Road Trip!

While driving 8 hours is never fun, we must admit today was the least fun we’ve had in a quite a while. We pulled out of Bahia de los Angeles just before 8am under sunny, warm skies with no wind. Looking back, we’re not sure why we left, though we are feeling a bit of “horse back to the barn syndrome” – not so much for getting home to Olalla, but getting back to the U.S., land of wide highway lanes and cell phone service. Actually Mexico has cell service, but we don’t have a Mexican cell phone, and our cell phone plan back home charges $1.50/minute to call the U.S., so we turned ours off January 5 and they haven’t been back on since. We’ve only used Skype.

The drive was variable. During the first 2 hours, the wind was so high that the trailer, and thus the truck, were being blown all over the road, and Cathryn’s hands and head were in a tight knot by the time we left the high, flat plain that allowed the wind to race. We saw one oncoming 18-wheeler get blown off the edge of the road with his back wheels, but fortunately he did not over-correct when pulling back into the lane. Cathryn turned over the wheel to Bob who took the next 4 hours. Including the amazing rock of Catavina

 

We passed through two Military Checkpoints, and Cathryn had the unpleasant experience of being “bumped” repeatedly (read: felt up) by the guy who was following her around inside the RV directing her to open all the drawers, cabinets and appliances. At the second checkpoint, Cathryn stayed with the truck and let Bob handle the guy doing the RV inspection, our new division of duties at checkpoint! In more than two dozen military checkpoints over the past 15 months, this is the first time anything like this has happened. Cathryn would normally hit or yell at anyone who tried such tricks, but in this case, the guy spoke no English and had an automatic weapon, so she just got angry, kept quiet and got out of the RV as quickly as possible.

Eight hours, and 294 miles after leaving the last beach, we pulled into Mi Refugio for the night, a campsite on a large estuary just south of Ensenada. We’ve stayed here twice before, and those of you who are long-time readers may recall our mention of the “castle” house with crenellated roof, an outdoor swimming pool (empty this time of year) and pool table. We sat outside and had a beer on the shore and enjoyed our last evening in Mexico.

 

Tomorrow morning we’ll drive to Tecate, one of the small, safe, easy border crossings, and enter the U.S.