I’m writing this from Petchanga RV park in Temecula, California, where we have an impossibly slow internet connection that keeps dropping us!! Arggg! We are 147 km from where we cross the border at Tecate, Baja California, Mexico. Our plan is to leave early tomorrow morning (Tuesday December 28th) and head straight across the border. We plan to take a new route from Tecate over towards Tijuana and then south to Ensenada. This route has been recommended on the Baja Pony Express (a Baja newsgroup) as a good alternate to the construction riddled Mex. 3.
Just to back track to the start of our journey in Canada: We celebrated our Christmas with my sister Jo and Brian, our kids and the grand kids on November 28th. We then assumed our duties caring for the grand kids from December 2nd to the 12th. Mike and Kate had a lovely vacation without kids in Maui, and we had great fun taking care of our two very busy grand kids! Between early morning hockey practices, ballet, tap, diving and school we were quite ready to leave Victoria on the 14th. We will miss them all very much and we also plan on having lots of fun on our 5th southern Baja journey.
This year we are taking my old Suziki Vitara with us (I’m driving it) and we will store it in Los Barriles for our return visit next year. It will be great having the car on the drive down as well as having a car when we arrive in LB. There are so many places to explore on the Baja that we have not been able to get to in the motor home or on our bikes. It will also be impossible (and certainly not advisable) to write anything for my blog while Lorne is driving since I will be driving too!!
Our trip began with rain turning to snow and then pouring rain all the way down to Grants Pass. We visited with our friends John and Sharon who live in Bothell, Washington and met them for dinner at the Tulalip Casino just north of Everett Washington. They are happy in their retirement. She continues to work on her family genealogy and her new interest is Facebook where she is able to keep in touch with so many of her family members from all over. They also have a lovely home on the water on Vashon Island that has spectacular views of Seattle and Mount Baker. They would love to sell it, however, with the economy at the moment it remains a buyers, not a sellers market. Any interest out there?
We continued south, stopping at Woodburn Outlet mall, stayed at the RV park there, did a bit of shopping, and visited our Baja friends MaryAnn and Jim who live in Ridgefield, Washington, just north of Portland. Jim is recovering from surgery so it was great to see first hand how well he is doing! Since Jim’s doctor insists that Jim stay home till all tests are clear; they will not be able to get down to their unique and charming home in Los Barriles until April. We will be on our way home by then so may pass them in transit!
As we continued south through the pouring rain we received weather warnings of mega snow in the Sisikiyous mountains so at Grants Pass we headed west to Crescent City, California. This time we drove the Redwood Highway (99) in the daylight (and the pouring rain). Nonetheless the redwoods were amazing and the forest was truly spectacular. We had a great night at the little rv park on the Pacific at Crescent City for $15.
South of Crescent City we had one uneventful night at a very expensive RV park and then on to Fremont (just south of San Francisco) where our other specialist GMC mechanic Jim brought the coach up to standard for the remainder of our trip (we hope).
Then we were off to Los Angeles where we had a wonderful night at Dohenny State beach. There had been a great deal of flooding in the LA area with some of the freeways closed! The campground had been quite flooded out and the water was just finally receding so we were very lucky to get a spot. The rain has finally stopped!!
We enjoyed ourselves so much at my goddaughter Megan and Reginald's home for Xmas. Megan and Reginald had sent her mom - Sandi - a plane ticket so my good friend Sandi was there for Christmas after all. It was very fun spending time with an almost 2 year old. Ethan is a total delight. We all just watched him and played with him all day every day we were there. Ethan loves music very much and he really liked playing my banjo!! He was totally enamored! He also loved to drive the motor home. We had Christmas Eve dinner at Donna and Jun's beautiful home (Sandi’s sister). All three of Sandyi's sisters and their children and grandchildren were there. It was a very lovely family day.
There! That brings us all up to date – who knows when next I will write…..just know that I have some trepidation about doing 1700 km of driving in the Baja. It hasn’t been bad so far but the highway in Baja leaves a lot to be desired and we are taking a different route at the beginning.
