February 1, 2008
I've been having problems with my internet connection and one of the error messages indicates that Hughes, the owner of the satellite that my Datastorm system uses has been having transmitting problems, possibly due to bad weather conditions. As there have been some pretty major storms across the country lately, I'm hoping that's what it is and not problems with my system.
One of the frustrating things that has happened again as you know, the pictures on the blog are not showing again. So tomorrow I have to contact Earthlink to see if its something they can fix on their end.
I was dog-sitter again today as Ken and Mary-Beth took Ken's sister-in-law back to the airport. But even so in the afternoon, I still was able to get to the last in the series of Electricity for RV's given by Tom, a camper here at the park.

February 2, 2008
Diane and I woke up this morning feeling yucky. Kind of when you don't know whether to sit on the toilet or stick your head in it. We ate at home yesterday and tried to come up with the culprit that made us sick and could only think of some old cheese that had a little mold on it.
But after suffering all morning, we're starting to feel a little better this evening. Ken and Mary-Beth were real supportive, telling us if we needed anything to just let them know and they also made up a crock-pot of chicken and vegetable soup for us for supper.
I was able to contact Earthlink about the disappearing pictures and a tech rep was able to bring them back. However she deleted and republished the website address differently. So now anyone with the old www.rvroadadventures/mexicotrip20072008 in their favorites WILL NOT be able to access the Blog.
Everyone just needs to go to www.rvroadadventures.com
I'm curious to see the visitor statistics tomorrow morning. There's been over 200 daily visitors to the Blog and I hope I don't lose people because of the new web address.
My internet connection still comes and goes but from reading comments on datastormusers.com there's a number of people having the same problem. So maybe it is the weather.
Needless to say, there wasn't much activity here today with the two of us either flat on our back or in the bathroom. Hopefully we'll be feeling better tomorrow.
P.S. Remember to update you favorites if you have the old address for the Blog.

February 3, 2008
Well, the change in the web address for the Blog affected about half of the normal 200 daily readership. I posted the new address on several rv forums and can only hope that people will get the message about the new address.

For those who missed it, here's the new address:

www.rvroadadventures.com

I thought I was all over whatever bug had gotten to me yesterday and after breakfast I decided to climb up on the roof and clean my four solar panels. They were filthy as they hadn't been cleaned since arriving at the park and a layer of dirt on the panels isn't exactly conducive to peak performance.
The job went ok but after I climbed off the roof I realized that my body (especially my stomach) was still not back to normal. So the rest of the day has been spent sitting around trying to recuperate. One thing however, the culprit may not have been the moldy cheese. I've learned that several people in the park have come down with a stomach flu. So maybe that's what Diane and I caught. Hopefully things will be better tomorrow.

February 4, 2008
No news today... Still suffering from stomach flu.

February 6, 2008
I've finally been able to get out of bed for more than a few hours. This stomach flu I came down with has to be the worst I've ever had. But it's starting to get a little better. However we postponed our little trip to Patzcuaro. Instead of leaving Friday we'll leave Monday just to make sure I'm over it.
Today is the day Ken had his wine tasting fund raiser. If you've been following the blog, in December I described a little four year old boy from the village of La Placita who was diagnosed with Leukemia. Those of us at the park are trying to raise a little money to help the family with medical expenses.

Sandy talking to Wine Tasters about Leukemia child

Ken talking about wine

February 7, 2008
Last night's Wine Tasting Fund Raiser was a big success. It raised $450.00 to help with medical expenses for the little boy who has leukemia and plans were already being talked about for next year's event and how to make it bigger and better.
Diane and I took a drive to Aquila later in the morning to visit our favorite ATM as we'll need a bunch of pesos when we leave on our trip on Monday. It occured to me that although mentioning Aquila and the ATM several times on the blog, I never posted any pictures of the town. So there's a few below plus another favorite roadside donkey picture.
The pups let me know that since I was feeling much better today, it was past time to spend some time with them at the beach which we did in the afternoon. As always, the pups had a great time and actually had a siesta when we returned.

Municipal Building in Aquila

HSBC ATM in Aquila

Church in Aquila

Roadside Donkey outside of Aquila

February 8, 2008
When I tried to check the fluid level in the motorhome batteries today I discovered that the latch holding the battery tray had broken again. I've found that this is the only part of the motorhome I would describe as poor quality on our Newmar product.
The battery tray holds six batteries (total weight close to 300 pounds) and is on rollers so that it can be pulled out for service. However the tray is only held closed by a small latch. With the tray being able to move back and forth about a quarter of an inch when closed and latched, the force of those 300 pounds continually bang against the tongue of the latch when driving down the road. This results in the tongue of the latch becoming disengaged from the rest of the latch. Over the three years since buying the motorhome new in 2004, we've had the latch changed three times.
So today I drilled a hole through the battery tray and through the frame on which the tray is mounted so that I can simply bolt the tray closed. This way I won't have to worry about whether or not the fiberglass door on my battery compartment could hold in 300 pounds of sliding batteries if the latch failed.
I've been talking with Sandy about getting the motorhome washed and we'll find out tomorrow whether it will be done before or after we return from our trip to Patzcuaro.

February 9, 2008
I talked to Sandy this morning about getting the motorhome washed however he told me that the pump from the well had quit and the only water for the next few days would be from a tanker bringing it into the park's large cistern. So I guess the motorhome wash will happen when we get back from our trip to Patzcuaro.
After lunch I took the car down to the "auto bano" in town as it was really dirty inside and out. As I've mentioned before they do a great wash job for 50 pesos. The one funny thing that happened today had to do with my floor mats. A month or so ago when I was getting the car cleaned, one of the rear floor mats disappeared. I didn't say anything or think much of it as I planned to buy a new set of mats when I returned to Texas. Today after the car was finished being cleaned and I was driving out, I happened to look in the back and there was my missing floor mat. ... strange things happen in Mexico.
Cynthia had one of her delicious chicken dinners tonight and before the food was served, one of the guests played a nice tune on his flute for everyone.

Flute Player

Friends enjoying one of Cynthia's Dinners

February 10, 2008
Today was "get everything ready for our road trip to Patzcuarao" day. We had Sandy and Cynthia over to go through the instructions for the pups and things about the motorhome. John and Judy our next door neighbors said they'd also keep an eye on things so we won't have to worry.
After checking all the fluids etc in the Jeep, I drove to town and the Pemex to fill up with gas so the car is ready to go. Diane told me to pack lots of bungy cords and tie-downs incase she found lots of things to buy and had strap them on the roof rack.
We decided to take two cars. Everyone in one car would have been nice, but with luggage bags, personal pillows and various other things, there wouldn't be much room for things that were bought.
I'm not taking the computer, so there won't be any posting on the Blog for about a week. But stay tuned because I will be taking the camera and hope to have lots of great pictures of our adventure.