Well, I finally made it to Celaya, Mexico safe and sound yesterday afternoon.  It was roughly a four-hour bus ride from Mexico City.  Which, for a travel day, could be much worse.  The only major downside was that the air conditioning in the bus was on the fritz.  I made the amateur mistake of wearing sweatpants on this certain occasion.  I was going for comfort ability, but what I ended up with, I would describe more as miser ability.  You are probably saying to yourself, "That is not a word."  Well it should be, because I felt it.  Nevertheless, I survived the journey and got a good practice in when I arrived. 

     The tournament is kicking off tomorrow.  Most tournaments start on Tuesday, but in Mexico they like to get things going early so you have one extra day off.  Which is always a plus.  I play Andres Alvarez Cerdan (MEX) first round tomorrow at 2:00pm central time.  My singles is followed by doubles not before 5:00pm and I am playing with Darian King (BAR).  So it is a pretty full day of tennis on the schedule tomorrow.  I am looking forward to it.  

     I am playing on the center court (pictured above) tomorrow.  As you can see it is pretty nice.  There are some stands to the right of the picture.  I think it is pretty clear that my photography skills could use some serious work.  Practice makes perfect though.  They will only get better don't worry.  I also wanted you guys to see the view from the hotel (pictured below).  So you can sort of get a feel for Celaya.  I know you can't see it, but there is a walmart in the mall in the picture.  Which is why you see the parking lot slam packed with cars.  It is like a carnival in there.  You think walmart in the USA is crazy?  You haven't seen anything like this.  I tried to snap some pictures in there earlier, but was unsuccessful.  

     It is definitely nice to have a mall next door though.  There are plenty of food options and it is also easy to load up on the essentials like water, gatorade, etc.  I know it doesn't look too glamorous, but it has all the essentials. It gets the job done.  The goal is to win matches to get to play in nicer cities though.  You just have to work your way out of it.  That is the way the system works.  So that is what I plan on doing. 

     Well it is dinnertime here.  Subway will probably be the go to dinner choice this week.  I like to stick with the safest possible options while in Mexico.  Getting sick is not a rare occurrence here by any means.  You have to choose your food very wisely. Well that is all I have for you today.  I will let you guys know how everything goes tomorrow.  Wish me luck!  It has been real like always.  Thanks for tuning in. 

All the best,

Devin