Wagons.....South !!

WAGONS...... SOUTH !!
We started our trip on Jan 5th,2010. Left Missouri about 7am. It was -7 and as we went West it got down to -12 Ferenhite! All 5 dogs were on the back seat because it was too cold for them to be in the back of the truck yet. We got a topper on the truck and that worked great for 3 dogs. Topper $65 craigslist bargain.
It was getting warmer and warmer as we drove south. It was fun watching the temp. rise. We of course gave eachother a High 5 when we got above freezing. =) And then again High Five at 88 degrees ... that was the 100 degree difference from the day we left.
So if you're cold... just drive South!
We stopped at Devyns house in Austin. Our dogs took over his back yard and slept in his garage. They got into a bag of bird seed and man did they have seedy granola looking poop for a couple days after that. We got a couple good pictures in Austin. Devyn let me leave a huge mess in his garage and I have no idea what my dogs destroyed in his back yard. Ah, what a good big brother. He's still helping me and picking up after me.

We got accross the border but I had to argue for about 10 minutes with as much spanish as I could come up with and using gestures. They told us "No, too many peros" "Gary said we don't have kids, these are our kids". but he used the word bambinos ha ha . Then they said, "You can bring 2 dogs per person or 3 in one vehicle. No, No, No. Mucho Peros." So I said "ok, I will drive with 3 and he will walk accross with 2 dogs." The border guard laughed and said Ok, go ahead. He knew I caught him in just a technicality. It's good they didn't notice 2 of the dogs were pregnant. They didn't look through our stuff at all. Paperwork was easier this time because we knew exactly what to do. Smooth quick trip. We didn't even go through any checkpoints. No hassle at all. The Cuota (toll) roads were great. It was almost all cuota roads all the way down here.
After the border we spent the night about 6 hrs into Mexico. We pulled into a Pemex. 24 hr gas station ran by the government. So they're all the same, safe, 24hrs. We slept or Tried to sleep in the back of the truck under the topper and the dogs in the front of the truck but it was cold. We were in the mountains so I only slept about an hr, Gary slept a little longer and then he got up and drove. I slept on the back seat with the two pregnant girls.
We kept switching drivers and we arrived that night at our home in Mexico. Vines are grown all over and most of my plants that I planted died because they didn't have water. We were supposed to have a guy come water plants every couple days but he flaked out. One papaya tree came up on it's own so that was cool.
We got our power and water hooked back up the next morning / afternoon so that was great. We have a generator for back up power.
Our first evening ... we got here right at sunset Thursday January 7th, 2010 and walked to the restaurant and got a shower and saw a few of our friends. The family that runs the restaurant gave us hugs. It felt SO good to be back. The SUPERS are back!! That's our nick name down here.
We had a couple guys help us clean the place up and spray bug poison everywhere. They said they would clean up the tree and get all the vines out of the tree but they ended up hacking it 1/2 off ! So we're not happy with his work, because he took 1/2 our shade away.
I was able to use internet the other day at the restaurant and Gary has surfed every day. Sometimes twice a day. And he started writing down how big the surf is every day. That'll be cool to look back at.
Our XMsatellite radio works down here so that's awesome. I tried to see if my internet air card would work from our trailer but it doesn't so I'll just go to the restaurant to keep in touch. free wifi. Our mexico phone that we bought last year I found with some stuff I had already packed for Mexico. Gary found someone in the close little town to put minutes on it so we can still call from our property but I think it has to be out in the good reception spot to Recieve calls. The good reception spot is by our almond tree where Gary'll hang up our hammock again.

The puppies arrived a couple days after we got here. I set up their beds first in the trailer w/ fans and Gary hooked up window air conditioner. We have limited power so we have to use a small a/c. that and fans is ok.
Wahine started having constractiones ( I learned what contractions was in spanish) on Sunday 01/10/2010 cool birthday for her puppies. She had 3 and then had to have a cesarian to get the rest out. 1 more survived so she had a litter of 4. She has 2 boys and 2 girls. Big red boy's name is Augie, med sized boy Alfie. Cezarian girl is named Alberta. The small little one handfull sized girl is named Annie.
We came home from the vet and Bandita's water broke and she had her 2 pups the next morning. 01/12/2010 Our friend Morgan was here for the girl being born, it was so cute to see her excited nervous grossed out all at the same time. Banditas pups are doing really good. They're cute and fat. They are silver brendle colored and almost exact twins. See if you can tell the difference.
Morgan, Gary and I had fun naming all the puppies. Banditas are named Bullet and Bonnie.

Today is Thursday ... I think..... Hey we've been here a week!
It seems like one big long day with naps. Gary and I have been sleeping in shifts. These dogs need watched all the time, especially Wahine's pups because they're still so fragile. We keep finding her laying on them. She's in a whelping box that Gary built but they are still so small they can't get away good enough yet.
I saw the little girl Annie was being layed on and wasn't breathing. I was trying to rub it back to life and Gary did CPR and brought it back to life. Oh my goodness, I was so happy to see her moving again. That was a day and a half ago and she's eating good and moving arround good so she's ok. Whew. The other girl Alberta is crying alot and has a bump on her back so we need to take her to the vet tomorow.
I've been pre-warned that sometimes the weak or little ones just die. You do everything you can to keep them alive and they die anyway, and it breaks your heart. ah...

Our pull out couch that we got from Becky pulls out right infront of the whelping box and kiddy pool. So we can kinda rest but check every time we hear a squeek. Who's ever in the bedroom sleeps great. Man, I've never fallen asleep so quick in my life. Thank goodness for A/C during the day.
I thought the dogs puppy pens was a good idea next to eachother but every time one puppy cries both moms look at their pups and get anxious trying to calm them.
It's been a long week but if we can keep all these alive then we're doing great. It's so good to finally have puppies.
In a week they'll be alot bigger and stronger and won't need supervised all the time. I think, I hope.
It will be fun when I can take a couple puppies with me to the beach for sunset at the beach. Gary had a good idea of taking puppy pictures on the beach. I bet we'll have the only Beach Bull Terriers for sale. Hey I think I just came up with my business nick name. Beach Bull Terriers ... or Beach Bullys. Bully is the bull terrier nickname.
Bye for now. I'm hope you liked this traveling dog circus story. I can tell you one thing.... I'm not bored ! xoxo Terria