On the 9^th of December 2011 we pulled into the Vagabundo Campground which was going to be our home address for the next few months.  If you want, you can see our location by going to Google Earth and putting in our latitude and longitude (i.e.:  22.90018N, and 103.89620W).  This has been a month of entertaining and being entertained…  From the first day here we’ve been catching up with friends that we left behind five or more years ago AND taking the time for ourselves to see all that is new and believe me there is a lot that is NEW.  We had a surprise when I saw this fellow coming to get his dog that had come down the beach to see us.  Ernie and Sheila arrived the day before we did and this was the first day that they had come down to enjoy the beach as well.

  Back in the 80’s Ernie and Sheila purchased TWO condominiums from me and all in the same afternoon…AND they still have them with an additional one more.  Jack and Kathy have been down the Baja before

 but they hadn’t had the chance to get the “Goodman Tour” so Louise and I took them out to see “The Sites” that we used to enjoy so much, such as the Pedregal, the Iguana Rock and snake

sitting high on the hill, and the Pedregal Beach far below.  We also had the great opportunity to co-host with Bonnie and Doug the arrival of Pauline and her long time “Best Friend” Lupe.

  Lupe was from Ohio and of course our close friend of many years from Coeur d’Alene Pauline.

  They were staying in Pauline’s timeshare condo in Cabo San Jose for a week and it seems like they had a very full week of fun.

  After seeing the two of them interacting with each other they really didn’t need us around to help…what a couple of “Have Fun Gals”.

  Of course we were here for Christmas this year too and one of the many activities we took in with Bonnie, Doug, Jack, and Kathy was a Christmas Symphony Concert in San Jose.

  For a $100 pesos each we had a great time and enjoyed some amazing talent that has emerged from the Los Cabo area.  Another thing that we have jumped right into is visiting the local “Farmers Markets”. 

 From San Jose to San Lucas and all the other areas of the last 9 years of our journey we have always found the Farmers Markets to have a great entertainment and shopping value we’re looking for.  Louise and I, Pauline and Lupe, were invited up to Bonnie and Doug’s new condo for dinner and drinks.  It is more than amazing, it’s spectacular in and out and the view…

  Now what is “Cabo” known for???  Well it’s the beaches and we’re definitely not avoiding them.  With the warm surf and sand, a cool drink, good company, and lots of people watching, it keeps drawing us back for more.  Even the cruise ships make it interesting as they slowly pull into the bay. 

9 December 2011

Well the night at La Paz passed fast.  This campground is quite nice and one that we had never heard of throughout all the years we’ve traveled the Baja.  We found the history on the property and the owners to be very interesting.  The Maranatha Campground

 has only 12 hook-up areas and 6 casitas besides a large play area and picnic grounds to handle a couple of large family groups.  They also offer a great little coffee/bakery shop right outside of the gates.  In 1957, the family flew down in their small single engine plane to La Paz as missionaries from the mid-west and stayed in their own little paradise…  Pictures of their arrival in ’52 still grace the walls inside the office of the campground and if you inquire about them they will tell you the very interesting story of her life as a young child from her birth in La Paz to running the campground today.  Well it was time to continue heading south but before we pulled out, all 8 of us had to stop off at the coffee shop and do a little sampling.  With coffee and a fresh cinnamon roll in hand we all gathered around a table and said good-bye to Bonnie and Doug.  They wanted to stay over another day or two before heading down to Cabo to see what had changed over the years that they’ve been away.  We had heard that Hwy 1 just south of Todo Santos was under construction with heavy off road detours so we opted to take Hwy 19 (the mountain route) the rest of the way to San Lucas.  El Trunfo was the first little town we came to once we started into the mountains.  At one time, El Trunfo was the largest community in all the Baja because of the gold that was found in these mountains.  Item number two:  Eifel (who designed and built the Eifel Tower) designed and managed construction of one of the two smelting stacks in El Trunfo. 

 Item number three:  When the mines were going full out, the wife of the mine manager taught piano to the other women and children that wanted to learn.  Being a fine musician and lover of the piano, she decided to donate her piano to the local museum and with that started others to donate theirs.  Item number four:  The church was and still is a major part for the people of El Trunfo. 

 For the size of the town now it is quite large, but back “in the days past…” it was quite a place for giving Thanks.  As we arrived today we found a crowd painting and caring for the interior and getting ready for their Christmas celebration…I felt I should have grabbed a paint brush because they all looked and sounded like they were having a blast. 

 Today this little town, far from the border and the larger cities, and far away from the average “tourists”, sports a fine “Piano Museum”.  Unfortunately it was closed the morning we were in town.  What was fortunate was that we found this remarkable restaurant/bakery…  It was located a block off of the main road running through town and in this very old “Hacienda”.  The front part of building was the bakery ( this is Bob and Evie looking over the bakery goods thinking about what to buy for their 59th wedding anniversary)

 and as you followed the passageway toward the back of the building you found yourself choosing a table at one of three very different patio locations (notice the brass covered wood rails)

 that lead away from the outside cooking area

 of the restaurant and looking out to the dormant gold mines and the Eifel smelting stack.  The menu was small but the quality… amazing.  I really don’t think this restaurant/bakery could accidentally make a bad meal or bakery item.  The lunch specialty was pizza so we all opted for pizza’s around…

definitely not a bad idea.  One thing was for sure, Bob & Evie, Jack & Kathy, and Louise and I were very impressed with our stop and look forward to coming back as we head back north this spring.  If we were to make San Lucas before dark we had better be on our way.  This route through the mountains and along the Sea of Cortez is really the more picturesque route but it does take another 30 to 45 more minutes of travel time from La Paz to San Lucas.  It wasn’t long before we were running past the Cabo San Jose airport and heading into the center of San Jose.  Right away it was evident that things had changed a great deal in the last 5 years since we were here last.  The traffic was at least 10 fold heavier and the building…amazing. Traffic and all we still made it to San Lucas before 3 and then found that we couldn’t turn across the highway and into the Vagabundo RV Park.  Now what…well we continued past and found ourselves taking some “very interesting” roads through and around the narrow and heavily traveled streets of San Lucas until we made a huge “U” turn and made it back to Vagabundos and into our campsite for the next few months…”we’re finally here”!!!

7 December 2011

December 7^th of the year 1941 the Japanese flew a devastating raid on Pearl Harbor and it remains one of the great defining moments in world history.  Here we sit in total comfort, watching a video of Rod Stewart in concert and giving a lot of thought about “What If ?”.  It is sobering to say the least. 

Louise and I spent the afternoon having lunch with Bonnie and Doug at a restaurant that we kind of watched “grow up”.  Back in the good-ole days after we moved away from Cabo San Lucas (1992), we took a vacation back to visit the Rohrer’s and they introduced us to a new restaurant called La Picazon in San Jose.  Well today La Picazon is located just off of a dirt road about 5 miles north of Loreto.

If and when you’re in the area you’ve got to make an effort to enjoy something as special as La Picazon,

 the ride out that road (?) is worth every bump once you’ve experienced Alex and Imelda and their restaurant. 

 Tonight we were joined at our “home” by Jack and Kathy (one of our traveling companions down the Baja).  We spent a couple of hours playing and teaching Mexican Train and Chicken-foot.  We all experienced a win except Louise and I just want to mention that here so that I can rub it in just one more time...  The Mexican government has spent a lot of money to make Loreto a destination town and it looks like it.

  We all enjoyed some time wondering the town and seeing the sights.  This is a town that could draw us back very easily for much more time than 3 days.  It is also the home of the second largest National Park in all of Mexico and consists of miles of beach area and many islands of all sizes just off shore.  It is a beautiful park and one that we would love to come back and enjoy some kayaking. 

December 8^th and we’ve just arrived in La Paz.  Our drive down from Loreto seemed a little shorter than the last days on the road so that was all positive and the campground was easy to find and priced right as well. 

 Another day ahead of us tomorrow and we’ll be pretty well set-up for the winter in San Lucas.      

3 December 2011

Our third travel day was to the beach area just south of Mulege called Sanispac.  What a difference a day can make when you don’t have road construction to contend with.  Sanispac is a long sandy beach

backing up to the mountains where you can drive onto the beach and park right beside the sheltered waters of the Sea of Cortez.  This bay is a shelter that the sailboats look for when the winds start to get a little rough and on the Sea of Cortez it happens quite often.

  There are a number of islands that surround the bay and that is one of the reasons that all of us with RV’s like it too…it’s beautiful to see, calm warm waters, and just a great place to relax and have a meal and/or a drink at the beach restaurant (a VERY rustic restaurant at that).  On the second morning we all drove up to Mulege and enjoyed things like the internet café, coffee/bakery, taco stand,

 and the Ole Mission that sits high on the hill (constructed in the late 1600’s). 

Mulege is a very nice and picturesque town that sits at the base of a shallow valley with a Palm tree lined river flowing right alongside.  Unfortunately this river has flooded and destroyed many beautiful homes and taken lots of lives over the last few years but they continue to build back.  I just don’t get it…build at the top and look down on the river you crazy “Gringo”.  Yep, it’s those Canadians and Americans at it again.  Well good-by Sanispac and Hello Loreto… 

29 November 2011

It’s been quite a long time since I’ve taken the time to write and I really want to get back to it and this journey down the Baja is going to be the catalyst.  While we were resting up in Yuma from our trip around the good-ole USA, I wrote a note in one of the many travel blogs that we would be crossing into the Baja by the first of December and if there was anyone that would want to join us in their RV we would love to have them along.  Well Jack and Kathy wrote back and told us that it would fit into their schedule just fine and they had another couple that would like to come as well…Bob and Evie.  We also got a call from Bonnie and Doug so we had a full sized caravan to travel the Baja with, how great was that.  On the 29^th we crossed the border at Tecate and headed for San Quintin about 200 miles south.  Thinking that 200 miles in a day was just fine we didn’t opt for an early start and that was a bad decision.  After the first 125 miles we came upon road construction that would make a Mexican truck driver cringe !!!  For 6 to10 long miles through the mountains we bounced and twisted over the deep ruts and hung on while the edges came awfully close to allowing us to fall into the canyons below.  It was quite a ride and for Bob and Evie it turned out to be trouble.  They have a travel trailer that they pull and unfortunately they blew out one of the 4 tires and damaged the rim beyond repair.

  The fortunate side of this was that they had a spare and a pull out was close by so that the spare could be put on.  Another good thing happened too, we had no sooner pulled over when a small pickup slid between Bob’s trailer and our coach and stopped to help.  A middle aged Mexican man jumped out of his truck with a jack in hand even before the truck stopped.  He was there to give as much help as needed and fortunately he was a take charge kind of guy…in no time the old shred of a tire was off and the spare was on.

   A quick Gracias, a well deserved tip, and we were back on the road again.  Now we were going to have to drive in the dark, which is something we really didn’t want to do but there are times when you do what you have to do.  We pulled into our campground well after dark and it wasn’t one of those things I want to do on a regular basis or ever again so keep your fingers crossed for us.  

Our second day started much earlier and it would turn out better but still not great.  First we all stopped alongside of a tire shop so that Bob could see if he could find another tire and wheel. 

 A well used tire was found and a wheel that could "possibily" be used if a little filing around the center of the hub would work.  Well this is Mexico and if filing could work, they could do it...it worked just fine.  Bob and Evie had a spare to continue the trip with. 

Our destination today was Bahia de los Angeles another beach village that we had visited 5 years ago, which was again about 200+ miles away.  To our surprise we encountered another 6+ miles of road construction but in this case it was not near as bad with the ruts, but dust…I’m still spitting clods of brown stuff.  It was bad, fine, dust that would get into the tiniest of cracks and stick to everything.  We were far less than half way down to Cabo San Lucas and I was about fit to be tied…not fun at all.  Fortunately Bahia de los Angeles was a special spot and it did make up for some of the discomfort we had been put through the last two days.

  Then on the other side of the coin, the weather, the BAJA weather, had turned COLD and WINDY and the prediction was that it was going to be with us for some time to come.  We opted to stay two days in Bahia as it was a place we could just kick back, rest, and do a little beach walking.

  We did drive into the “village” (consisting of one small grocery store, 2 gas stations, a very nice museum,

and a dock for the fishing boats to come and go from…not much else except for a garbage receptacle.

  After a few walks along the beach collecting sea shells we decided to search out a local "resort" that we had visited last time.  Unfortunately we didn't find the one that we were looking for but we did find another.  On the way in we came upon one of their signs pointing out what to do before arriving... 

after doing ALL of that we were back on the road for another destination further south. 

Well it’s finally happened….  First I’ve got to say that we’ve been on the road constantly for some time and we are visiting as many historical sites as we can fit in.  In doing all of this I’ve found myself WAAAYYY behind in my blogging and hence I make some mistakes.  I have posted the Eisenhower story and tied it into the Valley Forge post…that was wrong !!!  The Eisenhower farm is located just outside of the Gettysburg National Park not Valley Forge…SORRY !!!  Another thing that I thought I would mention is that Valley Forge was a battle for Independence from England and took place between 1775 and 1783.

And now I’ve got something else that has really gotten to me…  Somehow I’ve lost ALL of my pictures from Gettysburg through Washington DC.  This is just about the worst thing that could happen when writing and publishing a blog…RATS !!!

Now I’m here to write about our tour to Gettysburg which was a battle between the Union and Confederate Armies where the battle lines were drawn up in two sweeping arcs on July 2, 1883.  General Robert. E. Lee began moving his troops northward and by chance found that they were at the same place (Gettysburg) as the Union troops under Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker on the 1st.  On the 2^nd the main portions of both armies were about a mile apart and Lee ordered an attack on the Union flanks.  There was pushing back and forth with heavy losses on both sides.  On the 3^rd of July Lee’s artillery opened a 2 hour bombardment on the Federal lines followed with a charge of his infantry.  The attack failed and cost Lee and his Confederate army 5,000 men in ONE hour.  When the armies marched away from Gettysburg they left behind a community in shambles and over 51,000 soldiers dead, wounded, and missing.  The wounded and dying from both sides were moved into nearly every building and the dead laid in hastily dug graves or left were they dropped.  The situation became so dismal that the Governor authorized the purchase of enough land to properly bury the dead and this became the sacred grounds now called The Gettysburg National Cemetery.  The cemetery was dedicated on the 19^th of November, 1863 and the principle speaker was to be President Abraham Lincoln and the speech he gave is now known as The Gettysburg Address… 

I’ve mentioned many times before about seeing and enjoying the movies that are made available at the Visitor Centers and the movie at the Gettysburg VC is the best yet…IT WAS AMAZING !!!  A little background is this…  “The Battle of Gettysburg” is a painting by French artist Paul Philippoteaux.  It is a 42 foot HIGH by 359 feet in circumference and was painted in 1883.  Yes, it has been cleaned and placed in 4 different locations and I must say that it is unbelievable…  As we stood at the mid height point in the “CYCLORAMA” (a building in the round) it looked like we were standing in the middle of the battle field.  The feeling was as if we were in a 3-D movie but the reality was a painting on a flat wall 25 yards away from us and completely circling us in a battle scene.  It didn’t move but a light would come on with the fire of the cannons and the sounds were of “war”…quite an experience !!!  I’ve never had a need to take a camera into the visitor center and I sure as hell didn’t think I was going to need one there…little did I know and there wasn’t a second chance unless you wanted to purchase another $15 ticket.  I take my camera now no matter what. 

A couple of miles away from the farm we stopped at the visitor’s center at Valley Forge.  As with all the National Parks, they had a film available for us to watch and refresh our memories of the struggles that took place at Valley Forge.  Imagine the hardships that occurred at Valley Forge, the encampment was characterized as “suffering as usual”.  The misery of the untrained, starving troops, that didn’t have the proper clothing, shoes, rifles and ammunition and deadly diseases.  All this took place on a long wet and snowy winter.  Then came the knowledge that the British commander Sir William Howe, was about ready to march His Majesty’s finest 17,000 well trained, fed, and outfitted army from Chesapeake Bay were they’ve been encamped for some time.  General George Washington’s 12,000 fighters were getting ready by constructing huts, miles of trenches, 5 earthen forts, and a “state-of-the-art bridge over the Schuylkill River” in anticipation of their arrival.  When that time came, they were ready and they had a General that would lead with a lot of heart and the trust of men to lead them to a victory.  Today the battle field of Valley Forge is covered with mowed grass and walking/biking trails and running in and out a 20mph roadway.  On top of all this, are several officer’s quarters and miles and miles of monuments

representing where the many different troop encampments and engagements with the British accorded.  Another one of the highlights of our visit was the tour of General George Washington’s Headquarters.

  It was the home of the Potts family until it was established that this conflict would take place at Valley Forge.  At that time the family opened their doors and offered their home to General Washington for use as the “Headquarters” and focal point for most of the camp activities.  Our stay at Valley Forge will stay with both of us for a good long time.  The high and lows that George Washington and Sir William Howe troops went through, the sickness and killings through the battle, still hit home with us today.  Soon we’ll be off to visit another battle field…we’ve got to remember whether we like it or not.