January 17, 2009

If you know Lee Ann, she has in her office a motto that ends in “Wowee, what a ride!” Day before yesterday, with an overnight, we did the “Wowee, what a ride”. 137 miles on 10 quads, through rivers that were our roads, over mountains, through fields of corn, agave plants, mango orchards, us adventurers ended up at nearly 5000 feet high in the picturesque village of San Sebastian in what looked like the Bavarian Alps. We climbed over rocks, through ditches, and under canopies of trees, some blooming in profusions of yellow or pink flowers. There were multiple Bromeliads in the tall trees, scores of Bos Indicus (Brahma type) cattle, Mexican cowboys with lines of saddles lined up on a railing, small villages of tile-roofed houses and tiny stores and people gathering places. Our first adventure stop was going through a deep river with big boulders with the quads and one of us not making it. We were mainly audience while our hero, Allan, with his winch (adaptly connected) pulled him out. A few more heroes helped. It was one of our Kodak moments. Abel and Allen, the Mexican riders, have been our greatest assets with their speaking Spanish to ask directions and being considerate in taking care of us. They both have extensive quad experience. The next great adventure that we were not prepared for was a torrent of rain. We first spotted the black clouds ahead with optimistic attitudes and then the rain hit us with a half an hour yet to our hotel destination. No one stopped, even as the rain felt a bit like hail once in awhile. We sped into San Sabastian drenched to the skin and looking like drowned rats. Carole and our Mexican quad riders made arrangements with the hotel and we all hit the showers as quickly as we could make the water hot. I didn’t really get warm until we went to bed on the huge king sized accommodations that night. First we explored our picture perfect destination and had dinner at an Italian restaurant “you could die for”. Andy was sure that he gave a clerk 500 pesos for a 20 peso scarf but we will never know for sure and we didn’t worry over it long. The courtyard of our hotel El Pabellon was a garden of tropical plants including a triple (or Cinco) Poinsetta. They had a narrow door behind the hotel that each of our quads jumped through to park in a nifty parking area just for us. It looked itself like a old Spanish courtyard of the 16th century. Our rooms all faced each other and had green wooden shutter doors and windows. The town square (that our hotel sat on) had a typical gazebo in the center and little canvas covered stores around the edges. On the other side was the big church with a huge bell tower. We will all remember the bells as they were rung about every hour during the daylight hours and started up again at 4:00 am (an hour later in this time zone). The bells were accompanied by shotgun firecrackers in celebration of an all saints day…..shocking many times!!!

In the morning, dressed in warm dry clothes and the sun shining high in the sky, we were ready for new adventures. It is an adventure alone when 10 quads try to do anything, like getting gasoline from 5 gallon containers with syphon hoses. All of us snaked up and down the little streets on our quads exploring the town before we took off down the mountain, bound back towards the sea. Coming the day before, we had worked our quads through tiny villages on rutty dirt roads and we all wore some sort of dust mask. Going home, we took a different route that included quite a few miles on the highways going top speed for us….exillarating to say the least….. viewing beautiful scenery. There were two note-worthy adventures to report. Carole had arranged for us to find the road to a newly developed hot springs. When we arrived, we were among their first costumers. The Mexican man that had developed the spring was there with his son and little grandson. He made sure we enjoyed the six concrete and rock pools that he had worked so hard on, each with a different temperature of water, ranging from about 85 degrees to over 106 degrees. He had even built dressing rooms and places to sit and enjoy our lunch. We all got in the pools, some with just their feet….but, all enjoyed every inch. We left a good sized tip as he had not yet figured out how much to charge for his wonderful hot springs pools.

There is a piece of the dirt road about ten miles from home that is so bad that the five of us passengers dismount and then watch as our spouse drivers see if they can make it over the huge crack in the middle of the path that cannot be avoided. Bob had Shirley still on the back and they didn’t make it. We all screamed as they went over into the crack, seeming to pin their left legs beneath the quad and the quad didn’t quit running. Bob has skid burns on his arm and leg, but neither of them were hurt bad. Everyone helped them get up and took Kodak moment photos. There were five double riders on this two day excursion, Jo and Andy McBride, Shirley and Bob Lewis, Mike and Susie Bray, Ken and Linda, Barry and Kim and five single riders; gutsy Carole Thacker , Abel, Allan, Pete, and Darryl. Wowee, What a ride!!

One more to top that, last night we went for dinner with Carole, Grant, Bob and Shirley at a really great local place called Rocky’s. After enjoying food, drink, and company, and then walking out the door, a voice said (at a table by the door), “Can we go anywhere without seeing the McBrides?” I said, “What” and ran over to hug, none less than Jenny Oakes, from Ferndale. When her husband, Lowell Daniels, came out of the Baña, we were posing with Jenny for him with big grins on our faces. We cannot believe it is such a small world. Jenny and Lowell were with two other couples and their kids, and, of all people, Rosalee of Los Amigos B & B next door to the La Penita RV park. We had never met Rosalee, but had emailed her and heard all about her from Donna and George and Bob and Shirley. We went home in shock, just having met the second couple from home as they are about to leave La Penita. How wonderful to see them. They fly home today!