2009 4th Qtr Travels

07/06/11

October

On October 1st we flew from the Houston airport to LAX and boarded an Air Pacific flight to Fiji. Fiji is everything we remembered and more. It still ranks as our favorite vacation spot, ever. Once again mostly because of the Fijian people. They are so genuinely sweet natured and they make the visit spectacular. To see pictures from our Fiji trip, go to the Favorite Trips page.

Unfortunately Donna came back sick. Not sure if the flu or a different sort of cold, but it struck the day we were leaving (nice it didn't use up any of those great vacation days). The best part was sleeping all thru that 10 hour return flight. We stayed over in Livingston much longer than we planned because as soon as Donna was mending, Don caught it too. However, it was short lived for him and we moved on.

New Braunfels TX has the Wurst Fest every October and we decided to attend. We drank beer, ate bratwurst and listened to music.

November

We left New Braunfels and headed to one of our favorite places, Parkview Riverside RV Park on the Frio River. We stayed almost 2 weeks. At first joined by our friends John & Jill, then on our own. A few pics of the area will show why it is one of our favorite spots.

Here's a view of the river from our campsite

Some other views of the river from various spots. So clear and pristine. The bald cypress trees are all impressive.

One special event during this stay by the Frio River was how our lives were affected by a stray kitty. This little female gray cat was maybe 6 months old and the sweetest thing we have ever encountered. She just wanted to be loved (and fed) and would sit in your lap all day long. We did so want to take her with us, but Shadow probably wouldn't have like it and we weren't ready to make another 20 year commitment, but we fell in love with her and did want her life to be a good one. We found a vet that would discount her fees since the cat was in the wild and we had her spayed & got her shots. The park managers agreed to take her until she was recuperated and find her a home. When we left, she was comfy at their place and they thought they might have found her a permanent home. She will make someone a wonderful pet.

November 15th -- We head south to Laredo. Here we will pick up our tourist visas and get a permit for the Jeep and head into Mexico.

November 16th -- We walked across the bridge and spend all afternoon in Nuevo Laredo (the place they say is so dangerous and don't go there) to get our tourist visas and car permit. We filled out the visa application and they told us to go to any bank to pay the fee. We walked for miles to every durn bank in the area before talking to a woman who said Oh today is the 16th. It is a special day and the banks are all closed. At least the ATMs were open and we could pick up a load of pesos.

November 17th -- Drove the Jeep across today and found the place we should have gone yesterday. We could have gotten our visas here, got the car permit and hologram and paid all the fees in on place with a credit card. Was done in an hour. Too bad the guy at the Migracion office didn't tell us that.

November 18th -- Planned to leave early, but didn't pull out until after 10:30. At the border they checked our car permits closely and verified the VINs on both vehicles. A cursory look thru the motor home and we were on our way. Twenty miles later we come to the customs checkpoint and got the red light. However when we pulled into the inspection lane, a very shy girl comes up and her co-worker says "she wants to see your house". Really all she wanted was a tour which I gladly gave her. She inspected nothing and we were on our way in 10 minutes.

The first town of size we came to was Monterrey. A beautiful setting surrounded by tall mountains that were incredibly beautiful. Unfortunately smog blotted out most of the view. We had to climb to just over 7200 ft. to get to the other side. Fortunately the roads were good to excellent condition all the way. Unfortunately we paid $916 (pesos) in tolls today. That's about $70 and there will be more tomorrow, but probably not as much as today. But in Mexico, the toll roads are usually better when you need to get someplace. Only one picture since we drove pretty much non-stop. Ignore the bug splats on the window and you can see that it is a great road and the smog ahead is thick. This is heading south on the bypass out of Monterrey.

November 19 -- Our day was way too long. We left about 8:20am and only stopped once for fuel and once for an desperately needed potty stop, but didn't arrive until 6pm. Part of the problem was we missed an turn to the toll bypass and had to drive thru San Luis Potosi. Our bad and it made our day at least an hour too long. If we take this route again, we will make sure to make all toll roads. Three mountain passes, only one reaching 7000 ft and lots of small towns so slow going. As we arrived we met Barbara & Sal Contreras. They seem very nice and anxious that we enjoy our stay. We are looking forward to resting a couple of days and enjoying our month here.

November 20 thru 23 -- After recuperating from our long travel days we began to explore the town and countryside. Our site at the RV park is a lovely view of the nearby Mt. Picacho. We hope to hike up there in the next couple of weeks.

If you look very hard in the far left center of the picture you can see there are workers in the field across the way stacking the corn that has been cut and drying into sheaves. Before the day was finished, the entire field had been fixed into stacks like the two you can see.

Ahhh, Shadow likes the new view.

The next day we went for a ride with our hosts, Sal & Barbara up into some of the nearby hills. Although not the original plan, we made it across the mountain and introduced them to "four wheeling".

This is the start of our trek

Sal & Barb at one of our stops to check out the view.

And the views were great

Up & over

Sal & Don checking out the road before we get too far

December

We had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner with our RV Park hosts at their home in town. The next day we met (as we often do) with other park residents. This afternoon it was for wild blueberry pie, yummmmm.

We do finally get to climb to the top of the mountain. Actually the Jeep took us most of the way up with climbing just at the end.

We arrive at the top

Sal, Kathy, Doug & Don look out at the valley below

View of the cross & mountain top from where we ate lunch