Day #1: We left our casa at about 8am during a gentle rain. It was cloudy until just before Ciudad Constitucion. Ben kept checking the thermometer reading in our truck....97, 99,100,103!!! Yes it is hot in Loreto, so we're enjoying our AC and a cold Margarita in our room.Ben was the good Samaritan today. A Mexican man flagged us down because he had a flat tire and his wrench wasn't cutting it. Ben got out our star wrench and helped him get those tight bolts off. His spare was pretty low, and he took off like a bat out of Hades after thanking us. We passed him so we don't know if he made it to somewhere where he could ask for air for his tire. We were just going down into the gulch from Ciudad Insurgentes...some of you know that road...not a good place to be with your spare tire going flat. Anyhow, that's the excitement for day 1! Oh, I forgot! Ben's sandals fell apart by the time we got to San Bartolo (15 miles from home) so he had to go to another pair!! Lol! Fortunately he'd packed another pair!
Day 2:. Loreto to Guerrero Negro, about 260 miles today. It was still hot in Loreto this morning...high 80's or low 90's at breakfast at 7:30! We took a leisurely drive, and even stopped at the Mission in Mulege, which we've never done all these years of travel. Arrived at our "budget" hotel in GN fairly early, cleaned the cucarachas off the floor and looked for a good restaurant close by, since the one at the hotel is closed today. Two military checkpoints were easy. They looked in the back of the truck at the one just north of Loreto, but the ill-reputed one at San Ignacio just waved us through. Phew! On to San Quintin mañana, the same distance as today. Looking forward to staying at beautiful El Jardines.
Day 3. Another nice short day..about six hours of driving for Ben and a stop at Cataviña for brunch. Plus I needed to drop off a room key I'd taken with me last October!! Oops!! Beautiful country and interesting colors. Roads in north Baja have lots of potholes and we did see some road crews out fixing them, but they have a long way to go!
In San Quintin tonight at El Jardine hotel. Love this place for the gorgeous gardens. Nice, nice place.
Then we went out for dinner at a place recommended by a friend who know the place well. Eucalipto was a fantastic restaurant with delicious seafood. Wow. Loved it, and we will be back.
Day #4. We started very early (5:30am) because the dogs were still on Mountain time and woke me up to take them for a walk at 4:30!!! Ugh! Anyhow, the traffic wasn't bad at that time, there was no delay on the Santo Thomas Mountain road construction (looks like all the cut and fill is done and they're just working on paving; no work happening when we went by. We got to the Tecate border at 10 and crossed about 10:45. Not bad!! We dropped off a suitcase for friends in Fallbrook, CA, cancelled our reservation for a hotel in San Bernardino, and traveled on to Ridgecrest which is 200 miles north of the border on Hwy 395. Got there at 6:30 pm. Long day, but not too bad. We're going to do the last 2 days in smaller chunks! We found a Thai Restaurant tonight so are stuffed and happy. It was a little hole in the wall, but very tasty food. Not much in the way of pictures today...lots of Southern California freeways!!
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| The new WALL between Mexico and US. I like this one. The old one was ugly, and you couldn't see through it.
Day #5. Would you believe it? Another fairly long day today, but tomorrow is going to be short and sweet... probably just over 3 hours. We left Ridgecrest about 7:30 and made it all the way to Lakeview, Oregon by 5:45, just for the chance to go to our favorite restaurant in town. When we got closer and checked, it was listed as "closed temporarily". Hopefully, they'll be opened again later this summer when we come through Lakeview on camping trips.
The scenery today from Hwy 395 through the Sierra Nevadas was beautiful. Not much snow left, but still gorgeous. Our two dogs are pretty good travelers, but they were getting tired after 2 long days. We've noticed people are good about wearing masks. We have ours (although Ben lost one along the way). We listened to 1 1/2 audio books, lots of music when we have cell service or I can reach a CD, and enjoyed some blessed quietness. It's a long, but always interesting trip. Thanks for coming on our journey with us. On to Sisters mañana!!  |
Days 6 & 7. We left coolish Lakeview at about 7:30, grabbed a ☕ at a drive-through for Ben Purkey and headed to the Lodge at Summer Lake for breakfast. It was great as usual, and my 1/2 order of biscuits and gravy with 2 eggs was pure comfort food!! We got to Sisters just after noon, and unloaded Katie's paintings. She graciously let us spend the night and fed us very well. We also returned our friend Janet's 5 suitcases of clothing she showed at our fashion show last November. (She sold a bunch, and these were left.). Of course, I couldn't resist picking up a few items of clothes at her Gypsy Winds shop in Sisters...couldn't help myself!! After a good night's sleep, we got back in the truck and headed for Tygh Valley, where we store our trailer. Ben noticed one of the tires was very low, so he borrowed our friend's air compressor to get it up to pressure, then found a shop in the nearby little town of Tygh Valley that fixes flats! Well, we didn't just fix the flat, he sold Ben two new tires and balanced and mounted them! So, we're good to go! Except that mice got in the trailer again, and it's going to take a bunch of cleaning. Ugh. Those mothballs didn't do the trick this year. ☹️ At least I had stowed all the utensils and pots and pans so they don't need cleaning...just the drawers and lower cupboards. We're ready for summer!
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