Canusamex Travels

Hiking on Christmas Day, and Jesus Works on Sunday

2009-12-27T15:21:00.001-08:00

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

Terry and I decided to go hiking on Christmas Day.

We had originally thought of hiking Camelback Mountain, but decided instead to check out the San Tan Regional Park, which is very close to us.

The park area has a visitor centre and a number of different trails, including one that passes by the graves of two gold miners.

We opted for the San Tan Trail hike, which was approximately 6-miles in distance.

It was a beautiful day, and for the first half of the hike we were by ourselves, with the exception of a few horseback riders.

We had to take a picture of one couple, as they fit so well into the landscape and western flavor of the desert.

The trail was well marked, and a relatively easy hike.

We saw many interesting examples of saguaro cactus along the way.

Check out the mutated cactus and the 'gnarly' cactus!

This afternoon Jesus and friend returned to finish off the putting and chipping green.

They did a great job, and of course Terry and I had to try it out.

The challenge was on to see who could chip the most balls onto the green and stick (more difficult than either of us anticipated), and who could sink the most putts.

A few managed to find their way into the pool, but none over the wall so far!

Jesus and His Landscaping

2009-12-24T06:40:00.000-08:00

Here's a few pictures showing the work that Jesus and the gang did the other day.

In this first picture, you can see the putting green and 'lawn'. Unlike home, that white stuff is sand on top of the putting green at the moment. Jesus and the boys will be spreading it into the grass.

They were just working on that the other day when the wind/rain started, so had to quit. I guess the sand has to be dry before they can work it into the grass.

Here, you can see the little 'chipping' area, where we will skillfully chip our balls over to the putting green.

More realistically, we will be playing a new game of 'how many balls can we NOT launch over the fence onto the street, or NOT slice into the pool'.

The 'grass' for the chipping area will be added today I believe.

Here is the hole they dug for the hot tub/water feature.

If Terry had not caught Jesus' mishap yesterday, this would have been full of water in the picture today.

Here's a visual of the new hot tub in relation to the pool.

As you can see, they removed the bricks around the pool in front of it in anticipation of the work to be done.

To the left of the new hot tub (and behind), is the area where a lot of new 'greenery' will added.

I wanted a few palm trees, some grasses, and whatever Chris the landscaper recommends.

That part of the process won't happen till later in January.

Anyway, that's it so far - after really only a day. Jesus is truly a miracle worker!....

They are supposed to be back this morning, so I'll post any changes later.

Jesus Messed Up - BIG Time!

2009-12-23T21:03:00.000-08:00

And when I say 'Jesus', I mean 'Hay-Soos', the foreman for our backyard landscape job ..... (please, no lightning strikes to my head).

If you remember, in my last post I talked about the landscape work that we had planned for our backyard. Imagine my surprise when, 8:00 a.m. the very next morning, our doorbell rang and I was greeted by five eager Mexicans ready to start the job.

Lead by Jesus, the group immediately began the job of removing the brick surrounding the grassy area in the backyard, followed by digging up ALL of the grass and moving it to a large pile in our front yard.

In no time at all, the remaining soil was levelled, and a putting green and new 'pretend' grass was put in place. Plus, the hole for the hot tub was dug. WOW - talk about impressive! Back home, this would have been a week to 2-week job!

I had to go out for a while, and noted with dismay the large pile of unwanted grass/brick etc. that remained in our front yard. I began to envision nasty notes from our new neighbours, and warning calls from our HOA (Home Owner's Association). To my delight, everything was removed and the area swept clean before the day's end.

They had to cut the day short as a sudden wind/rain storm came in, so there still remains some work to do on the putting green, but I cannot believe the difference. It looks terrific already.

How did Jesus mess up? The underground sprinkler heads were cut off when they lifted the old grass, but not capped off as they should have been. Terry happened to look out later this morning to see water gushing and pooling in the yard. Lucky thing he caught it, as it would have filled the hole dug for the hot tub!

I have no pictures for this post, as we made the decision to golf today, and ran out of daylight. I will post pictures tomorrow so you can see the work accomplished and the transformation of the yard.

All I want for Christmas is ..... a putting green??

2009-12-21T10:45:00.000-08:00

Hello from our new 'digs'. We finally moved into the house last Wednesday. While all of the furniture is in place, we continue to gather the 'finishing touches' (pictures, nick knacks, plants, etc.). We are realizing it is a very slow, painful process to bring the 'house to home' project to completion. Very, very, very, very sick of shopping. We are constantly realizing we need to purchase yet another thing for the house.

Our office was a particular joy. We purchased two desks from Staples, and spent - I'm not kidding - 2-1/2 hours putting ONE of them together. And that was with the two of us working together; focused - a team. It took two days before we could brace ourselves to tackle the second desk, which, unfortunately, was even a more arduous experience than the first. Our 'teamwork' quickly unravelled with the second desk, and our communications became peppered with many, many expletives directed at each other and much finger-pointing when things went wrong. The fun never ends .....

The builders here don't seem to incorporate centro vac into their house design, which is unfortunate, so I was forced to go out and purchase a good 'ol vaccum cleaner. With three cats, I wanted to ensure the vacuum I purchased would be able to tackle the ensuing hair that comes with them. I researched, and purchased one that I found on sale during the cyber Monday internet sales. However, the thing weights a ton! It is like pushing a tank around the house. Expect some amazing upper body strength and definition when you next see me.

When all is said and done, we are very happy with the house. Not to leave well enough alone, however, we are having some landscaping done in the backyard. The desert cools down at night, so a hot tub is a necessity (we have our portable hot tub set up for now and are enjoying it nitely). Rather than purchase a stand-alone, we are having one built as an addition to the pool. The tub will include a rock/water feature that flows into the pool. Should be nice when it is completed.

The large 'grassy' area in the back is going (grass is a pain in the butt here - must overseed in the winter or it looks terrible as you can see from the pictures), and will be replaced with a putting green (guess that is what one does down here ... a little compromise on my part ...) and a raised bed(s). We're also adding some palm trees, grasses and indigenous plants near the hot tub, adding landscape lighting, fixing the built-in barbeque, adding a fridge to the outside bar, and matching the stucco on the bar and barbeque to the house. (Yee gads - again - didn't we sell a house and everything we own JUST LAST YEAR ...??)

Here are some pictures of the house. Remember that the yard pictures are 'before' shots, and I'll update you when the landscaping is completed. The landscaper was here yesterday and the pool is now emptied in preparation for the work to begin.

With all of the house hunting, furniture and household shopping, moving in, etc. etc. , Christmas has really fallen by the wayside for us this year. We have made our little attempt at decorating (as you can see by the miniature Christmas tree in our pictures and lighted bamboo plant). As Lyle will be staying in Alberta for Christmas, 'Amigo Lyle' has jumped right in to fill his spot, and has donned festive garb to acknowledge the season (as seen in the slide show).

Terry and I will have a quiet Christmas Eve - we are planning a 'Christmas crab' supper for two. Much to Terry's chagrin, I've conned him into a hike up Camelback Mountain on Christmas morning. This is a short, but steep hike up, with the reward of some amazing views of greater Phoenix.

The weather has been great this past week - not hot, but a very pleasant 20-22 degrees celsius during the day (and it's the first day of winter!). It does cool down in the evening, but nothing a little hot tub won't handle. No white stuff for Christmas!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas ... in the Desert

2009-12-07T08:10:00.000-08:00

I’m embarrassed to see that my last posting was November 1st, and here it is December 7th and I’m finally back to the blog …. how time flies when you’re having fun.

What have we been up to? Quite a bit, actually. In a nutshell, here’s the recap:

Activities:

- House Hunting and Purchase
- Visiting – Family, old friends, and new friends
- Hiking
- Golfing
- Sporting Events (Football, Hockey)
- Concert (KISS)
- Grey Cup Weekend
- Shopping

A little more detail on each ….

House Hunting and Purchase:

God bless our realtor Kristy - we had her log many, many miles in our search for investment property in Phoenix, with never a complaint. As we were unsure of what area(s) we wanted to narrow our search to, we had her show us properties in Mesa, Queen Creek, Glendale and Maricopa.

We put in one informal and two formal offers before receiving an acceptance on a house in Queen Creek. It’s a very nice house – 1909 square feet, 4 bedrooms/2 baths, with a large backyard, nice pool, and outdoor barbeque/bar/fire pit. The house is in great shape – ‘move-in ready’ as the realtors say.

The deal was to close December 15th. We have had, however, one major hiccup with the deal. After opening an account with Chase Bank, we requested a wire transfer of funds from our Credit Union back home. I was advised that the transfer would take 2-5 days. Unfortunately, after 6 business days, it now appears that our funds are floating aimlessly in cyberspace somewhere. Stress. We’re praying they show up Monday, or we will be faced with having to put in a claim with the Credit Union, who doesn’t seem to be all that sympathetic to our situation.

Now begins the madness – furnishing an entire house. Terry and I are both scratching our heads over the fact that ….. hmmm …. didn’t we just get rid of an entire house full of all that stuff about a year ago??

So the new house has lovingly earning the title of “The Money Pit”, and rather than spending our time doing fun things like golfing or hiking, we are wandering bleary-eyed through furniture, appliance, electronic and department stores in dogged pursuit of all the trappings needed to make the house a home. (Pictures of house to follow.)

Visiting …

We’ve had a lot of fun spending time with friends and family. We’ve had a great time golfing, ‘happy houring’ etc. with Harvey and Carol Robb. We’ve visited Marlys and Erlin Kaiser, Janet and Granite, Bruce and Mary Bieber – all from Olds. We hung out with ‘the cousins’ from Saskatchewan.

Sister Judy and buddy Wendy flew out for a 6-day visit, and we fit a lot of touring/golfing/visiting/shopping into those days.
A group of Terry’s buddies from Olds made a trip out to take in some hockey/NFL football/Nascar events, and we managed a visit while they were here.

Our buddies from Penticton - Adrian and Brenda Thompson – stayed at our park before heading further south. Old friends Kelly and Carolyn Martin stopped by for drinks.

So we’ve obviously not been lonely ….

Hiking:

I’ve linked up with a hiking group from the park. Hikes are scheduled for Monday mornings, and I’ve managed to take in three hikes so far. The hikes have been fairly close in proximity to the park, and not too challenging in difficulty. Views have been lovely, and obviously very different from our hikes back home.

No sign of any ‘creatures’ so far, although there is a lot of evidence of their presence. I see many, many holes along the trails, but don’t know if they house rattle snakes, lizards, geckos, scorpions, tarantulas …. nor do I care to find out.

Golfing:

With all the house madness, we have not been golfing much recently. However, since our arrival we have been able to golf both the 9 and 18-hole courses at our park, along with Johnson Ranch, the Links of Queen Creek, and the Duke at Rancho Eldorado in Maricopa. Nice courses.

My game was coming along nicely until last week, when I managed to hit both a house and a car while golfing the 9-hole course in the park. Good job Sandy.

Sporting Events:

We’ve taken in an NFL football game (Cardinals vs. Sea Hawks), and a hockey game (Coyotes vs. Flames). Both the football stadium and hockey arena are amazing venues. The stadium roof opens, and the grass is real – it is rolled outside after each game and rolled back in game day.

There is also a fantastic shopping/dining area between the stadium and the Jobing.com arena.

It was really interesting to see how many Flames fans wore their jerseys at the Coyote/Flames game.

We definitely outnumbered the Coyote fans!

Partied Like ‘Rock Stars’ ….

After hearing rave reviews of the KISS concert from Kevin and Kathy, us old farts decided to attend their Phoenix concert. They have a lot of die-hard fans, and it was quite neat to see them decked out in their face paint and KISS uniforms. If Terry and I can figure out how to get the pictures off of our cell phones and into our computers, I’ll post some pictures taken at the concert.

Grey Cup ’09:

Not wanting to miss the Grey Cup festivities in Calgary, Terry and I flew back home last Friday. Mother Nature obviously wanted to make a point with us, so we arrived to a storm. The roads were like a skating rink, and the traffic had slowed to a grinding halt along virtually every roadway in and around the city.

We were supposed to meet up with Kathy and Kevin, and stay with them and Lyle at Dwayne and Corey Rowland’s house in Springbank. However, the roads were so bad Judy ended up picking us up, and all three of us stayed at the Hilton close to the airport.

Taxis were non-existent, so the C-Train ended up being our primary means of transportation. We joined Kathy, Kevin, Wendy, Rod and Lyle downtown for the festivities and 54-40 concert Friday night, then met again the next morning for the Grey Cup Parade. That evening we took in the concert at the Saddledome, which featured a number of Canadian performers, including Great Big Sea.

With the Calgary Stampeders out of the Grey Cup, Terry made the decision to sell his Grey Cup tickets to a Saskatchewan fan for a fairly tidy profit. Myself and ‘the boys’ watched the Grey Cup game from the comfort of the Rowland home in Springbank. Great game, unless you were cheering for the ‘Riders!

Back to Phoenix:

We flew home Monday. Since then, we continue to wait for the wire transfer from the Credit Union (GRRRRR), and shop for house contents.

It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas around Phoenix. The park itself is quite pretty, with a different theme for every street.

You’ll all be happy to know that the weather is cooling off here as well. As I type this Monday morning the outside temperature is 13 degrees Celsius. We even had rain early yesterday morning. We’re back wearing our jeans, and having to wear a jacket in the evening. We are comforted, however, in seeing that the weather back home is a horrific minus 29 degrees Celsius!!

Hopefully my next blog posting will take place in our house – cross your fingers for us!

Dreary Day in the Desert

2009-12-07T12:37:00.001-08:00

For those of you suffering through the recent horrible weather in Alberta/B.C. - this might cheer you up.

This is the view from our living room in the motorhome. It's raining and dreary and 13 degrees celsius.

We've been sitting here all day waiting for word from our banks regarding the loss of our wire transfer. Nothing to report yet.

Recently I placed online orders with Walmart, Best Buy and Amazon.com. I was easily able to track our orders - virtually every step that they took along the way - from order placement to shipping with Fedex/UPS, to either a local storefront or to our mailbox. On the other hand, something critical like a wire transfer appears to be 'untraceable', disappearing into a black hole, with no one able to say with any certainty where it was/is in the system. Very sad statement of the banking industry!

What's Up in Mesa

2009-11-01T21:06:00.000-08:00

On Halloween night Terry and I participated in a 'Ghosts of Phoenix' tour of the Hotel San Carlos. This historic site has seen its share of celebrities, and is reportedly home to a number of ghosts.

We toured a few of the paranormal 'hot spots' within the hotel, but - alas - did not witness any ghostly apparitions, disembodied voices or the like.

Before our tour we enjoyed a pint of 'spirits' at Seamus McCaffrey's Irish Pub, which is right next door to the Hotel San Carlos, and also reported haunted by three ghosts. After the tour, we stopped back in for a late supper.

Again - no sightings.

Dang. Good beer though.

Terry does not share my interest in the paranormal, so his enthusiasm for this outing was not quite as keen as mine. And the fact that there was both a Flames hockey game and a Stampeder's football game happening that night made it extremely disheartening for him to leave our camp in search of ghosts.

I may as well have just punched him in the head and gotten the pain over with immediately. Here's a photo of him looking scared while on the tour.

To top it off, we ended the evening by taking in the movie 'Paranormal Activity' . I had heard that it was one of the most frightening movies to come out in a long time. Suffice it to say, it did not live up to the hype. There were a few moments - but not enough.

This further added to Terry's 'enjoyable' evening. We hurried home so Terry could watch the dvr'd Stamp's game (thank GOD they won).

Today we hopped on the motorcyle and headed east on the I-60 through the historical towns of Superior, Miami and Globe. We stopped at the Apache Sun Casino to drop a few dollars into the slots, and had a quick bite to eat before we headed back in the late afternoon sun.

The trip was absolutely gorgeous. We drove into the scenic Tonto National Forest, past the Superstition and San Tan mountains.

Definitely a trip worth doing again.

What else have we been up to? Much time has been spent on house hunting. We're meeting our realtor tomorrow to discuss an offer on a house in Queen Creek. We'll see how far that goes.

We've golfed the course here in our RV park, and also enjoyed at round at the Johnson Ranch golf course in Queen Creek - beautiful.

We had a brief 3-day cold spell last week, and, unlike the locals, did not enjoy it one little bit. We actually had to turn the heat on the motor home at night. We particularly enjoyed the hot tub and sauna those cool evenings.

Thankfully, the weather has returned to the low 30's (Celsius), which suits us just fine. It may come as a bit of a shock, but I have not yet darkened the door of any of the outlet malls. My day will come.

House Hunting and Other Fun Stuff

2009-10-24T14:02:00.000-07:00

Remember that face? It’s the ‘wish I had a boat’ look …. shades of Mexico all over again!

We took a motorcycle ride out to Saguaro Lake yesterday. Thus the ‘I wish I had my boat here’ look on Terry’s face. Maybe next year.

The drive out to Saguaro Lake was fantastic – amazing scenery - the desert in all its beauty. Our return trip home found the hills bathed in the incredible light of the setting sun – a sight not to be missed.

We had a late snack at the marina restaurant, and sat outside on the patio with the ‘scavenger’ birds eyeing our food the entire time. We also spotted what I first thought to be a humming bird, then realized was actually some kind of horrific flying bug creature – huge. If that thing would have come within 10-feet of my head, there would have been a screaming scene of monumental proportions. Kathy can identify with that! There are a few creepy things in the desert...

So what have we been up to this week? We have been engaged in the hunt for a house bargain. An enjoyable experience – no. So far, we have toured houses in Glendale, Mesa and Queen Creek, and have taken a drive to tour the area of Maricopa.

And what have we learned? The market varies considerably from area to area. Many of the ‘deals’ turn out to be short sale houses, which our realtor has said can take anywhere from 3 months to a year to close, depending on the whim of the banking institution you are dealing with.

We have also learned that the descriptions realtors use for their house listings can be quite misleading (shocking, isn’t it). For example, check out the remarks on this home that we toured:

“What a charming home! Spacious open floor plan. ….Fantastic master bedroom … Soaring vaulted ceilings … Cozy fireplace in the living room. Extensive use of tile floors throughout. Beautifully landscaped in the front … Sparkling fenced pool in the back…. Lush and green… This one is nice! … Thanks for showing.”

Turned out to be a holy hell horror. Imagine that.

So on continues the search. We’ve seen some beauties, but at prices higher than we had anticipated. We are going to tour a number of homes in Maricopa on Monday, as their market appears to provide more ‘bang’ for the housing buck. A number of people we know have purchased out there for that reason.

Aside from the house hunting, we have managed to fit in a golf game, and Terry participated in the Viewpoint RV Park slow pitch league tryouts. Check out the video of this. Looks like he’ll be playing a little ball while we’re here.

The hiking clubs start their treks in November, so I’ll sign up for a few of those. We haven’t made it to the tennis courts yet, but will wander over there soon. We have made extensive use of the pool and hot tub. It’s cool enough at night that the hot tub feels great, and we have had the place all to ourselves after 10:00 at night.

I’ve signed us up for a ‘ghost tour’ on Halloween night. We’re touring the Hotel San Carlos – reputed to be one of the most haunted places in Arizona. I’ll let you know if we spot anyone/anything ….

The weather has turned more moderate – 30 to 31 degrees. Perfect. Life is good at Viewpoint RV & Golf Resort. The only thing missing is our family and friends! Hint Hint.

From Blowing Snow to 37 Degrees Celsius!

2009-10-17T15:39:00.000-07:00

Hello from Viewpoint RV & Golf Resort in scorching Mesa, Arizona! It's 4:00 in the afternoon, and a balmy 36.5 degrees Celsius (the picture is from yesterday, when it was 37.5 degrees!!).

The air conditioner is working furiously, but losing the battle. The cats have given up any hope of being comfortable, and are splayed out on the motorhome floor in various positions of complete, utter defeat.

Terry, however, is in his glory. Part lizard, I'm convinced.

To bring everyone up to speed on our trip, we left Alberta on Wednesday, October 10th. We had planned on sticking around 'til Thanksgiving, but a looming cold spell with snow and threat of poor driving conditions tipped our hand to leaving earlier. And are we glad we did.

We left in the late afternoon (what a surprise); just in time to participate in the delightful Deerfoot Trail rush hour. Our first evening was spent in a Costco parking lot in the City of Lethbridge.

Up and at 'em early the next morning, we crossed the border with minimal delay (they did manage to confiscate my apples, which broke my heart - they were the size of baseballs and looked fabulous - I'm still upset about that).

Our next planned stop was Salt Lake City, but the discovery of two badly worn tires on the trailer resulted in an overnighter in Pocotella, Idaho. We stayed at 'Casa del Walmart Superstore Parking Lot', which was conveniently where we had made arrangements for new tires to be installed first thing in the morning (and BONUS - it was a 24-hour Walmart, so after a late supper at Red Lobster, we were able to do some grocery shopping at 11:00 at night AND observe the interesting array of 'late-night' shoppers that darken their doors ... would have loved to have seen the 3:00 a.m. crowd).

Next morning, Terry looked after the tire replacement situation (he left for a few minutes and returned to find that they were in the process of removing the wrong tires – good thing they didn’t choose ‘doctor’n’ as their profession!!!), while I took a walk to kill time.

We were soon on our way, and made our next stop Mesquite, Nevada. We parked in a huge, empty (just us, a few trucks and a couple of other RV’s) casino parking lot. Turns out the casino was closed down – a sign of the poor economic times in the area. We set up, and strolled over to the neighboring Casino to take a turn with ‘Lady Luck’.

Next morning – off to Vegas. We stayed at the Oasis Las Vegas RV Resort – nice park, but didn’t get any opportunity to use the beautiful amenities, as we managed to keep ourselves fairly busy. We of course did the ‘strip’ a couple of nights (slots were a little tight I’m afraid), and enjoyed an incredibly expensive dinner at the revolving restaurant located at the top of the Stratosphere. You pay for the view, but it is amazing.

We particularly enjoyed our first major ‘alcohol’ purchase – the tab for all of the bottles in the picture? A mere $48.00. God Bless America!

We contacted friends that we had met last year at Puerto Penasco – Jim & Nancy Walton – and made arrangements to meet them for a golf game and dinner. We also met a friend of theirs – J.C. – who joined us for the afternoon and evening. We had a great visit, enjoyed the golf game, and appreciated their hospitality at dinner.

One of our ‘field trips’ consisted of a motorcycle ride to Red Rock Canyon, located 19 miles West of Las Vegas, and within the Mojave desert It is visually stunning, with huge cliffs and ravines composed of bands of grey, white and red sandstone, set amongst the desert and Joshua trees.

There are many, many hiking trails of varying distance within the area. We stopped and hiked along the Calico Hills before taking the scenic 13-mile circular drive.

The only wildlife we witnessed were a few little lizards and a couple of different species of birds. We did run into one couple, however, that told us they had seen a rattlesnake and a bunch of fairly large tarantulas ….. and, they came across them in the area we had just hiked through …. All I can say is, thank god we didn’t see the spiders. I hate spiders …. kind of like Donna Scholer and cats.

While we were packing up frantically to leave Alberta, a huge windstorm blew in and managed to knock down and damage our satellite dish (GREAT timing). Terry had wanted to install an automatic dish system (for both internet and satellite TV access), so this was the impetus for us to explore our options to have this done before we carried on our travels further south. We had to ensure that our internet access was going to be reliable, and not go through the difficulties we experienced last year in Mexico.

We contacted a company that was based out of the Oasis RV Resort, but instead went with a company from Quartzite, Arizona. The company came recommended to us from our friends Brenda and Adrian, who had their unit installed there last year. We bit the bullet and headed out Thursday morning for Quartzite.

We arrived there early afternoon, and Paul went to work on the project. Of course it was hotter than Hades. Since the work involved much coming in and out of the motorhome, we moved the cats to the trailer. As you can imagine, they absolutely loved that little experience. The heat was overwhelming, so we had to purchase a fan, and placed a bag of ice in front of the oscillating fan in an attempt to cool the air down. The heat remained a fairly constant 35 degrees Celsius, so everyone (myself the primary culprit) was fairly stressed. And of course Paul ran into problems with the internet set up. Things were finally in place by 8:00 that evening. We stayed the night and headed out to Phoenix the next morning.

That brings us to where we will be for the next two months (approximately). The amenities here are great – 18-hole regulation golf course plus executive par-3 course on site, great pools, hot tubs, fitness center, etc. They have an active tennis club with many courts, and a ball league that Terry has already signed up for. I’m looking forward to signing up for as many hikes as I can fit in.

We are going to start ‘house hunting’ in an effort to take advantage of the depressed housing market and great exchange rate right now. We’ll keep you posted!

Back From Europe - and the Remainder of the European Trip!

2009-05-04T20:00:00.000-07:00

We flew back into Canada on April 28th, and after a brief overnight in Burnaby, we picked up ‘the kids’ and the trailer, and were on the ferry to Victoria later the next day. We’re settled into the Fort Victoria RV Park, and will be here for the month of May.

Sorry for the big lapse in blog postings. Our European tour – while amazing – was a whirlwind of go-go-go. We were up early every morning, out and about all day, and late to bed every night. Top that with our mandatory indulgences in the local beer and/or wine every night (when in Germany/Paris/Rome etc.), and sometimes spotty access to the internet - composing a blog entry became pretty much an impossibility for me.

I’ve finally had a chance to download all of my 1500+ pictures, and am trying to sort them into some sense of order. No prize winners, but lots of memorable moments captured. All of the churches, castles, monuments, historical locales, buildings, museums, etc. in Europe are generally so HUGE that capturing them on camera was a challenge. The pictures literally do not do them justice – you have to experience the sites in person to appreciate their magnitude.

We put nearly 6000 kilometers on our trusty Mercedes rental van, and drove through Germany, parts of France, a good portion of Italy, into Austria, and back through Germany. (Thanks to Ron and Terry for taking this responsibility – Tammy and I bowed out of that challenge). We’ve seen the worst drivers of our lives (Paris!!! – the scooters/mopeds/motorcyclists all have death wishes …), but survived driving through the outskirts of Paris and Rome – both notorious for horrific drivers.

We tackled and became adept at almost every form of public transportation; driving the autobahn in Germany (180 km/hr was our recorded top speed), the subways/underground trains in Paris, Rome and Austria, commuter trains in Rome and Vienna, and the bus and water taxi in Venice.

We’ve drank the smallest and strongest ‘cups’ (if you can call them that) of coffee known to man,

and consumed some of the biggest mugs of beer I’ve ever seen.

Terry had the horror of discovering that ice is something the Europeans don’t use nor sell - anywhere. Cooler (ice) management for our road trips became a bit of an issue …

We learned how to say the basic ‘niceties’ in German, French, Italian, and Austria’s own German dialect. We ate some of the best food ever in the non-descript smaller centers, and some of the crappiest in the epicurean capitals of Paris and Rome. I finally came to terms with having to keep small change handy at ALL TIMES so you can use the ubiquitous PAY ‘water closets’ ….. (thanks to Lyle for being such a gentleman in Pisa when he denied his own needs to give me the 30 Euros necessary so I could use the washroom before we climbed the 294 stairs up the Leaning Tower!).

During the trip, I tried to capture the key places/events/activities in a small notepad, so will use it as my reference for the blog entry that follows the remainder of our European journey. My last entry had us staying in Freiburg, Germany ….. and be prepared – this is going to be a LONG blog post.

Exploring Freiburg
SATURDAY

The next morning, we were up early to explore Freiburg. We wandered to the central area surrounding the cathedral, and enjoyed a café’ and croissant while we observed the farmer’s market taking place around us.

There were stalls and stalls of beautiful flowers and amazing fruits and vegetables.

From there, we toured the Munster Cathedral and braved the 206 steps up to take in the amazing views of the city.

Freiburg is in the Black Forest region of Germany, so the countryside is beautiful. We took a road trip to a nearby recreational area (Schauinsland) that had a 3.6 km gondola ride, hiking trails, etc. Unfortunately, there was SNOW on the ground (thought we could avoid it entirely … had to come to Europe to experience it …).

The views were amazing – they overlooked Freiburg and the Rhine Valley.

We had lunch up on the hill and watched the ‘base jumpers’ running off the edge of the mountain and soaring over the valley in their hang gliders.

We drove on a little further, and came upon a small town with a ski hill that converted to a ‘rollerbaun’ track in the off-season. You take the ski chair up the hill, and race down the hill on a metal track. Fun. We downed a beer on their patio at the hillside restaurant, and braved our way through the course.

From there, we explored a little more of the countryside, and made our way back to Freiburg. We dined at a nearby Mexican restaurant (what can I say – we wanted Mexican), which was actually very good. We strolled uptown, taking in the busy Saturday nightlife on the streets, and finished our night with a couple of drinks at an Irish Pub that had a great live band and some interesting people watching opportunities.

Paris Bound
SUNDAY

On the road early and on our way to Paris! Must say that we really enjoyed Freiburg – it is a beautiful city, and worth the stop over.

We crossed the border into France, and enjoyed the beautiful scenery – much farmland and open space. Just across the Rhine in Alsace, France, we came upon the Haut-Koenigsbourg Castle. Built in the 12th century, it is perched high enough to provide fantastic views of the Alsace plain, the Vosges Mountains, the Black Forest, and apparently the Alps on a clear day. It is a perfect medieval castle, and well worth fighting the crowds that came out that day to see it.

We carried on and made our way towards Paris. We all agreed that it would probably be better for us to find a hotel outside of Paris, as parking would be a definite hassle. The night before, we searched the internet for options, and selected the Hotel Gabriel. It was very reasonably priced, and close to the underground metro system. The rooms were modest and ‘tiny’, but fine for our purposes.

We checked in, found a nearby Japanese Restaurant (no ‘French’ restaurants open that hour) and enjoyed a surprisingly good meal.

MONDAY

The next day, we were up and off to tackle the underground metro. First stop – the Eifel Tower. It is an impressive sight, but the crowds were quite overwhelming. We took many photos and strolled around it and the surrounding park, but decided to forego the trip up as the lineups were too long.

We spotted a ‘hop-on/hop-off’ tour bus, and decided that was probably our wisest move. It was an open-top double decker bus, and provided headsets with recorded information about the key tourist destinations.

From there, we stopped at the Louvre Museum. First impression? It is absolutely HUGE - beyond belief. Apparently it would take 4-months to see every exhibit. The inside courtyard is massive – and it was filled with people. The lineup, again, was endless. As it was already early afternoon, we decided that we would carry on with the general ‘hop-on/hop-off’ tour and take in as much of the city tour as we could, and save the Louvre for the next day. The plan was to get there as early as possible to avoid the huge lineups, book a 90-minute (highlights of the Louvre) tour, and carry on to other must-see spots.

Paris is immense. The monuments, buildings, sights are all HUGE. It is beautiful, but completely overwhelming. The vision of a ‘romantic city’ with little street-side cafes and couples strolling arm-in-arm is not what we experienced. The city is a mass of people and just plain HUGE in every sense. We kind of wandered around in a daze, and tried to make sense of what we should do next, given the short timelines we were living within.

We decided that an evening cruise down the Seine would be nice. Dinner cruises were hugely expensive, so we found a basic evening cruise, and looked for a place to eat dinner beforehand. We ended up having a nice meal in a restaurant just off the Champs-Elysees. The cruise was nice – the lights of the city are beautiful, and the Eifel Tower at night is far more spectacular than during the day.
TUESDAY

Next day, we breakfasted at McDonald’s (they have a lovely and inexpensive breakfast brunch of croissants, yogurt, etc.). As I mentioned, our intent was to hit the Louvre first and catch an early tour. The Museum opened at 9:00 a.m., so we made sure we were there for the opening.
After getting off the bus and walking into the courtyard to the main entrance, we were pleasantly surprised by the lack of people.

Happily, we walked towards the entrance, ready to purchase our tickets, when we saw the sign …… CLOSED TUESDAY! Can you believe it?? No other place on the planet closes on a TUESDAY!

Sigh. No Mona Lisa. Plus, this experience was a bit too parallel to the ‘Griswold’s Vacation trip to Walley World’! We felt a little foolish.

Humbled, we carried on to Notre Dame. While we were there, Lyle was hit up by his second gypsy beggar. We soon found that beggars/gypsies converge at every church (and probably make a killing).

To get into the spirit of ‘Gay Paree’, Lyle purchased and donned a lovely beret.

Back onto the bus for and on to the Champs-Elyse for lunch. Tammy had heard that the Catacombs were worth seeing, so we decided to go there next.

The lineup for the catacombs was long, but we toughed it out. The catacombs are a series of underground tunnels (from a former quarry) that house the remains of nearly six millions Parisians. A number of above-ground cemeteries were closed and emptied in the 18th century in order to facilitate the development of Paris and to contain disease. The bones were removed and placed there with great ceremony by the church.

It is hard to describe the intricate ‘walls’ of human bones and skulls that line parts of the tunnels. It was well worth the wait to see.

We wrapped up the day with dinner at a French restaurant close to our hotel. Turns out this was our only experience with major language difficulties in all of Europe. We didn’t speak any French (damn school system), and they did NOT speak ANY English. Their only solution when trying to explain the menu to us was to talk a lot more, and in more detail. We all just sat there and finally said – ‘chicken’. They fed us a horribly dried out portion of chicken with a side of crappy spaghetti and some tater tots. Not memorable.

On to Italy
WEDNESDAY

Au revoir to Paris. We made our way to our next destination – the Palace of Fontainebleau.

It is located only 35 kms from Paris. The Palace is quite simply unbelievable – it has been a residential palace of French kings since the 12th century.

During the tour, you walk where Napoleon trod. Very cool.

We enjoyed lunch across the street from the Palace and soaked in the ambiance. From there, we pointed the Mercedes south east towards Italy. We began driving into the mountains, and were on a toll highway towards Turino, Italy. There were many tunnels, including a very long (10 km) tunnel that was rigidly controlled for speed and distance between vehicles.

From the tunnel, you pop out into a mountain valley in a region called the Valle d’Aosta. This area is under Italian rule, but is considered a distinct society. Locals speak both French and Italian, and there are differences in their culture, food, etc. Sound familiar ….

The area is stunning – mountains and ski hills, castle ruins on the hillsides. It was getting dark, so we decided we had better stop for the night. Lyle found a hotel using our GPS system, and we pulled into a lovely little town – Ponte Romano, Aosta.

The hotel was very nice, and run by the nicest lady – Simona. She checked us in – spoke great English – and then arranged for the restaurant upstairs to stay open so we could get fed. She helped interpret the menu for us, and later met us for drinks. We needed to get some laundry done, so she made arrangements for us to have that done the next day.

The hotel is located beside an impressive 1st century B.C. stone bridge. According to Simona, the bridge was the only piece of infrastructure to survive bombings in WW II. She also told us the legend of the bridge. The first person to walk across the bridge (St. Martin) would lose his soul to the devil. To foil the devil, a dog was sent across instead.

THURSDAY

We bundled our laundry up for cleaning, while we toured around for the morning. We had spied the impressive Fort Bard on the hillside as we drove through the day before. We decided to tour it while we were waiting for our laundry. Fort Bard is a massive fortified complex that was built in the 18th century. It has been restored and is used as a Museum of the Alps, and a performing arts/cultural center. We gave the museum a miss, and took in the view from the Fort.

We decided to ask Simona for lunch - in thanks for being so helpful to us (she even gave Terry a BIG bag of ice for our cooler – SCORE – COLD beer for the road trip). She took us on a 10-minute drive into the next town to a restaurant she recommended. We asked her to choose items from the menu that were typical foods from the area. Be careful what you wish for …

The first dish was thinly cut raw beef covered with a mushroom sauce (cold). Next dish, some kind of strange vegetable thing that was like a cross between a nut and a sweet potato/yam. Next dish, a sautéed vegetable dish LOADED with anchovies …. Things were going a little rough for us.

Finally, the next dish was a fantastic ravioli/pasta dish. We ended on a high note. Anyway – the experience was great, and we all met a friend in Simona. Once lunch was over, we picked up our laundry and hit the road again, enroute to our next stop of Pisa.

We arrived in Pisa that night, found a hotel and did ‘take-out’ at the McDonald’s drive through (typical Norte Americanos!).

Pisa

FRIDAY

Up that morning and off to the Leaning Tower – along with thousands of other people. Crowds! The tower is quite a spectacle.

In order to walk up it, you have to book a time (they limit the number of people up at a time). Terry, Lyle and I decided to spend the bucks and committed to do the 300 steps up. Turns out the walk up was easier than other climbs we had made. It is, however, very interesting to note that you feel the lean of the tower from inside. We made our way up and enjoyed the spectacular view from the top. They no longer ring the bells, as they were felt to contribute to the shift of the building.

We said ‘ciao’ to the Leaning Tower, and started our trek to Rome. As in Paris, we decided that staying outside of Rome would be in our best interest. There is no parking, TERRIBLE drivers, and great potential for car theft in the city. We chose a route that paralleled the ocean, and stopped when we came to a seaside town that looked pleasant (San Marinella).

The town was approximately 45 minutes by train to Rome, our hotel was overlooking the ocean, and only a 10-minute walk to the train station.

Perfect! The young hotel manager, when checking us in, noted that her husband was from Halifax! Small world. We would meet him at breakfast, which was his responsibility at the hotel. There was also an elderly lady working there that we were sure was a vampire. She worked ALL the time (day/night), and always wore the same outfit. She was ALWAYS there, and moved silently ….

That night, we walked up to a little pub that we noticed on our drive – the Monkey Pub, and had the biggest glasses of beer ever! Back at room for a nightcap, we were doubly impressed with the “Pope Hat’ lampshades that our room sported!! Of course we all had to try them on.

Rome

SATURDAY

How did we manage to always hit the ‘big’ centers on the weekend!!? Off to Rome.

We hopped our first train ride at our station and stood in the crowded train for the 45-minute drive. We stopped at the Vatican City station, and made our way to the epicenter of Rome. Again, blown away by the enormity of it all.

Vatican City is unbelievable – as were the lineups.

We were immediately bombarded by tour operators offering us ‘VIP’ access into the Vatican Museums. We rebuffed a few till we could regroup, and then finally decided on a tour operator. Thankfully, it was a legitimate tour operator, and the tour leader was an extremely knowledgeable guide. In fact, it was almost ‘information overload’. He was obviously an art history major, and supplied us with more information than we could ever retain – ever.
The Vatican museums are mind blowing – the artifacts/works of art are out of this world.

Finally, we made our way to the Sistine Chapel. As we waited to go in, our tour guide warned us that taking photos and videos was ‘completely forbidden’, and that our cameras/phones/video recorders could be confiscated. So, I put my camera away. We reverently made our way into the Chapel …..

Only to be greeted by the blinding flash of THOUSANDS of cameras. I wish I would have taken a picture of the crowd taking pictures! It was too funny! There were a number of priest-type fellows who would periodically yell out to the crowd ‘NO PHOTOS’. But to no avail. I, unfortunately, was still intimidated enough not to take any pictures. Lyle did.

We all laughed about it later, and thought that it would be more effective if they had a pre-recorded LOUD, god-like voice that would BOOM out to the crowd – ‘I SAID – NO PHOTOS!!!!’ and see the reaction.

The Sistine Chapel was interesting, particularly after hearing of Michelangelo’s experience working on it. Apparently he did not want the job, and was very unhappy while working on it. The project was always delayed, and he did not get along with the Pope of the time, who would come it every morning and ask him ‘when the job would be completed’. Bone of contention for Michelangelo, which he portrayed in some of the scenes he painted.

From there, we toured St. Peter’s Basilica. What can you say about the ‘greatest church in all of Christendom’? It is massive, it is mind blowing, it is beyond description.

On to the rest of Rome. We once again took advantage of the ‘hop-on/hop-off’ bus tours, and winded our way around the massive city. Next stop for us was the Coliseum. We joined a tour, and were amazed at the cruelty of the ancient Romans. According to our tour guide, on opening day, over 5,000 wild animals were killed within a few hours. And we worry about the violence kids are exposed to nowadays …

That pretty much wrapped up the day for us, so we headed home on the train. It began pouring rain, so we once again hit the Monkey Pub, and enjoyed another BIG beer with our supper.

SUNDAY

Up and on the train in the morning, we made our first stop the romantic Spanish Steps. At one time in history, the Spanish Steps were actually considered Spanish territory, and people walking them sometimes disappeared – recruited into the Spanish Army.

From there, we walked to the Trevi Fountain, and following tradition, threw our coins (backwards, coin in right hand and throwing over the left shoulder) into the fountain.

This is supposed to ensure that you will one day return to Rome. Apparently over 3000 Euros are thrown into the fountain every day.

It began raining again, and not wanting to walk in the rain, Tammy, Ron and Lyle carried on the ‘hop-on/hop off’ bus to see the Castel Sant’Angelo, while we walked around the Palatine Hill. This is the centermost of the Seven Hills of Rome, and one of the most ancient spots in the city. The ruins are immense, and very impressive. This is an area you could take a day to explore.

That evening, we tried to find the restaurant that had been referred to us by our Halifax transplant/Italian hotel manager. Unfortunately, it was dark and we missed it, so ended up going to a rather bizarre restaurant where we were served a rather bizarre meal. Terry ordered the seafood special, and was given a plate of whole, fried fish that appeared to have been pulled from their kids’ aquarium, along with whole, fried shrimp – everything intact. He grappled with his meal, to say the least.

Pompeii

MONDAY

Ciao to Roma, and on to Pompeii!

We arrived around noon, and found (or should I say he found us) a personal tour guide – Jimmy, who assured us that he had led tours of the site for 54 years. Needless to say we were a bit concerned whether his heart could take the walk. Fortunately, he turned out to be a terrific guide, was extremely informative, and not afraid to tell the too-long lingering photo buffs to ‘hurry up’ when needed so we could take our turn at the sites.

Pompeii was very, very interesting. They were an extremely advanced society, and a very remarkable one. We toured some of the more famous home sites, their public areas, thermal baths, store fronts, bakery and ‘house of ill repute’.

The cast bodies on display of the citizens buried by ash were quite incredible.

Unfortunately, it was an overcast day, so Mount Vesuvius did not present itself as well in the pictures as I would have liked.

While we were on our tour, a helicopter flew around the site. That would have been an amazing experience to see Pompeii from the air! Next time. Trevi Fountain do your magic!

Pompeii is a World Heritage Site, with many, many areas that still have not been unearthed. Jimmy noted that there is some discussion of leaving portions of the site untouched – a treasure for future generations. Fascinating.

With the meter ticking on our holiday, we left Pompeii, and started our way north and east towards Venice. We stopped that evening at the town/city of Arezzo, and stayed at a hotel there. We had probably the best Italian food we had experienced to date there – your typical Italian ‘many course’ meal, which each couple shared. Very good. Unfortunately, the door to Terry’s and my room appeared to have had many break-ins, as there were knife marks/pry marks all over it. We called it the ‘stabby’ room, and could not sleep until we slid the heavy marble coffee table to the door. If someone was coming in – we’d at least hear it first! Luckily – no problems.

Venice

TUESDAY

On to Venice. After a bit of a hiccup with directions, we made our way to a hotel outside of the City. There was a bus just up the road from our hotel that would take us to Venice, so again, no hassle with parking. There is no driving in Venice itself.

After dumping our luggage in our rooms, we hopped the bus and headed into Venice. What a beautiful, magical place Venice is.

It is so different than I had imagined. Stunningly lovely. By far and away my favorite place. The maze of streets are narrow and the buildings interesting, crossed by bridge after bridge. The Grand Canal is immense and impressive. It is not just a place – it is an experience unto itself. There are over 100 islands linked by 354 bridges over 177 canals.

We walked around and soaked up the ambiance. Of course we had to have a gondola ride. We struck a deal with a handsome young oar man, and off we went.

The 45-minute boat ride was broken up by his cell phone call, and his flirtatious calls to girls walking down the streets. He had warned us that he was a relative of Casanova … hmmmm..

Back to our hotel for supper that evening.

WEDNESDAY

The day was hot, sunny and beautiful – perfect for a day in Venice. Just after we stepped off our bus, we were approached by a man who offered us a free boat ride to the island of Murano, to tour a glass blowing factory. We were a little apprehensive, but took him up on his offer, as we had wanted to tour the area by boat.

The water taxi transported us over to Murano, where we were escorted into the glass factory, and assigned a personal guide. He led us into the demonstration area, where there were a number of other observers.

The demonstration was very impressive.

First, one of the craftsman made a beautiful glass vase, followed by a glass bending demonstration where a perfect glass horse was made.

From there, we toured their show room and checked out the fabulously ornate glass chandeliers and one-of-a-kind pieces of art. We picked up a few trinkets from their gift shop, and prepared to leave. Terry asked our escort if there was anything else worth seeing on the island, and was informed ‘NO – nothing to see here. Take the water taxi off and go over to the next island’. We decided not to heed his words, and walked further down, only to find HUNDREDS of glass shops – of course with cheaper prices for the same things! Oh well. We strolled around Murano – very neat place – and had lunch at an outdoor cafe.

We decided to attempt the water bus, hoping to see more of the area from the water. Not sure of the routes, we jumped on one, only to find that it was very much like your basic public transit – crowded with people – standing room only, and with no opportunity to enjoy the scenery around you. We were desperate to get off and just walk around again.

We toured the Piazza San Marco, along with a massive crush of people (why on a Wednesday??), and marveled at the Palazzo Ducale and the Basilica di San Marco.

We toured inside the Basilica, but the crowds in the Palazzo Ducale were just too long to wait.

Back onto the water taxi to make our way back to the bus terminal.

Terry, Lyle and I felt that we could make better time back to the bus terminal on foot, while Tammy and Ron disagreed. The race was on! We jumped off the water bus at the next stop, and weaved our way through the maze, finally figuring out the route markers that would direct us to the parking area. We made it, and with time to down half a beer before they caught up to us. Vindicated!

Back to our hotel, and dinner. Luckily, we had a very friendly waitress, and Terry made arrangements to procure another bag of ice for our travels the next day. Another score!

Austria
THURSDAY

Ciao to Italy, and on our way to Austria. The next highlight of the trip was a visit to the Royal Lipizzan Stallions in Vienna.

The scenery in Austria is absolutely stunning – the most scenic of any place to date. We found a hotel out of Vienna in the small town of Modling. It was a lovely town – your cobbled streets and neat stores and restaurants.

We found a nice little pub/restaurant and enjoyed the first chicken wings we had seen anywhere in Europe – and they were good, too! The only negative thing about Austria? They permit smoking everywhere, and EVERYONE SMOKES. The restaurants (and basically ALL public areas) are very smoky, which was a real disappointment.

FRIDAY

We took a train from Modling into Vienna. The train was beautiful – clean, fast. We had to transfer from the train onto the subway to get into the city Centre. Once we disembarked from the subway, we ran into a massive crowd of people, and it soon became apparent that there was a demonstration taking place. Not knowing what it was about, we decided quickly that we had better find a quick route out of the mass of people. Turns out the ‘protesters’ were school kids, protesting the loss of 5-days of their holidays because of an adjustment to the school year. No terrorists as we had imagined.

The Lipizzan Stallions are kept at the Spanish Riding School, located at the Imperial Hofburg Palace, right in the city core. We booked a viewing of the stallion’s morning exercises, followed by a tour of the facilities later that afternoon.

This was a dream of Tammy and Lyles’ to see the stallions in action.

No photos were permitted (shades of the Sistine Chapel all over again), but of course people were taking pictures. I complied, but Lyle managed to sneak a few shots of the horses. I’ll try to get some photos from him for posting.

After our tour, we booked a scenic (and romantic) carriage ride (for five) through the city. Vienna is probably one of the most beautiful cities we have seen.

It was a real surprise to us. We had not expected to see such a historical, monumental city – yet with a real cosmopolitan population.

The people here were probably the most elegantly dressed of all the cities we had visited.

We wandered and enjoyed the city center, where there appeared to be a street fair taking place. There were musicians and street buskers performing en masse, and many people strolling the streets. It was a very festive atmosphere.

Back on the subway and train and to our hotel for the night.

SATURDAY

Up and on the road the next morning. We needed another ‘castle fix’, so stopped in Salzburg to see the Hohensalzburg Castle, famous for being Europe’s biggest fortification.

It sits above the City of Salzburg, so offers an amazing view of the area.

But of course we had some serious uphill hiking to get there …. Once there, we toured the facility and enjoyed lunch in the scenic, medieval surroundings.

From there, we drove to the nearby Salz Welten and toured the old salt mine. We had to don white coveralls for the tour,

and learned the history of the salt mine while taking part in such activities as a ride on the pit railway, sliding down the miner’s slides, a boat ride across the ‘salt lake’ and watching the multi-media presentation. Interesting.

Back on the road and onwards to Germany. We ended up spending the night at a small town near Nuremberg.

Back to Germany and Homeward Bound
SUNDAY

Up and on the road by 9:00 a.m. We drove to Dorverden, and enjoyed a barbeque hosted at the barn by Horst. We had to get the rental vehicle back that night, so left by 9:00 p.m., and dropped off the Mercedes. We had booked rooms at the airport hotel.

We left Bremen at 11:20 a.m. and once again flew into Amsterdam for a 3-hour layover. We arrived in Vancouver by 5:20 p.m., and noted that we had experienced approximately 23 hours of daylight!

Europe was great – would love to go back again.

Dos Equis Euro Tour 2009

2009-04-10T14:47:00.000-07:00

As I type this, we are in the city of Freiburg. It is about 10:00 at night and Terry, Lyle, Tammy and Ron have all gone out for a nightcap and to check on the local nightlife. I am officially ‘beered-out’ (nothing against the beer - just can only drink so many), so have bowed out of the remainder of the evening to hunker down and bring you up to date on our European tour so far.

We left Vancouver on April 6th at 6:45 p.m., after a hectic day of wrapping things up (packing up the motor home, dropping the motor home off at Barry & Vicky’s house for safe keeping, dropping the cats off at the cat hotel, etc.). Then it was ‘hurry up and wait’ at the airport.

We flew with KLM Royal Dutch airlines, and were very impressed with the service. We both tried to fit a little sleep into the flight so we wouldn’t be as jetlagged, but no luck.

We arrived in Amsterdam for our 4-hour layover at 1:15 p.m. The Amsterdam airport is big – it was a 24-minute walk to our next boarding gate (they have signs advising of the walking distance between gates).

Here's a shot of the beautiful tulips for sale at one of the stores in the Amsterdam Airport!

We managed to find some lounger chairs that we could spend our waiting time at, and attempted to fit in a nap. I got up to freshen about an hour before our next flight, and left a book on my seat to indicate it was taken. Terry, unfortunately, reported waking up a little bit later to find a ‘family of Iranian terrorists’ (or so he said) had taken over the chair beside him.

We departed Amsterdam at 5:15 p.m., and flew in a small ‘Focker 50’ twin-prop plane (I’m serious – that’s what it was called). We arrived in Bremen at approximately 6:30 p.m. Lyle, Tammy and Ron met us at the airport.

We picked up our rental van (it is a sweet ride – a black, 7-passenger Mercedes diesel van; I call it ‘the beast’), and drove to Dorverden, the small town where Lyle has been living and working since the New Year.

We stopped briefly to see his new horse, Landiana, and the barn that he works out of,

then drove to Lyle’s place (he lives in a house with seven girls), had a couple of German beers for a nightcap, and called it a night. Lyle had booked us rooms in a great little hotel nearby (turns out that the building we stayed in used to be the town’s original schoolhouse).

We went to bed at about 10:30 p.m., German time. It was a long day (literally), so we crashed immediately, but woke up in the night (our internal clocks are off by 8-hours), finally gave up the ghost at trying to get back to sleep and got up at 5:00 a.m.

We had a great breakfast in the hotel restaurant, and decided to explore the town on foot. (Above is a picture of Terry enjoying an after-breakfast shot of 'jagger' that we purchased from the local drugstore.)

It is beautiful place – lovely red brick buildings, small farms, old churches – very European, as Terry so aptly put it. We met up with Ron & Tammy, picked up Lyle and drove into nearby, Verden (a larger centre) for a tour of the town,

and then returned to Dorverden so we could watch Lyle jump his new horse, Landiana.

Later that night, we met Horst and his wife and had a great supper at our hotel’s restaurant. Turns out that we lucked into the start of asparagus season, which is a big crop for the local farmers. We enjoyed a huge feed of white asparagus and hollandaise sauce. So far, the food, beer and wine have not disappointed us. In addition, the German hospitality has been second to none. The people here are extremely friendly – very different from the cold, distant stereotype that we associate the Germans with.

After Horst and his wife left, we officially launched the start of our ‘Dos Equis’ Euro Tour 2009, with the distribution of the t-shirts that Terry and I had picked up in Mexico. The ‘Dos Equis’ refers to the fact that our Euro tour is comprised of two ‘ex-spouses’ travelling with their respective new partners. We acknowledged that both couples had been taking a lot of heat over the fact that we were travelling with the ‘ex’es’ and how unusual the situation was.

The next day, we headed south to Nesselroeden to visit Lyle’s trainer, and check out his first ‘tour of duty’ in Germany, riding and training at a barn there before he went to Verden. We hit the Autoban, and cranked ‘the beast’ up to 150 when we were able. Unfortunately, we happened upon a traffic jam (turns out there had been an accident WAY down the road) that slowed vehicle traffic for about 25 miles. There was a line-up of commercial trucks that was unbelievable. So much for making time on the Autobahn!

The drive was unbelievably beautiful – rolling hills, quaint small towns, the occasional castle … We stopped to tour Plesse Castle, which was very close to Gottingen, and enjoyed a beer at the on-site restaurant.

From there, we made our way down to Duderstadt, and stopped to tour the scenic town. Again, it is another very quaint, beautiful German town, but with a more scenic countryside than Dorverdan.

That night, we met Heinrich, Lyle’s trainer, and his wife and two daughters at our hotel’s restaurant, and enjoyed another great German meal. Later Heinrich had us over for drinks and a visit. After hearing that both Tammy and I were still suffering from Jetlag, he provided us with some medication that he uses when he travels over to Canada. We both took a couple of tablets, and reported sleeping soundly till the morning. This was a nice change – no more being wide awake at 4:00 a.m. and turning into the walking dead by 8:00 at night!

The next morning we stopped by Heinrich’s barn to say goodbye, and headed south. We weren’t really sure of where we wanted to go, but after consulting our travel books and relying on Heinrich’s recommendations, we decided to travel to Freiburg, which is located on the edge of Germany’s famous Black Forest area, and quite close to the Germany/Switzerland border.

Freiburg is a larger center, with a population of around 200,000. It is home to a large community of university students, so there is quite a young atmosphere there. The town has some very interesting architecture (much of it classified as medieval), and stone-lined channels that run alongside the streets. We toured around and saw the amazing Munster (cathedral), which is presently undergoing a renovation.

As it was Good Friday, the cathedral was closed for touring. Lyle, however, decided to venture in and observed a bit of the Good Friday service that was taking place. When he left the cathedral, he noted that a lot of the people attending the service were crying and wondered if they were acknowledging some kind of disaster. We confirmed his theory with a bit of a lecture on the biblical events surrounding Good Friday, and why the devout Catholics would be emotional!

It was a beautiful, warm evening, and we enjoyed a meal at an outdoor restaurant before touring around the inner city and stopping at a few interesting spots for beers.

We’re going to stay here for two nights, and will take the day tomorrow to tour around the city a bit more, and then take a drive through parts of the nearby Black Forest. There are a couple of gondolas that take you up into the mountains and have some amazing views that we want to check out.

Can-USA-Mex-USA-Can-Euro Travels .....

2009-04-05T22:09:00.000-07:00

Here it is, 10:15 p.m., we have less than 24-hours before we leave for Germany, and I haven't even STARTED packing ,.. how typical.

Since we arrived in Burnaby, we have been busy shopping for all of those last-minute things we need for our Europe trip, have armed ourselves with International Driving Permits, purchased new SMALL camera, etc., etc. We've also had a chance to spend time visiting with my brothers et. al, so that has been great.

The weather is starting to break here - today was absolutely lovely, and this evening was warm as well. Let's hope that Spring has finally arrived - and I hope that is true for everyone.

It still hasn't quite 'sunk in' that we will be stepping onto a plane tomorrow night and flying across the pond to Germany. Our itinerary has been somewhat 'loose', other than we know that we'll drive south from Bremen and make our way down to Rome, Italy. And of course, we just heard the breaking news tonight about a 6.3 earthquake 90 km north east of Rome. Great.

Ah well, I'm sure all will go well. Now I have to get my packing in order and freak out over those last-minute things that I have inevitably forgotten in my haste. Plus, I have to deal with the horror of transporting the 'three tenors' to the cat hotel tomorrow. Who would suspect that such cute kitties would lose it so badly when they are put in a cage and transported in a car?
I will do my best to post to my blog while we are on the 'Euro' portion of our travels. Frequency will depend upon access to the Internet, and whether I can tear myself out of the pubs with enough time (and sobriety) to write ...>

Gute Nacht! Buonanotte! Bonne nuit!

Canada Bound .... Into the Snow

2009-04-01T09:25:00.000-07:00

Here's a shot of the road into Seattle.

We're presently camped out just south of the border crossing, and will be making our way to the border shortly. The weather here is cool (4 degrees) and wet, AND, we see that there is snow falling in Vancouver... crap.

We've made arrangements to drop our trailer off at an RV storage place just across the border in Surrey, and will either take our motor home there on the way to the airport, or will leave it at my brother's place in Burnaby.

We have booked a site at the Burnaby RV Park, just 5-minutes down from my brother's (we stayed there on the way down). We'll be busy getting things organized for our Europe trip, and must get everything together for our income tax preparation before we go.

The cats will be staying at a fabulous, all-inclusive cat hotel. I haven't broken that news to them yet. And speaking of the cats ...

Molly used up one of her nine lives yesterday. We were pulling in the slides to go (in a hurry of course), when we realized that the rain from outside would soon be dripping all over the inside of the motor home once the slides came in. Terry halted the production, while we quickly grabbed towels and placed them on top of the slide, at the front and back. In the kerfuffle, Molly must have made her way into the hallway without us noticing. Terry put the slide in, when we heard a mournful, muffled 'meow'.

Of course we freaked, and quickly opened the slide back up, fearing the worst. Out she popped - without a mark. Thank god. She is lucky she's so skinny! One more thing to check before we pull in the slides from hereon in.

Here's a picture of Callie, after Molly's 'incident'. Notice how upset and concerned she is.

We're hoping the border crossing is not too difficult. We may have spent a wee bit more than our allotted $1500, so will have to claim the difference. Norm and Jan called yesterday after their border crossing experience, and reported they went through with no problems. They reported spending just over $2000, and were waived on through. The only thing the border guard required them to do was dump all of their fruits and vegetables. We'll make sure we do the same before we get there.

Wish us luck. We certainly don't need any cavity searches at this stage of our lives.

Déjà Vu

2009-03-30T11:33:00.000-07:00

As I typed this we were winding our way down the road past Florence, Oregon, along the scenic coastal highway (Hwy. 101). The weather is cooler and very unsettled – periods of heavy rain broken up by brief spells of sunshine, followed by overcast skies. Strikingly similar to what we experienced on our way down. This area is definitely not great for ‘shoulder season’ touring, unless you appreciate an inclement climate! Weather aside, the scenery is still breathtaking.

To bring you up to speed on our travels over the past few days, we left Lake Havasu on Tuesday, March 24th. We have been travelling with Norm and Jan, buddies from Vernon, who are also making their way north to home. We had initially thought of driving only as far as Needles that day, and fitting in a golf game. However, the wind was just roaring, so we decided to hear further north and see if we could drive out of it.

We ended up staying in the free camping area at the Avi Casino, located outside of Laughlin, Nevada. No services, but perfectly adequate for a stop-over. The wind was still blowing, but we decided to golf anyway. Norm and Jan knew of a nice little course in nearby Fort Mojave – Los Lagos. Good course, with flowers spread throughout, making for a colourful game (coloured balls are a bad choice on this course). It was twilight golf, so we played until we couldn't see anymore.

Later, Terry and I gave in to the siren song of the casino, and tried our hand at the slots. I was actually a little up, but Terry quickly depleted my hard-won earnings. Casino – 1 – Terry & Sandy – 0.

Up and gone the next day by 9 bells. We headed north into the high desert. Talk about your ‘wide open spaces’. Pardon the joke, but this is an area where, should your dog run away, you could literally watch his progress for days; open, flat plains running into the far-away hills surrounding them. It was interesting, however, to see areas where the desert was beginning to bloom.

Then, literally by rounding a corner, the scenery and climate changed dramatically. We went from the high desert and drove into the Tehachapi pass, where the temperature dropped from 79 degrees to 59 degrees. From desert landscape, we drove through an area of green, treed and rocky hillsides that were reminiscent of the Okanagan Valley, Cariboo Country, and even the Scottish Highlands! Quite a changing vista, but very beautiful. Unfortunately, we also noticed patches of SNOW on a few of those hills …. Dear God!!

We spent the night at a nice little RV Park just before Bakersfield, CA. The next day, we headed towards Napa. The drive itself was fairly uneventful and actually quite nondescript. We arrived in Napa in the early evening, and found ourselves spots at the Skyline Wilderness Park.

The park is very rugged, and home to a great variety of wildlife. I awoke at 3:00 a.m. to the mournful howls of the coyotes, and then again at 6:00 a.m. to the ‘gobbles’ of the many, many wild turkeys in the park.

We decided to treat ourselves to a nice dinner in Napa, and of course imbibed in some of their local ‘fruit of the vine’. Lovely. The next morning, we began our travels through the Napa Valley.

What a beautiful area; one world-class winery (and many, many ‘micro’ wineries) after another, but no time for wine tasting – sigh. The fields and hillsides are extremely picturesque - very pastoral - however, the road was incredibly narrow and winding. Shades of Mexican travel all over again.

From there, we made our way to the Benbow RV Park, located in Garberville, CA. This is a nice little RV Park with a challenging golf course. We managed to fit in a twilight round, but with no stellar performances from anyone.

This also marked the end of our ‘shorts and sandals’ attire. We are admitting defeat to the weather, and recognize that henceforth we will be donning long pants, sweatshirts and real shoes. Back to reality.

The next morning, we crossed into Oregon, and starting winding our way through the scenic Redwood Forest.

We were greeted by cooler, rainy, overcast weather. It was also our first glimpse of the Pacific Ocean since Mexico. Unfortunately, the weather was so overcast we missed much of the panoramic views around us. Our destination for the evening was an RV Park in Coos Bay, Oregon.

This brings us to today (actually yesterday), where we have enjoyed the amazing scenery of the Pacific Northwest. The ocean is very violent today, with the waves being considerably higher than on our trip down. We are travelling to Portland, Oregon, and staying a couple of nights. We’re a little road-weary right now and would appreciate a break. We might sleep in, go for a run, check out some of the shopping in Portland, and ready ourselves for the border. Time to start gathering up those receipts and tallying the damage from our stay down south.

Back to Lake Havasu and Heading North

2009-03-24T10:27:00.000-07:00

We left Mesa on Saturday, March 21st, and started to make our way north. Friends of ours from Vernon, Jan & Norm, have a place in Blythe, California, and as it was on the way, we made arrangements to stop and have lunch with them.

Turns out they were going to be making their way north to Canada as well. Norm and Jan have a trip planned to Australia, New Zealand and Fiji in April, so needed to get their RV back to their home park in Vernon. They were stopping in Lake Havasu to get some work done to their rig, so we made arrangements to meet them up there.

I had forgotten how beautiful those hills in Lake Havasu are. It is stunningly scenic driving north through Parker to Lake Havasu.

We stayed at the same RV Park as on the trip down (convenience, ease, etc.). It is considerably busier than our last stay - peak season and all! We settled in for 3-nights.

On Sunday, Terry decided to spend some time posting to his blog, while I took advantage of the great sales at the nearby mall. My new favorite store - J.C. Penney!! My shopping trip was focused on purchases for our Europe trip. No more shorts and t-shirts - we're looking at slacks, comfortable shoes and the 'layered-look'.

We had heard from many people that the golf course in Parker (30 miles south of Lake Havasu) - Emerald Canyon Golf Course - was a definite must-do, so we booked a twilight tee-time on Monday. The course was busy, but we ended up golfing as a two-some, which was nice.

Fantastic golf course! You golf through the canyons, which was a bit of a challenge, but one of the more uniquely beautiful courses I have played on. Plus - I played the game of my life ... 5 pars! Great day.

On the drive home we checked out Parker Dam. Turns out that it is the deepest dam in the world - who knew?

We stopped for supper at Barley's Brewhouse, located along the canal in Havasu, and enjoyed their fantastic 'tripleberry wheat ale'. No evidence of spring break madness, so it must be wrapped up.

The weather here has been cooler, and there has been a strong wind blowing pretty much the entire time. Not nice. We experienced wind like this last visit, so it must be a common occurrence here.

We're packing up to head out this morning, and will likely travel with Norm and Jan to Needles. They tell us there is a nice golf course and RV Park there, so we'll stop for a round and spend the night. From there, likely Bakersfield.

Just Hangin' Out in Mesa

2009-03-19T22:13:00.000-07:00

We've been staying in the View Point RV Park in Mesa for a week now. Time has just flown by.

The weather is HOT right now! It's been in the high 20's, low 30's every day. Thankfully, it cools off in the evening. We've been taking advantage of the amenities here in the park - that pool feels great in this heat, and the hot tub is nice when the desert air cools down the evenings.

Terry and I have managed to squeeze a couple of golf games in so far. The first day we golfed, we joined a couple from Ontario - John and Mary. Nice couple, and good golfers. The benefits of golfing all winter shows - they played a beautifully consistent game. Unlike Terry and I who had our share of memorable shots. On the 18th hole, I managed to hit the same tree twice! And that was after 'foot wedging it' just to avoid that very scenario. Ah, but it's a great game.

Today, we golfed with the golf course's ladies' club champion, and her friend from near Winnipeg who is a 9-handicap golfer (Shirley and Ken). Yikes!! This lady normally teed off from the blue tee box - and can out-drive most men. What an amazing golfer. Her game yesterday, she had 5 birdees! Luckily, she was an extremely non-pretentious lady and we had a lot of fun playing with them.

We've been taking in Joel Peterman's ball games. He's playing for Minot State University, and they are down here playing in a tournament. He made his pitching debut the other day. Check out these amazing moves!

The RV Park had a 'St. Patrick's Day' parade on the 17th - here's a few shots of the antique and interesting cars participating in the parade.

We've enjoyed hanging out with Lowell, Nancy and Joceyln this week. Here's a few photos from our supper out at 'Joe's Crab Shack' the other night.

There's a lot of Terry's relatives staying down in the area right now. Karen & Lloyd Knox graciously planned a barbeque for us down at their new place in Casa Grande. We had a great time catching up with everyone, and touring Karen & Lloyd's and Patti and Brian's lovely new homes. Here's a group shot of all the relatives.

We're planning on leaving here Saturday, and will likely make our way back up to Palm Springs for a couple of days. The idea of moving north and out of the heat is a little bit frightening, but we have to be in Vancouver for the beginning of April.

Tomorrow us girls are hittin' the outlet malls (yahoo!), and then meeting up with Greg Thompson, who is in Phoenix after his long bike journey across Mexico. Can't wait to hear the stories.

Back to San Carlos and Adios Mexico

2009-03-13T21:51:00.000-07:00

From Mazatlan, we had intended to drive as far as Los Mochis. There really is not much in Los Mochis; it's just a key midway point. We had stopped there on the way down, and stayed at a really crappy RV Park, while Mexicans driving by in buses and in the back of trucks yelled at us. Not a terrific ambiance. We learned that most people stay at a large Pemex station instead, so thought we'd stay there. The station is really large, with a secure compound for trucks and RVs.

However, we made good time travelling the quota highway, so arrived at the Los Mochis Pemex station around 2:30 p.m. We decided to continue on. Los Glorias was ahead, and we thought it might be interesting to stay there for a night and have a look around.

Of course we couldn't find the turnoff (Mexico and their lack of road signs ... grrr), so missed Los Glorias. At that point, we decided to try to make San Carlos before dark. It was going to be a stretch, but as we had stayed there on the way down and knew the RV park we were going to be staying at, we thought we could risk it.

Fortunately, we didn't have to go through any military checkpoints along the way. We did, however, go through a couple of agricultural checkpoints. At each of them, they insisted on coming in and checking our fridge. The first checkpoint, the inspector took a quick look and let us carry on. The second, the inspector checked our fridge, and then asked us for candy! A little irritating.

Anyway, these things slowed us down, and we didn't end up getting into San Carlos till around 7:30 p.m., and in the dark. It was a long day, and we were quite happy to turn into San Carlos, but travelling at night in Mexico is definitely not a treat.

The RV Park office was closed, but the security guard let us in. It appeared to be quite full, with a lot of rigs parked along the roadway in the park. Apparently a lot of rigs were there for the night only, and were all hooked up and ready to go first thing in the morning.

We stayed three nights; touring around the first day, and golfing the second. It was interesting going back to San Carlos. We were so impressed by it on our first visit. The second - you see things a little differently.

It is without a doubt very beautiful. However, there is a definite atmosphere of things slowing down. You could literally walk on the golf course, and there were many, many properties for sale, and many developments that look like they are on hold. It will be interesting to see San Carlos next year.

The first morning, we woke up to 10 degree weather. Yikes!! After having spent two months basking in the heat in Bucieras, this was cold! Fortunately, the temperature rose to probably the high 70's during the day, but there is definite difference between the desert climate of San Carlos and the humid, tropical climate of Bucerias.

We left San Carlos on Thursday, March 12th, early (7:00 a.m.) , so we could make some time. We still weren't sure if we would make it as far as the border, so we discussed along the way the merits of stopping somewhere else (Kino Bay) for a night, heading back to Puerto Penasco for a day or two, or just hitting the border at Nogales.

The road was good, and very minimal traffic, so we decided we'd make the run for the border. We had one more agricultural inspection (he took our oranges and mangos), and another military inspection. The military inspection had freight trucks backed up for literally miles. Thankfully, we were only in line for half an hour, and the military officer just wanted to see inside the trailer. Phew!

We were a little apprehensive about crossing at Nogales, as this is an area that has been in the news because of frequent gun battles between the military and the drug lords. Fortunately, we went through with no problems, and very quickly. The line up was not bad, and we had one final agricultural inspection (geez, you try to smuggle one little orange into the country and they have you on their list forever!!).

With little fanfare, it was 'adios' to Mexico, and 'hello' to the U.S. of A. The only hiccup we had was not turning in our tourist cards. We stopped at Km 21 Checkpoint just south of Nogales, which is where you turn in your vehicle permit, but were not asked to turn in our tourist cards there. We passed what appeared to be a customs building, but there was no indication we were supposed to stop there and turn in our tourist cards. I 'googled' this situation, and it appears that the airports are the only places where turning your tourist card in is an issue. Let's hope so.

We are staying at the ViewPoint RV Park and Golf Resort in Mesa, and will be here for probably a week. We're golfing tomorrow (bonus - CHEAP golf!!!), and Lowell, Nancy, Joel and Jocelyn will be arriving tomorrow evening. Joel is playing in a college ball tournament, so we'll be taking in his games.

We'll post results after the first game on Sunday.

Mismoloya, Sayulita, San Francisco, Lo de Marcos and Rincon de Guayabitos

2009-03-10T21:58:00.000-07:00

A little back tracking of things we did while we were in Bucerias ...

There are a number of smaller resort areas around Bucerias. We were curious to see them, so took a series of road trips to check them out. We didn’t spend much time at any of the places, so these are just a few shots of the places, and initial impressions.

Mismoloya

We travelled to Mismoloya with Brenda and Adrian. Mismoloya is located south of Puerto Vallarta. It is home to a number of beautiful beaches, blue water, and some incredible new developments.

It was also the location of the 1964 movie ‘Night of the Iguana’.

We had heard that John Huston, director of the movie, had a restaurant on a cliff in Mismoloya. We tried locating it, and assumed that a couple of parked tour buses were at the location. We got out and ended up on a house tour (turns out the restaurant has been closed for a while now).
We toured a fabulous house perched on the hillside overlooking the ocean. It rented for a mere $4,000/night, but would house 16 of your closest friends and family!

Sayulita

Sayulita is a surf town. Kids come from all over to hit the waves there. You see a lot of young people who winter in Sayulita and then summer in either California or Tofino. You get the picture.

Many of these young people (and the young at heart) tent on the beachfront campground.

I would imagine there are many drum circles in the evening and ‘sun salutes’ and ‘downward facing dog’ yoga moves happening each morning!

The beach is very nice, but waves are definitely high at times.

The first time we drove to Sayulita, the road was a little crazy – congestion, no parking – the usual small town Mexico. The next visit, the road was completely torn up and major repairs underway.

Friends of ours from Olds were staying at a really nice bungalow-style resort for two weeks in February. It is definitely a trendy place to stay.

San Francisco

San Francisco is a smaller town north of Sayulita. The beach there was extremely quiet – but very, very nice.

There was a nice atmosphere about the place. You can see that it is poised for development. It is one of those little secrets that you hate people to discover.

Lo de Marcos

Lo de Marcos is north of San Francisco. It is smaller than Sayulita, but larger than San Francisco. It is home to one of the nicest RV parks in Mexico – the El Refugio. Buddies Adrian and Brenda returned from the south so they could spend a month there.

It has the requisite beautiful beach (same theme, different town). Not much there in terms of amenities however, but has quite a solid group of regulars who winter there.

Rincon de Guayabitos

North of Lo de Marcos, Rincon is the preferred haven for the French Canadian RV crowd. The day we visited Rincon, we were quite shocked by the crowd on the beach. It was something we had not experienced anywhere in all of the places we had visited in Mexico this winter. People, umbrellas, vendors, pelicans, - all jammed on the beach.

The beach itself is probably the nicest of all the smaller communities we had explored, but we could certainly do without the crowd.

We were, however, impressed with the 'Your Dollar Store and More' on wheels that we saw moving slowly down the beach!

Great Beaches Near Bucerias

2009-03-10T21:18:00.001-07:00

This is a little backtracking, but I wanted to share some of the road trips we took and some of the activities we participated in while we were staying in Bucieras. When you get busy, you sometimes find it hard to get those blog postings done in a timely manner …..

Let’s start with a few of the nearby beaches that we had the pleasure of visiting. The first is Desaladeris Beach.

Desaladeris Beach is located just north of La Cruz (about 10 minutes outside of Bucerias). It is a beautiful, white sand beach. Unlike the beach at Bahia de Banderas, the sand is very level and great for walking/running. It is not a huge stretch – probably 1-1/2 miles in total length. The waves are good for boogie boarding, and at one end of the beach the waves can be surfer size.

The secret is out on the beach, as there is quite a large development underway. I can see the appeal, as it is one of the nicer beaches and very close to the amenities of Bucerias.

We saw the cutest puppy on the planet one day at the beach. It was about the size of a large caterpillar. His little legs were about ¼ “in length and barely cleared the sand. When the wind blew he tipped over. But he would follow people’s legs with his tail wagging non-stop.

The other interesting thing we saw was the ‘bird whisperer’. This Mexican fellow could control the seagulls. He had them hovering in a flock, and then made them light down in the sand, using only hand movements. It was amazing.

We also were treated to a few great whale sightings from the beach - many spoutings, soundings and breaches.

The other beach has no name. It is just a beach that we discovered on a road trip one day. Located on the back road towards Sayulita, it is off the beaten track on an obscure road that leads to the beach. Like Desaladaris, the beach is approximately 1-1/2 to 2 miles of flat, white sand. There are minimal people, and not a single vendor. There are a number of very nice homes that sit along the hillside overlooking the surf.

One end of the beach was a gathering place for seabirds, which were diving into the water in a frenzy. We could only assume it would be a great snorkelling spot, as there were obviously a lot of fish there. We also saw a lot of little sand crabs.

While the beach at Bucerias was nice, it was fun to check out different beaches in the area.

The Madness of Mazatlan

2009-03-10T21:10:00.001-07:00

We left San Blas at around 1030 a.m. on Sunday, March 8th, and headed, scratching all the way, towards our next stop of Mazatlan. The road was very windy and narrow, with a lot of trees and shrubbery closely bordering it. Unfortunately, the trailer suffered a few long scratches as a result.

We passed through a number of small towns, and at each there was a battery of girls selling large sliced fruit cups. We bought one for $15 pesos and it fed the two of us and more. We passed a car that had a small, rolled up mattress tied down on top, and Terry noticed that there was a little boy peeking out from inside the mattress! Wild ride.

Once we hit the Mex 15 quota (toll highway), we made time. It was such a treat to hit a real highway that had speed limits of 110 km. Woo hoo! It was also comforting to travel roads that you recognized.

We did, however, experience our first ‘check-point Charlie’. Just after we went through a toll station, there was a military checkpoint. It was just a bunch of young kids in uniform and toting big rifles. They insisted on coming in to look at things. Of course none of them spoke a lick of English. I had to hold on to two of the cats while one of the young men poked around inside the motor home, opening every cupboard and drawer. Meanwhile, Terry was outside opening the trailer and all of the storage compartments. It was fairly obvious they just wanted to see what we had. I wasn’t thrilled with the whole experience, but realize this may be the first of many, as we saw a lot of northbound checkpoints on our way down.

We drove into the city of Mazatlan around 4:00 p.m., and promptly got lost. Fortunately, we were able to right ourselves fairly quickly, and made our way to the same RV park we had stayed at on the way down (that comfort thing). We even ran into a couple that we met the first time we had stayed there. Wade and his girlfriend were making their way back from Melaque.

My Uncle Curtis spent a number of years wintering in Mazatlan, but was unable to do so this year. He always stayed at the Hotel San Diego, and there was quite a regular crowd of sunbirds that he had befriended over the years. I had e-mailed him a few days earlier and asked if he would like me to look anyone up while we were in Mazatlan. He sent an e-mail back to the affirmative, and so we took a car ride down to pass on his hellos. Fortunately, his buddy Frank from Terrace, B.C. was there, so we had a nice visit with him before we went on to supper uptown.

There were fewer RVs at the park than had been there on our way south. However, we noticed a big difference in the number of people on the streets and in the restaurants since our last trip. It was definitely busier. We even got to see an accident (ATV ran into the back of a truck – police just drove on by), and a fight. After coming from the tranquility of San Blas, this was a little wild for us!

We were only staying one night in Mazatlan, so planned on getting up early the next morning to head north towards Los Mochis.

Beaten Up and Eaten Alive in San Blas!

2009-03-10T19:14:00.000-07:00

As planned, we said our goodbye’s to Bucerias on March 5th. It was a pretty quiet couple of days leading up to our departure, as the family and most friends had left days before.

After being parked for two months, I knew there would be some ‘acclimatization’ to hitting the Mexican roads again in the RV – for both myself and the cats. Sure enough, it wasn’t a treat for any of us. Molly promptly got car sick – and everywhere. I was running around the motor home with a wad of paper towels cleaning up as we weaved around the narrow, windy roads, freaking out with my usual enthusiasm.

We had made arrangements to stop in Lo de Marcos to visit our buddies, Adrian and Brenda, who were staying in El Refugio RV Park (one of the nicest in Mexico). We thought we could pull our rig over to the northbound Pemex station and park there while we had our visit. Unfortunately, the parking area was not able to accommodate us without our blocking the outgoing traffic. We discovered that after we had pulled into it. Stress levels began to run high.

Terry decided that we may as well fill up while we were there, but that required him to back up a considerable distance so he could manoeuvre over to the diesel pumps. He casually informs me that I’ll have to ‘get out and stop traffic’ while he backs up the rig.

Are you kidding me?? Stop traffic in Mexico! For god's sakes they pass ambulances that have their lights flashing and sirens blazing!! Of course I balked. After a brief ‘difference in opinion’, we managed to get over to the pumps and fill up. Terry then left me watching the rig while he pulled out his bike and scoped out a parking spot. Once settled, we rode our bikes over to El Refugio and had a nice visit with the buddies.

Off we headed to San Blas. Del and Angel, who we had also met at the Hideaway RV Park in Bucerias, were living there and convinced us that it was a place worth visiting before we left Mexico. The remainder of the ride there was fairly uneventful. We drove in around 4 or 5:00 that afternoon.

The RV Park that Del and Angel are staying at is not right in San Blas, but between the little town of Aticama and San Blas. The RV portion is right along the beach, and will accommodate only 4-6 rigs (with services). It sits beside a really nice hotel, and has a great pool.

Del and Angel are in the process of having a palapa built, under which they will park their motor home, and are working with the owners of the hotel/RV park in a business venture raising cattle. They are hoping to become ‘full timers’ in Mexico. It should be an interesting experience for them.

Here's a picture of Angel with their dogs - Buster and Bootie. Buster is a freak when it comes to balls, and will steal them from anyone. We watched with great amusement as he stole one from a couple of kids playing on the beach one day. He is like Pele with a ball - once he has it, there is almost no way you can get it back, and it is usually destroyed in a short while. Angel went running over with a $50 peso bill as replacement funds, which caused the boys' eyes to open pretty wide. She managed to get the ball away from Buster, but in a little while they came over with the ball punctured, and looking for the money. Hmmmm.... wonder if they wanted the money more than the ball ....

Bootie LOVES to fish. There is a river that runs alongside the RV Park, and she spends hours and hours splashing through the river, jumping frantically after the small fish and shrimp that call the river their home.

The area around San Blas is very tropical and fertile. They grow tons of bananas, corn, sugar cane, mangos, and many different vegetables.

Angel is working with the family to secure international buyers for their banana crop, as they produce an incredible volume of bananas, but cannot market it all.

The beach in front of us is great – long (3-1/ miles approx.), flat and perfect for riding your bike, walking and jogging. People use it as a roadway, with many vehicles driving up and down it.

It sits along the Bay of Matanchen. The water is the warmest we have experienced since Florida.

There are also many stretches of ‘ramadas’ along the length of the beach. These are long palm-covered buildings that people rent for the day.

They can park their car and have shade and the use of plastic tables and chairs for their day at the beach. Most of them are affiliated with restaurants, so you can also have a meal. Apparently the beach is extremely busy on Sundays, with many Mexican families coming out from the City of Tepic to hit the beach.

Del and Angel had offered us the use of their small zodiac boat to tour the bay while we were there. It is just a small 2-man boat with a 15 h.p. motor.

Our first full-day there, we got up and took a bike ride down the length of the beach, and decided to come back and head out for our boat ride.

I knew it wasn’t going to be a comfortable ride, but I was not prepared for the beating I took as the passenger. There is only one seat, which is occupied by the driver, leaving the passenger the choice of sitting side-saddle across the front (and risk being tossed out), or sitting on the bottom in the front of the boat. Let me tell you there is NO comfortable position when the waves are high.

We CRASHED through the waves, and it felt like I was riding a Brahma bull. I had a rope that I looped around a couple of cleats in the front, and hung on for dear life. It was probably one of the most painful rides of my life, and I paid for it dearly the next day when my back was seized up. I felt like I had been thrown into a sack and beaten with a mallet.

Now, for the positive side of the ride … the Bay of Matanchen is beautiful. The surrounding hillsides are very green and lush, with banana plantations visible in the distance. The beaches are stunning, lined with palm trees, and with virtually no people on them. We lucked out and spotted a group of dolphins, so followed them for a while. Del and Angel had come across whale sharks on one of their recent boat rides, so we were hoping to see one or humpback whales, but no sightings.

There are a couple of rivers that run into the Bay, so we toured up the larger river (not sure of the name) for a bit. This is a crocodile area, so I was not real thrilled with the idea of meeting a large crocodile while sitting in the bottom of a rubber zodiac (we didn’t).

Unfortunately, I couldn’t take any pictures of the boat ride, as it was far too wet a ride to risk taking the camera along.

The next day, we were up early and had a great run on the flat, wide beach (and passed a small cattle drive along the way). We wanted to tour around a bit and drive into San Blas, so Del and Angel offered to go with us. We stopped at the crocodile wildlife centre and toured briefly. Some of their ‘cuddly’ residents were over 50 years old!

From there, we hit the town of San Blas, which is a fairly typical Mexican town – the standard Centro with large church, gazebo and such. The boys decided a haircut was in order, so took their respective turns for the mere cost of $3.00/head.

One of the residents wintering beside Del and Angel’s RV Park is ‘Tioga George’, a very interesting fellow. He has been full-time RVing for over 7-years, and writes a daily blog about his experiences. He supplements his income from the advertising revenue earned from his blog, so we had a good discussion about our respective internet businesses. He joined Del, Angel, Terry and I for supper that evening at a restaurant just outside of Aticama.

Three of the neighbouring campers had brought their ultralite planes with them. The beach there is perfect for the take-off and landing, and the rules very casual on flights. Angel kindly made arrangements for me to take a ride with Chip, from Northern California, who has been flying ultralights for 28 years.

It was an incredible experience. After a ‘rush’ of a take-off (it is unbelievably quick), we flew over the bay and spied a whale shark not too far off the shore. Then we flew over the crocodile farm and followed the river path from the air towards San Blas, buzzed over San Blas, and headed back. We were flying at an altitude of approximately 600-800 feet during our flight.

The bay was like glass. Again – no pictures because of the bulk of the camera (time for a new camera). To view aerial photos of the air, check out Tiogo George's website, as he also took advantage of the opportunity to fly as a passenger on one of the ultralights - http://blog.vagabonders-supreme.net/.

The San Blas area is beautiful – but with a horrible downside. We were literally eaten alive by the ‘no see-ums’. Who knew a creature that small could reek havoc to such a hideous extent! Terry and I look like a pair of scabby lepers. These hellish creatures laughed at our ‘Deep Woods Off’ – considering it a lovely accompaniment to our flesh. I have never had so many bites on my body, and in places I never thought could be reached.

All you can hear in the quiet of the night is Terry and I scratching our bites and swearing. That alone may deter us from returning to this lovely spot. Too bad!

Isn't it Romantic .....

2009-03-01T09:24:00.000-08:00

There's something about getting away to a tropical paradise that stirs the romance in our souls. Is it the beach - the long, sandy shoreline that stretches for miles? Is it the heat - the hot, humid climate that frees us from our winter trappings of boots and parkas and pares us down to shorts and sandals? The heady tropical breeze ripe with the fragrance of bougainvillea? The unbelievable greens of the jungle and riotous colors of tropical flowers? The sexy beat of the Latin dance? The mysterious combination of tequila, salt and lime?

I don't know. But when you mix everything together - you get magic. We reach out to our partners and we walk the beach. We dance. We explore. We drink the exotic elixirs. You just can't help it .....

Enjoying the beach

Exploring the quaint back roads of Bucerias.

Giving in to the 'tropical beat'.

Taking time for those special moments together.

Meeting the sexy Latino ladies!

Even the cats are experiencing an unusual truce.

No one can resist the charm of Mexico!

Party at Casa Los Arcos

2009-02-27T20:35:00.000-08:00

Early into the family’s visit, we had all discussed the need to have a big ‘camarone’ (shrimp) feed one evening. The event planning began to balloon into a camarone feast AND a ‘Rock Band’ night, to be held around the pool at Judy/Joel’s rental accommodation. Everyone was in agreement, but no firm date was scheduled.

Last Friday evening, we all headed down to Bucerias Centro for dinner at a nice Italian restaurant, and to enjoy the music of a local trio of musicians. The ‘no-name’ band is excellent – they play a great selection of classical rock that had everyone up and dancing. As the evening progressed (and as the flowing alcohol began to kick in), the idea was raised of hiring the band to play at our party. Of course it seemed like a terrific idea – the price was right, and the band was available to play Monday night – the night before Greg’s girlfriend Amanda had to fly back home.

The next day, we all began to wonder if this was such a good idea. A live band would be loud – would the neighbours complain? Would we collectively have enough people to invite to make a live band worthwhile? Could Judy/Joel/Lyle/Agnes et al be kicked out for violation of their rental agreement. Were there any local ordinances that we might be breaking? We began to question our hasty decision.

We bounced back and forth for a day or so. First, the rental property manager was consulted, and she gave the go-ahead. We knew that friends from Olds – Jim and Debbie Crawford, and Tom and Wendy Clark, were staying nearby in Sayulita, so we decided that we would take a quick run up to see them, and invite them to the party. If they would come – it was a go. Gary’s sisters and husbands, friends and any acquaintances that we had met since our arrival were invited. The camarone feast was forfeited and snacks planned instead. Countdown …

So – the band showed up at 8:00, the guests arrived as promised, and the event was a resounding success. Phew!

The band members are great guys – Raul, Javier and Salvador (here's Judy, Greg, Salvador and Javier).

They did an aweseome job of working the crowd - here's Lyle and Aggie 'cutting a rug'.

Even 'Amigo Lyle' was jammin' with the band!

A group of us women claimed the 2nd floor balcony as our personal dance floor and cheering section – even tossing a number of Judy’s donated ‘undies’ down towards the band and into the pool!

Javier was thrilled – he had never experienced this 'Tom Jones' type of fan fervor.

Amanda joined the band to sing a number, and a nearby neighbour even strolled over to sing a few ‘blues’ songs with the band and play harmonica.

Next year – bigger event!

Whale Watching

2009-02-21T19:50:00.000-08:00

The panic is beginning to set in - we have less than 2-weeks in Bucerias before we have to start our trek back north! We are shocked at how quickly time has flown, and are beginning to dread the idea of leaving this place. We have enjoyed it immensely. This region of Mexico is great in all respects - perfect weather, great beaches, wonderful restaurants, laid-back atmosphere ... what's not to like?

Realizing that time was rapidly running out on us, last week we compiled a list of 'must-do's or must-see' activities that we would like to accomplish. On the top of that list was whale watching.

Now, we've been watching the whales from afar while sitting at the beach. If you take the time to scan the horizon, you are more often than not rewarded by the sighting of a whale spouting. We've had a few good shows - whales slapping their tales in the water and even a bit of breaching. However, this is a good distance away. We needed to go on a whale watching tour so we could get a closer look at the humpbacks.

We had heard that you could charter a panga at Punta de Mita, which is located north of Bucerias along the point. We took a quick run down there on Friday and booked a tour for the following day.

We met our 'captain' - Miguel - at about 9:15 a.m., and Judy, Joel, Greg, Amanda, Terry and myself headed out to the open sea in our little panga. The swells were high, and we were reminded just how tiny we were in that great big ocean and with that little boat!

The promise from Miguel was 'if you don't see a whale - you don't pay', so the pressure was on. This is the tail-end of the whale watching season. According to Miguel, in another week or two, the whales would all be gone.

We rounded a set of small islands off the point, when Miguel spotted a mother and baby humpback. It was a pretty amazing experience - we pulled in very close - and watched them for quite a while. Miguel figured the baby whale was about the size of our boat, and the mother was probably 30-40 feet long. We later realized there was another whale close-by, but he didn't surface. Apparently it was a male keeping a protective eye on the female and baby.

After that, the boys tried a little snorkelling in a sheltered area off one of the islands. There were plenty of fish, but the water was too murky to appreciate them. Miguel then showed us a protected island that is home to the 'Blue Footed Booby'. Apparently there are only two places on earth where these birds call home - here, and in the Galapogas Islands. And they truly have blue feet!

With the tour over, Miguel headed back and we experienced a roller-coaster ride back to shore.

Great day!

Das Boot - Part 'Deux'

2009-02-20T08:14:00.000-08:00

(Picture of the gang on the beach - Judy, Joel, Lyle, Aggie, Amanda).

I almost had to print a retraction from my previous posting about 'the boat'. Almost.

A few days ago I gave the beach a miss so I could do a little work on the computer. Terry and boat went down to hang with Gary and his family.

Later that day, Terry came back to the motorhome - almost skipping - and proudly informed me that he and Gary had taken the boat out with no mishaps, AND, had been the envy of all the mexicans! Apparently they were astounded with the boat - thinking it would make a fantastic fishing vessel. He had TWO offers to purchase it.

Of course he was feeling fairly vindicated about the boat. I almost had to eat crow. I began to question (just a little bit), my judgment about the boat. Was I perhaps too rough on Terry? Had I written it off too soon? I decided to be a little more open-minded about the whole situation.

Terry's family arrived on Tuesday, and we have spent a couple of enjoyable beach days since their arrival. Yesterday, Terry decided it was a good time to take out the boat again. So, we hoisted it onto the roof of the car and headed down.

Gary and Joel took the boat out together. Their entry into the water and onto the boat was relatively uneventful. We all watched from the beach, perking up as they moved closer to the shore. It looked like it was going to be a smooth re-entry for them, until Greg interceded. Recognizing the potential for disaster, Joel jumped out of the boat.

Gary, unfortunately, was not so lucky....

(Gary's graceful exit from the boat.)

You just can't pay for that kind of entertainment!

Undaunted, Terry decided to give it a try. Again, no problem with the entry. He paddled out for quite a while. The waves were starting to get a little higher, and the boogie boarders were taking advantage and were out in force. Terry was looking a little nervous.

I could see that he was readying for a break in the waves. He started paddling wildly to get into shore. Interception again! This time, by Doug, a friend of Gary's sister and brother-in-law.

You can see the dramatic results:

So much for my retraction - vindicated!!!

Surprisingly, the boat is still in demand by the Mexicans. We have befriended one of the local beach vendors - Marcelinas, and he will likely be gifted the boat on our departure. My thoughts and prayers go out to his family ....

Marcelinas is a very nice fellow. He sits in a beach chair all day under his umbrella, with his merchandise spread out before him. He calls out to people from his chair, inviting them to 'come and look at his shop'. Gary came up with the idea of providing him with a megaphone (something that Kathy & Kevin sell out of their Dollar Store back at home). Judy and Joel brought it down with them on the plane.

Here's a picture of Marcelinas using his megaphone.

It certainly is entertaining to watch people's reactions as he calls to them from the beach using the megaphone!

We were given a little different treat on the beach yesterday. This gentleman and his dummy was strolling up and down the beach, serenading people along the way. He had the guitar rigged so he could strum one-handed, while his 'dummy' sang. You had to give him props for the uniqueness of his act.

We're planning a whale watching excursion in the next day or so. We have been watching them from the beach with the binoculars, but are dying to see them a little closer.