June Trip.....before the summer of All Star Baseball really begins

Jack, Linda and the girls

The end of May the first of June is one of the greatest times to be in Rocky Point. The weather is usually great with warm days and cool nights. The water in the sea is warm but still refreshing. This June was no exception...but even better then most from my memory. If you have not noticed, this June (and still today and I write this blog) has been the coolest June since like 1913, and our trip down on June 4 took full advantage of this great weather.

For this trip we had along Chris and his girls, but also Jack and Linda his parents. It was wonderful getting a chance to take them down to see the house and enjoy the beach with us. Jack and Linda were a large influence on the way I viewed Mexico and this part of the world. As I have written before, I had been to Puerto Penasco back in my ASU days, but the beach was crowded and was limited.... as back then we loved driving fast on the beach. I was longing for a more remote place to see, live and taste the real Mexico. Jack and Linda and their son Chris invited me to a place called "El Golfo" and since that first trip my world view changed. I fell in love with that place, the beach , the tide, the challenge of camping 30 miles from town, and the aura of "Mexico" that still excites me today as soon as I cross that boarder. As time moved on camping on the beach was not as "cool" as when you are in your 20's and we rediscovered Puerto Penasco.....but I still thank Jack and Linda for stoking my love of Mexico with those trips we had over the years to El Golfo.

Speaking of El Golfo, as I had written in a prior blog entry, my dad had taken the new El Golfo highway back in late April. He had noted some access points down to the beach that Chris and I had to go take a look at. The highway basically follows the ocean, and as the road makes it big turn past the estuary and heads west, you can see the old salt flat and salt mining buildings off to your left. At this point there is a dirt road that leads down to the salt flat and works its way to the beach; right to our old stomping grounds. At this location, there is a big sand dune bowl. A place that Chris knows very well as his jeep was never the same after a jump he made at this same spot. Also, this zone of the beach has great shells. We picked up a bunch of sand dollars, and pink shells. He hung out there for about an hour and then headed back. On our way back to the access road while we were on the beach we could see two ATV's stopped in front of us. As we got closer we discovered that they were four federal officers. They stopped us and looked in the truck. No big deal; in fact we were glad to see them as this area had been a spot for drug drops in the past, and I am sure they are keeping a close eye on this area of the beach due to the road access to the new highway. We plan to go back soon and stay a little longer...but not overnight like we used to do.

Great road side signs on the highway

Chris's Truck (sand sled) on the beach

View North West toward the cliffs

The next day was another great day in Mexico. Chris and I took the sea kayaks out for about an hour and enjoyed the flat water and a little work out. We hung out on the beach until 2:30 and then hit town for shrimp and drinks. Chris went over to the fish market an picked up some shrimp for our dinner that night....Lourdes and I hit the Thirsty Parrot for a mango tango and a margarita. When Chris got there with his parents we drank two more and enjoyed the great view from the deck and the new palapa shade huts they added since our last stop at this establishment. The breeze was perfect. That night we cooked up the shrimp and enjoyed the evening.

View from the Thirsty Parrot Patio....very nice.

Sunday was a blur. Chris had to get back so they packed up early. We stayed until about 2:00. I got a chance to sit on the patio in the quiet and read and just decompress. I then did a couple of preventative maintenance jobs around the house, lubricating sliding doors, spraying for bugs......the normal stuff. We had talked to the neighbor about rust proofing as we have a number of things outside that are just a year old that look like they are five years old. He said he sprays WD40 on everything, so I thought I would try that on the air conditioner cabinets, light switches, etc. I also washed down the ATV and then sprayed WD40 on the exposed parts on the bike as well. I hope that this will slow down the inevitable.


The trip back was good. We had planned for a long wait at the boarder but that did not come to pass. In years past, a RCPM week end would have equaled a hour and half wait but with the economy the way it is that has not been the case at all this season. Good for us.....bad for the business owners. All in all a great trip. Thanks again to Jack, Linda, Chris and the girls for the good time. We hope you can come back often.

Baseball, Baseball, Baseball

This has been my life for the last year, and it looks like it will be this way at least until the middle of summer....and who knows, maybe into August if the boys can live up to there potential. For those who do not know, Matthew has been playing for the local little league for about three years. The team he was on when he was 10 came in second at the state championship, and they (maybe I should say we) have been wanting to make it back ever since. Now he is 12, and for little league this is it. We have two of our leading pitchers back to make a run again. For Matt's part, he has grown into a starting pitcher himself. He does not throw as hard as some, but he has good location and a couple of off speed pitches that when he is "on" he is difficult to beat. But to get to this point has been a lot of hard work. We have played for two other teams; both travel teams to face tougher competition, playing in a number of tournaments including the Winter Nationals. All with the hope that his god given athletic ability and skill along with hard work will allow him to really contribute come this summer......which is now here.

As one travels in Mexico you will see a baseball field in almost every town....from our small town of Puerto Penasco, to Hermosillo, Guaymas, Sonoyta, etc. These appear to be minor league teams with all of the players trying to reach that same lofty goal as mine; to play in the major leagues in the USA. One of the blogs I follow writes about a day at a game in Guaymas.

http://http://brendandroygoingtomexico.blogspot.com/

I really need to check the game schedules for a game in Puerto Penasco. I think it would be good fun that would need no translation.

Swine Flu

The Swine Flu is making a real impact on my life the past few days. Believe what you want, I think that most of this is panic, but how the world reacts has implications. My wife and I had a cruise planned out of Long Beach to the Mexican Rivera for next week....now that is off as the cruise lines have canceled trips to all Mexican ports. We have been really looking forward to the trip to get away but now that is off.....but that got me thinking about Rocky Point, and other places in Mexico and the impact of all of this hype. I guess I was not the only one who had this on their mind as on the front page of the business section in the Arizona Republic today has an article about the economic impact this issue and the overall fear of violence is having on our small city; Business is off by more the 40% since the Swine Flu announcements. The piece goes on to quote one vendor who only had one sale all day as there are no "gringos" as the vendors out number the tourists 10 to 1. Very tough times.......



To get a better view of how real people in Mexico feel about the flu "pandemic" we talked a couple days ago to Yolanda. For those who know, she and her husband Victor help to take care of our house and we talk to them about twice a month. They have lived in Puerto Penasco for many years now originally from Durango, Mexico. Yolanda and Victor are scared of this flu. According to her, the locals are staying home and only going out as needed....real fear appears to be hitting this small town. If that is the case in RP, just imagine what the poor are feeling in places much closer to Mexico City. According to the news today, the small town north of Mexico City that was the start of the virus had 60% of the population sick. That kind of news appears to have spread to the entire country and is making everyone in Mexico nervous. I am not sure if other bloggers read my little blog, but I would love to know how other Mexican families are dealing with these issues.

El Golfo Road Update

I did a little digging as to the highway route and I found these two crude maps.....but they both confirm the route. Once the highway gets past the estuary, it turns and follows the ocean! Very cool. I hope to make this trip very soon. Check out the attached link.....

http://gulfofsantaclara.com/coastal-highway.php

New Places to Explore!!!

As many of you know, exploring when one is in Mexico is part of the fun. I have not done much of that lately, but my Mom and Dad were down this last week and had some time. They took the new El Golfo highway over to Santa Clara as my dad was hoping that he could turn off and run down to our old stomping ground. In my minds eye I thought the new highway would run parallel to the railroad tracks and at the old salt depot ( I think on the old map I had it was called El Tornial (spelling ???)) turn off toward the ocean and you would be there. Well....as my dad describes it, the highway turns west and the tracks are on the east of the road with the highway running very close to the ocean......and very close to the cliffs near our old camp ground. He said that at about kilometer marker 73 there were trails right down to the beach. I have not confirmed yet if one can get a vehicle down at this location, but he said that in less then one hour from the house you could be there. In fact, they made it all the way to Santa Clara in about 1 hour. He said town was odd with many tent like stores and as he described "like a mining town" feel to the place. There are a couple new hotels, but they did not stay long so they basically just drove through town.

The other thing he discovered was that East of Playa Encanto, past the houses, there is access down to the beach where one can drive an ATV on the beach for about 3 miles before you get to the sign for the Mayan Palace......that could be another cool trip. Leave it to my dad to find two new spots in one week.

I have got to go hit the El Golfo road and see that beach again before it is all gone....fenced off....or with houses, hotels and such.


Chris,
I can still see Sybil blasting down that beach......good times.

Semana Santa (Easter to all Gringos)

Being at the house over Easter has been fun the last two years. Last year we took down Matthew's friend Shane...this year it was Debbie and Darren Parmiter, Cougar and Shelbie.....and we had a great time. We were able to get out of the valley Thursday night and had an easy trip down until we got to Why....where we were pulled over for speeding. It turned out ok as the sheriff just gave us a warning, but it did delay out progress for about 20 minutes. Darren gave him the sad eyes and the "we have never driven down here before" line and he let us go.....good for Darren as paying a $120 ticket would not have been good.

I have to make a quick statement about the red cross. On the outskirts of Sonoyta, they have a Tecate tent set up, that has been there for years now and on most week ends they man this station to collect donations. Most contribute something; a dollar, pesos...whatever. Now as part of your donation, they stick a red cross sticker on your window as a sign that you are a good citizen...or at least a kind soul. I took the sticker off when we got to the house this last time right away but I forgot and today tried to remove the sticker and now I will need a razor blade.




Rough seas on Friday




Thursday night was good. We all settled in and enjoyed cocktail hour for our first night. The weather report before we left called for wind on Thursday night and Friday.....and it did not disappoint. It was windy and cool on Friday. The ocean was rough (the photo above does not do it justice), but it never got to the dark grey green color that it can in the winter. Shelbie and Darren hit the tide pools looking for sand dollars and found a few. Cougar and Shelbie had not been to the ocean before so this was a new experience and one my family hopes we can share with them many times. We got some odd jobs done around the house.

It was Friday and we needed some shrimp. We packed up the gang and had planned on going to the malecon to the fish market....planned was the operative word. The traffic was bumper to bumper. As we got over to the harbor we could see that the road had been blocked with temporary fencing and we could not drive down to the malecon. So we went over to the other fish market we knew La Chi Chi and picked up some shrimp (two kilos) as well as a fillet of what they called "manta" but what we would call sting ray just to see what it tasked like. All in all the total was $21.00. It would have been a little less if we had pesos on us, but it was still a good deal. We asked the lady at the fish market why the road was blocked and she told us it was a recreation of Christs procession with the cross. We thought that could have been an interesting thing to see and that next year we would get there much earlier.

Tough day on the beach.....everyone asleep at 10:00pm

A quick note about the water tank (I know....is that finally done?). I think that this issue will be in the past. Gerry re-piped all of the connections. Built a bracket to support the water filter, and added coupling connections to allow for the pump to be removed without having to cut the pipe. It worked well while we were there except for a little rough starting once in awhile that Gerry came back to fix on Monday.....lets keep our fingers crossed.

Back at the house we cleaned the shrimp, enjoyed the sun set and had a great shrimp dinner. We had grilled shrimp, steamed shrimp with peppers and onions, as well as shrimp quesadillas. The manta we fixed the way were told to cook it; boil it for a few minutes then grill it.....not the best but I think we just did not fix it right. If you recall, back in January we saw some fishermen landing ashore in a cove east of the house and they had a lot of sting rays in their catch. I was wondering then what it tasted like and I hope we just cooked it wrong, as the meat was tough and had almost no flavor.



Did Shelbie have a good time.......what do you think?

The wind stopped over the night and we had a great day on Saturday. I purchased an 4x4 ATV to use at the house that has big steel racks on the front and rear. The hope was that this would be the ticket to haul stuff to and from the beach; chairs, coolers, sea kayaks, etc and it worked great. We just loaded it up in the garage and drove it all down in one trip. What a back saver. The day was great on the beach.....a little cool for me, but all in all a good day with clear sky's. Matthew did not get to play in the water all that much as he thought it was a little too cold as well, but Shelbie and Cougar had a great time. I can not wait to take them down again at the end of May when the sea is like a big swimming pool.

We decided to run to town as we really did not get a chance to do some tourist shopping on Friday. It was very crowded, but fun. Mexican drum bands playing in the square and just a festive atmosphere. Lourdes had to get a Mango Tango at the Thirsty Parrot, and their patio was a great place to people watch. After we left there we did the tourist thing. Darren and I found a place that had beer on sale for 15 pesos; and with the dollar to pesos conversion @ 14 to 1, that was very cheap price for a Bud Lite....so we had two each.

Sunday was Easter and we awoke to a nice clear day. Lourdes and Debbie made an egg, sausage, bacon, cheese, etc casserole that was very good. As it was Easter, the kids all got a chocolate bunny, and my wife got me one as well...she must love me. We also had an egg hunt for the kids. Darren and I hid the 60 some plastic eggs outside around the house. Not an easy task when all you have is sand and very small bushes as your landscape. But we made it work and it was somewhat of a challenge. The kids are all getting older and who knows if we will keep doing the egg hunt....that said deep down I think even Vincent had a little fun. About 11:00 we went back down to the beach and enjoyed the middle of our day. Around 1:30 -2:00 we got back to the house, did a little packing and I took a quick nap in preparation for the drive home. We had to leave on Sunday as we had work to get back to, but the Parmiters had Monday off so they stayed over night (lucky dogs).

Vincent found the golden egg.

We were a little concerned about a big line at the border. Town was very busy and usually that translates into a long wait on a Sunday. I had read that most of the bookings for the hotels in the area were not by Americans, but from within Mexico. The crowd in town confirmed that was the case, but as we cleared the small hill by the old "Wendy's" and we could see the border we were still surprised and relived.....there was no wait at the border crossing. We breezed through; stopped for some gas in Why, and pulled into the garage in Phoenix at 9:30.

It was a great time and a big thanks to Debbie, Darren, Shelbie and Cougar for spending the weekend with us.

Thinking about getting away???

This time of the year is what started the Mexico itch for me those many years ago....a little free time, good weather, and dreams. There are many of us out there in search of those same feelings......maybe trying to find them selves in this world; or maybe "re finding" or redefining". I do not know. I have found a couple of blogs out there that are much better at writing about this then I am. Most are retired and have found a place in Mexico that reconnects them to who they were before, or to who they want to be.

One of those blogs that I have been reading is http://hammockmanpaul.blogspot.com/2008/06/living-in-mexico-every-mexicophiles.html

Here is one of the lines from this Blog; 

"Mexico is for those of us who are pioneers or adventurers or swashbucklers or whatever. If you are not, you would be better off in Hawaii or Disney world or Sun City. But if you crave new experiences, want to see what you're made of, like challenges and have an ability to stretch and give a little, then the border calls to you, "Cross me. Let the adventure begin."

I feel that way on days like this....in need of a little change in latitude, and maybe a little adventure.