Yesterday was the final leg of a marathon as far a our family and Mexican "normal" is concerned.
We got sick a week and a half ago.
Zander is always cute, but when he's sick there's just something endearing about his 'I'm cute and sick'.
Thys was so sick/tired he fell asleep while holding and apple slice. He couldn't even watch videos or play ipad. Poor guy. Alia was the first to get sick and the first to get better, she's actually over the fever in this picture, but she is the last one to pass up a good snuggle under the blanket, watch a video kind of day
Josiah, the kid who is always hungry, not even wanting to eat his apple slices... Thank goodness for netflix and a strong Internet connection!
We're not all 100% healthy yet, in fact Becky has a terrible chest cough that is keeping her up at night and making her really uncomfortable during the day.
But earlier this week when we knew we were all sick and not going to do anything but sit around and watch Netflix etc. I suggested that we move Gracie to a Mechanic and have him work on the breaks.
We had a list of 10 things that needed to happen before we left on Saturday (today) to make it to a house we rented in Yucatan for Christmas.
So Tuesday we set out for two days at that mechanic and we checked off two things, breaks and welding a part of Gracie's frame that was cracked (part of the slideout mechanism)
Gracie at the Mechanic. The road was being paved so we had to reverse down a two track to get her here.
It's pretty ugly when you have to have all 8 wheels removed... Gracie's not happy I took this photo nor, that I'm posting it... she's kinda embarrassed about it!
Then we had to go back to the Windshield shop the next day to get the windshields RE-installed as they had shifted/moved since they were installed only a few days prior!!
While there, I tried to find an A/C guy to repair/recharge our A/Cs because neither were working and those are extremely important when headed to the hot/humid playa! Found a guy and got him to start working on those.
At 8pm Thursday night we pulled back into our camping spot knowing that something was seriously wrong with Gracie, she was overheating in a ten minute drive. The A/C guy had to get a new compressor an hour away and the windshield guys needed us back in the afternoon so they could finish cleaning the windshields (they needed to wait for the glue to dry).
So Friday morning we set out to find a mechanic who could fix the Radiator issue and an EGR issue the computer was reporting. (Seriously having your own computer code reader is a lifeline when in Mexico... I just point to the spanish version of the error code book and viola they knew exactly what to do)
Turns out there was a mechanic available but he was not on a mainstreet at all, infact we had to go two tracking to get to his shop/house. Cesar was awesome and well worth the trip. The thermostat was the problem (but we had to wait a couple hours to let things cool down so he could remove it!)
Gracie's Rear End, the Taxi is actually in the mechanic shop... we're just outside ... it was as close as we could get!
They had to push the pickup in front of us out of the way so we could get in here!
Perspective is challenging, but this is the hill we had to drive up to get to the mechanic's shop. Note the giant ruts... Gracie was NOT meant for these roads.
Just one of the many tight squeezes we had to get through... low wires, tight corners, and passing a pepsi truck on these roads. Viva Mexico!
The A/C guy, Ramon, came with the new compressor and got that in place... only to find out it was a capacitor issue as well... turns out a gecko and some wasps had made their home on top of the capacitor and must have had a lovely ride when they shorted out the capacitors.
The Capacitors, the remnants of the wasp house and the gecko body
Electrified Gecko.
So Ramon took off to get another capacitor and we left the mechanic's to get to the windshield shop to get cleaned up.
This was when they originally installed the new windshields.
You may only see a slight line in the middle of the black area where daylight is getting through. Becky and I see $400 and a Texas trip to replace this glass if it falls out.
While there we realized we could actually leave the next day (we didn't know if everything was going to work out for us to take off. But with the engine fixed and the A/C almost done we figured it would happen. )
So we did our final three errands in town, Grabbed our passports from our attorney, returned our mailbox key for our PO Box and stopped at our favorite fruit stand vendor to give her flowers and say goodbye.
Traffic was bad on a Friday night so we didn't get back to Gracie until after dark and drove her back to the campground with clean, better installed windshields!
Ramon, the A/C guy is coming to the campground this morning to finish, hopefully we can get that all squared away and we'll be off on the road by noon.
If all goes well we'll be in Merida by Thursday.
Here's hoping Becky's health improves with the heat and that the chest congestion, cough and stuffed up sinuses clear soon!
It feels really, really good to have Gracie running smoothly again, to have lots of the little things fixed, and to be headed out on the road again today! We're all excited for this, and really excited to see the beach again as well as to celebrate Christmas in a house... Becky and the kids have been planning those ten days in that house for over 6 months.
To say we're eager in anticipation is the largest understatement of the year :D
A Christmas tree near the mall here in San Miguel de Allende
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