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Journal Archive 11/1 - 11/10 2013
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Friday November 1 Puerto Penasco, Sonora, Mexico
Painting Day
Early morning found us driving the coach into the "paint shop".
Our empty site.
Linda having fun searching for shells.
Linda asked me to take this photo. Knowing what is good for me it is being posted. Smart Bob.
Having fun on the beach.
If she walks on the beach, she gets sand in her shoes. Notice that she can do two things at once, talk on the phone and dump sand out of her shoes. Talented Linda.
Masked off and ready for painting.
Lunch on the veranda watching a large flock of pelicans repeated diving into a school of sardines just off the beach. Priceless.
Checking out the paint job. It looks great.
A sunset walk along the beach.
If she walks on the beach, she gets sand in her shoes. Life is too short not to laugh.
Saturday November 2 Puerto Penasco, Sonora, Mexico
Painting Review
It was a lazy day where we just hung out and enjoyed Life, so what follows is a review of the paint job we had done on the coach. The original problem was the peeling of the clear coat at the edges of the roof. It first appeared some years ago on the narrow painted areas at the top, and had slowly spread until it was visible on the rounded edges where the roof and sidewalls meet.
Additionally there were two areas on the body of the coach we wanted fixed. A section near just in front of the curb rear tires where the paint was scuffed off, and the area at the outer edge the road side of the rear cap that had several spots where the paint was chipped off.
We also wanted to have the air conditioner covers repaired, the fiberglass was breaking off along the bottom edge, including the area where two screws secured the rear cover to the frame, meaning it was only being held by the two front screws. There were also cracks in the front edge of both covers and a small hole in one of them, likely from hitting a branch at some time during our travels.
On past trips to the park we had seen many coaches having body damage repaired and/or being painted. Though we hadn't had any estimates made, we knew from reading online and talking to others that we would be looking at thousands of dollars and the inability to stay in the coach for at least a few days if we had the work done in the states.
The quote for the repair of the covers and repainting both roof side radius, the top portions of the front and rear caps, and the areas over the rear tire and corner of the rear cap was $1200. Needless to say, we gave the go ahead to do the work.
One fellow worked for two days hand sanding the areas with wet emery cloth to prep them while the coach was in our site. The masking and painting took a third day. We moved the coach to a partially protected area at 8:30 in the morning where it was taped and painted that same day. Gray primer was applied, then the color coat followed by a clear coat. We returned the coach to our site shortly after 5 that same evening.
In the early afternoon of the next day they reinstalled the air conditioner covers and the job was finished. To sum it up, it was done quickly, inexpensively, and the results look great. We are only one of many getting work done here at Play Bonita by Chuy and his crew. The RV behind us was quoted $6000 in the States to have some front body damage repaired. Here it is being done for $500, but it isn't just about the money as the work appears to be first class also. Our initial reaction is that we are very pleased with what was done on our coach, just as everyone we have talked to has been with the work on their RV.
The area around the rear tire that was painted outlined is outlined in black.
The corner of the rear cap. The painted area again outlined in black.
The top of the front cap. A portion of the roof radius on the curb side can also be seen. That radius was painted the length of both sides of the coach. The section where the awning covers the radius was just painted on top where the blistering was occurring.
The front edge of the front cap.
Two colors on the top of the rear cap.
Air conditioner cover. Looking at it I couldn't tell where the missing pieces had been replaced, or where the cracks and hole had been repaired. The fiberglass they replaced the missing pieces with was about four times thicker than the paper thin section that had broken out around the screw holes, but the extra thickness is all to the inside. It isn't going to break there again.
No more cracks holes or scratches.
I may not be an expert in such things, but it sure looks good to me. The original started blistering within just two years. I wonder how long this will last.
The funny thing is, we had lived with the peeling clear coat for years, and while it was noticeable on the edges of the roof from the ground, we hadn't planned to have it fixed for a while yet. Then when our plans changed due to the floor of the slide needing to be repaired, and we ended up here in Puerto Penasco, it was just too good of an opportunity to pass up. One way to look at it is the money we saved on having the painting done here paid for the slide repair we will have done in December. Talk about looking at the glass half full rather than half empty. Life is too short to look at it any other way.
Sunday November 3 Puerto Penasco, Sonora, Mexico
Problems To-Day
We are having major problems with our MotoSat Internet. We know Hughesnet is moving people off a failing satellite and on to others, one of which is ours. We don't know if that is the cause of the problem as to why we can not connect to the Internet or if it is something else. We can still use the park wifi by taking our computer we use when traveling up to the office building, which will let us post the Daily Journal. Yesterday's daily journal is a review of the painting we had done on the coach, and it is being posted today along with this one.
Linda is our MotoSat guru. Unfortunately the fix that has worked with a similar problem in the past didn't fix the problem this time. I've been told I need to go up on the roof and check all the connections to the satellite dish in the morning. I have to smile because Linda really loves this type of problem solving.
By the size of the bubble nest Red blew yesterday, he was a very happy boy.
It was an awesome morning for a walk along the beach at low tide.
Linda volunteered to fix breakfast this morning. Linda fixed a wonderful breakfast. Linda fixes the foods she likes, the way she likes to eat them. Bob needs to pay attention to what Linda likes. Bob is not too old to learn. I was told if I were to fix breakfast the way she likes she might do more things for me. Wonder what that means?
It got a little warm today. That got us to thinking about our trip to Oregon to have the slide repaired, then Christmas time in northern California followed by three weeks in the desert in Quartzsite. Cold weather is coming. Then it will be off to the Valley and several months of warm weather once again. Life can be interesting when your home has wheels.
Guacamole, shredded chicken, and salsa. Add tortilla's, sour cream and frijoles for a great evening meal. And lest you wonder, it was a three avocado guacamole and we ate it all. Life is very good indeed.
Monday November 4 Puerto Penasco, Sonora, Mexico
More Problems To-Day
We wanted to take advantage of the morning low tide to get in a nice long walk. Exiting the coach we saw this flight of birds hovering over the nearby condo. They were literally frozen in space, the only movement occurring when one of them would float laterally from one side of the formation to the other. We never did detect any forward or rearward motion at all.
The majority of them had white heads, but a few of them had red on their heads. Your guess is as good as ours as to what they were.
The low tide was almost at its lowest during our walk, and Linda took advantage of it to find a few shells.
What passes here for mowing the lawn: grooming the beach.
Back from our walk and finished with a breakfast that rivaled Linda's of yesterday, we tackled the problem with the MotoSat. A note on breakfast first. The reason it rivaled Linda's of yesterday was because I made it the same way. A happy wife is a happy husband. Now back to the MotoSat problem. The first thing we did was to clean all the connections on all the electronics as well as using canned air to blow the dust out of their innards.
Linda had done a huge amount of research into what the problem might be and had come up with the fact that our transmission problems could be solved by doing what is know as a crosspol test. First you have to get it pass manually, then to pass with a automatic test. It literally took hours of her time, moving the dish manually a slight amount in one of three directions each time, but at last she was successful.
Linda was a very happy girl!!
Later Linda was a very sad girl. In fact she was a very upset, mad, angry girl. She had done an absolute no, no, and had erroneously run another crosspol which failed. You absolutely never ever run a crosspol unless you absolutely have to because if it fails it will likely take hours to get it to pass again. Yes, once again she spent hours tweeking the dish, but in the end she was successful and it passed again. Now she is a happy girl once again and we have the Internet back.
It is attributed to Calvin Coolidge. It's been posted many times, but it bears repeating because it is exactly what Linda did. "Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent."
Tuesday November 5 Puerto Penasco, Sonora, Mexico
Shopping Day
Another day, another animal. A dead sea lion on the beach this morning. Yesterday's birds were Frigate birds. Thanks to Daily Journal reader Carol for letting us know. They were really high up in the sky because they have a 7 foot plus wingspan. Also they spend almost their entire life in the air. The things you learn aren't dependent on your age, rather it is your curiosity and those that willing to share what they know.
Don't think that our morning walks are just walks. Sometimes we are faced with crossing mini rivers as we traverse the beach.
At times the water is so wide you need to get a running start to make it across.
Linda amazes me. Old enough that she is on Medicare, yet she takes a running leap over this little stream. We truly are only as old as we think we are. And if I may brag, she did this running leaping thing over three different streams during our walk. Awesome Linda. Amazed Bob.
I also found it incredible that she was able to do the three Linda's leaping thing with two heavy grains of sand in her shoe. Then it got even better. She managed to dump the sand from the shoe she has in her hand into the shoe she still has on her foot. I will say no more.
Most of the things we buy while here we buy with Pesos. Today it was time to get more Pesos, but the ATM that worked the other day was not working today.
Another ATM, and from the line it looked like this one was working. It was, and we had no problem getting out what we needed. Sometimes the joy of traveling in a foreign country is finding an ATM that works.
With money in my pocket, Linda was ready ready to head to the store so she could spend it. I heard her saying something about taking a photo of this TV because of the price so I thought I'd better include it in today's post. Even at almost 13 pesos to the dollar that is still a very high price. But we weren't here to buy any electronics, we were here to buy groceries which are definitely cheaper than in the States.
One of my guilty pleasures. At 35 cents each how can I pass them up. Fat Bob.
A very small amount of what we bought. What can I say, we eat good when we are down here.
Like I said, we eat good. For our evening meal, Linda fixed the chicken quesadillo, I made the salsa, and we added the Mexican version of sour cream, which we both love, to the top. It was awesome. Later she washed the dishes, I dried them and put them away. Bob and Linda, living the good Life. Together.
Wednesday November 6 Puerto Penasco, Sonora, Mexico
Planning Day
Another day, another morning walk along the beach. No giant flying birds or dead animals this morning, unless you count the high number of dead puffer fish near the edge of the water, that is. No leaping Linda either as she dug out her beach shoes and then happily splashed through the various rivers and streams we encountered on our walk. I was a wuss and still tried to tip toe through them without getting wet, something that I wasn't entirely successful at even though I was also wearing beach shoes. Still, there is always tomorrow morning when the tide will again be low.
Linda did manage to acquire a nice collection of shells though, as we were one of the early walkers. I know enough not to ask her what she is going to do with them. This is a case of just letting dead crustaceans lie. Smart Bob
Mini volcanos everywhere we walked this morning. It made our walk slower than normal as we would stop and watch the sand and water boil up. I even tried to dig down and find one of them, but it was too deep for my fingers to find.
The park was looking barren today, but it is the calm before the storm. There is a huge motorcycle event in town this weekend and the park is almost booked up for it, including all the sites around us. It runs Thursday thru Sunday, so there may be a major influx of people tomorrow. It is going to interesting.
It was laundry day, but it was too windy to use our clothes rack so Linda hung the sheets inside the coach. Having the windows open resulted in a very nice breeze. If you can't hang the clothes outside, bring the outside inside. Smart Linda.
This afternoon we got into doing some planning for our late summer early/fall trip to Europe next year. With glasses off, Linda still couldn't find the town in France she was looking for on this map. But then neither could I. Eventually we did find it, by first looking it up on Google maps. If two great minds like ours couldn't find it was even worth visiting? I won't say, but I will say we had a really good time doing some early research. It's a big world out there and people who don't travel are doomed to miss most of it. But as we like to say, if people don't travel to where we do, it makes it less crowded for us when we are there.
All day long we slow cooked the beef we bought yesterday, and tonight I shredded it. The first time we came down to Mexico Linda didn't even want to hook up the water, let alone buy any food in the stores. Now it is just like living in the States, the stores have it, we buy it.
As an aside, the other day we ate at a restaurant. When we got the bill it had the price in both pesos and dollars. It was a much better deal paying in pesos than dollars. We chuckle at all the people who say they don't need pesos because the merchants take dollars. Sure they take dollars, a lot more dollars than if they were paid in pesos.
Another night, another meal of tacos and frijoles, this time with the shredded beef. What can I say, we really enjoy eating this way. It's fresh, it's good, it's inexpensive, it's healthy and we really love it.
Sometime after we ate, there was a knock on the door and someone asked if we had ordered a pizza. A pizza! Why in the world would anyone want a pizza when there is such awesome local food available? It was probably one of the Americans who didn't need to have any pesos who ordered it. No wonder the rest of the world is catching up to us.
Thursday November 7 Puerto Penasco, Sonora, Mexico
A Nothing Day
Some days you don't do much. Today was one of those days. What we did was to research more about our European travels next year. We will start with time in the Scandinavian countries including a trip along the west coast of Norway ending up far north of the Arctic Circle.
That led to this flurry of activity by Linda. She was looking for our long underwear. How could I not help but love a woman like that. Life is short, live it for all it is worth. And why is that the older we get the list of things we want to do keeps getting longer?
Friday November 8 Puerto Penasco, Sonora, Mexico
A Shopping and Planning Day
Among the things we did today was to shop at Super Ley. Our normal grocery list is actually fairly simple. Avocados, tomatoes, tomatillos, poblano peppers, jalapeņo peppers, onions, cilantro, limes, papaya and cheese. Sometimes there is beans, meat, tortillas, sour cream or pastries. On occasion there will be peanuts. I know I've missed several things, if not more, but Linda will remind me what they are. Next time we go I'll try to remember to take some photos of the prices.
Home is where you park it. And if you have a young lab that doesn't take to being inside or on a leash, you set up a fence. It's also why we decided to stay away from the masses down front. You never know who your neighbors are going to be down there. Up here we have yet to have anyone park to the up beach side of us, or behind us for that matter.
Working on the side panels and bay doors of the RV across the road from us. It may not look like it, but they really are good at what they do.
A major part of the day was spent on next years trip to Europe. I always enjoyed working with spreadsheets, and had constructed several in the past to track our travel expenses while in Europe. I also had a planning calendar that allowed us to input the where and when and it would automatically fill the correct date on the calendar with that info. It was time to update them and add new bells and whistles. Unfortunately some of the bells were badly cracked if not downright broken, but the fun of doing this is to figure out how to make what doesn't work, work the way I want it to. Happy Bob.
Saturday November 9 Puerto Penasco, Sonora, Mexico
Another Lazy Day
Linda has decided that our choice of eggs is Brown. I have to say these are real eggs, and not the inbred things that pass for chickens and the so called eggs they lay that we are accustomed to in the US. It takes me two whacks to get them to crack, and then you have to beat the dickens out of them to get the deep yellow/orange yolks and whites to blend together to make scrambled eggs. And that doesn't even allude to their great taste. It's going to hard to again get used to what passes for eggs once we are back in the States.
Super snooper wife was really at today. She is not watching the Hoover commercial on TV, she's watching them trying to fit the parts back on the coach across the road. That was a most of the day thing, and Linda was watching most of the day. We did take time out for an afternoon low tide walk, but otherwise she was Looking Lin. Smiling Bob.
Shrimp again tonight, but that is just part of being in Puerto Penasco. Linda ate hers bare naked, while I ate them in a shrimp taco. No sense in trying to be what we are not.
Just discovered Linda took a photo of her plate. Not bad, not bad at all, but I like those shrimp tacos even more.
In closing, a comment on times gone by. I've mentioned before about my old high school and how good their football teams are now compared to back in my day when we were lucky to win one game a year. Well, they played their first round playoff game tonight and destroyed their opponent. They may not go all the way and be state champs, but they sure as heck aren't like the teams I played on. We can't change what was but we sure can work at making the will be better.
So how do I know how they did? I had the high school sports score websites of the two local TV stations and the newspaper on my computer, as well as Maxpreps. And if those four hadn't of worked, one of my former classmates posted the final score on Facebook. Thanks Bonnie. I may be over 2500 miles away, but through the miracle of modern technology I could get the scoring updates. Life is what we make it, so make the best of it.
Sunday November 10 Puerto Penasco, Sonora, Mexico
A Sunny Sun-Day
Linda took this photo unbeknownst to me. This is our typical breakfast. Grapefruit, papaya, avocado, prunes, tomatoes, and eggs with cheese topped with salsa and sour cream. Sometimes I put hot sauce on top of the eggs, sometimes not. Linda never does. Smart Bob. Smart Linda. I read somewhere that Truth can be stated in a thousand different ways, yet each one can be true. How true that is.
She's on Medicare but looks 20 years years younger. How'd I ever get so lucky!
When we walked on the beach yesterday there was a co-ed volleyball tournament going on at the condo's just up the beach. Unfortuantely I didn't have my camera then, so I took a photo today when they were still having a few matches, but were no longer of the co-ed variety. I know Linda was watching me out of the corner of her eye when we walked by the courts yesterday, but I can assure you I did not notice the 23 tall slim girls in the neon orange bikinis. Neither did I notice the 17 tall slim girls in the bright yellow bikinis, just as I didn't notice the 14 girls in the neon lime green bikinis. For the life of me I can't understand why Linda would have been glaring at me when we walked past all those nubile, tall, thin, tanned, good looking young women. You'd think she doesn't believe me when I tell her I have eyes only for her. Puzzled Bob.
What can I say, I love making salsa, pico de gallo and guacamole. Linda isn't into chopping things into the perfect size, while I enjoy it. The say opposites attract. In this way we are total opposites. On the other hand, I know a beautiful woman when I see one, and in my book my wife is a 10. So what if she doesn't like to chop vegetables. I'll take all the rest of her in a heart beat.
I'll leave you with a very appropriate quote from Henry David Thoreau: "Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined."
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