Saturday, November 25, 2006
Friday, November 24, 2006
Giving Thanks
We have been getting many messages of sympathy and support from our readers -- thank you all so much. It does mean a lot to us.
We have a lot to be thankful here at Our Odyssey on this Thanksgiving holiday: we have our health, and we are living our dream. We are also thankful that Bob's passing, while untimely, was without the sort of pain and suffering that often must be endured by myeloma patients.
We are parked on the street at the Tousey residence (map), where we have been since leaving the VA hospital. The neighbors have been very accommodating, although we have overstayed the nominal 72-hour on-street parking limit. Shortly, we will move over to the Sunnyvale Elks lodge, which has water, power, and a dump station. It is short drive away, and we will shuttle back here daily by car.
It was nice to be able to stay right here when we were needed most -- through the burial in Santa Rosa on Wednesday, and the Thanksgiving holiday yesterday. Moving forward, we will be helping Edith sort through a lifetime of Bob's belongings, a task which will easily take us through the end of the year. A public memorial service for Bob will be held at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Palo Alto at 10am on December 5th.
The Christmas holiday will be a difficult one, and Edith has made the decision to spend it away from the house. I was able to get some last-minute discount reservations for Hawaii, a destination that, at one time, we had discussed visiting with Bob. Though his absence will certainly be felt there, I think it will be good to get away. We'll be leaving Odyssey here in the bay area, kenneling the pets, and taking off for Hawaii on December 15th, returning on the 26th.
I have not forgotten my promise to post here some thoughts on Mexico. Astute readers may have realized that I had entered most of a fairly long post on the 15th when the call came in about Bob, and I hurriedly closed that post with said promise. I hope you will forgive the fact that we have been somewhat preoccupied. I will follow through as soon as time permits.
We have a lot to be thankful here at Our Odyssey on this Thanksgiving holiday: we have our health, and we are living our dream. We are also thankful that Bob's passing, while untimely, was without the sort of pain and suffering that often must be endured by myeloma patients.
We are parked on the street at the Tousey residence (map), where we have been since leaving the VA hospital. The neighbors have been very accommodating, although we have overstayed the nominal 72-hour on-street parking limit. Shortly, we will move over to the Sunnyvale Elks lodge, which has water, power, and a dump station. It is short drive away, and we will shuttle back here daily by car.
It was nice to be able to stay right here when we were needed most -- through the burial in Santa Rosa on Wednesday, and the Thanksgiving holiday yesterday. Moving forward, we will be helping Edith sort through a lifetime of Bob's belongings, a task which will easily take us through the end of the year. A public memorial service for Bob will be held at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Palo Alto at 10am on December 5th.
The Christmas holiday will be a difficult one, and Edith has made the decision to spend it away from the house. I was able to get some last-minute discount reservations for Hawaii, a destination that, at one time, we had discussed visiting with Bob. Though his absence will certainly be felt there, I think it will be good to get away. We'll be leaving Odyssey here in the bay area, kenneling the pets, and taking off for Hawaii on December 15th, returning on the 26th.
I have not forgotten my promise to post here some thoughts on Mexico. Astute readers may have realized that I had entered most of a fairly long post on the 15th when the call came in about Bob, and I hurriedly closed that post with said promise. I hope you will forgive the fact that we have been somewhat preoccupied. I will follow through as soon as time permits.
Friday, November 17, 2006
In Memoriam: Robert F. Tousey, 1941-2006
It is with great sadness that I write of the passing of this journal's most dedicated reader. Louise's stepfather, Bob Tousey, succumbed last night to complications of Multiple Myeloma. He was just 65 years old.
It is the aftermath of a long and emotional day, and words that might constitute a fitting memorial fail me. I have known Bob only briefly, with a relationship, as is so often the case with in-laws, built on fleeting moments, visits of a mere day or two, or perhaps a week here and there. A pale shadow of the lifelong friendships Bob has forged with so many people, into whose lives a large void is now thrust. And yet I was privileged to call Bob my friend. We shared a passion for travel, and for history, and a love of engineering. He was always available to help me and Louise, no matter what we needed or when. And he was genuinely interested in our lives and our happiness.
Louise and Bob have known each other for over twenty years, initially as co-workers at Varian Associates here in Palo Alto. Through that friendship, Bob met Edith, Louise's mom, and they have been married for fourteen years.
The progressive nature of Bob's illness, with which he was diagnosed three years ago, precipitated a number of visits back here to the bay area. Regular readers will remember that Louise even flew here a number of times, while I tended to Odyssey in some other remote part of the country. Knowing the end was near, we very nearly canceled our trip to Mexico, from which we just returned.
It was largely at Bob's urging that we went ahead with the trip anyway, knowing that, at any moment, we could find ourselves racing for the nearest airport (few and far between in Mexico). Bob, too, had been looking forward to our adventure and to follow it here in this very forum. In the end, Edith had to print each day's posting and read it to him in his hospice bed. He remained conscious and aware right through our final report from Mexico.
The morning after we crossed the border, we received the call that we knew someday must come, and we drove straight through from Escondido, arriving here at the VA Medical Center in Palo Alto around 7:30 that evening. We were able to spend Bob's last day with him at his bedside.
We will remain here in the bay area for the rest of the year. There are many details to be dealt with, and Edith needs our company and our support. This morning finds us still parked, with police permission, in the designated RV area of the VA parking lot (map), where we have been since arriving Wednesday night. Louise has already gone this morning to her mom's house, and I will be packing up Odyssey shortly to move it there for a day or two. We still need to make arrangements for parking beyond that and to the end of the year.
Rest in peace, Bob. We will never forget you.
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Back in the US
We left Posada Don Diego at 6:15 yesterday morning, and finally parked for the night close to 10pm here at the Escondido Elks Lodge (map). Possibly our longest day on record.
The drive from Vicenté Guerrero to Ensenada was again scenic, and again involved narrow, twisty mountain roads. The good thing about the curves is that the closing speed of opposing traffic is lower. The bad thing is that the tails of the 18-wheelers tend to be over the center line when they have the outside lane, and one of our rigs lost a mirror. In fact, the trailer clipped the whole front of his coach, knocking off a snap for his windshield cover and putting a scrape in the fiberglass from top to bottom. He was very lucky -- another half an inch, and his windshield would have been smashed. We ended up right behind him going through Ensenada, and had to call out traffic on his left on the CB.
Speaking of Ensenada, which turns out to be a large and busy city, it was packed to the gills with Baja 1000 participant and support vehicles, and more were rolling in as we left. I'm sorry we did not get to stop and sample any of the town.
After Ensenada we turned off Mexico 1, which continues north to Tijuana, onto Mexico 3 towards Tecaté. About 20 miles up 3, we broke from the pack to fuel up, and I filled Odyssey's tank at Mexico prices of about $1.84 a gallon, taking on 740 liters. We caught back up to the caravan at their lunch stop a few miles up the road, on a dirt pull-off in front of one of the many wineries in this area. Sorry, no time for a winery tour!
Climbing a mountain grade another dozen miles up the road, half the caravan came to a sudden stop. One of the fifth-wheels had run his diesel out of fuel, and was dead on the road. He had another full tank of fuel, but failed to switch tanks before the engine quit, and his engine lost prime. Chaos soon followed.
With no place to pull over and stop, the wagonmaster continued on with any rigs who could follow, and the instructions were for all rigs to pass the stuck fiver, with the tailgunner remaining behind to handle the problem. This being Mexico, however, traffic behind the caravan was already moving around us, including 18-wheelers. On top of that, oncoming traffic was continuing down the hill, and there was a blind corner ahead of the stuck rig. We were only three or four rigs from the back end, and I finally put Odyssey across both lanes of the road, effectively blocking the bozos trying to pass the whole caravan until all our rigs could pass the stuck unit. I had to move back into the right lane for one or two downhill cars, but this gambit was effective in getting everyone back on the road. The tailgunner and I pulled over onto a dirt turnout a quarter mile downhill of the fiver, and one of the other rigs stopped just beyond him uphill with a gallon can of diesel.
I set out flares as I made my way uphill to the stuck rig. With the tailgunner directing traffic around us, the guy with the extra diesel and I poked around under the hood of the big Ford until we figured out where the fuel filter was. Oops -- that's the oil filter, unless his fuel has turned to black goo. The fuel filter is the smaller one next to it (go figure), both of them drop-in cartridge type. By standing on the tow eyes protruding from the bumper, I was able to reach down and get the fuel filter open -- I could hardly believe how tiny it was. I managed to fill the housing up with diesel, although it only took about a pint. I think I spilled at least that much all over the manifold as well. I threaded the cheesy plastic top back onto the the housing as tight as I dare, and we gave it a shot. It took a bit of cranking to get fuel pressure out to the injectors, but she finally lit off. A few minutes later, all four of us were back under way, perhaps ten miles behind the rest of the group.
By 2:30 or so, we were all in Tecaté, staged in a parking lot for a public ball field (map). We had to turn our tourist visas in and get our passports stamped at Mexican immigration, but there is no place to park rigs there. So the wagonmaster and tailgunner shuttled us up in groups to the immigration office to complete the task. So far so good, except the tailgunner was pulled over by the local constabulary on his first trip, necessitating a trip to the police station, and an appearance in front of the judge on a series of trumped-up charges. I think the cop just wanted a mordida up front, which would have been perhaps $50, but Larry only ended up paying $60 for his fine anyway. It did, however, cost us all time.
It was 4pm by the time we had our passports stamped, and we were lined up at the border by 4:30 or so. Night fell before we made it to US immigration -- the line, even here at Tecaté, was a good two hours. After jigging and jogging through the maze that is the US border station (and I think I heard that at least one of our rigs hit one of the concrete bollards while doing so), we had a cursory inspection and were waved through.
We are on a tight schedule to make it to San Jose, so we decided to press on, west on 94 all the way to I-15. I'm sorry we were not able to traverse this stretch in the daytime, as I'm sure it is scenic. We stopped at Olive Garden in Poway for dinner, craving a nice green salad and decidedly un-Mexican food. It is impossible, however, to urban boondock almost anyplace in San Diego county, so we continued here to the Elks, a stand-by that has bailed us out many a time.
I am a bit pressed for time today, but in a day or two I will post here our overall impressions of the tour, and of Mexico and driving therein.
The drive from Vicenté Guerrero to Ensenada was again scenic, and again involved narrow, twisty mountain roads. The good thing about the curves is that the closing speed of opposing traffic is lower. The bad thing is that the tails of the 18-wheelers tend to be over the center line when they have the outside lane, and one of our rigs lost a mirror. In fact, the trailer clipped the whole front of his coach, knocking off a snap for his windshield cover and putting a scrape in the fiberglass from top to bottom. He was very lucky -- another half an inch, and his windshield would have been smashed. We ended up right behind him going through Ensenada, and had to call out traffic on his left on the CB.
Speaking of Ensenada, which turns out to be a large and busy city, it was packed to the gills with Baja 1000 participant and support vehicles, and more were rolling in as we left. I'm sorry we did not get to stop and sample any of the town.
After Ensenada we turned off Mexico 1, which continues north to Tijuana, onto Mexico 3 towards Tecaté. About 20 miles up 3, we broke from the pack to fuel up, and I filled Odyssey's tank at Mexico prices of about $1.84 a gallon, taking on 740 liters. We caught back up to the caravan at their lunch stop a few miles up the road, on a dirt pull-off in front of one of the many wineries in this area. Sorry, no time for a winery tour!
Climbing a mountain grade another dozen miles up the road, half the caravan came to a sudden stop. One of the fifth-wheels had run his diesel out of fuel, and was dead on the road. He had another full tank of fuel, but failed to switch tanks before the engine quit, and his engine lost prime. Chaos soon followed.
With no place to pull over and stop, the wagonmaster continued on with any rigs who could follow, and the instructions were for all rigs to pass the stuck fiver, with the tailgunner remaining behind to handle the problem. This being Mexico, however, traffic behind the caravan was already moving around us, including 18-wheelers. On top of that, oncoming traffic was continuing down the hill, and there was a blind corner ahead of the stuck rig. We were only three or four rigs from the back end, and I finally put Odyssey across both lanes of the road, effectively blocking the bozos trying to pass the whole caravan until all our rigs could pass the stuck unit. I had to move back into the right lane for one or two downhill cars, but this gambit was effective in getting everyone back on the road. The tailgunner and I pulled over onto a dirt turnout a quarter mile downhill of the fiver, and one of the other rigs stopped just beyond him uphill with a gallon can of diesel.
I set out flares as I made my way uphill to the stuck rig. With the tailgunner directing traffic around us, the guy with the extra diesel and I poked around under the hood of the big Ford until we figured out where the fuel filter was. Oops -- that's the oil filter, unless his fuel has turned to black goo. The fuel filter is the smaller one next to it (go figure), both of them drop-in cartridge type. By standing on the tow eyes protruding from the bumper, I was able to reach down and get the fuel filter open -- I could hardly believe how tiny it was. I managed to fill the housing up with diesel, although it only took about a pint. I think I spilled at least that much all over the manifold as well. I threaded the cheesy plastic top back onto the the housing as tight as I dare, and we gave it a shot. It took a bit of cranking to get fuel pressure out to the injectors, but she finally lit off. A few minutes later, all four of us were back under way, perhaps ten miles behind the rest of the group.
By 2:30 or so, we were all in Tecaté, staged in a parking lot for a public ball field (map). We had to turn our tourist visas in and get our passports stamped at Mexican immigration, but there is no place to park rigs there. So the wagonmaster and tailgunner shuttled us up in groups to the immigration office to complete the task. So far so good, except the tailgunner was pulled over by the local constabulary on his first trip, necessitating a trip to the police station, and an appearance in front of the judge on a series of trumped-up charges. I think the cop just wanted a mordida up front, which would have been perhaps $50, but Larry only ended up paying $60 for his fine anyway. It did, however, cost us all time.
It was 4pm by the time we had our passports stamped, and we were lined up at the border by 4:30 or so. Night fell before we made it to US immigration -- the line, even here at Tecaté, was a good two hours. After jigging and jogging through the maze that is the US border station (and I think I heard that at least one of our rigs hit one of the concrete bollards while doing so), we had a cursory inspection and were waved through.
We are on a tight schedule to make it to San Jose, so we decided to press on, west on 94 all the way to I-15. I'm sorry we were not able to traverse this stretch in the daytime, as I'm sure it is scenic. We stopped at Olive Garden in Poway for dinner, craving a nice green salad and decidedly un-Mexican food. It is impossible, however, to urban boondock almost anyplace in San Diego county, so we continued here to the Elks, a stand-by that has bailed us out many a time.
I am a bit pressed for time today, but in a day or two I will post here our overall impressions of the tour, and of Mexico and driving therein.
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Monday, November 13, 2006
Our last full day in Mexico
We are at the Posada Don Diego RV Park in Colonia Vicenté Guerrero (map). Not the big finish we were hoping for -- the Estero Beach Resort in Ensenada is rumored to be nice, and we had been looking forward to spending a day in town there. We'll just have to plan a stop in Ensenada on our next visit.
We had a nice drive yesterday from Rancho Santa Inés in Cataviña. It was surprisingly mountainous, as we climbed up to 2100' on our way to the coast, along twisting mountain roads. We also started seeing prickly pear cacti for the first time.
There is not much to do here, so today will be a day of downtime, although we will join a group of folks heading down to the beach, about a mile from here, for a stroll and maybe lunch. Swimming is out of the question -- the sea temperature here is around 68 degrees, and the air temperature will barely hit 75.
Tonight is the big farewell dinner at the restaurant right here in the park. (Frankly, if it were not for the dinner, I would be inclined to head out today on our own and take our chances on finding something around Ensenada.) The restaurant looks nice; we spent a few hours in their back room last night playing Mexican Train with some of our caravan-mates.
Tomorrow we will leave the country. We have a long day, with around 180 miles to the border station in Tecaté. I've been told to brace for a 6am departure (ugh), which makes sense, since we have some logistical challenges to deal with our paperwork at the border, on top of the long drive. Beyond that, the Tecaté border station is a long way from anything in the States, so we'll have another hour of driving at least once we part company with the caravan.
I'm not sure where we will end up tomorrow night -- it depends a lot on what time we cross the border. The next time you hear from us, though, we will be back in the US.
We had a nice drive yesterday from Rancho Santa Inés in Cataviña. It was surprisingly mountainous, as we climbed up to 2100' on our way to the coast, along twisting mountain roads. We also started seeing prickly pear cacti for the first time.
There is not much to do here, so today will be a day of downtime, although we will join a group of folks heading down to the beach, about a mile from here, for a stroll and maybe lunch. Swimming is out of the question -- the sea temperature here is around 68 degrees, and the air temperature will barely hit 75.
Tonight is the big farewell dinner at the restaurant right here in the park. (Frankly, if it were not for the dinner, I would be inclined to head out today on our own and take our chances on finding something around Ensenada.) The restaurant looks nice; we spent a few hours in their back room last night playing Mexican Train with some of our caravan-mates.
Tomorrow we will leave the country. We have a long day, with around 180 miles to the border station in Tecaté. I've been told to brace for a 6am departure (ugh), which makes sense, since we have some logistical challenges to deal with our paperwork at the border, on top of the long drive. Beyond that, the Tecaté border station is a long way from anything in the States, so we'll have another hour of driving at least once we part company with the caravan.
I'm not sure where we will end up tomorrow night -- it depends a lot on what time we cross the border. The next time you hear from us, though, we will be back in the US.
Sunday, November 12, 2006
Circling the wagons
We are in Cataviña (map), at what passes for an RV park. It is actually a large open field with a few trees here and there. There are also a handful of trash cans, and exactly one water spigot of unknown quality.
Rather than park us in neat rows, the caravan staff had us park nose-to-tail in a large circle, reminiscent of Conestoga wagon trains as they camped along the Oregon Trail, or perhaps just Hollywood's depiction thereof. In the center of the circle there were a couple of trees and a makeshift fire ring, and here we set up tables and chairs and hat a pot-luck dinner followed by s'mores around the campfire. Everyone, ourselves included, took the opportunity to cook up the last of their pork and chicken products, which can not cross the border back into the US. Everything was quite tasty.
The captive audience also made this a good stop to offer tours of Odyssey for those who've been asking about it, and we had perhaps half the group come through.
Today's drive was quite scenic, although the road was once again rather narrow, making for some hair-raising moments as 18-wheelers passed us. We are also seeing more and more support vehicles for the Baja 1000. We passed from Baja California Sur to Baja California (often called Baja California Norté) right after leaving Guerrero Negro. Crossing the state line necessitated an agricultural inspection, and also put us in a different time zone. We are now on Pacific Time.
Tomorrow we will return to the Pacific coast in the colonia of Vicente Guerrero.
Rather than park us in neat rows, the caravan staff had us park nose-to-tail in a large circle, reminiscent of Conestoga wagon trains as they camped along the Oregon Trail, or perhaps just Hollywood's depiction thereof. In the center of the circle there were a couple of trees and a makeshift fire ring, and here we set up tables and chairs and hat a pot-luck dinner followed by s'mores around the campfire. Everyone, ourselves included, took the opportunity to cook up the last of their pork and chicken products, which can not cross the border back into the US. Everything was quite tasty.
The captive audience also made this a good stop to offer tours of Odyssey for those who've been asking about it, and we had perhaps half the group come through.
Today's drive was quite scenic, although the road was once again rather narrow, making for some hair-raising moments as 18-wheelers passed us. We are also seeing more and more support vehicles for the Baja 1000. We passed from Baja California Sur to Baja California (often called Baja California Norté) right after leaving Guerrero Negro. Crossing the state line necessitated an agricultural inspection, and also put us in a different time zone. We are now on Pacific Time.
Tomorrow we will return to the Pacific coast in the colonia of Vicente Guerrero.
Friday, November 10, 2006
Down in the salt mines
Today we had our final bus tour of the trip, a 90-minute excursion to the salt works. Having lived in the San Francisco bay area for 20 years, salt evaporators are nothing new to us, but the tour was interesting nonetheless. For one thing, the salt evaporation and harvesting operation here is on a much grander scale -- I am told the largest such operation in the world. We also got to drive right out onto the dried salt flats and watch as scrapers (essentially slightly modified road graders) dug up the salt and raked it into furrows and giant conveyor loaders scooped it up and filled immense three-hopper transporters with 360 tons of salt in less than 15 minutes.
I found out today that our final stop will be in Colonia Vicente Guerrero, not San Vicente as I speculated yesterday. The good news is that the colonia is at least near the coast -- I am told there is a beach within a mile of the campground. The bad news is it will be even further from Tecate on our way out.
I am disappointed that we will not spend any time in Ensenada. The wagonmasters pointed out that we were welcome to stay beyond the end of the caravan, but we need to be getting up to the bay area, and, besides, our experience going through inspections and checkpoints on our own now leads us to want to process out of the country with the whole group, as we suspect there will be fewer issues that way.
Which reminds me that I neglected, yesterday, to report our experience with the military checkpoint near San Ignacio. You may recall we proceeded from Santa Rosalia to Guerrero Negro apart from and a good bit behind the caravan, due to our visit with Tioga and George. That meant going through the military checkpoint alone. Not that this is generally a problem, just that we were usually simply waved through when in caravan. So naturally we were boarded for inspection, which is not unusual. What was unusual, though, was that one of the two barely-old-enough-to-shave soldiers took an interest in my laptop computer. To the extent that he powered it up, then wanted me to enter my login password. I'm still not certain what it was he was looking for -- he launched several desktop icons, and called up the properties for my hard drive. I can only guess that drug dealers or weapons smugglers tend to have icons on their desktops named "List of Mexican AK-47 buyers" or some such.
I'm pretty sure that the only thing that deflected further scrutiny was my desktop background:
They had already seen the two cats, of course, and this image, I think, pretty clearly identified the computer as being for personal use (and belonging to crazy-cat-guy). I helpfully identified the two cats by pointing to the image and speaking their names in Spanish: Jorgé y Angel. Now here's the weird part: the two soldiers were, you guessed it, Jorgé and Angel. Jorgé, who was not the guy intently interested in the computer, was greatly amused. Angel, on the other hand, did not lose focus on the screen for even an instant. Eventually, he satisfied himself about who-knows-what, and shut the computer down, leaving the coach and sending us on our way. I have to say I had a tense few moments, as I have heard tales of items being "confiscated" at checkpoints, and my whole life is in this computer. In hindsight, I am sorry we could not capture a photo of Jorgé and Angel looking at George and Angel (photos are strictly forbidden at military installations), which was actually quite amusing.
Next time, we will not have the laptops out and lying around at inspection points. They didn't bother looking in any drawers (although the refrigerator received intense scrutiny).
I found out today that our final stop will be in Colonia Vicente Guerrero, not San Vicente as I speculated yesterday. The good news is that the colonia is at least near the coast -- I am told there is a beach within a mile of the campground. The bad news is it will be even further from Tecate on our way out.
I am disappointed that we will not spend any time in Ensenada. The wagonmasters pointed out that we were welcome to stay beyond the end of the caravan, but we need to be getting up to the bay area, and, besides, our experience going through inspections and checkpoints on our own now leads us to want to process out of the country with the whole group, as we suspect there will be fewer issues that way.
Which reminds me that I neglected, yesterday, to report our experience with the military checkpoint near San Ignacio. You may recall we proceeded from Santa Rosalia to Guerrero Negro apart from and a good bit behind the caravan, due to our visit with Tioga and George. That meant going through the military checkpoint alone. Not that this is generally a problem, just that we were usually simply waved through when in caravan. So naturally we were boarded for inspection, which is not unusual. What was unusual, though, was that one of the two barely-old-enough-to-shave soldiers took an interest in my laptop computer. To the extent that he powered it up, then wanted me to enter my login password. I'm still not certain what it was he was looking for -- he launched several desktop icons, and called up the properties for my hard drive. I can only guess that drug dealers or weapons smugglers tend to have icons on their desktops named "List of Mexican AK-47 buyers" or some such.
I'm pretty sure that the only thing that deflected further scrutiny was my desktop background:
They had already seen the two cats, of course, and this image, I think, pretty clearly identified the computer as being for personal use (and belonging to crazy-cat-guy). I helpfully identified the two cats by pointing to the image and speaking their names in Spanish: Jorgé y Angel. Now here's the weird part: the two soldiers were, you guessed it, Jorgé and Angel. Jorgé, who was not the guy intently interested in the computer, was greatly amused. Angel, on the other hand, did not lose focus on the screen for even an instant. Eventually, he satisfied himself about who-knows-what, and shut the computer down, leaving the coach and sending us on our way. I have to say I had a tense few moments, as I have heard tales of items being "confiscated" at checkpoints, and my whole life is in this computer. In hindsight, I am sorry we could not capture a photo of Jorgé and Angel looking at George and Angel (photos are strictly forbidden at military installations), which was actually quite amusing.
Next time, we will not have the laptops out and lying around at inspection points. They didn't bother looking in any drawers (although the refrigerator received intense scrutiny).
George has clout
Every day, we have about 140 regular visitors to this blog, and an additional 150 or so new folks who take a look but may or may not come back. Together, they look at about 650 pages. We are grateful to have readers and thank you all for your interest. When the Tioga Team posted a link yesterday to our site, the numbers really jumped! Almost 1000 people visited and they peeked at over 3000 pages. Wow! George really has a big following. We hope a few of you find our blog interesting and will come back to follow some of our RVing adventures.
Thursday, November 9, 2006
We're famous
Today we left Playa Santispac after two very pleasant nights there, and headed north to Santa Rosalia. There we encountered the rest of our caravan, parked along the malecón. They were heading into town to visit the famous steel church there designed by Gustav Eiffel, and the nearly equally famous bakery next door. We passed them, though, and parked further along highway 1, on a very different quest.
We were looking, of course, for Ms. Tioga. Perched way up on top of a hill at the end of a winding and rutted dirt road, we knew Odyssey could not make the trek, so we parked in an empty lot in front of the old foundry works, and made our way uphill on foot. We had no directions, only a Google Earth aerial view (linked from the DataStorm Users Map), and it took us quite a while and several wrong turns to find the team. We were exhausted when we found them -- each wrong turn involved ascending and descending a steep grade.
But find them we did, and we had a great visit with George and the whole team. You can read about it (and see the photos taken by Little Mavicito) over on their web site. We had a nice lunch downtown at one of George's favorite spots, and he was even kind enough to walk us to the bank, right past the aforementioned church and bakery. We ended our visit by giving George and Little Mavicito a tour of Odyssey, then bid a fond farewell as we left to catch our group in Guerrero Negro.
Now we over here at Our Odyssey enjoy a small following of readers. The numbers have been somewhat larger while we've been here in Mexico, largely due to the general interest among RV'ers in Mexico travel. George and the Team, however, have a huge contingent of readers, and their post about our visit with them today sent so much traffic to our web site that it overwhelmed our traffic counters -- we're now famous. George is a popular guy, and we are honored to have had the chance to spend an afternoon with him.
In other news, I committed previously to report here on Mulege. We spent yesterday evening there for a group dinner, and we had a chance to walk the town and browse the shops. Most of downtown is intact and in good condition, and most businesses are open. We even spent some time in one of the internet cafes when it looked like our DataStorm might be down for the count. That being said, the area along the river is in bad shape. A huge wall of water crashed through there, snapping 12"-diameter palm trees like they were matchsticks, and obliterating many structures in its path. The Villa Maria RV Park, where the rest of the group was staying, has just finished clearing out the debris, and is apparently only a shadow of its former self. However, the town is clearly recovering, and visitors will find all the needed services in town.
Today's drive from the Sea of Cortez all the way to the Pacific coast was a bit harrowing. The road is in excellent condition, but this stretch of road has some very narrow sections. Ten foot lanes, sharp drop-offs with no shoulders, and 50-mph speed limits make for some knuckle-clenching moments as 18-wheelers whiz past you mere inches away at combined closing speeds of nearly 100mph. Odyssey, being only a hair over 100" wide and having a left mirror that is considerably lower than those on the trucks, had no problems -- I merely had to brace for the inevitable right-then-left jerk of the coach from the air pressure wave. When we pulled into camp, however, we learned that the tailgunner had his left mirror decimated by a passing truck.
Tonight we are back with the caravan, at Malarrimo RV Park in Guerrero Negro (map). The town is named for a warship that ran aground near here ("The Black Warrior" in English), and the adjacent Malarrimo restaurant, where we had yet another group dinner, is full of artifacts purported to be from the wreck.
Tomorrow we have a tour of the salt works, followed by a free afternoon. The big tourism draw here is the nearby gray whale rookery, but this is the wrong time of year to see whales.
We got some more disappointing news concerning our itinerary, which is down to its final five days. Our final two nights in Mexico were supposed to be in Ensenada, at the Estero Beach RV Park. Several days ago, I noticed that the annual Baja 1000 race was scheduled to start in Ensenada on the 16th, with participant registration on the 14th, the day after our scheduled departure. Of course that meant that the race teams would be swarming the city during our stay, which would make traffic miserable but probably imbue the entire town with a party atmosphere. In any case, I brought it up with the wagonmaster, who assured us that the situation was under control, presumably meaning we had rock-solid reservations.
Well, tonight we were informed that Estero Beach sold our reservations out from under us -- I would guess that accommodations of all types in Ensenada (and other points along the route) sell for treble or quadruple normal rates during the race, and the lure of the lucre aced out any sense of commitment or responsibility on the part of this park. So be forewarned about Estero Beach: you may think you have a confirmed reservation, made well in advance, but if they can sell your space for more money, you are SOL.
I seriously hope that Fantasy will take the other 13 tours they have in Baja this season and place them elsewhere, just to punish these clowns. For us, this means that we will stop shy of Ensenada (I think they said San Vicente), and Ensenada is, essentially, deleted from our itinerary. The other consequence of this is that we will have further to go, on our last day, to reach the border crossing in Tecate.
We were looking, of course, for Ms. Tioga. Perched way up on top of a hill at the end of a winding and rutted dirt road, we knew Odyssey could not make the trek, so we parked in an empty lot in front of the old foundry works, and made our way uphill on foot. We had no directions, only a Google Earth aerial view (linked from the DataStorm Users Map), and it took us quite a while and several wrong turns to find the team. We were exhausted when we found them -- each wrong turn involved ascending and descending a steep grade.
But find them we did, and we had a great visit with George and the whole team. You can read about it (and see the photos taken by Little Mavicito) over on their web site. We had a nice lunch downtown at one of George's favorite spots, and he was even kind enough to walk us to the bank, right past the aforementioned church and bakery. We ended our visit by giving George and Little Mavicito a tour of Odyssey, then bid a fond farewell as we left to catch our group in Guerrero Negro.
Now we over here at Our Odyssey enjoy a small following of readers. The numbers have been somewhat larger while we've been here in Mexico, largely due to the general interest among RV'ers in Mexico travel. George and the Team, however, have a huge contingent of readers, and their post about our visit with them today sent so much traffic to our web site that it overwhelmed our traffic counters -- we're now famous. George is a popular guy, and we are honored to have had the chance to spend an afternoon with him.
In other news, I committed previously to report here on Mulege. We spent yesterday evening there for a group dinner, and we had a chance to walk the town and browse the shops. Most of downtown is intact and in good condition, and most businesses are open. We even spent some time in one of the internet cafes when it looked like our DataStorm might be down for the count. That being said, the area along the river is in bad shape. A huge wall of water crashed through there, snapping 12"-diameter palm trees like they were matchsticks, and obliterating many structures in its path. The Villa Maria RV Park, where the rest of the group was staying, has just finished clearing out the debris, and is apparently only a shadow of its former self. However, the town is clearly recovering, and visitors will find all the needed services in town.
Today's drive from the Sea of Cortez all the way to the Pacific coast was a bit harrowing. The road is in excellent condition, but this stretch of road has some very narrow sections. Ten foot lanes, sharp drop-offs with no shoulders, and 50-mph speed limits make for some knuckle-clenching moments as 18-wheelers whiz past you mere inches away at combined closing speeds of nearly 100mph. Odyssey, being only a hair over 100" wide and having a left mirror that is considerably lower than those on the trucks, had no problems -- I merely had to brace for the inevitable right-then-left jerk of the coach from the air pressure wave. When we pulled into camp, however, we learned that the tailgunner had his left mirror decimated by a passing truck.
Tonight we are back with the caravan, at Malarrimo RV Park in Guerrero Negro (map). The town is named for a warship that ran aground near here ("The Black Warrior" in English), and the adjacent Malarrimo restaurant, where we had yet another group dinner, is full of artifacts purported to be from the wreck.
Tomorrow we have a tour of the salt works, followed by a free afternoon. The big tourism draw here is the nearby gray whale rookery, but this is the wrong time of year to see whales.
We got some more disappointing news concerning our itinerary, which is down to its final five days. Our final two nights in Mexico were supposed to be in Ensenada, at the Estero Beach RV Park. Several days ago, I noticed that the annual Baja 1000 race was scheduled to start in Ensenada on the 16th, with participant registration on the 14th, the day after our scheduled departure. Of course that meant that the race teams would be swarming the city during our stay, which would make traffic miserable but probably imbue the entire town with a party atmosphere. In any case, I brought it up with the wagonmaster, who assured us that the situation was under control, presumably meaning we had rock-solid reservations.
Well, tonight we were informed that Estero Beach sold our reservations out from under us -- I would guess that accommodations of all types in Ensenada (and other points along the route) sell for treble or quadruple normal rates during the race, and the lure of the lucre aced out any sense of commitment or responsibility on the part of this park. So be forewarned about Estero Beach: you may think you have a confirmed reservation, made well in advance, but if they can sell your space for more money, you are SOL.
I seriously hope that Fantasy will take the other 13 tours they have in Baja this season and place them elsewhere, just to punish these clowns. For us, this means that we will stop shy of Ensenada (I think they said San Vicente), and Ensenada is, essentially, deleted from our itinerary. The other consequence of this is that we will have further to go, on our last day, to reach the border crossing in Tecate.
Wednesday, November 8, 2006
Off line
Just a quick update here from an internet cafe in Mulege. Our dish suddenly came off-line this afternoon, and we are off the air.
For DataStorm/HughesNet/Direcway folks, the symptom is that the modem (DW6000) begins ACP, but it never completes, just sitting there in TX Code 18. I am hoping this means that the ACP servers are having trouble, and we will get back on later today. If not, our modem has gone bad, and we will be off line until we can fix it.
We will check messages whenever we can, but it may be a while.
For DataStorm/HughesNet/Direcway folks, the symptom is that the modem (DW6000) begins ACP, but it never completes, just sitting there in TX Code 18. I am hoping this means that the ACP servers are having trouble, and we will get back on later today. If not, our modem has gone bad, and we will be off line until we can fix it.
We will check messages whenever we can, but it may be a while.
Inching along Bahia Concepcion
We are at Playa Santispac on Bahia Concepcion (map), just 13 miles up the road from our last stop at Playa Buenaventura. We were scheduled to be in Mulege last night, at the Villa Maria RV Park. However, folks who ventured into Mulege Monday reported that the park was barely recovered from the hurricane, which sent a 20 foot wall of water crashing through it. On top of that, we were already signed up for an optional dinner right here on Playa Santispac, meaning we'd have to bum a ride right back here for dinner.
So we opted to spend last night here instead, and catch up to the group today in Mulege. Four other rigs made the same decision, and we arrived here in a mini-convoy of our own yesterday afternoon, with Odyssey out in front. The beach is operated by the local ejido (agricultural cooperative), and we paid 70 pesos each for the privilege. We were very fortunate to find enough room right on the water to park all five rigs in a "U" configuration, creating a little private slice of beach.
At six o'clock we walked over to Ray's Palapa Restaurant, something of a local institution here. If you don't know it's here, it's easy to miss -- it literally looks like a grass hut. The food was excellent, though, and we were well entertained by Bob the DJ, assisted by his energetic wife Suzy and local line-dance instructor Herb. Among the three of them, they managed to get most of our group of 30-odd folks up and dancing. The dance floor, by the way, is the same shell-based sand as the rest of the beach. Ex-pat proprietor Ray was convivial and made sure everyone had a good time. Our group was large enough that he essentially closed the joint for our private party, although a handful of locals (by which I mean gringo snowbirds) held court at the bar.
While we ate, the wagonmaster chatted with each of us staying here at Santispac, to ask us to spend another night here. It turns out that between our own caravan and another Fantasy caravan of nine rigs heading south on a Baja tour, the Villa Maria park is completely full. There may be a usable space or two, but certainly not room for all five of us. We've all agreed. While on one hand I was looking forward to a chance to charge our batteries (the park is reported to have working 30-amp service) and perhaps dump our tanks, we have a very comfortable setup here on the beach, and Fantasy will pick up our ejido camping fees.
We do have a group dinner tonight in Mulege, so we will have to bum that ride we were hoping to avoid. The good news is that three of the rigs here have cars, and there are enough seats for the 11 of us that are here. We're hoping to head up an hour or two before dinner, so we can get a chance to see a bit of Mulege.
Tomorrow we will pull up stakes and head out. The caravan is heading to Guerrero Negro tomorrow afternoon, however, we intend to make a stop in Santa Rosalia to visit Tioga and George, who arrived there yesterday. It is yet to be determined if we will spend a night in Santa Rosalia and catch up the following day, or if we will just have a brief visit and continue to Guerrero Negro tomorrow night.
So we opted to spend last night here instead, and catch up to the group today in Mulege. Four other rigs made the same decision, and we arrived here in a mini-convoy of our own yesterday afternoon, with Odyssey out in front. The beach is operated by the local ejido (agricultural cooperative), and we paid 70 pesos each for the privilege. We were very fortunate to find enough room right on the water to park all five rigs in a "U" configuration, creating a little private slice of beach.
At six o'clock we walked over to Ray's Palapa Restaurant, something of a local institution here. If you don't know it's here, it's easy to miss -- it literally looks like a grass hut. The food was excellent, though, and we were well entertained by Bob the DJ, assisted by his energetic wife Suzy and local line-dance instructor Herb. Among the three of them, they managed to get most of our group of 30-odd folks up and dancing. The dance floor, by the way, is the same shell-based sand as the rest of the beach. Ex-pat proprietor Ray was convivial and made sure everyone had a good time. Our group was large enough that he essentially closed the joint for our private party, although a handful of locals (by which I mean gringo snowbirds) held court at the bar.
While we ate, the wagonmaster chatted with each of us staying here at Santispac, to ask us to spend another night here. It turns out that between our own caravan and another Fantasy caravan of nine rigs heading south on a Baja tour, the Villa Maria park is completely full. There may be a usable space or two, but certainly not room for all five of us. We've all agreed. While on one hand I was looking forward to a chance to charge our batteries (the park is reported to have working 30-amp service) and perhaps dump our tanks, we have a very comfortable setup here on the beach, and Fantasy will pick up our ejido camping fees.
We do have a group dinner tonight in Mulege, so we will have to bum that ride we were hoping to avoid. The good news is that three of the rigs here have cars, and there are enough seats for the 11 of us that are here. We're hoping to head up an hour or two before dinner, so we can get a chance to see a bit of Mulege.
Tomorrow we will pull up stakes and head out. The caravan is heading to Guerrero Negro tomorrow afternoon, however, we intend to make a stop in Santa Rosalia to visit Tioga and George, who arrived there yesterday. It is yet to be determined if we will spend a night in Santa Rosalia and catch up the following day, or if we will just have a brief visit and continue to Guerrero Negro tomorrow night.
Tuesday, November 7, 2006
Sunday, November 5, 2006
Saturday, November 4, 2006
Minor celebrity status
We are parked on the beach at the Hotel San Buenaventura, on Bahia Concepcion (map), and I have become something of a (very minor) hero. It's beautiful here, as was the drive in, and we have a primo spot between two palapas, facing the bay.
As to the minor celebrity status, let me share the story. You may recall that, yesterday, on our way through La Paz from Playa El Tecolote, we ran right smack into the middle of a Tracks to Adventure caravan. After working our way through their ranks, and getting ahead of them, we continued to hear them on the radio for a long time. After we passed Ciudad Constitución, the radio fell silent until we caught up to our own convoy in Ciudad Insurgentes.
All of which piqued my curiosity, and, last night, I surfed over to the Tracks web site to see if I could figure out what their itinerary was. Now the Tracks site does not list any caravans which have already departed -- its focus, naturally, is on upcoming tours that are still available. That being said, it was pretty easy to deduce which of the several Mexico itineraries they must be on, since we knew when their train arrived in Los Mochis (we heard them on the radio as we were en route to the ferry), and we knew when they left La Paz. That put them on a 27-day piggyback and Baja itinerary.
It turns out that the full itinerary, including days and dates, is generated by software on their site, given the tour route and the starting date. I back-calculated the date they must have left, made up a valid URL for that tour, and plugged it in. That told me that Tracks stopped for the night at Ciudad Constitución, which jibed with our radio monitoring.
What it also told me was that they, too, would be here in Bahia Concepcion today. Camping here at the hotel is on a first-come, first-served basis, so when I told the wagonmasters last night that Tracks would be meeting us here, they made the wise decision to move our scheduled 10am departure up to 8am (with an option, for anyone who wished, to stay behind for a 10am departure). Out of our 20 rigs, 16 left first thing this morning, with the result that we arrived to an empty beach, and got our pick of the best sites. Even the four rigs that left at 10 as originally scheduled were here and parked before the first Tracks units arrived. The Trackers are now on the less-desirable beach just south of us, and many of their rigs do not have a waterfront spot. I'm not certain, but I think their wagonmaster is a little peeved. While I have achieved hero status with our own group, I'm probably persona no grata with him, so I'm hoping he doesn't read this until after we've parted ways.
The hotel staff, who are still recovering from Hurricane John and just got their internet connection back on-line a couple days ago, seemed completely surprised by both caravans, and were wholly unprepared. We asked if we could get lunch, and they opened up the kitchen for us, got out some shrimp, and made us a delicious camarones al mojo de ajo. Tonight, we're having some kind of dinner on the beach.
And now, if you'll excuse me, I think I'll go for a swim in the bay.
As to the minor celebrity status, let me share the story. You may recall that, yesterday, on our way through La Paz from Playa El Tecolote, we ran right smack into the middle of a Tracks to Adventure caravan. After working our way through their ranks, and getting ahead of them, we continued to hear them on the radio for a long time. After we passed Ciudad Constitución, the radio fell silent until we caught up to our own convoy in Ciudad Insurgentes.
All of which piqued my curiosity, and, last night, I surfed over to the Tracks web site to see if I could figure out what their itinerary was. Now the Tracks site does not list any caravans which have already departed -- its focus, naturally, is on upcoming tours that are still available. That being said, it was pretty easy to deduce which of the several Mexico itineraries they must be on, since we knew when their train arrived in Los Mochis (we heard them on the radio as we were en route to the ferry), and we knew when they left La Paz. That put them on a 27-day piggyback and Baja itinerary.
It turns out that the full itinerary, including days and dates, is generated by software on their site, given the tour route and the starting date. I back-calculated the date they must have left, made up a valid URL for that tour, and plugged it in. That told me that Tracks stopped for the night at Ciudad Constitución, which jibed with our radio monitoring.
What it also told me was that they, too, would be here in Bahia Concepcion today. Camping here at the hotel is on a first-come, first-served basis, so when I told the wagonmasters last night that Tracks would be meeting us here, they made the wise decision to move our scheduled 10am departure up to 8am (with an option, for anyone who wished, to stay behind for a 10am departure). Out of our 20 rigs, 16 left first thing this morning, with the result that we arrived to an empty beach, and got our pick of the best sites. Even the four rigs that left at 10 as originally scheduled were here and parked before the first Tracks units arrived. The Trackers are now on the less-desirable beach just south of us, and many of their rigs do not have a waterfront spot. I'm not certain, but I think their wagonmaster is a little peeved. While I have achieved hero status with our own group, I'm probably persona no grata with him, so I'm hoping he doesn't read this until after we've parted ways.
The hotel staff, who are still recovering from Hurricane John and just got their internet connection back on-line a couple days ago, seemed completely surprised by both caravans, and were wholly unprepared. We asked if we could get lunch, and they opened up the kitchen for us, got out some shrimp, and made us a delicious camarones al mojo de ajo. Tonight, we're having some kind of dinner on the beach.
And now, if you'll excuse me, I think I'll go for a swim in the bay.
Friday, November 3, 2006
Back in the rank and file
We are at the El Tripui trailer park, in Puerto Escondido (map). It is very cramped here, and getting everyone in was extremely tight. Many folks had a challenge extending their slides. The park does have 50-amp 220-volt power, and I am told there is a pool.
We had another pleasant and quiet evening at Playa El Tecolote. We woke this morning to find high tide lapping at the chairs and tables of the two nearby restaurants. By 8am, we were breaking camp. Fortunately, the ferry was on time this morning, so most of the ferry traffic had already cleared by the time we passed the terminal. Between the beach and the terminal, we heard our wagonmaster on the CB (he's got a huge amplifier and a great antenna), some 15 miles distant, albeit a mostly straight shot across water. They were just leaving the campground, which put us just about an hour behind them.
We have since been told that the sewage smell returned again last night, and also that getting everyone out of the very squeaky campground this morning was a real circus, so we were very glad we spent the two nights at the beach.
We had a pleasant drive back along the malecón, and, as we rolled into town, we found ourselves in the middle of another caravan, from Tracks to Adventure. I'm sure they were very confused to find a rig in their line-up with Fantasy stickers. We ended up passing them all, one and two at a time, as we rolled through and out of town. We heard them on the CB long afterwards, so they remained just behind us for a good distance. No sign of them here, so I suspect they stopped for the night either in Ciudad Constitución or in Ciudad Insurgentes, the two other cities through which we passed today.
We ourselves stopped in Insugentes at one of the Pemex stations there, and put in 500 liters of diesel, which will carry us for the rest of the trip. Although, at Mexican prices, I am thinkng of topping up again in Ensenada or Tecate. Just another ten miles down the road, at the very outskirts of Insurgentes, we ran into our own caravan, who had made a comfort, lunch, and fuel stop at the very last Pemex in town. And thus ended our independence, at least for a while -- the group stopped at the top of the grade about 20 miles south of here to stage, but there wasn't room for all the rigs, so we were sent on ahead.
What a spectacular 20 miles those were! We descended a grade from about 1,400' down to sea level, through a beautiful canyon. The road was twisty and narrow, with several switchbacks and roundabouts, and we had the retarder on the whole time, but what a view -- one of the most scenic stretches of road on the whole trip.
Tomorrow we will be on the beach at Bahia Concepcion.
We had another pleasant and quiet evening at Playa El Tecolote. We woke this morning to find high tide lapping at the chairs and tables of the two nearby restaurants. By 8am, we were breaking camp. Fortunately, the ferry was on time this morning, so most of the ferry traffic had already cleared by the time we passed the terminal. Between the beach and the terminal, we heard our wagonmaster on the CB (he's got a huge amplifier and a great antenna), some 15 miles distant, albeit a mostly straight shot across water. They were just leaving the campground, which put us just about an hour behind them.
We have since been told that the sewage smell returned again last night, and also that getting everyone out of the very squeaky campground this morning was a real circus, so we were very glad we spent the two nights at the beach.
We had a pleasant drive back along the malecón, and, as we rolled into town, we found ourselves in the middle of another caravan, from Tracks to Adventure. I'm sure they were very confused to find a rig in their line-up with Fantasy stickers. We ended up passing them all, one and two at a time, as we rolled through and out of town. We heard them on the CB long afterwards, so they remained just behind us for a good distance. No sign of them here, so I suspect they stopped for the night either in Ciudad Constitución or in Ciudad Insurgentes, the two other cities through which we passed today.
We ourselves stopped in Insugentes at one of the Pemex stations there, and put in 500 liters of diesel, which will carry us for the rest of the trip. Although, at Mexican prices, I am thinkng of topping up again in Ensenada or Tecate. Just another ten miles down the road, at the very outskirts of Insurgentes, we ran into our own caravan, who had made a comfort, lunch, and fuel stop at the very last Pemex in town. And thus ended our independence, at least for a while -- the group stopped at the top of the grade about 20 miles south of here to stage, but there wasn't room for all the rigs, so we were sent on ahead.
What a spectacular 20 miles those were! We descended a grade from about 1,400' down to sea level, through a beautiful canyon. The road was twisty and narrow, with several switchbacks and roundabouts, and we had the retarder on the whole time, but what a view -- one of the most scenic stretches of road on the whole trip.
Tomorrow we will be on the beach at Bahia Concepcion.
Thursday, November 2, 2006
On our own
As Louise has already posted, we are back at Playa Tecolote (map). The sewer gas had dissipated completely by the time we returned from our bus tour, and we spent the rest of the day at Casa Blanca, including the hamburger cookout which was quite good. We turned in around 9:30 with no problems, but, at 10:45, just as it had the previous night, the stink returned with a vengeance.
Now, sometime during the day, we had been reassured that the previous night's problem was due to some crisis at the property next door, which had been fixed. But last night's experience convinced us otherwise -- the smell was prevalent not only throughout the park, but also outside the walls, everywhere we walked. We still don't know the cause, but we now suspect some routine process, perhaps at the sewage treatment plant, that is started nightly around 10:30. In any case, it woke Louise up just after 11, and was making her ill, so, as much as we hated to fire up the big diesel in a campground at midnight, that's exactly what we did.
It was pretty much midnight straight up when we pulled out of the gate, and it took us almost exactly one hour to come the 20 miles to Playa Tecolote. The first half of the trip was through town and along the malecón, which was actually quite beautiful at night. We passed half a dozen night clubs that were hopping, even on a Wednesday night. As we left town, the road got quiet and dark, and we made our way slowly, having been warned many times about the hazards of driving in Mexico at night. We had traversed much of the route previously, it was nearly a full moon, and we have our enormous HID flood lights to help us along, so we had no worries. The beach was quiet and peaceful when we arrived, with only the sounds of the surf to lull us to sleep.
Yesterday at dinner, we had arranged an optional boat and snorkel tour this morning out to Isla Espiritu Santo, which happens to leave from right here at Playa Tecolote. So at 9am we were joined by a dozen other members of the group. Unfortunately, the surf today is quite wild and woolly, and the decision was made to cancel the tour. We all had breakfast together, though, at El Tecolote restaurant here, and we had a chat with the wagonmaster about making our way to the next stop apart from the caravan.
We'll be spending tonight right here, after an early dinner at the Palapa Azul restaurant, just a couple dozen yards from us. The caravan will be leaving from the Casa Blanca RV park first thing tomorrow morning, probably around 7:45ish. As the route out of town for us goes right back past Casa Blanca, and we are a full hour from there, we have opted to proceed to the next stop on our own, rather than leave here at sunup to try to catch them as they leave the park, which would be logistically tricky anyway. Besides which, tomorrow's drive is a long 200 miles, across to the Pacific side, north a ways, then right back to the gulf side, and the caravan will likely drive it straight through. We'd like to stop at one or two of the little towns en route, whereas the caravan generally makes its comfort stops at Pemex stations, so those who need to can fuel up.
We may or may not make it all the way to tomorrow night's stop, at the El Tripui trailer park in Puerto Escondido. We've been told the park is no great shakes, and the stop is really designed to keep the day down to 200 miles, while still providing a "full service" park in anticipation of three days of boondocking just a little ways up the road, at Bahia Concepcion. We dumped and filled yesterday, so we will not need the services, and we may elect to make a boondocking stop again tomorrow night, either before or after El Tripui. We'll make the decision as we get into the afternoon hours, which will feel familiar, as it is the way we have always traveled (when not in a caravan).
We told the wagonmaster to send a search party if he doesn't see us in Bahia Concepcion in two days.
As I am typing this, the ferry California Star, now an old friend, is sailing past us on her way from La Paz to Topolobampo. And the surf is still wild and woolly now at nearly 4pm. We did venture in for a swim, which was fun right up until we encountered the buoy ropes marking the swim area, which were under so much tension in the surf as to cause us welts. Still, the water here is very inviting, and I'm glad we went in.
In other news, we are making plans to try to connect with George and Tioga, who are making their way down the Baja. Apparently, many people have also noticed that our location as shown on the DataStorm users map puts us further south than anyone else on the Baja. Some were surprised to see us get any signal at all in Cabo.
While I am thinking about maps and routes, I will note that our new GPS has been keeping careful track of our full route through Mexico, including the train (though the ferry passage was not recorded, as we were below decks). I can upload the route track to my computer in any of several formats that Garmin supports, but I don't yet know a good way to display the track on a reasonable map to post here on the blog. If anyone has suggestions on how to do this, please contact me off line -- I'm sure many of our readers would love to see our track plotted on a map.
Now, sometime during the day, we had been reassured that the previous night's problem was due to some crisis at the property next door, which had been fixed. But last night's experience convinced us otherwise -- the smell was prevalent not only throughout the park, but also outside the walls, everywhere we walked. We still don't know the cause, but we now suspect some routine process, perhaps at the sewage treatment plant, that is started nightly around 10:30. In any case, it woke Louise up just after 11, and was making her ill, so, as much as we hated to fire up the big diesel in a campground at midnight, that's exactly what we did.
It was pretty much midnight straight up when we pulled out of the gate, and it took us almost exactly one hour to come the 20 miles to Playa Tecolote. The first half of the trip was through town and along the malecón, which was actually quite beautiful at night. We passed half a dozen night clubs that were hopping, even on a Wednesday night. As we left town, the road got quiet and dark, and we made our way slowly, having been warned many times about the hazards of driving in Mexico at night. We had traversed much of the route previously, it was nearly a full moon, and we have our enormous HID flood lights to help us along, so we had no worries. The beach was quiet and peaceful when we arrived, with only the sounds of the surf to lull us to sleep.
Yesterday at dinner, we had arranged an optional boat and snorkel tour this morning out to Isla Espiritu Santo, which happens to leave from right here at Playa Tecolote. So at 9am we were joined by a dozen other members of the group. Unfortunately, the surf today is quite wild and woolly, and the decision was made to cancel the tour. We all had breakfast together, though, at El Tecolote restaurant here, and we had a chat with the wagonmaster about making our way to the next stop apart from the caravan.
We'll be spending tonight right here, after an early dinner at the Palapa Azul restaurant, just a couple dozen yards from us. The caravan will be leaving from the Casa Blanca RV park first thing tomorrow morning, probably around 7:45ish. As the route out of town for us goes right back past Casa Blanca, and we are a full hour from there, we have opted to proceed to the next stop on our own, rather than leave here at sunup to try to catch them as they leave the park, which would be logistically tricky anyway. Besides which, tomorrow's drive is a long 200 miles, across to the Pacific side, north a ways, then right back to the gulf side, and the caravan will likely drive it straight through. We'd like to stop at one or two of the little towns en route, whereas the caravan generally makes its comfort stops at Pemex stations, so those who need to can fuel up.
We may or may not make it all the way to tomorrow night's stop, at the El Tripui trailer park in Puerto Escondido. We've been told the park is no great shakes, and the stop is really designed to keep the day down to 200 miles, while still providing a "full service" park in anticipation of three days of boondocking just a little ways up the road, at Bahia Concepcion. We dumped and filled yesterday, so we will not need the services, and we may elect to make a boondocking stop again tomorrow night, either before or after El Tripui. We'll make the decision as we get into the afternoon hours, which will feel familiar, as it is the way we have always traveled (when not in a caravan).
We told the wagonmaster to send a search party if he doesn't see us in Bahia Concepcion in two days.
As I am typing this, the ferry California Star, now an old friend, is sailing past us on her way from La Paz to Topolobampo. And the surf is still wild and woolly now at nearly 4pm. We did venture in for a swim, which was fun right up until we encountered the buoy ropes marking the swim area, which were under so much tension in the surf as to cause us welts. Still, the water here is very inviting, and I'm glad we went in.
In other news, we are making plans to try to connect with George and Tioga, who are making their way down the Baja. Apparently, many people have also noticed that our location as shown on the DataStorm users map puts us further south than anyone else on the Baja. Some were surprised to see us get any signal at all in Cabo.
While I am thinking about maps and routes, I will note that our new GPS has been keeping careful track of our full route through Mexico, including the train (though the ferry passage was not recorded, as we were below decks). I can upload the route track to my computer in any of several formats that Garmin supports, but I don't yet know a good way to display the track on a reasonable map to post here on the blog. If anyone has suggestions on how to do this, please contact me off line -- I'm sure many of our readers would love to see our track plotted on a map.
Back at Playa Tecolote
Our RV park in La Paz stank of raw sewage again last night, so we left at midnight and returned to Playa Tecolote. It is a beautiful, sweet-smelling beach and we are right on the water.
Wednesday, November 1, 2006
Peace
We are at the Casa Blanca RV Park in La Paz (map). The drive up Mexico 19 from Cabo yesterday was beautiful, over moderately hilly terrain and through forests of cardón cacti, with periodic views of an azure Pacific. We did have one moment of excitement, where we had to maneuver around a giant water-filled hole in the roadway. The road was under repair, but we couldn't tell if the hole was the cause or the result.
There was no way Odyssey could make it across on a straight shot -- we had to angle around to the far left, in the oncoming lane. Unfortunately, as we were trying to maneuver in that direction, the conga line of oncoming traffic would not give way, and they jammed up at the narrow single-lane section immediately behind us, which, of course, was full of other caravan rigs. If you will pardon the pun, it was a Mexican standoff -- we couldn't move, and they couldn't move. Louise got out to direct traffic, since clearly no one in the other lane could fathom what it was we needed, and, with the help of one of the construction workers, they finally convinced enough cars to move aside to let us through. I nearly got the coach stuck in the mud anyway, as it was still deep enough on the left side for our tail skids to land on the ground, even with the air bags all the way up. As soon as I felt the drivers start to slip, I gunned it and rocketed out of the puddle on the other side, Louise shouting on the radio the whole time to "go, go, go."
After shooting through the puddle, I dared not stop on the wet sandy ground in the construction area, and then there was no place to pull over for nearly half a mile. Louise had to hitch a ride with some random Mexican in a pickup truck to catch up to me at a turnout down the road. Quite the adventure. One of the other rigs smashed a PVC pipe they were using to carry fishing rods, and several of the rigs scraped parts coming through it, but everyone eventually made it.
Just south of La Paz we closed the loop, with Mexico 19 rejoining Mexico 1, so the last couple miles into town were familiar. Getting into the park was the next adventure -- it's a very tight turn from the street into the narrow driveway, then under an arch. Said arch sheared off the second CB antenna of the trip, the first one having been lost to a tree in Mazatlan. Once in the park, there is barely enough room to maneuver. Odyssey fit nicely into one of the larger spaces, but some of the fivers struggled mightily, as well as some of the long coaches with wider turning radii.
The park turns out to be fairly nice, despite the small spaces. The 20-amp electric service has good, steady voltage, and there is a lovely pool and gazebo, and even a modern and well-kept tennis court (which appears to be rented out for lessons at certain times). The one major problem seems to be sewer gas -- apparently, the full masonry wall that surrounds the entire park traps the gas in the park. We didn't really notice it until they closed the gates for the night, exacerbating the problem, since we are right near the gate. Folks parked over by the opposite wall are having a worse time of it. It was so bad last night, that we are thinking seriously of bailing out, and spending one or both of our remaining two nights in La Paz over at Playa Tecolote, the nice beach we stayed at our first night in Baja. You may recall that I felt deprived since our scheduled two-night stay there had been cut short, and Louise didn't really experience it at all, as she was ill.
Today we had a bus tour of La Paz, with stops at a ceramic pottery business and a weaving business (can't miss those opportunities to hawk overpriced hand-crafted merchandise to the tourists), the cathedral (Nuestra Señora del Pilar), lunch along the malecón, and a brief stop at the mercado. We took advantage of being downtown to make a much-needed visit to the bank.
Tonight is the group hamburger cookout, if we don't bail for Playa Tecolote first, and tomorrow is a free day.
There was no way Odyssey could make it across on a straight shot -- we had to angle around to the far left, in the oncoming lane. Unfortunately, as we were trying to maneuver in that direction, the conga line of oncoming traffic would not give way, and they jammed up at the narrow single-lane section immediately behind us, which, of course, was full of other caravan rigs. If you will pardon the pun, it was a Mexican standoff -- we couldn't move, and they couldn't move. Louise got out to direct traffic, since clearly no one in the other lane could fathom what it was we needed, and, with the help of one of the construction workers, they finally convinced enough cars to move aside to let us through. I nearly got the coach stuck in the mud anyway, as it was still deep enough on the left side for our tail skids to land on the ground, even with the air bags all the way up. As soon as I felt the drivers start to slip, I gunned it and rocketed out of the puddle on the other side, Louise shouting on the radio the whole time to "go, go, go."
After shooting through the puddle, I dared not stop on the wet sandy ground in the construction area, and then there was no place to pull over for nearly half a mile. Louise had to hitch a ride with some random Mexican in a pickup truck to catch up to me at a turnout down the road. Quite the adventure. One of the other rigs smashed a PVC pipe they were using to carry fishing rods, and several of the rigs scraped parts coming through it, but everyone eventually made it.
Just south of La Paz we closed the loop, with Mexico 19 rejoining Mexico 1, so the last couple miles into town were familiar. Getting into the park was the next adventure -- it's a very tight turn from the street into the narrow driveway, then under an arch. Said arch sheared off the second CB antenna of the trip, the first one having been lost to a tree in Mazatlan. Once in the park, there is barely enough room to maneuver. Odyssey fit nicely into one of the larger spaces, but some of the fivers struggled mightily, as well as some of the long coaches with wider turning radii.
The park turns out to be fairly nice, despite the small spaces. The 20-amp electric service has good, steady voltage, and there is a lovely pool and gazebo, and even a modern and well-kept tennis court (which appears to be rented out for lessons at certain times). The one major problem seems to be sewer gas -- apparently, the full masonry wall that surrounds the entire park traps the gas in the park. We didn't really notice it until they closed the gates for the night, exacerbating the problem, since we are right near the gate. Folks parked over by the opposite wall are having a worse time of it. It was so bad last night, that we are thinking seriously of bailing out, and spending one or both of our remaining two nights in La Paz over at Playa Tecolote, the nice beach we stayed at our first night in Baja. You may recall that I felt deprived since our scheduled two-night stay there had been cut short, and Louise didn't really experience it at all, as she was ill.
Today we had a bus tour of La Paz, with stops at a ceramic pottery business and a weaving business (can't miss those opportunities to hawk overpriced hand-crafted merchandise to the tourists), the cathedral (Nuestra Señora del Pilar), lunch along the malecón, and a brief stop at the mercado. We took advantage of being downtown to make a much-needed visit to the bank.
Tonight is the group hamburger cookout, if we don't bail for Playa Tecolote first, and tomorrow is a free day.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)