It's Hammer Time

The Drive to Mexico


After a lot of detailed research (ie one lecture, the purchasing of a book we didn’t read, and some googling) we were ready to head down south. We had a vague plan, and an idea of where we were headed. We knew that we wanted to go to the beach, where we could relax, fish, and learn to surf. And that we’d go south…

That is actually easily accomplished in Baja, as there is really only one major highway, and it goes from the border to Los Cabos.  We’d planned to take that highway, and stop when we got tired, or when the beach looked good. But after some more research (IE Google) we found a tour that looked helpful.  It was a quick trip from the border, down to Los Barriles, in only five days. Other tours we’d looked into took a lot longer, and we weren't really interesting in making so many stops. The “Hammer Down” tour from Baja Winters looked perfect for us, and luckily had a spot available. 

A few days before we were set to leave from San Diego, the lovely John and Becky from Baja Winters met us for lunch, and then took us to the Mexican border in Otay Mesa to get our travel visas. We parked on the US side, and walked over to Mexico. We were able to sort out our paperwork very quickly. Once we were allowed to cross the border we had to go into a bank to pay for the visa, and then go back into the office to show them the receipt, and that was basically it. Then we had to walk across the lanes of traffic to the US side, where we had to wait for a couple hours. Luckily we crossed back in to the US with no trouble. All that was left for our trip was to do our last minute shopping and try to repack our messy trailer. 

The Itinerary
Nov 18: San Diego to El Pabellon
Nov 19: El Pabellon to Guerrero Negro
Nov 20: Guerrero Negro to Bahia de Concepcion
Nov 21: Bahia de Concepcion to Ciudad Consititcion
Nov 22: Ciudad Consititcion to Los Barriles

Day 1 - San Diego to El Pabellon

Crossing the border went really well! They actually didn’t check our paperwork at all. They did look inside our trailer briefly though. We narrowly avoided getting stuck, as they wanted us to go into a lane with a very tight corner, but luckily Dean realized in time that it would be impossible. The border guards helped us back out of that situation, took a quick look inside the trailer, and then waved us through. 
As I write this five days later, the first day seems pretty uneventful. 

Day 2 - El Pabellon to Guerrero Negro

Small detour to the beach!

Day 3 Guerrero Negro to Bahia de Concepcion

Day 4 - Bahia de Concepcion to Ciudad Consititcion

It has taken me a month to finish writing this entry, so I don't remember very much about Ciudad Consititcion or the drive. Besides long, and lots of cactus. Cacti I guess. 

We stayed at an RV park that was little more than a dirt parking lot, no real amenities or anything. Nothing special about it sticks out in my head. Except a poor little dog wandering around. She had a seriously injured hind leg, and was hoping around on three legs, and injured paw, and was seriously skinny. She also had a beautiful little face, the perfect definition of "puppy dog eyes". I gave her a few hot dogs, the only dog appropriate food I had.

You frequently see stray dogs around Mexico, which is always sad, but something that you almost get used to. But seeing this one in the park I was furious. I just couldn't believe that these people would have a dog like that on their property, and not take care of it properly. 

The next day I found out the park owners were actually heros. They had rescued the little dog from a neighbour who was abusing it terribly. I'm really glad that she's with someone who is looking out for her now. But a part of me really wanted to take her home.




Day 5 - Ciudad Consititcion to Los Barriles

The most memorable part of the drive for me on our last day of our caravan is driving through Mulege. So pretty! The ocean was a beautiful blue, which just made us even more eager to get to our destination and spend some time in the ocean.

We arrived in Los Barriles mid afternoon, and checked into an RV park called Playa Norte. And when I say checked in, really we just parked our trailer in a spot, and waited around for someone to show up. No one ever really did, although a few of the regulars told us we'd probably be good in that spot for a bit. 

For the record, it took 5 days for someone to actually speak to us and give us a price. And unfortunately we didn't like that price, and decided to move on to a different park in the same area. More to come on all of that.

Trees of Mystery!!

Trees of Mystery

Yes, that’s really what this tourist attraction is called.

One of the things I was most excited to see in Northern California was the giant Redwood trees. Having done almost zero research though we actually had no idea where they would be, or when exactly we would find them. The names of the national parks gave us a good hint though.

We decided to stop at the “Trees of Mystery” attraction, so that we wouldn’t miss them, just in case. We were greeted by a gigantic Paul Bunion and his Ox. If you look closely, you will see Reece and I standing next to Paul. The next photo shows Dean, just hanging out.

 

The walking tour started out cheesey, and really didn’t get much better. They had informative signs, which were helpful, and buttons you could press for an audio explaination, and some truly terrible piped in music. A little bit lame, but the trees were   BIG. HUGE. We took a quick ride on the tram to the  of the mountain. There was a small part of me that was scared to take my little baby up something that could fall.

On the walk back down we encounterd a lot of chain saw carvings that were pretty impressive.  Reece took the opportunity to hang out with a few of them.

Although this is one of Dean’s favourite photos I just cringe. I do not normally dress my baby in sweat pants! I’d just like to make that clear.

Avenue of Giants

As we drove down the highway we would see signs for the “Avenue of Giants”. We decided to pull off and see what that was all about. It is a truly beautiful road, surrounded by the biggest trees you have ever seen. After a few minutes of driving we pulled off to go for a little walk.

I set up the camera to try to get a few family photos. We also enjoyed letting Reece meet the trees and make friends.

First Time at the Beach!

To say that Reece enjoyed the beach would be an understatement. We stopped at a place by the side of the road for lunch, and found an awesome beach. It was somewhere on the Oregon Coast, on a beautiful sunny day. 

Deciding that fun was more important than laundry, we just put Reece down and let him go. These pictures really don't need any other description. But you can have one anyway.

Head down, crawling on a mission.

 Clearly Reece has gotten an idea into his head, as you will see below.

 And the verdict is....

 Sand is not for eating!

 This is possibly one of my favourite pictures of Reece. 

Yes, there are pants under all of that sand. 

We took them off him at the beach, and rinsed them off in a tide pool. 

I think his first time at the beach was a huge success. We're really looking forward to actually getting to warmer weather where he can play on the beach and swim in the ocean. 

(I'm also looking forward to not having to pack up my home and drive every day )

The Oregon Coast and Other Ramblings

It seems that there is something very tiring about sitting in a truck for hours at a time. I am exhausted every day. Even Reece is going to bed super early. This means that I'm behind in my blog updating. So while I'm writing about Oregon, I'm actually in Ventura, California today.


Driving the coast was really beautiful. The weather wasn't great, but we got some beautiful views. When Reece was tired of driving we decided to pull over for a little while, and found a great little beach area, with some awesome views. I think it was called Devil's Churn. There was a pathway down, so we went for a little walk.

       In front of our truck.

Checking out the view!

Reece wanted to make his own way to the beach.

First time Reece touched the Pacific!

Obligatory family pic!

Although it's kind of nice to have Reece tired and going to bed so easily, there is a bit of a downside as well. He likes to wake up early. And with the time change that happened he wakes up even earlier. Occasionally, like today, I am so tired I can barely think. But seeing the sun rise is nice?

Someone asked me to explain our daily life so far. After we wake up we basically hang around the trailer until we decide it's time to go. We try to time it so that by the time we're in the truck Reece is really tired. He's starting to hate going in the car seat, so we have to bribe him with goldfish crackers to get in the seat long enough to buckle him up. But once he's in there all is good. Usually he sleeps for a few hours. When he wakes up we try to stop if possible. He gets very cranky around two o'clock, and is ready for a nap again.

In theory we'd planned to drive from about 10-2, but often we aren't getting into a campsite until dusk. Reece has been a trooper so far though. In the evenings we set up, and try to go for a walk. But sadly we also usually watch a bit of TV (most parks have cable) and then go to bed really early. Life is getting a bit repetitive and uninteresting. So I will leave you with a picture of Reece hanging out in the trailer. And a bonus one of him being adorable. 

Leaving Home

After weeks of procrastination, suddenly we were down to a few days, and it was time to leave. We got very lucky and rented our house out for six months, but that meant we had to pack everything up. And it turns out we have a LOT of crap. An unbelievable amount, really. But after a lot of help from our parents we made our Nov 1st dealine! We'd planned to leave first thing in the morning, and drive straight to Portland. 

 The night before we left, it was Halloween. 

Reece and his cousin Sprout really enjoyed dressing up!

Family pic as we're out the door.

Measuring Reece against our front door.

Excited to get going!

We left our house at 3:27 pm and headed straight for the Canada/US Border. This is the part of the day I was most nervous about, but it went very smoothly. Except for a brief rest stop we drove straight through to Gig Harbor, Washington. Reece did very well during the six hour trip, although I'm not sure how many puffies he ate. 

Our arrival to Gig Harbor was pretty painless. But once we got there we had some trouble finding the RV park. We didn't write down the actual address of the park, so we decided to go to a Starbucks and use their internet. While in the parking lot a helpful security guard came over to kick us out. Unfortunately he didn't know where the RV park was either, but he did have some great tips on places we could stay overnight without getting caught! We arrived at the Gig Harbor RV Resort, and went straight to bed. 

Travel Lessons from the First Day:

• Pack grown up snacks in the truck. Confined spaces plus no stops equals a few hangry people. 
• The fancy new navigation system needs an actual street address. Must remember to write down address, as parking a 30' trailer in a Starbucks parking lot to steal the wifi is tricky
• Bring the camera when you go on walks! 
• Coffee without cream is gross. Buy cream.