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Well we have been on the road for a month already and have made it as far as San Carlos, Mexico. We left Qualicum Beach with snow flakes and autumn leaves falling all around us. Quite beautiful, especially with the yellow and red leaves mixed in with the snow flakes. Lovely as it was we were glad to be heading south to warmer climes and boarded the ferry from Victoria to Port Angeles with a sigh of relief. The wet, cold weather followed us as for several days but we made it to Bend, Oregon without any major snowfall, although according to weather forecasts we were only a few hours ahead of the storm.
We spent five days in Bend, having some service work done on the motorhome to prepare for the long drive south. Met up with Rod, from Fort Langley, and spent several lovely evenings drinking wine and dining out with him as we waited for our respective repair jobs to be finished. Arranged to meet up again in Nogales towards the end of November, so that we could caravan together through the maze of border stop points and red tape necessary to drive a vehicle into Mexico. We then spent three days in the Palm Springs area where we spent many frustrating hours trying to get the Mexican road maps downloaded onto our Garmin. Three chat sessions and two phone calls to Garmin finally got us set up for the journey ahead. Next stop Borrego Springs where we checked in for a week for some hiking, rest and socializing. Good to see our 'winter friends' again and especially enjoyed spending time with Marlene and Richard in their new Borrego home. Before leaving we hosted a 'hello and goodbye' potluck happy hour gathering for 12 friends - sorry to leave so soon but Mexico beckons! Rod met up with us, as arranged, at the rest stop just north of the border at Tupac. We approached the Mexican/US border crossing with Rod as our trusty leader [he's been to Mexico for the last 12 years and knows the ropes], plus explicit written instructions from Anne [who made the crossing a few weeks ahead of us] and a screen shot of google maps expanded to show every twist and turn in the somewhat convoluted route through Immigration check points, customs and whatever other road blocks the Mexicans decide on that day. At the 21 km post we stopped to purchase our import visa but alas, despite my best planning efforts, I did not have a copy of the Tracker insurance papers and, horror of horrors, was unable to find them when I went back to the vehicle to look for them. It took almost two hours to persuade them to let us bring the Tracker into Mexico after Jim had the brilliant idea of taking a photo of the licence plate which shows Canadian insurance and registration has been paid. We bumped and crawled our way along the road to San Carlos which is under major reconstruction and the sections that have been completed are excellent but alas, they are few and far between. We arrived at San Carlos shortly after 5 pm and settled in for two nights. Unfortunately I came down with a bad case of Montazuma's revenge so we suggested to Rod that he carry on without us as I needed time to recover. After 36 hours in bed [thank goodness the loo was close at hand] I ventured forth and we did a little exploring around San Carlos. It's beautiful here so we decided to check in for a month and then decide whether to continue our trek south to La Penita. Apparently it gets quite cool here in January and February so we are keeping all options open.
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Author
I am the author of 'Raised by Committee', an award winning memoir released in 2010, and 'A Matter of Issue', a work of fiction released in June, 2016. Archives
October 2024
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A MATTER OF ISSUE |
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