Exodus

I was determined to leave  Vancouver by the end of June 2006. We left at 6:00 PM on June 30th. Granted, it was a little late to begin such a major undertaking but sometimes you just have to jump in with both feet.

We spent about a month exploring some of the United States that we had not seen before and discovered that Larry the rabbit was a pretty good travelling companion, not to mention quite a conversation piece. His cage and litter box and other assorted belongings took up the whole back seat so it was a good thing that we really had rid ourselves of everything we owned. We purchased a small trailer before we left to house a few sentimental things and a whole lot of books and music.

We had gone to Las Vegas about 3 1/2 months prior to our leaving Vancouver for good, to get married. Although we had been together for 18 years we had never gotten around to doing that. Actually, in retrospect, we were married for much of that 18 years, just to different people. However, we had rectified that situation several years earlier and decided that it would probably be a good idea to be legally married before we went to Mexico and bought property and such.

Viva Las Vegas!

 So we brought my cousin and her husband along with us to be the matron of honor and the best man and our friends who lived in Henderson, near Las Vegas, gave me away. We were married on April 1st by Elvis ( I don't think it was the real one) who picked us up in a pink Cadillac convertible, once owned by Lucille Ball. He brought us to the Tropicana Hotel where he performed a very musical ceremony in a beautiful gazebo.
After the wedding a long and interesting party ensued and a good time was had by all.

Salud!

If you are in Vegas and want a fun Elvis wedding check out the guy that did ours. http://www.vegaselvis.com

Now 3 1/2 months later we found ourselves again, in Las Vegas. After a few days visiting the same friends in Henderson we were again on the road and looking forward to finally getting to Mexico. By then it was nearing the end of July and the temperature was 116 degrees F. We had air conditioning in the SUV so this wasn't really a concern until the thing coughed and died in the middle of the highway, the SUV not the rabbit.

Sitting there in 116 degree heat, waiting for a tow truck, I put Larry in my lap and removed all the soda  cans from the cooler and piled them on top of him. Rabbits have no way of cooling off the way cats and dogs do and can die of heat exhaustion very quickly. Luckily we hadn't gotten too far down the highway and there was an air conditioned hotel not too far away.

It turned out that the oil pump in the car had failed and 9 days and $6,000.00 later we were again on the road and looking forward to finally getting to Mexico.