Pic-of-the-Month for October 2019

Hola Amigos!

Ben, I and the dogs are back home in Baja, safe and sound after our busy summer and another 2000+ mile road trip from Oregon back to Mexico!  We're sorry if you missed reading about our adventures.  We really didn't do much of anything "new" or "different", so you didn't miss much!  We are all very happy to be back in our spacious house (after living in a small travel trailer for 3 months!) and things are in pretty good shape here.  

After we posted our last update, we visited friends in Salem,  went camping with friends, visited doctors, went to the Pendleton Roundup, visited doctors, I had a colonoscopy(!)  (results were good), visited friends, ate out a lot, tried to get a flu shot (they were out of the good stuff!), and went camping with friends!  There!  Is that enough detail?  Oh, you probably want a picture or two.   (None of the doctor visits, though!)

We saw this Osprey while camping on the Crooked River with Katie & Mel.  Short time, but nice and relaxing.  

 The next camping trip was with Gary and Debbie at some of our favorite camping spots in Oregon.  They hadn't been there, so we were their guides.  
This picture is of the little old school house by Summer Lake on Hwy 31 on our way to our camping spots.  

We stayed the first night at Juniper Reservoir RV park in Lakeview, one of our favorite summer resting spots.  They were setting up "glamping" tents for the weekend (the county fair was going on in town).  I think the cost for staying in one was $250 per night! I'll stick with our trailer for $40 for the night at the park!!  

From there, we went east to Hart Mountain Antelope Refuge.  Big open spaces, but not too many antelope were spotted this year.  I'm sure Gary and Debbie's dog would have loved to try to herd some of them!  

After a few days at Hart Mountain (and enjoying the hot springs there), we packed up and headed to the east to the Steens Mountains.  Unfortunately for Gary and Debbie, it was a gravel road, and they found their trailer completely full of dust when we got to our campsite near Frenchglen.  Ugh!  Fortunately, we had electricity and water, so they were able to clean up.  Seems the bottom of their newer trailer wasn't sealed as well as it could have been, and they left a few vents open (oops!)  We enjoyed doing the tour of the rim.  It was sad that a hunter had fallen to his death at one gorge the day before we got there.  We came across many search and rescue and police vehicles.  

We had some time back in Bend after that trip to give Shirley a ride in the Model A Roadster.  We had bought it from her two summers ago.  She was duly impressed and enjoyed the ride!

(It does look quite a bit nicer now than when we bought it!)  

We missed going to the Pendleton Roundup last year, so were happy to get over there again for this year's show.  I have a whole album of the Pendleton Roundup here.  Most photos are captioned.  Needless to say, we had a grand time and will be back next year.  It's nice that my niece has a nice place for us to park our trailer and a fenced yard to keep our dogs while we're gone.  Thanks again, Anne! 

We left Pendleton and the Roundup excitement for our last gasp camping trip with George and Carolyn from Salem.  We met them in Burns, after waiting out a few very rainy days in Eastern Oregon.  Yes, it does rain over there!  We did some touring of Burns, including the local museum, ate at some good restaurants, and filled the time.  After they joined us, and the rains slowed down, we went out to The Narrows, toward Frenchglen.  There's a pretty nice RV park there, and Ben and Carolyn were ready to look for rocks.  We also spent one drive looking for the Kiger Mustang horses.  Never saw any, but it was a neat drive in a part of the Steens we've never been before.  

Since more rocks was on Ben and Carolyn's agenda, we headed for Glass Butte near Hampton, Oregon.  We found a neat camping spot in the midst of the area and they found lots of obsidian.  They're talking about going back next year now that they know where to camp and what to look for!  I ask the question "what are you going to do with these pretty rocks", and he says "I'll figure something out!"  We had no room to bring them home with us, so they'll be waiting for him at his brother's house in Bend!!  

We packed our truck between rainstorms (we can't believe how much it rained in Central Oregon this summer), and got the trailer put away again at our friends' place in Tygh Valley (bless you Chris & Ed!).  We again managed to get all packed up a day early, so left Oregon on September 30, leaving behind several inches of snow in Bend!  We decided to go through Klamath Falls this time, and stopped for breakfast at the Mohawk restaurant in Gilchrist, Oregon.  If you get a chance, stop there.  The food was good, but the decor was amazing!  It was full of commemorative liquor bottles lining most of the walls, plus a bunch of stuffed wild animals and birds.  Wow.  

We hurried on down through California and Nevada and California again (Hwy 395 meanders a bit!) but managed to stop and visit Mike and Mary in Reno, who had more baggage for us to carry down, and to have breakfast with old friends Michele and Don in Minden.  We've known them since the 70's when they were poor students at University of Oregon.  Now they're retired!  How time flies! 

Crossing the border at Tecate was a piece of cake.  They wanted Ben to start the engine on the Model A we were towing and show them the registration.  After that was done we were free to go!  We had a truck load of "STUFF", so were very happy to be on our way.  Plus, we managed to avoid the corrupt police that like to stop tourists as they go through town to and from the border.  Good all the way around!  We decided to take our time driving through Baja and took 4 days, (remember, we did leave a day early!)  Ben wanted to be at the Oasis Hotel in Loreto for their Saturday Night Clam feed, so we had a few short driving days, which is just fine with us at our advanced age, and siestas are a good thing!  We were able to get to Catavina early enough in the day to get reservations, since there was a road rally that ended there that day (motorcycles).  That happened when we went through last year, and their was no room at the Inn!  Phew.  If you're in Catavina, there are not many choices of places to stay, and you'll have to travel at least 3 more hours to get to the next city large enough to have a hotel.  Plus, there is no cell service, nor internet (unless you pay big pesos for it).   
We had no trouble getting through San Ignacio this time; their construction around the plaza was done.  The clam feed at Oasis was as good as we expected, and he's already planning his next trip back!!  

The roads were in pretty good shape, as they've repaved many long stretches that had more potholes than was decent.  They are also working hard on the Santo Thomas grade, which will be beautiful when they're done. Now, it's generally a 1/2 hour wait while construction goes on, then one lane of traffic at a time through the construction areas.  They are moving rocks the size of houses here! 

Now that we are home, we've unpacked everything and most things have found their "place".  The dogs are happy to be back to their normal haunts, and we're waiting for some of the local restaurants to open back up.  We have had very hard rain showers for the last several days, but today is sunny and beautiful, with a southerly breeze to dry things out a bit.  We are almost ready for company, when our summer house sitter moves out, so get ready to buy your tickets!  

For more pictures, I've created a September / October album.

Not sure when the next issue will be ... we're going to be getting busy with our Fashion Show organization.  If you want to hear from us, just send us an email.  We WILL answer you!

Hasta la proxima vez,
Tus amigos de Baja,
Ben, Harriet, Sam & Zoey

Pic-of-the-Month for July / August 2019

Hello from Oregon, Friends!

Looks like Ben isn't going to get around to writing one of these, and I have some time today, so I'll try to catch you up on what we've done so far this summer.  

We had a good trip up, other than a cop in Tecate trying to give us a "made up" ticket.  He said we left rubber on the road (our car trailer brakes were catching on one side when we stopped), and that was illegal in Mexico (!?!).  He told us to pay him the fine, or go with him to the police station to pay it.  He made sure we had the pesos, and told us to follow him.  He took our registration and Ben's license, and we followed him in slow traffic about 50', when one of the cops came back to our car and said "we have an emergency, you're free to go.  Here are your papers!" Basically, they knew that if we got to the station, their trumped up charge wouldn't pass muster, so they gave up on the mordida (bribe money) this time.

  
Oh!  And looking back at our pictures, I remember that we got stuck for a bit in a tight corner in a detour in San Ignacio.  No warning, but the main street that goes in front of the Cathedral above was blocked off.  They were evidently paving the street around the plaza there.  So we were directed by arrows to follow city streets around the back side of the plaza.  The nasty corner was a narrow street with stone walls on both sides, and tighter than 90 degrees.  Ugh.  It took me and 3 or 4 Mexicans directing Ben back and forth until we could get through that corner with our truck and car trailer.  Then we needed directions to the hotel after that!  We got there, and looked at Google maps.  We figured we'd have to go back through that skinny corner to get out of town!  Ugh.  However, when Ben took our first suitcases out to the truck the next morning, a Mexican man told him "you are too long, senor.  You need to go out another way, and I'll show you".  Thank goodness!  The "other way" was through the back wall of the hotel where we were staying.  It went through a palm forest right out to the main road out to the highway!  Too bad we didn't know about that when we arrived the day before! 

Sorry the pic is dark.  The sun wasn't quite up yet, and this area had been burned recently.  

The truck and the Roadster got VERY dirty going through construction areas and some rain showers while we were still in Mexico.  This picture was at a rest stop on Hwy 395, with the Sierra Nevada Mountains behind.

Anyhow, we made it to Ken and Bea's, got the rigs both washed (had to do the Model A twice to get all the road grime off!) 

Ben drove the Roadster into Sisters for the 4th of July Fly-in / Car Show that was being held there, and burned up the generator!  After much detective work and trying this and that, he and our Model A savvy friend Mike figured out the problem and fixed it.  It is running much better now!  We hauled it over to Eugene, and had our friend Jim Carmickle (the expert) pin-stripe it for us.  He does beautiful work!

Then Rebecca, Tim and kids came to Oregon!  It was so great to see them.  We missed them last summer, what with our crazy schedule last year, and the fact that they didn't make it to Oregon then either.  It was a shorter trip than they'd originally planned, because Rebecca needed to get back to Chicago for some surgery.  But while they were here, they got to ride in the Model A, play with the dogs, play in Tom and Karan's sand pile, and DRIVE farm equipment (cousin Tom ran the gas and brake pedals)!  Pretty exciting stuff.

When they went back to Chicago, I went with them, and helped take care of the kids and their house while Rebecca had surgery and was recovering.  Phew!  It pretty much wore this Grandma out!  But we had some great times.  I took them to the local park, to a nearby thrift store where they spent their allowance money, to the library; we went to piano lessons, kid's club meetings, church, and out for pizza.  Of course, Tim drove us as needed, but we did a lot of walking to and from.  Then there was laundry and dishes and cooking and cleaning.  I flew back to Oregon on the 7th.  While I was gone, Ben visited friends in Salem and got the Model A back to Bend.  (Can't pull the house trailer and car trailer in one trip!)  

On August 12, our granddaughter Olivia celebrated her 1st birthday!  She is a happy little girl, and the hair I see on her pretty head looks red to me!

We've got the rest of the summer pretty fully booked; can't hardly believe our summer is almost half over.  We haven't even been out camping yet, but plan to this weekend, and most of September we plan to do more camping ....somewhere!  

I've created a July/August 2019 picture album with more photos.  Help yourself to a peek!

Your friends,

Harriet, Ben, Sam & Zoey 

Pic-of-the-Month for June 2019

Hola Amigos,

You all get one last news flash while we're still in Baja!  We are heading out this Saturday, the 22nd, and plan to be in Oregon by June 28th.  AND....we plan on spending July through September there (or in the Pacific Northwest) this summer!  Yea!  So, if you want to see us, be sure to drop us a line and we'll try our hardest to fit you into our schedule.  

This pair was just next to our driveway, along with two other pairs of Mama cows with their new calves; they were all having their morning breakfast!  They sure are cute now, and we keep seeing more new little ones!  This is also why we have a cattle guard and fences around our property!!  Here are the first two pairs we saw on our way home.  Can you see our house just beyond this first pair?  (And yes, we took Sam for a short walk that day....very short!  He told me where to turn around!)  

We are busy getting things ready to go.  We will have a house sitter (our friend Perla) so we don't have to close up the house and empty the refrigerators (thank goodness!)  We tried hard to get our freezers down to empty, but didn't make it, in spite of having lots of company over.  We will finish the pork ribs tonight, since we've invited our new neighbors who bought the lot next to us.  Hopefully, we won't have too many long power outages this summer, and we might come home to some good stuff left over in the fall!  

We plan on taking our 1930 Roadster with us to get a few things done on it, including pin-striping.  We also hope to take the lady from whom we bought it for a ride.  Even though we didn't paint it red, I think she'll like it!   Who knows, maybe you'll get a ride, too, if you're lucky!  Maybe in the rumble seat!!  😏

Ben spent some time the last several days working on the Jeep, trying to get the speedometer out of the dash, since the indicator needle had fallen out and was lying on the bottom of the gauge!  Well....it was a bit of a problem; actually turned out to be a major project!   And it is such a long story, that it requires diagrams and pictures and lots of hand gestures, you'll have to wait until you see us next time to learn the whole story!  Suffice it to say, things are different on the dashboard now!  

Don't you love the original dashboard, the paint job, and all the holes?  Ben spent a lot of time with his head down there on the passenger side, trying to see the wiring for the gauges!  Ugh!  He did take the passenger seat out, and we padded it nicely, so that helped some.  And yes, he did fix the needle on the gas gauge!!  And yes, the pretty wood is going back on to cover up the ugly metal dash.

Before Ben took the Jeep apart, and before our friends Debi and Sandy left for their home in Washington, we all took a tour up to the San Dionisio Canyon.  We hadn't been there this year, so it was nice to drive up in the Jeep and show them around.  We stopped and walked down to the little stream in the bottom of the canyon, and it was very refreshing.  There were even little fish in there!  

No, they weren't quite as big as Ben is indicating!  Just little bitty toe biters.  

The boulders in these mountains are very impressive.  We hope they stay where they are for now!

On the way back home, we took a route we've never done before; down the Santiago Arroyo to a large cave that we can see from the main road, but have never visited.  We were quite impressed!  It was huge, it had bee hives and bats in it, and all kinds of interesting formations.  

 We were surprised that there was a little pond in front of the cave (with little fish!)

It was an interesting place to explore, until Debi saw some bats flying around further back.  Check out more photos in our June 2019 album.  

Zoey and I cut back on our walks as soon as the weather changed to hot and humid!  If we do go out, it's a much shorter distance.  Both our tongues are dragging by the time we get home on these hot days!   One of the things we can't miss on our walks is a new project on the beach.  Someone bought the piece of property right next to, (and almost in) the arroyo just to the south of our house.  They rapidly cleared the ground, took out a 40+ year old stone wall, and layed out the lines of the house.  Last time I walked by, they were digging out some soil, and it looked like sand all the way down to me!   Not sure how you're supposed to build on that, but we'll see what they come up with.  Someone (40+ years ago) had bought that property, built a really nice looking wall, parked their trailer, and then there was a hurricane which was serious enough that they moved!  (Ben just now tells me that the trailer washed out to sea!  I didn't know that part of the story!)  It's been bare ground ever since, with a "temporary" road cutting through it.  (It's one of the popular ways to get to the beach from our house.)  

The wall is now rubble.  Hopefully they'll use it to build a wall on the property line.  

I will be missing my daily walks.... on the beach....

Up the Flag Monument Hill....

And through the wilderness looking for cactus blooms....

But it will all be waiting for our return next October!  

I can't promise any letters this summer when Ben's in charge.  So....

Hasta la proxima vez,
Tus amigos en Baja for a few more days,
Harriet, Ben, Sam & Zoey

PS. Can't forget the pictures of the grandkids!  

Pic-of-the-Month for May 2019 - part 2

Hola Amigos,

I told you I might write 2 this month, and I have time this afternoon, so thought I'd catch you up on our activities for May.

This photo is from my morning walk today.  Zoey and I are still walking 6 days a week, but as it gets warmer (and more chance for snakes) we aren't always going the 3+ miles.  We did get Ben's brother John to go with us while he was here on vacation most days, and I took him to the Flag Monument and a few of the bike trails, too.  The other day, we discovered this new fence and sign across one trail that I hike regularly.  Hmmmmm...  This could be a problem for a biker coming down the hill!!  We'll see what happens next fall when the bikers are back!  I have a feeling there may be more barbed wire fences coming soon! 

In the meantime, I enjoy checking out the scenery and the plants.  The Pitahaya cactus are blooming now, and they are so pretty!  

Of course, while I was looking for these, I completely missed the Night-Blooming cactus in my own garden (walked right by it!)  By the time I got home that day, it was just closing up.  I took a picture of it anyhow!  I haven't figured out if it blooms more than one night or not... Another bud is forming on this cactus, so I'll try to watch it more carefully!  

It is getting quiet here in the neighborhood.  Many people have migrated north already, and traffic around town is much more reasonable and easier to navigate.   My piano student decided to quit a bit early this year since she's so busy with other school things, and Ben has "finished" working on cars 24 x 7!  There are still things to do on them, but they can wait! 

We took the Jeep on a long anticipated ride to Muertes Bay....except we didn't get there!  The Jeep refused to run decent on steep, rocky roads, so after getting 2/3 of the way there, we turned around and had lunch in the little town of El Cardonal.  According to the local mechanic, it needs an "off-road" carburetor, and we haven't been able to find one....yet.  Or Fuel Injection...  (Next year!)  In the mean time, we enjoy taking it around places here, including down the beach to Rancho Buena Vista for a cool drink and/or a dip in the pool.  Here's a couple pictures from our aborted trip to Muertes Bay (which you can see in the distance to the right of the top picture!)  

 Here's a nice, mostly deserted beach.

I finished up my latest little quilt and sent it off with brother John to be mailed to my quilters in Oregon.  It turned out pretty nice, and I'm anxious to see how the flannel backing that I sent will work.  It's the first one I've done that doesn't have borders, too, so binding it will be interesting!  

Ben's brother John had a great time while here, and left for Oregon yesterday.  We even stopped in Miraflores at the Leather shop to get him a belt the day he flew in.  His waist is so small he has trouble finding ones that fit (really!)  He found one he liked, and the leather guy shortened it while we waited a few minutes!  We took him on Jeep rides, and he finally got Ben to get the Model A out, and he was our first rumble seat rider!  (It was dusty, so needed to be washed before we could take it to town!!) 

After that ride, we put the new cover on it and will probably keep it under wraps until it's time to haul it to Oregon.  

Our daughter Rebecca's family is in the US, and they will be in Oregon in July and August while we're there.  We are looking forward to seeing them all again.  

Eleanor said the cow in this favorite restaurant near Chicago got smaller.... I'm thinking someone got bigger! 

















Ryan and Charlotte's little girl Olivia is growing quickly.  She's 9 1/2 months old already!  Her hair doesn't look red in this photo, but it sure looks reddish in other photos!   He says she is a very happy girl.  

I will probably post one more of these before we leave Baja.  Currently, we're thinking of leaving here the last week on June, but if it starts getting hot, we might leave sooner.  

I have posted more photos in our May 2019 album.  Feel free to check them out.  The captions don't show when you do the slideshow, but if you click on a picture, it should open up with the caption to the right.  If not, click on the "i" in a circle (info) on the upper right of the screen.  


Hasta la proxima vez,
Tus amigos en Baja
Harriet, Ben, Sam & Zoey

Pic-of-the-Month for May 2019

May 14, 2019

Hola Amigos!

Hey!  I'm early this month, but so much has happened so far this month, I may even get around to doing another one later on (maybe not!)  Anyhow, this one has lots of "car" stuff.  Oh...and Happy Birthday today to my sister Shelley!  

We had friends visit!  Our Cessna flying friend, John Hirons and his friend Sue Crosby, showed up in early May at our casa.  Actually, we met them in La Paz first.  They landed at the airport there, and we met them for brunch at one of our favorite restaurants, Maria California. We happened to be in town to pick up our 1930 Model A Roadster from Majalca Body Shop where they were doing final paint touch up and polish before the car show.  Then, Ben and I drove it over to the La Paz Ford dealership so they could display it for the week before the car show (and we didn't have to haul it home until the show was over).  Here we are entering the show room floor! 

And here we are inside.  All work stopped as we brought it in and set it up!  It was lots of fun seeing Ford employees check it out.  



Later that week, Ben hauled in the '28 Ford/Martin-Parry Woody and parked it next to the Roadster.  Pretty cool!

Amidst all that excitement, I had another birthday while John and Sue were here to help me celebrate, and we did a tour out to Cabo Pulmo and Los Frailes so John could check out some of the runways down that way where he has landed in the past.  We also posed for a picture by one of the huge cactus in the area.

This last weekend was the car show in La Paz, and we hauled the '29 pickup up there on Saturday morning.  With help from our friends Debi and Sandy, the guys got the Woody and Roadster out of the Ford showroom and drove them to the park where the show is held in downtown.  Ben had given Sandy some driving lessons with the Woody earlier in the week.  He was a bit nervous about driving in La Paz traffic, but did a great job!  So, we got our pickup over there a bit later, and had all three of our Model A's lined up for the evening parade!  What fun!  Ben led the parade in the '30 Roadster (after the police car and the pickup pulling a trailer with the Quaker State Girls and the music system playing LOUD music), followed by Sandy and Debi in the '28 Woody, and I followed in the '29 pickup with our friend Rosy (she and her husband Hector Manuel put on the show).  We were followed by about 20 other classic cars and trucks.  Lots of people in town and everyone was thrilled to be waved and/or tooted at!  And we never got out of first gear.  In fact, my foot was rarely off of the clutch!  Ben says these slow parade speeds are really hard on the clutch, but when the lead police car goes 5mph, there's not much you can do about it!  At least I didn't have to worry about double clutching...we never got out of 1st gear!  Barely got INTO 1st gear!

We managed to get all three cars back to our hotel parking "space" (behind automatic opening doors...very secure since we had the controller and the only access was through those doors). 

The next day, Sandy and Debi showed up right on time, and we each drove our assigned vehicles back down to the car show area.  We found out at that time there was a conflict of interests; Manuel had gotten a permit to use the park that day for the show, but it is a skate board park, and someone had made arrangements for a big skate board show and a bunch of live bands to play their music until who knows when!!?!  So, Manuel "punted" and placed the oldest cars (including all three of ours) across the street in a primo spot right by the bay.  The rest he squeezed in on the one block area, and a bit of Applebee's parking lot.  Someone set up a shade tent for us on the other side, and a nice breeze blew over there most of the day.  It was lovely!  This was first thing in the morning;  Ben got the red carpet treatment for his car.  Several people pointed out that I managed to get the statue in the rumble seat!  Pretty clever on my part (I just clicked the shutter...didn't realize it was in the rumble seat until someone else pointed it out!)   

Edgar Majalca, who owns the shop where we had it painted and body work done, set up a tent over it, and proceeded to wax and polish it....again!  He and several of his crew also dusted and polished the other cars over there.  He was very proud of that car, and I think he'll get a lot of business because of it.   (He had several cute girls passing out business cards and decals!)  

That evening, when the music at the Skate Board park was extra loud, Manuel started his presentations.  We won several prizes; one for the Woody because it's so rare, and one for the Roadster it being 89 years old and restored.  Then, surprise, surprise, we won top prize for the best vehicle for the '30 Roadster!  We were amazed, because there were some really cool cars and trucks there that have been lovingly restored  (see pictures in my 2019 May album)  but we weren't going to argue!  We were happy, and it was nice frosting on the cake of a two year intensive restoration project.  Now, I'm going to start driving it!  

We brought the Roadster home on Monday, and Ben is in La Paz today and tomorrow getting the other two.  Poco a poco they'll all be back in our garage, the Purkey Model A Museum! And now, maybe Ben will have time to do other projects, although he did mention to me yesterday that he'd like to upgrade the steering and transmission on the Roadster.  Sigh....
  
I have finally started on a new baby quilt project.  I have had some pretty flannels that I couldn't figure out how to use.  In this quilt, I'm combining them with regular 100% cottons to make this colorful pattern.  I'm also going to back it with the flannel.  I think it will turn out quite nice.  Here's what it looks like so far, and I believe I'm only going to add one more row.  Blue and green should be good for a little boy!  FYI, this is what they call a "Charm" quilt, one made with scraps, and all pieces exactly the same.  This particular pattern is named "Tumbler".  These strips are not sewn together yet at the bottom of the picture.  I promise it will be lined up nicely when it's done if you're noticing that it's not!

Our Jeep is working well now, and we've been taking it down the beach to the Round Bar at Rancho Buena Vista several evenings a week, and using it around town.  We also plan to do longer trips in it, as soon as Ben is done hauling Model A's hither and yon.  We saw the "Fuller Brush" Man's truck on the beach yesterday evening.  They were enjoying doing a little late afternoon fishing after a hard day's work.  I didn't see any fishing poles for sale on display, but they might be hidden in there somewhere!

Again, don't forget to look at our 2019 May photo album to see even more car pictures, and maybe a few grandkid pics.  😏😉

We're looking forward to Ben's brother John arriving next week for a nice long stay.  He made his reservations to help us drive cars in the parade, then the date of the show was changed, so we'll have to have a parade in downtown Los Barriles for him!  He says Sandy STOLE his right to drive in the parade in La Paz.  

We are here until late June, so if you want to come visit during some of the nicest, quietest time here, come on down!  

Hasta la proxima vez,
Tus amigos in Baja,
Harriet, Ben, Sam & Zoey