Getting started to move
At the time (October 2004) I was carrying a Palm based organizer which had early e-book capabilities. In the bookstore was a book that sounded like a good place to start looking for help called Escape Your Shape: How to Work Out Smarter, Not Harder. It promoted exercising based on your body shape or type. It also told you what to avoid so that you didn’t build muscles where you didn’t want them. Thinking back now I don’t know if it really matters whether I avoided some exercises and focused on others, but it was helpful that the book gave me a specific exercise routine. It included a lot of basic calisthenics, jump rope and walking.

I was as faithful as I could be to the routines the book gave and was pleased to see that the extra motion helped me see dramatic results in just a few weeks.

In my mind there were no real solid weight goals other than I wanted to get down to at least the weight I was when I got married (almost 50 lbs. from where I started). I also had no time goal. I refused to put myself in a box by saying that I needed to lose a certain amount of weight by a certain time. This was going to be a lifestyle change, therefore I was looking for something that I could add to my daily routine that I would be doing for the rest of my life, not just to reach a number on a scale. It was during this time that I also came upon the idea of focusing on just 2 or 3 lbs. of loss at a time as I mentioned in my first post.

I continued with the jump rope/calisthenics routine for about 5 months. I don’t have the exact numbers with me, but I had lost maybe 25 to 30 lbs. during that 5 month period. I was getting pretty excited to see how much more flexible and stronger I had become.

Exercise class
One day at the park I learned that there were exercise classes that were available to the public. They cost $1 per class and there was no long term commitment. The class was a Tae-Bo class, which I was familiar with. Nervously I signed up. I remember the woman telling me that I needed to bring a bottle of water and clothes that I could jump in. It seemed like a funny way to say exercise clothes.

The first day of class I felt more than a little out of place. I stayed in the back of the class and just tried to keep up. I kind of stood out–tall white dude in a class of short dark dudettes–it would have been hard not to. The teacher learned my name the first class and yelled encouraging things to me telling me I didn’t have to do all the exercises and that I could just march in place if my plump body couldn’t keep up.

From that first class, I was hooked. The teacher knew how to push all the right buttons to encourage me. I also learned from that class something that has always been true in my life–positive peer pressure is something I need. While I have never been one to be a lemming and blindly follow the crowd, I do need help doing what’s good for me when I can’t see the benefit. That class and teacher helped build some structure in my exercise routine. While everyone else in the class was on cruise control most of the time, I was in there slinging sweat on anyone who dared to get within 10′ of me.

Two days of the week we would go through different routines and basically jump around swinging arms and legs for an hour. But Friday was always my favorite day. That was the day we put on gloves and got to hit each other. Since I was the only man, the teacher was the only one strong enough to receive my punches. I punched and kicked her as hard as I could trying to knock off her gloves or knock her over. I had a blast!

On days that I did not have Tae-Bo class I would do various strength training exercises. I still did my calisthenics and walking too. When we moved and I had to leave my teacher at one park, I found another park near the new house where her boss taught classes. I took classes with him for a year until we moved back to the side of town that made it possible to return to her.

I don’t know that a structured class is the best choice for everyone. In fact, the reason I never mentioned going to a class before is that I never wanted people to think that I was going there just to see the pretty ladies exercising. Believe me, most of the ladies in the class were grandmas and there was little visual temptation. I am telling you this because it is what worked for me. If a class doesn’t work for you, then that is fine. It provided the structure and positive peer pressure I needed to stay motivated.

Running
The end of December of 2005 I decided to try something that I had not done in a very long time. I decided to run instead of my normal walk. I didn’t know how far one was supposed to run his first time out, but I figured 30 minutes was a good amount of time. I took off for a run around the park and back home. I ran for 30 minutes and covered around 2.5 miles. Surprisingly, I didn’t die.

By that time I had been doing hour long, intense exercise sessions for almost a year. I had lost more than 60 lbs. My body was itching for something more intense. I found out later that it is not recommended that you start by running 30 minutes your first time out. The best beginning running program I know is called Couch to 5K (C25K).

I probably only ran 2 or 3 times by the time my brother told me he was going to run a half marathon in May of that next year. I got the bright idea that I would train with him for the race. I started marking out courses in the neighborhood and trying to see if I could cover the same ground in less time every day. By the time May of 2006 arrived I had already figured out where I would run my 13.1 miles. I even went as far as to ride my bike through the streets and paint numbers on the road so that I would know when I passed each mile mark.

I was also already running local 5K and 10K races. Well, the better term is that I was participating. I never competed with anyone but myself just trying to see if I could do better than the week before. I ran that first half marathon and thought I was going to die. It took me 2 hours and 29 minutes to drag myself around the course. I had never done anything so hard in my life. I had no interest in running for a couple of weeks after that. But when I did get started, I immediately planned for my next half marathon.

Is running enough?
I do not recommend that you jump right into running. Work your way up to it if you even want to start. Find your own journey and progression. I think running is a great way to stay in shape and maintain a good level of fitness. But, I don’t think it is all you should do. You need an overall fitness program. That is where I am struggling now. I am thankful that the running has been with me the last 2 years since I have had to alter my routine, but it is not enough by itself to help you lose weight and have overall strength and fitness.

You don’t have to join a gym or go to any fancy classes, but you do need to find something that will work your whole body. If you are only interested in losing weight then you can diet and accomplish your goals. But if you are interested in being strong and healthy, you need to put an emphasis on exercise and see the food that you stick down your throat as the fuel that helps you accomplish your exercise goals.

Structure and attitude
In the next post I plan on talking about putting in place some structure and looking at attitudes that can help, or sabotage, your progress.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

When I started
The only thing I gave up initially was full sugar colas. As a Dr Pepper drinker I had limited access to my favorite drink when we first arrived in Mexico. It was available in Mexico City back then, but not in Merida where we lived. That has since changed, but it was a big help to me at the time.

What I discovered by trying different drinks is that I really didn’t care what I was drinking. If it wasn’t Dr Pepper, then my only requirement to make me happy was that it had bubbles. I tried Diet Coke and found I liked it as well as anything else. I couldn’t go with just the soda water, though that is very popular in Mexico. I never took a liking to that stuff.

My first big change was to switch to drinking diet colas. I know colas of any kind aren’t the best for the body, but I learned something in my quest to get healthier–if I gave up too much at once I was setting myself up for failure. I have seen too many people try to go whole-hog on their diet changes and are not able to keep at it.

The next thing I changed was trying to think about food as fuel. With that change of mindset I did not go on any kind of starvation program. I just cut back a little bit at first. Instead of eating until I was stuffed, I tried to eat a bit less. That was a big change for me. I had for years eaten way more than I should. It always seemed to me the goal at a meal was to tank up and make sure you would be alive until the next meal. When I started thinking about food as fuel it helped me realized that I was carrying more fuel than I needed to accomplish the physical tasks I needed to before I ate again.

As time went on the amount of food needed to sustain life and feel good about it became less and less. However, at this stage I never felt like I was starving myself nor that I was “on a diet.” I just realized that I did not need to take in as much food as I had in the past. I was very active attending an exercise class 3 days a week and running 3 to 5 days a week on top of that. I needed fuel, but I only wanted to carry enough so that I would not hinder my play time. And, yes, I did see my running and exercise as play. It was no longer work by the time I had started to see the results of a stronger healthier body.

Second round of pruning
I continued with the changes of drinking diet colas and thinking of food as fuel for almost 2 years. I lost the vast majority of weight that I ended up losing with just those 2 diet changes. It was not until I had lost over 70 lbs. that I started actually paying attention to the specific foods I ate.

I had stagnated in my weight loss. I knew that I was still carrying more fat than I needed to. I was not looking for a “perfect body.” But I did want to have a healthy one. To trim the next 20 lbs. I finally had to start dieting. Exercise alone wasn’t going to cut it.

French fries with lots of ketchup. Yum! We usually only went out to eat once or twice a week, but it was almost always to a hamburger joint. I switched to chicken sandwiches and no fries. I still ate fries off the kids and my wife, but I would not have any of my own. As I thought about food as fuel, greasy fries did not sound like what my body needed to make it around the track faster. A handful of energy packed granola (which I honestly enjoy more than fries) seems like a better choice. If I prefer the granola anyway, why make it harder to do what I want by eating things that are bad for me? Eventually the fries were gone.

What I am doing now
I would like to say that I have been faithful to the mindset that food is fuel and that I have kept the junk out of my diet, but I haven’t. I still don’t think I eat too poorly, certainly not as bad as I had before. But while on furlough, and currently in Argentina, I have cut my exercising back to just running. While running will keep you in good cardiovascular shape, it isn’t that great for overall fitness and weight loss.

Next post I will talk more about my progression of exercise routines.

Don’t forget to start at the beginning with the first post in the series.

I have often been asked what I did to lose weight and get in shape. Much to the disappointment of many who ask, I have to tell them what they don’t want to hear. It takes work!

Because I have struggled in the last 2 years to keep my weight in check and to stay physically active, I thought it would be good encouragement to myself to go through my initial motivations to lose weight and what I did then to get me to where I needed to be. (And where I need to get back to).

Motivation
When we first arrived in Mexico in August of 2004 I realized that I was very unhealthy. My weight had gotten over 270 lbs. that year (photo). I was spiritually convicted by the fact that, as a missionary, I was doing an important job that would be a poor reflection of my Lord with the body I currently had. While I know there are Bible verses I could have used to say why someone should take care of their body physically, for me it was a matter of knowing that I would die an early death and not be able to serve God long term with the way I was living.

Besides the physical aspect of my condition, there was also a spiritual problem I was facing. There was a need in my life to become more spiritually focused. You are probably thinking to yourself that I could not be too far off the mark if I had spent all my adult life in ministry and had just moved to the foreign field as a missionary. But anyone who travels constantly (which I had done for 10 years up to that point) knows the struggle one faces when they have no daily routine. When do you read your Bible? When do you pray? It becomes so easy to say that you will do it later in the day. But sometimes many days, or even weeks, go by and you realize that you have been drifting spiritually. That is where I was.

I needed to get some focus back in my spiritual, as well as my physical, life.

Beginnings
Not having done much exercise in the recent years, I figured a good place to start was walking around the block and searching for help on the Internet. I read that you should combine aerobic exercise with some weight training for a healthy routine. I bought a barbell, a few pounds of weights and a jump-rope. I don’t remember where I got all my information, but I started with jumping rope and lifting light weights. I got started with a jump-rope, a few weights and a neighborhood I could walk in. It was October 2004 when I got serious about all of this.

Goals
When I got started I was down to 264. I had lost 10 lbs. during the move and was eating better since we were eating at home and no longer traveling constantly. I had a goal to get down to the weight I was when we got married 10 years before. I don’t know why I remember that I weighed 227 at our wedding, but that became my target. Secretly however, I would have loved to get down to 200. I hadn’t weighed that little since high school.

I had had goals before, but they were always a weight associated with a date. It had never worked. Maybe it works for some people, but for me I would see that I was not going to reach my goal in the time I wanted, so I would just give up. I needed a different plan.

Instead of focusing on the 37 lbs. that I needed to lose to reach the goal,  I focused on smaller numbers with absolutely no time restrictions. At first I thought that if I could lose 2 lbs. I would only need to lose 35 more. But that still seemed like a big number after I got rid of those 2 lbs. I then switched my focus again to an even smaller number. If I lost just 2 more pounds then I would be at 160. If I can lose 2 lbs. then I could easily lose 3 for my next step.

By that time I had totally ignored any long term goal and started focusing only on the mini-steps that would push me the right direction. My focus was losing 2 lbs. then 3 lbs. for a total of 5 pound chunks. Then I would go back to the 2 lbs. again. I alternated between 2 pound and 3 pound goals for several months.

When I finally did reach 227 I knew there was no way I was going to stop there.

Spiritually
Things were coming back into focus for me spiritually too. I was able to settle into a routine that allowed me to carve out time every day to read my Bible and pray. At that point it was not a matter of whether I could spend time with the Lord, it became a matter of whether I would spend time with Him. I had the time and the place set aside; I simply needed to be obedient.

Discipline in one area of my life reflected discipline in other areas. If I was motivated to exercise then I would use that encouragement to help me discipline myself spiritually. Most of the time they went hand in hand with no extra motivation needed. But sometimes I had to tell myself that it was not fair to my spirit if I was willing to exercise my body but not read my Bible. Then there were times I felt lazy and wanted to just read my Bible and ignore my body (that happened less often). I would encourage myself that they were both important.

Continued
I had hoped to get this all out in one post, but I can see that it would be so long as to discourage you from reading it. I don’t know how many parts it will take to tell the whole story, but doing it this way allows me to cover more ground and gives me a reason to sit at the keyboard and add some words to the space I am paying for every month anyway.

Part 2 is now available.
Part 3
Part 4

Mary:

• Focused on the most important–worshiping God (Christ). Luke 10:38-42
• Faithful in trials. John 11:21-40
• Forsook her greatest possession. Mark 14:3

Judas:

• Criticized intimate worship. Mark 14:4
• Complained about God’s work. Mark 14:4. 5
• Confided with wicked people. Mark 14:10, 11

What struck me is that while many look at missionaries and think that we are willing to give up many things to go live on a foreign field, most of us don’t see that as a hardship. However, we struggle with giving up some things. Maybe your struggle is the thought of giving up regular electricity, or moving away from family. We do give up those things, but personally my struggles are in giving up things of even lesser value.

I don’t think I fall into the category of a Judas, but I am not sure I am a Mary either. Sure, I am willing to give up some comforts to be a missionary, but am I willing to forsake what I see as materialistically important? I am not sure I am there yet.

There are also forums where you can discuss miscellaneous topics in your language of choice. Currently they boast 10 languages that you can learn on the site. Registration is free and there is quite a bit of study you can do without having to shell out bucks. But for paying customers you can get personalized tutoring based on your needs as represented in the reading and audio portions of the site.

You can also interact with real people. But what Internet junkie would want to do that? I will stick to the training sessions and forums where social interaction is limited.

This video was taken at about 10 minutes after the store was to have opened. There were already people leaving the store when we got in line. That makes me think that they opened early. There were no hard drives left. They had a space for the drives that could not have held more than 10 drives to start with. I ran across the street to Wal-Mart while my wife paid for a couple of items. At Wal-Mart I found the drives in a stack of about 80. They had plenty of them. They price-matched Target and I got a good deal.

People bash Wal-Mart all the time, but all in all I think they are doing many things right.

As soon as we got home we started preparing for the coming week. I had a seminary class I was taking and really was not well prepared for it. By Tuesday afternoon I started feeling like my head was back in the game. Fortunately my teacher is one of these wise, practical scholars. He did not expect us to memorize everything he taught. He is more interested in us getting the information on paper so that we can access the material in the future. For my tests this week we had to write a couple of long papers (took me close to 6 hours Thursday night). These papers were “open Bible” essays. As long as we knew how to dig in the Bible and intelligently explain what we had learned, he was satisfied. I don’t know my grade yet, but I feel like I did well and learned much.

The most exciting thing that happened today was that I faked the need for a nap and made my wife drive through Houston.

We made it from the bottom tip of Texas up to Orange, Texas which is just a few miles from the Lousiana border. Should be less than 8 hours from home. Even though we are on better roads we are still traveling pretty slowly. Keeping the speeds between 50 and 60 MPH to make sure we don’t over tax the trailer and its tires.

Day 6 (Preview)
We will skip church tomorrow for the second time in my ability to remember. With a class starting Monday morning I want to try and allow as much time as I can to get home. There is still the possibility of a blow out or some other big event tomorrow. Using the extra time as wisely as we can. We are arriving 48 hours later than what we were planning last Monday morning.

What I needed from the tire shop was a lug wrench to pull the tire off the trailer so that I could run around with the rim in hand to get a new tire installed. I asked at the tire shop that I first visited if they had any 12″ tires. They did! They had 2 tires that were a bit smaller than I needed, but would fit my rim. These were used tires, but one of them looked like it was in pretty good shape. I got a lug wrench off of them and went back to the trailer to get the tire. The process of pulling the tire off went smoothly and I took the rim to the tire shop.

While they put the tire on, I buzzed over to the hotel and picked up the family. We hit an OXXO (Mexican convenience store) for some morning coffee and a totally un-healthy breakfast.

When we got back to the tire shop the tire was ready to go. We went to the trailer to find that it had fallen! Apparently the jack sank into the ground enough to topple the whole mess. Fortunately the jack was not pinned under the trailer in such a way that I could not get it out. It took well over an hour and some help from a passer-by to get the new tire on. Then I had to run the lug wrench back to the tire shop.

Back on the Road
We took it easy heading on to the border. With the fact that the tire shop had a tire that we could use, I estimated that we would be back on the road by 10:30. I missed it by an hour because of the trouble we had getting the trailer up off the ground after it fell. The trip to the border also took longer since we were now running on 2 different sized tires. We were concerned about overheating one tire by running it crooked down the road. Our original estimated time of arrival to cross the border was 2:00 in the afternoon.

Checkpoints
We had one more military checkpoint before getting to the border. They were pulling everyone over and digging through all the cars and suitcases. We got shoved into one line and waited our turn. When they got to us the soldiers suddenly started letting all the cars go through. Supposedly they were checking in waves and we were at the front of the next wave to be let past.

We have nothing to hide, but if we were forced to open our trailer to let them inspect it, it would probably be 4+ hours to pull it all apart and then put it together again. We were thankful for the gift of passing through.

Just one more inspection to go to get across the border. The last one is on the US side and can be a pain.

Border Crossing
We needed to go into the immigration office and cancel our paperwork. This didn’t slow us down much, but we were already way behind our ETA. The only thing that that mattered was we were going to try and eat lunch with some friends. We did not get to the border to cross until 4:00. Lunch plans turned into supper plans.

When we finally got over to the US side we were praying that we would not have to be inspected. Again, nothing to hide, but I did not want to go through the mess of pulling everything apart.

Something about me must sceam “INSPECT ME!” on the US side. We were asked to pull over and let the agents check our vehicle. This happened last time and it took almost an hour. They asked several questions about what we had in the trailer. They looked through the back of the van and asked again what was in the trailer. We have a bookcase strapped to the top of the trailer box that they looked in. They then asked to see what was in the trailer itself. I pulled out the hammer and told them I would have to disassemble the whole thing. They looked at each other and said that I could just go on.

Praise the Lord!

Dinner and a Hotel
We finally crossed the border closer to 5:30 after having to wait in line. We made a quick trip to Wal-Mart to pick up a new tire in the right size so that we can travel with a bit more confidence.

One of our friends that we were supposed to meet for lunch/supper was sick. We did get to meet with another friend and had a nice evening of talking about future plans.

In the process of all our running around my wife checked out some hotels in the area. She found one with a pool and Internet. When we checked in I saw a sign that said “Free Wireless Internet! (In lobby only).” Fortunately they also have wired Internet access in the rooms.

After the kids swam a bit we shoved them into bed. I went to the lobby to sit and do some reading and have a cup of coffee. Super 8 has become one of our favorite hotels because of the price and they really have improved their service. They (usually) have coffee available at any time and their breakfast area is usually open for a nice quiet place to work and read after the kids go to sleep so that I don’t have to have a light on in the room.

Usually. Did I say that already?

At 9:25 I went to the lobby to have my coffee and start my evening reading. I have a class I am starting on Monday that I have to have a pile of reading done for. I was really looking forward to getting a bit done tonight. I got to the lobby to find that it was locked. The man behind the desk waved me over to a hole in the window to talk. Apparently the free wireless Internet that is available only in the lobby gets cut off some time before 9:30 since you are not allowed into the lobby. That meant no coffee and no comfortable reading with actual lights. I got to head back to the room where I would be relegated to the bathroom once again for reading. Some people like the bathroom as a reading room, but when you live in hotels as much as we do, sitting on the side of the tub gets un-comfy after a while.

Super 8, I am not pleased with this location. Nice room. Seems to be a kind staff. But not letting me use the lobby to read after 9:00, not having coffee available and not having wireless Internet outside of the closed lobby (when clearly the technology exists), is not a good customer experience for me.

Day 5 (Preview)
We will get up at whatever time seems good. Breakfast at the hotel. Then start heading our way to Florida. We still have almost 1,000 miles to go to get home. Plenty of things can go wrong. But nothing seems to be quite as awful when we are in our country with cell phone access around people who speak our language.

We had no idea what town we were in last night. We asked the hotel clerk this morning. We were in the town of Emilio Carranza. It is a very small town. The hotel we stopped at for the night was about 200 yards into town, and there was about that much town left to go when we left the hotel. It is just a speed bump between the larger towns of Cardel and Poza Rica.

About an hour down the road we were able to find a gas station with a convenience store (surprisingly rare in some parts of Mexico). This place happened to also have a pharmacy and a coffee shop. Two things we were looking for. Nice one-stop-shop to get us going.

Nice and Boring
Most of the day was simply drive straight ahead. We only encountered one exciting spot in the road as we passed through Cerro Azul. There was a wire hanging low over the road. The larger trucks were taking turns supporting a boy who would hold up the wire so the trucks on one side of the road could pass for a while. Then, presumably, he would jump onto another truck going the other way and hold the wire up for the opposite traffic.

Because all my trailer wiring got burned yesterday while the welder was working, we took some time to stop at the only Auto Zone we would see on this route and buy a new wiring harness. They did not have exactly what I needed, but I bought something that would work. It was a bit of a pain, but I got the trailer lights working again just north of Tampico.

Welder: Round 2
Going through the town of Soto La Marina my wife was driving. She heard the chains of the trailer start to drag and immediately pulled over. Fortunately, though the trailer broke again in the same place, we were able to pull off the road where there was a group of guys working on a road construction truck. I told them our problem and they pointed me to the welder who was working on another truck.

I think God allowed us to get the trailer patched yesterday just to get us to this guy today. Today’s welder did a much better job in fixing the trailer. The quality of work difference is noticeable. While I never had great confidence in the work done yesterday, I do feel like this welder took care of the job completely.

Before he got started on the job though I was able to remove my new wiring and keep it from getting burned up.

The job took a bit over an hour to complete. By that time it was already dark, but we had also already picked out our planned hotel for the night. With the exception of the road construction that was being done in the immediate area, we know the roads were pretty good all the way to the little town that we were planning to stay in for the night.

New Tire: Round 2
Within 5 minutes of driving away from the welder we punctured a tire on the road. This road is a temporary road that is just rock and dirt while the crew builds a nice new road. Because the road was so rough I did not know that I had a flat until we got back up on the paved road a few minutes later. By that time the tire was shredded. This is one of those new, expensive, hard to find tires that I bought on Monday.

We were able to pull off the road into a wide driveway of some business. We dropped the trailer with plans to take the wheel into one of the larger towns tomorrow and see if we can locate a tire. This will be at least a 2 hour round trip. It might be as long as 7 hours if we have to drive on to the border to find a new tire.

At least, that was the plans. After we got the trailer off the van we realized that we did not have a lug wrench that will work on the trialer. I will have to find a local shop that will let me borrow a lug wrench before I can start the running around tomorrow. Of course, I will also see if I can locate a tire in Soto La Marina before I go too far looking for one. I don’t have much hope of that since it was hard to find one in a town of 1,000,000 people. Finding one in a town of 3,000 is less hopeful.

Day 4 (Preview)
If things go well then we might be back on the road by 2:00 in the afternoon. That means that we should be able to cross the border tomorrow night. That is 24 hours behind our goal to have us home on Saturday. I will definitely miss the meeting I was trying to attend that afternoon. I am currently in jeopardy of having to miss the class that I am supposed to start on Monday morning.

Worst case scenario for tomorrow will be that we hit the 2 big towns on our way to the border and still not find a tire. Then we will have to cross the border to get a new tire and return. The border is only 3 hours from where we are currently, but one of the big towns (our better option) will put us about 3 hours from the border after we drive an hour over to that town. It may be as late as Saturday morning before we even get back to put the tire on the trailer.

At least the $25 hotel we are in for the night has very comfy beds.

Broken Tongue
We had gotten a couple of hours down the road when we crossed a bridge. As we went over the bridge with the “smooth” road, we started bouncing up and down. That nice up and down movement was apparently just right to snap the tongue on our trailer.

I am sure the trailer is quite weighted down. But I have had it this loaded before. Maybe the former abuse was just what it needed to break it the rest of the way. I have had the trailer for over 10 years. I am not sure how it was used previously. Whatever is the cause, it did break. We were very fortunate that it simply sagged to the ground and I was able to pull over to a stop. It could have just as easily broken and then dug into the asphalt and ripped the back end off our van, or flipped the trailer over onto us.

Off to Find Help
We were on a toll road and only 2 Km from a toll booth. We unhooked the trailer and drove up to the toll booth. I did not pay to go through the booth, but pulled off the side of the road. I did not want to pay $20 and then find out I had to pay it again just to go get my trailer. That wisdom proved to be accurate. If I had left the area, I would have had to pay each time I crossed back in.

For the next 3 hours I worked with a mechanic crew that hangs around the toll plaza for just such occasions trying to figure out how to get the trailer to a welder. There were two obvious solutions, but neither of them seemed practical to the mechanic. One solution was to bring the welder to the trailer. The mechanic’s argument was that the welder needed a generator to plug the welding machine in to. I suggested acetylene welding instead of arc welding. He did not know a welder who had that set-up.

The second solution was to call a tow truck and have the trailer either lifted onto a truck or do one of those amazing tow-truck-guy things that they do with chains. I am sure one could figure that out. I later found out that this was not a good solution for the mechanic because then he would lose the money to someone else. It was not about helping me, but about getting my money.

Mexican Ingenuity
Ultimately we pulled the trailer with my van by the tongue and the mechanic’s truck rode behind the trailer pulling down on the back end with a rope to balance the trailer between the two vehicles on the trailer tires.

We pulled-pushed the trailer 5 Km (just over 3 miles) to the welder. That short trip took probably close to 45 minutes. The mechanic charged me $90 for his work. I felt like I was stuck paying that price since we really could not agree on a price before we knew what was going to be involved. I thought $50 was more justifiable, but paid the $90 anyway.

Welder’s Work
The welder said it would take him an hour to do his part. We agreed on a price of $55 to put the trailer back together and then reinforce the tongue area. It took him 1.5 hours. I got some nice pictures of him working. I will try to upload some later.

Back on the Road
That all took just under 5 hours to complete. With our late start today, we only traveled about 4 hours from where we started this morning. We ended up between 2 larger towns (where we know the hotels) to try and find a place to stay. We were headed for an area called Costa Esmeralda (Emerald Coast) to pull over for the night. When we made our final gas station stop we saw a hotel with Internet. We don’t even really know what town we are in, but we were able to get to bed early for an early start tomorrow.

There is still a slim chance of crossing the border tomorrow night, but not looking real likely.

Day 3 (Preview)
We will continue north through the town of Poza Rica. Actually, we get to skirt around the edge of town. Then through one of our least favorite towns, Tuxpan. From Tuxpan it is a horrible little road for several hours to the city of Tampico. The stretch from Poza Rica to Tampico is probably the worst roads we will encounter on the whole trip. Once we get past Tampico a couple of hours we have very nice roads the rest of the way to the border.

Day 1 minus 3
Saturday we worked to get the last of our items sold that we needed to get out from under so that we could move everything back to the US that we had left. The garage sale went somewhat well, but we did not get rid of everything we needed to.

We packed up most of the trailer on Saturday evening. We could not get everything packed and sealed up until at least Sunday night or Monday morning. Things progressed well with the packing as much as we could do up to that point. In fact, we packed so compactly that we had more room than stuff. Ultimately we did find enough stuff to pack into the holes we had left.

Day 1 minus 2
Sunday I was able to get my long run for the week done. I love that church does not start until 11:00 at our church in Merida. I ran my 8 mile long run and really enjoyed being able to focus on something other than packing for a couple of hours. I took the opportunity to run in some areas of town I don’t normally frequent. Being Sunday morning I did not expect much traffic on my run. For the most part it was pretty clear.

After church we went and grabbed a quick lunch. I had become quite preoccupied with the tires and slightly bent axle on our trailer. The old tires were pretty chewed up and there was not much tread left on one of the tires. This was actually the cause of lack of sleep Saturday night. But Sunday afternoon I took the trailer to a friend of mine to see what could be done about straightening the axle before putting on new tires. I was very disappointed when he told me I would have a hard time finding tires since it was an odd size in Mexico. These trailer tires are so common in the US you can find them at any Wal-Mart, but apparently not common at all in Mexico. We even considered the possibility of adapting my axle to accept different wheels or replacing the axle altogether. That is what I got to mull over while sitting in church Sunday night.

After the evening service we got together with a group of friends for a meal. One of the pastors had some ideas of where I might be able to get tires for my rims. On Monday morning he was able to give me phone numbers to call.

Day 1 minus 1
We were supposed to leave Monday. The earlier the better, but were determined that if we could have left before 5:00 pm we would still have enough time to get a couple of hours down the road and not have to push so hard the rest of the week. We are trying to be home by Saturday afternoon. We will see how the week progresses.

I had an appointment with a man at 10:00 to come and buy the rest of the items we had for sale. While waiting for him I called tire shops and finally found some tires that would fit. They were not terribly expensive, but about twice what I would have had to pay in the US. I also got a chance to sell a few more items. The man I was supposed to meet with did not show up by 10:40 so I called his work and got his cell number. He told me he would be there in an hour or so. I emphasized to him when I first set up the appointment how critical it was that he be on time since I did not live at the place where the items were stored and I was really crunched for time. That apparently meant nothing to him. I asked him to call me when he was close and I would run some errands while waiting for him. He finally showed up an hour and 40 minutes late. Typical. I also ended up not selling anything to him. He was only interested in 2 items and offered me only 1/3 of what I was asking.

Then to the other end of town I went to pick up the tires. I grabbed them and met my friend who helped me the day before and we took the tires to be mounted. After the mounting process, he insisted that I have the axle fixed. I knew at this point our departure was in jeopardy. Fortunately the process of bending the axle into place only took about 30 minutes at the local alignment shop.

Back home to finish packing and hit the road. I did not get back to the house until 3:30. We did not finish packing the trailer until 6:00. So much for leaving Monday.

We went and had a nice meal that night and also picked up a few more items that would help keep our stuff dry in the trailer. The trailer is a simple flat bed with a short rail around it. We built a 4′ X 8′ X 4′ plywood box on it. With the extra time I was able to caulk all the joints and do a pretty good job of wrapping the box in a tarp. The biggest issue is that if we have to open the box for any military, police or customs checkpoints, I will probably never get it sealed up as well as it is now.

Day 1
We got up at 5:30 with the goal of having the van packed and on the road sometime between 6 and 7 AM. A few hangups here and there and we finally left town at 9:00. In the process we bought Wal-Mart out of their whole stock of duct tape. We have plenty to seal up any holes or leaks in the tarps.

After a couple of early naps between my wife and I (and driver changes), we were finally awake enough to make some time. We intentionally traveled slower than normal because of the added weight of the trailer. When we pulled this trailer with our Suburban when it was similarly loaded, there was no noticeable difference in the way the truck handled. Not true with a Honda Odyssey. Starting up and slowing down are much more of a challenge. Even at the slower speed we were only 1 hour behind our normal schedule of making it to the city of Villahermosa, Tabasco.

At one point along the way today we did something we have thought about many times, but have never done. We pulled our van off the side of the highway and enjoyed a little wading in the gulf waters. We had talked about swimming. Though we could not see the waves from the road, they were pretty strong. But when you got down to the water line you could see that there was quite a strong pushing and pulling of the water. For prudence sake we just waded a while.

When we left Villahermosa we knew we could make it to the city of Coatzacoalcos in 2 hours. Within 30 minutes of leaving Villahermosa we were in a tremendous thunderstorm. The best thing for our trailer and contents is to keep moving in rain. I have everything packed in such a way that it is best protected from water entering the front and being blown off as we are moving. While I don’t think we have any major leaks, if there are any, they are going to be most easily exploited when the trailer is sitting stationary.

This storm was so strong and violent that traveling 20 MPH at times seemed risky. So much for movement. While I am not normally a pessimist, I don’t see any way that our stuff stayed dry. It was a torrential downpour for 40 minutes. By the time we got to the hotel it had slowed down, but the streets in the city were totally flooded. What did not get wet in the rain probably got soaked from the bottom up with the trailer buried under water for 30 minutes. On the bright side: if we make it home this weekend and anything is dry, then I should be pleased.

It is currently still raining and the trailer has been sitting in the rain for a couple of hours. Sigh.

Day 2 (preview)
We plan to be on the road somewhat early tomorrow. The hotel we are in does not start serving breakfast until 6:30. So we probably won’t be on the road until at least 7:00. Best case scenario is that we will make it to within 4 or 5 hours of the border. We should make it to within 10 hours tomorrow barring any major road problems. Then we will travel all day on Thursday to be able to cross that evening. If we do make good time and distance tomorrow then we can cross on Thursday and get a few hours up into Texas before having to shut down for the night.

I will keep you posted as I can.

We will be there for 3 nights. I am the guest speaker this year. Since I have been gone a year (we left a week after camp last year) then I get to be the special guest. I am still doing basically the same things I did last year except I didn’t have to do as much of the planning. Can’t get much better than that. Well, it could. I could be given special napping privileges while everyone else is outside playing in the sun. But, alas, I get to help run the games too.

So, while I have now committed to being a better blogger, I step away from the Internet for a few days. Look forward to some pictures this weekend.

When we left Mexico back in August of last year, we packed up most of our stuff and put it in a storage room. We did not know where we were going next at that time. There was a possibility that we would be staying in Mexico, but not in this area. It made sense to not sell all our furniture until we knew what part of the country, or world, we were going to next. Now that we know where we are going, we need to get rid of this stuff. Most of it is impersonal household items like couches, fans, trash cans and office supplies. Having been apart from these items over the last year, it seems to be a bit easier to put a price on something and watch it walk away.

Currently we are just selling to our friends. Later this week we open the floodgates to the general public. There is still a lot of processing to do to get ready for the opening of the garage sell on Friday. Coupled with that, we are preparing for a camp next week. There is a lot to fill our time with this week that could throw us off our goal of being packed up before camp starts on Tuesday.

As I said, this move is in stages. After this packing up time we will be taking what is left back to the US and putting it in storage there. We will continue to travel throughout the fall and then figure out how to get the necessary items into a few suitcases and start flapping our wings towards Argentina.

Among the things I have enjoyed doing while back in town is running on some of the same roads and paths that have become so familiar in my running career. I have not logged a lot of miles since being back, but I have enjoyed them.

We started the week with about 80 campers. This grew all week with our final count up to 95. That is a good number landing right in our average range of campers. I am always amazed as to how many people come to camp based on how poorly we advertise. Out of the group of missionaries that have mostly been there the last 5 years, only 4 of the group of 10 were able to be there. We had plenty of help and teachers though since we mostly have the pastors and their wives do the teaching.

We probably had 15 people who had never been to camp before. One man from the state of Hidalgo (a new group this year) accepted the Lord as his savior. There were also 2 hearing men who surrendered to service.

Wednesday was our “battle day.” We had a dog bite, a lady step on a nail, a man get stomach cramps bad enough to justify an emergency room visit. There were three trips to the doctor for various reasons. Dissension in the camp among 2 groups grew to a head, however, as camp director I did not know anything about it until late that night. I was able to resolve it, in a way, on Thursday morning. While it seemed everything might fall apart on Wednesday, that was the day that the one man was saved. Everything worked out fine by Friday. I think we were all friends again by the time we parted ways.

Friday I was asked if I could take 3 people to the bus station. This is the first year that I have not been in a hurry to get away from camp. I got everyone off and started the trip to the bus station. My 3 had grown to 10. I took them and they said that there were still 7 more that needed a ride. I returned for the next group to find out that there were 9 more after that. On three trips to the buses I hauled 26 people in my van with only 3 seats. The back end was full of luggage. Only in Mexico can you pack 9 people at a time in 3 seats.

We took our time getting away from camp since we have no particular time schedule to get anywhere. The only town on our route that was of any size was only 1 hour away. We got into town in search of a hotel that had certain amenities. I turned down one hotel because of not having all we wanted. Every other hotel we found was full to capacity. I finally returned to the first place (almost 2 hours later) and they only had one room left, but their Internet connection was out. I have already been a week without Internet and if I am taking the next few days like they were a vacation, I really want some communication abilities.

The reason all the hotels are full has to do with this being the weekend between the 2 big summer vacation weeks in Mexico. We are also in La Huasteca region. It would be like Yellowstone NP to US citizens.

We finally found a hotel that had a room available. Our casual evening in town to relax and eat at a fancy restaurant and get some reading done ended up with us grabbing a greasy chicken from a grocery store and eating it in our room at 9:30 at night. Rarely is anything as easy as it seems it should be.