Hi Friends,
Well, here we are in Oregon, and Ben convinced me to write this because "it's not summer yet!" Hah! Some excuse! I'm giving him a break today because he is working with our friend Mike lifting the motor out of his Model A, which made the journey nicely, except for one little dent. That dent was thanks to a fellow at one of the five Mexican Military stops. I think the only reason they stopped us was so they could get pictures and sit in it. This was the stop where a fellow sat in the front passenger seat, and didn't latch the door properly. When we started out, the door swung back with enough force to put a dent in the rear fender. :-( We'll get it fixed here, hopefully by someone who does as good of work as Caliman.
There were many miles (or kilometers) of road construction and detours in Baja Sur, so our very nicely cleaned and polished car ended up with dust and some mud. Fortunately, the fresh oil didn't reach the Model A.
They do have some nice equipment available to use. We are hoping this construction project results in a bit wider roads, and a bit less steep shoulders!
We left Ryan behind with his good friend Mike to hold the fort while we are gone. I think this is the point when Ryan was sharing how he was going to turn the stereo up real loud so the neighbors could appreciate his music... (as long as I don't have to listen to it!)
As usual on the trip, we saw some gorgeous scenery, in both Baja and California, Nevada and Oregon. Bahia Concepcion always has some lovely beaches, and the desert has myriads of plants; trees and flowers and cactus and agaves...and huge rocks and volcanoes!
Tres Virgenes mountains, Baja's volcanoes.
We hadn't seen double striping in Baja before this, but we think they need a little more practice of when to use the solid and when to use the dash, based on sight clearance. Hmmmmm... safe to pass or not?
Appreciative hotel staff at Baja Cactus in El Rosario.
Still looking good, in spite of the dust!
Sierra Nevadas still have snow, and the foothills are green! We don't usually see the green parts by the time we come north about the 1st of July. There were a lot of wild flowers blooming, too!
Abert Rim north of Lakeview.
The cloud behind Summer Lake Hot Springs is the alkali blowing! The lake is very low this year.
Home sweet home for a while....
Our view this morning from Ben's brother's house of the North Sister.
We plan to be staying in the Bend area for the month of June and into July, while the Model A is being worked on. We hope to connect with friends and family in the area here, and we'll be making some quick trips to the valley, too. If you want to get together with us, let us know! We have an extra month this year, after all!
Who knows when this will come out next time...or when Ben convinces me to do it again! Probably not until we have something newsworthy to report!
Your Baja friends in Oregon,
Harriet, Ben, Sam & Zoey (who are appreciating grass and wide open spaces after days and days in the back seat!)
Hola Amigos,
This is it....the last "official" Pic-of-the-Week from Baja this spring. We are packing up and leaving this Saturday. Yes, it is a month earlier than usual, but Ben is determined to get his 1928 Woody up there and have the engine gone over by a top notch Model A mechanic in Bend. The paint has been repaired and the whole thing polished (thank you Caliman), the upholstery was reworked so all the seat seams in all three rows go the same direction, the car trailer was painted, and we now have the trailer title (believe it or not, a permanent California license registered to an owner in Washington!) Oh...and yesterday Ben managed, after many phone calls, to get car insurance on the Woody while it is in the US. Evidently, if a "collector" car is "garaged" in Mexico, you can't get insurance on it in the US. Doesn't matter that we have Mexican insurance on the thing. Ryan kept telling him "you're giving them too much information, Dad!" So, he finally went online and added a car to our existing US policy. Worked like a charm. Geesh! Here it is in our driveway, all ready to go on a fun trip to La Paz last week. (Ben might even haul Mexican gas up for it because it doesn't have ethanol ... that ethanol can really mess up Model A engines!) This is how our little collector car will make it's way to Oregon.
Ben and our friend Janet managed to get their birthday celebration done, 2 months early, with a fish dinner at Barrilitos. Tony and his friend Dennis caught a nice size Dorado, and took it to Francisco to cook 3 or 4 different ways. The waitress Claudia had the table decorated for us with confetti and flowers and it was a very festive occasion! They even brought out hats for them to wear when we sang Happy Birthday.
Ben and John H went on their Baja fly trip, but spent all 3 days in one location, San Francisquito, a very, very remote section of Baja, then ended up coming home a day early. I guess they missed me (or comfortable beds!) I'm always amazed to hear that the place is still standing; the termites have been winning over the past 20 years or so, as well as the elements; earthquakes and hurricanes! They got a lot of hiking done, and ate a lot of fish!
Ben's brother John enjoyed his "low-key" vacation here, although he did get some excitement kayaking on a day when the waves were pretty high. He did manage to stay upright...the kayak is really quite stable.
While Ben was gone playing, I stayed home and made sure everything got done that needed doing, including spraying inside the house for mosquitos. The spray guy came Friday morning and sprayed inside the garage, upstairs, and in the house. It was completely foggy until I opened the doors 4 hours later! And the mosquitoes are gone! Why didn't we do this 8 months ago??? This is what it looked like outside of the house after he was done. Needless to say, the dogs and I evacuated the grounds for several hours!
My computer is still non-working. We've packed it up and are taking it with us back to our computer fix-it guru in Oregon, George. I tried to take the DVD drive back to the store in La Paz that installed it, but they wouldn't give me my money back without reviewing the problem while it was installed in the computer. I can understand that reasoning, but it sure is frustrating when it didn't work from the moment I got it home from the shop, and I've already had it in the shop here in Los Barrilles several times (and La Paz is 1 1/2 hours away, and the diagnosis could take several days). Hopefully, it hasn't been messed up too much and George will either be able to repair it, or if not, get my data to put on a new computer. I am MISSING my files!!
I did find that we had created Pic-of-the-week mailing lists in native Google one time several years ago. I've been maintaining them in my MS Outlook on my computer, and I know I have missed people for the last several weeks. No one has complained about missing POTW, so I'm starting to get curious about who reads this!! That is just one of many of the computer files I'm missing right now. Another important one is my list of things to pack, and things to do to prepare the house and garden for summer. Thankfully, we're not in a big rush and will probably get everything done that needs doing before Saturday morning. Thank goodness Ryan is staying here this summer to house sit for us, so we don't have to put the shutters up and move all the outdoor furniture in. This is going to be an El Nino year, and we will most likely have a hurricane or two pass by. Besides that, they paved the road between the arroyos! The last time they did that...we had a couple hurricanes and washed the road out!
Our schedule this summer; we will be spending most of June and the first part of July in the Bend area while the Model A is being worked on. We'll be making quick trips to the valley for computer repair or any other necessary visits. In mid-July, we'll be attending the Model A Ford Club of America's National meet in Puyallup, Washington. The next week we'll be in Salem visiting all my doctors (I hope they'll all appreciate that I have lost weight this year). After that, we will be spending time with our daughter and her family. Gotta get my grandkid hugs in before they head to the other side of the world again! (Eleanor is looking pretty serious in this photo, but I have seen her smile!)
I am going to add some more photos to our 2014 May Picasa album, but haven't done it yet. Be patient with me! I'm using a borrowed computer, but I've got some really good party pictures to add!
I will leave you with a Baja sunset from our veranda. Next issue of Pic-of-the-Week is up to Ben; he gets to write them in the summer. **Big Grins**
Hasta la proxima vez...no se cuando...
Harriet, Ben, Ryan, Sam & Zoey, who are both watching the suitcases being packed with great anticipation.
Hola Amigos,
Well...we had another eventful week; company, special events, and my computer "repair" that went south. :-(
Ben's brother John arrived last Monday, and he's been here often enough he knows the trail to the beach! He's been swimming and snorkeling just about every day here, or just taking walks on the beach. We did take him to La Paz last Thursday when we had to take Ryan to the airport there. We had breakfast in a restaurant in the 7 Crowns hotel, which was up on the 4th story, and right on the Malecon, so we had a wonderful view. I got a picture from there of the newest sculpture on the Malecon; a big old pearl in a shell. I noticed when looking at the photo this morning that I also got some of the sand sculptures in the background. I didn't get my camera out in time when we drove by, but there are several to see in this photo! Sorry about the light pole and the stuff in the fore ground... that's what you get!
The view of the harbor was gorgeous, as usual. It was a bit windy that day. We had dressed for a hot day, and I wish I had taken a sweater! (Like we advised John not to do!) Oh well... live and learn.
And this picture was from the 5th floor where they have a bar and lounge! Pretty nice!
We took my computer in to La Paz that day to a reliable computer repair place to have a new DVD drive installed. We picked it up and took it home, and things were wrong with it as soon as I booted it up. It was very slow booting up, it wouldn't connect to the internet, and it kept freezing up. After a System Restore the next day, it finally gave me this message. Ben tried to remove the new DVD drive, but couldn't get to it in my lap top, so put everything back together. We took it into the computer shop here in town, and he is attempting a system fix. If that doesn't work, he'll remove the drive, and hopefully, I'll be able to use it as before! The DVD drive hasn't been working for several months...I guess I should have waited to get to my computer guru George in Oregon! (This has got to be one of the most exciting photos I've ever posted!!)
If you're wondering how I'm accomplishing this post this week, I'm using the church computer that we keep at our house. Of course, I don't have my Outlook address lists (never think to put them in native gmail until it's too late and the files aren't available!). I'll do the best I can for those of you who usually receive this by mail. In fact, if my computer is fixed, you might get this twice! I'll at least get it posted in Blogger, and anyone in Facebook will get a link to it.
Ben made some points last week; he found a cool cactus in an out-of-the-way nursery on the way to La Paz. He found it in February, and the man said to wait until it had roots...come back in April. Well, he waited until my birthday and picked it up a few days after. It is so neat! We've put it in a pot in our entryway.
Ben is off today on another La Paz trip. Early this morning he hooked up the car trailer with the Model A Woody on it and is going into the upholstery shop to get some modifications done on the seats. (The tucks in the top if the seats are going different directions...do you think anyone would notice?) And, Ford called and said they have the parts to repair the back seat that refuses to fold down. That's probably a 4 hour repair job. While he's doing that, I'm going to drive out to Punta Pescadero on that lovely road and pick up our friends John and Phyllis, who are flying in today in their Cessna 185 Taildragger. They were going to come tomorrow, but we read in our local newsletter that there will be a 1000K motorcycle and car race going by there on that day!!! We wouldn't want to be going around a blind corner on that road with a motorcycle or race car speeding along! Yikes!
Tonight, Ben and our friend Janet, who have the same birthday in July, decided to celebrate their birthdays together "Baja style". Tony and Janet are taking friends fishing today, and they will bring back fish (hope...hope...hope!) and take them to our favorite restaurant Barrilitos to cook. I might even make a birthday cake! It will be a big group, so they'd better get a BUNCH of fish, or a couple big ones!
For our nature picture this week, Ben spotted this baby Cardinal pecking on our bedroom window. It was seeing it's reflection, and giving it a good fight. I think the fight came out even, and no one was hurt!
Time is getting short; only 11 days until we're scheduled to leave. I hope we can get everything done that needs to be done, especially with Ben planning to take about 5 days to fly around Baja again with John H.! I'm staying home to dog sit and deliver brother John to the shuttle bus and pick up Ryan from La Paz on Saturday and play the piano for the final time this spring on Sunday. And if my computer is toast...make up a new list of things to do before we leave town! Sigh....
Hasta la proxima semana,
Tus amigos de Baja,
Harriet, Ben, Sam & Zoey
Hola Amigos,
Another life changing event this last week! I am now eligible for Medicare! Of course, I had to have a party to celebrate that milestone, so we invited over some friends, Ben cooked, guests brought pot luck dishes, Ryan and other guests cleaned up, and I had a grand time. I did make my own Carrot Cake with cream cheese frosting... I'd had a craving for that for a long time. And this week, there was no powdered sugar in the local grocery, so I made my own! (Blend regular sugar and a bit of cornstarch until it is powdered. Seems to work quite well!) Ryan was going to make a Key Lime pie for me, but there were no graham crackers or graham cracker pie crusts in the store this week, either!
This is the "serving of the cake", and yes, the candles are bent. (Not sure where they found them!) They were set in the little plastic train candle holders that I'd used for Ryan's 1st birthday, almost 35 years ago! It was very festive!
And here's another portrait of us just to prove that us old people can still smile at birthdays, and look good doing it!
I saw this cartoon the other day, and thought that it applied to me! Maybe it applies to you, too!
We took a trip to Cabo San Lucas yesterday to pick up Ben's brother John for his vacation in paradise. We decided to go on to Costco and pick up a few things before his flight arrived (and guess what, they didn't have a bunch of the stuff on my list...bacon, cheddar cheese...) It's always an adventure shopping in Mexico! We volunteered to take some "tourists" on to Cabo Wabo; our friend Pat's niece and her husband are visiting from Oregon, and they had never been to Cabo San Lucas. They are big fans of Sammy Hagar, who built and developed Cabo Wabo. Sammy, for those of you who don't know, is a rock singer who managed to make quite a few millions of dollars on this investment. Anyhow, it's a fun place to visit, and they treated us to lunch for taking them there!
This is a photo that the "professional" photographer took of us, and then brought around to the table just before we left. Cheryl couldn't resist (it is a nice photo of them!) and the frame is pretty cool, too. I just think it's too bad Ben and I are in the picture with them! Oh well.... Don't you think this one with just Cheryl and Tim is better?
On the way back to the airport, we stopped at the view point where we can always see surfers, and enjoy the ocean view. I noticed a nice motorcycle parked there, and then I noticed a gal with ear plugs in rocking to whatever music she was listening to. She rocked on over to her motorcycle, and since she was in her own little world, I took a few photos... just too bad you can't see her moves as she jives to her music!
Ryan's birthday is coming up next week (Mexican Mother's Day!) and he has been invited to meet with his buddy Mike in Los Angeles and attend a concert there. He'll be flying up using a Mexican airline (cheap!) from La Paz to Tijuana this Thursday, then take the train from San Diego to LA. Sounds like quite an adventure. We'll stay here and hold the fort and entertain John.
A few more photos have been posted in our May 2014 Picasa album. No pictures of John, yet...he just got here!
Hasta la proxima semana, (John's ready for a walk....gotta go!)
Tus amigos de Baja,
Harriet, Ben, Ryan, Sam & Zoey
Tres Virgenes mountains, Baja's volcanoes. 
We hadn't seen double striping in Baja before this, but we think they need a little more practice of when to use the solid and when to use the dash, based on sight clearance. Hmmmmm... safe to pass or not?
Appreciative hotel staff at Baja Cactus in El Rosario.
Sierra Nevadas still have snow, and the foothills are green! We don't usually see the green parts by the time we come north about the 1st of July. There were a lot of wild flowers blooming, too! 
Abert Rim north of Lakeview. 
The cloud behind Summer Lake Hot Springs is the alkali blowing! The lake is very low this year.
Home sweet home for a while.... 
