06/02 I’m back. Not sure how to start… its been so long. As I mentioned in my last post things are great back in Calgary. My sister (hi Stephanie) is home and doing well. The circumstances sucked but it was great being able to spend time with my nephew Shane and my other sister Jennifer. This is probably the most I’ve seen my two sisters in over 20 years.

One thing that ended up being a surprise was the allergic reaction I had to the 3 cats living at Stephanie’s. I thought I was going to die after the 1st night but after taking Allegra(?) for 2 days I woke up on the 4th morning and didn’t need to take the allergy medicine. All the horrible symptoms I had just went away (and the cats are still alive). Not sure how that happened but it made the rest of the stay there much better.

After the often very stressful time in Calgary it was nice to just relax and spend time with my Dad and his gf Linda in Atlanta. As usual whenever I’m doing something I enjoy Microsoft comes along and tries to sabotage things just like it used to do when I was a 9-5 guy. I ended up spending almost 8 hours fixing a broken Windows repair install that took forever thanks to the strangest BIOS issue I’ve ever seen (the OS drive kept going away). All this just just to fix a broken installation of Office. In the end everything was fixed and I got some delicious homemade brownies out of it.

Florida was a blast. Spent a lot of time with family and friends. Wish I could have stayed longer. Big thanks to my Aunt Leigh Ann and Uncle Alan for letting me crash on the couch, drive the car and eat what’s sure to be my last home-cooked meals for a while.

The journey back into Mexico was easy enough. The guy who stamped my passport in Merida didn’t ask me a single question. Took a taxi to the bus station and only had to wait an hour for the bus to Hopelchen (mistake since I could have just caught the bus in front of the airport and saved myself from paying a way overpriced fare). My bike was right where I left it in the storage room. I can’t thank Hiram at Hotel Los Arcos enough for letting me keep it there for that long.

I hung out in Hopelchen yesterday trying to get my new bike stuff organized. My favorite new item is a GoLite umbrella. It has a really high UV protection rating and should be perfect for the times I need a break and shade isn’t available. I left my old front panniers at the motel in Hopelchen–maybe someone there will get some use out of them.

Today marked my first day back on the road in over a month and damn did I get beat up. It is so freaking hot here. I can’t even count how many times I had to stop just to get some shade. The first thing I did when I found a motel was turn on the cold water in the shower and just sit under the spray. I can’t even imagine trying to camp (or sleep) in my tent when it’s this hot. I’m in the shade under a ceiling fan now and I’m still sweating. I’m missing the AC in the motel last night. It was so cold I had to sleep in my sleeping bag.

The (large) ruins at Uxmal are 11 miles away so I’m going to stay here tomorrow and take a bus to the site. That way I don’t have to ride there just to have to ride back this way again. The ruins from today were from a place called Kabah. It was right off the road so I couldn’t pass it up. The size of the ruins came as a bit of a surprise. The two main buildings were huge. The sites in this area flourished around 800 AD and were built using an architectural style called Puuc. The highly decorative masks on the facades of the two main buildings definitely stood out from the other places I’ve seen. Saw a fat lizard hanging out under a tree too.

Mexico–I missed you and your crazy, ever-honking drivers, errant garbage piles, stray dogs, wandering livestock, loud noises and especially your incredibly generous and friendly people.

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Things couldn’t be better right now. My sister is walking around the hospital on her own and is expected to be sent home late next week. Her recovery went much faster than expected so they’re not even going to send her to a rehabilitation center after leaving the hospital.

Since things are stable up here I booked some flights to get me back on the road. First stop after I leave here is Atlanta to visit my Dad. I’ll be there for a couple days and then I’m flying to Fort Lauderdale to see some more family and hang out with my friends.

On June 2nd I’m booked on a non-stop flight via AeroMexico to the city of Merida. From there I’ll hop on a bus for a 3 hour ride to the town of Hopelchen where my poor bike has been awaiting my return. I’m glad its flat in that section of Mexico because I suspect the first couple days are going to be tough. I’ve been eating like a pig up here and might have packed on an extra pound or two.

02/08 Had to cut today short on account of my knee. Both have been bothering me a little since I first climbed up into the more mountainous central area of the country. Yesterday they were both a little sore but today my left knee really started to smart. Took a couple Advil and that helped. The seat was raised up a half inch to relieve some stress but I think it was too late.

I found a motel in town and went and got some ice next door (and beer). There’s a girl working there who just moved here a couple months ago from Atlanta (she’s Mexican). She even has a Georgian accent. Small world.

90% of the ride today was flat and on a highway with a nice, wide shoulder. That and a strong tailwind made for an easy day.

Update: This place doesn’t give you a key to your room either. If you want back in you have to find someone that works here. With my Spanish sucking as it does being told you don’t get a key is a strange thing to have someone try to explain to you. I noticed that most people just leave their door cracked open. It’ll take me a while to get used to that.

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