Our journey begins . . .

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Gina, Josh, & me.

May 31 - June 2
Our first stop was to see our friend Cheryl and drop off a trampoline exerciser. Cheryl is a long time friend of Sharon’s and lives in Winston, OR. It was a short but good visit. Then, off to Medford, Shady Cove, and Ruch for three nights visiting family and friends. We spent two nights in Ruch with our friends Tim and Stacey and their children Ivy, Amber, and Daniel. They own a beautiful home in the Siskiyou Mts of southwest Oregon; a place we want to move back to. We also visited with our dear friend Thalia, who lives next to Tim and Stacey. Saturday evening after dinner in Jacksonville we walked up to the Britt Festivals and listened from outside the fence to Crosby, Stills & Nash. Their songs brought back lots of good memories of years gone by. Their voices, although good, did not sound as smooth as years ago.

Monday was a beautiful sunny day, so I took a drive to visit friends Duane and Gail and their family. It was a wonderful warm day, and I enjoyed my visit. Especially fun was watching their granddaughter, Trinity, recite the Pledge Allegiance without missing a single word; she is only 2 ½ years old. It was hysterical! Monday evening we spent with my daughter Gina and her fiancée Josh. I love visiting these guys.

Duane, Trinity, and friends

June 3 - 5
What a great time it was at Sharon’s parents home in Pacific Grove. We got to visit with Walter & Mitzi & their six kids. One sunny afternoon, we walked to Lover’s Point to play on the beach with the kids. After two nights here we left for Indio, CA, and then to Tucson for three nights.

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Sharon, Walter, Mitzi, and kids!

Sharon, her parents & nephew Ben

A great day at Lover's Point

June 6 - 8
We are in Oro Valley, just north of Tucson, Arizona, and only 70 miles from the Mexican border. Our original plan of two days in Tucson, has turned into three days in an attempt to get our pickup serviced. We had a slow leak in our rear tire that needed fixing. Also, the air conditioner stopped working right after hitting the hot weather in southern California. After spending 4 hours in the repair shop here in Oro Valley, we are still without an AC; they can’t get the part until next Friday. Bummer! We’ll be way into Mexico by then. Maybe we can get it repaired in Mazatlan or Puerto Vallarta. Meanwhile, we will have to drive into the Mexican desert heat with our water spray bottles and a small fan that plugs into the cigarette lighter as our only means to keep cool.

Temperature here in Oro Valley is 96-100 deg (F). Unleaded gas is $3.69/gallon.

So far we have driven about 1,875 mi. (3,125 km), and gained 35+ degrees (F) in temperature.

Tomorrow we are off . . .

Tomorrow, May 31, we start our road trip to Tenacatita. Sharon and me in our small '90 Nissan pickup are making the long trip. A long trip both in distance and in time: an 18 day trip. We are both hobbling along with injured backs, but the truck is loaded, so all the hard stuff is done. That is, except for the actual drive. We purchased some back supports to reduce the tension on our backs from the hard truck seats, we'll just have to see how well they work.

Portland is a cool 58 deg. (F) when we left

There goes my back . . .

Yep! My back went out! At the worst time possible, 2 1/2 weeks before we leave for Mexico. With one of my typical "my back went out", I would be back to normal activities in 1-2 weeks. However, with this "my back went out", I visited the emergency room and came away with some pills for pain and anti-inflammatories. I've been to the chiropractors several times and now I'm doing acupuncture and therapeutic message.

Two weeks since "my back went out" I still spend lots of time in bed resting; no, not because of the pain pills, which I've stopped taking, but because my back still hurts a lot. I want to get as well as possible before we start our drive in 4 days! My back hurts just thinking about it. Sharon has been doing it all, cleaning and packing the truck; making curtains for the truck; and much more.

Beach dogs are common fixtures in Tenacatita. They belong to no one. The locals don't much care for them, and tourists only have a passing interest in their rather sad condition. The beach dogs are all rather skinny, frightened and starved for human contact. The dogs scrounge for food from restaurant goers, especially children, because they eat drop food; and at night they go through the garbage dumbs behind each restaurant . These beach dogs are friendly and can always use a handout. The left photo shows a nursing mom with 10 puppies. No one knows how, but all ten puppies disappeared around Easter. The dogs in the right photo are Puppy and Scarlet; pup and mom.

Scarlet gets her name from a large scar on her left side. It seems someone threw hot water or oil on her and caused a permanent scar. Barky, another beach dog had the top of both her ears cut off. It seems it's done to dogs that eat chickens: one ear for each chicken.

There are a couple of us that make it a point to feed the dogs and give them a safe place to hang out whenever we are in Tenacatita. This past March we participated in capturing the three dogs pictured here and had them spayed by a vet in La Manzanilla. This should help with keeping the dog population to a more manageable level. Maybe we can do it again this coming year and help a few more female dogs lead an easier life.

Portland to Tenacatita

It's almost time to leave Portland for Tenacatita. We plan on spending 3-months living in our beach house, Casa Lirio. We believe, hope, pray it will be finished by the time we get there. There was not much left to do to complete the house. But if you have read my previous posts, you know why I am a little skeptical of the house being done. When I left in March all that needed doing was screening of the sitting area, installation of a door, and some concrete work on the roof. Not much, maybe 2-3 days of work. Oh well, we'll see.

We plan to drive our old 1990 Nissan pickup to Tenacatita. For us, an ambitious undertaking, but one we feel suited for, since we love long road trips (well Sharon likes them better then I do). We leave at the end of the month with the entire trip taking 18 days. We will make it a slow relaxed trip with several great stops planned along the way: Medford for 3 days, Pacific Grove, CA for 2-days, and 2 days in Tucson; all visits with family and friends. Finally we enter Mexico through Nogales and drive for 2 days, arriving at Mazatlan for a wonderful 3 day stay at a resort. After we gain our energy, hanging by the pool, eating guacamole and drinking tequilla, we leave for Puerto Vallarta for 4 days hanging by the pool, but also running a number of errands before we leave for Tenacatita. More on our trip once we head on down the road.

Fun & misfortune surf fishing . . .

I loved fishing growing up. Even though we lived in the suburbs of NYC, I would fish in Twin Lakes, the Bronx River and the Hutchinson River. Occasionally my family would go to Glen Island Sound for a Sunday picnic, and to cool off in the ocean. At these times I would do some bottom fishing for flounders. I should mention we never ate any fish I caught, it was strictly catch and release. We knew of pollution way back then.

Now that we are living a rocks throw from the Pacific Ocean, I want to pickup my old sport. I also want to bring home fish for us to eat (It's a male thing to want to bring home the meat). So on our last trip, I brought along some salt water fishing gear to try surf fishing. I knew nothing about surf fishing other than what I read in a few books, but I was also spurred by a fish story told by our friend Joe. He tells of catching a 40 lb fish in front of our house. Every time I see him he giggles and begins the story about the 40 lb fish. He never says what type of fish, but it was "40 lbs", he states.

My first attempt at surf fishing was when Rowan visited for a week. I was not really prepared for fishing in the ocean, nor was Rowan. However, he caught fish and I didn't. I had a 10 ft. rod, which is good for surf fishing, but my reel was set up with 12lb/test line that is not strong enough for surf fishing here in Tenacatita. I also had several very large lures (large spoons) that scared fish away, instead of luring them. Rowan had a three piece travel rod that was better suited to trout fishing small lakes and streams rather than the Pacific Ocean. Rowan had small lures that were impossible to cast very far, especially with the stiff NW wind. We had fun and we must have been fun to watch battling the ocean. During the entire week I didn't catch a single fish, but Rowan was lucky and caught a couple of fish, which we ate for dinner.

After Rowan left I bought 20lb/test line and several Kastmaster lures and wham my luck changed. I was catching Jacks ranging from 1 to 20 lbs; a bunch of 1 lb sierra mackerel, and one nice 4 lb snook. The Jacks were great fun with their amazing strength and great runs. However, their red flesh is not that desirable, except by local Mexicans. I ate it with the builders one day and enjoyed it; Sharon did not. it was like eating steak. The snook and mackerel were delicious consisting of thick white meat.

Tenacatita is a fishing village . . .

Tenacatita is a real Mexican fishing village, but it is also a tourist destination. Summer is peak tourist season when Mexicans take their vacation. Families and young adults from surrounding cities and from Guadalajara come to Tenacatita for vacation. Tourists from British Columbia dominate the scene during the winter months. Tenacatita itself consists mostly of beach front restaurants, which cater to tourists, and the local fishermen supply the restaurants with fish which is the main fare in Tenacatita. The fishermen follow a fishing schedule based on the peak and flow of tourists. Monday through most of Thursday they lay low. At sunset on Thursday they set their nets in anticipation of the arrival of tourists and they fish hard Friday through Saturday to feed the tourists. If it is a holiday, which are common in Mexico, the fisherman work everyday as long as there are tourist around. In the summer they work every day.

I've seen the catch of the local fishermen, so I know there are a diversity of fish in the waters in front of our house. They catch red snapper and other snapper species, Jack Crevalle, snook, and sierra mackerel. Sometimes they catch some strange unidentifiable fish that look like they are straight from a horror film. In Tenacatita there are a number of local fishermen that provide fish to the beach restaurants, and they fish using nets set from small motorized boats called pangas. The nets are about 300 ft. long and are set close to shore or along the rock outcrops that separate Tenacatita Bay from the Pacific Ocean. From our house we see the fishing boats on the water at sunset and sunrise with the fishermen setting their nets at sunset and pulling them in at sunrise.