a welcome home greeting

This delightful little bouquet arrived on our doorstep Saturday afternoon as a "Welcome Home" gift from Alex, Andrew and Em.  Welcome home indeed, and it's mighty good to be here.  Even though I am surrounded by unopened boxes and bags, I can't find anything (our tenants rearranged my entire household!), and I wake at 5 AM thinking I have to get in the car and press on down the road, I am glad that long trip is over.  Now it's like being on a treasure hunt; where in the world will I find the clay bowl that sat on the counter to hold onions and garlic?  Where might my good sewing shears be hiding?  How about the pots and pans?  Those drawers were empty.  Oh well, all in good time.

It's always a pleasure to come home at this time of year, too.  When we leave in December the trees are bare, the gardens are all dead, no color.  Now, spring is springing all over town.  Trees have leafed out in the most deliciously delicate green shade, flowers are full of buds just waiting to burst open, there are still a few blossoms left on our wisteria ~ Tim did a masterful job of pruning and shaping the vines.  The coreopsis, that pesky, invasive flower, is miraculously under control right now but in another month it will be blooming all over the garden and dropping it's insistent seeds everywhere.  We tried growing it in our Mexican garden and that's probably the only place on the planet it doesn't like.  My neighbor's rose garden is gorgeous, in full bloom.   She brought this beautiful bunch to us on Saturday.

Please note the jar of peanut butter in the lower left of the photo.  Mr. C's first supermarket purchase upon his return.

The weather here in the valley is warm and sunny with a bit of a breeze breezy.  Funny, the weather's the same as at the beach but I can't hear the surf.

from Newport Beach, CA

We'll be here tonight and then on home tomorrow morning.  A quick drive from lovely Gila Bend to Yuma where we stopped for our annual visit to Denny's for breakfast and our first tank of US gas, then on to San Diego and up the coast to the Extended Stay hotel at the John Wayne airport.  This is the Ritz Carlton of the Extended Stay chain and we're always happy to be here.  Big room, big bathroom, big fridge.  We took our first trip to the local Trader Joe's and got some of the Tomato Red Pepper soup we like so much and heated it up for dinner.  Watched the news ~ nothing much has changed since we left in December ~ and now it's time to go to bed.  One more early morning, one more long day on the road and we'll be home.  The whole trip has been blessedly easy and safe, just the way we like it.

from Gila Bend, AZ

This was the view from our room in San Carlos yesterday.

This is the view from our room tonite, in Gila Bend.

We have stayed in the same hotel in San Carlos for many years and, sadly, have watched it deteriorate year by year.  This time the towels were just about see-through, the light bulb in the one lamp in the room blew out and we were left fumbling around in the dim light shed by a 25 watt ceiling light.  When I turned on the ceiling light in the kitchen area it started leaking water so we stopped usiing it.  But the view is unbeatable and it is the last night of listening to sea sounds.

We had another absolutely perfect day on the road.  We got away from San Carlos at 5:45 AM, zipped through Hermosillo quickly, reached the border about 11 AM, breezed right through border control, and got here . . .

by 3:30 PM.  Lots to working lamps, thick and thirsty towels, little 'fridge to keep food and wine cold.  Mr. C has gone off to get our dinner; Burger King chicken salad for me, Mac fishburger for him.  And tomorrow it's on to Newport Beach for a shopping trip to Trader Joe's and an overnight before heading home on Friday.

All thanks to Mr. C for a safe piloting of Vincent and all our worldly goods over 1300 miles.

from San Carlos

It was foggy down to the ground when we woke up this morning.  Mr. C made the very wise executive decision that we would therefore loiter around Zar's, have breakfast in their cafe, and wait awhile before heading out.  This hotel, although very convenient and certainly stay-able, will probably be termed "shabby" within the next few years.  Very shoddy construction but it does have an intriguing "beam me up, Scotty" shower that you can almost turn around in.

Packed up and got underway at 8:30.  Another utterly unremarkable drive even though we went through four military check points.  We only fit the profile of "returning gringos" so they are not interested in speaking to us.  We are now waiting for our room to be prepared here at the Fiesta Real in San Carlos.  I counted up our visits here; 15 times, beginning in the spring return trip of 2002.   Lordy, these people have watched us grow old!  We'll spend the afternoon out on our little balcony, watching the beautiful bay, reading and drinking beer.  Tomorrow we'll be up and out early and hope to reach the border by 10:30.  There has been remarkably little traffic the entire way.  The streets of San  Carlos are almost deserted whereas it's usually bustling place.  Perhaps the rumors of the drastic fall in tourism are true.

Today is Shakespeare's birthday.  He would be 449 years old.  Happy Birthday, Will.

from Los Mochis

Another blessedly uneventful drive to Los Mochis.  It's been a long day but we are tucked up in a very nice hotel ~ Zar's ~  a chain that has lots of hotels throughout Mexico.  Clean, roomy, very inexpensive.  Dinner somewhere, perhaps, or we'll dine "in" on the chicken we bought in Tepic along with our illegal greens (you can't bring fruits or veggies into the state of Sinaloa from anywhere else.  They have the California state of mind; everyone else's agriculture is tainted) and a nice bottle of that yummy New Zealand wine.  Next message will be from San Carlos.

from Tepic

Quick and easy drive here.  Five and a half hours, but there's a one hour time change so it seems like only four.  Made one stop at our favorite upscale market to pick up some goodies for dinner, got to the hotel, got our usual room but this time at a very reduced price.  Perhaps it's because they checked our record and saw we'd been coming here for over 10 years, twice a year like clockwork.  We've stashed the food in the fridge, poured a cold beer and are ready to relax.

We got away an hour later than planned this morning but since it's Sunday the traffic wasn't too bad.  In addition, the road between Colima and Guadalajara has been widened so that almost an hour is shaved off of travel time.  Along the way we saw the jacaranda trees, still aglow with that eerie blue color.

Tomorrow morning early we will be off to Los Mochis.  If we can't find a hotel there we'll drive out to Topolobampo and stay at our usual only-motel-in-town spot.  We'll see.

adios, hasta luego