Retired in Mexico
Baja Beaumont

By Richard Godkin, Mexico

My wife, Kathy, and I sat on a sofa in the hotel suite in Salt Lake. Neither was speaking.

Both were staring at the mountain of suitcases and various other possession-containers on the floor in front of us. I shook my head. "I thought we got rid of all our material stuff before we left Wendover."

Kathy swung her fingers across the pile. "Well, we did -- except for 16 suitcases, and three backpacks' worth. It looks to me like we need to slim down again."

I mumbled something gutteral. "Yeah, but everything we've brought is necessary. I mean, how can we survive with less than two computers?"

Kathy didn't even bother to smile. "With one."

At that moment, I didn't see any humor in her statement. None at all. I got up from the sofa and walked to the phone. "We'll just see about that." I put the receiver to my ear. "May I please have Continental Airlines?"

In less than a half hour's time I was speaking to an actual person. Since I knew the Continental employee's time was valuable (why else would I have gotten a human in such a short period of time?), I verbally raced through our predicament. Without even trying, I knew I had a glow of triumph on my face. I waited for the voice on the other end to explain my options.

That glow of triumph quickly faded into a face sagged with dispair. I shook my head in the direction of the phone. "Okay, I see. Thank you for your time." I replaced the phone to it's cradle.

I turned to Kathy. "Well, we have a choice, here. We can afford to send our luggage to Mexico, but then we won't have any money left over to buy a house." I quickly explained that after the third suitcase, the price per piece of luggage was set at a hefty $600 per unit. I guess the best part was, the price didn't go up beyond three pieces. That meant that only 15 suitcases were at $600, for a total of a mere $9000. Even at half the price, I did not then (and still don't now) consider that to be a bargain.

All I could do was sigh. "Well, let's unload, and see how much we can cram into four of these bags."

Kathy had a puzzled look on her face. "Unload? You mean the suitcases? Which ones?"

"All of them. Hey, our plane for Cancun doesn't leave until tomorrow afternoon. If we get started right away, we can have these puppies paired down by the first light of dawn."

And thus, our journey, our adventure into the Yucutan Pennisula of Mexico was about to begin.

Read more about Rick's new retired life in Mexico here!