MARCH 2020 - WE ARE BACK - A LONG DRIVE HOME!

MARCH 2020 - A LONG DRIVE HOME!

Well the last time we wrote on our Blog was Feb 28th, 2020.
It is now February 2022 (We are in Arizona at the time of writing this) and many of you have been on my case to continue writing this Travel Blog. I had given up because it is a lot of work! :) 

So we hadn't written in almost 2 years because (and I'm sure you know what is coming) the Corona Virus became reality in North America along with the rest of the world bringing a pandemic with it.

At the time we were relaxing in San Jose, Mexico which is a small town near Cabo San Lucas. 

Relaxing on a beach in Mexico

A couple days beforehand we found out we had to leave our rented Condo because our travel insurance was going to become invalid in less than 10 days, all due to the virus! When we first heard about this we thought it was some kind of bad joke? A pandemic coming? Really?

So much to our dismay we packed our little car and left San Jose on Monday, March 16th. There seemed to be a lot of fear in the air when we looked at North American news (typical?) but the Mexican media had very little to say about this. 

Driving through a Military Checkstop in Mexico

Due to the fact the United States was on the same page as Canada I began to wonder if President Trump would close their USA border to Mexico? It seemed to be something that was now happening in some countries. If Trump was going to follow suit we best hurry as its a long drive north to the USA! Being trapped in another country during a pandemic without health insurance was not something we wanted to deal with, especially when we both have our own health issues.

To make a long story shorter we made it to the USA border at Mexicali in a record 2 days of driving and we crashed for a well deserved sleep in Yuma AZ. Yuma almost felt like home when we arrived. I guess it was because we felt safer having come this far and add to the fact it was a familiar place to us. 

On Friday March 20th we crossed the border back into Canada and landed in our new temporary home thanks to our Daughter and Son in Law (Hailey & Harley) in High River. 

Why you ask? Well the timing of Covid 19 couldn’t have been worse. We had just bought and moved into this home about 2 weeks before we left for Mexico. The house was still in moving boxes and a major part of it was being renovated while we were gone in Mexico. The renovations weren’t even close to being finished.

The good news was that we had a really good bonding time with our young Grand Daughter (Bridgette) and her parents. We were so happy they offered to put up with us for a few weeks! It reminded us of the time we had to stay with our other daughter (Natalie, Neal and family) for a few weeks before we went on our 6 month trip to Europe in 2010.

So, since March of 2020 like most everyone else we haven’t been able to travel. 

It had also been a long time since we had faced a long complete winter at home. I swore I would never stay home during winter as long as I could walk and drive. Wrong!

But alas we survived! Once we finally made it home from High River the renovations were complete and what a fantastic job they did!
My Son in Law (Neal of Knight Custom Homes) is a craftsman I'd always recommend. It felt like a new home!

I spent the rest of the year working on the (new to us) house to pass time by. It kept us busy and was fun at the same time. It also helped me to get through the next winter too (2020/21) which I found a bit hard but we made the best of it. The pandemic continued on and so did the travel restrictions!