Week Two 12/13/08

Sunday December 7, took a road trip to the famous “Tombstone Arizona” home of the legendary Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday. Jumped on an early trolley tour of the city, hosted by a very comical but informative host. Lunch at the “OK Corral Café”, specializing in Buffalo Burgers. Self guided walking tour in the PM, then on the way out of town stopped at the famous “Boothill Grave Yard”. Lots of descriptive head stones regarding hangings, gun fights, murders, suicide, etc. Down town the typical “gun fight shows” entertaining the tourists. In that regard, the tourist level was very low, signs of the economy. Seemed like every resident was out in costume with no one to entertain. Most have regular jobs. What are these folks going to do. What about those Packers! Awful!!

Monday December 8, a domestic day, cleaning rig and laundry. A little rain in the AM. Met some folks that had just returned from Kino Bay Mexico, our destination tomorrow. Saw our kayaks and conversation lead to Kino Bay.

A great visit and sounds like we will have a great time down there. Also, another couple stopped by our RV, destine for Kino Bay a week or so later than us, saw our name on the list of folks headed that way, so joined us in the conversation with our neighbors just returning from there. What a great coincidence. Both couples Canadian. Exchanged cards, knowing we will connect with at least one. Lots of good information, relieving a lot of concern about boarder crossing and legal unrest. A great visit!

Tuesday December 9, departed for Kino Bay Mexico about 8:00am. Stopped for breakfast in Nogales, state side, Denny’s, and got directions from our waiter to the boarder crossing. Very nice and helpful. Even suggested a seafood restaurant in New Kino Bay to check out. Boarder crossing confusing and costly. Three permits required for vehicle, trailer, and tourist visa, $130 approx. Took about an hour, and difficult because agent was non English speaking, so some confusion. Once on the toll road, pretty easy until Hermosillo, capital of Sonora. Tolls costly also. Directions there became confusing and quite frankly thought we were lost numerous times. Stopped for directions, but language became a problem. Trying to get to Kino Bay. Under estimated time and wound up traveling in the dark, a no no in Mexico! Got into Old Kino totally lost, looking for an RV park. Stopped for directions with no English speaking people. Finally, a young Mexican fellow observed our dilemma and asked if he could help. Not real fluent in English, but we were able to communicate our issue. He directed us to an RV park of a friend of his. Very grateful as it was approaching 8:00pm, he guided us by his truck. Gave him 50 pesos for his kindness. Really nice guy. Tired, settled in and will make way to our Western Horizon Resort tomorrow for our 5 week stay, just some 10 miles from here. Wow! What an experience. There are really some nice people in the world. Thought for a while we were going to spend the night on the road.


Wednesday December 10, woke up not sure where we really were having been guided in by our Mexican friend late last night. Beautiful sunny day, so walked the park and behold we were right on the sea. Park full, mostly Canadians settled in for the winter. Lovely park called “Islandia” pronounced Icelandia.. Learned we are in “Old Kino Village”. Still need directions to the road to our Western Horizon Resort. So wrote out from our English to Spanish dictionary our needs. Went to office to settle up for the nights stay, $150 peso, ie; $15. Host spoke pretty good English, so got directions to restaurant and road with a crude map. After several passes, turn a rounds, a wrong GPS Lat & Lan, and more directions through the village, found the restaurant El Pargo Rojo highly recommended. Met a Canadian couple that had crossed the boarder about the time we did. They got lost also, spent the night in the restaurant parking lot. Beside that, he lost his wallet, thinks somewhere around the boarder. OH BOY!! They invited us to join them for breakfast and had a very nice visit. They are headed for Puerto Vallarta.

After breakfast found our road to the resort. WOW! What a road. More like an ATV Trail. 10 miles of “washboard”. Traveled 6-8 mph, Shari’s bra stuck to the cab roof!
Approaching the resort, the Sea of Cortrez viewed beautiful blue water bordered by mountains. Got registered and selected a site with a great view of the water. Settled in and grilled steaks for supper.

Thursday December 11, Checked out the RV park and beach. Very nice resort club house, swimming pool, hot tub, etc. Even a golf course laid out in the sand. Funny! Began cleaning up the RV from the dirt road in. Then joined the group for a Sea Food Gumbo dinner with a dish to pass. Met a lot of people, all very nice. Lot’s of really good food.

Friday December 12, joined the morning “Walk away the Pounds” exercise class, then followed with a water aerobics in the pool. Wow, two hours of exercise. Then invited to play golf at 1:00pm. Played 9 holes on this “homemade” golf course in the desert. Fun!
Greens were “sand”. But could use a broom to smooth the surface. Also, allowed to use a tee on the fairways, else every shot would be out of a “sand trap”, fun! No “gimmes” on puts, as you never know for sure where the ball will go! Interesting, plus $0 green fees, fun! Nice people. Hot tub after Golf.

Saturday December 13, breakfast up at the club house. Spent the day planning our trip to Mazatlan. Staying at the “The Inn at Mazatlan”, a very nice RCI Resort. 600 miles from here, so we will overnight in Los Mochis, and yes we must travel the ten miles over the “washboard” road, but this time w/o the trailer, so hopefully better.

End of week two