Our trip from Valencia to Granada in the rental car was freeing and amazing. Freeing because we could go anywhere, instead of being stuck in a train to only go where the schedule took us. And it was amazing because we could see areas beyond the windows of the trains we rode. In the trains, we had to go through tunnels, under bridges, past towns, and the seaside with limited scopes of seeing what we passed from the faster speeds and landscapes that whizzed by in a blur.

Most people are familiar with the song Castles in the Sky by Ian Van Dahl, about life and dreams, but what about real castles that reach up to the sky? Ever wonder why they were built so high above everything else? Or do you assume it’s because the king wanted to be far above his lowly kingdom to rule over it and make the minions remember his point of power and placement above all others?

Who of us would have even known the date of the Chinese New Year, let alone the possibility of a festival in its honor being held in Valencia, Spain, and right near the train station? None of us, for certain. Nor did Rachel and Rex, who were totally unaware of the goings on just a few blocks from where they sat waiting.

I wasn’t going to worry about their situation, as our next challenge was Harvey and his wife Alice. As we drove to Cancun to pick them up at the airport that January, I kept wondering what they would be like. Harvey, and likely Alice also, had lived their whole lives in the same small community as Carol, so I braced myself for more cracks about the number of Mexicans, showing distaste for the area, and not liking our open-air palapa.

One of the men walked over to us. “Cállete!” he yelled, sticking the barrel of the rifle in our faces and then moving it and the stock to beckon us to start walking. He took us over to where Cecil was standing with the Federale’s gun pointed at him and bound the three of us together. The two women were further away tied to a tree, which made me really angry to see. I needed to figure out a way to get us out of this mess.

Late one summer in Colorado, after planning a vacation to go to the Yucatan that winter, my hubby, Mac, surprised both me and our daughter, Isabelle, with dive lessons for an early Christmas present.

The plan for that winter’s Mexico trip was to drive to Sayulita on the West Coast with our beater travel trailer for a month to visit and say our goodbyes to the friends we’d made, sans Tom and Sheila. We’d then head to the East Coast the quickest route to pick Isabelle up from the Cancun airport on New Year’s Day.

How are you! Here we are, we are your native sons!” Just a version of Arlo Guthrie’s song, though of New Orleans, it can’t be wrong. Our next adventure is to the Northwest, and we will try our very best, to make this run and have some fun with many sights to see.

We sing the Blues as we leave the warmth, the sea and the tropical hues,

But we’ll be back in the Fall to enjoy our house that has few walls, and

we’ll see our friends we leave behind, start Happy Hours to relieve the grind of what to do, where to go, to dine in, or out or see a show.

Whatever we plan you can be sure that what we do will be pure

of joy and sun that will abound along with birds of which will sound

like music to my ears.

The plan for that winter’s Mexico trip was for Mac and I to go to our usual west coast campground with our “beater” travel trailer for a month to visit and then say goodbye to the friends we’d made, before heading to the east coast to pick up my daughter Isabelle, also a diver, from the Cancun airport on New Year’s Day.

When we approached the trailer, almost like a switch had been turned on, I had a sudden and overwhelming need for sex. It was urgent and primal, nap forgotten. After we got inside I was totally focused on that need, and began undressing Marty.

I saw her less than a minute after lamenting, “Why didn’t I buy a shawl when we were at the market last night? I’m freezing!”

My husband and friends just looked at me, since they knew it was a rhetorical question, because, why didn’t I buy one after each of them had wisely purchased something warm for the cooler mountainous climate? It was cold at this location in the winter, especially early in the morning.