JoAndy

2009-03-15T15:52:00.000-07:00

Home to Ferndale

March 15, 2009

Yesterday found us driving early from Jamie and Marna’s at Tracy, CA to Humboldt county and home. Our visit with Jamie and Marna was one of the best birthday parties anyone has given me since I remember….of course, my memory is not what it used to be, or is it? Jamie cooked dinner (abalone rolled up over a piece of pineapple and grilled with bacon rolled around it, marinated steaks, and stuffed mushrooms). He had brought home a dozen red roses for me…..I cannot even remember ever getting a dozen red roses. I remember yellow ones from Andy one year at Willowbrook and a red one in a vase from Jack when he was a boy. I couldn’t believe them, they were perfect. What a boy! Then in comes Marna with succulent plants in a square dish for a present and she gave me an oriental Lily bulb to plant at home and one of the stepping stones she had made with mosaic glass and she had baked a birthday cake for me, too….oh, “shuuuud up” (that’s a valley girl expression that means “awesome”). What a girl! Marna and Jamie were so fun to be with and we hated to leave. We had such a good time with them and their cockatiel, Kiwi, and their 21 year old cat and their beautiful new house that we were seeing for the first time. There was a perfect place to park in front of their new house and we stayed for the night. We took silly pictures of ourselves:

CA is so green (and pink) ...... beautiful this time of year and we saw blooming fruit trees and lots of new lambs and calves.

There was no real rain until we were nearly in Fortuna. It took the day yesterday to drive all of the way home, stopping in Fortuna for a balloon and wrapping paper for Gramma Gin’s birthday gift from Mexico and a few groceries. We saw our friend, Ivan, and gave him a bus tour in front of Safeway. At Carol and Dan’s house we had dinner and visited with them, Mom Gin, and Carol's new West Highlander puppy, then stayed all night in their driveway. One more house of hospitality, thank you. We caught up on talking besides puppy play. I need to help Carol and Mom Gin this next week with all of their projects, like lawyers and checking out rest homes, so we had lots to talk about.

We drove out to the hills this morning in the wee early hours of the day. Laundry and mail are first on our agenda, after Andy puts the virus protection on my computer and we bring essentials in from the bus to the house. It is pouring rain….welcome to Humboldt county.

2009-03-13T20:55:00.000-07:00

March 13, 2009
“8 hours before you get towed away” says the sign on the entry to the only rest area that we found as the sun set, taking 46/41 cutover from highway 101 to I-5. We stayed a little more than that, actually stopping about 7 pm and leaving, after sleeping, at about 4 am, Andy wishing me a happy Friday-the-thirteen birthday with a card that he made himself, full of sweet sentiments, and even a picture of me on the front (with my butch haircut that he doesn’t like much). It wasn’t daylight yet when he talked me into breakfast at the cutest restaurant near Kettleman city when we reached I-5. The restaurant was decorated with toy cars, motorcycles, fire trucks, tricycles, firetrucks, surreys, and jeeps (all big enough for a toddler to drive). A few may have been old, but, most were bran new and looked to be the envy of any two to five year old! I had oatmeal as it still felt like the middle of the night to eat. Spring has sprung in this country and all of the country is green. The vineyards have grown south as well as north and the 46/41 cutover is now “wine country”. Right now we are passing acres of orchards in bloom….so beautiful. The blossoms on the ground look like snow.
Thomas and Dez went with us on Wed. to visit Cathy and John in Long Beach. We arrived at the Golden Shores campground with several hours to kill until Cathy was out of school. She teaches first grade and remedial reading. Tom and Dez went with us to breakfast at one of their favorite restaurants (the night before we went for Shushi) and then to the Aquarium of the Pacific, within walking of the campground, and one of the best aquariums we have seen. This aquarium compares to Monterey aquarium and we were very impressed, especially with their hands-on displays and the extent of the jelly fish tanks. In the last few years many new species of jelly fish have been found for us to enjoy. They are so delicate and exotic looking and as beautiful as any of God’s creations. Cathy joined us at our RV and visited until time for her fiance’, John, to get here on the ferry from Catalina; then they gave us a tour of their new, perfect for them, house with it’s new paint and outside decks, hosting a coi fish pond and one of the biggest of coi, a pet that would come to be rubbed and then chew on Cathy’s fingers. These four people together are great company and we hated leaving them.
Jenny was next and we had a fun day finding her yesterday at her dorms at UCSB, Santa Barbara. We woke her up and she has a cold, so we told her to go back to sleep and we would pick her up for lunch after her last class at 2pm. Meanwhile, we found Costco and bought Marsala chicken and Ceasar salad to fix lunch for us in the bus. We also bought some Edamame (our new good-for-you snack that Cathy introduced us to (steamed soybeans in the shell tossed in salt)….nummmy. I drove to pick up Jenny just as she walked up to her dorm room and she showed me around. Her little place is really cozy with one roommate and just room for their beds, desks, closets, and one bathroom. It was covered with quilts and posters to make it homey and I was impressed that they have room cleaning service…cannot beat that. Andy was busy washing the bus when Jenny and I got there and he greeted us with salads made and entertainment right outside the bus (rugby teams warming up). We had found a place right on campus to park our bus and car for the day. Jenny smiled a lot in spite of her cold, so we think she enjoyed the visit. She feels a long ways away from her family, but gets to go home for spring break next week.

2009-03-11T09:15:00.001-07:00

March 11, 2009
We dry-camped overnight in Primm, NV in a large parking lot behind the Buffalo Bill Casino. We had dinner and after a quiet night of sleep, we had breakfast in the casino. We re-fueled at the Lenwood exit just past Barstow on our way to Los Angeles via I-15.
While there was some traffic we had virtually no hold-ups all the way to Playa Del Rey, a state campground on the beach just south of Marina Del Rey. We arrived there just before 2 PM. This place is at the beach end of the Imperial Highway, or I-205. Our 40-foot bus just barely fit into their spaces which they claim are 37-feet.
We found out that we did not have to be home by March 13th, because of a misunderstanding of dates, except that we wish we were home for Gramma Gin’s 90th birthday March 10 (too late for that!). So we are visiting a grandson, Thomas, and his girlfriend, Desirae, in Marina Del Rey, LA. He has been a highway patrolman for four months and is really enjoying it. Desirae has a job with Wells Fargo so they are doing well. We had dinner with them last night and today are going to take them with us to meet our niece, Cathy in Long Beach. Cathy is a kindergarten teacher whom we think they would enjoy meeting. Cathy has been in the area for some time.
On the way north we will visit granddaughter, Jenny, who started going to the University of Santa Barbara last fall, and is probably anxious to see some family. Then we will visit Jenny’s father who is our youngest son, Jamie, and his girlfriend, Marna, who last fall bought an almost-new house in Tracy. They both work at the Livermore Lab in Livermore. He has an exciting job working on a huge laser machine with 192 lasers aimed at one little piece of matter the size of a BB. Their work is expected to be a major breakthrough in many aspects of nuclear physics and is expected to result in the development of a safe source of atomic energy with little radioactive waste.

Then we should be home Saturday, March 14th to catch up on what we let go while having a marvelous time in Mexico! JoAn’s sister, Carol, is anxious to see her and have some help making some choices with Gramma Gin, who is apparently ready to go to a rest home, a heavy decision. She cannot get around well enough anymore and needs more care than Carol can continue to give. She has been living with Carol and Dan for almost a year.
I plan to work on the bus and whittle away on my long to-do list before we take it up to Infinity Coach, Inc. in Sumner, WA to finish the list. When that is done we hope to be all set to travel care-free!

2009-03-10T21:55:00.000-07:00

March 05, 2009 Thursday
Our route today takes us from Organ Pipe National Park up 85 until it runs into Interstate 10. It is a new way for us to go. We are not sure that we have ever been to Oregon Pipe National Park unless it was with Johnny in 1991. Going west on Interstate 10, our GPS, Nuvi, suggests that we go up the short cut at intersection 45 straight to 72 that takes us to Parker through the Bouse Wash. We just know that we have never been to Bouse, have you?

Our groceries are low, our US currency is almost nonexistent, our credit card does not work…..probably because we didn’t use it for 3 months and they think someone stole it, and we need to do laundry. The drive up the state line was really nice though. Andy enjoyed the no traffic and nice and easy road to drive. He stopped twice for cat naps and felt better for it. We aimed for the KOA campground at Needles, CA. and NUVI navigator took us right to the spot that she says and we do not see anything like a KOA. Across the street, however, is the park that we ended up in. It is a beautiful and quiet place right on the Colorado River named Needles Marina Park. We called the bank and found that our VISA card has expired. We paid cash for the night stay. Tomorrow we will try another card and/or an ATM. Andy BBQed steaks and we did all of our laundry. Our day ended with a walk around the little lagoon that was created from the river and the river bank beach and the grassy areas along the edge. We may jump into the Jacuzzi before we retire into our house bus.

March 9, 2009

There was another fabulous reunion of family in Utah on the weekend. The BBQ at Deb and Lin’s happened just in time to catch Kate and Graydon coming in from Salt Lake and before they move to Florida, Rick from Henderson, and Graydon’s parents, Mike and Tanya, as they were swinging through from Kanab with little granddaughter, Brylee, and Lin who flew into Las Vegas and let us pick him up at the airport after he had been away from home for over 2 months. The Barbecue included four of Lin’s high school friends from Iowa that are staying in St. George. Many of the other Drake friends came for the barbecue, including Steve Couts and his family that had come to visit Central Park in 1987 before either of his daughters were born and before Kristen, too. Time really flys, huh? Patti and Kristen came from St. George and Thane from Minersville.

We stayed at and met Patti and Kristen near the Lake Mead Parkway Walmart for the night of 6 March. Those two stayed that night on our bus couch bed after we had spent the day with the satellite man trying to figure out our computer satellite dish. The picturesque village of Lake Las Vegas was so near as to attract us for dinner at a fine Italian restaurant, the same one we had a Mother’s day brunch at one time a long while ago (I recognized it from the waiter doll that we had posed with for pictures…..he looks so real that I expected him to say something to me!). With much debate about the safety of snow conditions in Cedar City, our bus made it’s way up to the parking place above Deb and Lin’s house for the nights of March seventh and eighth. Because we hit on a weekend, it was a marvelous visit with everyone. There was breakfast at the Main Street grill before we left this morning. It was really lunch for Deb as she had to go to work today early. For Andy and I, the rest of today was spent driving to our destination of Primm, NV, setting up in the parking lot and then dinner in the casino, dropping only a dollar into a one armed bandit, and doing a long walk inside for exercise. It is still a little cold here, although warmer than Cedar City. There was a strong wind all day and it made the drive harder

for Andy

2009-03-04T20:31:00.000-08:00

March 4, 2009
We stayed at Totonaka RV park in San Carlos last night and had dinner across the street at the thatched roofed restaurant that we had garlic shrimp three months ago. We three couples are all from Northern CA, would you believe? I didn’t even know there were that many from CA in the Canadian dominant La Penita RV park!

We forgot to turn off the car last night and the battery was dead this morning. That held us all up for an extra 45 minutes. After getting diesel at the PEMEX 3531 just outside San Carlos, we were on our way a few minutes before 8am. Before now, we have tried to be on our way by 7am. It is getting cooler as we go north….we will soon be wishing for warm again. Yesterday we crossed the Tropic of Cancer. Today was an eventful day, especially after we went our separate way at Santa Anna. Richard and Sandy had to go out of Mexico at Nogales and we planned to go out at Lukeville, so we gave out hugs, drive carefullys, and addresses and drove with Ray and Judy up smaller highway 2 towards the border. It was a wonderful new highway for awhile, until we found the construction and drove for a ways beside the highway, very slowly. Another adventure (as we quickly call anything that threatens to be depressing) was at the main military inspection point. We came up on maybe 500 semi trucks lined up to be inspected and thought it must be an accident or something. That many truck drivers must still be there. Their line wasn’t moving much. We drove slowly right pass them in the right hand lane, were inspected rather quickly, and then guided through between the rows of trucks.

The border crossing was pretty smooth, although Andy and I had to pay for one of the tourist passes that we didn’t pay for on coming down. The officials told us (on coming down) that the new rule was that if we were together only one of us needed to pay for a visitor pass. That rule was so new that it no longer exists, I think. It was a great place to cross with hardly any traffic and no waiting at all. Tonight we are going to sleep in the USA at Organ Pipe National Park just over the border. We are in a wonderful parking place and ready to take off for Utah tomorrow, while Judy and Ray are going a different direction. It has been so fun traveling with them. We plan to look them up soon from home and keep in touch.

2009-03-03T13:46:00.000-08:00

March 3, 2009

We are more than halfway to the border. In fact, I think tomorrow we cross the border. We are traveling with Judy and Ray Porteous and met up last night with another couple fresh from La Penita, Sandy and Richard. They drove late into the PEMEX, south of Los Mochis, where we slept, had dinner and a movie last night. Sandy and Richard had a long day, driving all of the way from La Penita in the one day. The rest of us had stopped one other night in Matzatlan at Trailer Park California and hiked around the beach area to find an old restaurant that Ray remembered. We managed to get lost from each other and found again as we retired for the night.

The drive up north has been an easy one except for the bit of rough road and close brush overhead on the portion through San Blas until we came back on highway 15. We were not stopped but for one or two of the ag inspection sites and none of the military ones. There is some news that it is unsafe in Mexico and the drug traffic is making problems for the tourists. We think that all of the military seem to be going south for some reason. Is there something going on in the interior? There certainly was a lot of agricultural land….so much corn, especially, (and tomatoes, peppers, Agava, beans, sugar cane, and fruit trees). There were many processing plants for corn and grain elevators. I always enjoy the drive wherever it takes us and I followed the “Bell” travel log that I printed on our way down, with it’s info on topas, statues, numbers on the KLM signs, and even the McDonald’s signs. Porteous’ have been down here many times and know the way around, so again, we followed, putting the fifth wheel of Sandy and Richard between us (as they did not have a CB to keep in contact with us….we told them that we talked about them all of the way from Los Mochis to San Carlos).
Last night at the PEMEX our awning made a cozy shady space to eat and watch the movie outside between our rigs and keep the dust off from the big trucks coming in. The trucks, doing their parking lot ballet, gave us some added entertainment. Tonight we are again in a organized restful RV park on the beach area of San Carlos, at the Totonaka RV park (just up the hill from the one we had stayed in before). We elected to park in a dry camp area so we don’t have to unhook. Our plan is to go to the fine restaurant across the road (the same one that we started this adventure with Shirley, Bob, John and Barb)…..it is a grass palapa on the beach side, remember? I think I will take a beer inspired nap now. We will contact you soon……loves

2009-02-28T16:14:00.000-08:00

February 26, 2009
Andy went alone (alone without me anyway….but with several other quads) on Lewis’ quad to a town further than ever before, to be gone 3 days and two nights. Meanwhile, Bob’s sister and I are painting the town red and I am finding out that I know how to find more places than I knew…..because I haven’t been driving much before. Justine and I have gone to Latitude 21 and Solley’s to eat, went to downtown Rincon and to the Thursday market. She and I found Arnie’s downtown store, the flan store, and the leather shoe shop (where I bought sandals of wonderful soft leather. We sat down and had flan in the middle of the market and people watched and then got a bit lost exploring La Piñata by night. We bought jewelry, walked down the beach, and made a coffee table on her patio out of a boogy board to sit our beer and salsa chips on. Justine tried a contest winner coconut margarita and all of the shrimp dishes we could find to eat. Judy, Sheila, Rebecca, Sharin, and I started painting the mural on the baños above us. They are going to have undersea, beach, and La Peñita RV park scenes…….one special one will be three white poodles astride a blue quad bike. Justine gets a kick out of the things we did when we first arrived, like the road work with no signs so you don’t fall in, the narrow roads that the cars water ballet around each other and between each other with inches to spare, and Margaritas served free at the jewelry store!

February 28, 2009
Andy had a great time on his quad ride and went to one town further than the last overnight ride. They rode to a town that starts with the letter “M” and I need to find its name on the map to tell you. It sounds something like “Mascot”. They had great food, saw another quaint village, slept in some needy places with a cold water shower one place, saw another beautiful church, and could see Puerto Vallarta from the 8000 ft. high viewpoint. The quads were parked, as usual, in a safe place inside while they slept. Of course, for Andy, it was the ride that was best. He has a tattoo on the fender of his bike, written in dirt, by a cute little girl. It said, “Rony” (and a little heart) in layer of road dust clinging to his quad. I forget, not being in on it, how much dirt can be on one person and one quad at a time, so you would have a time finding the color of his pants and face.
Meanwhile, JoAn (at home in La Peñita) went with Judy to her pottery class (Justine and Rebecca came too). We were fascinated by the paintings she had to show, the pottery and ground kiln set up in her flower child sort of living room combination gallery combination kitchen. Her pottery and sculptures were wonderful and Judy and Shirley are taking a class from her. She also caters breakfast….wish we had known about her when the kids were here! She is truly a free spirit in her art expression….I would love to have shared her and her pottery and art with Debbie and Carol. If we come back, I will take a class from her. She teaches painting as well as pottery. We worked a bit more on the mural but it will not have enough background done for me to do any sketches before we leave. We are leaving tomorrow morning at 7 am.
Today finds us loading kayaks, folding carpet, folding tables and loading them, and all of the numerous things we need to do to pull out of our spot tonight and hook up the car and line up by the entrance to leave tomorrow morning. We are going to the border with a nice couple named Ray and Judy Porteous in their 35 foot Dolphin with slides. There are at least 5 rigs leaving tomorrow and we will probably travel together to Mazatlan. In Mazatlan the others will split off and go another way. Some of them are going to the interior Mexico before they cross the border. Our plans are to stay one night in Mazatlan, then one in Los Mochas, one in San Carlos, and exit at Lukeville and go to Sunrise Nat. Monument where we can use our Golden Age passes. Our plans are to go to Utah and maybe Arizona. In Arizona, David Johnson’s wife has been diagnosed with Cancer and should be out of Cancer surgery when we get there. We may not do that though as she may be at a point in Chemo that she does not want to see anyone. The plans are to see our Utah kids also and we don’t know how long we can stay. The plan is for us to take three weeks getting home, but if we are to get home to take care of Penny for Deeana on March 14, we must do it in two!
We are downhill in a new spot just for overnight…..lined up for tomorrow!

2009-02-23T13:51:00.000-08:00

February 23, 2009

Here we are again….home in La Peñita…..how can I possibly tell you about Mexico City, one of the wonders of the world all by itself. It is huge (9,000,000 people) and from the Latino Americana tower, downtown, it stretches like an ocean from horizon to horizon. The city floats on a lake bed a mile-and-a-half high. The ancient land of the Aztecs is now a thoroughly modern world capital, yet much of it is sitting on ruins built 2000 years ago, and except for some of the ruins that are being uncovered, or buildings rebuilt on top of ruins, the city is sinking at a rate of between one and four inches a year. Its great cathedral has a huge, but beautiful, plumb bob hanging from the center to keep track of its level and movement and then correct for it with pillars and jacks under the low ends. They are using some of the light volcanic rock from the excavated temples to repair some of the walls because it is a lighter material. The cathedral is extremely heavy sitting on the sinking bedrock, as are many of the old and preserved buildings. The ancient buildings in Mexico City are some of the most ornate, beautiful architecture that I have ever seen. The very rich rulers of ancient Mexico had to use a good deal of their resources in building beautiful things. There are gigantic carved sculptures, Aztec calendars, and detailed tiles on roof top trim that Eureka, CA would think (just one of them) to be the very world wonder to have in their city. The temples that are being currently uncovered near the Palace of Fine Arts are at least seven temples in layers. They sit under the ruins of the Great Temple or Teocalli, the once center of the Aztec empire.

Our hotel “Del Congresso” was only as luxurious as necessary to rest and shower, but located within walking distance of the Cathedral, Main square, National Palace, and Fine Arts Palace. We took every advantage of touring the Main Aztec temple museum, Palace of Fine Art (awesome artists murals like those of Diego Rivera and about the ancient history of Mexico), and the National Palace. With our guides, Sergio and Patricio, and their great sense of humor, the tour was enhanced by extra fun details, like climbing to the bell tower of the Cathedral and seeing the military changing of the gigantic Mexican flag in the square below from the top of the bell tower. The Aztec museum is not an ordinary museum. It contains all of the pieces of antiquity that are being excavated from the temple and pyramids, for us to see. Monolithic sculpture remains, portions of actual walls and murals, skeletons still wrapped in partial disintegrated blankets, and tiny reassembled fragments of carvings and animal bones are dramatically lit with background lights and staged to the best advantage. Some are dated from 500 AD.

We tried a few new foods too, like the delicious Pozole soup and prickly pear cactus cooked with cheese, onions, and sauce and called “Nopal”. I love Mexican coffee: strong espresso with steaming cream in a glass.

Our three days there went fast. We had a city tour that included the wonders of the Castle of Chapultepec and the National Museum of anthropology and history. A person could spend a week exploring each and never cover all of the history and things to see. The Anthropology museum alone was fabulously full of information and considered to be one of the best museums of anthropology worldwide.

The last full day we spent at the Teotihuacan archaeological site about 49 kilometers northeast of Mexico City. The site is thought to be as old as 700 BC, although it is not until 100 BC that construction of its two great pyramids began. Archeologists estimate that at its peak around A.D. 500, up to 200,000 people lived there, making it bigger than Rome at the time and one of the largest cities in the world. We climbed to the reconstructed top of the largest pyramid, the Pyramid of the Sun, the third largest pyramid in the world. In front of it is the mile long Avenue of the Dead and at one end of that is the second of its largest pyramids, the Pyramid of the Moon. Our entire group (about 15 of us) explored the site, including the restored Palace of Quetzalpapalotl, Teotihuacan’s most elaborate building. Beneath this palace is the Palace of the Jaguars, so called because of the jaguar images in the rooms (and ringing the courtyard) and the substructure with its feathered snails carvings. Needless to say, there were many Kodak moments.

One surprise visit was to a craft area nearby where the famous precious stones of Mexico are cut and mounted into the Aztec masks and Aztec sculptures sold all over Mexico. These are quality made from stones that were explained to us in their rough forms before we viewed the beautiful finished products to buy if we wanted. I think we cannot find this quality in many places in Mexico. We couldn’t afford any. The cut and polished stones are combined with the best of silver, Abalone, and other shells to make out of this world beautiful masks, jewelry, animals, and sculpture. One Aztec mask was made souly of blue Lapis Deluzy. They cut pieces of Obsidian, Opal, Turquoise, Jade, Quartz, Amethyst, and even Tiger Eye.

The demonstrations also included the uses of one of the local Agave plants that is a different species than the one used to make Tequila. The plant was used by the Aztecs for paper (pulled from between layers); for creams to soothe the skin (like Aloe); for the drink, Pulque (self fermented by the plant in its center); for fiber to make rope; and even to make a needle pre-threaded naturally with plant fibers and pulled from the end of the point of the center.
Near the pyramids our group stopped for dinner. The food was good, but the entertainment, better: both by the four piece Mexican band with heavenly voices, the Indian dancers, and by our own silliness posing with sombreros, Indian headdress, rifles, etc. (check out pictures)

It was a long drive, taking about 12 hours to get to Mexico City from La Peñita, but we never want to change the memories of Mexico City and the wonderful tour group that we went with.

2009-02-14T07:31:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentines day to you.................................

bowed legs 'n spurs!

Grand prize

two indians and a baby cowboy..

Friday the 13th, February, 2009

Last night’s experience was the famous annual pig roast here at the park. We are supposed to dress up with goofy costumes that look western. Of course we left any semblance of cowboy clothes at home. Mom made some big spurs and what looks like cowboy boots out of cardboard. She really did a pretty funny job. Except for some goofy looking cowboy hats we bought in town and some big glass guns with corks from Tonala, we didn’t compete in the costume competition. There were some outlandish creations because there are some pretty clever people in this park: “Miss Kittys” by the number, a “Dolly Pardon” of very large mamos, Willy Nelsons, Texas rangers, Carole, both horse and cowgirl at the same time and riding a mechanical bull, and two excellent Indians with full head dress! You can bet that our experiences in Mexico are not compared to just anyone.

The school children at the school (the one we painted up with little mermaid murals) invited us for a surprise. They had gifts for each of us and a trusting, happy hug. The student’s papas had painted the inside of the classroom. We hope that we helped them have pride in their school…..the little ones, and their teacher, were so sweet to us.

Carole's dogs get bathed just outside our bus!

New quad trip to Hot Springs with David and Debby Gregory and their friends, Teddy and Quentin, Bob and Shirley Lewis, Carole Thacker and her son, Tyler, and his friend, and us and the beautiful scenery and the cool warm dip in the springs. We went 16 miles to the springs and it took 1 and a half hours to get there - one way.

Next Tuesday we will be taking a small tour bus for a five day excursion to Mexico City. This particular trip was highly recommended by others that have taken it. We will visit a couple Aztec pyramids—Pyramid of the Sun—a downtown tour, art museums and other archeological museums. It may be our last hurrah before heading back to the states.

After this 08-09 trip we will have covered several of the key places in Mexico: Ensenada, Tijuana, Mexicali, Baja (about everything there), Cancun, Cozumel, Chihuahua, Copper Canyon, Los Mochas, Mazatlan, La Peñita & Rincon de Guayabitos, Puerto Vallarta, Zijuatanejo & Xtapa, Acapulco, Guadalajara—Tlaquepaque—Tonala, and soon, Mexico City. That does not include several small towns or places that were special. The only places in Mexico I had been were Tijuana and Ensenada before Mom and I were married. Mexico is truly a wonderful country to see. So many Americans think that it is too dangerous to travel in Mexico, and they may be right—it may almost be as dangerous as United States. So maybe we should stay home, lock the doors and pull down the shades! Anyway, there are thousands of Canadians that have no fear and spend up to half a year in Mexico every year.

2009-02-12T13:24:00.000-08:00

February 12, 2009

The ladies all dressed up yesterday and we attended the nicest fashion show I’ve had the privilege of attending. It had all of the elements: friends to enjoy the show with, beautiful clothes, designers, and models – some we know, especially model Bee, Carole’s mom, and designer, Lucy, who is making dresses for us already; entertainment to die for (The backup singer for the Supremes), the seventeen year old girl singer that is pretty as a picture and sings like a lark, and the handsome, romantic Mexican vocal, Roberto Curiel (who signed my CD, “with love”….are we never too old to swoon?); and the perfect setting with delectable food at the San Carlos Hotel in Rincon where they have a pool and a bridge crossing for the models and white table clothes for us. The MC was good too and it was a very special day. I owe a lot of my fun times to Shirley Lewis, who has gone out of her way to include me in all of her discovery places to go from past experiences. She and her husband, Bob, have shown us all of the best of Rincon Guayabitos and surrounding areas. We can never repay their kindness. They have truly made a great trip into fantastic.

Early to bed and early to rise….that is us…..there was a beach party last night and we decided it would be easier to cook for ourselves and then go down to the party after. Our gathering at Carol and Grants, their delicious BBQed ribs with Shirley’s salad, and the people coming and going lasted until our early bedtime and we missed the beach party altogether.......just went off to bed!

Andy’s comments on his kayak adventure of the day before:

I took the kayaks (on top of the Honda) to a secluded beach that one should have 4 x 4 to get to. That is why it is not too crowded. Gregory’s, their friends, Webber’s, and Lewis’ came, but Mom had promised Judy she would help her paint decorations for the upcoming Pig Roast. Dave hopped right into the blue kayak and went way out to the edge of waves by a reef and was riding them in. He claims he had never been in a kayak before. The waves were only a foot or so high on the shore so it was fairly easy get past them without mishap. But the ones Dave was playing with were two or three feet and he was a long ways from any help.

Quentin decided to go out and make sure nothing disastrous happened to Dave. It took two of us to get him through the first little waves and he went out for a brief while. When he came back in he somehow did not manage to keep the kayak coming straight in and ended up rolling over. That was enough kayaking for him. John went out and paddled around with Dave quite awhile. Then finally they came back in.

Teddy, to not be outdone by her husband, Quentin, wanted me to accompany her in a kayak, which I did. I warned her that I was not all that experienced, so she should not get her confidence built up too much. She was great and came back in under control.

The next day I spent quite awhile trying to come up with a system to wash all the sand out of the kayaks. I decided 95% will have to do. I do not understand how Quentin managed to get so much sand into his kayak. I did not catch on to the trick he had, but then I learned that he had been in the earth-moving business. Well, now I know why we hit it off so good.

2009-02-10T08:47:00.000-08:00

This is Shirley's take on the full moon last night and it is well written!.....

Turtles under the moon
Now what does that mean.......well. ... . the ladies of La Penita RV park gather at 8:00 pm when their is a full moon....
Yes they gather but what do they do ...you ask
It is a gathering of the ladies who all jump into the pool NAKED........yes naked. So I was invited To come and see...bring a towel I was told. Well to say the least I was a little shy and decided to just watch. I watched these ladies strip their clothes (now mind you they come in all sizes and ages...all the way up to and over 80 years old) . Now the next thing you hear is laughing and music!!! All this under a FULL MOON.
ONLY IN MEXICO...AND ONLY AT LA PENITA RV PARK

PS Sorry no pictures of this event!!!!

2009-02-09T15:32:00.000-08:00

February 9, 2009

Gayle Dixon little suspected four of us on two quads to appear at her house just starting to be built in La Penita. It is going to be a wonderful brick house, palapa, pool and all. The builder is working on it and we got to see it in it’s “before” stage and envision the finished house as it will be. Gayle is planting and cutting in the big yard and there is a new wall around it. The rest of our Sunday quad ride was just that, not too long or rough. We went to the top of the hills above Los Ayalas and viewed the sea and town below, among the beautiful newly built homes and lots for sale. Then there was lunch in Guayabitos , at a restaurant on the sand, with the sound of waves hitting, boats being launched, and children building sand castles. It was a rush to get home on the quads in time for me to make fresh shrimp cocktails before Shirley and Bob had to go up to their 400pm duty, cooking for “Hamburger Sunday” at the pool. The Gregorys, their guests, and the Webers came by and we made shrimp cocktails for everyone. At karaoke that night, we found out that our neighbor, Ken, and two other residence of the park could really sing. Jo even did one line dance.

Saturday evening it had been our privilege to be invited to Allen’s Bungalows Alexa to partake in his Saturday evening potluck. He invited us, his quad buddies, and entertained us by introducing his guests and Olga, his wife and fantastic cook. Olga made the best-we’ve-had chili rellanos. Two of his guests were wonderful entertainers and sang with their key board and guitar. One little boy named Andrew says he can imitate Johnny Cash!

A new project for Infinity coach???

Today, Monday, Andy has taken a bunch kayaking at Cave beach and I stayed here to help Judy paint wagon wheels of cardboard for the upcoming “Pig Roast” that promises some good times on Thursday.

2009-02-07T06:50:00.000-08:00

February 07, 2009

Andy's observations:

Co-incidentally, JoAn has been working very hard this past week on a breast cancer volunteer project in the La Peñita RV Park where we have been staying the last ten weeks. They have been fitting Mexican women with prosthetics who have suffered with mastectomies and could not afford to be fitted with proper equipment. It was a huge team effort that came from everyone’s hearts. They made well over 300 hundred women very happy, many of whom went away crying in tears with happiness. Obviously their previous trauma had pulled them down and had changed their lives. This act of charity made a wonderful uplifting change for them. Maruka, speaking both English and Spanish was invaluable, along with a few of the other Spanish speaking helpers. Jackie, who lives in La Peñita, was first to organize this project and has carried it by herself for many years. Now it is time for others to help her.

While the men could not be involved helping directly, they supported with other projects like shuttling the women between the park and the buses, which stopped maybe a mile away. I was one of the drivers for three trips and when I helped the women off the van, practically everyone of them hugged me and thanked me—mostly in Spanish—for all of the team, especially the leaders, for the wonderful thing they made possible for them.

One Mexican friend who brings produce to the park twice a week donated a huge amount of food for the small restaurant to turn into soup and snacks for the patients who were waiting for their turn to get fitted. The three Mexican women who work in the restaurant donated their time for three hard days of work feeding those women waiting. They had never been so busy! Other women and men worked behind the scenes preparing the food, and running errands.

In preparation for the event, regular guests of the park and people outside of the park brought nearly 500 used bras and prosthesis from Canada and the US. It was quite a job setting up shelves and boxes to sort the sizes and types of everything, and fabricating eight fitting rooms in the clubhouse and setting up several sewing machines outside for customizing and adjustments. That is one place where some of the men came in to help. It was a big undertaking.
And you know what? It really brought the camp together even more. The guests here are pretty much a giving compatible kind of people that want to help. We believe it centers around Carole, who is the lady who rents the park and runs it. She is completely involved constantly. Carole instigates events and is always present.

2009-02-06T21:24:00.000-08:00

February 06, 2009

Andy is spending bus cleaning time...

My miniature garden

One of many open pasture roosters

For those of you that stayed at the Hacienda Bungalows, this is how the front wall looks right now with flowers in full bloom and the duck still in charge!

The Webers and Gregorys (of southern Oregon Diesel) and their friends flew into PV yesterday and Bob drove to pick them up. In the evening there was a potluck dinner for the Mama clinic volunteers up at our pool and one catered for the passengers arriving from stateside (complete with party decorations) at Weber's house. Dinner was delivered to Webbers house at the same time they all walked in together from the airport....perfect timing and delicious dinner and chatter. Tonight we went to restaurant Latitude 21 to try the winning Margareta from the Margareta competition, called a coconut lime Margareta......delicious and afterwards had a Chi Coffee drink at Ada's new coffee shop and purchased a tiny dress with bonnet for little Karen's birthday (her mommy works at the pool cooking breakfast and we love little Karen....cute as a bug). Andy went to Chiropractor and I did line dancing and a facial! What a day!

2009-02-04T20:06:00.000-08:00

February 04, 2009

There are alligators here…..just below in the swamp area just uphill from the beach.

Today and tomorrow ends our Mama Clinic….we have fitted several hundred women with a prosthesis and prosthesis bra and pride and wonderful exuberant happiness. For some of them they felt like they had been restored a bit of themselves that they had lost. We took pictures of all of the volunteers and many of the ladies strutting around with new confidence.

Last night we celebrated Lewis’ 38th wedding anniversary at one of the nicest restaurants in the area, The Xaltemba, with Lewis, Thackers, and their daughter, Rebecca. Time is flying…..tomorrow, the Webbers come home from their stateside vacation, along with the Gregory’s and another couple that is friends of theirs. Bob is driving to PV to pick them up.

2009-02-02T19:22:00.000-08:00

February 02, 2009

Sunday pm Andy and I cooked and chopped at the hamburger night by the pool. It is all volunteer help and it was fun with the gang in charge. I sliced onions and tomatoes, filled containers with pickles, peppers, ketchup, mustard, and mayo, and kept them filled during serving time. Andy helped cook and deliver burgers and sausages to the table. A few laughs go along, good music, and many smiles!

There was a bit of shopping today for a couple of new plants. I love the nursery and even Andy enjoyed the tropical paradise there. The tall potted trees are used for shade for the little ones that need shade and we can stroll underneath the canopy and it looks to be a botanical garden.

We are working for the next three days for the Mexican women who have had Cancer and then Mastectomies here. Apparently many prosthesis and bras for them were donated in Canada and in the states for the women that need them down here. The women down here do not have follow up groups and do not share their fate with anyone and do not get information to take home after surgery……so our RV park has set up its own clinic that is for the next three days, bringing bus loads of women in from all over the state. We expect 3 bus loads and more coming on foot and by car. Andy will be one shuttle driver to get them from their buses at the nearby PREMEX gas station to the park. We women will fit as many as possible with prosthesis and extra bras. We have some nurses and a Mexican translator to help. Directions are passed out in Spanish for how to knit prosthesis that can be stuffed with soft stuffing and be worn comfortably so they can make them themselves. They say it will be very an emotional experience……I will let you know.

2009-01-31T20:30:00.000-08:00

January 31, 2009

I have never gone on a trip before to spend money…..just to shop with 5000 pesos in my pocket to spend on “stuff”…..with friends that know what to get and all of the factories that produce fine Mexican crafts and art. Tonala was such a place…..a place like I have never seen. We found water pitchers to match our blue rimmed glasses for three for 90 pesos…..less than 3 dollars each, hand embroidered blouses for 130 pesos (less than $12) and hand blown glass stir sticks for one dollar. I purchased a set of dishes from a world known potter that are unleaded and with help from the potter in our bunch and another best friend, we picked out a set of just the pieces that I wanted…..10 place settings of big and medium plates, soup bowls for 10, and 10 mugs to match. Two serving pieces got in the box for under2500 pesos and we can get them all in a box under the bus to get them home. I have new pottery turtles and tiny salsa bowls and even some wonderful Flexi sandals. We all shopped until we dropped and managed sightseeing in between and traveled over 4 hours each way in a brand new 45 passenger luxury bus full of happy campers J It took us most of today to sort out our boxes that we packed all of it in and find all of our stuff.

Around one o’clock at the pool a bunch of us met to learn how to knit “tit bits” for the Mexican women who have had mastectomies. They are hand knit soft prosthesis that they can learn to make themselves and they are so easy to take care of and pack like a small bit of underwear. I will enjoy helping out. This week we have three bus loads of women coming here to pick up collected prosthesis from Canada and the US that everyone has donated and little soft purses for under their arms and information that they seem to be lacking from the processes they have gone through. It seems to be quite a big project.

Andy and I have volunteered to help with hamburger night tomorrow night and we have a crazy pig roast sometime this week that everyone dresses up for in homemade costumes. We found some six gun bottles with corks in Tonala and this morning Andy and I made spurs out of cardboard and aluminum foil. We bought cowboy hats like Mandy’s and I also tried to make a silver buckle for Andy out of aluminum foil and cardboard. Our costumes will be simple…..cardboard around our calves with silver spurs for boots.

Andy went on a great long day quad ride with the guys……while I shopped in Tonala. He went to a chiropractor here too for his foot. He is going again next week and says it has helped his foot that has been bothering him if he walks for too long on it. He had a massage too ……not hurting much……even did a pedicure!! Is he a happy camper?

2009-01-27T05:47:00.000-08:00

January 27, 2009

JoAn will be part of 36 women aboard a new bus on their way to Tonala tomorrow early in the morning for three days:

For centuries, the towns of TONALA and TLAQUEPAQUE, in the state of Jalisco, have been home to exceptionally talented potters. Tonala, which means 'place from which the sun rises', is a quaint and peaceful village situated on the outskirts of Guadalajara. The visitor will see at least one pottery studio with open doors along each of its narrow cobblestoned streets. The friendly workers welcome curious passerby and do not hesitate to interrupt their work to explain the different steps followed to produce the various items of potters.

One of the most interesting buildings in town is the Municipal Palace, which actually seems more like a museum; this handsome edifice is itself a testimony to the works of art which the Toltecan Indians habitually produce from clay. A high tower, surmounted by a clock, rises from the center of the facade; it is decorated with high temperature ceramic plaques whose blue-green hue contrasts sharply with the rest of the building. Inside, glass showcases embedded in the walls display valuable pieces crafted by local potters. As the visitor climbs the main stairway, he is greeted by a unique fountain: twenty Tastoan-ceramic masks fashioned into a cube spout water from thier mouths - which pours down into the fountain. Upstairs, there are two striking doors hammered from copper and three large murals depicting the history of Tonala. In the presidential office, a Mexican flag contained within a niche offers a fine example of Tonaltecan art; set on a base of paper-mache to give the impression of undulation, the flag is made up of five thousand tiny jars painted in red, white and green - Mexico's national colors.

Eleven different types of ceramics are produced in Tonala: Negro Esgrafiado, Matiz, Banders, Canela, Betus, Rustico, Brunido, Petatillo, Mayolica, Engutado and High Temperature (Alta Temperatura). All these beautiful ceramics are manufactured in a wide rage of brilliant colors. In addition, Tonala craftsmen produce handicrafts made of paper-mache, brass and copper as well as clothing, furniture, candles and hand blown glassware.

On market days, Thursdays and Sundays, Tonala's main square is awash with colorful awnings providing shade for the pottery market.

TLAQUEPAQUE
Once upon a time, long, long ago, the village of Tlaquepaque just outside Guadalajara was where Guadalajara's upper crust built their summer homes, places where they could escape the congestion of what was then considered to be a very busy city.

Today, Tlaquepaque seems like a natural extension of the city of Guadalajara and, although no longer a place where the locals go for a quick getaway, it is still a beautiful and relatively tranquil place to explore.

Over the years it attracted a number of Jalisco and Mexico's more talented artists, and developed a reputation for the quality and diversity of its wares.

A number of old summer homes have been converted into shops which house a variety of crafts from throughout Mexico and restaurants serving fine international cuisine.

Avenida Independencia, a street closed to all but pedestrian traffic, is a good place to begin your serendipity. Here you will find Silver from Taxco, rugs from Oaxaca, copper from Michoacan, hand blown glass, hand painted tiles, huichol clothing from Nayarit and pottery from the states of Guanajuato and Jalisco.

Prices for these items range from just a few pesos for a souvenir key ring to several thousand dollars for original art work. Sergio Bustamante is from Tlaquepaque. He began by working in paper machŽ and soon became an artist with an international reputation. If you can't afford an original, there are a number of stores offering replicas for a fraction of the cost.

Another interesting experience is the glass blowers. At La Rosa de Cristal you can watch boys as young as 12 wandering around the workshop carrying balls of molten glass on long metal poles, blowing, twirling, shaping, firing, and, finally, cutting off a vase, wine glass or pitcher. In the gift shop you can purchase even more items including jewelry boxes and small, delicate figurines.
While the prices of these items seem to be a bit higher here than in their place of origin, they are much better bargains than what one would pay in the U.S. or Canada.

When lunch time rolls around, you will find a variety of restaurants to choose from. Perhaps the most famous of these is the "No Name Place" (Restaurant Sin Nombre). It has, well, no name. It also has no printed menu. A waiter will arrive at your table and recite the day's offerings and return later during the meal to sing to you at your table.

Try the Cafe de Olla, a typical Mexican style coffee drink made with cinnamon and raw sugar, after your meal or with your dessert. It will help your food digest and prepare you for the second half of your day in Tlaquepaque.

There are two well known ceramics shops which should not be missed. The first is El Palomar. Located on the way into Tlaquepaque, it offers a wide variety of dishes, mugs, decorative pieces and more. The other is Ken Edwards. Although they both offer hand painted, lead-free ceramics, there is a definite difference in styles and you should consider visiting both before making any large purchases. Also, be aware that both shops have a "seconds" area. These pieces always have flaws but some are so unnoticeable that you'll wonder how they ended up there.

By the end of the day, when the sun is beginning to set, wander over to El Parian, find a table, order a margarita and enjoy the mariachi music. For just a few pesos you can have some of Jalisco's finest mariachi musicians play you a song to accompany the day's joys and triumphs.

What can I say?

2009-01-26T13:07:00.000-08:00

January 26, 2009

What can I say except that we danced the night away at Hamburger Sunday while they projected slides of our mural project and our quad rides. The pictures speak for themselves.

2009-01-24T14:08:00.000-08:00

January 24, 2009

You’d love to see the mural we are painting on the little school in the village. The school has about 20 students, is concrete about as big as our bus, and we are doing a mural on 3 sides and maybe the name of the school on the road approach side. Today was mostly background, but tomorrow will be the fun, putting fish, peligans, turtles,and crabs in with Nemo and the little Mermaid in the sea that we painted in today! PaPa Andy had the choice this morning of going to help us paint or going on a quad ride to the hot springs again. You can guess where he is……not painting! Maybe he will come help tomorrow….he said he wanted to…..as long as the choices aren’t too delectable to resist! The little Mexican girls gave us loads of the biggest avocados that I have ever seen to bring home with us…..they look like small watermelons…….and I have paint in my hair!

2009-01-23T19:25:00.000-08:00

January 23, 2009

Where do I start with our journey from La Peñita to Lake Chapala, Ajijic, Guadalajara, and Tlaquepaque……at the beginning? Carole and Grant needed to go shopping for a pool cover, and a coffee maker for Ada’s new coffee shop. Guadalajara may be the place to find it, so we were pleased that they could come with us, and we took two cars.

Carole guided us to the picturesque town of Ajijic that is hard to pronounce and is full of more Canadians and US people than Mexicans. Bea, Carole’s mother, tells me, later, that 30 years ago many retired military people settled on Lake Chapala, paying only $10,000 for property and getting a maid and gardener for 250 pesos a month. They could retire there on their military retirement pay and live well. We hired a guide to take us touring. He took us to a house with everything you’d ever want that was for sale, by owner. They were a nice couple from Canada that has to sell for health reasons. The house was a beauty and they wanted $339,000 for it. It seemed a bargain for what you can get in the states, but it makes me wonder if it is the same property that 30 years ago sold for $10,000.

First we had all checked into the hotel La Nueva Posada in Ajijic, right on the lake. It was very old Spanish with wonderful outside-inside dining areas and old paintings, fixtures, plants, and rock construction. The hotel was Carole’s find of a previous trip and she is the true discoverer of adventure……. finding a wonderful bead shop, at the same time, across the street with the colorful hand-beaded figures we had seen before….only these were (some of them) two and three foot long beaded leopards and parrots. Our Mexican guide with his van drove us around Ajijic and Jocotepec, touring through the gated communities and the Hot Springs spa and giving us two 20 minute stops to explore. The architecture and art continue to fascinate me. The combinations of old brick, rock, towers and balconies in downtown are an example set for artistic builders and even for amateurs like us.

The three couples then drove north to Guadalajara. We stayed in an old hotel in the middle of the city. It was the original hotel of the matadors. Many famous matadors and officials have stayed there. The Hotel Morales started as a rooming house at the end of the 19th century and became known for several decades as the bullfighters’ hotel. Again, it was built of rock and tile, but in an elegant businessman’s way with a big fountain in the lobby. The waiters that served in the restaurant were all well schooled and the food good. The entire staff was very professional. One nice thing was that our room was very quiet.

It was fun exploring the suppliers with Carole and Grant as they found the pool cover they needed and the coffee making equipment. The coffee supplier gave us espresso to taste and recommended different supplies for Carole to look at. With their half English-half Spanish dialects and hand signals, we all learned a lot about coffee machines and different mixes and brands to use.

We took a double-decker bus tour of downtown Guadalajara and another to Tlaquepaque, the village that retails the wares made in Tonala and around the world. My favorite town so far is Tlaquepaque with it’s cave-like stores of wonderful treasures like glass, tile, wood, and leather. We bought some glasses although they say we can get them for less at the factory stores in Tonala next week on our ladies shopping-spree trip.

Guadalajara is at 5,214 ft elevation and cooler than the coastal areas where we have been living. It is the capital of Jalisco and has a population of over 3 million, so we only scratched the surface of places to see. The monuments, markets, murals, shrines, and grand plazas gave us an ever changing view of old Mexico. The market must be the biggest in the world and we have seen many, even Barcelona’s and Brazil’s are in competition. A double steeple of yellow tiles tops the Cathedral de Guadalajara. The cathedral sits on one side of the Plaza Tapatia with its great open spaces, decorated by grand fountains spewing gallons of water. On the opposite side is the Teatro Degoliado, a classic theater, opening in 1866 with its columned façade and marble frieze depicting Apollo and nine muses. We could only peek inside of it and get a fleeting view of the gilded and muraled stage set. I especially enjoyed the story of the Monumento a los Niño’s Heroes and the Plaza de los Mariachis. We hiked through the plazas and market later on our own and came home yesterday. It is not a long ride back to La Peñita on the coast again, but we were all happily tired. What a country!

2009-01-17T12:13:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-01-14T18:54:00.000-08:00

I think that I did not publish the post before last so now that I have received some pix from Shirley who happened to have a camera, I will publish the January 10 blog....so it belongs before the last one :-)

Andys' version of the polo game:

“We just got back from watching two consecutive polo games. I have never seen a legitimate polo match first hand before. That takes some well-trained horses and some highly skilled players with plenty of strategy savvy. Occasionally a horse gets popped with a ball, but they seem to be used to it. I would think they would have more collisions. It is not as rough as hockey for sure. What is confusing is they change goal ends after each point is made. I think they call each half-time a choker(?). They play 7 ½ minutes per choker and then get fresh horses. The horses were beautiful, kind of like a thoroughbred—quarter horse cross. It is obviously a rich man’s sport. We had drinks while watching the games and then had a good dinner. At dinner they asked for four volunteers to try out on the field. Two people from our table—Joe and Carole—went out but did not do as well as the other two. Bob Lewis snuck out with two balls and would throw them to the goal when Joe swung the mallet. It was hilarious! Then he brought the two balls home with him and kept asking the women if they would like to see his balls. More hilarity.

“Bob thinks we should make our own game of “pollo” using quads instead of horses. He said here in Mexico they misspelled pollo because they used only one ell, which is how they came up with polo. In Mexico pollo means chicken. So he proposes we get everybody on quads with some kind of mallets—maybe even tennis rackets—and chase chickens around and swat them with the “mallets”. He has not worked out the scoring yet—maybe who kills the most chickens? More details will have to be worked out at the next cocktail hour. I would suppose this event would be followed with a big chicken feed if the players are successful. Hmm . . . would they be serving “battered” chicken?

January 10, 2009
It was a different Spanish lesson this week. I was the least knowledgable one there as far as Spanish goes. Grant was impressed as well that Andy and Gail have a pretty good handle on the Spanish (compared anyway). With only five of us including the teacher, Maria, we dropped the heavy study and had a good discussion about Gail and Maria’s two new house renovations and the troubles they are having, Gail with her Spanish and Maria with water problems. We learned several practical Spanish words like un instead of uno, aljiber(reservoir), pozu de agua (well), and a funny one that is the name of Flatmo’s new house! Indalecio (goes by Inda to gringos) is the name of an accomplished architect that many gringos are using for their new homes or renovations. He is the architect that worked on Flatmo’s beautiful new home. It is very funny to talk to Maria and find that she buys coffee at the Walmart in PV and we brag on what a wonderful coffee we can get here in La Pineta from the grower.

2009-01-13T19:44:00.000-08:00

January 13, 2009
Sharon, our neighbor to the southwest, landed an 85 pound Marlin, on her husband, Ken’s, fishing boat. The Marlin’s beak, the texture of a cow’s horn, is hanging on our shared clothesline to dry so she can take it home to Canada with her. She is drying and pickling the meat…..so exciting.

Andy did a men’s quad ride day today and drove with eight quads to the little town of La Cucuracha and did some exploring to find the back road route for us to take on Thursday when we do a couples ride and an overnight. He was so dirty that we had to brush and prewash his clothes before sending them to the laundry. We will all be like that on Thursday and Friday, but a motel to bathe and relax together in the middle of the trip…..should be so fun. Andy went 68 miles today!

I have finally dipped into the paint pot and did a water color and an acrylic painting today and yesterday. A swim and lunch at the pool with Shirley broke up the day and a drive into La Penita to pick up two pants outfits that I had made by Lucy’s dress shop. Shirley put an order in for a dress and I may go back for a dress unless I pick one up at the women’s fashion show the beginning of next month. Lucy speaks English and has made dresses and blouses and pants for the people in the park for quite a few years. She is very nice and has us try on things just behind a shelf….no dressing room. She hand painted one pair of pants to match a top and embroidered geckos and frogs on another. Andy was tired from his long trip so we stayed home for dinner, to eat leftovers from our feast last night. Our feast last night was chicken, potatoes, tortillas, salad, and Flan from downtown that we served on our patio to Carol, Grant, Shirley and Bob with homemade Margaritas.

Two of the top park worker boys delivered some promised concrete from a site job they are putting in up the hill. With shear talent, our neighborhood rocks have been piled (by us) so they resemble steps. The boys poured cement on them for us and cemented in a little sidewalk to the steps. It will be safer and improves the looks of our little bit of landscaping. Shirley and I decorated the inbetween places with little stones that we picked up around. Shirley even tried to make something looking like a dog print in the mud and the hope is that no real dog gets in it before it dries! It is Mexican!

2009-01-09T12:35:00.000-08:00

January 09, 2009
We found Duane and Mikki Flatmo, would you believe, as they were getting into a taxi for the airport to go back home to Eureka. They jumped out of their cab, told the cab driver to wait for them, and took us on a quick tour of the new house they had just partnered on and a sculpture Duane had made out of old stuff he found at the beach and on the road. We talked like old friends (and of old friends), hugged and then they left in their cab. It was an exciting meet-up that took only a few minutes. We couldn’t believe we had actually found them as they were leaving. They are not going to be back here until April. Duane got a kick out of Andy’s “Outbreak” tee shirt with “Ferndale World Preimer” on the back and the fact that he was Bill McBride’s brother. It is a small world.

Andy and I rode in the van with Lewis’ to take John and Barb Webber to their flight departing Puerto Vallarta and stopped to play on the way, having breakfast in the cutest little coastal town of Sayulita at an unusual restaurant called Rollie’s. There we were served by Rollie, himself, and his wife, Jeanne. He even entertained us and told us about how he had come to open this restaurant, moving from Salinas, CA and from a career as a school principal. His son plays saxophone, and makes a living doing it, on the streets of Hollywood CA. He wouldn’t take “no” for an answer to trying one of his famous delicious pancakes. He made a show of telling us to take a small pie shape out of one side, put a dab of syrup with a float of honey in the middle and then take a delectable bite! There were some special remembered shops we checked out next. The beach at Sayulita is active and a crowd drawer, speckled with colorful umbrellas, boats, and bikinis.

2009-01-09T12:24:00.000-08:00

January 07, 2009
Ricardo’s, I believe is the name of the Pizza Lasagna place just near John and Barb’s new home and we had dinner there together last night after getting our free Margaritas from taco Tuesday at our patio palapa. It was a quiet evening and cooler…..has been cloudy today. There were breakers in the ocean all day, but that didn’t stop us from one of our favorite things to do, climb the rocks to go to the beach by the Hacienda B&B. No one else ever goes that way, but we really enjoy doing it and it is cleaner than the dusty road. Our plan was to go find Duane Flatmo’s house in Le Pineta, afterwards, but we stopped to return a book and give a CD of pictures to Donna and George Steensma and ended up stayed awhile instead, having a beer and talking. They are nice people. It seemed really quiet too at their place after all of our kids left. Their adopted duck still cames quacking at the front gate for something to eat and Donna wanted to put him in the swimming pool for a swim. They had a small pool for him before, but took it away. It may have developed a leak! We may try to find Flatmo’s again today. There is also a Spanish lesson and we are supposed to know the alphabet! Lewis’ have gone on a eight quad ride to La Cucuracha with others riders in our park for the day. Webbers may try a hand of Mexican train when they come for Spanish lesson!
Tomorrow we will all go to take Webbers to the airport for their flight home. They are vacationing in the states at Death valley Scotties castle in their second bus…a Prevo. Since they have a house here (and even Lewis’ who stay for 4 months) say this La Pineta living is a life style, not a vacation. I guess we still think of it as a vacation, away from any of the obligations at home. We will stop at a cute little resort town tomorrow that we have not seen before as we drive towards PV for breakfast together before they get on their airplane and then we will probably shop for stuff at CostCo and WalMart. It is always a fun day with Lewis’ and Webbers.

2009-01-05T13:22:00.000-08:00

January 5, 2009
I can’t describe how much fun it is to go with the quads exploring: Five quads on back roads full of boulders, cobblestone streets, the highway, and dirt roads (for that we need to wear masks to breathe). That does not sound fun, but it was. The views, people and places we saw, and the sheer pleasure of freedom and wind in our hair make a never-to-forget memory. I feel especially privileged to ride behind Andy. He is a good driver and I ….a good rider…..great fun. We had a new rider go with us for this year anyway. Mike had gone on previous years and everyone except us knew him. Shirley rode her quad and Mike his and then Lewis’, Webbers, and we rode double. Shirley was our leader and Bob and Shirley, tailgunners. The first half of the trip was a little over 17 miles on mostly back roads and ending up at Cave beach and Majahua Spa Resort, after a stop at a fruit stand where we tried pastries and drinks made of Yaka, or Jack fruit and coconut macaroons. Some of the delicacys were purchased to eat at the beach. The beautiful Spa Resort at Chacala was a place Carole knew well and she introduced us to the owner. We were invited to Jamaica tea, sitting in our dusty attire and dirty faces, at a fine upscale resort on a cushioned patio by the many pools in the cool shade. Chacala was a picturesque town and beach in early stages of tourist development……very beautiful. The roads, decked in bouganvilla and stone walled, climbed to the top and then down into Chacala. We followed each other on our quads, stopping to take some camera Kodak moments. Our ride back was mostly on the highway, after getting back over the hill, and we found that we were not really so far away for the ride to take nearly the whole day. It was important to get home in time to shower and go to hamburger Sunday at the pool and dance to the DJ!

2009-01-01T12:22:00.000-08:00

HAPPY New Year!

What a wonderful week with the kids. The fact that they went home with hangovers or flu doesn’t change the fact that they first made memories for a lifetime. A few of the memories include a quad day with Lewis’ quads on the beach and rides for everyone, shopping with bargains on bracelets, necklaces, wallets, pottery, and jeans, the jungle cruise (I may include Shirley’s blog on the subject), a night out with Grammy and PaPa being babysitters, bike jogs and hikes, ocean and beach combing, pool hours, books, dancing and Kareoke, Mexican style. Eating and drinking were also prevalent pastimes

Quote from Shirley Lewis about the Jungle tour……
Today was the jungle tour with the McBride clan. Now it seems that the "adults" had had a great night out last night in town and so the group was shy a few members do to "tequila". Our trip to San Blas was good as the road has improved a lot. As we entered the tour place we were glad we had come early. With the Christmas time the area was filling up fast. Andy and JoAn treated us to a guide on our trip which really gave us a different look of the vegetation and wild life. It is always a treat when they speak "English". We traveled up to the crocodile farm and the little ones really got excited when they saw the babies. As we traveled to the fresh water pool and restaurant more and more "Mexicans" arrived. Our lunch was excellent and the pool filled up fast with all the children swimming.
All in all the day was fun...and I must say every time we travel up to this tour we are never disappointed! I think our pictures will say a lot.

Andy and I did enjoy having all of the kids at the park for breakfasts, hamburger Sunday, and Taco Tuesday. We discovered new places together, bonded, and spent pesos. Time was always Mexican time and money, pesos. Converting dollars into pesos took some time getting used to. Pattys took bracelets home for their class and babysitters, Donna and George became good buddies, and Mandy became acquainted with all of the dental type gringos (and more). We showed off the Costanzos, (Joseph, Patty, Siena, and Nico), the Parkers (Mike, Mandy, Cole, and Carson), and our Ohlsson girl, Patti LeRae, to all of our friends. The week passed by in a flash. I think they will always remember the bungalow, it’s back yard, and the pool at the Hacienda On the Beach, the crocodiles, the turtles, the jungle cruise, and the adult’s crazy paint-the-town-red adult night out! Personally, Andy and I will miss them and loved having them here for a really fun visit! We are anxious to find out if the big bunch arrived home okay to Humboldt County as Joseph was very ill when they left and they were afraid of having to delay their flights if he was too bad. Patti left this morning from our park. We found someone that was already going to the airport that she could ride with, so we didn’t need to drive to the city on New Year’s day. If I had received one word from Andy, however, that he would have enjoyed the adventure of taking Patti ourselves to the airport, we would have been there with her, making sure she got on her flight okay. Happy New Year to everyone! A magician came here and made our week go by in one day!

2008-12-27T07:42:00.000-08:00

December 27, 2008
Everyone arrived with swift and smooth connections, going through customs easy and enjoying the long ride through the country side from the airport. Andy and the guys, Mike and Joseph, really enjoyed the company of one of the drivers, Adrian. The other driver, Giavanna, had Andy ride in her taxi and he grilled her with Spanish lessons all the way, he says. When the big gang of them arrived earlier than expected on Christmas eve, and then the last two Pattys on Christmas day arrived almost an hour before we expected them and walked up to the bus as if they knew where we were, I was ecstatic with happiness, as were a few others. Since then, we have done nothing but celebrate and vacation.

The guys and girls that are usually at work in the states most of the time were in dire need of vacation and Donna and George’s Hacienda on the beach has turned out to be the “best” of any places we could have found for them. The sand area around the pool is about a quarter of an acre raked sand with a fence to keep the kids from going into the sea unless accompanied by an adult, so we can relax while they dig in the sand or swing in the hammock. With a foot dip to get the sand off, the pool is like our own private full sized Santorini style pool with blue tile, white concrete deck, palapa table area and view. The deck above is the deck for the bungalow with dining area, sunbathing areas, and a place to hit the piñata with a stick and get candy flying in every direction.

Research on the Pinata by Shirley:

Today, the piñata has lost its religious symbolism and most participate in the game solely for fun. Piñatas are especially popular during Las Posadas, traditional processions ringing in the Christmas season and at birthday parties. During festivities, people traditionally sing songs while breaking the piñatas.

Note: This is the song they all sang tonight at the park as they were hitting the pinata:

“Dale, dale, dale, no perdas el tino,porque si lo perdes, pierdes el camino.Esta piñata es de muchas mañas, sólo contiene naranjas y cañas.”
Hit, hit, hit.Don’t lose your aim,Because if you lose, you lose the road.

On the upstairs deck at the Hacienda, we can hang out while little Nico takes a nap. The one problem is that the deck pillars are too far apart and we cannot leave Nico up there alone as we caught him leaning out to look below and Patty freaked out. Now, with Patty instructions, we have a net woven out of rope between the pillars and it looks and feels much safer. I think with little Italian sensitive Nico, we really need not worry anymore. He was so scared when his mommy was upset that he kept kissing her and hugging her until she felt better.

We have spent a lot of time in the pool and in the waves on the beach in front. We have walked downtown for breakfast and had Christmas dinner delivered to the bungalow and cooked by Karen’s mother, a really good cook. Karen works at the RV park office. The highlight was the best flan anyone has ever had. George, of the Hacienda on the Beach, died and went to heaven over just one piece! We had pizza at the pool at our place and Mandy and Patty cooked delicious dinner last night. Mike and Joseph have had an extra good time on bicycles dealing with the Mexican markets for our supplies. Joseph will be known from now on for balancing a cake he bought for the kids when he tried to get it home on his bicycle. Mandy took our four mile hike with us through the crop growing area one morning.

Mike and Mandy had to call the bank in the states to get their ATM card to work and then only have a guarantee of $450 on a temporary pin number. Joseph found that he couldn’t even change his American cash for Pesos without his passport with him. We have it all figured out now. In this small town area they mostly just deal in Pesos.

I cannot even tell you how much we are enjoying the sun, surf, family, and plans for the rest of the week….like hamburger Sunday with dancing at our park, and a quad day with everyone, a whale watching trip with a picnic on the island. I think everyone’s favorite thing to do is sit in the sun on vacation with a cervesa or and icy Margarita. The kids have found a new favorite drink made with milk, ice, and chocolate in the blender!

2008-12-24T13:36:00.001-08:00

Christmas Eve day December 24, 2008
The kids are coming and Andy is in Puerto Vallarta picking them up in two cars with his Santa hat on. We have shopped for supplies for their little bungalow along with pool toys, sand toys and Christmas tree piñata with proper stuffing and a stick to hit it with. Everyone is excited about them coming and a bit worried about the canceled flights in Seattle and the bad weather holding up flights in the states, but San Francisco departure is one of the easiest I think…..the flight will be late coming in….we find….everyone hopes all is smooth and they all arrive at their little vacation from a smooth trip…we will see. I have been running around delivering little tiny gifts to some people that have been so very nice to us for Christmas and we even have a Christmas card! Our tree is tiny but the spirit of Christmas is great. We wish the best ever to all of you…

2008-12-21T10:43:00.000-08:00

Sunday December 21, 2008
Eight quads and a wild time is a good description of yesterday. We left early. Four quads had girl spouses riding double, me being one. We drove back into the park just before dark as dirty as I have ever seen anyone. I had bare feet so I could easily wash off the dirt. The water shoes that I had brought were stowed in the back cubby with the beer on our quad (on generous loan from Lewis’), and we all wore scarves or masks in order not to breathe all of the dust. My shoes were only to be retrieved to climb up steep hills or eat lunch at the beach restaurant in Lo de Marcos. Lo de Marcos is many miles south on back roads, through agricultural farms growing sugar cane, pineapple and beans for frijoles. Driving the back way, we splashed through rivers and irrigation water deep on the road, followed a river weaving in and out of the water, and then climbed hills. It was mostly pretty level roads of topes, ruts, farm roads, and cobblestone in the towns. The quads did an amazing job of smoothing out the bumps. The view from the highest place was extraordinary and we spent a bit of time just looking out over the farm land, jungle, and mountains. We tried some impossible things with the quads, like climbing a bank with a berm that tips over rigs and Shirley and Bob went over once, then once again with Shirley driving and Bob pushing. Shirley hurt her wrist, but seems all right otherwise. I chose to walk up the hill alone when each of them tried to ride up the bank (up stream further) and Murrey’s quad tipped over on top of him. He was alright too with some stiff muscles and sore neck the next day. We would not have had to do that if someone had not put a fence wire across the river we were riding up. What a ride!! We watched Brahma cattle, goat families with kids, farmers cutting pineapple and using a machette, and families cooking outside, and washing clothes in the river. It was an exciting day and we covered a lot of ground, looking at the way it is in Mexico. It was fun to have Donna and George with us on their quad as they will be host and hostess to the kids next week at the Hacienda on the Beach.
This morning we had breakfast with Santa and our pictures taken with him up at the pool. There are groups of Mexican kids that have been coming to La Penita RV celebrations for several generations and the people in the park have watched them grow up.

2008-12-20T09:31:00.000-08:00

December 19, 2008
“Uno y Uno” at a street corner means…..one and then one…like a four way stop!
The sugar cane has gone to flower…the flower looks like swamp grass…because the harvesters were on strike. The strike ended yesterday.
The funeral parade participants were carrying white balloons because the boy that died was so young…only 19. He stayed out partying all night and in the early morning hours fell, hitting his head and dying from the head injury….sad!
Vegetarians, like our guide yesterday to Potrero de La Palmita, Vicente (Benny because it sounded like he was saying benicent or something like that) do not like to talk about chicken cooked on a spit or beef. It was a delightful trip for us three, Shirley, Barbara, and I in a van meant for twelve. The guys were gone for a quad ride east of La Penita with Abel, the vege and fruit vender, and Allen, the hotel and bungalow rental native. Us three women did not get back until 730 pm and went 61 kilometers past Tepic, so maybe covered 75 or more miles of farm country in our drive. We saw the largest sugar cane processing plant in the state, the state capital, Tepic, and what was the first state capital,Compostella. Rio Grande de Santiago is the location of two dams and a new one being built up stream. We went to the first one and across the lake to a the village of Potrero de La Palmita, where we were greeted by a tribe of Indians. We walked through their village, checking on their crafts, hand brick making, buildings, and an actual new retreat they are building for vacationers. It was very remote and quite a boat ride to get there. Our guide was 41 years old, not married, but the father of twins going to school in the states. He was full of good humor and good stories, so we had a great time, stopping to look at the Christmas decorations, cathedrals, town squares, museums and eating in some of his favorite restaurants (we found later that he owns one of them). Vicente likes politics and is runner up for mayor, we think, although mayor may not be the exact position he is running for. He has been in business in these towns for many years and knew everyone. He was interviewed while we had breakfast by a TV station reporter about his involvement in the turtle release program.

2008-12-19T19:21:00.000-08:00

December 17, 2008
The biggest tree with the most Iguanas is next to the swimming pool. Last year one Iguana fell into the pool. The small ones are at least 2 feet long. One fell on the cooking tent while we were eating our omelet. Everyone ran out from under. If the big one fell, it may collapse the tent. Two bigger ones were in the tree above.
We had just survived the little baby, Karen, sobbing because I blew up a balloon for her. The story is that a balloon burst in her face the day before, so she was scared. She is so precious. Our Spanish teacher, Maria, and her friends (also with small babies) cook by the pool until noon and you can get breakfast or lunch…..fresh fruit and omelets and tortillas with egg rolled in them and thick Mexican pancakes. Another major product of this farm area is honey and a must-try in April is the Mango honey.
Yesterday, Shirley and I went to Gerri’s to work on Barbie dolls some more…we washed dressed and brushed hair on Barbie dolls, and then put them in plastic bags for give away. Some were clothed in clothes we had made and we wonder where they will journey to after leaving us this Friday. Friday is distribution day at the mall in La Penita and we are all invited to help and to eat dinner down there at a restaurant sponsoring the children’s fund.
Barb, Shirley, and I have signed up for a bus trip tomorrow and the guys are going on their quad ride while we are gone. This afternoon is our 3 times a week Spanish lesson…..we practice as we do our four mile walk through the village in the early am….cero, uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, seis, siete, ocho, nueve, diez.
We had a wonderful dinner at Barb and John’s last night of fresh shrimp with cocktail sauce, chili relleno without batter on it….interestingly good….., wine, and salad. It is very warm and tropical eating on their patio by candlelite and they have some light fixtures with cloth in the top and lights shine on the cloth as it flutters in an artificial breeze, looking like yellow flames.
We hear that it has been really cold at home, …………sorry!

December 16, 2008

2008-12-16T06:56:00.000-08:00

December 16, 2008
A Mexican circus and us the only gringos and Shirley’s ride on the elephant…..then an art opening….just like the Candy Stick Gallery only more low key….water colors, handmade embroidery and handbags, and refreshments in a wonderful home on the street of well-to-do Northerners from the states and Canada….more from Canada than anywhere. The home was beautiful with a tiled dome and pool and open spaces. I am helping with the Barbie project still and signed up to go on a shopping day in February and to help paint a mural on the walls of a young children’s school…like kindergarten thru 3rd grade. Andy is out right now on the quads with the guys….they do some rough riding together but see lots of territory. We had dinner together under the stars and Christmas lights in the park and enjoyed the company last night….tacos, would you believe?

2008-12-14T07:57:00.000-08:00

December 14, 2008

I am getting behind on this journal….so much to have fun doing…..I’m tired!!

Some of our kids are arriving for Christmas week. We can walk to and from the place that they are staying in, Hacienda on the Beach. The park-mexico translater has a van arranged for pick up when they arrive on Dec. 24. After they get here, the bunch of them will be in walking distance of good restaurants…..that is what we do mostly…..is eat out. It is a shame sometimes though because we have the best fresh fruit and veges you have ever seen and fresh shrimp delivered to our RV park for purchase for a few small pesos. There is a bread lady that delivers twice a week, Pizza by the pool, Hamburger Sunday, and Taco Tuesday here in the park. The kids will be up here by our pool as much as by theirs, maybe. The Hacienda where they stay has a good kitchen to cook in, too. I hear that our park is crowded with Mexicans for that week……none here now. Shirley says the little kids will love playing in the pool with all of the kids that will be here at the park……there are none here now, so I don’t know. This morning we hiked to the hacienda to see how far it really is. It is about a 15 minute walk and the kids cannot do it without an adult, but we can walk back and forth. The owners of the hacienda told us that we could come back by the sea if we aren’t afraid of heights and climbing rocks. Shirley told us that we cannot go that way and it was steep and rocky. We did, I’ll show her……One or two adults should do it before they try it with the kids, but walking the road way is easier even with a hill to climb. Some hiking involved.

The pool at the Hacienda on the beach…..

Yesterday, we went to Puerto Vallarta for the first time and it was a whole day spent. We went to a wonderful Mexican restaurant, “Si Senor” for lunch and a hike around old Puerto Vallarta. We had been there probably 20 years ago and nothing looked familiar. It was a hotel vacation at the time and all you see is the beach side mostly. The rest of the day was spent at the Wal-Mart, Costco, Sam’s Club and Home Depot…..it is all in Puerto Vallarta. Friends are working on the new house they just purchased, so had a few things to buy. We bought some toys for kids and some supplies that are not easy to get , like protein powder for our fruit juice drinks. Our wonderful friends take us along everywhere and Andy and I love going with them. John Webber is official driver....good one!

Have you ever been to a Mexican circus? We went last night because they set up right across the highway from us. We were the only gringos attending and we did play it up big. Bob went across the ring to see if we could sit on the elephant for pictures and before I knew it, we were all in the ring under the circus tent, chatting in English to the carnies that only speak Mexican. 3 little boys were delighted with the balloons I had in my pocket and blew up for them. We fed the lamas and took pictures of Shirley on the elephant. She was a bit hysterical and grabbed the man that was trying to help her on. Later she said he had really curly hair….yah, Shirley. The circus was small but had some animals, including the elephant and two camels, a couple of monkeys, and even a tiger that was trained and worked in the open ring. We were sitting right up front, and had paid for the most expensive tickets for the best seats – 50 pesos each, less than $4.00. It was an exciting evening and unexpected!!

2008-12-11T16:26:00.000-08:00

Last night was grand opening for the Los Potros Restaurant with the Perez brothers that can sing……wow can they sing……we danced a lot….good party and food to die for…homemade perogies….fillet Rellano-Dorado with shrimp, onion, green pepper, cheese and garlic butter…mmmm. Today was the big market and swim exercise in the pool….no time for the beach!

2008-12-09T19:48:00.000-08:00

December 9, 2008
Today was taco Tuesday with free Margaritas…..but, more important was our meeting with Donna and George at the Hacienda on the Beach where Patty and Joseph and Mandy and Mike families will stay….it is a beauty.
Even more important was releasing the turtles to the sea. The baby turtles were put on the sand to make their way to the sea, to someday come back to this beach. It is a vulnerable time for them and they may not live to make it back to this beach. We got to do our share by helping them, releasing them by hand, and watching them go into the water on the beach. It was pretty emotional at sunset time and we wished them good luck

December 16, 2008

2008-12-08T13:55:00.001-08:00

December 08

I am lazy to copy a bit of Andy’s email to make a blog, but wow does it save time….so here is a bit from Andy….

I am sitting in our bus at La Peñita catching up on our e-mail while JoAn is at a Barbie-Doll meeting. Our friends who we came down with are parked next door, and Shirley--the wife--is on a committee to gather up used Barbie-Dolls, fix them up, make clothes for them and give them to an orphanage. I think JoAn has knitted some 60 outfits. They were able to buy some complete outfits with accessories very reasonably also. I think those people on the committee really deserve kudos.

The weather is plenty warm here. I would not want it any warmer. It sometimes cools down to maybe 73 degrees Fahrenheit early in the morning when it is still dark. There is both a nice swimming pool and a beach that we can cool off in.

We have been on three quad rides so far. Two rides with our wives on board and one with just the boys. We are invited on another ride with the boys tomorrow. There are endless trails through the trees, almost like a jungle, and some are pretty rough. The best part is that there is lots to see. It is even a challenge for the "tough" boys.

A comment from me:

The quad ride through small towns was truly adventure personified!!

Good hamburger night last night with a really enjoyable dance band and three singers that could really sing…….We danced waltzes and two steps and had a literal ball…. and I bid on and became owner of a bird house and a visor that says “Le Penita RV Resort”

2008-12-06T08:26:00.000-08:00

December 6, 2008
Our bus feels pretty tropical with all of the screened windows open and the cool breeze drifting through as you can see from PaPa’s picture ….. “relaxed is his name” and he has not had any heart irregularities since being here……the blood sugar count is a bit up and we are trying to keep an eye on that……the food is especially good part of our vacation mode….for me, not cooking very much is good, and for both of us, the delightful assortment of fresh food and fresh fish…..Today, being Saturday, we have a huge vegetable market coming into the park, the shrimp man is coming, and the bread lady, too, ……She makes the best ever bread. Bread is not something the Mexicans eat a lot, but for us, it is a delicacy from home and fresh as can be…..hard to pass up.
There was the first annual golf tournament yesterday. We sort of accidently-on-purpose forgot about it until Shirley came by and announced that she has to go to a meeting but has us already signed up and provided us with her homemade golf club. The rules were that we make our own golf club and ball and wear costumes. You must have a player and a caddy. We had five minutes to get up there and Papa Andy used his fisherman’s hat from home and a scarf made from a dish towel for his costume and we made a ball of wadded paper wrapped with electrical tape. The ball was just big enough to get stuck in the hole on the green. I didn’t know to wear a costume, so I caddied armed with our laundry bag for a golf bag. The thing was pretty hilarious. Many people spend a long time on costumes and the balls were much more golf ball size than ours. Our club with a leaf for the club part lasted about a minute and when the leaf was gone, Andy said it worked much better (more like a baseball bat). I believe with the fines for me not taking the flag out of the hole on the green in time, we also had the highest score! Good thing this was a money-maker for charity and no bets were made on the side (although you were allowed to bribe the officials). Another day is beginning and what adventure is next? We had a wonderful moonlight dinner on Webber’s new house patio last night. They barely had time to sweep up the paint chips from the pressure spraying they are doing and to wind strings of Christmas lights around the balcony rails….it was very tropically romantic….if six people can be called romantic.

2008-12-04T14:02:00.000-08:00

December 04

Happiest birthday to Joseph and Andy....we are so busy doing excercises in the pool, four mile hikes through town in the morning, market on Thursday, vegetable man and bread day in the park, hamburger and free marguerita night and Taco Tuesday that we haven't had time to add to this blog...we are truely enjoying everything. Our excuse for not traveling more yet is that it takes at least a week to settle in. We toured through John and Barb's house they have bought and are furnishing, and have eaten at all of the best restaurants (including breakfast by the pool in our park). Today was market day in our little town and was fastinating....it one of the biggest markets and for this small town, it covers almost anything you want to buy. The Mexican families buy essentials at Thursday market and we buy all kinds of handmade wonderful plates, carpets, baskets, and painted figurines. I am going to include a letter from Andy about his quad ride that he really did enjoy.........

Hi guys.

Our dear neighbors that brought us across the border and down through Mexico to La Peñita RV Park are parked next to us. We are parked in the two choicest spots of the park because the park manager is a good friend of theirs. They have two 400 cc. quads and graciously offered one to us to use. We had a wonderful ride together with another couple that came down through Mexico to La Peñita with us down a six mile beach and stopped on the way back to play in the waves and try a little body-surfing. I actually felt very much at home on their quad.

A Mexican named Abel that brings vegetables to the park for guests to buy, invited our two friends, Bob and John, to go for a quad ride yesterday. So Bob invited me to go as well. Now Bob claims he is not very experienced on quads, but I know better after the ride on the beach. So I timidly accepted being leery of what to expect. I was afraid of how wild this ride might be, and I know I am not very confident on a quad. I would feel more at home on a motorcycle, especially in rough terrain.

So Bob, John and I all rode on 400 cc. quads from the RV park down town to meet Abel and another fellow named Allan. Well, Allan was a big Mexican--with a pot-belly--dressed up in a fancy bright orange flight suit, a full--bright yellow--very fancy crash helmet complete with filters for dust, shoulder pads with breast plate, and a quad like I have never seen before! It was 700 cc's, had 4-wheel drive, independent suspension, and a winch. It was very complete and fancy. As we drove up Allan looked us over skeptically and advised us in a condescending manner that this ride would be rough and obviously we were not properly equipped or prepared. We were in shorts and tennis shoes. I was wearing an old dweeby looking bicycle helmet. Soon, Abel showed up with his three-year old son on board his normal 450 cc quad. Abel was going to lead us and Allan was going to follow to pick up the pieces of we presumably inept inexperienced green-horns. However, we felt a little more at ease since Abel would probably have to go a mite slower with his little son aboard.

Away we go through the town and end up on a road (trail) that was for the most part used by very brave four-wheel drive vehicles and occasionally some quads. I would have liked to go a little slower, but it was fun, nevertheless. The trail was full of wash-outs and ditches, which made the handling of the quads a real challenge. Then we headed up a hill that was complete with even more challenges. John, who was maybe the least experienced had his front end come off the ground so he let off on the throttle and ended up coasting a few feet back and ended up with his rear wheel in a ditch. I stopped because I could not go around him and wanted to see if John needed any help. John got under way and we proceeded up the steep hill. When we caught up with Bob and Abel, we stopped and waited, but Allan did not show up. Abel and Bob rode back to find Allan. After quite a while all three arrived where John and I were waiting and having a nice visit. I thought John was doing very well for one who supposedly had very little experience.

Allan admonished us for stopping on the steep hill like that right in front of him. It caused him to lose control and and he flipped over because of all the power his machine had. Hmm? Abel and Bob had quite a time getting Allan back on the road in an upright position. So lesson number one was do not get in Allan's way. Anyway, Allan had two more mishaps when John and I were not close enough to blame. Allan finally concluded it was simply his quad's fault because it was too heavy for even a man of his size and ability to handle. It occurred to me, how do you say "bool sheet" in Spanish.

In addition to the entertainment provided by Allan we had a really great ride. Abel's little son, Abel, Jr., was a real trooper. His dad was a very good and smooth rider. It was all we could do to keep up with them, and they looked like they were on a Sunday drive. Of course, Abel knew all the trails very well, and knew what to expect before he got there. We came back home with dust and mud all over us and the quads. We wore bandanas over our faces to help keep the dust out of our lungs, but the quads bore the evidence. It was much more fun than riding in the hills at home where cow-trails provide a formidable challenge and speed is not an option.

Hopefully, we will get to go on another ride next Monday.

Andy

2008-11-30T10:34:00.000-08:00

November 29, 2008
We are here! We are here! We are here at La Penita RV Resort and it is not anything like I imagined. I guess we get something in our heads and it seems right, but looks so different when you actually get to see. Let’s see .......what seems different. The setting first….I imagined a big open campground and much more level. It is all built on a hill overlooking the surf below. The palapa community party place, in the park, is like a terrace on a hill. The beach….you walk down to the beach or up to the town. The people are different than I imagined. We have yet to meet many of them….the ones we have, that are guests, are mostly Canadians. People of the USA are the minority of those we have met. They tell us that there are less US people since 9/11, could that be? So many nice people here…especially the other Shirley that goes on walks early in the morning with a group (and we joined this morning) and the young Mexican at the office that arranges for everything you need and signs you up for all of the things on his bulletin boards. He arranged for someone to pick up all of our laundry (four loads anyway that we have accumulated) and will have it delivered back at our site later today. Carole, that runs the park, is a surprise. I am not sure what I expected, just a more business woman type. She is a cute smiling blond that is always relaxed (nothing gets her down), friendly, and into every phase of making sure the venders that come in are only quality and the people in here are happy. She is a dynamo with personality…..looks a bit like Deb and Lin’s friend, Paula. Her personality is somewhere between my cousin, Jackie, and Dick’s Alma. Now you will know her when you see her.
The trip to the park, driving from Tepic down to Rincon de Guayabitos, the toll-free way, was one of our big adventures, not being dissimilar to the Wildcat road, only without any shoulders and with different rainforest and farming kind of scenery. Most of our trip, we have used the toll roads, to the tune of 2600 Pesos (about $210 USD) total to get down here, that we purchased from the bank before leaving home. Fuel needed also to be paid in Pesos, so we had to be well prepared with Pesos. We have the top bus drivers in the USA: Andy, Bob, and John! I was only terrified once bad when Andy decided to look really well in his rearview mirror to see where John was behind us. I cannot imagine what would happen if one wheel went off the edge of the pavement. It was beautiful though and tropical with little palapas along the edges with mouth drooling fruit piled high for purchase from the farms that we drove by, pineapple, coconuts, mangos, and bananas. Fields of sugar cane and banana plants are all part of this agricultural area....these people have to eat like kings (except not much beef). Coming in yesterday, we made good time and got here around 2pm, so had the afternoon for a bit of local tour….at least around this park. It is sooooo exciting just to be here. The pool is different than I expected, too, for some reason, but contains all the right stuff for swimming and water sports. There is sort of a center road in the middle of the park with the sign up office, another area for the washers and dryers (outside), and an area for tent camping that has counters with sinks and hot plates for cooking. Everything is left open and there are no misquitos to speak of….some no seeum bites though. We have a resident Iguana in our tree.

The temperature is to

....die for…......you’d love it…..all of us do!

Right next door here is one of the B & Bs that we were looking at for the kids, when they come, and we drove by the one that we booked. It, too, surprised me, in that it is in a gated yard and among a hundred little houses on a back street. It looks like an Italian or Greek villa in white stucco, but we couldn’t see the pool area. We will when we get more settled.

Meanwhile, we have already driven and walked around La Pinta town and Rincon de Guayabitos, walking with the early morning group four miles through town, looking at the many stores and even grocery stores that will be so fun to explore, and having dinner at a new Italian restaurant, would you believe? (One that Patty and Joseph will especially love – opened in what was once a rich man’s home of more white stucco overlooking the sea). The food was excellent and the company, too, as we took Carole from the park with us too and she has stories and jokes that kept us entertained ……..also, a flute guitar player kept us entertained (playing both flute and guitar at the same time!) Right now two good looking young Mexican “Pool boys”, as Shirley calls them, are washing our bus and car that have enough dirt and diesel fuel on them to make mud pies. They are going to do both for 400 pesos….that is about 37 dollars and the kayaks will be on top of the cars….a good investment, along with having the laundry done. I’ve been told that we will be so pleased when we get the laundry back and how neatly folded it will be…..small things please me. One, especially is the fruit and vege market that comes into our park twice a week. We bought fresh shrimp too from them and cooked them on our barbcue skewered to colorful peppers and brushed with oil, garlic, and lime. Shirley is getting really excited about cooking with all of the wonderful fresh food down here, and I didn't think she even liked cooking!

2008-11-29T08:22:00.000-08:00

November 27, 2008
A lazy day in the sun, shade, on the beach, on our patio with this computer on my lap, talking to neighbors about this campground being a “find” and what Mexico used to be like….making us wonder why we want to go any further. The people here laugh at the Americans saying that it is no longer safe to go to Mexico because of all of the killings near the border. They laugh because it is usually Mexicans killing Mexicans on the border problems that alert Americans to the dangers of Mexico and there is as many problems in our own country and there are as many killings too. If you are not into drugs or illegal activities, mind your own business, keep on truckin’ through, then get lower down into the country, the people are all wonderful and friendly. They wave vigorously as we drive by and are so eager to help. We were not even stopped by a agricultural or military check spot on the way down…..just waved us by. There are shrimp hatcheries on both sides of us and they must keep the beach water clean here (one point in favor of staying here. It is truly beautiful and quiet, Celestino RV resort between La Cruz and Dimas (kilometers number 78 turnoff and 75 turnoff……75 is hard to find from the highway, rough, but shorter). After happy hour in the sunset patio over looking the water, the Webers set us up for our Thanksgiving feast on their patio with wine and pumpkin dessert. The six of us are the family unit for Thanksgiving and we each expressed something for which we were thankful ; although there is much for us to be thankful for this Thanksgivng. I said I am thankful for my family. This is the first Thanksgivng that I can ever remember having without them.November 27, 2008
A lazy day in the sun, shade, on the beach, on our patio with this computer on my lap, talking to neighbors about this campground being a “find” and what Mexico used to be like….making us wonder why we want to go any further. The people here laugh at the Americans saying that it is no longer safe to go to Mexico because of all of the killings near the border. They laugh because it is usually Mexicans killing Mexicans on the border problems that alert Americans to the dangers of Mexico and there is as many problems in our own country and there are as many killings too. If you are not into drugs or illegal activities, mind your own business, keep on truckin’ through, then get lower down into the country, the people are all wonderful and friendly. They wave vicorously as we drive by and are so eager to help. We were not even stopped by a agricultural or military check spot on the way down…..just waved us by. There are shrimp hatcherys on both sides of us and they must keep the beach water clean here (one point in favor of staying here. It is truly beautiful and quiet, Celestino RV resort between La Cruz and Dimas (kilometers number 78 turnoff and 75 turnoff……75 is hard to find from the highway, rough, but shorter). After happy hour in the sunset patio over looking the water, the Webers set up us up for our Thanksgiving feast on their patio with wine and pumpkin dessert. The six of us are the family unit for Thanksgiving and we each expressed something for which we were thankful ; although there is much for us to be thankful for this Thanksgivng. I said I am thankful for my family. This is the first Thanksgivng that I can ever remember having without them.November 27, 2008
A lazy day in the sun, shade, on the beach, on our patio with this computer on my lap, talking to neighbors about this campground being a “find” and what Mexico used to be like….making us wonder why we want to go any further. The people here laugh at the Americans saying that it is no longer safe to go to Mexico because of all of the killings near the border. They laugh because it is usually Mexicans killing Mexicans on the border problems that alert Americans to the dangers of Mexico and there is as many problems in our own country and there are as many killings too. If you are not into drugs or illegal activities, mind your own business, keep on truckin’ through, then get lower down into the country, the people are all wonderful and friendly. They wave vicorously as we drive by and are so eager to help. We were not even stopped by a agricultural or military check spot on the way down…..just waved us by. There are shrimp hatcherys on both sides of us and they must keep the beach water clean here (one point in favor of staying here. It is truly beautiful and quiet, Celestino RV resort between La Cruz and Dimas (kilometers number 78 turnoff and 75 turnoff……75 is hard to find from the highway, rough, but shorter). After happy hour in the sunset patio over looking the water, the Webers set up us up for our Thanksgiving feast on their patio with wine and pumpkin dessert. The six of us are the family unit for Thanksgiving and we each expressed something for which we were thankful ; although there is much for us to be thankful for this Thanksgivng. I said I am thankful for my family. This is the first Thanksgivng that I can ever remember having without them.

2008-11-26T22:08:00.000-08:00

November 26, 2008

This is the day before the most unusual Thanksgiving that I have ever had. I am not sure that I have ever had one without a turkey and family. I guess Andy is family and these friends are like family, but no turkey? It is a challenge for me, and as Shirley said today, it isn’t about the turkey, but about being Thankful. I am that and can celebrate it tomorrow without the bird. It doesn’t seem right though. I hope everyone at home will send a note to tell me about the Thanksgiving days at home. Our Thanksgiving day will be here in a new place we have found, Celestino RV Resort, on a remote beach 75 kilometers North of Mazatlan, Sinaloa, Mexico.
There are a few towns around us and a little one to the South named Dimas is the home of one of the best restaurants in this state, even competing with Mazatlan’s unique restaurants. We just came home from driving there for dinner of fish cabobs, steamed oysters, neatly prepared Mexican dishes, and flan for dessert. Shirley really wanted oysters after we saw so many on the beach today and know how fresh they must be. No one spoke English at the restaurant and we were the only Gingos there. It was a bit of a drive in the dark to get there. The roads are so different than at home, that I am glad someone else is driving. John, who is doing the driving, tells us that he is only the driver and has to know nothing. Yet, he always gets us there. Some of the approaches to the toll road are almost invisible especially in the dark, and they are not paved. The campground is new and was a challenge for us to find on dirty, dusty roads, but a gem when we got here. It is right on the beach, quiet, and well run. It is near a Shrimp farm, turtle release location, and many picturesque villages to explore; besides the major joy is hiking on the beach and kicking your feet in the water all along the way. The owners are nice and the few people staying here are so helpful telling us all of the places to see and directions. We are going to stay another day.

This morning we drove our rigs out of the campground at Las Glorias about 730 am and drove the entire day through beautiful agricultural and farming land. There were acres and acres of corn planted, at all different stages of growth. There were fruit trees and pepper farms, some cattle with long horns and some large areas to be planted that resembled dirt covered cookie sheets with edges. We wondered if they could be flooding areas to grow rice. We enjoyed the green country and the water sources that made it that way. There were so many toll stations on the toll road that we think we may have spent $160 Pesos every 70 miles and kept digging into our Peso supply. We need to use Pesos for tolls, fuel, camping, and food. The three of our buses stopped for fuel, paying tolls, and traffic and that is about all, fixing lunch as we drove. We were passed on through the agricultural and military inspection stations with just a wave and never had to stop. The Mexican people all waved at us with big smiles. I imagine we are a spectacle (our huge buses pulling cars and piled with kayaks, four wheelers and looking like a party going somewhere to happen. It was enough driving for our drivers at about 1pm when we arrived in this campground and wound our way into the new hookups. There are only back-ins for us as we are so long. Even then, our noses will stick into the road. The women all get into the cars while the guys unhitch the buses and we drive the cars off to park until the bus drivers have the buses in place. These spaces have concrete slabs, gravel to park on, and tropical landscaping between each of our spots. It didn’t take long to get into a relax and exercise mode…….taking naps and long walks on the beach. It’s warm and breezy.

2008-11-25T18:58:00.000-08:00

November 25, 08

Is this the right turn off? Have we gone too many Ks? I think we have gone too far. We can’t turn all three of us around here. We will have to disconnect the cars. Watch out …..here comes a pickup….does he have room? That guy is trying to tell us where to go…does he understand English….No….are you talking to him in Spanish or just making gestures? Yikes, Barb yelled at John! The car is disconnected, now I hope he doesn’t run into me with the bus. Is John going to make that corner…yes!...oh, he is awesome….a pro! Then we are (all three buses and our tows hooked up again) back on the road going the other way and Bob (on the CB) says,

“Andy and JoAn are you glad to have us for leaders now?”

Actually, it had only been about an hour longer than expected when we arrived at our destination, on the beach at Las Glorias at the Mr. Moro hotel and RV resort. This campground is only a few miles south of Los Mochis and has become a favorite destination in the last few years. It is paradise but pretty quiet here and the owner,Tavo, wants to know why we think there are no others that have come this way. We explained the state of the economy in the states right now and told him that he needed a better sign on the highway turnoff. Even when turning in here, the sign out front is inadequate.

The beaches are clean, uninhabited for miles (except for an occasional fisherman and the huge Shrimp boats parked off shore), and they are so very full of shells. I truly believe that I have never seen this many shells and the colors on any other beach anywhere, and we have seen our share of beaches. Our time has been spent today walking on the beach, exploring the shells and houses along the shore, and then piling into John and Barb’s Chevy suburban to drive through the picturesque, and very town and eat at a seaside restaurant where we were the only customers. The food was excellent and the six of us kept the chatter going while we waited for only two people to take care of us. A young boy waited the table and didn’t speak any English….but was game for anything and smiled a lot. The fish we have had in the restaurants has been so delicious and fresh. In the afternoon there was a table under the palapa in the RV resort to play Mexican dominos and we did that too. Bob has spent some time repairing his windshield to a point of preservation until he can get it replaced and finding out how to set his inverter to a lower amperage. These bus guys are found anytime working on their buses.

Our travel campanions:

Bob & Shirley Lewis have '95, 45' Marathon that he upgraded to better suit their likes. He put a lift on the rear where he carries a Bombardier quad, and tows a Toyota Tundra V-8 pickup behind. They are hauling a very full load of things for people they know in La Peñita. It is nice when people who have enough are willing to give of themselves like that. Shirley is the one getting friends to help her make clothes for a couple hundred Barbie dolls for an orphanage in the La Peñita area. Bob and Shirley have Infinity Coach in Sumner, WA

The other couple are super people as well, Barb and John Weber....he, a retired orthodontist. They left their 2000 Country Coach 45' Prevost at home and brought their 37' Eagle. It is a Model 07 with the bogie or tag removed and shortened from a 40' bus. The conversion is maybe 16 years old but is a beautiful job and is immaculate. It if full of nice extras including a 300 gal fuel tank. They bought the bus from a wealthy Alaskan who was determined to be prepared for anything in bad weather so it was an extra good and thorough job.

2008-11-23T16:26:00.000-08:00

November 23, 08

A fun day before traveling tomorrow on towards our destination….

Today we kayaked, went to see the pearl farm, but it wasn’t open, went to lunch at a cool Mexican restaurant over the bay and had fancy fish tacos and cervasas. We are planning dinner outside potluck among us three couples. so interesting to say is that we (Andy and I toured the pearl farm on our last trip here....I am sure it is the same one). We had a neat experience in a huge Mexican mall and grocery market, buying such things as coconut yogart, Mango juice and
a huge Papaya for dinner.

Into Mexico

2008-11-22T19:32:00.000-08:00

November 22, 2008

San Carlos El Mirador RV, Mexico. Something hit us as we came in down the hill....what hit us was the thought that this is the same place we stayed with the caravan coming home from the Copper Canyon in March 2007. We recognized it right away and remember it was a wonderful place on a small bay in Guaymas, Sonora Mexico. Check it out at http://www.elmiradorrv.com/

But, wait a minute, let's go back to yesterday still in Tucson....our bus registration came to the office early in the morning the day after Jack and Lee Ann Walstrom put it in the overnite express mail. Thank you both, Jack and Lee Ann, for "beyond the call of duty help" and for making our entry into Mexico all okay today. The Lewis' and Webers decided yesterday that we would stay another day so we could leave really early at 6am , so we stayed another day to explore Tucson. Andy and I chose to go to the Tucson Desert museum, one of the best desert museums in the world. The other two couples went to the Biosphere 2, the other site we had so enjoyed.

The museum was as much Zoo as museum with wonderful desert enviroments for the animals of the desert, including birds and fish and marine life in the rivers. The enviroments for the large animals, like mountain lions, mountain sheep, and wolves were huge red rocks with caves, waterfalls, and shrubs. There were aquariums with all kinds of water animals, snakes, reptiles, and a wonderful aviary of birds that were very tame to walk up close to. The docents showed us many new views of plants and animals. Andy's favorite cactus was the Agave and mine, the Ocotillo, and I wonder if it would grow somewhere at Central park....not very desert like though.

It may be said that the restaurant for lunch at the desert museum was also one of the best in the world and we were served a Prickly Pear Marquerita, Prickly Pear iced tea, and a main course of Ocotillo Pollo Tower, with slices of grilled chicken breast, grilled zuchini, grilled eggplant, grilled Mozarella cheese stacked on a pat of green chile polenta with Prickly Pear marinara sauce over it. The salad had a cactus dressing and dried cherries tossed with the greens. We had started the meal with a Cilantro Pesto spread on bits of french bread....out of this world good!

There was so much to see and do at the desert Museum that we had to break ourselves away at 5pm because they closed. We had been there since 11am and not seen any of the outback.

We had ribs (more food) in our own Montgomery's restaurant in the evening with Lewis' and Webers....We really are enjoying the company of these people. The next day they surrounded us with protection, one driving in front and one in back of us, to lead us through the steps of entering the country of Mexico.

We left shortly after 6 am this morning, driving towards Nogales crossing. The drive was nice and we are glad that it was not so windy as it had been the day before. I did enjoy following my "Mexico On the road travel log" that I downloaded with its stop light, PEMEX, and tope (speed bump) detail. We followed our leaders through the desert and into Mexico with no incidents. However, when getting our travel papers at the Mexican Immigration, we were detained about 2 hours, and shortly after that, Bob and Shirley got a rock missle thrown into their windshield that almost went through. They can see to drive, looking under the place it hit and, at least, the window did not fall out, but it will need to be replaced when they go home.

Sightseeing through our picture window windshields in our comfortable turtle shell houses rolling down the toll road to the coast of Mexico's Sea of Cortes, there were no more incidents other than drivers that came too close for comfort or had trailers a bit out of control. It was a beautiful day and in the 80 degree range all day. This evening we sat outside quite awhile with cool beer after our warm drive until we got up enough energy to go out to dinner at one of their favorite hangouts, Blackies. Whatever you have to eat at Blackies ends with a piece of chocolate cake and a fluffy delicious Brandy Alexander. Tomorrow, we plan to stay here one day and play on our toys tomorrow, the kyaks and four wheelers, etc. It is a really tough life.

2008-11-19T20:23:00.000-08:00

November 19, 2008
Today was RV fixit day and I am not sure what was fixed at a mere $105 an hour. They dug into everything and found in the dash panel, 5 nuts missing that should have been on the wires to keep them connected. When fixed and tightened, we may have solved several of the problems we have them looking for in our bus, but we are not sure…..all does not work right yet. They test-drove the bus and two of the problems seemed to be working a little better. We are scheduled tomorrow for a few more $105 per hour hours to do more exploring of the problems. I am not as easy as Andy is with this and want to see an end to it all. I did enjoy the shopping part of today and printing pictures for my album and writing this blog. I did also enjoy talking to a Linda in Customer Service that has a true calling for her job. She is so “Jack of all Trades” that she is almost irreplaceable and has retired once already from General Motors, a job she worked at for almost 30 years. She told fascinating stories about the bosses that she has organized and has taught the talent of nonprocrastination, or is it deprocrastination? She didn’t sound like a braggert , just a fun and caring person that took good care of us all day. She helped us mail Joseph’s birthday gift in the very back of their building where they send out their own UPS packages, giving us a tour through the whole complex, the doily makers area and the Lug Nuts area .
We are excited that Shirley and Bob Lewis arrived late afternoon….they have a ton of shopping to do, etc….. like we did when we arrived yesterday. They are parked one space away and excited, too, about our trip starting together. We need to wait until Friday to go towards the border, however, for John and Barbara, another couple that will be going with us.
Another pastime that I am enjoying is watching Jupiter and Venus in the western sky, just above the horizon, after the sun goes down. There was an article in the Tombstone newspaper about the planets from the High Knoll Observatory. I enjoy watching the night sky and getting update info about such things as the meteor showers in November and Leonids (meteors that are fast and bright and will be visible in the sky Sunday to Tuesday coming up). Andy is in bus fixit mode and we purchased such things as new fans, a new outlet, new plugs and wire at Lowes to install for the benefit of the internet equipment, along with a few groceries at Wal Mart. We may get Christmassy and put a Christmas wreath on the nose of MAC bus J.

2008-11-18T21:29:00.001-08:00

November 17, 08
It was some adventure in Tombstone with the Johnsons. We picked them up at a pre-arranged pick-up point….like picking up a tour group with only two members. David and Lisa climbed aboard, first going over the bus to check it out. Then we settled down on the cushy chairs, looked out the picture windows, and enjoyed the desert scenery. We had a sort of 70 mile “chat and drive”, going southeast on US highway 10 and down State 80 to the location of the famous 1881 gunfight at O. K. Corral and the hangout of old West heroes like Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday. Lunch was first on our program when we got there. Trying to decide which place of history to try, the Crystal Palace Saloon won our choice, with 23 bullet holes in its copper ceiling still left from the 1880s and beautiful and massive all wood bar with mirrors behind it and gunslingers sitting at it drinking Sarsaparilla or beer. Our food was good and the waiters and waitress dressed the part. Tombstone is preserved and recreated to look as it did in 1881 and we could have spent many hours in its museums and shops. Instead we took a trolley past the historic locations including Boot Hill. The driver shared with us the history that shaped Tombstone. The town was full of gunslingers and we watched a reenactment of the shoot-out at the O.K. corral. The actors were quite good and we enjoyed that too. We hiked around some and explored through Boot Hill cemetery and the newspaper print shop that printed the 1881 Epitaph newspaper. Getting back on board our own bus, we were impatient to get back to Tucson where dinner was being prepared by David’s mother. She had promised to prepare India cuisine for us. We had dinner one other time with David’s parents and were disappointed that she cooked American food (although it was very good). She was born in India and is an excellent cook and very nice. Howard, David’s dad is a wonderful man. The two of them were so kind to include us in this family gathering. Dinner was so good and besides that, David’s brother, John, came with his family and entertained us with their family music. The whole family is so talented and sang and played instruments for us. We did so enjoy the whole evening. They are releasing their first CD on December 5th…..check out their website:
http://www.j4band.com/
November 18, 2008
This evening finds us at the Beaudry RV Resort, in Tucson. Andy and I hiked early this morning on one of the hiking paths in the Catalina State Park, had our protein juice drink, went to Best Buy to have someone update our Nuvi GPS, picked up a few groceries, and then got back on the road for the transfer to Beaudry. It was not as easy as it seems to get here and took us well over an hour because of construction on Interstate 10. It has been extremely wonderful once here though. This resort has two swimming pools, two hot tubs, a good restaurant, a congenial office staff, and a huge Laundromat. We took advantage of all of them since arriving and especially the swim in the big pool with its waterfall. It seems hot to us in Tucson although it’s only in the 80 degree range. I guess it gets much hotter in the summer than now. The pool was delightful. This resort is the place we plan to meet Bob and Shirley Lewis before we all go on into Mexico and also where Andy has scheduled last minute repairs on the bus. There are 60 bays at the RV repair facility here ready to help RVs. Our appointment with them is at 830 am tomorrow morning. Andy is going to have them look at the air pressure gauges, the SmarTire gauge, the cruise control, the brake lights that stay on sometimes, the electric horn, front door latch, entry door air latch override, and the roof leak from installing the awnings. Whatever does not get right will have to go with us through our travels in Mexico.

2008-11-16T21:42:00.000-08:00

Sunday November 16, 08
Road Runners…..we’ve seen two run across in front of us but no camera fast enough.

Today was another great day….a true gift. The object of our exploration today was the Biosphere habitat just north of our campground and Tucson. It was built as an experiment to see if people could completely live self sufficient in an isolated and enclosed environment, raising their own food and making their own oxygen supply from vegetation raised inside the locked-in environment. Just the buildings alone were impressive and the tour fascinating. Space Biospheres Ventures began construction in 1986 and Human inhabitants were enclosed inside in 1991 and another group in 1993 – each group intending to spend 2 years isolated in the Biosphere and working to feed themselves, do maintenance and scientific experiments while inside. In July of 2007, the University of Arizona assumed management of Biosphere 2 and today it is open to public tours and study by university students and scientists from all over the world. Inside is a miniature ocean with the correct sea salt balances, fish, coral reefs, ocean plants and animals. There is a rain forest, a desert, an agriculture growing area, and quarters for the inhabitants that lived there. When the doors were unlocked and it was time to enter Biosphere 1 again (our own planet), they had learned a lot and were weak from hunger and lack of enough oxygen. The climate was not as warm as planned because of two bad weather years (El Nino’s) and the crops did not do well and so the food and oxygen was not enough for them. The “lungs” of the Biosphere 2 impressed me the most of all. Two white dome-like structures, each as big as a stadium and air alone holding up a huge 16 ton stainless steel dish shaped disk fastened to heavy rubber diaphragm. The whole thing acted like a huge lung and kept the air pressure even at all times in Biosphere 2.
Check out this website:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biosphere_2

David and Lisa Johnson and two of their three daughters and his parents invited us to attend David’s sermon for the students of University of Arizona. For his sermon, David touched on politics and Bible verses and announced that it was a one way conversation because he would have everyone fighting over their views and wrecking the place if it were opened up for discussion. It was definitely a college atmosphere and coffee of Starbucks variety was served beforehand. Afterwards they took us out to a Sauce pizza restaurant with their specialty in thin pizzas and unusual salads. Afterwards we had Gelatos for dessert next door. There are hundreds of restaurants in Tucson area and as many shopping malls, even though the economy crunch has slowed the building of them down to none almost. We are making an adventure with them tomorrow to Tombstone in the bus….and dinner tomorrow night at David’s mothers (India fare).

2008-11-15T21:10:00.000-08:00

14 November later in the day…
There was an early morning hike for us before the heat starts. We just hiked among the campers, checking out pets, flags, and license plates from everywhere….many from Canada. Breakfast was a fruit and protein drink. The blender found its way inside our bus before we left home and I find that the Crockpot may have been handy too! Frozen lasagna was main fair of the day yesterday.
The desert sun was getting warm as we pulled out of the BLM Park and left our friends Jim and Buddy. This BLM site is located just outside and west of Quartzite. It is free parking for a limited number of nights, as most of them are.
While camped with Jim, we met a couple that were with the Baja bunch when we all went to Baja together and another couple camped next door that are neighbors to Jim and Myrna at their home in Bruno, Saskatchewan. Jim aimed us towards a BLM camp that the RVers call Casa Grande (although it is a few miles from the town of Casa Grande). It is less than 150 miles to drive, but we dilly dallied and took our time. Andy is trying to figure out his new tire pressure and heat sensors. They are a good idea if they work. He worked for awhile on deciphering his GPS to see if it would find BLM parks, altitude, or touch points that he selects. Jim had taken a picture of us and our bus-abode before we left and I printed some business cards on photo paper as we drove. Arriving at the BLM camp designated turn off number 151 on highway 8 (aimed towards Tucson), we parked to hike and find the camp. We hiked along a dike wondering (fleetingly) about tarantulas and rattlesnakes and finding no camp next to the intersection. There was a lot of chatter when the boys on the other side of the freeway told us that it was a mile north down the road further than we had looked. They did offer for us to stay by their place, but they were kind of scary and we wanted to find this famous camp to use again sometime. The camp, Pinal County West Park, was as we expected, quiet, spacious, and safe feeling with lots of RVs around. Desert parking is a different kind of beauty and we enjoy simple things like sitting outside in the shade and enjoying the heat and Saguaro cactus living natural garden scene. Jim told of another nice camp called “Why” if we had gone on down highway 85 towards the border. I don’t know why, do you?

November 15, 08
Catalina State Park, Tucson, AZ
At the foot of the hills and above Tucson It is quiet and desert gorgeous. There are big area spaces to camp with tables, full hookups, paved biking paths, and a huge selection of hiking paths. The sun is descending so the shadows are long and shady. Andy has wonderful XM radio playing in the bus with Anita Kerr singers singing “The Windows of The World” and all of our windows are open to a breeze blowing through. He is busy with his treasure – cleaning outside the bus, and happy as a cat in a lap. There is a shade tree and our chairs are set out. We get to stay here for three whole nights, long enough to set in awhile. We want to get things updated (I want to download an update for Nuvi GPS streets and cities and one of Mexico) and get all ready to meet Lewis’ to go into Mexico. Our plans here include spending time with David Johnson and family. They are planning to go for a little side trip with us to Tombstone in the bus. Driving out of the park, we can go across the road into one of Tucson’s newest big shopping centers with a Home Depot included. It is a great state park we are in, one of the best we have seen. I am on my way to see if we can get out our new folding bikes to tour some of the bike paths!

2008-11-14T04:52:00.000-08:00

November 13

Each day is like no other. I am getting to love the desert. My joints and sinus love it too and feel better. You can guess from the picture who we are with. Jim Lawrence arranged us to park right in front of him in his BLM camp near Quartzite, AZ. His dog, Buddy, an old buddy of ours, too, is getting old but is still looking in some ways like a puppy and as friendly as ever.....just some stiff joints like ours. Talk flew. We missed Myrna being with him. Then Jim dug in as he usually does and helped us get on line again and replace one of the cords connecting the motem and the router and we are on line again. I wonder how we can do this in Mexico....we are having so much trouble with it. Out loud, I did mention that Jim should accompany us to Mexico.... Instead we took him out to lunch at a nearby Mexican restaurant that serves "Sombreros" (elaborate taco salads on flat tortillas) along with Jim and Jan Meneely from my class of 56 that live here on a nice lot with a big new mobile and fun landscaping that Jim works on all of the time. Jan sews and makes purses out of bright materials that open up to picnic basket size, fold over casserol carriers, and other talent required crafts. Her sewing room is impressive .....as is their home with it's antler horn lamps and desert designs. We sat on their porch in the shade and watched a Road Runner that they were trying to feed hamburger. They are so good to see and fun to know. Being from Sandpoint ID, we had lots to talk about. One of their friends from nearby came over while we were there. He is from Sandpoint and was in the high school class with brother Bob. It seems to be a small world....one we are enjoying seeing.

Some time is spent working on our projects, repairing bus fans and installing clocks that were taken down during the bus remodeling, printing pictures and journals, and rearranging the storage....whenever we can take time.....Mostly we like to travel.

Driving down from Henderson to here........ the day before, was beautiful from our bus with it's picture window-size windshields. The Colorado River winds down through Lake Havasu City and the Parker Dam areas and the scenery won't quit. We walk and hike through little towns to see along the way....always new things to see and enjoy.....I am part Hobo. Andy is gaining lots of experience in this lost art.

2008-11-13T10:49:00.001-08:00

November 12, 2008

It is an interesting way to do the travel journal, especially when the internet is being worked on and I have no access. If I compose on a word document, I will have it copied and pasted to the blog site later, I hope.
We are in Henderson, near Las Vegas, with the Motosat man and he is trying to put in a new router for our computer satellite. Updating our system has made various problems with the installed systems and we want it straight before entering Mexico (and also to be on a Mexico available satellite –satmex 5 – which we were not). We are in Sam’s Town RV park and have til noon checkout. Ashley Teasley of Satellite World, Inc. is performing his miracles with the satellite dish. I am glad that I tried to print something while he is here because the printer was connected through the old router!
Yesterday a.m. we drove from our overnight campsite again at Zion near Kate, getting her for a good long visit the night before and dinner at Ted and Allen’s sports bar. At Henderson, we stayed in a Wal-mart parking lot on Marks Street until the Satellite people could tell us what we needed to do and did some Wal-mart shopping and had a great visit with Rick Williamson. Rick just met us in our bus and gave us an hour or so of his valuable time and we loved our visit all about the new bridge they are building at the Hoover dam site and about his job . No overnight parking is allowed in any parking lots in Clark county- because of messes left, so they say, but I think it may have something to do with lost revenue to the casinos when you do not stay in the casino lots. The satellite people came and made a date with us for this morning at Sam’s Town casino RV park. While they are working, I have packaged the new old router to send back to Dan for credit and boxed the Casio camera to ship to repair. Casio requires that in order to cover the camera with warranty we need to have a notarized letter, especially since we don’t have any receipts to copy to send them. Thanks to United Parcel mailbox stores. They have notarys!
We were awarded an extra hour for check out and left the RV place about 1pm with our tummys full of prime rib leftovers, our satellite fixed, and our parcels mailed with tracer numbers…..but, I didn’t tell you the best part. Getting towards twilight we took a romantic adventure last evening. It was about 20 miles to Hoover Dam and we really wanted to see the new bridge. Rick had said that it was one of those colossal achievements that will be part of history and the huge heavy bridge parts were sticking out over the Dam canyon with only cables and concrete holding them in the air (waiting for the connecting sections to be built) and with tiny looking ant sized heavy equipment working below it, way far away from yourself (we were at the top of the dam). He was right and it was even more dramatic in the sunset hours. Pedestrians are not allowed to walk out on the dam after dark and we were two of the last people to go over and back. I told Andy that it was sooooo romantic. Besides that, we found Lake Las Vegas on the way back. It was a place I did not think I would ever see again and brought back old memories of a Mother’s day spent there with the Drake family and Nate and Patti, the first time that I met Graydon Meeks. We walked through the shops with all of the trees dressed in white lights and it too was the most romantic. Andy was fascinated with the little city, the gondolas, and the shops (mostly closed). It was a favorite time with Andy.

2008-11-10T11:58:00.000-08:00

We are this morning, Monday, November 10, in Utah sitting in our home on wheels next to Deb and Lin's house. They have the most wonderful vacant lot with a flat spot and electric cord to make us really comfortable. However, I did not get any good pictures of them, so here are the pictures to share of Patti and Kristen. Patti is the second of our daughters that lives in Utah and Kristen is her daughter.

While in Utah we stopped in St. George to stay one night at the Zion Gate RV Resort in Hurricane and visited with Patti and Kristen. Patti and Debbie at their individual schools are at report card time and very busy. Deb is Business Technology Coordinator and Instructor at Southwest Technology College in Cedar City. Patti teaches first grade at the Coral Cliff elementary school in St. George. Patti loaded all of her report card work up in the RV and went with us for the weekend in Cedar City. It is forcast to snow in Cedar City, so we are not staying long there. In Cedar city the entertainment is wonderful with all of the family together and, oft times, it is also dramatic as we watched through the trials and hardships of Gina McCoy giving birth to her new baby boy. He is delivered at 8lbs. 14 ozs and the name is under decisionship....even though we all thought it was to be Oliver! She had too much work having the baby and we were all the cheering team. It was better for me than a major league ball game. The guys may not agree, but the results are indeed superior. They resorted to doing a C section after trying to have Gina give up the baby in natural child birth. She and baby are doing well. Look at Kate and Graydon's web site (above) to see pictures.

Another of our enjoyments of this visit was seeing Graydon's parents and having dinner together and comparing stories and Genealogy sites. Kate and Graydon had time to spend with us and our old friend and Jake's owner, Rod, gave us good visits. We saw more friends and met new ones. The newly wed Meeks helped set up this blog and caught us up on their Exfuze dietary supplement juice business. Deb let me check out her classroom at the Technology College and I am impressed by what all she does. Patti and I baked apple pies with Central Park apples. Our internet is not up and running, so we are staying hooked as long as possible to Drakes wireless network and leaving this afternoon for St. George again and Las Vegas on Tuesday to work on the Data Storm satellite dish. The weather has stayed pretty good for us so far although we can see snow on the lowest part of the mountains around us and we have had some rain. It gets below freezing at night. Mac Bus and our tow Honda with it's kayaks is taking the cold okay, but they will enjoy going south this afternoon.

Nov 08 holiday RV adventure

2008-11-09T20:48:00.000-08:00

Traveling in a Converted bus to Mexico
A converted bus is not the same as traveling in an RV, especially if you yourself have contracted the conversion. Our 1976 MCI 8 bus conversion, that we call “Mac”, is now looking and acting like a 1994 model with beautiful new paint in red, maroon, black, and white swoop and point designs. The inside, too, is all upgraded with new wall and ceiling coverings, upholstery, floor coverings, audio visual, and lighting. We are told that it is finally finished and simply working well, but is it? There have been delays.

On THE day, we start out later than planned, not by an hour, but by several days. There is still a leak in a tag wheel, a slow one. We must stop first at the tire repair shop. We negotiate our bus, towing a car with kayaks on top, down our twisty Wild Cat road. After a short but pleasant ride down, we pull up at the tire repair place in Fortuna, CA. There it is found to be more than a leak ….there was an actual crack in the wheel next to the valve stem. The tire shop sent to Eureka for a new wheel and it was delivered in about an hour…..so we meanwhile went to have breakfast at Pepper’s. Pepper’s was a mile long walk and we needed the exercise.
The weather is turning. It was the week to turn the clocks back for the year, so we should expect the weather to change. The tire was being installed as we came back from breakfast.

After a pleasant ride down highway 101 and across the lakes Highway 20, we arrived late in the Sacramento area. We drove through the Fall colors and new bridge construction while communicating by texting with our daughter, Deeana. She and a friend are planning to meet us in Sacramento. They are traveling by train from Corvallis Oregon. Late in the afternoon our dinner is at one of our favorite stops, the Chinese restaurant at Cache Creek Casino in Capay Valley. About an hour later, bucking some traffic, our Mac bus (with us on board) cruises into the KOA campground nearest West Sacramento and the CHP academy. Our plan is to attend the graduation of a grandson, age 23, from the CA highway patrolman’s academy. It is an exciting and proud time for our family. Friends had already arrived. We are coming in late. There is a gracious young man waiting for us in the campground with a reservation envelope….our name on it, and he guides us neatly into a very long pull-through space. Our bus is forty feet by itself. With our car and kayaks, we are some 62 feet long, but this space is big enough for two of our size rigs. We are tired and crawl into our bed and sleep the night long.

Our plan for Halloween day is to pick up Deeana and her friend at the Amtrak station and take them with us to the graduation ceremonies. She is the mother of the graduate and very excited about her train trip to Sacramento. They are to arrive early at 6 am, however, I am getting messages on my phone that there has been a delay. It is more than a small delay. The train had to pull off during the night and replace wheels under the train and they would be four hours late, perhaps missing graduation itself at 10 am, and, instead, they plan to take part in the parties afterward. We feel sorry that they will miss the main part, looking as forward to it as they were. The other grandparents of our graduate are here in the same campground in their beautiful new fifth wheel camper. We enjoy their company at Eppies for a long leisurely breakfast and then use our GPS to find our way to the CHP academy. We call our little GPS “Miss Nuvi”, and turn her off if she says “recalculating” too many times. The graduation is wonderful and we are so proud of our handsome and smart grandson. He is second from the top of his class scholastically. Only three guests per cadet can go into the ceremony and the rest watch from closed circuit TV. It is a highlight to watch our cadet’s girl pin on his new badge and he, in his new uniform, looks to be in his prime. We take many photos and go to dinner together afterwards, finding Deeana and her friend at a hotel near the train station and taking them with us. It is Halloween, so we have bracelets of bright glowing colors to wear and are waited on by a Hippie girl and a padded farm boy in costume. Bella Bru is the restaurant and our graduate Tom’s girl is our hostess. She has been the manager here until she quit to go with him to his new assignment as a brand new CHP in downtown Los Angeles. It was late when we arrived back at our bus home.

November 1st, 2008
It is our plan to go to Folsom to kayak with friends. The rain starts and we find our new windows have a major leak, filling cup after cup with rain water inside the window. Then we find that we are so lucky to have the computer satellite dish repairman in this area for a few days and, since we cannot seem to go on-line, he comes to our RV to help. Kayaking seems less likely as we wait into later afternoon and the satellite dish is still not responding. Our Folsom friends have invited us for dinner and overnight and breakfast and to kayak in the morning if the rain goes away. We cannot refuse, though it means leaving the dish repairman in our home to finish his long process and us leaving, and he hiding the key in the electric box when he leaves. After a wonderful visit and dinner with our Folsom friends, we decide to drive back to our RV for the night. We are still parked in the KOA and have grandparents number two worried about why we are still in residence. I have somehow injured my rowing arm, the weather has not cleared, and we must check the leak water accumulated. More bad news: the repairman has finally concluded that the satellite dish has been damaged from being out in the weather during the bus’s new conversion. He finds that we plan to be within a couple hundred miles or so of Salt Lake City and that is the location of the manufacturer of the satellite dish. He insists that our best interests would be addressed by going directly to the manufacturer in Salt Lake for repairs before we venture into Mexico. If we go directly to Salt Lake, maybe we can get over the mountains before too much snow. We hook up, go though the last minute inspection to get underway and pull out of our very long pull-through space, not realizing that someone has taken the pin out of the hitch that holds it on the car. It could have fallen out somewhere, but, how would that have happened? Turning tight at the end of the road in the KOA Park was all the hitch needed to let go and we heard the screaming for us to stop from the workman that were watching. Scared, Andy stopped the bus a bit too quickly, making the car bump into the back of the Bus, damaging the back bumper, and bending the hitch as it doubled back. It didn’t shape up well to have to roll backwards over it to be able to release it. We must decide we are lucky that we did not leave the park in that condition. We are wondering if this trip was not meant to happen or someone is trying to tell us something. The rest of the day was spent, first going to Camping World in Rocklin to see if they know how to repair the hitch on a Sunday. JoAn drives the car and Andy drives the bus to get there. They cannot do a Blue Ox hitch but know the company that can and send us there, also, letting us stay overnight in their parking lot. We show Allied RV repair, in downtown Sacramento, the damage and purchase a new locking hitch pin. So much for getting over the mountains this weekend. Being positive thinkers, we luckily hit the time of day that both of them were open on a Sunday. Allied RV repair, who have Blue Ox hitches, closed at 4 pm and we were there, coincidently, about 330 pm. They will order a hitch for us in the morning and we must call Blue Ox on the east coast tomorrow at early am (before we pick up new hitch) to see if there is a warranty. My right arm is now feeling so bad that I must lie down and Andy goes into the stores to get repair tools for the leak above the window.
Our schedule is all off. Andy had prepared a day by day itinerary that included seeing also our youngest son in Tracy and his new house. Son Jim ended up helping us all day on the phone with his computer since ours is not working. He found numbers and locations that have Blue Ox hitches and directions to get there. We are not even going to have time to go his direction to see him now as we want to get over the mountains as soon as we can. We will make a definite stop coming back to see them. Today they are buying furniture for the new house. We are finding so many nice people that are willing to help us with our problems. They have been so nice at Camping World, Allied RV repair, and Dan, the MotoSat repair man.

November 4, 2008 – Tulare, CA
We are outta Dodge (or in this case Sacramento), finally. We have been here finding parts and pieces and putting ourselves back together for six days. We still have a small leak and my arm still hurts, but we sealed most leaks; then found that my camera problem was no more than needing a new $30 battery, and our satellite dish is okay and we need not go clear to Salt Lake City to fix it. The hospital today, here in Tulare, took x-rays of my arm and says I have rotocuff tendonitis and not a dislocated or broken arm. My arm seemed immediately better ……just knowing I guess. It means canceling our kayaking plans until later though.

We shopped for a new monitor for Andy’s laptop as his would turn black after just a few seconds of being turned on. Then we decided that he could buy a cable to connect his computer to the TV monitor and get by for now. Then he found by pushing a function button above the keyboard to make the screen brighter the monitor came back to life. The more he pushed the button the brighter the screen became. Somehow the adjacent button had been accidentally pushed which darkened the screen clear to black. That saved hundreds of dollars for repairing the screen, or a couple thousand for a new computer. The new Blue Ox hitch for the car was costly, $800, and there are now two new locking pins to hold it on.

Wall Mart Tulare has a friendly and knowledgeable guard that drives around with flashing lights, a happy smile, and Chamber of Commerce information for anyone who asks. He tells us that they will love to have us stay in their parking lot for up to three days, would you believe? We proceed having a wonderful dinner at Chili’s, taking my Naproxen prescription to Wall Mart to fill, and then even put up our TV antennae to watch the final results of the most talked about election in history. Things are looking up for us in spite of the crunch in the overall economy and it looks like Barack Obama will be our next president of the USA. and a benefit of going this southern route is that it is not raining—leak or no leak.

November 5, 2008
Andy drove out of the Tulare Wal Mart parking lot in the early morning hours with both GPS instruments programmed to go to the Temple RV park in St. George. The GPS is so useful….from the minute you leave the parking lot to get you out to the highway to keeping you in the right lane and guiding you into your destination at the end of the day. It is especially appreciated in big cities when it politely says “keep left” to keep you from ending up on the right for a left turn. It gives you good forewarning of things to come. Andy really appreciates the GPS, but, thank goodness, it doesn’t replace me and I still help guide and translate.
The Fantastic fan broke. It caught the wind on top of the bus and broke the mount that holds the motor in. Andy found a small extension that he needed to fix it by buying an opening mechanism of a different brand for parts. He is a mechanical genius that I cannot do without, along with being a superb husband. At one of the “stretch” breaks we took, he fastened it down until we have more time to fix it right. When we settle somewhere for a time, he has several fix it projects like putting a rotating vent with a weather vane for on top of the bathroom vent and a strut in the lift up seat of the bench. We make some interesting accidental discoveries as we are exploring. Near Fresno we found a Camping World at the end of a dead end after getting fuel at a truck stop. It was just in time for buying the part for the Fanastic Fan. We probably would not have found the wonderful parking at the Tulare Wall Mart if we had not found a hospital near it to get an exray on my arm. Today we had an adventure in Boron, the home of the 20 mule team wagons that mine Borax. We have been here several times, in this small town in the middle of nowhere, and find neat treasures. There are three good restaurants and a museum that is so interesting. The Boron compound mined near this town of Boran is the element used in more than 150 different products including Bone China, alloys, fish egg baits, atifreeze, dyes, matches, and paper. The 20 mule team that was used before they had trucks (at least the huge 150 ton trucks they use now). To be a 20 mule team driver, you had to be able to drive 12 lead mules and 6 mules that were trained to leap over the chain in the middle and pull to the opposite side of the team to keep the chain in the middle of the turn. Two draft mules close to the wagon were actually two draft horses. To be a 20 mule team driver, you would be some sort of hero.

November 6, 2008
Last night was a great sleep at the Buffalo Bill Casino’s back lot at Primm, NV. With the world’s largest rollercoaster outside our starboard side and trucks and RVs all around doing the same as us….sleeping, eating or gambling in the casino. This morning, first light, found Andy moving our unit to an uninhabited part of the desert to give it a wash with our own water from our now-diminished tank with a bucket and squirt hose. It just glows with beauty now and stars its new paint job. Bob and Shirley Lewis are staying at a fancy resort, Signature, in Las Vegas on a friends lot. It is far too expensive for us to stay a night, between $75 to $160 a night, but has a easy huge parking lot in front for us to park and Bob and Shirley picked us up for a little tour and breakfast at the Casino nearby. We had an animated visit catching up on news and talk about our long stay together ahead of us in Mexico. They dropped us back at our house on wheels and we drove to the Speedway Blvd. exit of I-15 for fuel and telephoning the Utah kids to say that we are heading their way to the Zion Gate RV resort and want to all meet there this evening and maybe go to dinner together.