Down Mexico way, Vol. 6

Here we go again. A couple of days after the ranch trip we went to visit this little town, Aduano. This first pic is of the square surrounded by the few stores and houses that make up the town. There are very few people living here but once a year there is a pilgrimage of 10,000 people or so who come to see the cactus growing on the outer wall of the local church. Somebody once saw the Virgin in the cactus, although if you can find it in this picture you've got a better imagination than me.I was much more impressed by the huge fig tree growing into the side of a house just above the arroyo running through town. Our family had a fig tree in our yard when I was growing up, but nothing compared to this. I wonder if the figs are proportional ? There's a nice restaurant in town where we'll eat later on in the trip. A report will ensue upon finishing a meal.
After wandering through the town a little more, we headed on back to Alamos. Siestas are catching around here. I think I got an hour in almost every day. A little later, we rode into town to recycle some of the wine bottles accumulating in the house. The shop that took the bottles had a video store on one side. Wrestling videos...hundreds of 'em. Anyway, Suzanne called me to the other store, so I went over there to see this table full of green mango jelly. I don't know what stage they were in as far as being finished goes, but they looked scrumptious as was. I guess the two ladies do this on a regular basis. I have no idea why they're in these little bowls, but it was a tasty little treat for the afternoon. Once again, speaking the language would have been helpful.
Later on we met these two ladies that David and Suzanne had gotten to know. B.K. and Donna are from Canada, I think, have lived down here for a while, and were in the process of building a new house on this high point on the edge of town. We met there, took a little tour of the house as it was, and headed back into town for a meal. This last picture is of Alamos from B.K. and Donna's house site. Somewhere down there we went to a little Italian restaurant that was supposed to be the best in town. As we were ordering, we all had pizzas with different toppings, someone noticed that one of the toppings was "cherries". Being versed enough in what goes on pizzas, there was the general opinion that they were talking about cherry tomatoes. Well....the pizzas arrived a little later and spotted around on the one pizza were reddish/pink maraschino cherries straight from the jar. The same kind that go into fruitcakes. We all got a good laugh then proceeded to finish all of the pizzas. That was a funny night, and I was glad to meet the ex-patriots. It seems they have a couple of houses in town, although they still make it back up to Canada at times. Ah well, after the meal it was back to my casita for a nice windy night. The wind was howling for several days while I was down there which was nice considering the normal heat during this time of year. It made for some nice times hanging out on the roof right at sunset shooting the breeze with Suzanne and David. Oookaaaayy! I'll get back to y'all later. I've got a few more posts to go, but I'll catch up later. Adios mi amigos y compadres!

Down Mexico way, Vol. 5 Pt.2

Here's the picture of the group heading back to the truck, and the mountain behind the ranch house. Pictures I talked about in previous post, but couldn't fit in. I got this picture of the road most traveled. This is pretty typical of what we rode on for a couple of days. On the way back to Alamos, we made a turn in the road, and boom! there's this little chapel in the middle of nowhere. One of the main themes I got from these couple of days is there is a lot of stuff out here in the middle of nowhere. Stephanie says it was built by one of the drug lords that have ranches out in this area. This last picture is of a vista on the road back to Alamos. This was quite an experience for me, two days of seeing this ranch area around Alamos, wth the mountains, creek, and surprises as we went. I've got a few more posts to get through this trip, so hang in and we'll get together later. Vaya con Dios!

Down Mexico way, Vol. 5

After a good night of sleeping without too much snoring and roaring coming from the other guests, we all got up a little after sunrise and chowed down on eggs, fruit, cheese, and Tang. I hadn't seen Tang in a long time, especially what we had, "Mango Tango". It hit the spot. Later, I hitched on with Suzanne, Steph, and Mingo for some more travails on the ranch road. I was just along for the ride but I think the main purpose of this whole trip out to the ranch was to get Suzanne oriented on the areas, and ranches that Steph was wanting to buy for this Tropical Deciduous Forest. "Buy" meaning solicit money from government grants, and private individuals. We were jiggling along, stopping every now and then for a quick planning session from the front seat. Mingo and I had the back seat under control. Another case of me not speaking Spanish with someone not speaking English. After some time, we pulled over in front of this thatched hut, with cocina to the side as usual. Stephanie said a young couple was living here for a while. I mean this is out at least 7 mi.s from the nearest other residents with no electricity, clean water, or any amenities. I couldn't do that. Anyway we piled out of the truck and took off walking toward these mountains pictured. After 30 min.s +/- of walking around this mountain on a barely detectable trail, we ended up at this oasis in the desert. It's a small stream, (I couldn't say it was flowing), that runs between the mountains and was the perfect place to flop down, shake the shoes and cool your feet. As we hung our feet in the water, these small little fish, not minnows, would swim up and start nipping at our feet. That was a wonderful experience as we sat for 15 min.s or so just letting them nibble away. I didn't want to leave, but we had to get on back to the ranch so we could get our stuff together for the ride back to Alamos later that afternoon. This one pic is of Mingo, Steph, and Suzanne on the trail back to the truck. I liked this part of the ride a lot. As we were tooling along, heading back to the ranch, Stephanie pulled over and pointed out this cross along the fence line. I got this picture, but it really struck me that someone had been buried there for who knows how long, and probably no one had any idea who it was, who had buried her/him, or if there were any relatives that had any idea where this was. Strange.
We finally got back to the ranch house; still living on Stephanie time; and got everything ready for the ride back to David and Suzannes. I took this one last photo of this mountain right behind the ranch house. I've got some more pictures to share, but being out of room, I'll go on and say bye for now and get some pics on Vol. 5, Pt. 2. (Doggone it, I got mixed up on some pictures I talked about, and what actually got downloaded. I think the only one that's not in this group is the one of Suzanne, Stephanie, and Mingo on the trail back to the truck. I'll make sure that gets in Pt. 2.)

Down Mexico way, Vol. 4

We got up the next morning for our trip out to a friend's ranch for a couple of days. Her name is Stephanie and I found out when we got to her house that her thing is not getting in any hurry. I'm glad we had stopped in the plaza on the way over to Steph's for some breakfast fajitas. Smoking!
Anyway we finally got on the way in her SUV. I can't remember what kind it was but there were some well worn seats, a lack of A.C. and some shocks that had reached their limit long ago. It made for a bouncy, dusty 4hr.s or so getting to the ranch. We took a gravel road for the 7 mi.s or so with a stop at a small village on the way. Stephanie has been trying to get the villagers into selling arts and crafts so they can make some money. I ended up paying 20 pesos ($2.00 north 'merican) for a clay duck. Even though the pesos are 10 to 1 in relation to the dollar, I had trouble the whole time I was down there with looking at a 200 peso bill, for an example, and remembering that is only $20. It just never clicked.
After some time in the village, that's a picture of David bargaining away, we got back on the road for the rest of the ride. There is a place on the road called a "ramada" where Steph keeps a few burros and a couple of horses. We hung out for a while, took a little walk, and ended up at this covered shed for a break. That's when I went over and laid hands on this one burro. It was the frendliest of the bunch and now it's been healed. It was time to get back on the road, so we headed back out. There are some real nice vistas along the way including this flat-topped mountain called "cerro rodondo" (round mountain). This is the focal point of the trip that I remember. We finally got to the ranch building where we spent the night. The ranch hands pictured are, (from their right to left), Amalio, Pancho, Mingo, Tavo, and Dario. They took good care of us, feeding us supper that they made in the seperate cocina (kitchen). The whole meal was cooked over a wood fire and consisted of machaca, (shredded beef), rice, and veggies with tacos. That picture of David and the dogs shows the kitchen to the left and our sleeping quarters behind him. Before we hit the beds, which consisted of a frame with latticed ropes between and a sleeping pad thrown on top, we strung up mosquito netting, as much to keep any bugs from falling out of the thatched roof as any mosquitos. Sleep came pretty quick and I think the only noises were Stephanie chasing away a skunk before the dogs got hold of it. We had another day to go at the ranch, but I'll get into that next time. Toodles.

Down Mexico way, vol. 3

Leaving Guaymas after a day on the water, we headed down to Alamos, which is where David and Suzanne live, and will be our base of operations for the next 10 days or so. The trip was not without its moments as we first stopped at a roadside cafe to get some BBQ chicken. If you can't eat with flies then carry yourself on down the road because this place was pretty wide open to the outside and I assume the flies have had chicken before. Despite the buzzing the chicken was as tasty as any I've had recently. I'm not sure what the spices were, but it was different from BBQ chicken found around Texas. With full stomachs we tripped on along having only to stop for a police roadblock between Guaymas and Navajoa. This was a total blockage of the road in both directions with a troop of police checking vehicles. There was a sand bagged position in the middle of the road with a couple of policemen armed with automatic weapons. David pulled up, said whatever needed to be said, got a couple of glances, then we got flagged along to continue. No big deal. The only other time we were accosted was going through larger towns. At all stop lights, especially if you've got north American plates, there would be a swarm of kids, 10 to 15 yr's old, that would come flying from the sidewalks and start washing the windows. They got a few pesos from us and, once again, down the road we went. It's about a 3.5 hr. drive with scenery that reminded me of the south Arizona area. We eventually got to Alamos and went to the house to unload. I have to say the house was really nice as they've spent 5 or 6 yr's getting everything repaired, replaced, etc. Ray met us at the door and I think he remembers me now as opposed to other times when he seemed a little stand offish from me. (Ray is the dog). After unloading, I got a quickie tour of the town and its cobblestone streets, plaza, church, etc. When we got back Suzanne was there and we all had a good get together sitting around and supping on one of Suzanne's specialities....ox-tail stew. Man that's some good stuff. There is a deck on top of their house where we sat around laughing and eyeballing the sunset and mountains not far away. Well, after a while everyone decided to hit the rack for the night. That one picture in the yard shows the casita where they had me bedding down for the duration. It's a nice little two room house with an industrial strength fan. I forgot to say there is no a.c. in the house, but I got used to that pretty quick. The pics here are some of the house, the sunset from the deck, and the casita. Getting to bed early was mandatory for we were getting up early the next day to take a trip out to the ranches that are to become a recognized tropical decidiouos forest. I'll get to that next time. Hasta lumbago.

Down Mexico way, vol. 2

This was supposed to be the big fishing day.....that's what the skipper was saying the day before, Sat., when we were checking with him on anything extra that would be needed for the Sunday out on the Gulf of Cal. He was saying that the swordfish and dorados (aka.. mahi mahi) were going to be tearing it up the next day, and we could not have picked a better time to come down for the fishing. We sat in his office shooting the breeze for several minutes when this guy who looked like he had been fishing all day, you know, red face, red eyes, red neck, came screaming in thanking the skipper for the best day of fishing he had ever had...David and I looked at each other and simultaneously asked; how much did you pay him to come in right now yelling that crap? Of course he denied any forehand knowledge that this guy was going to be busting in....uh huh. Any way we were up bright and early for the fishing on Sunday and took off down to the pier to get with whoever was going to show us what needed doing. I guess we were a little early so we just hung out on the dock by the boat until our captain for the day showed. His name was Chino, and he spoke very little english, which made us even since I speak very, very little spanish. David was the saving grace as he can somewhat communicate in espanol, enough to get us by anyway.
We got our dead sardines together with the artificial bait and got going not long after the intros, and the scoping each other out. The channel coming out from the docks passes right beside this rock formation, the one that can be seen in the pic without the wake. This is known to the locals as "tete kawi" (goat teet). I can see why.
We headed on out into the gulf for about an hour or so before Chino decided this was the area we wanted to fish, which made sense since there were about 7 or 8 other boats in the same area. Chino got David to steer the boat while he got the bait together and smoked his Marlboros. As David started steering, Chino would stick his head over every now and then and tap on the compass saying "190". That kept us going a little bit west of due south. I got David to let me steer after a while, thinking this 190 deal is a piece of cake. Wrong! The waves would push the boat one way and as I would try to compensate the boat would fall back the other way, so I was turning the wheel like hell to keep going straight when here would come Chino tapping and saying 190, then David had to add his two cents saying the wake we were leaving looked like a sine wave. Aaarrgh.
Our luck, as far as catching anything, was not so good. We had a couple of bites but the fish would end up with the sardine and we would be left with the artificial bait. There was, however, some great whale watching as they would lollygag on top of the water blowing plumes then as we would get within about 50 yrd.s or so, they would dive, going straight down with their tail flukes pointing straight up. I was so fascinated that I didn't grab my camera..didn't think of it 'til later dammit. I'm not sure we ever figured out what kind of whales they were, but they were big. There were also flying swordfish sightings every so often..not hooked, just jumping. Then we would see one of those dorados jumping. A strange sight for me was the manta rays that we'd see every now and then just wallowing around on top of the water. On the way back in I saw one of the mantas just fly out of the water a good 4 or 5 ft. in the air. I enjoyed the hell out of our day on the water as I've never been that interested in loading the boat with fish, but I do enjoy just being out there especially with the sights we caught. On the way back in we passed this other rock formation. It's pretty neat seeing these formations right on the sea shore. There was the matter of money changing hands when we got back to the docks. The boat owner felt so sorry for our not catching anything that he gave us a real nice fillet of dorado out of his freezer. With fish in hand, it was off to Alamos. I'll talk about the ride to Alamos in the next post, so be patient. Adidas.

Down Mexico way, vol. 1

Here are a few of my memories from going down to visit my brother and sister-in-law in Alamos, Mexico. David and Suzanne have had this house for 6 years, and this will be my first time to take a trip there. The flight to Guaymas, a sea coast town about 4 hr.s north of Alamos, was without drama, but notice the landscape from this picture I took from the 20+/- passenger prop plane that took me from Phoenix down to Mexico. As you'll notice, there's not much green, but I expect this is a desert in northern Mexico. It's hard to tell from this altitude. Guaymas was a good place to arrive in the country, I mean there were about 10 people on the plane, so the procedures to get through the airport passport/visa check only took about 10 minutes. The baggage check was iffy, at best, as there was no one standing by the machine looking at any screens while the bags went through. As I would learn on my way back through Phoenix, this is not typical of the checking in processes. That was a good hour, or so, of go here, stand in line, go over there, stand in line, take your checked baggage over here, now run through the moving sidewalk system, and get to the gate with passengers already loading. WHEW!!
Any way, back to the trek at hand. David was waiting for me when I exited the check in area. The first thing I noticed was the hospital smell floating throughout the waiting area. It ended up coming from this crew that was power washing the parking lot with a serious formaldehyde mixture. I was worried about the soles of my shoes melting in the acidic leftover from the pavement. We got to the car when I had to jump back out to get this picture of the restaurant across the street from the airport, the "Mickey Mouse". We wanted to get into town, so didn't stop to get a taco, but I figured we'd have time to eat there on the wait for the flight back to Arizona. That's another story that I'll save for later.
David had set up some fishing for the next day, so we went ahead and checked into the hotel then went for a little walk on the beach. This picture, with David's malfunctioning hand for size guage, was a group of medusa jellyfish that a group of kids had gathered and built this levee to make sure they boiled in the sun. They were still kind of jellyish, but all the tentacles were gone, so I guess the little devil kids had tortured as much as they could.
David and I were both getting hungry, so it was back to the hotel to their restaurant on the docks. Here's David enjoying a plateful of ceviche...my new favorite food. I didn't realize how "limey" the fish was, and I"ve gotten to where lime is my favorite flavor, so this was a nice first meal in Mexico.
We were getting up early for the fishing, so hit the sacks early. I noticed the "firmness" of the mattress but just wanted to get some sleep, so it wasn't until the next morning, as we were getting ready to go fishing, that David pointed out the "box springs". The mattresses were literally lying on concrete slabs that were built into the foundation of the hotel when it was being built. As I came to find out, firmness is the word for sleeping in Mexico. In the next report, we'll go fishing, travel to Alamos, check in to the house, and get into the travel to the nature area Suzanne is working for. Hasta lumbago amigos.

Review, Page 5

It's me again. This next part of the trip covered Arizona and New Mexico. When I got to David/Suzanne's place in Phoenix, the daytime temperatures were into the 110's. We spent a lot of time in the pool for the next week or so, and specialized in outdoor showers. Que bueno! David and I went down to Tucson for a day to get a blanket checked out at the University. I still haven't found out if it was worth a lot or not. After a good meal, it was off to the Saguaro National Park for a day, then back to the pool. I always get a kick out of being around these two for a few days. It's never long enough, but I think everyone agrees there needs to be a limit before the sniping starts, which would be inevitable. After about a week, I hit the road again for some time in northern Arizona, and New Mexico. The Grand Canyon is as magnificent as ever, but I wasted a day trying to get to the skyway I'd heard about. 28 miles of washboard gravel is a bit too much to pay to get to the overlook. Ah, well. On to Santa Fe for some time before heading to Carlsbad Caverns. The time in Santa Fe was more about food than anything, as it turned out. They serve some hot stuff. M'mm good. The Caverns were great to go through, but pictures didn't come out at all, either with the flash on or off. Still, that is one neat hole in the ground.
From there it was back to Texas with a few days in Alpine, my favorite town in west Texas. I took that long ride from Alpine, to Marfa, to Presidio, to Terlingua for the sights alone. That is one beautiful ride, including the Rio Grande, and the mountains. The Mcdonald Observatory in Fort Davis, and Balmorhea Springs make for a variety of things to do in this neck of the woods. The next big stop along the tour was Arkadelphia, Ark. to see the babies. They don't come any cuter or lovable than Camper and Carly Mac. I'll make it back over there before they get too big. After this, it was on to New Albany, Miss. to see my mother for a week or so. We had a great time in Memphis for a day, including eating at Corky's, in Tupelo for a day to check out Elvis's birthplace, in Blue Mountain, where Mom went to college, and we broke into our own little gospel service. There was also Oxford for a tour of Faulkner's home, and a meal on the square. I love my mother, and this was as grand a time as I have ever had with her.
I continued my trek through the South with my next stop being in Atlanta to see my sister, and her young 'uns. We had a big ol' barbeque plate with pork ribs, m'mm, the first night there. Pork ribs, long may they wave. There is an area in north Georgia that has a kangaroo sanctuary, and a small town that has made itself into a Bavarian community for the tourist dollar where we spent the day getting lost, then finding ourselves, then getting lost again. It made for a nice day of traveling the hills of Georgia. Betty and I ate at Ted Turner's restaurant one night. It was the first, but won't be the last time for a good ole buffalo steak. We had a fun time at the Atlanta Aquarium for a day getting to elbow in for touches of rays, sharks, anemonaes, and other such ocean critters. In all it was very good to see my darling sister, Betty, and spend this time together.
The last leg of the trip was swinging down to Hattiesburg, Miss. for some time with my brother, Curtis, and his wife Deborah. I've got to start this off with saying that Deborah makes the best gumbo in the Hattiesburg area. Curtis and I went down to the coast for a day to check out what had been re-constructed as far as highways, and bridges from Katrina. There is progress being made, but at a snail's pace compared to how long it takes to re-build a casino. We spent some time at the army base, Camp Shelby, checking out the military museum there along with the displays of armaments from previous wars. One day, Curtis and I went to see the movie "Superbad". It was just us two in the theater, so the cackling and snorting that is normally kept under control for the respect of the other patrons was turned loose. I thought Curtis was going to lock something up inside himself. That was funny.
This is the end of the overall review from my trip, and I hope y'all might have had as much fun keeping up as I did experiencing it. This was one of those once in a lifetime dreams of mine, and I thank all my lucky stars it came through without too much of a hitch. I'm going to keep this blog going for any tales from trips in the future, so check every now and then. My next big plan is for a trip to Mexico, so until then, I'll say tata with oodles and oodles of toodles.

Review, Page 4

Hi guys. After spending the night in Erie, Pa. I was back on the road heading out for the great midwest. I made a stop in Indianopolis to check out the race track and museum. I got a bus ride around the track with a stop on top of the bricks that are from the original track, and now make up the finish line. The museum is pretty neat if you are into fast cars, although it has so much more than just the winning cars from most of the Indy 500's.
I kept on westward after a couple of days in Indy, one for just a day of rest, and made it out to Iowa. I stayed in Davenport for a couple of days to check out some of the life along the river, then continued the trek to South Dakota. After a few days in Des Moines, then Sioux Falls, I stopped along the road to check out the Corn Palace in Mitchell, S.D. It's not only a fascinating building, but it's history is also very interesting. The inside of the building is a museum of all the previous versions of the corn art that makes up the outsides.
There was plenty to keep me in Rapid City for a few days, with Mt. Rushmore, the Crazy Horse monument, and time in Wounded Knee. I talked to some of the natives that live in, and around Wounded Knee, and got very involved in talking history, and seeing some of the graves from the battle. The Black Hills are a wonderful place to visit for a few days.
Next on my agenda was Billings, Montana for some time in the mountains. I spent my days driving through the mountains, and checking out some of the little towns that were dotted along the mountain road. I got some of my favorite landscape pics during these day trips, with getting to the highest point in the Shoshone Range being a highlite, except for my choice in clothing. It was chilly that day with a high wind and a light mist and me in my shorts and t-shirt.
I got to planning stops after Montana, because then I was starting to try to get to family members at agreed on times. I had stops in Idaho Falls, north Utah, then St. George, Utah before getting to David and Suzanne's place in Phoenix, with the stop in St. George and Zion National Park being a highlite of the trip. Okay, it's on to the oven that is Arizona, so I'll get back to all later. Ta ta for now.