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.