from Roswell, New Mexico. The neat thing about driving from midnight to dawn toward the border was Mike and I getting to see a ring-tailed cat, a javelina, and some roadrunners (of course the kiddos were asleep). We crossed at Presidio, Texas which is a dusty small town in southern Texas. We missed our registration point located at the border crossing where you have to get your Mexican tourist visas and register your car (when we had previously crossed in El Paso, this registration spot was 20-30 km after the border crossing thus we expected the same at this crossing-OOPS!). This caused us a one hour delay as we didn’t realize our error until reaching the first military checkpoint about thirty minutes into the country.

The kids and Mike started school the next Monday on Sept. 7. The kids’ school is unbelievably in the same house where Patty’s grandparents lived; she has memories of visiting her grandparents there when she was about 10 years old. The name of their school is Instituto Pedagogico Anthropos de Zacatecas. It is based on the Montessori teaching philosphy. Gaby and Luke wear uniforms that look like Harry Potter uniforms at Hogwarts. Luke is having the most trouble adjusting to an all-Spanish school. Mike’s school is called Fenix Language Institute and is two blocks away from Gaby and Luke's school. After two weeks, Mike is also wondering if he’s making any progress with his Spanish either.

There have already been several fiestas, Sept. 16 was Mexican Independence Day, and at least three cumpleanos (birthdays). When you have a family numbering in the three digits there is always a birthday or another fiesta. There was also a state fair (Feria) running for several weeks so the kids enjoyed a jumping-bungee cord apparatus, a climbing wall, and various rides.

We are thinking that we will stay here until the end of the school semester (about the third week of December) and maybe through the holidays. Then we’ll be off on the road again (God willing) to Chile and Patagonia!!

9-3-09: Zacatecas, Zacatecas Mexico (pics of our house and of surrounding neighborhood + park within walking distance)

9-3-09: Hi all! We made it safely to Zacatecas, Zacatecas Mexico (no problems during our drive down) and have transitioned getting Mike and the kids into their respective schools. We will be getting internet hook-up at our place around 9-17 so we will be updating our blog shortly thereafter.

We are staying at my parents' (Patty's) house in Guadalupe which is a growing town adjoining the city of Zacatecas. The 1st picture is of the house with our minivan parked in front. As you can see from the neighborhood shots, the town is built in the hills thus the roads can have steep grades to climb both by foot or vehicle. The park picture shows the park that is within walking distance from our house; it covers an amazing amount of miles!

We've already attended 2 huge bday parties for an uncle and a cousin (held in a hall due to the size of the family; estimate 120 people!). We've also been invited to a couple of dinners at my cousin Raul's house and tonight we will be going to my cousin Sara's house for a gran fiesta to celebrate Mexico's Independence Day (the official holiday begins tonight and runs through tomorrow). So as you can see we have been busy socializing too!

8-24-09 through 9-1-09: A week to regroup in CO then 9-1 through 9-2 in Roswell, NM

8-24-09 through 9-1-09: We happily arrived back to our home in Monte Vista, CO and spent a week unpacking and storing our camping gear, getting errands done (Mike checked on our business; our new, 18 apt complex is full and doing well with our manager's help), and repacking again. The family renting our house was gracious enough to make room for us there during this regrouping period.

9-1-09 through 9-2-09: We headed out 9-1-09 and stopped in Roswell, NM for 2 days where Mike had arranged to work 2 shifts at Eastern New Mexico Medical Center before continuing our journey to Mexico. On 9-2-09 while Mike worked his 2nd shift in Roswell, the kids and I made a visit to the International UFO Museum and Research Center. We learned about the Roswell Incident in 1947 in which a rancher stated he found fragments of a UFO that the military allegedly covered up. The museum/research center is dedicated to the collection and preservation of materials and info relevant to the Roswell Incident and other unexplained phenomena related to UFO research. The museum houses a Research Library which is the largest and most comprehensive collection of UFO related info in the world. I bought the kids 2 souvenir alien T-shirts that were super-cool.

8-21-09 through 8-23-09: Calgary, AB; Great Falls, MT; Buffalo, WY; Fort Collins, CO (pics of Luke on moving climbing wall & pillow fight in tent)

8-21-09: We traveled from Banff to Calgary, AB and stopped at the TELUS World of Science (a kids' science center). Gaby and Luke liked the moving climbing wall and LEGO racecar-building areas.

We crossed back into the U.S. at Sweetgrass, Montana. We spent nights at Great Falls, MT, Buffalo, WY, Fort Collins, CO before arriving back home. We had enough camping during our travels (we estimate 30 out of 50 days traveling) that we 'moteled' it the rest of the way home.

Since we made our way quickly back, I am posting some pictures of the kids having a pillow fight in our tent at one of our campsites to make this post more interesting.

8-20-09 Jasper to Banff (pics of Athabasca Falls, Columbia Icefield, a mountain on the road to Banff, and a Banff hotel)

8-20-09: The day started out fairly normal and we left camp in Jasper. Our van had just turned out onto the main road and we were crossing over the Miette River when the welding of the hitch holding our bike rack/bikes broke off and it all landed in the middle of the road! (fyi: in Oregon we had an extra piece welded to our hitch to give our rack more ground clearance). We saw this as it happened and stopped immediately. Luckily no one was right behind us and we were able to recover the rack/bikes (the bikes were still attached to the rack) and move it to the side of the road. Mike and Patty's bikes withstood most of the damage (2 big dents on our frames and a bent rear wheel on Patty's bike). Mike put the hitch back together and we were glad to leave that episode behind and continue down the Icefields Parkway toward Banff.

We stopped to see Athabasca Falls then continued to Columbia Icefield. Mike showed us the route he took to climb Mt. Athabasca (one of several mountains surrounding the Icefield; he climbed it the year after climbing Denali). The Columbia Icefield is the melting point of 3 continent-wide watersheds. On the western side (B.C.), the meltwaters flow into the Columbia River and on to the Pacific Ocean. On the eastern side (Alberta), meltwaters flow into both the N. Saskatchewan River (which empties into Hudson Bay) and then into the Atlantic Ocean and also into the Athabasca-McKenzie sytem, which empties into the Artic Ocean.

We went into the town of Banff for dinner and camped at Two Jacks Campground just outside of town. We saw that Banff Park was constructing several over- and underpasses just for wildlife on the Trans-Canada Hwy (to decrease roadkills since the hwy has heavy traffic in the summer). We also admired the impressive hotel (pictured) that we saw in Banff.