I feel like a broken record. June 2012

As for us, our auto problems continue. We got the transmission repaired and left Rio Gallegos. Not 400 miles later in the mountains no less the darn thing started smoking and spewing transmission oil, again. Exactly the same thing that supposedly got fixed. Fortunately it happened not too far from a "winter station". Since towns are few and far between, Argentina has these stations in the Andes that they open during the winter and these stations keep the roads clear of snow and ice. We got to one but it took 5 days before a tow truck could get us out. Again fortunately, we never leave towns without shopping and filling up with gas and water, so we were ok, plus the guys at the station were super helpful. We are now in a small suburb of Comodoro Rivadavia called Rada Tilly. It is an upscale beach town. We have rented a cottage right across from the ocean from the local vet and will stay here for the winter, at least through August. In the meantime, we will decide what to do. We don't know if we trust anyone else to fix the transmission down here. Our route from here will be to head into the Andes through Chile, Peru and Bolivia and we sure as heck don't want to get stuck then. We may send the transmission back to the states to fix or Tom may fly back to the states and look for another motorhome! The problem with that is we enter a country with a temporary importation permit for the vehicle and we would need to solve that problem before attempting to import another. We are in contact with the US embassy in Buenos Aires and we are meeting with a customs official later this week to try to find out what we need to do if we do purchase another RV. To be totally honest, we just don't know what to do but renting this place will give us some time to think it through and research all our options. If you have any ideas or suggestions, we are open for advice. One happy thing that I will be blogging about is my niece swims for the US Swim Team and on Saturday she raced a 10K Open Water at Worlds in Portugal and came in first place in an international field of 41 swimmers from around the world. That earned her the only spot for this event to represent the United States at the Olympics. Her time was only 1.36 seconds faster than a Hungarian girl so she has some practicing to do but the whole family is so excited for her. Her name is Haley Anderson, so if you watch the Olympics, please cheer her on. Besides being a super swimmer, she is a great girl studying at USC on a swimming scholarship and has worked really hard. This is her dream. Go Haley!!