Lazaro Cardenas, Jan. 7, 2013

This morning we left Punta Banda and traveled to Lazaro Cardenas.  It was another crazy journey through many small towns and there were lots of hills and mountains--so driving is quite an adventure.  It had rained the night before and there was lots of standing water.  We had to take a dirt road to our campground on the beach -- the road was long and winding and very muddy -- several vehicles almost got stuck in the mud.  Our group was the only ones on the beach.  It was sunny but still a little cold.  The waves were pretty big.

Here is Rosie running on the beach -- she loved it!

Punta Banda, Mexico Jan. 6, 13

We left California at 8:30 Sunday morning to go across the border at Tecate Mexico.  There are 8 campers or rigs in our caravan.  Everyone has a radio and we are assigned numbers of the order you have to stay in.  The roads in some places are really great and the roads in others are really crappy.  Most places the roads are very narrow -- we have to be careful of people passing us with oncoming traffic -- it is kind of crazy.  We radio if we have someone passing us and the lead car lets us know if it is all clear.  The drive today was through lot of little towns and a couple of large cities -- Tijuana and Ensenada. We stopped south of Ensenada at a small town called Punta Banda and stayed at a funky RV camp on the outskirts of town.  Once we all got set up we loaded into a 14 passenger van and went on an excursion to see the "La Bufadora" which means blow hole.  It was very cool.  There was also an open market place there with lots of shopping.  They also serve beverages in the shopping area -- Mike and I shared a pina colada.  We went back to the camp ground and hung out for a while --- the weather at this point has been a little chilly.

This Jesus statue is absolutley gigantic on the side of a hill outside of Tijuana.

This is our first campsite in Mexico in Punta Banda.

 

This is the "La Bufadora" -- which means "blowhole"

Just a normal open shopping area.

Potrero Park, CA Jan 4-5, 13

I have to go back in time now....we have not had internet access since the 3rd.  On Friday, January 4th we left El Cajon and moved to Potrero State Park in Potrero, CA to meet up with the Baja Amigo caravan people.  It is a small park -- so everyone there was part of the caravan.  We met most of the people that evening.  We pretty much knew before going into this that we would probably be the younger people on the trip (and we are).  The morning of the 5th we all met and went to the town of Tecate (which is a boarder town) to get our tourist visas.  Then we got together again later that afternoon for an orientation which included lots of yummy food, wine and beer.  Pretty much they told us how the trip would go and what to expect.  I will update you on day one of the Baja adventure next..........

El Cajon, CA Jan. 2-3, 2013



We arrived in El Cajon on the 2nd.  El Cajon is right outside of San Diego.  Yesterday we drove into San Diego and went on the Trolley Tour.  It is really a great way to see San Diego.  We could get on the trolley at any one of the trolley stops and get off and see the sites there and then wait for another trolley.  The trolley driver was also a tour guide, so as you are moving along he would tell the passengers the highlights of the area we were going through.  We got off at the Seaport Village stop and checked out the shops and took in the sites at the harbor and ate lunch there.  We also got off the trolley at Coronado Island -- had a beer at McP's Irish Pub and then checked out the sites on Coronado.  One of the main places to see was the Del Coronado Hotel -- which is a beautiful hotel on the beach.  All in all San Diego is a beautiful city (I could live here).  Today we go to Potrero State Park -- only about 25 miles from where we are now.  Tomorrow we will meet up with our caravan "Wagon Master" and the other people in our caravan.  On Sunday we leave for Mexico.

On another note -- as we go into Mexico I won't be able to get on the internet all the time -- so blogs will be intermittent.

January 3, 2013

You should be able to comment on our blog now.  I was able to figure out how to change the settings.

Quartzsite AZ January1, 2013



We have made it to 2013--after a hard nite of partying Rosie and Charlie are resting up for the trip today.

We traveled from snowy Williams, AZ to the desert  It only took us 30 minutes to drive out of the snow. It took us an hour just to get all the ice and snow off  the camper so we could leave.  We have not seen snow since -- Yeah!  We drove to Quartzsite, AZ and stayed in a Bureau of Land Management camping area in the desert.  It was kind of crazy (to me any way) you could just camp anywhere--but there were campers all over the place.

 Charlie had plenty of room to chase the ball here in the desert.

 We left the next morning, January 2nd, and drove to El Cajon, California which is right outside of San Diego.  It was a very interesting drive from huge sand dunes in Yuma, Az to boulder type mountains in California.  The area around Yuma had quite a bit of agriculture activity going on.  Everything they grow there is irrigated.  We saw some orange tree groves with oranges on the trees and lots of vegetables growing.  Some areas of lettuce were being harvested as we went by.  It was all being done by hand with many people picking the lettuce.  We arrived in El Cajon to 70 degree weather!  It was a very pleasant change.

Thursday we will venture into San Diego to see the sites.

Grand Canyon Dec. 31, 2012

We took the train today to the Grand Canyon (not the one behind us). It was a 2 hour trip both ways. It was a fun a relaxing way to get there. The RV park that we stayed in has doggie day care -- which is nice since we were gone all day.

When we first got there in the morning it was cloudy -- I was still awed by the spectacular view!

Mike shaved off his mustache today! I had been asking him to do it so I could see what he really looks like. I did not know he was going to do it today. When I finally looked at him this morning -- I screamed -- and then I could not stop laughing or crying or whatever it was... I kept staring at him all day. He said my reaction was worth it -- but the mustache starts growing back today! He also said no close up pictures without the "stache".

The clouds cleared away and then it was a cold but beautiful day!

This is a picture from the train -- where you can see the front of the train on a curve.

Today we leave Williams, AZ for the desert. We are going to Quartzsite, AZ.