5C's Que Pasa

Caeli had us up at 2AM and again at 5AM and not to look for the Easter Bunny!!  Finally whatever was in her system came from either end.  We got a slow start to the day because we were tired.  Sadly our friends Karol & Gary whom we met in Acapulco years ago were unable to join us on Saturday but we will see them next year.  I think it has been at least 5 or 6 years since we last saw them, maybe more.

Along with the bunny rabbits running around this RV park we met a baby rattler Saturday afternoon. The sun had heated things up quite a bit and this guy came out for a visit. Someone told us that humans can be permanaently disabled by their venom. That put an end to the girls freedom, we didn't want them to meet up with a baby or its parents!

So we finally hit the road about 10:30AM Easter morning.

Finally merged onto I 15, beautiful flowers all over the place. Spring is a wonderful time.

As I studied the map I wondered if we should split off onto I 215 rather than proceed on I 15 but saw no reason to do so. Well now I know!!!! Best go further East, away from Anaheim and Los Angeles.

I don't think this could be a part of my everyday life!! Just a simple beach will do!

We finally got through the climb up to Victorville where we stopped at a Pilot for diesel, our very first fill up since we left Mexico.  The price today was $4.459 per gallon, cash payment.  We have seen prices as high as $4.699 and I saw a small service station selling diesel for $4.399.  We took on 76.7 gallons for $343.00USD.  Looking back in my notes from last October we took on 76.56 gallons for $313.08USD so really not that much more at todays higher prices.  Perhaps by keeping at 55MPH we are saving some fuel.  55mph is the legal speed limit while towing in California.

Now this is where things got a bit poco loco!! I navigate and Colin drives, no questions asked. He has no idea what happened yesterday but by reading this he might get a glimmer of my supposed logic. In this map, just to the left of the yellow area on I 15 where there is the #2, that is where we fuelled up. Then we started heading up I 15, towards Barstow. As we got to exit 153 I realized that we would save a good deal of time if we were to travel North on HWY 395 which was right next to the Pilot Station. I figured we could just cut across from Victorville to Adelanto and head up 395. Somehow I managed to get us onto Route 66 instead.

First obstacle was this bridge. With our CB antenna we are 13'4". The bridge was 14'4"!!

...then came this one, what was ahead?

How many people get to drive a 40' bus down Route 66! Cool! I only wish we had the song playing as we drove, it was playing in my head though!!

Only $800.00 US.

The road went on and on. I thought that with my detour to my detour we would end up in Hinkley on CA58. I had originally hoped to come out way West at Kramer Junction.

Things were getting a little tense in the RV!! Now what! Could we not even get to Barstow? Finally found a tiny store where Colin went in and asked a fellow for directions. He told him that "my wife got us lost'! Long story short...we were just a few miles away from CA58 but had taken quite the detour, probably 52 miles out of our way. Well it was fun and no harm done.

So we had another hour to drive to get to the rest area, just West of Boron where we have stopped many times before.  We arrived about 4PM.  It took 5.5 hours to go a mere 226 miles!!!  This is a lovely area with a huge pull off area away from the cars and trucks.  Lots of privacy and perfect for sleeping.

We haven't had TV for over 9 days and have not missed it but today Colin wanted to set up the dish so we could tape a few shows. Well for a variety of reasons the set up took 2 hours, what a waste of time but who was I to say anything after getting us lost. Thanks goodness for my Verizon stick. First we went online to get our receiver rebooted but did not have our account number with us so then I set up Magic Jack and we called Star Choice. All was well in the end and nothing that wine could not fix! Even had a nice Easter chat with my parents.

It seemed like the day went on and on.  The girls are not happy at all, I can even see Carmeh pouting.  They are not interested in walking around here, they want the beach.  Who doesn’t….and that was our poco loco Easter!

So off to start today’s adventure…….

Tags: critters, Funny, Maps, USA, Wine

The 5C's wish you all a great Easter Sunday.

We are still here in California but leaving the RV Park today…….

The great migration North is continuing. We are travelling about 175 miles to a spot just West of Boron.

However my thoughts are stuck in Mexico.  The past week is what is called Semana Santa ( Holy week ) and the Mexicans come to the beach by the thousands.  In other parts of Mexico different celebrations are carried out.  We have never been there for Easter but will be next year, I can hardly wait.  My friend Nancy, who lives in Mazaltan has done a great blog post on the week.  Be sure to check it out.

Just a day or two before we left the Isla a variety of entrepreneurs were setting up shade for sale. Four posts in the sand plus a bed sheet secured to each corner is a huge income to these people.The restaurants are going to thrive as are all my beach vendor friends.

Noreste, the Mazatlan newspaper had written a story on March 30th....after a successful Carnivale and a huge Semana Santa I reaaly believe that the economy might just start to pick up.

Que pasa on the Isla, photo by Tim.....

Thanks to John for the elevated view of the activity on the beach. That is our palapa in the lower right foreground with an RV on our site!!! The red truck is on the other side of the fence. I wish we were there but we have a year from now to look forward to. Happy Easter everyone!

Tags: Easter, Maps, Mazatlan, Mexico, Stone Island, Tres Amigos RV Park

We had a great day again, actually we almost always have a great day!  After walking the girls we headed off for what we thought would be a quick visit to the Egoscue Clinic.

Pete Egoscue was there and we had a 50 minute meeting with him talking a bit about the program but more about life and peace of mind. He said getting rid of Colin's tinnitus is child's play and getting the physical body aligned is most important in order to create peace of mind and that nothing else matters.

We reviewed our exercises making sure they were being done correctly. The fellow in this photo is doing one of the most time consuming ( an hour ) and most difficult exercises yet he is still able to work on his computer or watch TV with special prism glasses.

After the clinic, even though we had left the girls alone again ( the neighbours did verify once again that they did not bark, such good kids ) we make a quick, well not so quick, stop at a mall so I could get a bit of shopping in.  I was concerned at having to use my Visa card as after 5 months in Mexico I could not remember my pin/chip number.  Fortunately here they just swipe it, why are we so anal about security in Canada?

Most of the homes here have solar panels on their roof or in their yard.

The homes here are huge with large yards, this flower display went all around the house, best I could capture speeding past in the car.

Ramona is a beautiful area just a few miles inland from the San Diego area.  This is horse country but also wine country.  There are many wineries in the area which we will have to visit another time.  It is likely that we will be back in this area next spring for a tune up visit to the Egoscue Clinic and to just enjoy this area of California.  We are at 2000 feet elevation which did cause us to turn on our furnace and plug in a heater for that past few mornings.  However the days are sunny and very warm.  We are forecast to hit 85F today.

Our Western Horizons Resorts membership allows us to stay unlimited number of nights for just $2.00 per night with electric included.  A great deal which in fact would mean that we could winter at our park in Palm Springs for $60.00 per month but we really really prefer to be on Stone Island near Mazatlan.  Since leaving the Isla we have paid $17.00 in RV park fees and will be boondocking the rest of the way home.  What I do have to do, is to stop speaking to everyone in Spanish, especially the Border Patrol guys!!  They weren’t too happy to be wished ‘have a good day’ in Espagnol.  You could say that in addition to be being our transit time from our home at Tres Amigos RV Park in Mexico to our home at Holiday Park in Canada this is also our mental transition time.

This RV park is sort of rustic, in the woods, lots of critters to occupy the girls, a swimming pool and spa for the adults, the usual mini golf, club house and all that stuff that we don't bother with.

So far they haven't caught anything but they keep trying.

Such pretty girls. Happy today but soon to be sad when we meet up with the cold and rain. We have had 5 emails from friends telling us "don't come home, it is too wet, too miserable and cold" but sadly we do have to return eventually.

Tags: health, Holiday Park, Mazatlan, Mexico, Stone Island, The girls, Tres Amigos RV Park

Yesterday, Friday, we left the girls alone in the RV and drove to the Egoscue Pain Clinic.  Little did we know that the girls were going to left alone for close to 7 hours.  Poor things.  We even had another RV park beside while away and on checking they claimed the girls did not bark.  Hard to believe!!  I think the RVers were just being polite.

Last month, on March 28th, I did a blog post on how we discovered this place and all that it involves.  We were so impressed that we altered our return route to Canada to incorporate a visit to the clinic.

Saw this tree outside the clinic. I have no idea what type of tree this is and the photo doesn't show it well but the bark is peeling away, layer upon layer. Most interesting and unusual.

At the clinic we were photographed  head to toe on all four sides and then an assessment was made and then exercises were prescribed.  We found out that there are over 800 exercises so of course what you get in the book is just skimming the surface but still a great help to someone in pain.

This one, called 'Static Back' is a basic and surprisingly helpful. Colin has been doing this one almost daily since Christmas and has found it to be of great value.

You are given a menu, that's what they call the exercises, food for the body. Colin got 12 and I got 11. You have to say how much time per day you are willing to put into the program and you are given exercises based on that time frame.

The cost was $250.00 each for close to four hours of one on one time.  There are many options to the program that allow one to continue via Skype over the months to come.  There are also over 25 clinics throughout the US.  I suggest that you start by buying the book and reading that.

When we got home I was exhausted, in fact I went to bed at 8:30PM and slept 12 hours. Hard to believe the changes we have experienced in 24 hours, I am not going into details on this post other than to say it was worth every penny we spent.

A very cool 38F this morning…..yikes!!  The plan is that once I get this written, do some exercises and get myself dressed we are going back to the clinic to review our exercise technique.  Hopefully we will also meet Pete Egoscue, the creator of this program.  We were to have met him yesterday but he was delayed in New York and only flying back last evening.

Is is Good Friday but it seems that here in the US, as opposed to Canada where it is a statutory holiday, it is mostly business as usual.

Tags: health

We took our time getting going Wednesday morning but still managed to be on the road by 9:30AM.  It was a good thing.

Today we were travelling 168 miles which according to Mr Google would take 2.5 hours. Well it took us 4 hours and we only had a 15 minute stop at a rest area.

We left from Pilot Knob, just a few miles West of Yuma and ended up about 5 miles East of Ramona, California.  It didn’t take us long to realize that once past El Centro this was a new route to us.  I guess we always headed North at El Centro to the Salton Sea.

About 6 miles into the journey we were greeted by yet another Border Patrol.

One ferocious drug sniffing dog and no smiles at this stop!

Next we waived to the Good Luck Duck Team as we passed the Imperial Sand Dunes BLM area. Had we known they were so close we would have made an effort to meet the Duck Team!!

Then we were climbing and climbing up to an elevation of 4140 feet.  The RV engine got warm so we had to down shift.  There were barrels of water for radiators all along the route.

Very interesting scenery. The area was covered with these huge rounded boulders. I want to know where they came from???

Huge wind turbines at the summit.....

...and then another Border Patrol! Are they listening to us with all the electronics and enclosed vehicles???

According to the sign, this particular checkpoint is making progress!!

We kept on going up and down, around a curve and then around another curve and finally five miles East of Ramona on HWY 78 we arrived at Ramona Canyon RV Resort, a Western Horizons Membership  Park.  We had joined WHR many years ago but have used them less than 4 nights to date.  As we were in the area we thought we better make use of our membership.

So here we are in a huge site for a mere $2.00 per night including 50AMPS!! As you can see Colin is about to wash the car!

The girls are happy to be here, the hunting feature today is chipmunks.  Apparently there are rabbits in the area but we haven’t seen any yet, thank goodness!!!  I saw some beautiful red crowned woodpeckers on one of our walks.

We are also happy to be here and settled in for the next four nights.  Thursday morning our adventure continues with a visit to the Egoscue Clinic in San Diego.

Tags: health, Maps, travel, US/Mexico border