Northernly Flow

Well here we go again, heading north for the 49th parallel.

La Paz has been great; meeting again with friends, days filled with mountain biking (with our bike gang "The Caca fuegos"), bachi, horseshoes, dinner parties, motorbiking, movies and many fish tacos.

We always hate to leave,but Juncalito here we come!

How to Make a Successfull Pig Roast, Baja Style

Pick an appropriate size pig, we were having approx. 40 people so our pig was about 60 lbs. At around 9pm Friday after stuffing the pig with oranges we wrapped it in burlap.

10pm we started a fire in a pit about 3ft deep and kept it going until we had a good foot of hot coals. Gene and Mike took shifts sleeping by the fire all night.

At 3:30am Saturday we added a thick layer of Napal cactus on top of the hot coals.

On top of the layer of green Napal we put in the pig wrapped in burlap, which had been soaking in water, an topped it with oranges.

Poured a couple gallons on freshly squeezed orange juice on top.

Quickly covered the whole thing with a big lid and shoveled on sand, to help insulate and keep in the heat and steam which would cook the pig.

By the time we were finished shoveling it was about 4:30 and time to go back to bed.

At 4pm Saturday we uncovered the pig just as people were arriving.

The meat was separated from the bones, this is probably the moistest pork we have ever had. It is literally steamed for 12 hours.

By 5:30 everyone was there and it was time to eat! Ken can hardly wait.

Of coarse you can't have a fiesta without tortillas and fresh salsa, along with an array of salads and side dishes. Ortensia makes that last minute preparations.

Sunday am, Son looks for any little scrap that may be left on the ground for him (good luck, we cleaned everything up pretty good.

The beginning of relaxation

Sand blowing across the road ahead of us as we drive through Glamis in southern Arizona.

That is one really big, old cactus...or is it just a little mini Ken?

Why does my dinner always look bigger than Ken's?

The full moon over La Paz.

Well, here we are in La Paz after 7 days of driving. We took it easy this year, driving down from Canada, the roads were not the best in northern USA but we have to say that the roads in the Baja made up for those up north. Any new road they putting down on the Baja is at least a foot wider (doesn't sound like much but it makes a huge difference) and for some reason the roads are quieter this year with fewer RVs on the road. The beaches are quieter also, lots of room on most for more campers. The winds were very bad around Cantvina, blowing the truck and camper around quite a bit. Semis were actually blown off the road.

But here in La Paz the weather is warmer than usual and we are liking it. We arrived in Comitan around 3 and by 6:30 we had the camper off, were unpacked,visited a few friends and were sitting down to our first Mexican dinner of tacos. We had to take the camper off the truck because we had a broken water line in the camper, that Ken neatly fixed in Lake Havasu, we will have to let the bottom of the camper dry out for a few days. Besides that one little problem with the water everything is great and now we are looking forward to getting out the bikes, doing a little mountain biking and motorcycling.

So much to do and so little time, only 7 weeks this year.

Three days on the road

Ken, along with the other truckers, put on the mandatory chains before he goes over one of the passes near Pendleton.

Ken is trying to skype people back home on Thursday morning...where is everyone? Looks as though we should be washing the rig don't you think?

At last we are on the road again, loaded up and headed out to Baja, Mexico. After a busy Christmas and New Year at home spent with friends and family Ken picked me up at work and we were off. Truck and camper towing our trailer complete with 2 kayaks, 2 motorcycles, 2 mountain bikes, and a zodiac. Everything you need for 7 weeks in the sun, on the beach. What we have to conquer first is the 4400 km that lay between home and THE BEACH.

So far this winter mother nature has dealt a hard and cold card to north America and the roads can tell the story. We had hard compact snow and deep slush to drive on straight through the first 2 days. The pass at Pendleton was nasty and chains where mandatory, which was not a problem with us after a couple of adrenaline rushes. One car driven by a woman sped past us, and as in slow motion, she spun around right in front of us and landed in the center slow bank. Latter we noticed her flying past us once more.?!? some people. Soon after, we and the semi in front of us went a little snaky on some ice, I had a large adrenaline cocktail... time for chains. Day three the roads dried up but there is still plenty on snow on the sides left from the storm that was right in front of us. Finally in Vegas temperatures have started to warm up (I finally took off my winter snow boots) but the temperatures are still low for them here. We stayed at the Las Vegas RV resort last night, checked out Sams Town and donated a few dollars. It is hard to win the big one when you are playing nickels!

Wouldn't you know it! After gas prices going down around North America for the last 3 months they are going up again down here now that we are on the road. 12 cents over night, just our luck! The gas is still a little cheaper here than in Mexico so we will fill all the tanks before we cross the border.

We just turned on the water in the camper last night because the weather has been just too cold until now and we didn't want the lines to freeze. We woke this morning to a puddle of water under the truck, yes just what we didn't need...a water leak. Better here than in Mexico, we will fix the problem in Lake Havasu and the same time drop in for a visit with our friends Bruce and Vicky.

A bad day on the road is better than a good day at work.