Puerto Penasco, Mexico

Sun. Jan 20th. found us in the motor home heading southeast on Dead Cow Rd. (Salome Road) to I-10 going east to US 85 south to Gila Bend AZ Where we roudevued with some 50 of our fellow Newmar Kountry Klub Rvs. It is a pretty impressive sight to see 50 plus Newmar motor homes lined up in rows of 8. We dry camped in the Elks Club parking lot and departed Mon. morning in groups of 8 every 20 minutes. Our destination Playa Bonita RV Park, Puerto Penasco (Rocky Point) Mexico on the shore of the Sea of Cortez. We didn't have a lot of activities planned a few meals and mostly relaxing and shopping for Mexican junk. We had all arrived by noon. After getting set up we enjoyed a Mexican sampler meal at 4 PM along with meeting new friends. Tues morning we had a car caravan city tour. One of the high lights of that was stopping at a bakery. IT was located in an alley in a run down residential section. They made the rolls and pastry in the back and cooked them in a stone oven built into one wall with an open fire. It certainly wouldn't pass inspection in the US but the pastries were good and no one got sick from eating them. Wed. was a day of shopping and relaxing with a 6 PM dinner. Thur. late afternoon we enjoyed the Folklore Dancers and the Mariachi Band. Then had a great Mexican Fiesta Buffet. Fri was a day filled with more relaxing and strolling through the Mexican junk shops. Sat. was another great day of relaxing and shopping. At 6 Pm we enjoyed a very nice dinner and were entertained by 6 Hula Dancers. Sun. we enjoyed the Brunch Buffet as well as a final day to get that Mexican junk that we had not purchased earlier in the week. It also rained most of the day.
Mon. morning we all departed for the return trek back to our respective destinations. We were all able to get our freshly washed & waxed RVs & cars wet and muddy as the streets had dirt and water in them from the rain on Sun. Most of us had taken advantage of the $1.50 price per foot for washing & waxing. Returning through customs went fairly fast, they did take our eggs that were in the refrigerator. They took fruit & potatoes from our two friends rigs that we were traveling with. we had a great week and made many many new friends. I am sure we meet many of them again at future Kounry Klub events or in our travels. We are now back in Salome for the month of Feb.

Salome, AZ

Here we are in Salome,AZ 50 miles from the nearest stop light, over 1 hour to the nearest Wal-Mart and 100 miles to Phoenix. We will be here through Feb. except for a couple of short excursions we have planned. The weather here is a little warmer than Morgan Hill, however we aren't always feeling chilled to the bone like we did there. I guess the dry desert air is the difference.
We are at Desert Palms RV & Golf Resort probably the nicest RV Park in the area, also one of the newest. Salome is a town of less than 1000 population. It has one cafe, one small grocery store and a couple of gas stations.
We received our mail today so I think that was the last batch of Christmas cards. Thanks to all who sent them we enjoyed hearing from each and every one of you. As a child growing up we always were at the mail box by the hi-way anxiously waiting Mrs. Briggs delivery of the daily mail. Now with traveling full time we only get mail a couple of times a month but once I know Teri has forwarded it I still look forward to it just as I did when a child growing up.
I just did a spell check and guess what ain't is now one of the options if you misspell aren't.

Tournament of Roses Parade

We had our New Years supper & dance last eve. We celebrated The ringing in of the New Year at 9 PM with the people in New York. The reason for that was that we had to get up at 4 AM this morning to be on the buses ready to leave by 5 AM. It was a one hour bus ride to within 1/2 mile of the exit and a 1 1/2 hr ride the last 3/4 mile. We were worried that we weren't going to make it but we did with about 15 min. to spare. Our bleacher seats were about 1/2 mile from the start so we were back on the buses by 10:30 and back here to the RV park just shortly after 11:30. Our seats were 2nd row about 20 feet from the floats. It was amazing to see the finished version of the floats that we had observed being worked on Sun. morning. The floats are awesome and beautiful works of art. I saw on the news yesterday that the cost of the floats ranges from $100,000 to $450,000. The Chinese float was surrounded by police officers as there was a lot of controversy about them having an entry. The bands were all very good and to me seemed very large. Most of them had to have over 200 band members besides the flag drill teams etc. I am sure some of them were at least 2 or 3 blocks in length. The equestrian entries to this old farm boy were first class I especially enjoyed them. The banners and crowds that fallowed the parade were a surprise to us. All in All it was an amazing parade and I am so glad that we were fortunate enough to have been able to be a part of it.