Hola Amigos!
This will probably be our last letter sent from Baja this spring. We are heading north in 3 weeks, in mid-June. We are going just a bit earlier this year because we have some of my brother Rich's things to take care of, and sooner is better than later! For your information, we will have a Memorial Service for him Sunday, July 23 at Tom & Karan Malpass house, which is near the West Point Cemetery where his remains will be.
This May, there was another car show put on by our friend Hector Manuel, so we participated with the 1929 Ford Model A Pickup. For those of you who don't know about this vehicle, Ben bought it in 1960 when he was 13 years old! He wanted a go-cart, and his Dad suggested an old car, and this is what he got. I must say, though, that it looks WAY better now than it did in 1960!!
Here's Ben in 1960 with his "new to him" $75 pickup!
Another story that is ending on a good note has to do with our 2011 Ford pickup. While he was driving to La Paz in late October, towing the 1930 Roadster to be painted and repaired for a minor scratch, Ben hit an animal with the front right corner. It was low to the ground, and he's pretty sure it was a large pig running into the road. (Any animal is possible to be in the road in Baja, believe me!) The truck was still drivable, and there was really no place to pull over and check it out where he hit the animal, so he continued on to La Paz and Edgar Majalca's body shop. They did pull the bumper out a bit so it wouldn't rub on the tire when turning, but that was it. In early November, he notified our insurance company. An adjuster came out, filled out forms and said he needed to get an estimate from their body shop in La Paz, Danny's. At that time, Ben stated that he wanted Majalca's Body shop to do the work, as they've done fantastic work on our Roadster, the Jeep, and polished both of the other A's. Well, long story short, the insurance company's head guy in La Paz (for all of Baja Sur) was just about as unresponsive, uncooperative and unhelpful as anyone we've ever tried to work with. He always insisted that we needed to pay $500 deductible. He insisted on ordering the parts, Ben insisted on genuine Ford parts. It took months before Ben and his translater Magali, and Edgar Majalca could sit down and talk with Gabriel, the head guy at HDI. He finally agreed to order the parts, Ben agreed that Edgar would inspect the parts and install them. The parts all came (according the Gabriel). Edgar inspected them (Ford? check!) and took things apart to install everything, and got a lot done when they realized that the main grill was NOT included in the parts!!! They had to take everything back apart and install the old stuff! (At least the bumper was installed with no problems). Gabriel kept insisting on the $500 deductible being paid, Ben kept insisting that his parts be all installed before he paid. Oh, and Gabriel wanted the old parts BEFORE the new parts were installed! What??? The pickup was drivable, and needed, so that made no sense at all. Emails went back and forth between our insurance broker in San Diego, HDI, Ben. He has a huge file of stuff. Finally, just a few days ago, after Ben had complained of additional costs of travel and hotel in La Paz and Edgar's shop having to do things twice because the grill wasn't with the original parts, the higher ups in the Insurance company agreed to waive the $500 deductible. (Ben had it in his wallet all the time.... he just wasn't going to part with it any time soon!) So, that job is on the agenda for next week. Just another trip to La Paz! Phew! Life in Mexico isn't always easy. Sorry for the long story, but that took from October through end of May, so a lot of time was involved. Ben could write a book!!
We have just started to eat some of our corn. I had a nice piece for dinner last night, along with a nice big tomato, and it was a lovely dinner! We probably won't be able to eat most of it that is ripe now, but will most likely freeze some for next year.
Ben had great advice from cousin Tom Malpass, who grew acres and acres of corn in the Willamette Valley for quite a few years. The best hint....lots and lots of nitrogen. So Ben had a special applicator installed on our water line to feed the proper amounts of nitrogen to the corn. It seemed to work just fine.
The tomatoes are still producing. And we've got to start thinking about putting the garden to bed since we've only got two weeks before we leave! We've used almost all of our canning jars, and the freezers are also full, so I hope we can keep the freezers cold this summer while we're gone.
We do have a house sitter. The man who did it for us last summer wasn't able to come back (he had to go back to work in Canada! Yikes!) We offered the job to a fellow who has been down here several years and is an avid pickle ball player, originally from Chicago. We think it will work out well for all. He does love our house, so no problem there. We just need to train him on shutter application and generator operation.
Yes, it's dry, and it's starting to get warm. Daytime temps are in the 80's, lows are in the high 70's! There's not much variation this time of year. I'm still walking, and my friend Jill is back for a while, so she walks with me. So far, I've reached my monthly goals for the year. I'm currently at 351 miles walked to date. The challenge will be to keep it up while we are traveling.
Our neighbor Brian had guests who went fishing several days, and that was when they were catching Tuna. Well, none of them wanted the fish, so we ended up with all of it! Wow. Another thing to fill our freezer!
Cinco de Mayo! It's a bigger celebration in the US than in Mexico, generally, but the local restaurants here do put on a great show. At La Playa there was a Mariachi band and local dancers, mostly young kids to teenagers. They were great! We were very impressed with the show. I took a lot of pictures, and posted them in a special album. Cinco de Mayo 2023 Especially check out about the 9th video of 3 chicas and 2 guys, who are dancing with machetes. They are also joined by a younger boy later in the dance with his knives. Cool!
My regular May album is here.... May 2023.
Like I said, this is probably the last post until we get to Oregon and something interesting happens there. Maybe Ben will write something. Maybe not! Anyhow, if you'd like to see us this summer, drop us a note and let us know. We hope to get around the state of Oregon, especially if you want to see us.
We will be leaving here on June 17th (that's the plan anyhow), and if you're on Facebook, I usually post daily pictures the scenery and our adventures on the trip.
See you in Oregon!
Until the next time,
Harriet, Ben & Zoey
