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| San Carlos sunset at Charly's Rock! |
Our road trip began November 11
th, after Mike
carefully loaded the car and the ‘burrito’ with accumulated boat parts and
other treasures. Ironically, it wasn’t raining when we departed Portland. Usually,
we start with a wet load after he hauls cartloads from the house up the ramp at
the moorage. This year, dry on departure then, the entire trip of 1822 miles to
Guaymas, it rained. A lot.
First stop – Mike’s sister and husband’s small farm for an
overnight. A whopping hour and 15 minutes from home but hey, we’ve left the
barn…and spend some quality family time! Next stop, Shingletown CA to stay with
cruising friends. Due to heavy rains, outdoor activities were limited to
driving into the national park and helping split logs and stack firewood under their dry pole barn.
And, of course, swap stories of boating life.
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| Oregon to Shingletown CA |
Off to Reno, living large at a ‘deluxe’ EconoLodge, a short distance
to our usual walks around Virginia Lake. Then off to Shenanigans Irish Pub
which is right out of the old TV show Cheers. Our sweet waitress recognizes us
from past visits(!) and she regales us with stories of her recent wedding. An
appropriate hefty tip is left to help her as she starts a new chapter.
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| I'm including maps by request from a few readers! |
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| 444 miles of mountains, farmland and desert! |
North Las Vegas and long-time friends await - did I mention
heavy rains? LV needed the rain really badly and we managed to walk their bevy
of dogs between the squalls. A requisite casino visit lightens my wallet (Mike
does not partake).
After hugs and long goodbyes, we’re off to Waddell, east of
Phoenix for our next friends’ visit. No pool time, but plenty of rain. And some
dog walking under stormy skies. We sneak in a visit with my long-lost (and
recently reconnected in September) cousin who winters there, and we’ll see them
again as we head north.
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| Gotta fuel up before long dry stretches... |
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| First margarita @ Charly's Rock |
Next stop: Nogales AZ before crossing the border in the
early morning. But wait! A boating friend in Guaymas (think border issues) has an inverter shipping to Tucson,
so we delay our travels south by a day and head back north to meet up with
another friend who accepted the UPS shipment. After an afternoon visit, the
goods transfer in the parking lot in the pouring rain means short hugs and
goodbyes and off we go.
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| Border crossing @ Nogales |
In Nogales after my hair appointment with Lupita, dinner at our favorite Italian restaurant and our last stop to buy bratwurst at Safeway, we are ready. The border crossing is always a crap shoot. Will they want
to inspect our ‘chandlery’ of boat parts scattered throughout the car and
burrito? This time, we score. The border
guy asks if I know Spanish, and to avoid lengthy conversations, I say ‘un poco’.
He calls us ‘gringos’ which is quite unusual for a local to call us that to our
faces. But we smile and he sends us on our way. I figured he can call me what
he wants if we don’t have to pay duty on thousands of $$ of boat parts.
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| Handoff of the the new inverter in the dirt yard |
We’ve been in Guaymas for a very busy week, seeing a
multitude of friends and our favorite vendors, dental appointments, and a
requisite visit to our favorite waterfront restaurant for sunset and margaritas.
Our usual guy Luis has the day off. We’ll catch him next time…so many friends as this is our long-time
stomping ground, so it’s bittersweet to be heading south.
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| This is our next leg - 456 miles south |
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| @ Empalme: crab, shrimp, sea bass - fresh caught! |
But adventures await in Mazatlán – after we make the long
journey through Sinaloa, the home of the Sinaloa cartel. Plenty of recent stories
abound of bad things happening to people along this route so we hope by leaving
super early in the morning and driving on the toll roads, we’ll arrive safely.
Our guy Luis who takes care of our boat will remove our boat
covers, wash the boat and open it up for our hopefully safe arrival after 10+
hours driving.
We’re ready for our boating life on Pura Vida, thankful for every day we have!
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