Day 1

SATURDAY

3:49 - beep beep beep. Alarm turned off, I roll out of bed. Today is the day I go to Mexico. I still can't believe it. I've waited the entire year for this to happen again. This time I have memories. Revisit. Relearn. Revitalize. It has all happened before. Or has it?

6:30 - No. Now my brain is awake and I realize it won't be the same. I'm on the plane with friends. Loud friends. That didn't happen last year. The waitress hands me a cup and I give it to the guy in the window seat which is the polite thing to do. Unless the cup spills over.....thankfully it's just water.

Time? - We land in San Diego and wait. Some people are on Alaska, we are on Southwest. We don't get together very quickly. Then the thirty-seven of us flood out to the 3 vans where we head to Costco. The walkie-talkie blares in van 3. Wanted: Avonlea. Wanted: Avonlea. Why? Apparently, I've been recruited to help load up food in Costco! I hook up with one of the moms and look up and down aisles for snacks and candy. We buy a whole cart bursting of nuts, bars, and dried mangos. Carrots are wanted to keep the drivers awake so I find them and put them into cups. The entire way down to our destination I hear the crunches. . .

Halfway to the ranch, we stop for some ponchos and blankets. We pray for the lady we're buying from. Then she gives us a discount!

I'm not pictured in case you're looking for me. This was the lady we prayed for and bought ponchos and blankets from.

5:00 - We reach the ranch well before dark. Dinner is prepared while we scramble into the dorms. Sticky notes are handed out and the showers and bathrooms are named after cities (there are no locks). Moscow and New York are the showers and London and Paris are the toilets. One of the girls knocks on the bathroom stall. "Anyone in Paris?" Mary replies, "Wee, wee."

7:00 - We play tag in the dark under the stars.

10:30 - In bed, goodnight.

Note: This series of my trip in Mexico is in a form of a diary every day. I will write day 2, Sunday, soon.