OK – I know – I said I wasn’t going to bother you again until we returned home, but I just couldn’t help myself. So, I’m back.

After eating lunch yesterday, we mosied back to our room, sat on the couch to rest a bit, and contemplate another trip to the pool, but the Denver vs. Dallas football game caught our attention because the score was 41-41 and held the promise of being fairly interesting. It was. Dallas drove for a touch down making it 48-41, then Denver turned around and did the same thing. It was 48-48. Denver kicked off, Dallas got intercepted, and Denver ran the clock down before kicking the winning field goal … 51-48. Looks like a Duck football score instead of a pro score. Now you’re up-to-date and know everything I know about that game, unless you watched the entire game in which case I’m sure you couldn’t care less about that info. Unless you’re a Dallas fan. Which I’m not.

When the game was over we hadn’t determined if we were going to the pool, or not, so just sat there a while longer … and both fell asleep. We remained in this state for an entire hour before one of us woke up and jiggled the couch.

By then it was after 5 pm and we decided to play some cribbage instead of go back to the pool. It was a bit rowdy down there, and I didn’t see Jim and Lourdes, so we were OK staying in. Cribbage was good. Diane whipped my ass. Twice. That made us 4 and 4, a good place to stop, even steven.

Then Diane broke out the 99 cent set of dominos she got at Good Will some time ago, and we discovered why it was donated after I won two rounds, lickity split, without having to draw from the pile. Diane cried ‘foul’ because during the last round she drew two double fours which would be OK if we had twice as many dominos as she brought. After a bit of investigation we determined that someone must have had a double set and just grabbed enough to fill a one-set box. So, I won two rounds, and we’ll never use those dominos again so I’m going home a winner!

During the Denver vs. Dallas game we discovered that we’re both a little punchy, like we’ve been up for a number of days. As we watched the game we played like announcers, ad-libbing what we thought the person of interest on camera, at any given moment, might be saying. It was funny and a vivid demonstration that we are ready to go home. Like, yesterday.

But, today is the day we leave.

I have to admit that I’m writing this Sunday night, so it really isn’t Day 8 yet, but I’m not sending this until tomorrow morning, so it should count.

Now I’m going to stop and finish watching the SF 49ers beat Houston. This will make Jeannie E. happy. Maybe some other folks, too.

I may add a little more to this tomorrow to let you know how well I sleep tonight. Probably not well because for supper I had a bag of imported microwave kettle corn, a Mexican Snickers candy bar, and two bags of gummy monsters. And a glass of water. Diane wasn’t pleased with my choices and I don’t blame her. I made terrible choices but it was all about eating this ‘stuff’ so we wouldn’t have to pack it and cart it back to Oregon. I mean, what’s the point?

Another factoid about this trip, and a testament to my ongoing efforts to save the environment, is that of the 8 pair of underwear I packed, I still have 4 clean ones. This means that I’ve gone four days without underwear. This will please Diane for two reasons: 1) less to wash upon arriving home, and 2) more clothes to wrap delicate things in for the trip.

Since that last period (.) a lot has happened. It’s now about 10 minutes to 6 pm and we are in LA waiting for our flight to Portland. We arrived here at 4:20, and it’s taken this long to make the incredibly long transit from out arrival gate, 69, through customs, retrieve the bag we checked in Mexico, re-check it for PDX, re-enter the secure, and go back to gate 67. All of that took 1 hour and 30 minutes. We walked down 4 or 5 amazingly long passageways during this process that took us full circle back to within 20 feet of where we started at 4:20. Now we must wait until 7:10 to board the last leg of this journey.

Prior to leaving Mazatlan, we had a bite to eat at the airport and visited with our new friends Jim and Lourdes. It’s always good to make new friends.

We’re tired and glad to almost be home.

Hope everyone is doing well.

Oh, by the way, the ‘food’ suitcase only weighed 46 lbs this time since it was only full of dirty clothes. Interesting that dirty clothes weigh almost as much as enough food to sustain two people for a week.