Finally here for good!!

Well we made it. Not without mishap however!! My mother and i drove from Salt Lake to Phoenix without any problems. I stayed there for 2 days with my mother's best friend Suzi. It was great to finally relax after a week of packing and cleaning. However, it was not good to have 2 days to continue to stress about getting across the border!! I was so nervous, I had heard horror stories. NOT my favorite. I finally talked with Ben on Saturday night and we planned to meet at the border at 7:00am. I got to the border and got flagged over to the side. I put on a smile and got my shaking knees under control and got out of the car. The man smiled, asked me what I was doing and sent me on my way. I was shocked. As I crossed into Nogales, I looked for Ben, I actually spent 2 hours looking for Ben. He went to the wrong border crossing. By the 2 hour mark, I had lost it and started to cry. Right in front of where I parked there was a money exchange store and the guy that ran it was so nice to me and helped me look for Ben. I was very thankful considering that border towns tend to be very scary!!! We got on our way at about 9:30 and drove until our fanbelt went out at about 7:30pm. Thank heavens that we found a garage and pulled in right as the car died. The mechanic told us that everything was closed because it was Sunday and we would have to wait until tomorrow. The owner ran right over and told us that he would take Ben to the AutoZone and get the part. Of course it took 5 trips to AutoZone to get the right fitting belt and I stayed at the mechanic's shop waiting patiently each time. The owner came over and spoke with me in between each trip. Ben told me later that he had spent the entire time talking about me and how beautiful I was, how nice me legs were and that he wanted us to stay in his City. He would have me work in his shop at the computer and teach English in town. It was hilarious. Ben and I call him the horny grandpa. It was funny! We slept in the car at a gas station with about 5 other cars doing the same thing. We made it to the Ranch that night and promptly went to bed. We spent the next few days sitting around and I went CRAZY!! Sitting around is not something I enjoy for too long!! By Sunday I was so ready to leave. I spent the day at the hospital with my sister-in-law, my mother- in -law and a couple of other ladies in the Ranch. Negra (my sister-in-law) couldn't go to the bathroom and decided that the hospital was the place for her. Boy was that an interesting adventure!!! We sat outside in the waiting room, which was literally outside for 4 hours. In the meantime, a minivan pulled up and a couple of men carried in an old man that looked dead. They put him on a stretcher in the hospital then rolled him out in front of us into another part of the hospital with a white sheet over his entire body, including his head. Isn't that what you do with the dead? It was very interesting. They promptly announced his death to the family and they of course showed grief and then left. Just after that, a hurse pulled into the waiting area asked where the body was and then left. About a half hour later, he came with a coffin in the back. They took it into the room where the old man was, put him in it and then carried it back through the waiting room and into the back of the hurse. It was all rather strange!! After Negra felt better, we went home. I began packing up the car. For those of you who know how much I love animals, this next part will have you feeling for me. Ben's family has 3 dogs. One female and two males. The two males are sweethearts and are craving attention. I give it to them because nobody else there does. It drives me crazy!! So anyway, the older one and I have become great friends over the course of the past couple of months. While I was packing up the car, all of a sudden Perro went crazy, ran under my car, rolled around, made horrible noises and then ran into the bathroom, jumped into the tub and promptly died. It was AWFUL!!!! I bawled and bawled. My mother-in-law couldn't understand why I was so upset. She could've cared less. As well as everybody else in the Ranch. I was physically ill!!! I then became the laughing stock of the Ranch. Everybody knew I had cried over the death of the dog. It was horrible!! I was very ready to leave there, needless to say!!! So early Monday morning, we left and got to Manzanillo around 3:00pm. I'm really glad to be here. However, as we got up this morning, we found out that it is a Holiday and NOTHING is open. How annoying!! So, Ben and I went to a few Hotels, got numbers and names of all the Human Resource people and then bought some groceries. It is only about 85 degrees here, but the humidity KILLS me! It feels like it's 100 degrees!!! GROSS!! Hopefully tomorrow will be a little more productive!!!