April 17-30,2013 home and back

The whole trip home became very complicated.  Alan’s visa expires May 10 and he needs to leave Mexico for at least 24 hours.  Originally we thought we would be in the South Pacific by then.  Even after our plan changed, we thought we would be south of Mexico.  However, by the time we left Mazatlan it was becoming obvious that we were not going to make it and he was going to have to take a bus or plane to some other country.  At first we looked for buses to the US, or possibly the ferry to La Paz and a bus from there.  Then we considered a plane to Tijuana and a bus across the border.  Every option we looked at was complicated and expensive and gets more expensive as we get further south.  He does not want to spend the money and does not want to be away from the boat more than a day or two.  And he does not want to stay in Mazatlan any longer.  It is time to move on.  Finally in frustration I got on the Alaska Airlines website and got him a cheap ticket round trip from Puerto Vallarta to LA at the end of April.  This allows plenty of time to get to PV and find a marina to leave me and the boat.  (My visa is good until July.)   He can pick up all of the stuff we have ordered, see the kids and grandkids, deal with paperwork and be back in a week.  Done.

Except not.  No sooner were the tickets purchased than he found a dozen reasons to change it.  He wanted to go sooner, later, not at all.  We could still sail non-stop and be out of Mexico by mid May.  I could go home and pick up al the stuff and he would stay with the boat.  On top of all this, he began to have pains in his hip whenever he walked more than a mile.  He knew he should see a doctor while he was home but thanks to all of the medical conventions he has done, he managed to convince himself that he would need a total hip replacement.  One more reason not to go home, so he would not have to face this. 

Meanwhile, it was starting to look like I should go home too.  Not because of the visa but because I needed a follow-up MRI from the radiation treatments back in December.  PV has good airline connections to LA and we don’t really know what the situation will be as we get farther south.  Of course I could not get on the same flight that he was going to be on and anyway, it would be better if we were not both gone at once.  So the upshot was, he put me on a plane first.  Then moved the boat into the luxurious Paradise Village Marina.  We were home together for a few days and then I flew back, found my way to the marina and had several days on Rhapsody by myself before he got back.

I got my MRI and everything is fine.  He saw the doctor and was told he had tendonitis in his hip and not to worry about it.  We hung out with the grand-boys and saw old friends.  We packed 3 large bags of stuff to come back and finally finished clearing out all of our stuff from the house.  Everything that Chris and Molly don’t want to use is packed away in the attic.  We took care of income tax, banking, social security and other tedious paperwork.  I said hello and good-bye to the garden and the cats.  This time it really seems like good-bye.  Our new home is on Rhapsody, wherever the wind takes up.  I have no idea when we will be back.