Belgique to Mexico

Missing Mexico

2009-05-17T17:10:00.001-07:00

I’ll edit this later but after crossing the border on Wed, we’re now near Knoxville, Tenn. We checked into a “resort” and it hit us when we were given the brochure that listed the “rules”. There are 20 something rules of behavior, every single one of which are common sense being a good citizen! How did we spend 60 days SOB and never received such a list? Oh, it’s personal responsibility!

Missing

The beautiful scenery, people, and food.
Temp…well, sort of…it was 100 in Catemaco and here it is 60!
Someone pumping the gas!

Not Missing

Toppes
Double trailers

Run for the Border

2009-05-13T17:35:00.001-07:00

Cartels put an RPG through the Jeep; Shot out the windows of the coach; Daniele kidnapped and held for ransom (Dinkus said he only had $700); Cops arrested me; PEMEX pump jockeys robbed me blind; I and the dogs have pig flu but we barely got across the border at 1200.

PS: None of this happened…not 1 incident of any kind…nary a moment in 2 months where something did not just feel right. Never a hinky feeling. 2466 miles in Mexico over 60 days. Every single person we encountered was as nice as could be.

This is a quickie update since so many of you thought that the stuff we wrote in the 1st para WOULD happen. I need to update the last few days, esp for RV’ers.

We left Cd Victoria at 0745 and arrived at Los Indios at 1200. Daniele woke up by 2 very nice armed soldiers at the one check point. I forgot to tell them she was there…I was outside joking with the Lieutenant and Sergeants…sorry…it’s a soldier thing. I don’t know who was more surprised! :-)

Went in the Mex side to turn in Visas and hologram for the Jeep. No line at all! Took time to find the guy to come to the lot remove the hologram. Then went to the US side. 3 cars ahead of us. Very nice agent checked our passports and sent us to secondary (all RV’s go to secondary). Two very nice, yet thorough, agents walked through the coach and sent us on our way, after admiring the dogs. From the time that we arrived on the Mex side to the time we departed the US inspection: 36 minutes!!!

Now at Naval Air Station Kingsville TX restocking. Heading towards Richmond starting Fri.

Last Days at Catemaco (this trip!)

2009-05-09T11:06:00.001-07:00

Awww…this fellow got invited to the cookout down at the beach

Well, we don’t know if he was the cookout, but he was at the cookout. And, it was only Friday.

We did another ride out to the beach but this time circled the entire route. Great and beautiful drive of 80 miles. The end was tiring because we were back on a main route and struggled to get past truck after truck climbing grades. Will do some pix in a slide show format for those that care.

We Really Should Move On (?)

2009-05-06T06:58:00.001-07:00

Mañana (not really)

Yep, still at Catemaco. Here’s a LINK that has interesting info on the area. We decided to stay here and explore some more, plus it will be too hot to stay at the beach. Their electric is not strong so we could not run the AC there. We’ve met some nice folks in the park. We do drives out into the surrounding areas and explore. We remain really impressed with here and think that this could become the southern command post.

The beaches are about an hour away and the drive is beautiful. Very tropical here. We haven’t been able to get good lake pictures because of a haze that the camera doesn’t get through.

Plans: We’ll probably leave here on Sat 9 May and start working our way to the border to cross on the 13th. From there we will head to Richmond to help chase Eli while Chris recoups from his surgery.

Catemaco, Veracruz

2009-04-30T12:20:00.001-07:00

We love it here! When we drove in and saw the beautiful lake and dense green tropical foliage, it reminded us of Daniele’s parent’s place in Lake Como. Wow! This could be come the southern command post. We have liked everywhere that we have been but this has it all…it seems. We’re extending our stay here to check it out more. Want to get this posted so Claire can send these to Daniele’s parents.

This website HERE has a lot of info on the area. More later. Siesta time.

Swine Flu

2009-04-29T12:09:00.000-07:00

I do have a craving for BBQ. Is that a symptom? Staff in stores, toll collectors, soldiers at check points, etc are wearing masks. No one seems panicked. Restaurants and shops sparsely attended.

RV in Mexico Stuff

2009-04-28T11:46:00.000-07:00

This is for fellow RV’ers. We left Isla Aguada at about 0915. We took 180/180D the entire way until Minatitlan where we picked up 145D for a short distance to Acayucan where we got back on 180. Roads were fairly good most of the way. We stayed on 180 through Villahermosa with no problem and we were towing a jeep. Several Transitos passed us with no second looks. Some Tope Minfields. Tolls totaled 602 pesos. Distance was 327 miles. We arrived at Catemaco at 1730.

Several military check points along the way…hardly any delay. In all but one we went through a thing with the trucks that was apparently a drug/explosives sniffer…you drive at a crawl. In one they didn’t have that thing so a soldier walked slowly along the sides and rear with a handheld sniffer.

We are staying at the Tepetepan RV park. Quite nice. We’re extending our planned stay.

Last Days at Isla Aguada

2009-04-27T11:10:00.000-07:00

Sadly, we must thing about returning NOB. Today was a last minute picture day and some odds and ends.

You think we are adventurous??? Check this out. These folks from France stayed next to us for 3 days. They have been on a global tour for 3-4 years in this vehicle. Rather than repeat it and get it wrong, check out their blog HERE. Fascinating reading.

For you Belgique Gourmande fans (our former restaurant in northern Virginia), Bill and Thelma asked Daniele if she would show them some recipes that they could use. So, DJ returned to the stoves in a VERY hot kitchen to do gazpacho and Toast aux Champignons. This was fun but it cured her of any desire to get back in a commercial kitchen. I was afraid she would do a Gordon Ramsey! Thelma is in red, I’m sorry but I can’t remember the other lady’s name…she’s an old friend and manager.

Fishing Boats. Since we lived on a boat on the Potomac and Chesapeake for 8 years and have been on the water so much, I am always fascinated by how fishermen design their boats to accommodate the waters in which they fish. These craft, single engine, no electronics (only a cell phone, maybe) go out 30 miles or so in the Gulf. Sadly, they often don’t come back. When things work right they leave just before dark (no lights) and come back at about 0700. The boats have a very narrow beam for open water, I think, but ride dry and are quite fast with only about 75HP and several guys and nets on board.

How’s this for a crop of coconuts? On the beach right in front of us.

Frog House

(I made sure to put this post as far away as possible from the first one for today :-))

Claire loves frogs. How about this house on the waterfront?

Happy Birthday Daniele!

2009-04-24T11:51:00.000-07:00

Today was DJ’s birthday. Early in the week I spoke with the owner of Freedom Shores, Thelma, about doing a seafood feast that her husband, Bill, had told us about. Maybe some flowers? Maybe a cake? Well, Thelma went all out. I had avoided the topic with DJ and she started hinting that she wanted crab for her birthday. I practiced selective hearing. So, in the morning, I said be in the car at 1830 (a ploy to get her to think we were going somewhere else…it worked). I backed out of the parking slot and straight back to the patio where Thelma had this beautiful table set. And she had a musician! And, we were the only residents in the park! All this for Daniele. Well, I think DJ was very surprised and very happy with the evening. The staff joined us for cake and sang the Mexican version of Happy Birthday…which is much better than ours! Then, Bill talked Thelma into singing Malagueña"… BEAUTIFUL (she is a professional dancer and singer)! We have a lot of this on video which we’ll load to You Tube when we have good connectivity. For now, here are the stills. Thanks Thelma, Bill, and the entire Freedom Shores staff for such a great evening.

Busy Day

2009-04-23T09:43:00.000-07:00

Man, what a day.

One thing after another

Need a Siesta

Just Another Beach Day

2009-04-22T06:27:00.000-07:00

Never tire of looking at the water. Lots of porpoise activity and the pelicans are everywhere. One thing in the routine is the bread kid. At about 1600 everyday we hear a bicycle horn. It is Marcella peddling through the park

Under the cover he has a table filled with bread, cookies, cakes, etc. We always buy at lease 2 small baguettes since they are very good. Cost is about 50 cents. He doesn’t dilly dally because if a few minutes, several boat loads of bridge workers dock next door and they always buy a lot of his goodies.

The park also has a deck boat that they take guests out on. Since some guests are in wheel chairs, its a complicated process but they do it easily. First the guests are loaded inside the park and Bill (himself a quadriplegic) drives a short distance to a place on the beach where the boat can be launched. Since the water is shallow, he designed an extender that puts the trailer a long way behind the van.

I sat with Bill in the van…he’s in his chair, pulling and pushing a lever and maneuvering that van in very tight quarters. He’ drives his 40’ motor home the same way!

Well, all this excitement wore everyone out.

Family Beach Days

2009-04-19T06:03:00.000-07:00

Curt asked if we were with locals. The park (resort) we are staying in is right on the, but like most everywhere in the world, the public can use the beach front. The park has a fence separating it. We found that on weekends when we let the dogs out, the locals went nuts. We felt like being inside the zoo.

On weekends, generations of families come and set up command posts. Probably, 2-300 folks on a small beach.

An aside, when they leave, the beach is virtually spotless...no trash...no drunkeness...no rudeness...just generations of a family having a great wholesome time. I'm sad for how many of our own would be in this regard. We "talk" to many of them. Today we had great conversations in broken Spanish with several including a lady. I noticed that when it became time to break camp, she was the boss and busted the guys to get stuff packed and cleaned up. I went up and said that I see you are the Jeffe (Boss). All the family roared (including the macho men) and laughed...she roared with laughter too and said, no, she wasn't, her mother, with a cane was the boss. Her mom laughed too and said gracias but her daughter really was running things! What an experience!

Our first reaction was to not go outside with the dogs on a weekend. Then we said, to hell with it and did. Wow! What a great response! A zillion people all asking the names of the dogs and just in awe. We started taking them outside the wire and letting the kids play with them and swim with them.

What a joy! Some came inside the wire and these are the pix. One is of Fernanda who petted Pasha for a long time and then left. She soon came back with a conch shell to give us for letting her pet Pasha. <tears of joy>

The amazing thing to us is that here we are in a RV that costs much more than their homes yet there is no "envy" or hostility. We understand enough Spanish and body language to know. Several of the families come several times a week and always are effusive with greetings. There's one special lady who always says (with appropriate gesture to the sea): La Vida!!!

By the way, not one single person has ever asked for anything.

Where Are We?

2009-04-18T09:25:00.001-07:00

Some can’t find Isla Aguada on the map. Understandable since it is quite small. Perhaps its time to do a map of where we have been. Realized that we have travelled 1,300 miles in Mexico so far. This is as far south that we will go (Oops, looking at the map I should say that this as far east that we will go!)

If we ever decide to leave Freedom Shores, we’ll work our way back north along the coast…i.e., Villahermosa, Veracruz, Emerald Coast and back into Texas.

By the way, Keith asks about the dogs. We haven’t mentioned them for awhile. Well, they and the cats are huge hit here on Isla Aguada. The beach is public in front of the park and we get a large number of kids, and adults, who come to the fence to admire then beasts and to ask all about them. Some come to the beach everyday and they always call out to the dogs by name and call the cats by name when they see them on the dash looking out. When they leave at night, they always tell the dogs bye in Spanish. Yesterday I took the beasts on the beach so that the kids could pet them, throw sticks for the Lab and swim with them. All had a ball. Sorry, no pictures. We’ll get some.

Isla Aguada – Freedom Shores Hotel & RV Park

2009-04-16T06:49:00.000-07:00

Today was only a short 217 miles from Villahermosa to Isla Aguada. Still left Sam's early (0740) for fear of the parking lot getting full and hampering maneuverability. Man, the roads were great and the scenery very tropical…reminded us of Thailand. We’d be there in record time. Wrong. There is one village that has a road stretch of about 10 miles. They have to be in the Guinness record book for Topes per mile, total number of Topes, and ferocity of the Topes. Recall that Topes are speed bumps. In Mexico, they are not bumps. For many, you WILL stop and creep over it, and remember we are towing a car so that is 4 crossing per tope. They are very hard on RV’s and trucks. The solution is to just chill out, crawl behind the truck in front of you, and enjoy the village. I don’t know how they deal with the ambulances.

Anyway, we arrived at our park at 1140 and amazed at having averaged 54mph in spite of the Tope minefield.

Ok, the park. Absolutely fantastic in every way. To get the theme and purpose, just check their website HERE.

Bill and Thelma have poured a ton of work and money into this operation in the 2-3 years they have had it. Lots of cement walkways for the wheelchairs but very nice for all of us. Our site is cement level and right on the water…steps from the beach. The utilities have all be upgraded and are first class. The staff (and there are lots of them) constantly work raking, sweeping, watering, etc. The restaurant would get perfect score in any US health inspection (you know we notice things like that since our own restaurant).

The fantastic food passes Daniele’s critical inspection!

Oh, and the Pina Colada’s are great too!

We’re going to be here a long time so there will be more to say and show.

Back to the Beach

2009-04-14T06:23:00.000-07:00

Semana Santa is over so the beaches are available again. we enjoyed Puebla/Cholula but we never really got over the altitude. So, we departed at 0900. What a trip! 313 miles to Villahermosa on what should be good roads since they are mostly toll. Wrong. Over half the route was pretty rough. We did not stop until 1700 so if you do the math, we averaged 39mph and only stopped once for gas! And for this privilege, we paid $130 in tolls (motor home plus the Jeep we tow). Well, the scenery was great, we saw an area that needs to be examined for more long term habitation, we drove slow so it wasn’t too bad, and we arrived safe. Oh…we didn’t see the campground we were looking for so stayed in an expensive one:

I say expensive because we bought lots of supplies at Sams. It was a good evening…the only concern was getting out because of tight turns. By the way, Sam’s (and Wally) are just like the ones in the States. Same stuff plus they sell booze. Even found pretty good bagels!

Pascua!

2009-04-12T09:48:00.001-07:00

Happy Easter to all. It’s a beautiful Easter morning in Cholula, Mexico. I got up early and went to town before the crowds arrived. The Mercado (Market) was in full swing. Everything from clothes to chickens, to beef, to flowers, to beautiful vegetable, etc. Really quite an experience. These pictures do not do it justice but will give you the idea.

Some notes on the prices (US cents/pound):

Roma tomatoes=18; Cukes=44; Beans=80; Limes=16;

White onions=10; Strawberries=40; Guavas= 15

After the market I stopped by the church to remember sick family and neighbors and caught the last part of a Mass. Very moving. Church was packed. Lots of tots in all white for First Communion.

We kicked back the rest of the day and were deciding what to do for dinner when this fellow rode by delivering to a family that lives here.

Yes, we did it. We had a Domino’s “Extravaganza” delivered. Wasn’t cheap though: $18.80 for a medium. But, it was excellent.

Semana Santa and Semana de Pascua--Holy Week and Easter Week.

2009-04-09T09:18:00.001-07:00

It is eerily quiet. Earlier posts have mentioned the church bells and fireworks. No more. Until Sunday. We can hear nothing but the birds and traffic is very light.

NB: Daniele just reminded me that the story in Belgium is that the bells all go to Rome on Thursday and come back on Sunday full of eggs and candy! Hey, makes as much sense as a rabbit bringing them!

Here is a link to an excellent short article that explains the traditions of Holy and Easter Weeks in general, and in Mexico specifically. It’s an interesting read.

Late afternoon as it cooled down we went back to Cholula. This time we went over to the bigger cathedral and found that Mass was well underway and was packed. There were actually 2 in progress. There had to be 1,000 people there. It was moving to see all age groups participating and, in many cases, sitting or standing in a haphazard manner yet actively and vociferously participating in the responses from the congregation. Here are some pictures of the church.

We then went to the square or Zocalo. It was considerably more active than other day since it now contained a zillion stalls selling food and junque. The fragrance from the various cooking stalls was overwhelming and made us starve. While we had dinner we were again amazed at the family emphasis here. Entire families were walking and laughing together. Over and over we saw young adult men taking their aged mother/grandmother arm in arm around the Zocalo. Here are some shots of the food area….everything looked absolutely delicious and we found Churros!

Breathing Again

2009-04-06T07:18:00.000-07:00

Ahhh, our lungs are finding oxygen in this rarified air after 4 days. We feel good! I heard from a friend that had been here and he also had a 4 day spell, and he is in good shape!

We celebrated this by getting out and walking around the beautiful Cholula town square. We also stopped in at a beautiful cathedral and said some prayers for family and friends, especially those that are battling cancer now on Cedar Island (our own Dinkus gets his last Chemo this Wednesday!!).

Then, of course, we ate. The restaurant overlooked the square and is surely more expensive than the others. But look at what we had! All this, 1 beer, 1 freshly made lemonade, and tip was $23! And was it delicious!!

Here are some shots of the square and surrounding area. A square in Mexico seems to be a family gathering place…you see young and old strolling around.

Busted by the Police

2009-04-05T08:08:00.001-07:00

Puebla City police had a motorcycle, car, traffic cones and 3 officers on the side of one of the major boulevards. A check point but they were not pulling anyone over...except us! Nice policeman came to the window and asked something in Spanish. He then pointed to the front of the car and said "no license". North Carolina doesn't have front tags. He then asked for the papers and checked the rear tag and hologram and then asked for my drivers license. He said, Mr. Johnson I am (his rank and name) and then,in Spanish, told me everything was OK, thanked me for the cooperation and explained it was for security and to have a good visit. We then asked him where the Soriana was and he had his 2 colleagues come over and figured out where it was and how to get there. Now I have to look into getting a duplicate tag to put on the vehicles so we can minimize check points.

We still haven’t done much…between altitude, hay fever and sinus stuff, we can’t get motivated. We did do the Soriana trip yesterday. Soriana chain is an upscale Wal-Mart and quite impressive especially in their deli, vegetable, and meat departments. An observation: in such stores, anyone handling food (butchers, bakery, free sample givers, etc) all wear hair nets, face masks, and gloves. The place is spotless. The butchers are in full view, accessible, and more than happy to provide whatever cut you want, how you want it. Another thing we like is the the bakery. You get a big pan and tongs. You then wander through picking out exactly what you want and how many. You then take the loaded pan to a register where they bag it and put a price sticker on the bag for check out. If you want 1 cookie, you get 1, not a box! Oh, and for RV’ers, the baggers at the registers are not employees and only work for small tips. They are usually kids or handicapped adults. On our first trip, for the first time or two at a store, I did not realize this and thought they were salaried employees. They were nice even though I failed to tip. I’ve made up for it since.

Another great thing is the parking lot guys. I don’t know how they get their position but one or two guys will cover a lane or two. When they see you heading for your car, they run up, take the cart and follow you to car, unload it, and take care of the cart. Then the show begins: they have a whistle and love it. They “help” you back out and stop traffic, if any, with great hand and arm signals and non-stop melodic whistle blowing…even if there is not another car in sight! Sailors guiding planes on an aircraft carrier do not match these guys. As you are backed and ready to roll, he’ll stop by the window to wish you a safe trip and, of course, welcome a tip. It doesn’t have to be much and it is worth the show.

This trip may turn out to be mainly a beach tour. Daniele’s knee is killing her and she cannot do the walking required for town and cathedral visits. It’s so bad that she’s finally relented and wants to have the replacement done when we get home! Yeah! But, we’ll stay here until after Easter since the beaches are packed. We’ll get a little touring in.

Stuck (Emerald Coast to Puebla)

2009-04-02T09:40:00.000-07:00

Off to Puebla! Errr, not so fast….we’re stuck in the sand. We aren’t the first ones to do this so the de Alba gang knew what to do. They pumped water from the pool all around and put some palm fronds under the tires. The sand dried and hardened a bit. Still not good so fellow camper Bill pulled us back a few feet with his chain and F350. That got us on solid ground enough to maneuver out. Only lost about a half hour! We then went cross country and eventually climbed from sea level to 7,000 ft. We only missed one turn in a village and that enabled us to see a beautiful town square and church that we would have otherwise missed. The mountainous passages were steep in places but there was plenty of width to the road and trucks were good about helping people pass them.

That reminds me: there are 2 customs here that are neat. One is that you might see a truck turn his left turn signal on. This usually means that he can see that it is safe for you to pass him. Of course, it could mean that he is going to turn left so you have to judge. It really works well. The other is that 2 lane roads are often, in practice, 3 lanes. The highway is marked with the center stripe and the stripes on each shoulder. But, the shoulder is often very wide. So, one is expected to center their vehicle on the shoulder stripe (i.e., right wheels well to the right of the shoulder stripe) thus leaving lots of room for vehicles to pass slower vehicles. Again, this works great and saves the expense of a 4th lane!

RVers: The roads were all good, especially the new toll road between north of Perote and Amozoc. We took 129 to 131 to the new 140D (not on some maps and GPS systems) to 150D into Puebla. Ask if you have any questions. The trip took 5 hours in a gas V10 35’ motorhome towing a Grand Cherokee. Tolls were $20.

We are staying at a very nice park (Trailer Park Las Americas LINK) in Cholula, a suburb of Puebla. The park is very tidy, beautiful trees and planting, pool, great water pressure, electric, sewer hookup and a great wifi. It is also quiet especially considering that we are in an urban area….well, the pool was bad last night with glass shaking base from a pool party. We moved to a quieter part of the park and it is now fine. $13.57 per night at the weekly rate. Great value!

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We’ll laze around and get used to the rarified air and then start touring the towns. Oh, did I mention that we are at the base of an active volcano? It was venting smoke when we came in yesterday. More on all this, with pictures, later.

Moving On to Puebla

2009-03-31T14:30:00.001-07:00

Holy week, or Semana Santa, brings a huge throng of folks to the beach. The park we are in will be a zoo. So, we’re going to escape inland and up to the mountains. We’ve been wanting to see the colonial cites of the interior so this is as good of a time as any. We’ll leave tomorrow (Wednesday) and drive about 5 hours climbing to 7,000 feet!

There is a good descriptive link to where we will be staying Here

Badges? Badges? We Don’t Need no Stinking Badges!!!

2009-03-28T20:03:00.001-07:00

Now we are having a proper Nor Easter! Sustained 20 knots, cloudy, and 14 deg cooler than yesterday. At least I don’t have to go pick up marsh grass!

With the less than great weather, we decided to kick back and enlighten our minds so we watched a Blazing Saddles DVD!!! Just love that movie. I guess I am a shallow person since I have watched it so many times!

Lorena invited DJ over to her casa for lunch today and a haircut. Daniele and her hit it off and laughed all the time she was here during her nails. DJ’s Italian enables her to understand a lot of Spanish so they are able to “chat”. She had a fantastic time today and thoroughly enjoyed being in a Mexican home. She was there for about 3 hours and had a ball…she made tortillas the old fashioned way and participated in making the lunch. It took everything she could do to get Lorena to let her at least pay a little bit for the haircut.

We had our lovely fish filet with all the trimmings last night. Finally remembered to take a picture. $7US!.

Dog Days of Spring (SOB)

2009-03-27T08:32:00.000-07:00

87deg and humid. All animals, including 2 legged ones, are moving slow. But the ocean breeze is great.

Speaking of dogs, a funny story yesterday. The park is almost empty so we don’t have to leash the dogs (or cats). Ours stay next to us anyway. Well, Pasha is asleep under the coach, as in the picture. A little, tiny, Yappee dog is walking down the road, see’s Minou the cat near the back of the coach and decides to chase the cat. Minou simply turns around, bolts for the door and, I swear, told Pasha to take charge as he went by. Pasha slithers up and pops out in front of Yappee dog. It was a Road Runner Willy Coyote moment! Yappee is trying to put on brakes and go into reverse in a cloud of dust at the same moment and all the while fighting a heart attack. Pasha just stands there looking down at him with her tongue hanging out and not moving. Yappee gets traction, does a 180 and heads for his RV. Minou watched all this from the door and came back out when Yappee left. Pasha just turned around and went back into her hole under the coach…never said a thing. We haven’t seen Yappee since. BTW: Pasha is a 135 pound Newfi!

A Lazy Day (yet again!)

2009-03-25T17:31:00.000-07:00

We are trying to learn Spanish (well, Daniele is so much better than me…I keep wanting to use French words!) One word that we have all mastered is “Siesta”. Even Minou

Our new friend, Claire, asked Daniele if she wanted a pedicure. At about 1700 Lorena arrived right here at the rig and went to work. I went inside and surfed the web..nobody is touching my feet!

Late breaking news: only time for a pedicure today ($14.29); she has invited DJ to her house tomorrow at 1500 for a manicure...and the manicure is part of the $14!) And, she gave DJ a money purse thing that she embroidered herself!!! (Picture tomorrow...we are off to the resto where they have prepared us a tempura dinner!) Turning into a busy day after all!

Wash Day

2009-03-25T09:17:00.001-07:00

For the RV & Jeep that is. We went through a week of rain in the States and coming here. The poor Jeep that we tow was really a mess and the motor home wasn’t much better. There are a couple of young people here that work with Antonia in the park and kitchen. We are told that they don’t make much and pay is sporadic depending on business. They will wash RV’s as a sideline. So, yesterday, after they finished cleaning the pool, Lucy and Polo came here and began the task.

They worked extremely hard for about 3 hours and did a fantastic job on the motor home and jeep. When it came time to pay them, they said 200 pesos ($14.29US)! I said no way! The web site even says 300 pesos. Let it be said that we did not pay them 200 pesos or 300 pesos. Some will say we did wrong and are “ruining it”. Tough. These 2 need the money and are willing to work hard for it: if they cannot earn it, then they will go elsewhere; Antonia will lose help; RV’ers will whine that the park is going down; Antonia will close; RV’ers will whine that there are no parks.

Our vehicles are clean and 2 hard working people were appropriately rewarded and might stay on with low/no pay because it opens opportunity to make some side money. Don’t get any better than that!

Mullet Blow & Turtles

2009-03-24T08:13:00.000-07:00

Well, I don’t know if they call them Mullet Blows on the Gulf like we do on Cedar Island, but we had one yesterday. Probably 20-30 knot sustained easterly wind for most of the day. Had the sea pretty angry. In spite of that, a turtle came on the beach right in front of where we are parked and laid eggs!

We did a little shopping in the small town of San Rafel. Got a pre-paid cell phone from Tel-Cel for emergency use---now have to figure out how to use it. Also dropped off a huge load of laundry. Cost is $5.50 for washing, drying, folding, and wrapped in plastic! Also stopped at a roadside chicken place and brought home a whole chicken, all chopped, complete with a huge assortment of sides for about $7. It was excellent!

No pool day

2009-03-23T12:55:00.000-07:00

They drain the pool on Mondays and refill it. No chemicals here!

Last night was a birthday party for the daughter of the park owner, Antonia. She is a hard working lady that has her challenges. Her husband died in an accident last year and it has been tough for her. Another great lady, Claire, is, essentially, a work camper, but really helps Antonio a lot.

I don't know how to arrange pix and add captions. Claire is the one in the hat with Daniele. Antonio is with her daughter in the cake picture. There is a view of the kitchen that produces such great food. The other picture is of world famous blogger Croft (mentioned yesterday with link), his bride Norma, and Claude and Daniele with whom Daniele J was able to dust off her French. Claude and I just enjoyed a cigar and a single malt scotch that Croft and Norma provided. Note: you can click on the pix and make it larger.

Where are we?

2009-03-22T11:53:00.000-07:00

Claire just asked me where we were. We're on the Emerald Coast. We came here from La Pesca. See the push pins.

Ho Hum...another beautiful day.

2009-03-21T11:06:00.000-07:00

Another beautiful, sunny, day on the Emerald Coast

I have found a gold mine of information on routes, campgrounds, attractions, etc. Most of them are really well done with beautiful pictures and great details. What I especially like about them is that after you read them a bit you get an idea of the author’s preferences and you can assess the relevance of the information to your own preferences. We actually got to meet one of those bloggers yesterday. I had just reviewed his blog and glanced out the window and there he was! We ended up having a great late afternoon by the pool chatting and enjoying a cigar or two with Croft and Norma and another couple, Claude and Daniele (yes, another Daniele). Croft's website is here. I hate to link to it because it shames our humble offering here.

Emerald Coast, still

2009-03-20T09:16:00.000-07:00

Fri 20 Mar EC

What are our plans, we are asked? Err, we don’t have any. We are here at de Alba at least until Tue 24th. We may go elsewhere then or we may not. We have a prime spot that we hate to surrender. We do want to explore so maybe we’ll go somewhere. The Yucatan is a ways away but maybe we’ll go. When we get Wi-Fi back, I’ll surf some RV Mexico blogs to get some ideas. Holy Week is a zoo here on the coast so we may go inland and explore some Colonial towns then. If fellow Mexico RV’ers are reading this, ideas welcome.

Sending this in a fantastic "Italian" coffee shop. Very good internet and a coffee selection that is quite amazing

Emerald Coast, still

2009-03-19T09:15:00.000-07:00

Thur 19 Mar EC

Another lazy day at de Alba. Hmmm, they are all lazy aren’t they? Wi-Fi is down. I helped the manager trouble shoot it a bit but I think it is an issue of the satellite company putting him in a “penalty box” for excessive bandwidth use. They have a term for it, something like usage fairness, and if someone starts downloading movies or streaming video it puts you over your allocation. They punish you by degrading your speed to dial-up or below for certain number of hours or days. There is a coffee shop up the road with Wi-Fi so I’ll go there tomorrow and check in and, hopefully, up load all this stuff.

We’re just reading. Temp in the 80’s in the day and 60’s at night. The dogs are chilling out and if they get hot, they run down to the surf and cool off. The cats even got out for a bit to explore. We’re trying to avoid a repeat of 2 years ago when Pepito got lost and left in a campground for a month.

Oh yes, we did have yet another great meal. Fish, shrimp, and a shrimp cerviche (3 entrees!), all of which was fantastic. $21, with a generous tip. Had a nice conversation with a gentleman from a caravan that is here. There are about 15 rigs (several of which are huge!). They have been on the road since early Jan! They came down the East Coast of Mexico and then visited every country in Central America (in their RV’s) down to Panama. This includes Costa Rica, Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and some I’m probably forgetting. He said they had a fantastic time.

de Alba

2009-03-18T09:14:00.000-07:00

Wed 18 Mar. Emerald Coast

We’re settling in to Trailer Park de Alba. Hit the ATM machine this morning and settled our bill. The site fee is about $11 per night including full hookups and Wi-Fi. We’re moving in a few minutes to a water front site so that it should be cooler, less crowded and more scenic. (Time passes). We moved and what a great location we now have. We’re front row with no one next to us. We have a great view of the Gulf and sit under a coconut tree complete with coconuts! Pictures when I get bandwidth.

An observation from the 2 campgrounds on this trip and the one a few years ago: It is startling how uncluttered the parks are with the total absence of signs telling you can or cannot do this or that. There are no such signs! And, if something is broke, you should stay off of it, simple. We like the concept of exercising personal responsibility.

We had another fantastic meal at the park. You just tell them during the day what you would like and they fix it. DJ had a fantastic seafood soup (more like a bouillabaisse) and I had a filet of fish. We’re talking huge portions of finest quality complete with salad, rice, fries, and guacamole for a total of $16, including tip! You know DJ knows her food and is “selective”: she has not had one “suggestion” on how it could be improved!

To the Emerald Coast

2009-03-17T09:13:00.000-07:00

Tues 17 March La Pesca to the Emerald Coast

We have not seen the sun since Louisiana and today started no different. Got underway at 0820. Fueled up (gas here is $2.09/gallon) and headed south on MX180. Nice drive to Tampico. Road pretty good and nice scenery. Fields were a mix of cattle and farming. Like on our West Coast trip, we are amazed at the number of folks that wave at us with a huge smile. Here we are blessed to be in a motor home and they are living on the edge yet they are glad to see us. Maybe there exceptions but we haven’t seen it yet. Also amusing is that all the intercity bus drivers wave at me. I guess I am a fellow driver!

Tampico is a big city and time consuming to get by. There is a circuitous by-pass and it went well. (RV’ers: there is a new bridge over the river. Church says turn left. You must exit to the right and take the fly over. The rest of the by pass is as marked. Just slow with lots of topes and trucks.

MX 180 south of Tampico is slow. Lots of trucks and small towns with millions of topes (Topes are speed bumps and Mexico has perfected them. You don’t find 1, you find them in groups. You WILL go slow!) I missed a turn, could not turn around and we ended up going via Tuxpan. Actually this was good. Scenery beautiful, no trucks, and few topes. There was a little congestion in going through Tuxpan, but not bad. We picked up a toll road there and later joined the Pozza Rico bypass. Excellent road. We lost time, but not too much. MX 180 is fine on into the Emerald Coast. It was a long day: 382 miles and 9 hours. We normally would not do this much but we were anxious to get on the beach, AND, the sun came out!!!

We are staying at Trailer Park de Alba. Nice but crowded for us. Pretty good Wi-Fi and we had an EXCELLENT meal last night of fish and shrimp for $15, cerveza included.

Gone SOB

2009-03-14T09:12:00.000-07:00

Sat 14 March 18, 2009. SOB

For Family and Friends. We departed Kingsville NAS at 0900 and arrived at the Los Indios border at 1040. Cold (47 deg) and a mist. Border procedures are a pain anywhere in the world so do not think that this was any worse that usual. I’m including a separate section for RV’ers since we all go to school on each other. We finished the formalities at 1230 and headed south. Err, no. We headed east. The laptop with its GPS program crashed right when we needed it and we ended up in the outskirts of the city. I’m glad we had done this before so we were not intimidated and plowed into the traffic and made some tight corners towing the jeep. Excellent road for most of the way and the smaller roads were not that bad. We arrived at La Pesca, a fishing village, at about 1700.

We’re at La Gaviota RV park. Huge grassy field overlooking the river. Just one other coach here, a couple from Switzerland.

We were leaving Mon but decided to stay an extra day.

BTW, we did some tallying and found that we had driven 1,967 miles to here in La Pesca. We used 260 gal of gas for a cost of $468. Campgrounds have cost us $154.

For RV’ers. We have some lessons learned that might be of use re Los Indios in particular.

First, the hours are different than in Church and could be different tomorrow! As of 14 Mar 2009, the Banjercito is open 0900-1800 Mon-Fri; 0900-1600 Sat; Closed Sunday!!! This is important also for returning your visa and TIP’s.

Somewhere we read that the location of the border is well marked. We have yet to see any sign. We saw the buildings and figured it out. The first thing encountered is a line of 18 wheelers. Ignore them and keep going straight. You will come upon a booth. It turned out to be toll to cross the bridge. It was $14 for a MH and TOAD! You cross the bridge and then encounter Mexican customs. It was very narrow but we got through. The building immediately to the right of this is where you do your paperwork but you must proceed about 50 yards through a military check point (a second building on your right), to the parking area. It is not huge, but adequate. They wanted us to go in and back in a “U” and park.

You then walk to that first building. On entering, there is an immigration window on your right. Go there with your passport and tell them you want 6 months. They’ll ask you where. We said Veracruz. They fill out the form and tell you to go to the Banjercito windows and pay (262 pesos each) and then come back for the final stamp. This takes almost no time.

In our case, it took an hour in line to get to the teller and another half hour for him to complete everything. Before you get in line, take the immigration form(s) to the window that sells insurance/money exchange. You need 2 copies of the one for the primary driver and 1 for the other. (They will say you only need 1. You need 2.) Cost is 25 cents. You should make copies ahead of time of your passport (and drivers license) and vehicle registration(s). Make at least 2 each. When you get to the window, they will process the forms. They will complete one “Temporary Import Permit (TIP)” for the Motorhome/Tow vehicle and one for the trailer/TOAD. The RV is for 10 years and cost 730.13 pesos. The TOAD/Tow Vehicle is for 6 months and cost 438.08 pesos. This will be run as 2 separate transactions on your credit card (Visa/MC only). They will then run your immigration visa fee for a total of 3 transactions. You then go back to the immigration window and give him your paper work. He stamps it and you are done inside. Go to your vehicles and immediately put on the hologram. Motorhomes: put below the dark tint or it can’t be seen from out side. Keep your paperwork handy.

A Mexican national and I talked while in line. He was as confused about all this also and he does it a lot. I asked about returning the visa and TIP. He said you do it in this same line. I asked if you hand to stand in the line. He said yes but that the guy who was walking around the line periodically was asking (in Spanish) if anyone was in line to turn in forms. If yes, he took them to their vehicle and removed the hologram and gave receipts. So, if you hear some one asking something, it may be for this. You turn in to the same parking area to do this.

All of this took us 2 hours and we had no problems and our teller seemed efficient (although he listed our motor home as a folding trailer on the TIP!). It was a Saturday and there were a lot of Mexicans appearing to be coming home from the US for spring break, so the line was long. Everyone was very pleasant and in good humor, both the officials and those in line.

We then headed out and got lost. Keelhauler says I should have stayed straight and not turn on MX2. My bad. We eventually got on MX110 and headed south. At about 20 kilometers, we encountered a customs inspection. We went in the Autobus lane. A very nice agent checked for our holograms, asked for the paperwork and then compared the VINs to the papers. She came in the coach, cursorily looked in 1 cabinet, played with the dogs (no mention of health certificates) and wished us a great trip. She said in Spanish to keep our eyes open. We asked if there was a special problem. She said nothing in particular, but it is always good to be alert.

We stayed on MX 110 to San Fernando and then got on MX 180 to Soto. 180 was great until about the last 20KM. Then it was narrow but not bad. The new road to La Pesca is great until you encounter the final construction about 5KM from town. That part is slow going. This was in March 2009. We stayed at La Gaviota. A nice open, grassy field with palms overlooking the river. The manager is very nice. They took pictures and played with the dogs for a long time today. We planned to stay 1 night and are staying 3! Cost is 250 pesos/night. 15 amp with water and sewer. By the way, the PEMEX in La Pesca is not RV friendly (small). If you were desperate you could maneuver without a TOAD. Better to use the Pemex on the left as you enter Sotto. They take credit cards.

Kingsville TX

2009-03-13T19:12:00.000-07:00

We're freezing in the Rio Grande Valley! Arrived at Kingsville Naval Air Station, Texas yesterday and decided to stay a day to provision for our trek SOB tomorrow. It's been rainy and cold!! Will be glad to get in the sun. The base is small and deserted. It is primarily used for transitioning potential Naval aviators from prop to jets. Lots of T-45's. It is also a staging area for the Border Patrol. There must be 100 Border Patrol SUV's in the barrack's parking lot across from the RV park. The town has a Lowes and a Walmart. That's about it.

We'll cross the border at about 1000 and then head south. Doubt that we'll have WiFi until Monday.

Off to Texas

2009-03-12T15:17:00.000-07:00

Woke up in Vinton to a cold morning! A front came through and chilled things down. We drove 356 miles today. I-10 to Houston and then US 98/77 south to Kingsville, Texas. Lot of construction on I-10 but no slow ups. Houston is a maze but it wasn't rush hour so it went fine. Pasha was a little bit more like normal but not totally.

We are staying for 2 nights at Kingsville Naval Air Station in their RV park. It's being remodeled and a bit of a mess but at $9/day, it is great!.

Cajun Time

2009-03-11T15:11:00.000-07:00

As predicted, we stayed over an extra day at Blue Angel and did not leave until Wed, 11 Mar. The picture is our site at Blue angels.

We drove 400 miles on I-10 to Vinton, Louisiana. Pasha is still acting strange. Vinton is close to the LA-TX border. We found a nice CG (Vinton RV Park) and a great Cajun restaurant nearby. They were selling crayfish like crazy.

RIP Mimi

2009-03-09T09:04:00.000-07:00

Well, not a great 2 days. The ending first: We had to put Mimi, the gray Bouvier down this morning at 0800 after 16 great years. She was a great dog and adored Daniele. Whatever room DJ was in, Mimi would be there no matter how much she was hurting.

This all started in Thomasville GA. Sat night, DJ had a tough time getting Mimi out of the coach and ended up creating a lot of extra joint pain. Sun AM I too had trouble getting her out and realized she could not use her left rear leg very much. Plus, I sprained my knee awhile back and aggravated it Sunday so I can’t walk very easily! We really looked like a bunch of geezers. To top it all off Pasha, the Newfie, is acting bizarre when we’re on the road and insists on being right next to one of us no matter how we push her away or beat her with a paper. She usually sleeps the whole time. We wonder if she knew Mimi was failing?

So, Sun we left Thomasville and came to Pensacola, FL and are staying in the Blue Angel RV park run by the Navy Link - Right on a sound with a beautiful view and under huge oak trees. So, I hobble around getting parked and Daniele works through her pain setting up inside. Sunday night Mimi goes downhill fast. She kept DJ up all night and me parts of it. We had no idea where an emergency vet was located but did see a Vet near the RV park when we came in. So, I was waiting at their door when they arrived at 0800 and put Mimi to rest.

We were leaving Tue but between both of our aches, pains, and tiredness, we may delay and leave Wed. RIP Mimi.

Thomasville GA

2009-03-07T06:30:00.000-08:00

From Charleston we took US 17 to I-95 and then I95 to near Brunswick GA. There we picked up US84 and headed west. 84 is a 4 lane divided highway with no traffic! Enjoyed going through the old towns that I used to visit when my dad was conducting Seaboard Railroad business in my youth. Stayed at a nice CG in Thomasville, GA. Here's their website. Nothing special but nice and clean with a fair price of $26.

Charleston

2009-03-06T06:18:00.000-08:00

Friday, 6 March. Went as far as Mt Pleasant SC (Charleston) today. Stayed at the KOA. Too expensive at $40 but a nice CG. We stayed here last August while working on a proposal. The highlight is a hole in the wall restaurant on US17 that serves excellent home style southern food. You'd never think to stop here but it was packed with many of the cars being Beemers and Mercedes! Here's their web page. Try it if you are in the area.

Getting Ready!

2009-03-01T14:16:00.000-08:00

Well, it's been 2 long years since we were last SOB and we are getting ready to head that way. The map gives an overview of this 5,000 mile, one way, trip (click on it to see a large version). We plan to leave Thur (5 March). We will mosey our way to Brownsville and plan to go back roads as much as possible. We will do the East or Gulf Coast of Mexico this time. First area that we will spend time at is on the Emerald Coast, just south of Poza Rico and north of Veracruz. This will be quite different than the West Coast trip since on the second day in Mexico we will already be below the Tropic of Cancer and in warmth! Who knows what we will do from there? We have the medicine issue resolved for 90 days so we will not be pressed.

Daniele will be doing most of the blogging on this trip. We've got our SkyPE system working. The Email works. We've got our paper work in order....we hope.

Check back and see how we are progressing! And, yes, we have read all the dire warnings. We frequent RV in Mexico web sites and forums and no one has had a problem. We will get clear of the border in a hurry and practice situational awareness.

Photos

2007-01-14T10:07:00.000-08:00

It takes too long to upload photos. Please chack back once we get in the US and we'll post pictures.

Sat 13, January 2007, Alamos to Bahia Kino (State of Sonora)

2007-01-14T10:03:00.000-08:00

Back to where we started this adventure: Bahia Kino. Faithful readers will know that we came back to get the cat that escaped almost a month ago. Success! He’s back and doing fine. We’re trying to get in a frame of mind to leave this beauty and people. Fellows came buy selling lobster last night so that helped!!! $14US for all of these (and they were still kicking!!!

Fri 12, January 2007, Alamos (State of Sonora)

2007-01-14T10:01:00.000-08:00

We did some shopping at an native handicrafts store and then went to La Adunana, a village several miles out in the desert. The church (now being renovated) is said to be famous and has a cactus that mysteriously started grown out the side. One person said it had achieved miracle status but we’re not sure of that.
A great find was a first class gourmet restaurant in this tiny village.

Thur, 11 January 2007, Alamos (State of Sonora)

2007-01-14T09:54:00.000-08:00

A quick drive inland to a town that we’ve heard a lot about: Alamos. It is a colonial mining town that now has historical protection from the Mexican government. It was nice but we were disappointed. We liked El Fuerte better.

Wed, 10 January 2007, Huatabampito (State of Sonora)

2007-01-14T09:52:00.000-08:00

Today we drove around the area checking our markets and looking for Maya Indian crafts. We ended up in an Indian village, way out in the desert. Neat village, no paved streets but the village and the citizens were immaculate. We could not find any shops selling the crafts so we stopped at a regular shop to ask. To our surprise, the lady closed her shop and she and her 2 year old got in the car with us and took us to several of her friends who made the articles. These are normally sent to Alamos where they are sold to tourists. Everyone was super nice and we picked up several nice things. It was a nice trip and we got to see some things that very few people ever do.

Tue, 9 January 2007, El Fuerte to Huatabampito (State of Sonora)

2007-01-14T09:47:00.002-08:00

Man with gun awakens Daniele

Another short day, 3 hours and 109 miles. Daniele is excited: says it was the first time she has ever awoken to a young soldier standing over her carrying a gun! Geeze, if I had known, I would have carried a gun more often! What happened was that as we get closer to the US border, we will start encountering military checkpoints looking for guns and drugs. At this one, they were walking through every RV and even making the 18 wheelers back into a loading dock and opening the doors for checking. Our 2 soldiers spoke no English but were very polite. One was fascinated with the dogs and wanted to know their names. The other one checked the coach fairly carefully and is the one Daniele saw when she woke up. I recognized his collar patch as being artillery and he was excited that I knew that. I suspect that they rotate units on this duty. Was not a big deal and we were soon on our way to another check point, this time for agriculture (California does the same thing). The various states are trying to protect their crops and try to stop import of fruits and some veggies. For the first time at one of these the nice inspector came in but just looked at the fruit bowl (that was empty), glanced around and said adios.

The route continues through intense agriculture areas with lots of irrigation, even though we’re getting into the Sonora desert. Again, we continue to get waves from everywhere. We found our park (El Mirador in Huatabampito www.el_mirador.tripod.com) and again, fantastic (If you find Navojoa on your map, look SW on the coast and you might see this village…it is very small though.) This one has a very nice restaurant and we’re closer to the water than we have ever been. The beach is almost deserted in every direction. There are only 3 other RV’s here. The dogs can run loose and had a ball. Surf is very calm but the water is a bit cool. We just chilled out in the sun and then had another fantastic meal of shrimp.

Mon, 8 January 2007, El Fuerte (State of Sinaloa)

2007-01-14T09:47:00.001-08:00

Decided to stay another day and see the town by day. We went to the market area and strolled. Daniele started looking at clothes; Steve saw a tiny barbershop and got a haircut for $3US. Daniele says it is the best haircut in years. We got hungry so we sat at one of the many stands where they make tacos to order. We had 5 delicious beef ones with everything, plus 2 cokes for $5US! By then, the streets were emptying for siesta. We saw a small hotel and the lady invited us in to the courtyard….beautiful! We’ve seen here that you should not judge a house by its front. As you peek down the driveway or entrance path, you will usually see a magnificent, landscaped patio and interior. We ended up at the plaza and enjoyed the quiet. Then, it was siesta time for us too. For dinner we went to a very nice restaurant and had a fantastic meal for about $40US total. Restaurant really reminded us of one you would find in Spain.

Sun, 7 January 2007, El Fuerte (State of Sinaloa)

2007-01-14T09:38:00.000-08:00

Today was a short trip of only 60 miles to El Furerte an old colonial mining town way in the hills. Good road most of the way through beautiful agricultural areas and neat villages. We were told that most of the veggies and fruits that we see in the US during winter come from here. The RV park is mid size and we’re the only rig here. Caravans use it in Feb and March as a base for Copper Canyon tours. The owner is an American that is a retired pilot from Frontier Airlines. He organizes dove hunting trips for rich folks he says.

El Furerte is great! We had an excellent dinner of shrimp (what else?) at a very nice restaurant and then went to the Plaza as do many other residents. The Plaza is beautiful, right off of a postcard with a big bandstand in the middle and gorgeous trees all around. Citizens of all ages were strolling around the square or sitting and chatting on one of the benches. This truly is a wonderful snapshot of something you don’t find much anymore. Food venders are at various places around the square and we finally found the famous Churros again. Remember at our first park in Kino the vender came through with a tank of hot oil in the back of a pick up truck selling a doughnut type thing (and Steve ate them all)? Well here they were again. We got plenty this time. Lot to be said for strolling around a plaza munching on Churros.

Sat, 6 January 2007, Teacapán (State of Sinaloa) to Culiacan, er make that Las Mochis (State of Sinaloa)

2007-01-14T09:35:00.000-08:00

We hated to leave Teacopan but they were full so off we went at 0845. We decided to try the free (Libre) highway because other RV’ers say they are fine and the toll roads can get very expensive. They are right! We were on toll for only a short section and saved at least $75US. Plus the free highways were great and scenic. You get to see more towns and these do not slow you down much. We had 2 or 3 instances to getting stuck behind trucks, but nothing of concern. It is the libre for us (except in mountains, probably).

We arrived at our campground in Culiacan about 1400. It was lovely…a water park with a nice lake and pools. So far so good. As we neared the site, the coach began vibrating. When we stopped there was a loud, steady ka-thump, ka-thump. It was “music”. Thinking it was just workers with a boom box we set up and unhooked the Jeep. Steve drove (it was that far) to where the “music” was coming from and it was a DJ setting up! Steve drove to the office and asked (it was loud there too, a mile away) about it. “Oh, that is a fiesta.” When will it end? 0200. We left.

Driving was good so we pressed on to Las Mochis and arrived at 1830. We’re in a bare bones campsite that is used as a storage place for RV’s while the owners take a train into the Copper Canyon (Mexico’s grand canyon, which is bigger than ours!) Doesn’t matter, it has utilities and is fairly quiet. We’re ahead of schedule so now we’ll be able to spend extra time in the colonial towns of El Fuerte and Alamos.

We traveled 357 miles today, a long way in Mexico. We also chatted about what we’ve done so we did some numbers:
We left NC on 25 Oct
We arrived in Mexico on 9 Dec
We traveled 3,382 miles (so far) in the US
We traveled 2,004 miles (so far) in Mexico
Grand total of 5,386 miles, so far.

Some random observations:
•We have not seen one single person begging for money, anywhere.
•We have not seen anyone sleeping on the streets or sidewalks.
•We still get smiles and waves from people everywhere
•No one has tried to cheat us (other than the “Dr” in Mazatlan) and we have never felt uneasy in spite of having traveled from the biggest to the smallest areas.
•Dirt streets seem normal now, we don’t even notice them
•There are very few signs admonishing you to not do something. There seems to be an attitude of act like you know you should act and be responsible for yourself (we are told that lawsuits are almost unheard of here…you should have watched where you were going)
•Baseball is a big deal here. We’ve seen quite a few games being played in village ballparks. The players are in nice uniforms and there is always a fair size audience

Friday 5 January 2007, Teacapán (State of Sinaloa)

2007-01-05T17:31:00.000-08:00

A really lazy day. Did very little of anything. We tried to stay another night but the park is full and even has RV’s dry camping on the road. That did not effect the pool or beach though. The bungalows here are really nice. We checked and a 1 BR is $322US/week! They are really neat looking and the pool etc is first class. Maybe we can get folks out of Dade City and Richmond to here for next Christmas?????

Thursday 4 January 2007, Teacapán (State of Sinaloa)

2007-01-05T09:52:00.000-08:00

Wow!!! Every place we go, we think it cannot be any better. Well, here we go again. We have miles of secluded, beautiful, beach with, at most, 3 or 4 other people on it. The dogs wore themselves out in the surf and we had a relaxing time just chilling out. The place is quiet with the only sound being the surf. Sunset was spectacular…not a cloud in sight. Went by the pool today and it looks fantastic…even has “bar stools” in the water next to a bar so you can imbibe while in the pool (the bar is not in operation at this time of year).

Found out that the company won both of the competitions that I had worked on. This was expected but, as my boss says, a signed contract is the only one that matters. They want me to work on 2 more in Norfolk that will encompass most of Feb.

Had dinner is a beach side Palapa last night. No one else there and the Senora did all the cooking herself. Daniele and she chatted a long time about the life of being a chef. Daniele’s Spanish is getting better by the day. We had 3 shrimp dinners of different types for $21US. The shrimp were fantastic…great taste.

Guadalajara

2007-01-03T17:30:00.000-08:00

Tue 2 January 2007, Guadalajara

Stayed in the park today waiting from the Dr to call re Daniele’s med. Waited and waited. Went to the office to pay and to ask the manager to help call some pharmacies. Well, he had THE solution: “Jessie”. Jessie happened to be in the office and both the manager and Jessie said that he helped park guests all the time. He then handed me a card that said: “Jessie…Serving the needs of visitors to Mexico for over 24 years”. I gave him the prescription and off he went. Couple of hours later he showed up with the right meds in a sealed box. Seems that he knows that only hospital pharmacies carry this and he knew where to go.

We are leaving here Wed for Teacapan. It is below Mazatlan on the southern border of the state of Sinaloa. May or may not have wi fi for a few days. Cell phone should work.

Wed 3 January 2007, Guadalajara to Teacopan (State of Sinaloa)

Banditos!!!
Left Guad at about 0815 and proceeded SW. Beautiful day. Was getting close to our comfort level on gas so pulled into a Pemex but it was closed. 2 fellows were there and told me there was one about 10KM ahead. I thought they were giving me directions but it turned out that I had just offered them a ride to Tepic, about 2 hours away! So they piled in, pushed dogs aside and off we went. Mind you, Daniele is asleep in the back! They were really nice fellows with very little English. Later Daniele came into the living area and they all started chatting big time since her Spanish is not too bad, especially comprehension. The older fellow has 2 daughters married to Americans in Wisconsin. We actually hated to see them go when we dropped them off in Tepic and we expect the ride in a motor home will be the subject of conversation for awhile. We then went through some light rain…more than we’ve seen since Oct.

We arrived at the Onac RV Park in Teacopan at about 1530. (www.villasonac.com) (click on the US flag for English version) What a park and only $15US/nite! The view is amazing. The beach is fantastic with light surf. We’re right on the water, concrete pads, Wi-Fi. Just watched the sun go down in the West and here comes a full moon in the East.
Doesn’t get any better than this. The best park ever.

We pan to be here for 2 nights but might just stretch it to 3…the damned cat in Kino will have to wait.

Happy New Year!

2007-01-02T08:20:00.000-08:00

Mon 1 Jan 2007, Guadalajara

Here we go again. Cannot find Daniele’s other medication. The Dr in Puerto Vallarta wrote her a prescription for it effective today but after visits to quite a few pharmacies, no one has it. The closest to an answer is that it is controlled and there are only a couple of sources but no one seems to know who those are.

Did a SkyPE New Year’s calls to France, Richmond, Tampa, and Cedar Island…what a great system! In the afternoon we took a long drive down to Chapala and surveyed potential future sites. Very nice area and countryside. Had a great dinner…very affordable. No black-eyed peas and pork though.

Mucho Catchup

2006-12-31T12:47:00.000-08:00

Sorry, but haven't had internet much and still don't have it well enough to post pictures. Here's a draft update:

Wed 20 Dec Mazatlan

Well, it started out a very nice day in Maz and then went downhill. Daniele can only get a 30 day supply of her pain meds from Pain Management and there are a ton of DEA rules concerning her meds about not post dating prescriptions, calling then in to pharmacy, yada yada. It seems that every trip we are on we have to go through a goat rope to get meds. Well, being in Mexico adds to that drama. I check we a pharmacy and they said they carried what she needed. We then saw a clinic and went in. No problem…just be a minute. She saw a Dr and he said he could only give 20 pills at a time but could write several more scrips that could be filled later. The clinic also switched between dollars and pesos in prices. They said $65US for the office visit plus the cost of the meds that the pharmacy would deliver. Okay, it’s a tourist area so $65 is high but not unexpected. Then the Visa card rejected…hmmm…Oh, he was trying to charges us $800US not $800 Pesos (rate is about 10 pesos to the US dollar)! We then found he was trying to charge us $65 for EACH of the scrips that he was writing! We raised hell and told them to stuff it and they then said charge for only one office visit and 2 boxes of the meds for a total of about $130 US. We didn’t like it but at least she had some Meds until we could get out of a tourist area. Back at Destino we found he was lying when he said her Med wasn’t available in Mexico and what he provided was a substitute. A simple Google search proved that. So we're out $130 for meds that won't work.

After that exercise we did nothing else but develop a plan for how to get meds in Lo e Marcus. Friends on an RV forum gave us some leads.

Thur 21 Dec Leave Mazatlan for Lo de Marcos

We did a 1030 start for the 5 hour drive to Lo de Marcus (50 miles North of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Nayarit). The roads here were not as good as we have seen but not too bad either. There was a lot of traffic with people rushing home for Christmas. The landscape is BEAUTIFUL! Reminds us of Thailand with palm, mango, and coconut trees growing everywhere. We took a shortcut which wound through the jungle and through some very nice towns with the usual villagers waving at us. Made us forget the tourist trap quack in Maz. We made one wrong turn and ended up on really small and rough dirt streets in a village. No problem though. With the traffic, the trip ended up being about 7 hours but at least it was enjoyable.

The town is quaint. Cobblestone (and rough) street with nice little shops throughout. They still have Topes on the street but they are hardly noticeable with the cobble stones! The Town Plaza is very neat and had villagers sitting around it chatting when we passed through. We arrived at our RV Park and love it. It is small and family operated. The beach here is out of a post card. Fantastic!!!

Fri 22 December 2006 Lo de Marcos

The mission is to get meds! Went to an internet café and found that a lead provided by a member of the RV forum paid off and a Dr had sent us an email setting everything up. They have many of the same restrictions here so the bad news is that the meds won’t be here until Tue or Wed. This means Daniele will be having to cut her dosage in half to make it until then….will not be fun for her. That solved we didn’t do much. Did get a pay as you go cell phone especially so that we can be contacted for an emergency and in case Claire and family have a problem on a connection on their flight here Sunday. Steve will have to drive about 5 hours, one way, to Guadalajara to meet them and would not be reachable without a phone. The phone and $10 of air time was only $35US so that wasn’t bad. We called Claire for a quick hello and 1 minute ate up $3!!!!. Within Mexico it won’t be too bad.

Sat 23 Dec 2006

Daniele decided that the pain was there rather she sat around or did something and doing something might make her forget it a little. So, we took off for Puerto Vallarta (aka PV) and shopping. Before we got out of Lo de Marcos we saw a shop where several ladies were making Piñatas…they were creative and gorgeous!!! Not sure it was a shop or a group of ladies making some money but their work was amazing.

PV is about an hour away over a very good road. We mumbled something about having to drive an hour for a big shop and remembered that is what we have to do on Cedar Island! Soon we were entering a Sam’s Club along with a million other people on this the last Saturday before Christmas. If you did not know better, you’d never know this Sam’s was in Mexico. Same stuff, laid out the same way. Exception that Sam’s (and Wal-Mart) sell booze of all kinds! We got what we wanted and hit a line that wasn’t too long and then went next door to Wal-Mart. Again, same things for the most part although this one had a huge fish market and deli. We finished that off and headed home. Nothing exciting.

Sun 24 Dec 2006 Lo de Marcos

The Deane’s Arrive! Claire et al fly into Guadalajara (aka Guad) today about 1300. We’ve gotten different estimates on the drive time ranging from 3.5 to 5 hours. Plus there is a time change and we lose an hour. By the way the reason for Guad instead of PV is the flights were significantly cheaper and there were none to PV that did not require an overnight stay.

Steve launched out at 0530 because he wanted to be sure and be there. The road quality is very good except that about half of it winds up down and around several mountain chains so the going can be slow. Well, Steve made it to Guad in about 3.75 hours and had lots of time to spare. The airport was very nice and modern: dining option included Burger King and Starbucks. The Deane’s arrived almost on time and we were on our way back to Lo de Marcos and arrived just before sunset so they got to see the place in daylight. We had a sort of traditional Christmas Eve dinner while Eli ran himself crazy trying to burn off energy form almost 12 hours in a car seat!!

Christmas Day, Lo de Marcos

We had a Merry Christmas although it seemed strange not to be at least cool or to see some of the things we see back at home. We missed being In Dade City, for sure. They had a nice Mass in the little town church with one man playing guitar and about 6 villagers singing songs. After that the mission was to find Dinkus fishing opportunities. For that, we drove over to Sayulita. It is a very touristy town that was teeming with people swimming or just walking around. We signed up for 2 different charters on Thursday and Friday. Both were about $150 for the boat (not per person) for 4 hours. Since the deep water and big fish are close to shore, there is almost no travel time and it is all 4 hours of fishing! We asked one guide where we could buy a surf casting rod so that Dinkus could surf fish and the fellow went somewhere, came back with one and said bring it back before you go home! He doesn’t know us or where we are staying! Dinkus fished a bit…caught some Moray Eels and lost a lot of tackle because the fish dive into rocks when caught. Rest of us played with Eli including him splashing in the Pacific. We had a traditional, at least for Mexico, dinner and enjoyed watch that old favorite: A Christmas Story. We got a camera to use for SkyPE so now you can see us! A nice Mexico Christmas Day.

Tue, 26 Dec, Lo de Marcos

Dinkus and Steve found a ponga (sp?) fisherman down the beach from us and using sign language etc asked about taking Dinkus fishing. No problem so tomorrow Dinkus has a 0600 rendezvous with fish. Later Dinkus did some surf fishing in front of the park and impressed the natives by catching a very nice fish. Eli played in the ocean and had a ball.

Relief! The Dr from Puerto Vallarta called and said Daniele’s meds were in! We went there in heavy traffic in the afternoon…took an hour each way. Dr Suarez was fantastic!!! He took a very thorough history (entering it in his Palm P:ilot) and amazed us with several of his comments. He easily recognized some of the more obscure meds that Daniele takes and identified her esophagus problem which no other Dr, anywhere, has done except for the one at Bethesda who originally figured out what was wrong. He had some very interesting ideas on how to back off on some of the pain meds…ideas that we have sought but never got at home. Will be interesting to see what they say at home. This was medicine at its best! By the way an interesting comment he made. Daniele asked what Mexicans took for pain since it seemed like her meds were rare here. It turns out they use an med that we did not recognize…if a Caucasian takes it, it attacks bone marrow but it has no adverse impact on Hispanics!

After the Dr we went to Wal-Mart and did a quick shopping. Then we came back to Lo de Marcos for a very nice meal at a local restaurant. Remember the complaints about the cost of restaurants? The 4.25 of us at for $50 including margaritas and beers! Really good!

Wed, 27 December 2006 Lo de Marcos

Dinkus joined the fishermen at 0600 and did a launch through surf. They trolled for awhile for Dorado but no luck. They did see a lot of porpoises and, even better, had a close up encounter with hump backed whales!!! They were right next to the huge mother and a baby. Dinkus says the blow hole on the adult was as big as a basketball and the geyser of mist went up in the air 50’ or more. Again, this was in a 16’ workboat with zero life jackets etc. One of the crew turned to Dinkus and said “Dios Mio”! They later caught a couple of very nice trigger fish but the whale sightings made the day. On the return they did the high speed run to shore and beached the boat about 30 yards from the water’s edge with the prop spinning! The stopped exactly where Steve had been standing seconds earlier!!! Total cost for about 4+ hours of fishing (and whale sightings) was $70US…Dinkus tipped generously because the guys had been so very nice and a whale sighting tourist boat would have been 2 or 3 times that much.

In the afternoon, Daniele and Claire went to Sayulita for shopping and whatever and had a blast. They did the town and walked everywhere so Daniele’s meds are really helping. For dinner we had the fish that Dinkus caught.

Thur, 28 December 2006 Lo de Marcos

Steve was going fishing with Dinkus this morning but after the whale story gave up his seat to Claire so she could have a chance of seeing the whales too (Steve and Dinkus will go out Fri AM.) They’re back! Dinkus got a nice Dorado (Mahi Mahi) and they got to see a whale. They’re delighted.

Fri, 29 Dec 2006 Lo de Marcos

Dinkus and Steve did the fishing trip today. We went Fidel, a Captain who was born and raised here. He has a great reputation and is all business. Great anticipation because yesterday he caught a lot of big Mahi. The Ponga is about 18’ long with a high bow and broad beam. It is powered by a 70HP Yamaha…no electric start and no power tilt. He keeps the boat very nice and it rides very dry in spite of a through the surf launch and fairly good swells. We rode for about 20 minutes and saw whales off to one side…not real close but you could see a lot of them. Out of no where we see a few coke bottles tied to a cord that goes WAY down to the bottom. This is a substitute for an artificial reef since marine life grows on the rope and attracts bait fish which attract the mahi. The amazing thing is that there are several of these way out and Fidel and the others find them without GPS or ANY electronics of any kind on the boat. Well, long story short: no mahi anywhere. Fidel was getting agitated so he decided we’d go for Rooster Fish (called that because their spines look like a rooster. They are his ace in the hole when Mahi are gone. His way of fishing for them is to troll just behind the wave before it breaks into surf. So here we are coasting down the back sides of waves hoping that the Yamaha would keep running because the shore was a beautiful rocky hillside. For about an hour all that was caught was a big pin fish and a pelican (he was freed). Then Dinkus got caught on a rock because his huge rod and huge reel bent double and line paid out like crazy. Fidel knew it wasn’t a rock. 3 or 4 times Dinkus got the fish near the boat and then it took off again and was unstoppable. Finally he got him at the boat and it was a HUGE Rooster Fish…at least 50 pounds. Just as Fidel tried to gaff him the leader broke at the swivel and the fish was gone. Dinkus was still happy because he said he had never caught a fish that fought like that one.

The rest of the day we just began packing and some final beach time.

Sat 30 Dec 2006 Lo de Marcos to Guadalajara.

At 0930 we left Lo de Marcos and headed across some huge mountains to Guadalajara. Beautiful scenery but a good portion of the road was 2 lane and wound all around the mountains…slow going but Destino handled it fine. US interstates are limited to a 6% grade…we can tell you that Mexican highways are not! Went by Tequila, the town, and many many agave fields….gorgeous. Got into the RV park at about 1430. Nice park and hardly anyone here. It is on the outskirts of Guadalajara and convenient to the airport. Had a quiet evening letting Eli run and burn off energy. Chilly compared to Lo de Marcos: got down to 45 deg.

171 miles today but we think all of that was uphill!!

Sun 31 Dec 2006, Guadalajara

Steve took the Deane gang to the airport and got there ate 0710. Small airport he said and small plane so 2 hours is more than enough. It was a zoo and was packed. They ended up barely making the flight!

Catch up

2006-12-20T09:52:00.000-08:00

Sat 16 Dec

Bye Sonora

We left Mirador at about 0830 and resumed our journey south. For the first time we leave the State of Sonora and enter the State of Sinaloa. As we did so, the desert landscape began giving away to vegetation and we now see a lot of agriculture. We also see herds of cattle ranging near the highway, usually watched by a cowboy on horseback...and, the number of people that wave at us with a big smile continues to amaze us.

We were on Mexico 15, much of which is toll, and it is not cheap. Today we went 298 miles and the tolls were $60! By practice, if there is a toll segment there is usually a free segment very near by. But, that free side goes through towns and you really lose a lot of time. So, what happens is that you’ll speed along at about 55mph on the toll segment and then all of a sudden you enter a town and the dreaded Topes (speed bumps) that slow everything down. Then a bit later, you’re back on the toll segment. All this means that the best we have averaged in Destino is about 40-45 miles/hour. The roads remain very good. They (and we’re also talking about side roads here) are smoother than many of our interstates and wide enough. More and more we’re seeing better shoulders so that eliminates the only negative we had before. So far, including going through busy cities, we’ve not felt uncomfortable driving Destino and pulling the jeep.

By the way, gas is about $2.40/gallon. The price is the same everywhere and it is always pumped by an attendant. I hear that some Pemex’s take credit cards but have not seen any yet. We also continue to see Wal-Mart’s, Sam’s, AutoZone’s, Sherman-Williams, etc. We’ve not been in any big store yet since we’ve been in small towns. We will soon need to because we’re running low on dog food and a couple of other things. They have Pedigree dog food in the little shops but only in small bags and is pricy.

One other observation on this Sat before Christmas: half, maybe two-thirds, of the autos on this highway (the main route down the West cost of Mexico) were vans and SUV’s with California plates and were loaded with Mexican men and treasures from the US. Presume they are legal workers who are bringing presents home for Christmas. The things we saw most often were bicycles, washers and dryers, and toys. We left the main highway at about 1500 and headed east to Las Glorias. Nice 2 lane road through the beautiful countryside. Lots of cattle munching the grass on the shoulders under the watch of a herder on horseback. The little village has lots of restaurants on the water…don’t know how they are supported. We proceeded to our RV Park and WOW! While it is not fancy, the facilities are very nice and we are right next to the beach! If we were any closer, we’d be in the water! We will post pictures when the site lets us. Had a nice dinner in the restaurant here and then read listening to the surf. This place is fantastic and it will be hard to leave here. There are only about 4 other RV’s here so we have this huge beach almost to ourselves.

We did have a moment of home sickness yesterday when we remembered that Anne was doing her Christmas cookie decorating event for the grandkids. That has been a traditional thing during our many years of Christmas in Dade City and it reminds us that we won’t be there, at least not in person.

There is no internet near the Park so we’ll be out of touch except when we find a café. You have the info on the park and the cell says we have a good signal but don’t know if it works. Don’t call the cell unless it is an emergency because it is very expensive.

Until we get internet again…..

Sunday 17 Dec

Internet, sort of.
Went to the office to say hello and lo and behold there was a PC. The owner was proud that he had it up and running and invited me to use it. It is an old PC on a marginal dial up going through Prodigy. After about 45 minutes was able to send a quick “we are safe” email to Claire and Frank. Other than that, we did not do much except walk on the beach. Did go to a local tiny store for some small things. They were making tortillas for the village…quite good, we might add. Our plan now is to leave here (sadly) on Tue and stay 2 nights in Mazatlan. It is a bigger city with stores for some Christmas shopping.

Monday 18 December 2006
Woke up to a light fog. Most of the day was overcast so we just chilled out. RVpark did laundry for us: $6 for 3 kilos (6.5 lbs). Not cheap but neither was it exorbitant. On that subject, at least so far, things are not what you would call very cheap. Dinner at a normal place is about $40 for 2. Fresh shrimp (we watch the boats here every night) average $12 for 2.3 pounds. Yes that is cheaper than big cities but we pay about $2-3 on Cedar Island. We were surprised at how much we spent in a little 7-11 type store. So far, things are not expensive but they are also not “cheap”. There’s not much competition where we’ve been so far so that may change as we head on south tomorrow.

But, then tonight our meal was $25 for both of us….go figure.

Tuesday 19 December 2006
Woke up to a cloudy day but the temp is good. A skiff type oat with 4 fishermen sped towards the shore and beached the boat at full throttle. They were streaming out a long gill net that we realized was connected to the beach about 200 yards away and manned their by 4 fishermen. They then started pulling the net in and walked towards each other. After about a half hour of hard work they got the net in and had about 100 fair size fish.

We headed out towards Mazatlan. The area is now very much agriculture with huge fields with rows covered with plastic and in some cases tents of a fiber material of some type to keep varmints out. The road is now almost US Interstate standard (and better than some we have been on) with shoulders and dividers in most areas. Speed limit is 70mph. That’s the good news. The bad news is that the toll for about 100 miles was $68!!!!! The alternative was a slow road and we would have probably burned that in extra gas. Saw our first genuine Sombrero today and not in a tourist area. A chap was talking to his friend out in the fields a long way from anywhere and had one on. His friend was wearing a white cowboy hat…the usual attire that is very prevalent everywhere.

We arrived Mazatlan about 1400 and got a place in the only RV park on the water. Excellent facilities and view from the front row but it is tight! It is fun being in a town after several weeks of country with only tiny convenience stores. We went to a huge store last nigh that was like a Wal-Mart but has excellent selections in food and veggies. Their bakery and deli had stuff that is usually only found in Europe. We had a fantastic time there and will do another one today: we’re stocking up for the kid’s arrival and for Santa.

The cat’s back….well, he’s been seen at the RV park that is now 15 hours away! They can’t catch him. So now, we’ll have to figure out what to do…probably have them board him and we go back through the same route rather than through Texas.

We miss Pepito

2006-12-15T20:09:00.000-08:00

A bit of sadness. Late Wed afternoon, our kitty, Pepito, darted out of Destino while we had our hands full. He and his brother, Minou, have done this before but Pepito has always been the daring one. We almost lost him at the Homeland Security checkpoint before Hoover Dam when he dove out. The guard grabbed him just in time. He did not come back so we decided to stay another day to see if he would. Sadly, he did not. We finally left Fri morning but new friends at Kino have our contact info if he returns. We pray that he is with a nice home on Kino Bay.

We left Kino at about 1000. Steve missed the turn off for the shortcut and we had to go back through Hermilsino. Not all bad since we got to see a Mexican city. Yes, we also saw: Walmart, Sams, Home Depot, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Sherman Williams’s Paints, and someone else that we are forgetting. We arrived at San Carlos (Guyamas) at about 1400. We didn’t care for the 1st RV park so we back tracked to Mirador. It is a first class facility with pool, hot tubs, full services, etc. But it is a bit sterile so we’ll only stay one night, rather than two. We thought it was on the water. That said, the views are great.

We did enjoy our visit into town. Charlie’s Rock had fantastic views at very low prices.

We then ventured to a very nice Mexican restaurant. We found out later that it is part of the university system that trains young people for the restaurant trade. In Mexican restaurants everywhere you get chips and salsa. But here, Alma made the Salsa to order!!!

A nice gentleman played very nice guitar music during our dinner.

Our primary waiter was Gonzalo, a very personable young man who has great dreams for his future. He will do very well…look for him in the high end tourist resorts. Daniele drove home because the Margaritas were VERY good. While we did not care for the RV park, we loved our visit to town. Still, all the people we meet are so very nice.

Bye Kino

2006-12-13T17:14:00.001-08:00

Wed 13 December 2006

Another Sonora day. Wifi was great today so logged some time on SkyPE with family, Pop, and Wes. Amazing to hold a “conference” call with Claire and my brother from the Sonora desert for free! Most of the day was spent looking at the Bay. A nice fisherman came by and sold us a kilo of freshly caught skinned and filleted flounder for $8. He had beautiful shrimp also but we had that last night. Ernesto came with his wife and daughter and did a fantastic job. They washed and waxed the Jeep and washed Destino (including polishing the windows) for $45. He was supposed to wax it but felt that it needed to be compounded first and that would take a whole day and he did not want to take our money for less than a perfect job! We’ll get that done down the road.

We finished the day on the beach where the dogs had a great time being free. Bruno stayed in the water and swam like he hadn’t for years.

Tue 12 December 2006

2006-12-13T08:04:00.000-08:00

Hummm, Ernesto didn’t show to wash and wax Destino….perhaps mañana? Can’t complain though since even back home folks don’t show when expected. There are Ernesto’s in every RV Park we hear.

A laid back day. The excitement was a “parade” of shrimp boats and smaller boats with many townspeople aboard. The lead boat carried a replica of the Virgin Mary and the procession went to a shrine on the other part of Kino. We couldn’t see much since they did not come very close to shore. We understand that all of the towns will be having such processions between now and Christmas day. Nice to have the religious aspects of the season emphasized!

Played with the internet a bit but wifi is spotty and we now know why. Went to the office and saw that the Linksys router (probably like you have in your house with 2 antennas sticking up) is sitting on the roof with a rock holding it down . Hey, but there is wifi here very deep in the Sonora desert, a long way from civilization. By the way, check into SkyPE for phone service on the road! We just got hooked on it and are amazed…essentially free…all you need is internet access. We’ve talked daily with family. Danièle chatted with her parents in France for about 20 minutes and the cost was 34 cents!

We drove and walked around the dirt street village a bit and noted that the people are very poor yet they are all doing something and very friendly to us even when they are just passers by and not merchants. We also made an observation: even though we are right on the sea, there is no humidity. The Sonora desert keeps things dry, even on the sea.

Just another day :-)

2006-12-12T10:25:00.000-08:00

Mon 11 Dec

We had a quiet day getting into the Mexico vacation state of mind. Daniele did a lot of house cleaning and several big pots of delicious stew. We’re trying to figure out our schedule: we’re not ready to leave here but there’s 600 miles between here and where we need to be on the 22nd and there are several other places that we want to see and stay at,

Met more of our neighbors and found them all very interesting from all walks of life. At least here, there’s no evidence of snobbery. A couple (she from Switzerland and her husband from Indonesia) and their 2 young children are in a tent. They participate in the sunset gathering along with all the others. We’re all passing DVDs around for viewing.

There must be 20 shrimp boats working right off from where we are. A lady came through selling fresh shrimp and of course we bought some. Fellows also came through selling carvings…we passed. The propane truck came through and filled our tanks….a very efficient system they had. A fun thing: our Canadian neighbor came over and said…he’s coming…you’ll want this! We heard a truck with a loud PA speaker and a cute little song as he rode through the neighborhood outside the campground. Sure enough he pulled in and here was a small pickup with a burner, a vat of hot oil sloshing around, and a device that extruded dough into the oil. The result was a cinnamon doughnut thing that was fantastic! Think they are call churros…Daniele got mad at me because I ate most of them.

Hola!!!!

2006-12-11T09:35:00.001-08:00

Sat, 9 Dec. Go South!!!

Got an early start (0655) in 15 degree weather. Proceeded back to I-40 and then East until I-15 in Flagstaff where we then headed south. Very nice road through the desert with fantastic views. Warmed up as we came down from Grand Canyon’s 7,000 feet to around 1,000 in Phoenix. As we approached Phoenix, started seeing the Suargo cactus (the one’s that look like a person…probably spelling it wrong.) On past Tucson and to Nogales on the border.

Here’s where it gets exciting (for us anyway). We pulled into a campground that was mentioned in one of our books at 1430. We planned to do a little shopping and then study all the info we had on the border crossing, etc. Well, we were parked for about 10 minutes in this “trailer park” and Daniéle says: why don’t we just cross the border? Well, that is not the plan I thought….for about 30 seconds and then the Mexican attitude struck and we started the engine! We proceeded to the Mariposa crossing (designed for trucks and big rigs) and before we knew it, we were in Mexico!!!

The procedure is you proceed for about 21 KMs to the place where you get your visa and car import papers. As we neared what we thought was the place, we were waved off the highway into an area with huge tents and a zillion cars. The sign said this was the place for foreign cars. Well when we pulled to the entrance, the boss was in shock! We should not have been directed here…this was a temporary place for cars only. Our first encounter with the wonderful people of Mexico: the boss was apologetic and turned out several helpers to clear a path through the area so that we could get out. All the while he was apologizing. We got back on the highway and proceeded a few more km to the real place. Again, very nice people guided us to a parking place. Inside we went through a bureaucracy that was typical of all governments yet less onerous than our own. Without exception, all of the people were very nice, professional and anxious to help. Mexican nationals were going through the same maze as we. All told, it took an hour and forty-five minutes and we were back on the road. Not bad at all (the traffic at the north bound side going into the US was miles!!!

It is now dark. You’re not supposed to drive at night because the trucks are speeding and sometimes animals are on the road. Well, we were not going far and since there was so much traffic, it would not be bad. And that was true. We had a nice drive and saw some neat things. Several times we saw warning signs for Topes, which are speed bumps…and this was on a major highway. Well, you’d better pay attention and slow down. We found that these were in an area where there were lots of food stands and shops on both sides of the highway. Whereas we would have chain fast food places, they had these mom & pop stands. We wanted to stop but the day had been long so we pressed on.

Near Magdelena we saw a big Pemex station with lots of parking. Pemex is THE gas station all over Mexico…the only one. We pulled in and asked of we could stay overnight and the lady was shocked that we even asked. Big smile and “sure, sure… Buenos Noches” So we pulled to the side, cranked the generator and settled in. There was a neat little mom & pop food concession so we had a fantastic stew for dinner.

We’re excited! We’re about 4 hours ahead of where we would be if we had stayed in Nogales and have already had a great day of Mexico. Today: about 12 hours; 405 miles.

Sunday, 10 Dec Bye Pemex

Awoke after one of the bests sleeps ever. Lo and behold in front of us was another motor home that came in during the night and we chatted with the owner. They had just bought it because they were in an accident (in Mexico) and had turned over and totaled their 5th wheeler and car (they were not hurt). He said they decided they could go back to the US and mope or just proceed on. So they rented a car, drove to Tucson, bought a motor home, and were proceeding on. What a great spirit! Steve wandered around the Pemex and chatted with the staff…well, not really chatted; he smiled a lot and communicated in sign language, hand gestures, and Spanglish. Again, everyone was friendly and interesting…one of the staff chided his buddy for not being able to speak English after having been in DC for a little while.

About 0930 we left the Pemex for Bahia Keno via Hermosillo. To Hermosillo the road was all a divided highway with some parts toll and the other open. This road was pretty good. Smoother than many interstates, but what is missing is a paved shoulder and in may cases, a severe drop off from the paved part to the dirt….you have to stay alert. Tolls are not cheap…one stretch was about $14 and the other $5…this for a total distance of a little over 200 miles. Now, we do pay more for Destino’s 2 axles and the 2 on the Jeep.

Hermosillo seemed like a nice small town…saw a lot of our familiar chains: Walmart, Radio Shack, McD’s, and others we forget now. We then headed west for Bahia Kino on a free 2 lane road. We should say 2.75 lane road because in both directions there was a huge shoulder that almost made it 4 lanes. Very good road through the Sonora desert. The town on Kino is not much but the beach is fantastic. We left Destino at a Pemex station and the reconnoitered Kino for an RV park. We loved the very first one we saw but looked anyway. We came back and chatted with the manager, a very friendly and personable Mexican lady. She told us to take what whatever site we wanted. We asked about paying and she said just do it before we left! Have no clue how much it is but it won’t be much. Our site has a beautiful view of the Bay, nice paved patio and palm trees. The beach is 40 yards away. The dogs had a ball plaing in the water and running on the beach after over a month of being restricted to a leash. No one cares about leashes here of the dogs are behaved and picked up after. Even the kitties roamed. Our neighbors are fantastic. Canadians and Americans from all walks of life. One couple came here planning to stay for 4 days….that was 2 years ago. Those that want to participate gather under a palapa to chat and view the gorgeous sunset. Very interesting people. We finished the day as the only clients in a nice little mom and pop restaurant. Everything was cooked from scratch and delicious. Little pricy though ($30). The owners were very personable even though their English was almost non-existent…hand gestures and smiles come through again.

Already we have a problem: our plans are to work our way down the coast and be near Guadalajara for Christmas. We don’t want to leave here!

Oh and a new challenge: Ernesto just stopped by and wants to wash and wax the motorhome for $50. I think we'll say yes :-)

That’s a Mighty Big Hole in the Ground!!!

2006-12-08T09:26:00.000-08:00

Thursday, 7 Dec.
After more than a month, we departed Vegas. Had a short drive to the Hoover Dam and then on to our old Friend, I-40. Remember comments about the head on winds wind we drove to here? Well, naturally, they’re still head on even though we’re going in the opposite direction. About 4 hours later we left I-40 and went cross country to the South Entrance of the Grand Canyon. When we made reservations for the Trailer Village inside the Park, they said they were crowded. Hmmmm out of what must be 150 sites, we see maybe 5 RV’s!. We walked along the trails for a little and watched the sun go down. Very Impressive!!! Today: 281 miles; 5hr38min.

Bye Vegas

2006-12-06T18:48:00.000-08:00

Well, our work is done and we're out of Vegas tommorow morning. This has been a long month. Great RV park and the work was interesting but DJ was stranded a long way from anything. But, all said, it was not bad. That said, we're looking forward to tomorrow! We spent the day reorganizing Destino since we've been on the road so much that we've tended to stuff stuff wherever. We also wanted to get some special things for Mexico.

The great news is that Claire and DJ found a great spot to spend Christmas and that uncertainty is all taken care of. Claire et al fly in to Guadalahara on the 24th so Santa will find Eli in Lo De Marcos...just a bit north of Puerto Vallarta. Next mission is to find a fishing charter for Dinkus...when Steve is around, he catches no fish.

The other thing we found that is fantastic is SkyPE, the "phone" system obver the computer. This is great and almost free. DJ called her parents in France and talked for about 20 minutes for 34 cents! A new friend from the RV forum chated with us today and she had a camera...really neat! Gotta get one so we can see Eli. We've called several folks and the system is great!

Ok. Off to Grand Canyon in the AM. Weatherunderground says that the temps (hi/lo) are: Thur: 49/16; Fri 47/20!!!! Ouch!!!!!

Hugs to all

Gobble Gobble

2006-11-24T18:57:00.000-08:00

We had a nice, quiet Thanksgiving and remembered all the many things that we are thankful for...too many to list here.

Casinos have fantastic buffets at very cheap prices...not because they are great humanitarians...they suspect you will drop a few coins on your way in/out. We had a very nice traditional meal at at near by buffet. Was VERY good. But, when we called our dear friend on Cedar Island we were reminded that we had not had collards so our meal was lacking! You're right Pop! But we did miss a massive NorEaster on Cedar Island that stayed around for 3 days. We've been here since 31 Oct and have seen not a drop of rain.

Steve mentioned earlier a problem of what show to see since Barbara Streisand and Larry the Cable Guy are here. Now, it got worse: the Dixie Chicks are here too. Steve keeps saying: "Get er done!!!!"

As nice as this RV park is, we're anxious to move on the the Grand Canyon and SOB.

Hugs to all

We Have A Date!

2006-11-22T13:38:00.000-08:00

Finally we know when we'll head SOB! The task finishes here on the 6th so we'll head for Grand Canyon and stay there 2 nights and then on to the Border.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Sunday in Vegas...these sure are different Cathedrals!!

2006-11-19T07:23:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was our 1st Blog and overnight realize that we left some things out. Again, this is for family and close friends who care what we're up to; most will find it boring, Maybe it will get more exciting when we head SOB (I wonder if there will be "Pedro" signs every mile or so as we get close...like on I-95?)

If you're new to blogs, they generally show the newest post on top...you can change that but for now you should read from the bottom. Check back periodically and see when we've updated...probably won't be much until we head South.

If you double click on a picture, it will show a bigger size.

Some answers for those that we haven't seen in awhile:

Destino? Destino is what we call the Motor Home. It is a 2001 Itasca Sunflyer 35U (made by Winnebago). 35' long; 10 tons; Ford V10 gas engine; 5.5 KW generator, We bought it in Feb when it had 10,000 miles on it; it now, 9 months later, has 23,000!). Until this trip we used it for other proposal efforts at Eglin AFB (Destin/Fort Walton Beach FL), visiting Steve's brother and his wife Anne near Tampa, and seeing Eli in Richmond...oh yes...we saw Claire and Dinkus too. We also had a neat trip in the mountains with all the Deane clan. We've really enjoyed Destino. We can take it almost anywhere and have all our stuff with us. Including the beasts! Yes, the Bouvier, Lab, Newfie, and 2 kittens are always with us.

Who RV's? This has been interesting. For the most part they are folks like all of us. Amazed at the number who full-time (sold their house and live in the RV). They come from all walks of life. We've seen retired factory workers with huge mega rigs costing $300,000+ and bankers with old ones. Neat also is their attitude. Have not seen one of living in the past...telling war stories, etc. What we see is folks that worked hard, saved their money, retired, and now are going to see things. The topic of conversation is almost always where they "might" go next. We say "might" because most do not know until a day or so before they launch.

Mexico?? Aren't you afraid?? If we were afraid, we wouldn't be staying in North Las Vegas or have travelled through some of the cities we did to get here. And many of you live in REAL crime zones (DC, Richmond, Tampa, Norfolk...). Most of the stories you read are about Border Towns. We read RV and Mexico forums a lot and have never read of much crime...and the question is asked all the time. One thread asked folks to list what had happened to them: a huge number reported no incidents and there were a couple of bicycle thefts. Of course, you're careful about where you go and when. Just like in the US or anywhere else.

OK! Big plans today: go find a new buffet; watch folks lose their money; come home at about 2000.

Vegas Baby

2006-11-18T14:38:00.000-08:00

In the first post we indicated that we were going to be in Vegas for about 2-3 weeks. Well, that ain't gonna happen. As of 18 Nov, the government document we need still has not been released. So, we expect to be here until about 10 Dec when we will then head SOB. Plan now is to twist the arms of Dinkus, Claire, and Eli and Frank and Anne and have them join us for Christmas in Mexico. Dinkus is on a movie so it is unknown how much time he will have...but we need our Eli fix!!

This Nellis FAMCAMP is great! Very nice facility with lots of room between rigs. It is near the Nellis Flight Line so there is an air show everyday with every plane imagionable real low over head...even the new F-22 Raptor. We had fantastic "seats" for last week's Air Show since they came directly over us. Steve's company had a chalet at the Air Show so we got to see the Thunder Birds up close.

Oh, and The Strip? We've been in town twice to dine at Paris...the Buffet. This is a high cuisine (really!) buffet...hey, Daniele loves it! After that, we invest $20 in a slot machine and so far, Daniele is still ahead...or rather, she hasn't lost her $20. After a wild evening on The Strip, we're back at Destino by 2000 (8 PM for you civilians). The place is amazing though: Steve watched the roulette table one night and in about 30 minutes, the casino raked in at least $30,000. There were so many chips on the table that it was taking 10-15 minutes between spins to clear the table and stack the chips. Shows? Well we see that Barbara Strisand and Larry the Cable Guy are in town...Steve cannot make up his mind as to which one he'd rather see so we'll pass :-))))).

Go West Young Man

2006-11-18T12:51:00.000-08:00

This is a report to family and friends on our trip to Mexico. As most of you know, we've been quite anxious to visit Mexico and the opportunity arose. Steve was asked to go to Nellis AFB in Las Vegas, Nevada, to help with a proposal that his company was working on. We thought we were pressed for time since release of the "request for proposal" by the government was supposed to hit on 1 Nov. As of this writing (18 Nov), it still has not arrived. Adding to the complexity of doing this was that Steve had just returned from another proposal effort in Norfolk and San Diego and we only had about 4 days on Cedar Island to get the Motor Home (we call it "Destino", Spanish for Destiny) and us ready.

Our original plan: Be in Vegas by 1 Nov; leave Vegas o/a 20 Nov and spend 2 nights at the Grand Canyon; leave the Grand Canyon and go to Tuscon, Arizona for or border crossing; roam down the west coast of Mexico to about Guadalajara and then go north east and enter the US at Brownsville, Texas; proceed to Dade City (Tampa), Florida and join Steve's brother and Anne and Claire and her family for Christmas; return to Cedar Island in early January.

Wed, 25 Oct 2006: We departed Cedar Island and drove on US 70 to the Raleigh area where we got on I-40. This is significant because navigation for this trip is very easy: stay on I-40 West until near Vegas and then turn right! We drove for about 6 hours, 221 miles, and stayed near Hickory, North Carolina at the Lake Myers Campground in Mocksville, NC. A nice CG with a family next to us that had a little granddaughter that was a talker...reminded us of Claire when she was that age.

Thur, 26 Oct 2006: we got back on 40 and went through Ashville, NC and across the Blue Ridge. The leaves were in full color so it was a beautiful trip. (Editorial note: We did not get to see much on this trip since we needed to be in Vegas by the 31st...our commentary is really based on what you can see from the Interstate.) We drove for about 7.5 hours (400 miles) and stayed in the Nashville KOA. Didn't see much because it poured rain all night!. An interesting thing was about a dozen European RV'ers in neat Class C type RV's. They were all shipped over and the owners from Germany, Austria, Netherlands, and Italy were touring the US and Mexico until Spring!

Fri, 27 Oct 2006: We got back on 40 and crossed into Arkansas. Surprised us to see a lot of rice paddies! We drove for about 7 hours (432 miles) and stayed near Little Rock at the Lake Dardenelle State Park in Russellville, Arkansas. The lake is huge! There was a bass tournament that attracted hundreds. An amazing number of very expensive boats and SUV's. When they launched in the morning, it sounded like an airport.

Sat, 28 Oct 2006: We crossed through Oklahoma and were amazed to see a lot of windmills generating electricity near Oklahoma City. Saw a lot of oil wells. Did see a vineyard: had a sign that said (about their wine) "Like California But Less Fruity"! We then went into Texas. We drove for about 7 hours (431 miles) and stayed near Amarillo. This is the real West....miles and miles of prairie with no sign of human life. Our RV park was on the famous Route 66! What a change from back East: wide open spaces. Daniele and the pets relaxed outside for awhile.

Sun, 29 Oct 2006: Out of Texas and into New Mexico. Beautiful desert scenary that changes with the elevation. Lots of mountain climbing getting into Albuquerque but Destino handled it fine. Lots of windmills again. We drove for about 6.5 hours (387 miles) and ended up in the Kirtland Air Force Base Family Camp. Ate in old Albuquerque, but not very special. By the way, when I say "we" drove, it is true! Daniele had her maiden turn at the wheel and did fantastic.

Mon, 30 Oct 2006: Neat side trip today as we crossed New Mexico: Petrified Forest! It is right on I-40 so we were able to drive through without losing too much time.

We drove for about 7 hours (355 miles) and ended up in the Flagstaff, Arizona KOA. Lots of headwinds and climbing since Flagstaff is a little over 7,000 feet elevation.

Tue, 31 Oct 2006: Off to Vegas Baby!!! We finally leave I-40 and head North across the Hoover Dam and into Vegas. Since 9/11 traffic across the Dam must go through a check point. Pays to have an 82nd Airborne plate on the front and a Cherry Point MCAS sticker since the inspectors consisted of a former 82nd Master Sgt and a Marine Master Gunny...we got through REAL quick!!!

Only 5 hours today (262 Miles). We reached our destination of the Desert Eagle Family Camp on Nellis AFB. The Strip is easily visable and beautiful at night.

So, here we are at our way point before our Mexican venture. Some facts re our trip West:
2595 Miles
346 gallons of gas (about 7.5 MPG for a 35', 10 ton house!)
Gas cost: $759 (most places it was about $2.25/gal)
Campground fees $155.81
Almost zero cost for food since we ate in Destino almost every night