Happy New Year, Amigos!
I did it again. Procrastinated long enough that it is the next month before I get out our Purkey news. I do have an excuse this time... Ben and I both came down with nasty colds and didn't really feel like even sitting close to a computer screen! We are on the mend now, hopefully, and will survive to tell the story.
We had another busy month... and I made my hiking goal and surpassed it, putting in 730 miles. However, in a phone conversation with my 5 year older sister Sharon, I asked how many miles she's walked this year, and she nonchalantly said, "oh, I don't keep track, but usually 4 to 5 miles every day (7 days a week!)" Good grief. That's about double or more what I do. So, I have my work cut out for me to try to keep up with her!! I haven't done any walking other than around the house so far this year, but maybe I'll get out later today with Zoey. She'll not walk too fast for me!! At least I have lovely weather (usually) and beautiful places to walk. This scene below is from one of my morning walks.
Ben took his 1956 Willy's Jeep to another car show in La Paz early in the month, and I had agreed to go play piano for the community choir at a Los Barriles Art Fair on the same day, so I couldn't go with him this time. He didn't win any prizes, just participated with the Jeep for the first time instead of a Model A. (It was easier to tow to town than load on a car trailer). It's the one right in front.
We went camping in our little trailer twice this month, both times to Los Frailes to visit Mel and Katie. Mel took Ben fishing both times. The first trip they caught a couple of nice Dorado. The second trip, they managed to hook onto a nice Marlin, that took them forever to bring in on the light-weight tackle they were using! They were both sore the next day!
Ben just smoked a nice little batch of Marlin today, and it is pretty tasty!
On the second trip out, my sister Shelley was with us, and she very much enjoyed her time in the wilderness. Very relaxing! We walked the beach and found shells and coral, and as usual, we ate very well!
We also took her to the Santa Rita Hot Springs, and found that there is a new one, just downstream from the original. And the rancher running it, has his booth set up before the original rancher's! We got sucked in, and it was OK, but not as hot as the original. It will be interesting to see how they get along!
The original hot springs is up stream to the left a bit. These folks put in a lot of effort; nice stone walls, nice solid bottom to the pool, lawn chairs, a place to change. They'll probably do just fine.
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| Shelley and I in front of a huge old Cardon cactus. |
On December 15, we participated in the 3rd annual ATV Fun Ride to help support Feeding the Hungry. It was a great success, a lot of fun (in spite of taking the wrong track and having to turn around in very tight quarters!) and made a bunch of money for Feeding the Hungry program. We rented a side-by-side with Mel and his nephew, and had a grand time on the back roads trails. It was also a Classic Movie challenge, where you could answer questions about movies and the stars in them at various "rest stops". Challenging for sure for Ben and I, who rarely watch movies!
This is the starting lineup at the beach, where we were having some of the highest tides I'd seen this year! (Don't tell the rental place, but we did get the ATV a bit wet with salt water!! Oops!)
Chicken, chicken broth, lots of hominy, and all kinds of good things to put in it. It was very good!
We had several friends over for Christmas Dinner at our house later that day, and it was very nice! The Lemon Meringue pie I'd made was a hit!
Katie and Mel came to our place right after Christmas to have a good place, and lots of tools, for Mel to work on their car, which wasn't starting. They figured it was the starter, and it took a day to get it out! (With Ben helping). They took it to a place to have the starter worked on then re-installed it. Still didn't start. They could get it started by shorting across the solenoid (by applying an ice pick to the starter solenoid!). They drove it back to the original guy who repaired the starter, and he found that wiring from the ignition to the starter went through an after-market security "thingy", and a wire was bad. He replaced the wires, and it started! They were very, very happy. And it only cost $700 pesos ($41 US). They were going to stay and spend New Years Eve with us out partying. By that time, Ben and I were pretty sickly, so they decided to go back to Canyon Camp.
New Years Eve, Ben was in bed by 6pm, and I was there by 7:30! We heard a few fireworks at 11pm (by my clock) and welcomed in the New Year!
I've created a December 2023 photo album with a bunch more pictures in it. Enjoy! (Most pictures are captioned if you want to know what in the heck it is!!)
Hasta la proxima vez (this month? Next month?)
Tus amigos de Baja,
Harriet, Ben and Zoey
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