Cashmores in Baja (FWD)

[george jannini]

---------Forwarded Message-----------

March 7, 2005
Whales

    We left on Saturday afternoon, after the construction crew had gone home for the day, about 1.30 and headed down to Puerto San Carlos for a whale watching trip.  We stopped in Loreto on the way for lunch, banking and a little shopping, and arrived in San Carlos just as the sun went down. We quickly discovered that San Carlos gets really busy on the weekends in whale season.

  Brennan Hotel, the best spot in town, was full up, likewise Hotel Palomar, so we were reduced to Las Brisas mote- clean, cheap, but not exactly comfortable. <G>  They said they had two beds per room, and they did, one double, one single; luckily they had two rooms available!

    After checking in, we went to the Los Arcos restaurant for dinner, the food was great.  I had the lobster thermidor for 180 pesos, the catch of the day was yellowtail, Peter and Phyllis had that.  After dinner, we went back to the motel to sleep...or to try and sleep. <G>  The beds were hard as a rock, and there was no hot water, two cats in heat played on the roof most of the night, there were roosters nearby, and the big, steel gate was slid open and closed 4 times during the night.  We were glad to get up at 6.30 a.m. and head for the boat launch!  We actually arrived early, the little restaurant next door had not yet opened, but a guy in the office came out and made coffee, and once the cook arrived we had breakfast.

    We headed down to the launch site, in our own vehicles, a short caravan, making a stop midway, some people from Mexico City popped into a store to buy beer...at 8 a.m.!  Our boat was nice, with a cover on top to protect us from the sun, and we had a nice young, bilingual couple from San Jose del Cabo with us, so we were able to get translations of all the info coming from Manuel, our lanchero. (In Mexican a boat is a lancha, so the operator is a lanchero)

  It turned out that we were past the peak season..again, so although we saw plenty of whales, none of them approached the boat close enough to touch, but at least we got all the info we needed to be able to pick the ideal time next year. <G>  We made a brief stop at Punta Mira beach on the way back to look for shells, there weren't many, but the beach was beautiful with soft, fine white sand.  We also stopped next to another boat which belonged to friends of Manuel, they were clamming, and he showed us the clams they were getting, they were huge!  They looked like geoducks, and he said they were an aphrodisiac, one look at the siphon tube made it easy to see what made them think that. <G>

    After leaving San Carlos, we headed down to Ciudad Constitution, to get some lunch at the El Taste restaurant, and to shop at the Ley supermarket, a chain of stores in Mexico which is owned by Safeway.  They had a nice bakery and vegetable department, things we miss in Mulege.  We stocked up and headed north again.  There was only one roadside checkpoint on the way back, just north of Loreto, a soldier asked us if we spoke Spanish, I said "a little" and he said, in English "get out"!  Not sure why we needed Spanish for that. <G>  After a quick check, we were on our way again, and we reached home just after 6 o'clock.

    Our work crew was back this morning, they finished digging for the footings of our storage building, set in the rebar, and started pouring in the concrete.  They went through almost half the 30 bags of concrete we had delivered last week.  Peter got our friend Pancho to call the building supply store in Santa Rosalia where I had ordered the other 270 bags we will need, to find out when they plan to deliver it.  They said Wednesday at noon, we're hoping they'll come through as promised.

Colette

 

[george jannini]

--------Forwarded Message------------

March 8, 2005
Not such a good idea after all!

    Today the truck arrived from Santa Rosalia with the 270 bags of cement I had ordered for our retaining wall and storage building. There were 7 pallets loaded on the back of a flat deck semi trailer, but unfortunately, we don't have a forklift! Peter and 3 of the workers unloaded it, that's almost 30,000 pounds of cement they moved.  I will never buy cement in that kind of quantity down here again! Yesterday we borrowed 20 bags of cement from Vic's worksite, and we had only 10 bags left when the truck arrived at 10.30 this morning. The work is progressing quite fast now, they have the footings done for the building, and have started cementing in the concrete blocks along one wall. They have also started on the 20 foot section of the rock wall beside it.

    We decided to give up on the architect that rarely shows up for appointments and never answers his e-mail, we got an e-mail address for another one when we stopped in Loreto on Saturday. Mark sent him an e-mail, and he is very interested in doing some work for us, he will probably be coming here next week. Mark's brother Dave arrives in Cabo today, he will be coming up here on the weekend for a visit. Vic and Debbie are going down to Los Cabos for 4 days, so we'll be dogsitting Jazz.

Colette

 

[george jannini]

--------Forwarded Message----------

March 21, 2005
Population decrease

    Mark and Phyllis left today, headed back to Ohio in time for Easter.  Peter and Vic had a meeting with another  architect from Santa Rosalia today, at 11 a.m..  He arrived on time,  and brought some of his plans to show them.  He was the architect for the "city" of Santa Rosalia for 3 years, and has worked up at Punta Chivato too.  He is also really good at structural stuff.  Mark and Phyllis were really happy with the guy we went to see in Loreto on Saturday and have hired him to do their plans.  We've gone from a dearth of architects to a profusion!

    The local beaches are starting to fill up already for Easter, they are arriving early this year.  Bob and Sue have 4 tents between their house and the water, and their house is right on the beach!  We've talked to the workers about closing our gate to keep campers out.  The walls are all up on our storage building and tomorrow they plan to start pouring the floor, so it will dry over the Easter break.  One of the workers today said we'd be able to have a dance there soon. <G>

Colette

 

[george jannini]

---------forwarded message----------

March 28, 2005
Post Easter

    The post Easter northward exodus began yesterday, so we should be back to our usual peace and quiet around here now.

  Our workers were not able to pour the floor of our storage building last week, as there was no maya (the wire netting used inside the concrete for strength) in Mulege.  They did arrive here on Saturday with a very motley collection of wooden forms for pouring the concrete castillos, (concrete posts with rebar in them) this wood looks like it has been used for at least 10 years. <G>  They have just arrived now, and again the maya is not available, should be here tomorrow, we hope.

    Vic has sold another hillside lot to a guy from Arizona, named Charlie, he is a landscape engineer, so he will helpful in setting up watering systems for the property.  He and his friend Larry stopped by on their way north from Cabo Pulmo, they stayed overnight, then headed out again at 6 the next morning.

    We had another meeting with Guillermo, the new architect from Santa Rosalia.  He seems like a good guy.  He was down here with his family for Easter, his young daughter speaks good English, so she came to translate.  We have made another appointment with him for Wednesday to go over our plans for the house.  The neighbour from lot 4, Patty, will be arriving here tomorrow, she also wants to see the architect on Wednesday.

    Our friend Candice who lives in town is leaving to go to school for four years, to study Chinese medicine.  She came over for dinner last week, bringing with her a friend from Australia, Danielle; she was a real character!  She used to own a restaurant in Australia, and now works for one in the U.S., the horror stories she told us about what happens if you return food to kitchen, if, for instance, your steak is underdone, were enough to convince us to eat what we got and not complain. <G>

    Saturday night we went into town to Marv and Cathy's place, Peter set up their TV dish for them, then we had dinner and a nice long soak in their new hot tub.  We've definitely got to get one of those for our place once we're done building!  Maybe we can build a nice rock one that will blend in well with the landscape.

Colette

 

[george jannini]

--------message forwarded----------

April 4, 2005
The northern exodus

    The northern exodus is in full force now.  Yesterday some friends from San Jose del Cabo came through on their way home, Al & Diane and Mike & Kaati.  Peter was at Posada, and I was out swimming in the bay when I saw them arrive.  luckily I was able to attract their attention, so they sat on the patio until I could get back, I was a fair way out into the bay. <G>

    Peter was out realigning Dieter and Anita's antenna to receive the satellite Internet signal from the Hilltop setup yesterday.  There are 3 shared systems at Posada- Mission Jims, Posada and Hilltop.  The Posada system is the original system, at a house belonging to Doug, known locally as Digital Doug, he is in Thailand now, but leaves the system working for his neighbours.

  Another couple has their own system which they do not share, and yesterday it was not working, so to test it, they took their modem over to Digital Doug's house and connected it to his system.  Big mistake!  They got a message saying that an unauthorized modem was connected....just before all the software was erased. They weren't the most popular couple on the beach, that's for sure, people get protective of their Internet access. <G>

  Peter is getting tired of rushing over to fix these manmade errors, he'd like people to have more respect for his time.  It's bad enough when the owner of the system screws up, but when unauthorized people mess around with them and then want him to rush over and fix it, he gets pretty angry.  He told the guy yesterday that he did not have enough time to fix it right now, as he has other things on his schedule.  Maybe if they have to wait a few days, next time they'll check with Peter before they mess with the setup.


    On Friday I went into Santa Rosalia with Jerry and Eileen from the B&B, Casa Los Sue?os. Eileen is Mexican, she knows all the best places to get things around here.  We went to the bank, there was a huge lineup for the ATM, since it was the last day of the week and the end of the month.  Then they took me to the cell phone office they use, and we actually got a phone!  We've been getting the "no phones right now, come back next week" message from the other place in town for so long now, it's nice to finally be connected.  Friday night was the annual margarita party at Posada, munchies, margaritas and dancing were enjoyed by all.


    Our construction is proceeding at the usual pace, the floor is poured and finished, and they are putting in the supports for the roof.  Hopefully, once the building is done, the work on the wall will go much faster, because it is getting pretty hot down here and I don't want to be hanging around too much longer.

  Dieter, who speaks good Spanish, is coming by this afternoon to translate for us so we can find out for sure how much longer they think the project will take and how much difference the changes we've made will make to the cost of it.

Colette

 

[Tom]

Hey George, any reason Colette doesn't post those reports herself? I see she emails them to you and you in turn post them here and elsewhere. Doesn't make it conducive to folks being able to respond directly to Colette. Just curious.

 

[george jannini]

Tom,

"Hey George, any reason Colette doesn't post those reports herself?"

  All I know is that's how we've always done it. <G>

    She's got a long list of friends and family that get he ractivity updates, but  for some unknown reason has never posted to the Framily on her own.  Back when,  I asked her if she minded my cross-posting to the RVForum, she said ok, and that's the way we've done it ever since...

    George/ATL

 

[Tom]

OK thanks for clarification George. for some reason I thought Colette used to post the reports herself at one time.

 

[Colette]

<<Hey George, any reason Colette doesn't post those reports herself? >>

Force of habit, as George says. <G> I send them out of Outlook Express, can they be e-mailed directly to the forum, or would I have to be on the internet, in this site to post 'em? I'm guessing the last.

Colette

 

[Tom]

We don't (yet) have the ability to send emails to the forum Colette.

 

[george jannini]

  -----Forwarded Message-----

April 20, 2005
We have a roof!

    Yesterday, the workers poured the concrete roof of our storage building.  It did not take them as long as the floor did, since we have decided to tile it on top, it doesn't need such a smooth finish as the floor.  As soon as it has set sufficiently, and the supports can be removed, we can start moving things into it and getting ready to head north, hopefully by mid-May.

  Peter bought several sheets of new plywood to make forms for the concrete to help create a nice finish on the ceiling.  He also set in 6 of the galvanized electrical boxes used for installing ceiling lights, with a cross of rebar in them to use for hanging things on, such as windsurfer sails, the kayak, bikes, etc.

  Yesterday evening, Peter set some plywood out on the concrete, and put out our chairs.  Vic and Debbie came down and we celebrated with a margarita.  Using that roof as a deck was a great idea of Peter's, the view is spectacular, we are so close to the water, and we watched the dolphins feeding.  We could see the fins of the feed fish they were chasing just barely breaking the surface of the water.

  Right now the edge has 10 rebar castillos sticking up, these will become the centers of the concrete posts, and between them will be glass from patio doors set into wooden frames, so we won't cut off the view.  We were a bit nervous up there last night, since Jazz is such a bouncing pup, but she was properly cautious of the edge, sidling up to peer over it but keeping her rear paws well back.  We are going to have a celebratory dinner of steak and lobster up there tonight, with champagne, of course. <G>

    I spent the day in Santa Rosalia yesterday, I went in with Cathy, girls day out shopping....such as it is in Santa Rosalia. <G>  I had to take some papers to the architect, talk to the insurance lady, go to the bank, the hardware store, the tile store, the welder who is making the doors for the building, and pick up a cell phone for a friend that was back from the repair shop.  We also went to Costco Larry's store, Cathy will be shopping there a lot <G>, the second hand store, and several 18 peso stores, the local equivalent of the dollar store.  We had a full carload by the time we came back.

    I got up early this morning to go for a run, but it was already pretty hot by 7.30, so I've decided that running season is over, I'll be switching to swimming instead. <G>  Now that the major part of the building is done, the remaining work is the rock wall, which is the masons' specialty.  It shouldn't need too much supervision <G>, so we will try and get some boating done before we go.

Colette

 

[george jannini]

  ----------Message Forwarded-----------

April 24, 2005
Progress

    The work on our place is progressing pretty fast now.  I have attached 4 photos, keeping them small so they should download easily.

  They are:  Wall, showing part of the retaining wall, with the pony wall, next to the storage building.  You can see part of our fifth wheel in the background.  Supports, which shows the supports in the building underneath the concrete roof.  As you can see the weight of the concrete was too much for one of the centre ones, it had to have another support hammered in next to it!

  New patio, shows us sitting on the roof/patio enjoying the view, and Humberto, El Jefe (the boss) working on the rock wall.  In the building next to him, you can see a couple of the cross-shaped ventilation holes Peter had them install.  These will be covered with aluminum mesh from an old satellite dish to keep out critters of all types and sizes. <G>  The welder should be here any day now with the doors.  Then, as soon as the supports come out of the building, we can start to store stuff away in there so we can head north.

    On thursday afternoon, Vic came down with the backhoe to fill in behind the wall a bit.  He had David, his new employee with him, he is teaching him to use the backhoe, and Jazz, who always wants to come along for the ride, no matter what you're driving.

  She didn't look happy, and Vic said she was pouting  because she was angry that he had hosed her down after she went in the ocean, then rolled in the dirt, but when I looked at her closely, her face was all swollen, so I figured she'd bitten a bee.  A few minutes later, David carried her up to our patio and gave her to me, I put ice on her face to try and take the swelling down and checked on the internet for remedies.

  When Debbie got back, she brought down the golf cart to carry her back up to the house and gave her some benadryl.  By the next morning her face looked like a St. Bernard!  The workmen took one look at her and said "Viborra!" which means snake, she WAS pretty swollen.  I had checked out her face the day before and couldn't find any holes or blood, but Debbie was pretty worried.  We called the vet, but she was away for a few days.  By the time she got back on Saturday, Jazz's face was less swollen, but Debbie took her in anyway.

  The vet found where the bee had stung her in her mouth, lots of bruising on the gum, she thought it might have been one of the huge black carpenter bees.  Her recommendation if it happened again was to give her 50 mgs of Benadryl, instead of the 25 mg recommended on the internet.  I hope Jazz has learned NOT to bite at the bees, but dogs don't seem to be too smart about cause and effect, not equating the pain of the quills with porcupines time after time, or the smell and sting with the skunks, no matter how often they get sprayed.  Still, Jazz is pretty smart, so we'll see.

  Saturday I went into Mulege for a garage sale.  The prices weren't that great, but they did have a lot of stuff.  I bought a mister set up which we can put up around the edge of the patio once we get the house built, some solder and teflon tape- always handy, a lounger cushion, a dive knife, and a floating bait tank.

  This tank is a fairly large size mesh rectangular tank with an inflatable plastic edging around the top, which will be excellent for clam collecting!  Maybe even to store them in out in the bay while they clean out the sand?  Saves having to keep changing the water in the cooler for a day, though we'll still do the fresh water bath for the last couple of hours before cooking them. 

Colette

 

[george jannini]

---------Message Forwarded-----------

May 1, 2005
Last job of the season

    The workers have now started on the last job for this season, the last remaining section of the retaining wal, and the stairs up from the beach with the shower down at the bottom of them.  They estimate that they will be finished the week after next, and say they will be taking down the wood used in pouring the concrete in the storage building to make the forms for the stairs.

  The welder is due here Monday with the doors, so once the doors are on and the supports and forms are down, we can start to pack up and store stuff.  Pancho came over yesterday to translate for us with Humberto to make sure we had all the plans, methods, costs and times right.  I had also wondered how we would find the workers when we get back in the fall, since they do not have a telephone to call, so Pancho asked Humberto "They want to know how they will find you when they return?"  Humberto answered "Older!"  He's got a quick wit, that man.  Next week we have to go to Santa Rosalia to see the architect and go over the changes in the plans we want to make, so they are ready to start construction as soon as we return.

    It's been an interesting week for wildlife, spring is here and the animals are more active.  The other morning as I was on my run heading home, I saw a burro standing in the road, he was a cute one, so I patted his nose and scratched behind his ears, and he apparently decided I was worth knowing, so he followed me.  There I was, with Jazz running beside me and the burro trotting along behind, we must have been quite a sight!  Jazz wasn't sure what to make of it, she had done her best imitation of a mean, vicious, burro-eating dog, but the burro was not impressed. <G>  At the end of the road by the turn to Punta Sue?os, I shooed the burro off towards Bob and Sue Frambe's place.  Since Bob has surrounded his place with a white picket fence, everybody calls it the equestrian center, so I figured he ought to have something with hooves over there. <G>

  Then on yesterday's run as I rounded the corner by Vic and Debbie's house, I saw a rattlesnake stretched out across the road!  I yelled at Jazz who was headed straight for it, and I must have had just the right tone of panic in my voice because she retreated immediately to her own garden.  I picked up a large rock and threw it at the snake, scoring a direct hit on its head, and then added another rock to be sure.  I tried to pick up the body on a stick, but although it basically had no head anymore, it still wriggled off!  I ended up putting the stick under its middle and flicking it down the road, I did that twice; as it landed the second time it was coiled up, and as I put the stick towards it to flick it again, it struck at it!  I wouldn't have thought it had a fang left in a fit state to use, but it did, and it got stuck in the stick, so I was able to drag it down the road.  I cut off its rattles, and then, after reading up on it on the internet, decided to try and preserve the skin.  It's pinned to a board outside right now, treated with glycerine and alcoho. We'll see how well it works. <G>  I read that tthere are proper preserving kits, I might get one for next year.  This one is a red diamond rattlesnake, same kind as the one Debbie ran over in the road a week or so ago.

    Someone in Mulege is raising ostriches, they've been going around selling eggs for 100 pesos each.  We decided to buy one, and decorate the shell.  We started by making a hole and blowing out the contents, which is a lot of egg!  Eileen at the bed and breakfast did the same and fed 9 people on omelets from one egg.  She also brought the shell over to us, so now I have two shells to decorate.

    On Friday we resold the little old trailer (see attachment) we bought for a construction trailer to Richard and Jolynn from Los Naranjos.  They want to downsize and not bring their big motorhome down here every year.  Jolynn is an excellent person to buy that trailer, she is very artistic and will redo the inside nicely.  While the extra fridge, stove and storage space is nice to have, we're going to need the room on our lot to pile blocks, sand, gravel, rebar and concrete for the house, plus, now that they are building next door on lot 4, space to get trucks full of material in is getting scarce.

    We have been lucky weather-wise, after the hot spell in March, it actually cooled off a bit, very unusual for this time of year, it has been cool enough to sleep at night without a fan.  Now if only it'll hold out 'til mid-May. <G>  I don't think that's likely though, it's pretty hot this morning already.

Colette

 

[george jannini]

May 13, 2005
Doors, finally

    Today, at last, the doors for the storage building arrived.  I made arrangements to go into Santa Rosalia to go to the bank and then go complain to the welder who had told us he would be here several  times before, but never showed up.  Last time I did that, it turned out that his portable welder was broken so he said he'd be here Tuesday, but Tuesday was a holiday, so he changed that to Wednesday, but never arrived.  This morning about 10.30 we were just south of town when I saw our doors passing us!  The workers are still here now, after 5.30, working on the installation.  The sides of the door opening are not perfectly square, so they are chipping away the concrete to level it up.  We'd more unhappy about that, if it were not for the fact that the door sides on Vic's huge storage building are even further off square than ours. <G>


    Meanwhile, our other workers appear to be on slow mode this month.  We've only been getting two workers per day, and those two are the slowest ones.  Humberto originally said they'd be finished this Wednesday, then they revised it to Saturday, but that's obviously not going to happen.  They were off Tuesday for Mother's Day, a lot bigger holiday down here than at home.j  Then Wednesday morning they showed up only to say they couldn't work that day, some part of their extended family had been in a car accident 100 kms, north of La Paz, the mother, father and a daughter had died, so they were headed down there.


    When I got back here today, the usual two were here, but sitting in the shade not accomplishing anything.  While I sympathize with anyone not wanting to work in this heat, I want the work done so we can get out of here!  We had hoped to leave next Monday, but now the workers will still be here then.  Oh well, now that we have doors, we can pack a lot of stuff up this weekend and try to get a head start on being ready to go.  Our problem now is not to get stuck somewhere in the U.S. on memorial day weekend, when finding space in an RV park will be very difficult.

Colette

 

[george jannini]

---message forwarded---

May 21, 2005
Wrapping up

    Our crew finished their work on Wednesday, they worked late to get it all done that day.  We started an intensive packing up schedule just as soon as they left, with a tentative plan to be out of here Sunday or Monday morning.  Three days of non-stop packing have taught us that three days of non-stop packing are nowhere near enough. <G>  So, the plan has been revised; now we hope to leave Wednesday or Thursday very early, and spend the memorial day weekend in Ensenada.  We have friends there in an RV park, not one of the high end tourist parks, for sure, but nice enough, and reasonably priced, and they say we should have no trouble getting in over the holiday weekend.  We are also going to meet a friend of a friend, who owns a furniture factory there, since we'll need furniture for the new house eventually.  We'll be checking out the Home Depot in Tijuana again, getting some prices, checking on delivery costs, etc.

    Our Honda 2000 generator packed it in the other day, thankfully, it's still under warranty.  Luckily our friends Marv and Cathy have lent us their Generac 5000, so we are able to run the trailer air conditioner, a real necessity, it is over 100 during the days now, and last night it didn't go below 80 degrees!  The hunidity is killer too. I am really happy we built the storage building down on the beach, I wear a bathing suit with a T-shirt over it all day, unpack a car load, run into the ocean to cool off, then back up to pack another load.  Marv and Cathy have invited us to stay at their house for the last night or so before we leave, when all the solar panels and batteries will have been packed away, so we'll have to run a generator for any power we need.  Their generator runs great, but it isn't too quiet, and it really likes the gas. <G>

    Vic and Debbie left this morning, early.  They had their house fumigated just before they left, but you can still hear the bugs munching away on the palm fronds, those palapa roofs are not for me, that's for sure!  Yesterday Vic brought the backhoe down and leveled off our lot, now the summer rains will compact it and the site should be ready to build in next fall.  We hired David, their handyman, for the day today, to help us move some of the heavier stuff down to the storage building.  We got the outside fridge down there, the boat stuff, and lots-more, but we still have to move the little old trailer next to us up to the storage area, take down the shade fabric, and dismantle the solar system.  At least now we won't be quite so rushed and can afford to take some time to sit out on the patio in the evening once the sun is down and enjoy the ocean now that the water is so warm.  And tomorrow night we'll have the last clam feast of the season.

    Things are really moving around Mulege now, word is that Santispac beach has been sold and they plan to build a hotel there.  The highway is being repaved (not before time either!), and one of the workers told me they were going to make it a four lane.  Vic has only one waterfront lot left now, asking price is $96,000.  We are so lucky we bought when we did, we sure woudn't be able to afford it now!  There are 7 or 8 houses being started next fall, and we need to start building soon, before the shortage of skilled labour drives construction prices up to U.S. level. <G>

Colette

 

[george jannini]

.......Message Forwarded.........

June 2, 2005
Jamul Again

    We're back at Diamond Jack's RV in Jamul, where they have added an internet access shed, so that saves Peter hooking up the satellite dish for the 2 or so days we'll be here.  We arrived yesterday, went out and did some shopping, and met Greg and Denise for dinner. 

    We left Punta Suenos on Thursday, stayed overnight in a roadside pulloff just south of El Rosario, and arrived at the Ramona Beach RV park in Ensenada on Friday.  We visited with our friends Anthony and Gloria who live in the park, met for dinner with Victor and Lourdes Valenzuela who came down from Tijuana, and met a man named Carlos. Joe, a friend of Vic's, who visited Punta Suenos, mentioned Carlos to us, as he is part owner of a furniture factory in Ensenada, and we'll be needing furniture. He's an interesting guy, part Yaqui Indian, an artist, owns a ranch in Temecula, has a beachfront place in Rosarito, and has just bought some waterfront land in Colonet, which he plans to develop.

  He really wanted us to come down and see the Colonet property, so we stayed an extra day in Ensenada and drove down there on Monday. I guess we've become acclimatized to the Mulege heat, because that cold wind off the Pacific really chilled us! I was wrapped in a quilt for awhile. <G>  The property is picturesque, perched on a cliff, so the view is great, and the pismo clams were wonderful, but it sure reminded us of the Oregon coast, weather and temperature wise.  Tuesday we went shopping in the second hand stores in Ensenada with Anthony and Gloria, then headed out early Wednesday morning for Tecate.  It was lucky that we had stopped to see those guys in Ensenada, because they have moved the U.S. border crossing in Tecate, but apparently putting up signs to warn travellers wasn't a priority!  Luckily Gloria had described the new route, so we were able to find it without too much detouring. The crossing was as easy as usual, there was no line up at all.

    We haven't finalized our plans for the rest of the northward trip, but it'll be a quick one, we're running late this year.  We will stop in Bellingham on the way north, got to take the 2000 generator in for repairs, and of course we'll want to shop at Deals Only. <G>

Colette 

 

[george jannini]

------------MESSAGE FORWARDED------------

June 10th, 2005
Back in the Pacific Northwet

    We're back in Peace Arch RV park, our "usual" site was not available, but our neighbours, John and Dorothy, were able to reserve site E4 for us, so now they are our neighbours next but one. <G>  We pulled in and Peter spent some time setting up the fifth wheel just the way he wanted it, then when I went to the office to pay, Sharon said that the phone in this site doesn't work! Since the phone is a must for us, we walked around to check out the other available sites, but E row is definitely the best for satellite dishes, since it is the only one that doesn't face huge trees.  So, I took the base cover off the services pole, Peter checked the telephone wiring, located the short and fixed it, and we were able to stay in this great site after all. <G>  Apparently B.C. Tel will no longer repair the old phone system here, they want the park to buy a new fancy park-wide system.....for $20,000!

  It is now almost 11 p.m., and we still have a bunch of stuff to set up, but the storage shed is in place and the DirecWay dish is up, the rest will have to wait until tomorrow.  We've had so many people come by to ask about the internet dish, we should probably start signing up paying customers. <G>  We always hook John and Dorothy up wirelessly anyway, but there are many people here who would prefer to surf the web from their trailer instead of going to the office to use the ADSL line, even though it is free.  Of the three parks we stayed at on the way home, all had wireless internet service available, one was even unencrypted with free access.  It certainly is the wave of the future.

    There are some new things in the park this year, a guardhouse and gate at the entrance that is closed between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m., so you need a pass to get in.  The office has been completely redone too, it is beautiful! Except for the desk at one end, it looks more like a living room in an upscale house than an office/meeting room, the furniture and decorations must have come from Trump Tower. <G>

    The trip home was uneventful, we spent the first of three nights in Oregon in a rest stop 45 miles into the state.  We had just gone to bed when we heard the first rain drops on the roof, we weren't at all surprised. <G>  By the time we arrived at Forest Glen park just south of Salem, it was pouring down.  We had a wonderful visit with our friends John and Nancy Kelker, Peter helped John set up their computer for  wireless access, meanwhile Nancy and I had a great time touring the local thrift stores.  We even found one that was an outlet thrift store, everything was just tossed in huge tubs and sold by the pound!

    We stayed two nights in Beechwood RV in Birch Bay, so we could visit one of our favourite stores, Deals Only, repack the trailer for the border crossing and also take the Honda 2000 generator in for repairs.

    Colette