Pics from a weekend road trip into Mexico

On a Thursday morning I woke up, prepared for another day of dissertating. In fact, I was ready to spend the whole weekend dissertating and preparing job application materials.

Instead, the phone rang at 8:30 am. It was Claire. "How would you feel about driving a van down to the Rancho in Mexico?" she asked.

The Rancho is a place where an organization named Esperanza de Joaquin has set up a community center and provides help for the rural people in the area, many of whom are desperately poor, with their basic needs as well as development opportunities. The van was donated, and Mary, the executive director, wanted to get it down there to serve as an ambulance to get people to a hospital or clinic should they need to go. Unfortunately, her husband Frank was unable to go due to physical limitations. So, they thought of me.

The following photos give a little idea of the trip. We left at 6:30 am on Friday, September 7, 2007 and arrived there at around 9:00 pm on Saturday, September 8th. The van was large, drank gasoline like an alcoholic sucking down a pint of Jack Daniels, and moved around so much in the wind that you wondered if you would be able to keep it on the road. The Mexican roads were surprisingly good, much better than I expected. In fact the worse ones we were on were no worse than the worse ones I've driven in Louisiana. Unfortunately, I did not have time to take a lot of photos. I would have loved to snap some pics of Guanajuato, which is a lovely little city, but I was hard pressed for time.

If you can't see the slideshow below, click here for a page with the pictures on it.

Our 12th Anniversary in Mesa Verde

It's been awhile since my last post. I apologize. Things have been so busy, what with trying to finish my dissertation and all, I haven't had time to do much posting. This will be a very quick update.

My dissertation is on schedule to be completed this fall and defended. I just finished the first draft of my last, or second to last, chapter. I am in the middle of looking for and beginning to apply for jobs for 2008. These have been full-time jobs, to say the least. I have also found some time to work for the standardized patient program, bringing in a little supplemental income.

And, Megan and I celebrated our 12th this past Sunday, September 2nd. We went over the Labor Day weekend to Mesa Verde National Monument. I have put a slide show of pictures in this blog, but if you want a better look, at least through the lense of our crappy digital camera, you can click here to get to the page where they are stored.

Look for some posts coming up, hopefully not too long from now, where I'll tell you about my first Mayle family reunion, my discovery of my biological father's family, and other fantastic and fun things.

Here's the slide show...