On the Way to Rocky Point

We spend the night at J & L Repair and the next day they took care of the small repairs and installation of our freezer/refrigerator that is one of our bays in the RV. As it was late in the day when we left, we stopped over night at Spotlight Casino 29 in Indio. We have stayed here a number of times for an overnight stay but never went into the Casino itself. This time we decided to have dinner there. We ate at a restaurant called La Suerte, which has Mexician specialties as well as steak and seafood. I had lobster and shrimp enchiladas and Joe had the chili verde and we shared flan for dessert. Everything was excellent/
The next day we traveled to the Painted Rocks Petroglyphs Site. It is on BLM land and has hundreds of ancient petroglyphs there plus a campground within walking distance of them. It is about 12 miles from Gila Bend where we are set to meet up with Larry and Orene and another couple, Alan and Margorie. The campground is nice and is busy during the winter but there were only a few others in the park when we were there and the day we left we were the only ones there. The campground hosts had left as well.

We took a little walk over to the area where the petroglyphs are.There were also some information on the history of the area.

It was interesting to see that this area was on the Butterfield Trail as that also goes through the Temecula area, where one of the streets is named Butterfield Stage Coach Rd.

We had a nice couple of days here though pretty hot and we are looking forward to a little cooler weather at Rocky Point(puerto Penasco).
We headed to Gila Bend to a Burger King to meet up with our friends to caravan down into Mexico.
Larry and Orene hadn't met Alan and Marg before. They had read about the Rocky Point trip next year and had contacted Larry and Orene regarding this pretrip. They are a very nice  couple, originally from the UK who have lived in Denver for about 30 years or so as I recall. They have been to many of areas of Mexico but not in their RV. They thought it would be nice to be able to travel with other people their first time and so were happy to be able to tag along with us on this trip.
Interesting, once we got there they ended up signing up for a month. No fears of traveling after this easy trip.
After having lunch and getting to know each other we headed south to the border which was about 60 miles. We had an easy crossing with just being waved through with no questions or showing of passports.

It was about another 60 miles or so to Rocky Point with scenic views of the desert landscape. The route was pretty easy. Well, with one exception. Once we got into town we turned down the street that goes to Sandy Beach and the campground, The Reef RV Park. We had to go over some railroad tracks. Larry and Orene went first and though they though they were going slow enough, the tracks were very bad and their dishes fell out of their cupboards and most of them broke. Larry warned us and we tried to go slow but as the motorhome rocked and rolled over the tracks, our back cupboard that has the tv on it with storage behind it opened. Luckily everything that came out just fell on the bed so nothing broken. The hinge was bend but we were able to get the door closed. We definitely planned to seek a different route to leave by and for next year. They are doing a lot of road repairs all over the city but hope it will be done by next February. They are suppose to pave the dirt road into the Campground area by next year as well.
We made it and got set up in our lovely beach front sites. Should be a nice week. Stay tuned.

Kino Bay Trip - Part ll

Kino Bay is a small town with not a lot to do but we did manage to do some exploring. Some of the people from Club Deportivo organized a light weight 4 wheel drive outing. It was a nice drive including some time driving right on the beach which is always fun, Part of the beach drive included a stop at the Christmas Tree shown in the picture below with Joe and I.

Another day we attended a Seri festival which was originally going to be at a later time but they held it sooner as they hear that our large group would be in town. The Seri Indians have been in the Sonora region of Mexico for at least 500 years. They are well known for their beautiful basket work and carvings made of ironwood. We bought a small carving while at the fair. We also checked out the Museum which had lot of its history and examples of their basket work.

Club Deportivo also organized a trip for our group into Hermosillo, the nearest large city from Kino Bay. We took the hour or so drive into the city and then transferred to a tour bus.

1. Hermosillo is a city located centrally in the northwestern Mexican state of Sonora. It is the capital and main economic center for the state and region. It contains almost all of the state's manufacturing and has seventy percent of its population. Wikipedia

We had a guide who gave us info on the city. Some of our stops included a bakery, Coyota Dona Maria, where we watched them make coyotas, which are pastries with a molasses based filling. They then add different ingridents, such as apples, coconut, nuts,etc Of course we bought some to take back home with us. We saw the Zaragoza Plaza, the /Government Plaza and the wonderful old buildings of the city. We also had a lunch at Xochimilco, a steak house which specializes in carne asada. A whole wall was dedicated to the grilling of large slabs of meat. It was pretty tasty.

Of course, part of the Mexican Connections purpose, besides giving people an opportunity to see what traveling in Mexico is like is Charity. Everyone brings clothing, school supplies, kitchen items, wheelchairs, etc from the US to give to worthy causes in the area we stay at. We also have a live and silent auction to raise money for the needy in the area. This year, Joe was one of the bartenders serving margaritas and wine to get people in the mood to bid on the items up for auction. I was one of the registration people who signed then up and gave them their paddle for bidding. We then had to write down the names, item and cost of each winning bid and collect the money after the auction was over.  It was pretty successful, especially considering we had a smaller group this time.

We had a pretty good time this week, meeting new people and getting to know some we already knew a little better, a few trips, lots of good food, and just relaxing time on the beach. Now we are headed back to So Cal for a Celebration of Life for my Dad and then back to Tucson for the Escapade in March.

Kino Bay Trip with the Mexican Connection - Part l

We made an one night stop at Picacho Peak State Park. It is a very pretty campground set against the now very green hills. We got there late in the day and left for Tucson in the morning but plan to stay there another time when we can stay longer.

We arrived at Pima County Fairgrounds in Tucson for the pre ralley of our trip to Kino Bay with Chapter 8 Mexican Connection. One of the days there was to get visas down in Nogales. It was farther south than we thought. We should have gotten the visas when in the Yuma area where the border is a very short drive. Our group was smaller this time with around 50 people. A lot of the people we spent time with the last few trips didn't come this time for various reasons but we got to meet some nice new folks as well as got to know some of the other returnees a little better.
The trip down was interesting. Our group was the last one and we were the tailgunners for it. The border crossing was very easy and we got through with ease. We did have one problem on the way to our first stop. We had stopped for a break and one of our group's rigs wouldn't start. We weren't able to jump start it and ended up calling a mechanic who came out and was able to get it started. This cost us a few hours. However, we finally made it to Rancho Betania, a church run campground that is on the way to our 300 mile trip to Kino Bay. They put on a nice Mexican dinner for us.

The next day we continued on our way and finally made it to Kino Bay, which is about 60 miles southwest of Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico. Kino Bay RV Park is in the new section of Kino Bay and is across the street from the beach. This section of town has a lot of nice homes on the beach side of the street and a few restaurants, including Jorge's which is just across the street from the park. The park is a winter home to many retirees from the US and Canada. Some of the sites have decked out patios and casitas which are very nice.

Our first night we went over to Club Deportivo's happy hour. Club Deportivo was established in 1977
and is a social club for those who spent part or all of their time in the Kino Bay area. They also offer the only 24/7 Rescue service, the only one of its kind in Mexico and are very involved with charities in this area. As the Mexican Connection is also involved with charities in Mexico this was a good fit.
They were also a great help in organizing a few outings for our group. There isn't as much to do in this area as the other places we have been in Mexico and so this was very helpful.
As I mentioned before, we are right across the street from the beach and we took daily walks on the beach which we had almost to ourselves during the weekdays. We took a long walk with our friends from Jojoba Hills, Richard and Ann. Their dog, Rusty, and Savannah had fun off lease on the beach.
Savannah is a real beach girl. She runs straight to the water to get her paws wet and then rolls around in the sand.

We went out to eat a number of times with different members of the group, including Jorge's, which was across the street and a restaurant, Mariscos Bahia, near Old Kino on the beach. Joe and I had dinner by ourselves for Valentine's Day at a great little restaurant at the Casablanca Hotel. We both had Fish Piccata with a great sauce and rice with lime and cilantro and a delicious flan with an orange sauce. When we got here we were a little disappointed to find out it wasn't shrimp season this far down. We had some great shrimp our last trips in the Baja area and had planned on buying a bunch of it to take back home. Oh well, next year when we go to Puerto Penasco.

The next blog post will feature some of our side trips, including a 4 Wheel Drive trip and a bus trip to Hermosillo. Stay tuned.