A new day, a new adventure.

Got up, got dressed and saw that our caretaker had already got the pickup truck washed and ready for an early departure. It was nice breezing trough Morelia before the traffic started clogging up the streets. Since it was a Saturday and in the season, shoppers would be running around so I needed to get to GDL in order to first find the Honda dealer and get there before they closed which was 2 o'clock.

Got to the autopista in record time arrived at the motel to now load up the pickup with all the stuff (crap) from the SUV. Our pickup is the model that has seats in back but is not the full blown version you see with full cabs, so space is still at a premium, especially for 3 people and a couple of dogs.

My wife had already rearranged some of the items, into a few boxes, I brought back some large garbage bags and a few suitcases to be filled with the miscellaneous stuff. Now the pickup truck looked like something had exploded in the back, with boxes, bags and stuff askew in the back. The only thing we had in the back of the pickup bed was our luggage which we would place inside the cab when it was parked while on the road. Otherwise it was an invitation to be lifted.

My wife called the dealer and was told the directions and that they would be closing at two.
Not a problem....it was 1 o'clock as we pulled out of the motel lot.

"Ok, where did you say they were, dear?"
"He said they are by Lopez Mateos......"
"Ah....ok, which side, past it , before it. The only places I know are on Lazaro Cardenas , where all the car dealers are" I said,
"Then go there"
1:30 came and we found every other car dealer except Honda.
I had her call again and now we got that they were across the street from the big shopping center.
"Ok, which shopping center, there are two large malls, shopping centers on Lazaro Cardenas, and we drove by both?"
Knowing that it would be my fault for arriving after they closed, I stopped the first cab I found and asked the driver to let me follow him to the dealer.

Pulling up 5 minutes before two we dashed to the service desk. "Hello, we are here about our Honda that was brought in last night with rear end damage.
After giving him our name, he proceeded to click the keyboard, get up go to the other room, come back, click some more and said, " I am sorry but we don't have any Hondas that match your description or name"

First thing into my mind was, *@#, *@#($&%%) , great, never got a signed receipt, never got any kind of definite info exactly where it was going, bye bye car, let's just go and forget the whole thing.

Then my wife called the insurance adjuster.

Which dealer did you have it towed to?
Yep, we were at the right one......she told the service writer, that it has to be there, it was brought in around 8 o'clock last night.
"Hang on, let me get someone else here"

He promptly disappears , vamoose, outta-here, gone......
5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, Got offered water or coffee 4 times before he came back and said they found it.
Ok, great, what a load off my mind, so we get all the info, phone numbers, cell phone, email addresses into the system. You can call us Thursday or Friday for information of how we are going to proceed.

"In the meantime would you like to look at the new Hondas in our showroom?"
No thanks, back in the truck, back on the road, lets try this exit of GDL again.........

As we approached the caseta where all the action happened 24 hour before, I glanced in my rear view mirror to be sure that there were not any tractor-trailer rigs barreling down the road.
"Made it" this time, as we crossed and drove by the plot of highway that I had become intimately exposed to a day before. Each pit hole, each bathroom in the complex, the parking lanes, having way too much information of the location we barreled on towards the ocean.....

Uneventfully we arrived in Puerto Vallarta a day late and a Honda short, welcoming a quiet week before our friends would fly down to meet us and spend a few weeks in the uneventful Mexican coast.

Knowing that if they tell us to call on Thursday, it would be nothing different than calling on Friday or the Monday of the following week, we waited. We called, and got the information we were expecting.

"No news yet, they are still pricing out parts and the availability of them, it will be another week or so."

Saying to myself, this is going to be a long process, longer than I may have the ability to tolerate, but this is Mexico, we are all safe, and in the big picture a smashed up car is the least of my worries at this time.

The stupid incident was not going to creep into my mind for the next several weeks especially during our holidays and visits from friends.

Hopefully one last chapter to follow, maybe we will have some news......