Oops, missed one of my favorite sights B4 leaving US

We stayed in Saguaro National Park in Tucson for a couple of days. It was the coolest place!! I can't begin to tell you how human-like these amazing cacti are; they are SO huge and EVERYWHERE. I thought we'd only see a smattering of them here or there, but they were all over the place. Each one was unique! I wanted to introduce myself to all of them and take their pictures. Here is a seemingly "between the legs" shot of a couple of them. If you are ever in this area, you simply MUST meet these amazing creatures (they truly are more like beings than "mere" plants). Cool Cool Cool!

Introducing "Man of the Year" Alejandro Pabloff

January 23, 2009
Yesterday Alejandro, the owner of the RV camp we are staying at (La Jolla Beach Camp--I highly recommend staying here!), stopped by as he usually does to check on us to make sure everything is okay. He offered to show us around his property. He told us the story of how he purchased the land—72 acres for a mere $2000—back in 1960. It has since grown from a lovely beachfront plot and hillside across the road to a tiny village where many people from the United States have been coming for the last 40 years. I can see why. This is a very honorable 85 year old man whose entire family works the place. He is known to the area as a kindhearted man who looks after those in need. After showing us all his various ongoing projects, he offered to take us for some seafood just down the road at Sharky’s! Tony had tuna and I had camaron(shrimp)… mui bien! What a sweet man indeed.

Later in the week (yes, we've officially lost track of the days!) Alej was kind enough to show us his 20 acre farm up on the hillside. We picked lemons and huge grapefruits right off the trees. Then he shook another tree and all these delicous smelling fruits dropped off. They were guava and SO tasty. He packed us a box full of tasty fruit and AGAIN took us to lunch. Fish & chips were had by all. YUM YUM. Everyone we've met tells us how generous this man is and how much he and his family (six sons and many grandkids) have done for the area. Ensenada has honored him as "Man of the Year" twice! Deserving indeed. He feeds many in the area with his farm. He is a man who simply radiates. It has been a true pleasure to know him.

I only hope that I can manage so well at 85 years of age. You should have seen him climbing around his orchard. Keeping your hands in the earth will keep you vibrant no doubt.

I'll post pictures later as they're still on the camera. Well, that about brings ya'll up to date. We're off Monday to head further south on the Baja. Hopefully, you'll see more postings soon.

Hasta la vista!

Keep us in your thoughts!

A beach with natural hot springs

January 19th, 2008
It’s another beautiful morning at the beach. We’re staying ‘til the end of the month here at the La Jolla beach camp just outside Ensenada. Tony set up the solar panels yesterday afternoon so today we’re testing them out. While he tapped into the solar energy, I set a couple of items for the wind to engage. I brought two sets of chimes, some tiny little bells and some bamboo chimes that Tony reassembled after getting beaten up out at our place and its typical high wind zone! Here the beach breeze is gentle and refreshing and the chimes play ever so delicately!
We made our morning coffee and sat outside watching the waves come in and to our surprise we saw several dolphins playing just beyond the surf. We saw them briefly the other day, but this morning there were at least a half-dozen of them rising up. Then we saw something rise a up but there was no fin, so we grabbed the binoculars and low and behold it was a grey whale cresting just above the surface!!! How cool was that! We didn’t know they would be in this lovely little cove. We thought they were only further south in the lagoons of the southern Baja! What a treat! It seemed SO close to shore. We’ll keep a close eye out again tomorrow morning, and perhaps if we get brave enough, we’ll head out into the water to get a little closer to these amazing creatures of the sea. Swimming with dolphins and whales… you gotta love sabbatical.
Speaking of which, I just finished reading a great sci fi novel that will help with the chapter on alien sex. That Octavia Butler sure had one heck of an imagination! Great read called Lilith’s Brood. There’s two more in the series, so plenty more of the story to read… hurray!
Tony has taken the motorcycle off to venture into town for a little bit. It’s challenging to be in a place where you don’t speak the language. I’ve always admired immigrants who come to America with only a few bucks in their pocket and no knowledge of the land or the language. What amazing courage and sense of adventure. Of course for many it was not of choice but of necessity (or enslavement). What a tumultuous beginning to our country. And tomorrow, after three hundred years of slavery and less than a hundred years of freedom, our nation is about to inaugurate our first African-American president!!!! Even whale spotting doesn’t top that beautiful event. I am proud to be an American. A statement I was not prone to say very often. I held my head high the night of the election and when my friend Riham called all the way from Egypt I couldn’t have been more proud of my people! We cheered together! You go Obama!
Well, the beach calls me. Did I mention about the natural hot springs on the beach here??? Just in front of us—marked by a couple of big rocks—are some hot springs just below the surface. You dig a little bit and seriously hot water comes up. It mixes with the ocean water to cool it off just right! We sure found a great place to stop for a while. The man who owns it Alejandro is very sweet and makes sure we have everything we need. Across the street up the mountain a little bit he has some spots you can lease year round for only $750, yes, that price is for the entire YEAR, not week, not month! If we lived closer I would jump on that. If I were a bit older, I’d jump on that. But, there’s still more to do yet. But right now I’m off to enjoy the agua caliente!

Crossing the Border (NOT) in style (Jan 18th)

January 18th, 2009
Well, today was the big day. We finally crossed the border! What a nerve-wracking experience that was. I’m not sure which was more scary: the not knowing where we were going or the potholes that—not unlike black holes in the universe—ought to be named since these could definitely swallow you up and never let you be seen again.
You’d think we’d know where we were going, given the long wait to cross the border… wrong. We took the less popular crossing, so there literally was NO wait. So much for my “I’ll be prepared to navigate us once we cross” plan, but in my defense, I didn’t know we were taking an alternate route until we were in the nonexistent line. And by that point, our attention became immediately focused on the border guy—a kid actually—who knew no English (and we no real Spanish of course) who wanted to see the title for our motorcycle. We were prepared with ALMOST all of the paperwork required of us. But, after a bit of scrambling around, I found it and handed it over. I felt like so many non-English speakers are treated in the U.S., like “what are you doing here if you can’t speak the language?!” And we weren’t even across the damn border yet!! So, border kid asked if any of his co-workers spoke English—and fortunately one guy did. I found this rather odd having spent the last several days in the area south of San Diego (mile marker 3)right near the border where everyone, I mean everyone, was either speaking Spanish, or was clearly bi-lingual. How is it that the clerks at Wal-Mart all spoke both English and Spanish but the border guys nada?
Do I sound defensive? Just nervous actually. I felt helpless once we crossed and there were NO road signs, and the ones we could read were of little use because they were in Spanish (duh!). That wasn’t really the problem. The problem was we had no map. We had crossed where our travel books provided very little info, and we were definitely entering into a part of Tijuana that if my dad had been driving would have hollered to us kids “lock ‘em up!” Tony was beside himself and I could offer little comfort or guidance as to how to get us outa there!
So, we stumbled around from here to there and eventually saw a sign for I-5 and San Diego. It was REALLY tempting to say let’s go back! But, nope, we stuck to our “plan” and followed that sign so that when we got to where the most popular border crossing was (just off I-5) I could use the directions I was prepared to utilize earlier. Whew! We were now on our way out of the scary border town SO many had cautioned us against spending ANY time in whatsoever. I cannot begin to tell you how VERY, VERY grateful I am that the tires, and suspension, and the list is long…on our ol’ RV withstood the beating we gave it today. We stroked the dashboard and apologized to our Roz many times, thanking her for keeping us from being broken down. We also stroked the “buddha belly” of our new addition to the RV, “Lani-boy.”
In this lovely little beach town, Encinatas, just north of San Diego, we hung out for a day or two (days/time are definitely beginning to blur three weeks? into our travels). There we stopped into the local Thrift store where Tony picked up a steal of a deal on a rash guard/wet suit for surfing. Can’t wait to see my baby surf! While he was trying them on I stuck my nose in on this lovely gentleman’s consideration of a brown with floral print comforter. He had asked the elder woman behind the counter to help him unfold and estimate its size. Count me in! I meandered over and as they were debating whether or not is was a queen, I said, I think it’s a full. I mentioned that I have a full-sized bed and it looks about that size. I proceeded to say that it would probably fit a queen but that not much would hang over. Then, before I knew it, out it popped, “But who needs a hung over queen?!” The seemingly gay man (read stereotypically effeminate and just the kind of person I’m interesting in chatting with!)who was looking to purchase the item busted a gut and offered me the high five! The woman working the counter joined in the laughter and said wait ‘til I tell so and so. You gotta love human connections. Anyway, I do digress. So, once we left the Thrift store, we saw said man with comforter in tow just ahead of us in the alley. I told Tony the story and we all made introductions. We asked where some good places to eat were, and besides the Thai restaurant that perpetually calls our names, we opted for Kealani’s, a little Hawaiian spot. This is where we had dinner and picked up our little Hawaiian Hula man we nicknamed “Lani-boy” after the restaurant and Tony’s cousin. He wiggled all the way down the Mexican highways on the dashboard, playing his ukulele perched high above his buddha belly.
We are now just outside Ensanada, the town where we thought we could pick up our tourist visas, but learned that we were supposed to do that at the border now as well. We arrived at the migracion office about less than a half-hour before closing time to find this out. I had a suspicion that there may be difficulty since I found a paragraph in our more recently updated book that stated Ensanada was no longer the place to go for visas. Shit! Well, one and a half hours south of the border and NO WAY IN HELL were we turning around and reliving THAT experience anytime soon ( a lot like childbirth I imagine!), we went to the Migracion office just to get more dirty looks at our stupida Americana ways! He rushed our paperwork while sending Tony running down the street 3 blocks to try and get into the bank (which also closed at 2pm)to pay the fine for not having stopped at the border. He had no luck; however, the man was nice enough to give us our visas without paying the fine, warning us that we had better come back Monday with it paid. We promised we would and then high-tailed it out of there, only to sit in front of the now-closed office trying to figure out where to next. It’s Saturday evening and the bank is closed tomorrow, so, it looks like we’ll stay right around here for a couple of days to avoid getting on the Mexican government’s poop list! We drove just a smidge outside of town to our pick of parking spaces directly in front of the Pacific Ocean. As I sit here typing up this entry, I am blessed with the sound of the ocean’s endless waves coming ashore. Tony cooked us a lovely dinner outside over a fire as we watched the sun set and youth playing in the surf. A bit nippy for my middle aged body I believe… but, the plan is to head further down the Baja where the water is warmer and the whales are waiting to commune with us! It’s hard to keep moving given how stressful it can be at times. My guess is we’ll look to boondock somewhere not too far from this town (since we saw Internet access signs) and kick back and truly relax until the end of the month. We’ll see… meanwhile, it is time to snuggle up next to my honey and thank him again for doing so much to make this trip possible. I am a lucky woman indeed.

Happy New Year from deep within Mother Earth

January 2, 2009

Hello again! We’re having a pretty exciting day today. Currently we are “parked” on the side of 375, the bypass around El Paso, Texas. The tire blew out just a few miles into town after being in the desert for one hundred and thirty-six miles. I’m not sure which I’m more in awe of at this point—the Carlsbad Caverns that we walked through this morning—or the fact that we made five phone calls at five pm on a Friday evening and fortunately found someone willing and able to bring us a tire because, yes, we had yet to purchase a spare (the rim on our spare was busted). I said a thank you to all those who prevented us from breaking down somewhere in the desolate desert, where there are no service stations whatsoever, not to mention absolutely no cell service either. Yes, we are calling this episode “luck.” Lots of luck! Or, put another way, lots of guardian angels looking after us!
The cave was amazing I have to say. It was truly a sight to see. We both just kept saying “damn this is a BIG cave!” It was beautiful, spectacular, truly a natural wonder. I remember seeing signs for Carlsbad Cavern when down at the Lake of the Ozarks. I always wondered exactly where this place was that I saw advertised so frequently. Well, now I know. It’s at the southern most end of New Mexico, just a hop, skip, and a jump before Texas.
It’s funny; Tony and I both were interested in driving quickly through—actually around—El Paso, Texas. If we could have skipped the state of Texas altogether, then that would have been just fine with us. Ironically, we find ourselves stuck her e for the moment. But, soon, “within one hour” the Firestone guy will deliver us a new tire, all for the affordable price of 142 dollars and some pocket change. A tow alone (phone number #3 that went unused) would have cost us that I would imagine. Yes, we are lucky indeed.

Yes, it actually rains in Tucson.

January 4, 2009

It’s raining in Tucson. It’s raining in the RV. A flat roof is a poor design indeed. It’s coming in through the opening where the air conditioner is mounted. Tony tilted the RV with a good slant so that it will help shed the water off to one side. The drip is significantly less, but the rain continues to fall, so, we’ll see.
There is much to learn with an ol’ RV; it comes as no surprise that a home on wheels can have a multitude of issues. Ironic that we opted to hit the road to have some time away from house construction only to have maintenance issues in our portable house instead. We’re still working the kinks out, but hopefully we’ll get it figured out without too many headaches.
Silver coating and caulking here we come—just as soon as the rain lets up. Looks like it’s supposed to rain some more tomorrow yet as well. Hopefully our slant will keep the indoor rain to a minimum until then. The man who works the desk at our Crazy Horse RV park here in Tucson commented, “It rarely rains here in Tucson.” Yeah, well, that’s alright. We needed to learn what all needs to be done to the RV before we enter Mexico. Better it should rain inside in Tucson than somewhere down on the Baja, where language and lack of facilities serve as barriers and added frustrations.
Just another day in paradise: learning, loving, and laughing together!

Earth to the Mother Ship?! Roswell, NM (Dec 29)

December 29, 2008
Day two on the road, soon there will be no counting, at least not until we lament the last days of our journey and the final countdown back to the wonderful world we left for wandering’s sake.
We arrived in Roswell, New Mexico this afternoon with warmer weather, calmer nerves, and fewer noises that shake us like turbulence in a plane. We are learning our RV slowly but surely and what all she’s capable of. We have yet to name this Toyota Dolphin of ours, though we know when the moment is right it will come to us, like the name Rosie for our pot bellied stove that warms us throughout the winter months in our cozy little straw bale home we’ve spent the last several years building.
It’s one of the reasons for wandering as we’ve worked so hard getting our place livable. It was time for a break for us both from building, and it was time for us also to delve deeper into our relationship now already on its 5th year. As we struggle to learn how to make a fridge work off of one of three different energy types, how to make the camper run off solar, and how to live in a 20 foot space together, we are also learning how to make our communicating through the tense moments less combative and more supportive, a task we have managed while building often with the help of an easel and an oversized notepad. When you don’t have the language skills to communicate what you are struggling to construct, we’ve found drawing out or individual ideas helps us visualize what the other is thinking.
I wanted to bring it on the trip, but I was informed a regular sized notepad will have to suffice. While I agree, I’ll miss the Pictionary form of communication we’ve relied on so frequently to weather our interlocutionary storms.
We have settled in for the night at our first RV campsite, situated next to a “bottomless lake” in Roswell where I’m convinced this houses alien anthropologists who are watching us take the planet to the brink of destruction. We must be quite a species to observe; how do they not intervene? Perhaps they are merely awaiting the moment to take over the planet once we’ve demonstrated beyond a doubt that we’re incapable of caring for it properly. Who knows? Regardless, we were greeted at our site by two great horned owls woo’ing back and forth to each other. It was amazing to see them just above us on the red rocks lit up by the setting sun. The sunset was spectacular in all its orange glory, especially as it laid its head to rest on the peaceful surface of the still water beside us. Off in the distance one mountain provided a shadow looming large in the sky. Hand in hand we walked along the edge, my fisher man watching with baited breath the tiny swells that would magically appear out of nowhere. While he dreams of fishing these waters come morning, I know I have already caught the love of my life and will be waking up next to him for the next 8 months in a row, something I haven’t been able to do in several years now.
I am happy. I am grateful for ALL that I have.

Our journey to and through Mexico, one flat tire at a time!

El Dorado, Spanish for Dolphin, is the nickname of our '86 Toyota Dolphin RV. So, we've named our blog El Dorado's travels. We have the obligatory hula dancer on the dash and have already begun collecting cool stickers to decorate the ol' gal.

We left Colorado the weekend after Christmas and headed due south for warmer weather. Our first stop was Roswell, New Mexico. We had to find out the scoop about Area 51 and the alien crash landing. We toured the UFO museum and research center and kept our eyes toward the sky for any other ETs.



Our favorite t-shirt we saw there had a crash of the space ship and one alien saying to the other, "I didn't say it was your fault... I SAID I was going to BLAME you!" Tony and I have been using that line regularly throughout the journey so far.



Okay, so I'm new to posting. I've been journaling for the past month while on the road and have some pictures as well to post to all who've been inquiring. So, let's see if I can figure this thing out. Should it not work, you know I'll be blaming Tony!



Hope all is well with our loved ones. Enjoy our postings. We head out Monday for southern Baja. When we find internet access again, we'll post some more. All prayers and positive thoughts are appreciated!!! Enjoy!