salimos..chau Hamilton!

Hola a todos! Bueno, despues de decirle adios a Hamilton hoy llegamos - muertos de frio! - a Columbus, Ohio. Despues de manejar unos 800km, ahora estamos calentitos en un hotel, mirando la tele y listos para dormir. Ahora que comimos unas pizzas y pasamos un buen rato en la piscina/jacuzzi, nos sentimos como nuevos. Ojala que maniana ya podamos llegar a un lugar mas calido, porque la camioneta no esta hecha para el frio - vimos salir el vapor de nuestra respiracion todo el camino! Nunca pasamos tanto frio! Pasamos la frontera sin nigun tipo de problemas, nos dio la impresion que el oficial de migraciones estaba un poco envidioso, o tal vez descolocado, cuando le dijimos que ibamos a Mexico (que hubiera pasado si le deciamos Punta del Diablo?)...

Day #1 and we made it Columbus, Ohio! After leaving Hamilton (again, a teary yet elated affair) we still couldn't believe that we are actually "on the trip" after such a long wait! Our warm, fuzzy feelings were subdued a bit by the fact that we were freezing our butts off the whole way down, sub-zero temperatures in the vehicle and we could see our breath the whole way. We had hats, mitts, gloves and sleeping bags/duvets covering us - and we were still cold! By the end of the trip today my lips were blue and we were all beginning to hallucinate about a warm bed. But luckily there were no problems at the border, and it all went off without a hitch; in fact, the rather cold-looking border guard even seemed a bit envious when he found out we were headed for Mexico (what would he have thought if we had told him Punta del Diablo?).

Thanks to Hamid's GPS and Grandpa's CAA "Triptik" we had no trouble at all navigating our way here and finding a hotel. After a delivered pizza (no more driving!) and a swim in the pool/jacuzzi, we are now vegging out in front of the TV and ready for a good night's sleep. I think that we will try to get all the way to Nashville or even Memphis, TN tomorrow so that we can leave this cold weather behind.

Thanks to Yvonne and Neil for the photos of us on our departure, and many thanks to Tia Eva for the fun New Year's Eve dinner at (where else?) Modern India Buffet and the escort out of town with a raucous and hilarious highway farewell! (kids, don't try this at home...)

Thanks for the secret message, Eva!