The closer I get....

When we left Cuidad del Carmen the tropical storm had past. Ahead of us were very good roads...even road signs that made sense. It was like the closer we got to my new home the better things were going. We left Cuidad del Carmen aroun 9:30am...the route would take us to Campeche then to Merida and finally Progreso and Chelem. The road seemed to just fall away before us...we made excellent time, stopped for that good OXXO cafe Americano (think U.S. convenience store coffee) along the way. We made it to Campeche around noon and to Merida before 3pm. We were at my new casa in Chelem at 3:20 Monday afternoon. It looks wonderful, better than the photos Pedro has been sending. But...I didn't have keys and hadn't been able to get my Mexican cell phone working so that I could call Pedro. So, after walking to the beach and playing in the waves we drove to our friends Dan and Cindy's house which is just on the other side of Progreso. We had dinner with them in the evening, cooled off in their pool and planned to see the house on TuesdayWhen I went to meet Pedro at my casa on Tuesday I made it half way there and my van overheated! It had been making a growling noise in the area of the water pump since Cuidad del Carmen so it didn't completely surprise me when the temp light came on. I pulled over and called Pedro to bring me some water...I added almost a gallon and was able to make it back to Dan & Cindy's house. This morning it wasn't leaking, still had water in it and was running just fine (other than the growling noise) so I thought I would just load an extra gallon of agua and drive the 5 miles to the new casa in Chelem to unload my stuff and get on with setting up housekeeping.We drove just a couple of blocks from our friends home and when we went over a small bump in an intersetion the right front wheel almost fell right off!! The lower ball joint had failed. Considering the miles we drove in crazy conditions, through potholes, around washouts and over topes(speed bumps) of every shape and size...it's a miracle that this happened two blocks from our friends house at less than 5 miles per hour!! We must have had a guardian angel looking out for us for the entire 3000 miles. Cindy said that my mother was watching out for us on the trip...Thanks Mom!!There were several local guys who showed up while we were directing local traffic around the immobile van...one went to find a mechanico, another was dead-set on getting my car off the road. We messed around with the steering and pushing and finally got it off the road. The mechanico came and got some info then left. I was worried about what all this was going to work out because they said that they don't have tow trucks in Progresso...only in Merida 30 miles away. But with the van pushed off the road we went to buy some grilled chickens for lunch and wait for a call from Ricardo the mechanico. Ricardo called me a half hour ago and said he needed money for parts. I took Dan's scooter over to talk to him, not knowing what to expect. He is replacing 4 parts...the ball joint, a suspension link, the axle joint and the axle boot...with his labor and a good tip the whole job is going to cost me less than $200. And we didn't need to pay for a tow truck because he's working on it on the same street corner where it broke down!! Auto repair in Mexico is a way different beast than it is back in the mid-west. Tomorrow I am planning the same thing I plan every day...to see in the inside of my casa!! Until then life on the beach with good friends can't be beat!