Wow...almost a week. Sorry 'bout that...
We now face a gap in the journals...I told you I was bad. I leave off right after our visit to my mom's parents, in south western ontario. After leaving my grandparents, we drove up to Ottowa and visited family, then hot-footed it down to Washington, D.C. to visit my parent's good friends [and subsequently my "aunt and uncle"] the Blisks. My parents attended a gala benefiting Cancer research, which was my first [prophetic] glimpse of "society." We went to a country club for Thanksgiving dinner. I should also note that we were traveling with ourdog, Klondike. He's sleeping behind me at the moment.
Our orignial plan for the winter of 1998 was to "ski across Canada." We left Washington right after thanksgiving and headed north to Montreal, hoping to go to Mt. Tremblanc. We called to check snow conditions as we got closer, and every time the amount of snow got less and less. On her final call, my mother was told, "Madame, we have mud." It turns out that 1998 was a singularly bad snow year. We regrouped.
My parents had met, at an RV convention is August [yes, there are such things], a man who led RV tours into Central America. My mom had lived in Costa Rica for a while as a young person, and my dad had worked in Panama for ten months, so they decided to take us south. We went through Ottowa again, and came back to Denver to unload the skiing gear. I was back for my 13th birthday on December 20th, and we left on December 21st. For a 13 year old, the coordination could not have been better.
We drove up to Vancouver, B.C., where we spent Christmas with my dad's family. Then, January 2nd, we headed to Texas to begin our Central American expedition. My journal picks up on January 9th, also titled, "Day 1."
January 9th, 1999
McAllen, Texas
Dear Diary,
This is the first day of our trip down to the [Panama] canal. It was really boring. We came to the corral [RV-eese for wherever we parked as a group] and met everyone, they did some inspections on the coaches and then we went to Shoney's. Chris {our tour leader} gave a talk with general instructions for the trip. A customs official came and so did an FDA guy. After that we did some last minute shopping. Like I said, boring.
-Lauren
P.S. John [7 at the time] had to sign his passport. He practiced forever and worked extremely hard at it, but it paid off!
And here's the next entry...
January 10th, 1999: Day 2
McAllen, Texas
Dear Diary,
Today I got my first sight of Mexico. It's gorgeous! [when reading the previous statement, please note that I was thirteen. It seems somewhat...pompous, maybe, to declare the area right across the border "gorgeous"] We had to cross the border to get some papers for the coach.
I'll tell you the people in our tour:
Chris: he's our tour guide, and number one on the C.B. He's in a truck camper.
Isaac: Chris' father in law. He's fluent in Spanish and traveling with Chris.
Al and Wanda: Number 2 on the C.B. They are an older couple {as are most on the trip} in an Itsca [type of motorhome]
Wes and Maggie: Older, traveling in a B - class van. [Note that this is not a social slur...it's really a type of motorhome. I promise]
John and Diana: The only younger coupole on the tour. They are in a 32' fifth wheel [another type of camper, pulled behind a pickup] with a dog and a cat. Personally, I don't like them very much. John smokes. He found out that one pack of cigarettes costs N$90.00 {$9.00 US}
Andre and Esther: They are from Quebec City and have a pull behind [yes, a type of trailer] One of my favorite couples.
Roger and Joy: My other favorite. They have a Sun Cruiser and Roger loves Klondike [our dog].
Joann and Ann: They're in a Jeep Cherokee an are tagging along 'till Costa Rice.
Leonard and Claudette: The tail-gunners [those who take the last place in the caravan and stay behind in the case of mechanical failures]
Isaac is my other favorite. He's really sweet.
Bye for now!
-Lauren | 
