YA #12: Tell about your trip to Mexico with Randy

Kind of random that I picked this post today.  No particular reason.  Actually, I'd rather write about what led up to the trip to Mexico, but realized I MUST have pictures to go with that post and I don't have digital copies of those, so I'll wait.

So, we'll just say that the trip to Mexico began as an ESCAPE from Bill Zupp's cabins in Canada and, it was REALLY the precursor to a marriage proposal!!!

We fled Bill Zupp's camp on a hydro-plane with Amy crying to take her with us.  We felt really bad, but Pop (Randy's dad) wouldn't have let us take her with us , although I think "Mom" was jealous, because she didn't want to be there either.  (I shouldn't say either, because of the four of us, I think I liked it the best.  It was more of an adventure for me, but I can't say more or it will ruin the future post!)  Anyway, back to the hydro-plane that took us back to Minnesota where we had left the car when we met Randy's folks to go to Bill Zupp's.

We got in the car and drove.  We drove south. We drove toward Chicago.  I didn't know why.  We just drove.  With about four days left of our two week vacation, we had no clue where we were going or what we were doing, but I was off for the summer (these were my teaching days and it was summer) and Randy was off from Caterpillar for their 2-week plant closure.

"So, where are we going?"
"I don't know."
"Well... what do you want to do?"
"I don't know."
"Do you want to go back to Corny?"
"No."
"Do you want to go home?"
"No.  I'm on vacation."
"Is there something you want to do?  Someplace you want to go?"
"No."
"Then why don't we just go back home?"
"No.  I want to enjoy my vacation."
Sheesh!  "So, what should we do?"
"I don't know but I'm not going home.  I have almost a week left. I want to go somewhere."

And so it went.  All the way through Minnesota, into Wisconsin and down to Illinois.  Until....

"Let's go to California."
"California?"
"Yeah.  Let's go to California."
"Okaaaayyyy... Why California?"  (Now mind you, I had ALWAYS wanted to go to California. Visions of Gidget movies and Monkees TV shows and Beach Boys music flitted through my mind! I had always wanted to go to California, but somehow going with Randy just never really clicked.  But, what the heck.)
"You're serious?"
"Yeah.  We're not far from O'Hare.  Let's get on a plane and go."

And so, we drove to O'Hare International Airport in Chicago.  And it was late in the evening and there were no planes to LA until the next morning.  But, we bought our tickets.  And then we tried to get comfortable sleeping in the airport.  And we were dirty.  And we were stinky.  Our week before in Corny consisted of swimming and bathing in the lake.  That worked.  I was used to that.  But you couldn't swim at Zupp's and there were no showers.  So, there we were. And that's how we arrived in California.

We rented a car, although I'm surprised they rented us one the way we must have looked.  Now what?  We started with a hotel and a trip to Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm.  Those things were fun, but I found out that I don't like Loop-de-loop roller coasters!  Then we decided to visit some family.  Randy had an aunt and  an uncle in California.  In the San Diego area.  So we drove.

I got to meet Aunt Linda (Mom's sister) and Uncle Tom and some of their family.  Their oldest son was on an LDS mission.  (First I'd ever heard of any Mormons!)  They were nice, but we didn't spend much time with them.  Randy didn't seem to think too much of them, by reputation.

Then we went to Randy's uncle's house.  His name has to have been Jerald, but I don't think that's the name he went by, 'cause I don't remember ever hearing about Uncle Jerald or Uncle Jerry, but I know all of Mom's other brothers (David, Jim & Ward), so we'll just call him "Uncle Jerald." Okay?  Anyway, Uncle Jerald and his wife were very friendly and welcoming.  They have three children: Bobby, Billy & Susie.  I think we briefly met Bobby.  Susie was cute and sweet.  But we spent most of our time with Billy.  So, Aunt ? insisted we stay with them.  Said we could have Bob's room 'cause he wouldn't be there.  EXCUSE ME?!?!?!?!?  Randy and I weren't married!    I didn't even know if we were really dating!  (This was the summer after he came back after being gone for nine months after breaking our engagement and my heart.)  But, they were pretty open-minded and put us in the same room. With one bed. A water bed.  It was one of the most uncomfortable nights of my life.  But I survived and the next day Billy promised to take us down to Tijuana!  I had never been out of the U.S. before and in one week I was in Canada AND  Mexico!!!

So, away we went.  Now, I knew I had nothing to worry about going across the border, but still the sight of the border guards scared me to death!  Next thing I knew, we were in Tijuana and it was literally like being in another world!  Turns out price tags mean nothing!!! They expect you to dicker with them over prices!  A skill I was NO good at, by the way!  I felt like we were cheating all those people!  And they looked like they needed every penny!  So, I wasn't having much fun. 

Randy, however, was having great fun and the more he bought, the more fun he had and the more he enjoyed seeing what he could get for the prices he could get them down to.  I know he bought things to take home for his family but I don't remember what he got for them.  I know I bought my roommate (and Zeta twin) Libby a really pretty hanging terrarium.  She had a gift with plants that I didn't have and knew she could grow some gorgeous plants in the brass and glass home for plants.

Randy fell in love with a three foot tall brass candlestick.  He had to have it.  And he kept dickering and dickering with the guy until he got it.  (I think it was about $50)  Oh! And by the way.  Our money was getting dangerously low.  But he didn't seem  too concerned.  'Cause then he found a leather coat.  It looked good on him.  The leather was beautiful and it was soft.  And he had to have it.  So, again with the dickering.  He scored the coat for $35!  To me, it was worth more than the brass candlestick.  I mean what do you do with a brass candlestick other than kill Colonel Mustard in the library?  (He probably still has it.  I know I sent it with him when I packed up his stuff to move out.)  Anyway, the $35 put another serious dent in our dwindling funds, considering we still need to drive back to LA, fly back to Chicago and drive back to Morton, Illinois...

So, we're walking along the sidewalk in Tijuana, smelling all the delicious food, but not eating anything because we didn't want to risk a case of Montezuma's Revenge and I'm looking longingly at different pieces of jewelry or clothing... something to take back to remember my day in Mexico!  And, suddenly, Randy realizes that I haven't bought anything!!!  I got a little bit excited, thinking maybe he would buy ME something or at least use his dickering skills to help me get something, but he just told me I needed to get something before we left.  So, I did.  The way our finances were weighing on me and the thought of food and gas purchases before we made it back home, all I could reconcile myself to buy was a $5 flour sack shirt.  Yes. I said a flour sack shirt.  (You see, in the olden days, flour used to come in big, cheesecloth type sacks and it wasn't uncommon for impoverished people to make shirts out of them.)  So, I found one with a colorful logo that I found appealing and bought a flour sack shirt and we left Tijuana.

And we drove back to the states.  And we had to cross the border again.  And declare everything we had purchased and after Randy told the man everything he had purchased, I said "a terrarium and a flour sack shirt."  And, the man waved us through.  The best part was a moment after we crossed the border when cousin Billy starts laughing hysterically.  Imagine my horror when I realized that "Yes.  I was party to smuggling marijuana across the border in the trunk of Billy's car.  This day only got better...."

We drove back to San Diego and were soon on our way back to the airport to fly home.  As we were driving and I was contemplating my life, thinking about the past two weeks and all that had happened, thinking about the summer being almost over and not knowing what I was doing; whether or not I had a future with Randy, knowing I had given up a budding relationship with another guy when Randy came back into my life and knowing that the only thing I knew I really wanted in life was to have a family of my own and that I wasn't getting any younger, I decided to do it!

"So what are we doing?"
"Huh? We're going home."
"No.  What are WE doing?  What ARE we?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, are we going anywhere from here?"
"I don't know what you mean."
"I mean, do we have a future?  Are we going somewhere in life?"
"Uh..."
"I want children.  I want a lot of children.  I became a teacher because I love children."
"Uh..."
"If we're just friends, that's okay.  I can deal with that."  (And I meant it.  He'd already broken my heart.  I already proved I could live without him and I hadn't given it back to him yet 100%.)
"But, I need to know what we are."
"Welll, uh..."
"I can be your friend.  We're good friends.  We have a good time.  But I want more. I want a husband and I want children.  I want a family.  And if it's not going to be with you, that's okay.  I just need to know.  Because, if we're just going to be friends, I need to spend a little less time with you and spend a little more time trying to find someone who does want the same things I want."
"Well...."
"I don't want an answer now.  I know this came at you from out of nowhere.  But I need you to think about what you want and let me know.  I'm okay to move on, but I can't wait forever to do it.  You let me know."

Little did I know the impact of that conversation.  Oh, it accomplished what I meant it to accomplish.  Just maybe not quite the way it should have.  It was about two months later when Randy proposed, but it was for the wrong reasons.  I don't mean that he didn't love me, because he did.  In his own way.  As much as he could.  But he grew up in a different kind of family than I did.  He had parts of his life he hadn't shared with me.  I didn't know him as well as I thought I did.  We were best of friends. He was spontaneous and got me to come out of my reserved self and just have fun. We had a great time together and we had a lot of friends.  So, what was wrong?  He married me because he didn't want to see me with someone else.  When we were getting divorced he told me that it was that conversation after having seen me with Buddy earlier that year, that let him know he couldn't stand to see me with anyone else, so, rather than lose me, he decided to give me what I wanted more than anything else.  My family.  And it just keeps growing.  And I love them.  And they're mine forever.