Sunday seemed a good day to make another pass at GDL. So, I headed out around the East end of the mountain to get into town. Of course I managed to miss my left turn and ended up touring east GDL. They have some interesting innovations. I think I was on the Avenue of 9 heroes (if my Spanish is any good0 which used to be a nice 4 lane divided boulevard with trees in the middle etc. Now it’s ALL going the same direction, so you trucking along and you need to know where you’re going so you can switch sides to make the appropriate turn. Now, the drivers here are certainly no worse than TX and maybe a little less nutso and more accommodating. A few blocks away is a parallel 4 lane divided going the other way. 

So, after touring for a time I returned to the site of my mistake and after about 3 passes managed to get going west on the beltway. Next was the challenge of where to I get off? – as I did this in reverse last time I didn’t have a clue.

They’re actually pretty good at marking overall directions, imagine yourself driving north from TX into Kansas and having the option of going to Kansas City or Denver – well, a no brainer, you know where they are, but here it’s choices of Colima, Nogales, Mexico (city) and things I can’t begin to spell – hey, I don’t know where any of these places are, so I picked Colima – hey, good choice as it tuned out, so my luck and instinct were holding out.

So, down to Sam’s and WalMart and just like in TX, it’s Sunday and the WalMart is full of Mexicans? -  at this point I made an executive decision, to buy a microwave that “speaks” Spanish, I figured, hey, it will help me learn Spanish – well, not so far, but I got it to cook dinner and after a fashion it tells the time. The timer? - still a mystery.

Then on to Home Depot and I went a long ways, through tunnels etc. and yet I’m told that I was still not in central GDL, it's a big city. On the way, careening along in el roca tolva (the rock hopper) I saw Chili’s, McDonald’s, Office Depot (on the other side), KFC, Starbucks (naturally), Pizza Hut, BlockBuster Video etc. so, it’s all here, the problem is getting to it. I finally managed to get turned around and back to Office Depot – nothing there I needed, then back S and shazaam, Home Depot, of course on the other side and after some fancy maneuvering I got there. Somewhat like what we’re used to, less variety and I wanted a little cheap leaf blower for the decks, little yes, cheap, NO - $820p, I didn’t want it that bad considering the one in storage in TX is twice as big, nice and only half the cost.

Then back home again and when you know where you’re going, it’s about 35 miles and about 45-50 minutes so we’re improving.

But careening around GDL reminded me of learning to water ski, if you ain’t falling, you ain’t learning and then on snow sticks, I strapped them on, managed to get to the top of the hill by watching others and then there was only one way down – see “falling/learning” above.

But, as I say; drive with conviction like you know where you’re going and spend money like you got it.