Summer 2011 Fun
The Skipper12/20/2011, Mazatlan, Mexico
Big Kids Having Fun
Our summer went by rather quickly, the activities schedule filled up fast starting with the 4th of July weekend, and ending with our trip to the Wallowa Lake in NE Oregon and visiting Bend in central Oregon and family visit in Seattle.
Each year for the 4th of July we invite all our family members to our Beach Base in Ocean Park, Washington. This year we had a good turn out, with families arriving all weekend. We played yard games, went to the beach, had many camp fires, and smores as desert in evenings. The biggest hit this year was creating larger bubbles and of course chasing them down to be pop. The bad mitten tournaments were always a back up to bubble popping, as were card playing. We all attended the Long Beach fire works and came away talking about the magnificent displays of private and professional firework bursts. All in all a good time was had by everyone in attendance.
The first thing we did in July was to split wood from our pile of logs. This lasted 3.5 days, 1 day to split the wood, 1 day to rest, half a day to stack the wood neatly, and a day to recover from all he work phew! Hey we can do this again next summer too! Now it was back to normal yard work until our friends showed up. During this time we almost missed the Longbeach Sand Castle event, we did mange to catch the last day.
We had started Letterboxing (or http://www.letterboxing.org/) in April while in Texas, so as each of our friends showed up this summer we introduced them to that activity. Thus we were out and about traveling from one end of the peninsula to the other, even across the river to Astoria and Warrenton to seek out our Letterbox finds. We visited the North Head Lighthouse, Cape Disappointment State parks, and Leadbetter Point State Park several times. There seemed to be a flurry of visitors in July and August as 4 couples arrived camped and visited for either a couple of days or up to a week. This was a great time visiting and touring our area. During the middle of the month we went to the Longbeach Kite Festival with our friends who own "Park Model" trailer home, on a lot north a mile or so from our place. We visited the festival on the day of the seniors competition. We spent a couple of hours watching folks our age and older maneuver their kites in complex choreographed dances through the air, being done to their favorite music. We were duly impressed!
Whenever we can we try to go to the annual Mexico Cruisers Rendezvous in Cathlament, Washington. Preceding this trip we've had folks visit us for a pre-rendezvous camp out. This year was no different and we had 2 couples show up for private festivities. After much fun fireside tall tails, sight seeing coupled with letter boxing, we all headed to Cathlament. As usual many friends showed up for the weekend and there was much more reminiscing and tale tails spread around. Friday a bunch of us rode the local trolly over to Puget Island to go to their Two Island Farm's Market. We had a wonderful port luck meal on Saturday, later in the evening there was a jam session. On Sunday we went into to town to watch the final day of the Cathlament Corral's down hill long board races. All to soon it was Monday and time to head back to Beach Base in Ocean Park.
In the spring while visiting friends in Mesa we decided to do something together in September. We had discussed different places to go and we settled on Wallowa Lake located near Joesph, Oregon. This is very scenic area ringed by snow capped mountains with a 5 x 1 mile lake at their feet. Nestled into the foot of the mountains at the south end of the lake is a forested state park with RV camping. At the beginning of September we left the Beach Base and went to Portland. We spent a few days in Portland visiting family and friends then we headed out for our adventure. We spent one night on the road stopping at Wild Horse Casino in Pendleton, Oregon. Once we got to the Wallowa State Park we stayed 4 nights or 5 days at the Wallowa lake camp ground.
One of the attractions in the area is the tram ride to the top of Mt. Howard at 8,150 feet. We devoted the most part of one day to exploring the trails. The ride up in the tram was breath taking as we sat in the tram dangling 100 feet off the ground from the cable, gliding along amongst the tree tops. The views of the surrounding mountains and of the lake in the valley below were spectacular. We hiked the trails around the summit looking for a couple of Letterboxes that were planted. We found three out of 4 and then headed back to the tram area where we had lunch and then descended back to ground level. Before going back to the camp we found a couple more Letterboxes.
The next day we devoted to a drove out to Hat Point. The drive out is 55 miles, 24 of which are on a gravel road through high plains desert country, while climbing to 6,982 feet. Along the way there are several view points into the canyons we were traversing. We stopped at each and took pictures while oohing an awing at the views. The Hat point attraction is a fire station lookout tower and to view the Hells Canyon Snake river overlook of more then a mile deep. After the drive up with its view points it was hard to trump those but Hat Point lived up to it. You could see for miles in all directions and down into the canyon. We enjoyed picnic lunches while we constantly took in the view. We also planted our own Letterbox. Then we drove back over the one lane dirt road, we made much better time as we were going down hill and didn't stop for the views points.
Our last full day was spent seeking out the local Letterboxes and visiting the town of Joesph. The day we departed we packed up our camp, said good bye to part of our group who was heading back to Portland. Another couple and ourselves were headed for Bend Oregon.
Our reason for going to Bend was to visit some friends that were "work camping" at a day use state park, "Pilot Butte". They spend the month of September doing this and get to park their motor home for free. They have to keep the park looking tidy, report any issues and open it up in the mornings. We were able to spend time with them when they weren't working. We planted a new Letterbox at the top of the butte and enjoyed the views and a great sunset. A lass it was time to head out and leave our friends to finish out their month of "work".
We headed to Portland and along the way decided to spend a night on the road to catch our breaths. We stopped at the lovely Memaloose State Park for the night. This park is located on a tree covered bluff overlooking the Columbia river. The camp sites were shaded and had great views of the Columbia river and the gorge. The next day we headed on into Portland.
We spent a few days in Portland visiting friends and then headed to Seattle. Our daughter in-law was having an operation and we went there to help out the family during her recovery. We spent a little over a week there and then it was time to head back to the Dirt Boat Beach Base at Ocean Park.
At the end of October Susan went to visit her mom in Pennsylvania. She usually likes to do this twice a year, after all she's 95 likes to see her daughter too. Once she returned from her trip that signaled the end of our time in the NW. The beach base had been secured for the season while Susan was gone. So it was just a matter of packing up the RV and heading to Portland.
While in Portland we'd arranged to have an early Christmas celebration with the family. This turned out to be a great time with everyone that was able to attend. We spent a very enjoyable afternoon and evening visiting with the family. The skipperette played Sequence with the grandkids and Spot It with her grandson. While some of the guys played a Wii driving games in the basement. We had a great dinner together and shared Christmas presents too!
All to soon it was time to leave family and friends and head south. Our last day in town we woke up to 29 degrees and when we tried to retract our TV antenna it was frozen in place, UP! Our host got out a step ladder, and a hair dryer to warm the base of the unit while the skipper worked the antenna retracting crank handle, until it broke free. It was way past time to head south!
We blasted down I-5 to northern California the first day. By the fourth day we reached Mesa, Arizona. We spent Thanksgiving weekend visiting with friends and family. We also took in some sites while Letterboxing. By Tuesday it was time to head to Amado Arizona and the Mountain View RV Ranch, our next RV park. This is located just 12 miles south of Green Valley, Arizona.
We spent the next 4 days getting the RV ready to sleep over the winter while we're in Mexico. By the end of Saturday the 3rd we had the RV parked in the storage lot and put to sleep. We stayed over night at our friends home in Green Valley. On Sunday we head east to Anna Texas to visit family. We took two days to drive 1100 miles. On the second day we awoke to snow and cold temps. We spent half the day driving in snow flurries. Fortunately it wasn't freezing on the roadway and we made it out of the weather and finished the days drive to Anna in cold overcast skies.
We spent a week in Anna visiting family and shopping and getting the annual safety check on the car. The girls had a cookie party and went to a baby shower. The skipper played with the grand daughters and tagged along on the shopping. We all went to pick out a Xmas tree and then decorated it. We had a little family Christmas celebration too. The Dirt Boat crew got needed hair cuts that lowed the ears a bit. Once again it was time to head out and return to Green Valley Arizona.
Upon returning to Green Valley we made final preparations to head to Mazatlan. Last minute shopping and getting some pesos from the bank. This year we are caravaning down with another couple in their car. It should be a fun trip.
Update: we made it to Mazatlan without to much trouble. We spent two hours at Klm 21 check point getting our visa's and car import papers. It is Christmas time and a lot of folks were heading south. Then we as we went through Hermosillo, always a mess, it was even worse as there was detours for road construction, we finally made it back to the main highway south. On the way to San Carlos we went through a down pour with wind and hail, we had to slow down to get through it and to be able to see. In San Carlos we spent the night and went to dinner with some friends at "Jax Snacks". The next day was the long drive to Mazatlan (8-5:30 500+ miles). When we arrived we decided to stay the night at the Bunglows rather then trying to set up the boat to live in, in the dark. We went out to dinner and went to bed early. Now its time to get to the boat!
Thanks for visiting our blog. More to follow for sure!
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Comments [1]
02/04/2012 | Kathy Edwards (keebnw att aol dott com)
Sad when we have to read about your adventures on the blog and yet we live next door. But, we know where to find you!!
Capn Point this “Dirt Boat” North !
The Skipper07/26/2011, DBBB
We had a lovely drive through areas of Texas we'd never been. It is always fun driving/exploring through new country. When we came to the right turn to go down to Galveston on the coast it was hard to turn north toward Houston.
Our rendezvous with the Texas Boomers was at the Lake Conroe KOA campground. This is a large but also great place. As with most KOAs there are activities for the family. We soaked in the heated and covered swimming pool until it became to crowded with kids.
The Texas Boomers are a group of folks that like RVing and going places to have a rendezvous around Texas. Our friends Jim and Marg from Austin belong to this group and we were meeting them at their April rendezvous. We had great time seeing our friends for 3 days and meeting a lot of new folks that love doing fun things in their RV's. We shared pot luck meals games and raffles. We had plenty of time to do our own things and we decided to introduce Jim and Marg to letter boxing. We had fun running around the city of Montgomery, the Lake Conroe area and the Sam Houston National Forest. We had some luck following the clues, got skunked a couple times and saw a lot of the area too. That's what we like about searching for the letter boxes is exploring the area.
All to soon the weekend was over and everyone had to head off back to work. We decided to stay in this area but change locations. Our RV home base (mail service) is in Livingston and we'd wanted to see more of that area. We choose to go to Lake Livingston State Park. They had various spots available so we splurged and got a site right on the lake. We stayed for three nights. We renewed our drivers licenses in town and explored the area around the lake during our letter box outings.
Next we continued north back to Anna. We wanted to be in town early for Eli's Christening on the last weekend in April. We visited everyone again; attended her Christening and had an afternoon of letter boxing. Boy did we find some remote areas, what fun! Sometimes the clues lead us into cemeteries and sometimes a resident is involved in the clue!
On monday we started to head north to Minnesota. We are going up there for a visit of the skipper's siblings. On the way we stopped in Forest City, Iowa at the Winnebago Factory to buy some needed parts. It was fun returning the dirt boat to her birth place. She was happy we stopped to fix her up. During the trip north we watched the weather real closely as there were a lot of storms capable of producing tornado's crossing our path so we adjusted our daily runs accordingly. We continued on to the skippers brother's place in Lino Lakes Minnesota.
In the twin cites the Dirt Boat was moored on the street in front of the skipper's brothers home. We proceeded to visit all of the family we could. Visiting at their homes and during pot lucks. We even had most of the siblings up to one his sister's lake home on Lake Alexander for a long weekend. What fun we had remembering growing up and visiting, not to mention the fine food.
We decided to drive from the Twin Cities to New Holland, Pennsylvania instead of flying. Even with the cost of fuel it was still cheaper to drive. We went their to help the skipperette's mom celebrate her 95th birthday. The trip lasted 6 days and all went well including a very nice family member birthday party. The drive each way was long, 1100 miles and tiring, but it was quick, 2 days each way.
Once back to the Twin Cities it was time to pack up and head back to Portland. The skipper's brother had purchased a new trailer and the other brother had not seen it yet, nor had he seen our "Dirt Boat" yet. So he and his wife stopped over for tours the night before we left.
Early the next morning (9:30) we hooked up the car and bid farewell to the skipper's brother and sister in law. Then we pointed the Dirt Boat westward and headed out. Our route took us through North Dakota. Two days into the trip we came to the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. We decided to stop for the night and to take the driving tour of the park. The South Unit drive was 36 miles through the wilderness and free range roaming animals. We saw horses, buffalo, prairie dogs, and even a snake crossing the road.
We headed west the next morning, within a few days we arrived in Portland. All's well that ends well. Our trip was over for a while and now it was time to visit with family and friends that live in the Northwest. After a week we headed out to the "Dirt Boat Beach Base" in Ocean Park on Long Beach Peninsula. We'll spend the summer here and enjoy visiting with family and friends, while keeping the yard looking sharp. At this point we only have 1 trip planned in the September before we'll be heading south in October.
Thanks for visiting our blog. More to follow for sure!
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Taking Care of Business; While having Fun Too!
The Skipper04/21/2011, DBBB
We arrived in early March and spent about four weeks in Anna Texas visiting with Pat's daughter and her family. We settled in helping with the chores of running a household of 6. The new baby wasn't due until the 12th of March. We managed to park on the street, for free, for 2 of those weeks. This saved us $400. Then once the neighborhood HOA Nazi reported our presence we had to move to an RV park that was near by for the remainder of our time. We got our car serviced while in town and the RV safety sticker check and a broken outlet plug fitting on our new TV repaired on site!
The new baby girl arrived in mid-March with only minor complications that were resolved quickly. We had our hands full then taking on more of the household chores. It was fun being able to help out and be present at such a beautiful time as that of a new born arrival. By the end of March things were beginning to get back to normal around the house hold and we decided it was time for us to explore some more of Texas. The new babies Christening was scheduled for the end of April so we had a month to play.
Our planned versus actual route varied some what and we ended up more or less going down through central Texas. We had thought we'd be looking at areas where we might in the future buy a lot or something. The other thing is that Texas is a big state and we very soon realized that we weren't going to cover very much of it this season. We both wanted to see South Padre Island. So that became our intended southern most destination. We still have friends in Austin and that became a stop over on the trip. Our first stop was the Lake Whitney area. We had seen RV lot offers in this area and we wanted to check them out. We drove around the area and looked at their offering. Once done we moved onto Austin where we spent 2 days visiting our friends. One couple has a motor home. So we made arrangements with them to meet up later, at their April RV club rendezvous.
We shoved off and headed south to the hill country SW of Austin. Our next stop was Kerrville. Kerrville is best known for its beautiful parks that line the Guadalupe River, which runs directly through the city. We found the lovely By The River RV Park right on the river and stayed 4 days. We used this location to jump off and see the President Johnson boyhood farm in Johnson City, the Wild Seed Farm and WWII Pacific and Admiral Nimitz memorials in Fredericksburg and the Stonehenge II and Easter Island replica's in Ingram. We had a lot of fun seeing all these places but is was also a lot of driving to see each of these attractions. We were supposed to go further south to Lake Madena in Bandera to look at lots but we ran out of time. Something to do next time.
We continued on south ending up in the Rio Grand Valley area. We stayed in Weslaco at a "snowbird" wintering camp ground. The place was deserted as most folks had left for the north. The price was right so we stayed a couple of days. We had been thinking of this area to buy a lot as there are many RV parks setup for the snowbirds in the towns of Mission, Mcallen, San Juan, Pharr, Weslaco and Harlingen and Brownsville. We traveled around the area looking at possible RV parks. We also went for a bird watching field trip the World Bird Center in Mission. We also learned that The Dignity Memorial Vietnam Wall was going to be in Mcallen. This is a three-quarter scale replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. We decided that this area was too close to the Mexican border thus the inhabits lived a lot like they do in Mexico. Poor run down homes and dirty and dusty. I don't think we'll be spending much time in this area. We had to repair our front end combing as it had worked loose on the right side from quite a lot of wind on the drive here. When our time was up we gladly moved on to South Padre Island.
We stayed at the Isla Blanca RV Park for a week. This was an unexpected very nice county run RV park. It's located on the last bit of land on South Padre Island. The park is on the ocean and on the bay entrance channel. The rest of the town is mostly a snowbird and summer vacation area. However the north end of the island is a wild life refuge. Consequently there is a lot of sea life and birds around. It was great to be back near the ocean again. It was cooler then inland and there was always a breeze to keep you cool.
On this trip we decided to start a new hobby of "casual bird watching/identifying". We started this hobby in Weslaco our last stop. Here in South Padre there was another birding area. We spent a half day at The South Padre Island Birding Center.
Also we have friends who go "letterboxing". We decided to try that one too. In letterboxing you choose an avatar and a stamp to match. Then use your avatar name to set up a free account online at http://www.letterboxing.org/ or http://www.atlasquest.com/ or both. Then locate the letterboxes in your area. Next using the clues found online locate the letterbox. Then stamp the journal in the letterbox you found. Each box in turn has a stamp which you use to stamp your journal. Then you can record your finds online. Our avatar is "Spunky Turtle". We also found a stuffed turtle to go along and record the adventure for the grand kids. Susan puts together Spunky-post cards or Spunky-grams to keep the grand kids informed of our meanderings and activities.
Our first letterbox (attempt) occurred at the South Padre Island Sea Turtle Rescue Center. We spent about 2 hours touring and listening to the lectures. We found our avatar in the gift shop and had already gotten the clues to the letterbox. However when it came time to find it, it was not there and in fact there was construction going on where it was supposed to be hidden. Oh darn! We spent time walking on the beach and sight seeing around area.
We also toured the towns in the immediate area. First we went to Port Isabel. This is small fishing port on the mainland across from South Padre Island. We visited the town's shops and the light house park. We found our first letterbox at the light house keepers home.
Next we visited Harlingen about 20 miles away. This is the home of the original Iwo Jima war memorial statue. It was quite an impressive statue in a lovely setting at the Marine Military Academy. On the way back to the RV park we had both fan belts die. The engine was beginning to overheat when we spotted a repair station. They felt sorry for us and ran around town to find the replacement fan belts. It took an hour and half to get it fixed. We used the time to have pizza. Once fixed we returned to the RV with out any more issues.
Alas it was time to leave South Padre island but not the coast. Our next stop was Port Aransas on Mustang Island. This is located across the bay from Corpus Christi. We stayed at an Pioneer Beach RV Park we'd been to before. It's has very nice grounds, a heated pool and with beach access too. We did letterboxing here too. We allowed that pursuit to direct our touring, except for a visit to The Pier "99" Restaurant for lunch and more of their famous "T" shirts for the skipper. One of the places we went to was the Corpus Christi Museum of Science and History Educational Resources Center. Besides finding our letterbox we discovered an exhibit of the Columbus's ship replicas. We went other places on our quest but were disappointed not finding another letterbox. We spent time walking the beach and swimming in the pool. All to soon it was time to roll down the road. When leaving the island on the north end you have to take a free fairy (boat) ride, Ooooh Darn! This was our last spot near the coast and it was now time to head north. We had a rendezvous to keep with the Texas Boomers!
Port Aransas Photo Album
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All Work And Still No Play!
The Skipper03/07/2011, Mazatlan & State Side
The storing of personnel stuff into the huge tubs continued until we had filled up 8. The first mate was betting we'd fill 12, I said we'd fill 9.
We had signed the papers with the boat broker before we left for New Holland, PA. Since returning Perpetua has been exacting her revenge on the crew. First, the refrigerator started to not cool has it should and finally stopped working after 16 years. The technician declared it "muertos", dead! A $1000 replacement will have to come from the states next fall. Next the 6 CD changer stopped working. I commandeered a local fellow who has a side business of installing car stereos to take the CD charger to be repaired. He came back a few days later and said he could sell me a "all most new" replacement or he could continue to have the original fixed. The replacement was only $600 pesos ($50us) and was guaranteed to work with my original control head. It did work but was a different color, oh well, I kept the original in case the new owner wanted to get it fixed to match. Next my electric hand drill would not start. It was at least 16 years old too. It's still dead .... Next a brand new MP3 player we'd just bought at the local Walmart died after only two weeks. Fortunately they took it back and we got better replacement (more $). At this point we have our fingers crossed hoping that nothing else goes wrong.
An inspection of the top sides areas had revealed quit a bit of deck repairs and some fiber glass work that needed to be done. The most critical problems that needed to be done this season were addressed. The first mate had some sewing repairs as well. During this time our neighbor had their boat polished and waxed. We'd had this done in 2009 and it made our old hull paint shine. Our new cabin side paint had not been waxed since we had it painted last spring. So we hired a guy to polish and wax the hulls and wax the top sides. This was done in 2 an half days for $3500 pesos ($290US) and now the boat looks real good for showing a new buyer. Next season we'll fix the remainder of the deck issues and paint it.
Once this work was done it was time to prepare Perpetua for her long sleep. This season its even longer due to having to be in Texas for the new grand baby due March 12. The first mate revised our check list and we began in earnest. We had 12 days to complete all the tasks and we made it in 11. When it came time to repack the tubs into the car it took us about 2 hours to reopen each tub choose what we wanted to take north on this trip and then reorganized the remaining items into other tubs. We shrunk our pile of tubs down to 4 that we left for next season.
The first mate had a couple of places on her skin she wanted looked at so one after noon she went to an appointment. She didn't return for quit a while. When she did she had bandages on her nose and upper thigh. She was exhausted and surprised that she'd had two operations. Also she had to go to a bank and return to pay the fees. The samples were sent to a lab and she didn't hear from the doctor for 2 weeks. The cost was $5500 Pesos ($469US) for everything. She was glad to have done it and they turned out ok, except the one on her nose which she has to watch.
Once again the weather was plain weird. We woke two or three times a week to fog covering the area. This of cousre made it cool. We went so far as to break out the kerosene trawler lamp. When lite it produces quit a bit of heat, ordinarily something you don't want in the tropics. We also bought a clay flower pot and placed it over a burner on the stove to become a heat sink while the burner was turned on. Both of these tactics helped warm up the boat in the cool mornings.
The night before we left for the states was also our 21st anniversary. We invited a few good friends to go out to dinner with us. On our last night in Mazatlan we always go to the Chiles Pepper Restaurant. We always have fun there and the food is great too. This time was no exception. Although it was a little foggy.
The next morning we left after some breakfast, with Marilyn from Crackerbox, at Ricos coffee shop. We planned to drive all the way to San Carlos. It was a long day but we made it in by 5 PM. We dropped off our bags in our room and went to dinner and then right back to the room. We went to bed early. The next morning we went for some breakfast, then back to the room packed up and hit the road. We got the borader around 1 PM. We waited for 45 minutes to cross the border while the local vendors paraded up and down the waiting cars with displaying their wares. This ended up being a quick crossing as we didn't get inspected even though the car was stuffed. We made it to Green Valley and our friends house by 3 PM.
The next morning we drove to where we had stored the RV. It took 2.5 hours from the time we arrived at the storage lot to wake up and relocate it to a near by RV park and get setup. The first mate like to point out this relatively quick setup time compared tot he boat's 2 weeks.
We spent 3 days in green valley visiting friends and getting a leaky faucet repaired. We went to Mesa near Phoenix to visit more friends and family. While there we went target shooting with our friends, we hadn't done that in two or three coons ages! It was fun if not quit noisy. We had a great time seeing everyone, especially the skippers daughter and her son, who had just moved to Phoenix a few months before. All to soon it was time to move on towards Texas. We made the uneventful trip in 5 days, taking one day to regroup along the way. The only issues we had were at the gas pump where we were eaten alive! It's good to be settled now for several weeks while we wait for the arrival of our 14th grand child.
Thanks for visiting our blog. More to follow for sure!
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Chaos Rules! Change is Good!
The Skipper01/29/2011, Mazatlan
As you can tell by the above picture on Perpetua of a "Boat Broker's for sale sign" things have been spinning out of control since the last blog update. All the plans of local island cruises, inland trips had to be put on hold. We had been doing a lot of soul searching and hard thinking about the "end game" with regard to our 36 year relationship with Perpetua. All things considered we've had a pretty good run at it over the years and she's now in pretty good shape. However there's always a few old/new things, that will be taken care maybe even this season. Oh yeah this week the refer system died after 16 years of service! That will have to wait until fall.
We started seriously talking to the local boat broker about listing the boat and discovered that there was a lot of things to be done before and in conjunction with listing the boat. So we through out any earlier plans and jumped in with four feet. We had originally thought we'd be doing these activities toward the end of our season but oh no we soon realized that we'd better get going soon rather then later. The butterfly's will have to wait for another year.
So what the initial effort in December was to inventory and document everything that was going to be sold with the boat and everything else that was either going in the trash, to a local cruiser swap meet to be sold, everything else that was going to go north. This last category has been broken down into take north this year, next year, Etc. and when the boat actually sells. You see we can still take her out on a cruise if no one is showing any interest. We had to remove all our personnel gear and be ready for a photo shoot which has just finished! We also decided to remove everything that was going north as we had been creating a gigantic pile on one of the berths. So we talked to our local people and found a secure place where they deliver huge plastic tubs, you fill them up and they take them to their storage place. I know you're thinking oh sure where is that stuff really going, but this guy is someone we've been working with for years.
There were projects that had to be done for the photo "op", like paint the pilot house non-skid gray, replace the covers on the aft cabin cushions, reinstall lose teak parquet on the toilet base, wash off mold from various places it likes to grow, paint the forward wall in the berthing area and lots of other little jobs.
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Once all is ready for a particular area to be photoed all unnecessary items/gear had to be removed then the shoot, then all the gear put back. We just finished all the photos today January 29th. We've been real busy for over a month!
While we were busy on the inventory we got word that Susan's mom was going to be able to move back into her independent living cottage on December 24th. This meant we had to travel from Mazatlan, Mexico to New Holland, Pa. during the holidays. Great! We lucked out on the flights and only had one stop in Houston, Tx. Where we changed planes. Only down side was on the return trip we had to lay over one night in Houston to be able to fly back to Mazatlan, the next day. Going the crowds were thick as ants on the march everyone trying to get into a line and then wait for some activity, checking in, security, customs, you know the routines. We made our flight with 20 minutes to spare. Coming back wasn't nearly as bad, the holiday rush was over. While in New Holland it snowed. One of the Admiral's favorite things to do is go for a walk during a snow fall. Fortunately for the skipper, it was cold and blowing quit a bit. The walk didn't last to long. We had spent 2 weeks helping her mom settle in, arranging support agencies, arranging her cottage so she could move about with her walker and celebrating Christmas with her family.
Before we left Mazatlan on December 21st, there was time to decorate the boat and do some celebrating with fellow cruisers.
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Several nights out to the local restaurants for dinner and drinks. One Friday we went downtown to the Mazatlan art walk. This is an activity where you walk around the old town of Mazatlan and visit up to a dozen art studios. In route along the walk, we ate dinner at the El Tunnel, an old famous Mazatlan Restaurant. Of course along the walk there is the opportunity to buy some art. All in our party picked up a bobble or two. One our favorite places we stopped was the Nidart studio. They do amazing things with leather and we have in the past purchased a piece.
January continued to be a cold and often foggy. That was ok because we were working inside while it was cool. However our flannels and fleece got a work out in the AM's & PM's!
Thanks for visiting our blog. More to follow for sure!
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Back to The Cold South of the Border
The Skipper12/10/2010, Mazatlan
In mid-October we left Oregon heading east and south. This season we decided to travel in the RV (Dirt Boat). Some friends of ours (From the boat Seatern) were returning to Green Valley, so they tagged along with us in thier own car, but sleeping in the RV. It was great fun to have company along on the trip.
All went well until we were crossing Idaho one early morning when we had a tire blow out. Its a real unsettling feeling to hear a loud bang while driving down the freeway. We pulled over to see what had happened or to verify that we'd had a blow out. Our traveling companions were already on Google (1-800-466-4411) on the phone locating a near by town with a tire store with our sized tire. Half hour later we limped into the Jerome Les Schwab store and spent the next 2 hours getting two new tires (you can't just add one new tire as they would be different sizes and not wear well together) put on the RV. Of course this prompted the discussion of replacing the other two rear tires as a preventive measure. This was something we had wanted to do anyway but hadn't budgeted for. Somehow logic won out over costs. However the nearest store with two tires was in Provo Utah. So off we went in search of the next Les Schwab store. By 4 PM we reached the store and they promptly put on the new tires. By 5:30 we were done and it was time to find a campground. Fortunately one was near by and it was a welcome sight. Getting into the spot proved tricky but that's a story for another time.
The next day we left early to get to Cedar City Utah early enough to park the RV and go out to see the Parowan Gap Petroglyphs 15 miles NW of town. We made it to the site in time to see them and take some photos. This must have been a favorite trail back when these were done as they were a lot of them in a small area and it was in a gap between two valleys. Sort of a facebook and travelers blog rolled into one!
The next day we were off to "Sin City", Los Vegas to visit some friends that had recently bought a home. We visited them in the afternoon and then took our traveling mates on a drive down the "Wild and Crazy" streets of the Vegas strip. We didn't even park and walk around. We were all tired and it looked crowded so we opted for a drive by.
Off to Mesa Arizona to visit friends and family. Pat's youngest daughter had just moved to Phoenix. After two days we headed to Green Valley. Once there we prepared the RV for storage and then headed to Anna Texas for a visit with family.
After a week plus visit it was time to leave and head back to Green Valley. However there was a stomach flu bug going around and it grabbed the skipperette and sent her to the emergency room for help. Ouch!! $$$$$ She spent 3 days in bed recovering. We drove back to Green valley without incident except by the time we got to Tucson the skipper was sick with a viral infection and had to visit the VA ER. After a six hour wait we got his meds and were off to finish the trip. The Skipper spent the next two days in bed recovering. After another two days it was time to head to Mazatlan.
We stopped in San Carlos over night and went out to dinner with some friends from Rosebud. On the way to San Carlos we passed through the city of Hermiso where we were stopped by a friendly cop who wanted a early xmass gift so we settled on $500p ($40US) and continued on our way. The next day we left San Carlos and headed out to Mazatlan. We arrived safe and sound.
Since arriving we've been working on projects to make the boat livable and addressing any issues that have come up. So far there been few real problems.
Now to the cold part. This is a La Nina year and it has been cold and nasty up north and down here it translates into cool nights and mild days with low humidity. We have had to add extra blankets at night and wear sweat pants in the mornings and before bed time. Burr! Its not what we're used to for sure!
Since being here we went on an art walk in old town which was fun, everyone had to pickup something, there were no exceptions. We ate at the El Tunnel restaurant which we've eaten at before the food was great. We've had our teeth checked out and medical exams and did some planning. That's when it hit us square in the heart that once again we're not going to be able to go for a lengthy cruise.
It turns out that the skipperette had made commitments to her mom to help her transition out of rehab (she had fallen in October) and back into independent living. This event has been delayed due to her recovery and isn't going to happen until right before Christmas. Who wants to be alone at Christmas so the skipper is going along too. (PA will be so cold!!!) Ok so that puts our return into January and we could still go for a cruise except we also had made another commitment to help the skippers daughter after her thrid child is born in mid-March. OK that cinches it! What with getting the boat ready and looking for weather windows (going and coming back), getting there, spending time there, getting back and then putting the boat back to sleep and then getting to Anna Texas by mid-March that leaves almost no time for a cruise. Rats! It looks like another condo on the water winter. All is not lost however, we can still take mini cruises to the islands near by and we're looking into taking a road trip in January to visit the vacationing Monarch butterflies who migrate to Mexico, much like us each winter. Also we're looking into another road trip to visit the near by town of La Noria, and the Blue Agave farm and distillery (Tequila) located in the area.
Thanks for visiting our blog. More to follow for sure!
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