How I Spent New Year's Eve!

living.boondockingmexico@yahoo.com

We started out yesterday going to the gym bright and early. There was no other choice, I had gone to bed Thursday night early because everyone had partied hard without me the night before that. I thought, "what a bummer". I mean really, right under my bedroom window. I'm over it now but it must have been something I was wearing that did it.

Croft and Norma invited us to go down to The Strand and walk around. In the downtown area they have a strange parking system although functional I guess. The curbs are marked with numbers and on each section there is a computer with a solar panel attached and you pay the machine for the time you want. Make sure you have dollar bills in good condition. Norma fought for a minute or two getting the machine to take the money.

The Strand is something between New Orleans and San Francisco. There are lots of good restaurants, coffee shops, souvenir stores and a couple of museums to visit. The architecture is beautiful and we took lots of photos.

Came home after stopping for an incredible burger at Michael's on SeaWall Dr. We took a long nap to get ready for the big event and then Juan prepared our dish that we took. He copied Claudia's recipe from last year, burrito rolls made with swiss cheese, ham, beans, salsa and some freshly made flour tortillas.

We got to the party room and there was a ton of food. Some homemade, others had brought party trays. It was all good food and we hung around the food and margarita bar for quite a while getting our fill of not only food but plenty of b.s. too!

Quite a few people came and as usual there were the party duds and the opposite extreme; the loud group. I happened to be part of the latter. We had a really super good time and it didn't end there. Croft kept pushing for a fire and there is a cool little fire ring on the property. We gathered a group of eight and headed out there for some more New Year's cheer. We got the fire going in the wind with a lot of lighter fluid and some coaxing from Juan's contribution of three small pieces of kindling. We made some new friends last night and a good time was had by all.

Happy New Year! Like always, this one will be better. We will stay here until Monday and then we head to Laredo or McAllen to see what our options are for importing the trailer back to Mexico. I believe we will still be doing some boondocking. It can't be avoided.

And one last photo of 2010 that was a winner: