so the morning arrives...

So the morning arrives, the last morning of our Bucaramanga stay, and it is cloudy and overcast. The day calls for rain, as it did slightly yesterday (Shirley thought it was great to swim while it was raining), and it feels like a good day to leave. It will be interesting to see where we will be staying during our time in Bogota. We are hoping we have some sort of internet connection, so at least we can keep in touch and continue to journal our time here. It has been fun to document the happenings of this trip and to hear the reactions of our friends and family. Before we left I put a site counter on this page, just out of curiosity; it has been fun to see how many people visit, from where, etc. We set a record two days ago with 70 hits...and now have easily passed 1,000 for our time here. Congratulations! You are the 1,000 visitor and are now in line for the possibility of winning a major award! I have no idea who the thousandth visitor was, though, so...no prize.

Anyhow, we will go to eat our breakfast soon, I will load up on lots of bread and fruit, and we will finish our packing. I know that the food situation here was hit and miss and that it was well documented by this writer, but now we go into the great unknown of a B&B in Bogota. Hopefully the food will be good. I don't know why I am so worried about food. So we will leave for the airport around 12:15, and we are hoping that we will have no troubles with our baggage and the taxi, but Yovany is pretty industrious fellow and I am sure he will figure it out. I am already anticipating Juancho repeatedly saying "mm...avion...mm...avion" when we get to the airport. Perhaps he will wear himself out and fall asleep.
Side Note: You all know Juancho likes elephants, and after last night's dinner at which a local youth was wearing a Mickey Mouse hat, I am pretty sure that Andres likes Mickey Mouse.
It is very exciting to be taking the kids on their first plane trip, much like taking Janine on her first single prop airplane flight in Alaska, although I am hoping for different results (let's just say that she gets motion sickness very easily). Good times.

On a sports note, the Ducks continued their falling apart at the end of the season with a loss to Stanford last night. I have lost hope in the Ducks ever doing anything great at the end of the season, as they have their annual falling apart at the end of every year. The Tar Heels, on the other hand, held off a strong BC team to rebound from there recent loss. I am hoping that they can finish out their ACC season with no more losses, including the ACC tournament. I keep hearing about what a deep team they are, how good they are, but I am still not convinced. They are good, but seem to often lose to lesser teams. I know that Coach Williams took the blame for the V.Tech game, and maybe he should, but this team, if they are as talented and as deep as everyone says, should not lose to V.Tech. They need to learn how to shoot the ball.

On a music note, Both Willard Grant Conspiracy and Son Volt have new albums coming out in the next couple of weeks. I am curious for both, as they promise to be different than previous albums by the artists. Willard Grant Conspiracy lost one of their co-writers before this album, leaving only one to write the songs. From what I have heard, the other writer was holding them back, and this album is supposed to be really good. For Son Volt, I heard that this was their most experimental album from a writing standpoint. That alone makes it interesting, and I am hoping for more than just album filler that has clouded Jay Farrar's solo albums. I also hear that Counting Crows are in the studio now, working on their new album, as is Damien Jurado. Keep your ears open...

Well, this ends my Bucaramanga report, which I at least hope was informative and entertaining. Like I said, we hope that we have access in Bogota so we can keep writing. Today will be busy, so keep us in mind, keep us in your prayers. We look forward to the beginning of our return home and to seeing all of you (although for those who live elsewhere, it will have to be a different time, regretfully). If we do not have a connection in Bogota, I offer farewell, and we will catch you on the flip side. If we do have a connection I will try to write tonight.

keep on rockin'...

The song for the day is "Here is the Right Time" by Josh Ritter...which seems like a good song to fly to...