This morning was a whirlwind like so many others. Why is it when you are trying to get ready to go somewhere, nothing goes as planned. We are on the road approximately 2 hours later than expected and we still have a couple of stops to make on the way out of town.
Finally loaded, fueled up and headed out. In three and a half hours we will be on the beach. Our internet has been down at our condo in Mexico, which in turn means the security camera isn’t working. Tracey believes part of the problem is the old router we have down there. We are heading down for a quick trip to install a new router and hopefully get the camera back online.
It seems like we are the only ones on the road with a purpose today. Not sure where these people have learned to drive but they need to study more. Slow, fast, slow, fast, turning oh wait not turning, stopping, slowing swerving, it is never ending. We finally get around some of the worst and make our way into Maricopa. We make a quick stop through the drive thru at Sonic as we are starving, okay so just very hungry. Takes a bit to make it through Maricopa due to the slow speed limit and even slower drivers. We notice they are building a new tower of rooms at the Harrah’s Ak Chin and an addition on the parking garage. Tracey tells me about being online looking at his Total Rewards benefits and seeing one night at Ak Chin that was like $489 a night! Crazy expensive for here. We like to take advantage of our free night offers! As we clear Maricopa we chat about the RV park that has changed names, it used to be John Wayne RV park and I wanted to stay there just because of the name. Now it is something like Wild West Ranch and RV park. They have cleaned it up a bit and there seem to be quite a few rigs camped out. My question is whether or not you can do any off-road riding in the connecting desert to the RV park. As we continue to discuss whether we would even like riding this desert we make our way on the I-8 headed towards Gila Bend.
We get a little quiet on this part of the drive and I feel myself drifting off. My eye lids are heavy, the sun is bright and the hum of the truck on the road is lulling me to sleep. Add to that, Tracey has gotten quiet. I didn’t sleep long if at all, since it is only about 20-30 minutes to Gila Bend and I awake before we reach our exit. There is a very very very long train stopped in Gila Bend. Lucky for us the tracks are not in our path. We make the turn onto the 85 and head towards Ajo.
I had read in a Facebook group, Puerto Penasco Community, about an unusual amount of police presence in Ajo and the border town of Sonoyta. I relay the info the Tracey as we discuss what I read and what our thoughts are on it all. Either way Tracey is cautious and sticks to the speed limits posted.
We get the green Pase light at the border, and creep through the town of Sonoyta. As we are exiting the far side of town we made a small monetary donation to the “help the families in need” bucket. There are two places we generally donate. This one here in Sonoyta and the Red Cross in Rocky Point. All others we just say no thank you. Donation made and we are headed to the beach.
We arrived without incident at the gates of Las Palomas. We pull up to the owners’ gate but our tag is not opening the gate. Tracey rolls down his window and tells them our unit number and they open the gate. We stop at the security guy out front of the lobby to ask for the bell hop to be sent to carry up our things. Not that we really have much to carry but we enjoy seeing our friends, Jose, and Lorenzo, and they can always use a few extra dollars.
We park, and wait for a few minutes but still no sign nor sound of the bell hop. Usually we can hear them coming. You see they drive a golf cart down, with their hand on the luggage cart pulling it alongside the golf cart, hence the “hearing them coming”. I decide I need to use the restroom badly enough that I can’t wait so I head up to the condo. Also, this way I can call the HOA and ask about the bell hop and make sure our owners key works. We have problems with our keys working at times due to the amount of sand that blow at our door. It tends to clog the mechanical door lock and cause the key cards not to work.
I hustle up the stairs and try the key. The first three times I get the red light, but on the fourth try it turns green and I am able to open the door. I do what I came to do and then attempt to call the HOA. I pick up the phone and dial 0, display says HOA and I hear silence. Hmmm. I hang up the receiver and pick it up again, dial 0 and hear silence. I hang up again. This time I consciously listen before dialing to make sure I get a dial tone and I do. I hit 0 and this time hear it ring. Then it is like someone answers and it goes silent. Now I am just confused. I hang up and the phone begins to ring. HOA is calling me. Oh good now I can ask for the bell hop. I pick up the receiver and say hello. Silence. UGH. I have no idea what is going on. I text Tracey and ask if anyone has shown up yet, to which he says no. I then tell him what is happening with the phone. It is his turn to come up to the condo so I head down to the truck to wait for the bell hop.
By the
time Tracey returns still no bell hop. So I take a bag and head up to the condo, and Tracey waits a bit longer before I hear a knock on the door. I open the door and Tracey has carried one load up and is sitting everything by the door. He heads back to the truck and I bring the first load inside and begin putting things away. He makes two trips before saying the rest can wait until later. I finish putting things away, we open blinds and doors, turn on ceiling fans, and adjust AC units. The sound of the ocean is loud and soothing.
We decide to walk down and see how the water feels. As we are heading down it looks like some guests are enjoying drinks at the pool bar. We had just been discussing what time we thought they were closing this time of year. You see pool bar hours vary depending on time of year and day of week, and I think how many guests are checked in! So we really never know whether to expect it to be open or not.
As we round the corner near the pool bar it looks empty and almost like cleanup was happening but we see no employees. We take a few more steps towards the actual bar to look for anyone working, and out of the corner of my eye behind us I catch movement. It is the back of someone that I know, and call out “Samuel”. Samuel turns and gets a big smile on his face. He walks in our directions reaches out to shake our hands and ask how we are doing. He tells us the bar is open for another 30 minutes do we want something. We tell him yes, we want a drink but will walk down to feel the water first and be back for a drink. He continues picking up and putting chair cushions away and we walk down the steps and onto the sand.
The waves are big as the wind is blowing steadily. We don’t want to walk out too far for fear the waves will break and drench us. We get our toes, then our feet, then our ankles out on the wet sand. The water laps and teases our toes. At this point we can’t really tell if the water is warm or cold. We inch a little further towards the water. We think it feels cold. It is late enough in the year that I think it should be warm. A big wave breaks and now we are positive that water is COLD. We get wet about to mid-calf and I back up towards the beach. Tracey inches further into the water. He has decided he would probably swim in this water! Oh not me, this Arizona girl needs the water to be like bath water LOL. Tracey takes some selfies of us on the beach, which I am sure between the wind blowing and the sun shining in our eyes, they are probably great photos, NOT. I take a video of the waves and lulling lullaby they sing to post to our travel page only to have Tracey talk through the whole thing. So we head up to the pool bar where Samuel is waiting for us. He brings us a beer for me and a michalada rojo for Tracey. Sit at a table drinking our beers and watching the ocean. If it weren’t for our kids I am not sure we would ever go home.
I walk back to the water alone this time teasing Tracey about talking in my video, and take a new video. I keep the video short as I want to post to Instagram and Facebook, but I would love to have an hour long one looping on my TV at all times. I head back to the bar and rejoin Tracey. We chat and laugh with Samuel a bit and then decide the wind is blowing hard enough that it feels cold and we want to head inside. We pay our tab and head inside.
We leave two of the sliding doors open a bit so we can still enjoy the sounds. I put the new bedding on the new bed. You see we used to have a “kids” room when our kids were small. It had two sets of bunk beds and was a U of A Wildcats theme. Now that our boys are grown and gone, and our daughter doesn’t love Mexico like we do, we tend to come down with our friends sans children most of the time. It was always hard and a little embarrassing to invite two other couples to come down with us and have to tell them one of them would have to sleep in bunk beds! Not that the beds weren’t comfy but most couples like to sleep in the same bed and fitting two people on the bunk is quite tight. So we bought a new bed and night stands that had a more beachy feel and brought it down. We actually put it in our second master suite and moved that queen set into what used to be the bunk bed room. Since one of our boys and his wife are both U of A alumni and I am still a fan we didn’t want to take everything out. But Tracey did feel a little left out, haha, so the room is now a combo room, U of A and U of Nebraska. Luckily the reds for both teams are the same red. So now the room is red white and blue representing both schools. It turned out cute if I do say so myself.
I fix us some dinner and we eat to the sounds of the waves and a little bit of TV that Tracey has turned on, He relaxed on the couch trying to find something half way decent on TV while I cut my finger and burned another finger, I mean while I fixed dinner. Now you all know why I never cook!!
I sign on to do some real estate work for a client after dinner and working on a writing project I have going for another BlogSpot. Tracey naps on the couch, I think he is relaxed!
It isn’t long before we head to bed and call it another great day.
Good morning from the beach!
I awoke early, too early as I was hoping to sleep in. But my body said otherwise. I can hear the waves lapping on the beach, what an amazing sound to wake up to. Hoping not to disturb Tracey just yet I play a quiet game on my phone. It isn’t long before he stirs as well. Not sure if he was ready or I woke him up. We lay quietly for a bit but eventually head out to check out the day. We make our coffee and tea and head to the patio. It is a beautiful day. Not as much wind as yesterday, which in turn makes the waves not as big as yesterday, but it is so peaceful and calming.
It isn’t long before we see a few people walking on the beach. Our neighbor’s condo is rented and their guests are out enjoying their coffee on the patio. And life begins to appear.
Not sure what today has in store, we will just see what happens!
Well so far today we have had our coffee/tea on the patio, done a little work, written for a couple of blogs, gone to the pool, out to lunch, and now back at the condo.
We slipped into our swimsuits, grabbed towels and sunscreen and headed down to the pool. We had dipped our hands in the big pool yesterday and thought it felt cold, so Tracey figured we would just lay by the pool for a bit and soak up some sun. I just figured we would head over to the small pool and it would most likely be heated and we would spend time there. So we get down to the big pool and I dip my hand in and it actually feels okay. Tracey walks over and dips his hand in and thinks it feels warmer than it did yesterday. So we head around the bar and up to find chairs poolside. Not many people here so lots of chairs to choose from. We pick two, set out our towels, take our shoes off and step onto the top step in the pool. It actually feels pretty good so we venture onto the next step down. Still feels pretty good so we take the plunge and swim out to the negative edge where we can watch out over the beach and ocean. People watching is one of our favorite pastimes. Not a busy time here in Rocky Point so not many people to watch. There are a few people in the pool and a few more lounging in chairs poolside.
We had moved past a lady in the pool when we were getting out to the negative edge, and it seems each time we move she moves closer. Not sure if that is really the case or if it just seems that way. Either way I keep moving away from her, and eventually she is not near us. Paranoid much? Tracey and I bounce around in the water for a while moving around within the pool, chatting. Eventually we decide we are hungry and want to go down to Wrecked at the Reef for lunch. We begin to work our way towards the stairs to get out, while discussing how cold it is going to feel because the wind is blowing so hard. We are moving from warm spot to warm spot, looking for each of the water circulating valves on the bottom of the pool as we make our way to the edge. We are deep in conversation as we move across the pool, so it isn’t until we reach the side that we notice, yep you guessed it, the lady we were moving away from was right there at the steps. Freaky. Not really, she turned out to be a super nice lady, Zeni. Zeni is from Glendale Arizona and her and her husband Tony own a condo here and come down quite often. We end up in a conversation with her about everything from Mexico to condos to the ship port, to golf and everything in between. Eventually we decide to get out and head for lunch. We say our goodbyes to Zeni as she tells us she will give us a call later that evening. We get out of the pool and we were correct it is COLD. That wind is howling. We make our way to our towels and wrap up. We spend a few minutes getting warm and dry before heading back up to the condo.
We shower and get ready then head over to the Reef for lunch. We decide we will sit inside because the wind is blowing. We pick a table near the windows so we can still enjoy the view of the ocean. We are greeted by several employees as we walk in, but Tracey strikes up a conversation with one in particular. Tracey is shaking his hand and then hugging him and chatting. The guy shakes my hand and then says it is so nice to see me again. Umm did I drink too much last time? I am not remembering him. He and Tracey are still talking about when the last time we were in was, just how long had it been when the employee spots Tracey’s straw hat laying on the table and laughs. “I see your hat now, now I remember, I never forget your hat. It has been almost a year my friend” We all have a laugh as we realize it has probably been close to a year since we have seen him. Omar, Tracey has remembered his name. We ordered drinks and lunch and Omar spends a few minutes every time he checks on us catching up on things. He shares stories about his family and what has been happening in his life and asks questions about us. We had a great time visiting and the food was really good. Once we pay our tab Omar gives us both hugs, making us promise to come back soon and we head back to our condo.
When we left to go to lunch our owners tag did not open the gate. It also did not open the gate when we arrived yesterday and security had to open the gate both times. So we talked about stopping at the HOA office if the gate doesn’t open this time on our way back. Sure enough it didn’t open. Security let us in and we parked outside the main lobby so we could talk to the HOA. I make a detour right inside the doors to visit the little girls room. I thought Tracey was just waiting in the lobby for me but when I come out he is nowhere to be found. I look around, look outside, but don’t see him. I head back to the HOA office. Not only is he in there he has already made arrangements to not only have IT figure out why our tag is not working but also fix our phone! Way to go honey.
So IT guy wants us to drive back to the gate so he can hear what it does when we pull up. We offer to give him a ride but he was already walking away and didn’t hear us. We let several other people pass us on our way to the gate giving the guy walking time to get there before us. We pull up to the exit gate and as the IT guy is listening to the noise it is making as we pull, low and behold the gate opens. We all have a good laugh and he asks us to exit and pull around to the entry gate to make sure it opens as well. We pull around and again he is out there listening to the noise as we pull up to the gate. We can hear the noise but this time the gate does not open. The IT guy goes into the security office and comes back out and listens again at the noise the gate is making. He then looks at the tag on our truck and back to the gate. Then he looks at something down towards the bottom of our windshield, listens back at the gate and looks again at whatever he is seeing at the bottom of the windshield. By the way our owner’s tag is at the top of our windshield. I have to lean up out of my seat to see what he is looking at, as I do that Tracey is telling me it is the car wash tag. So they think they have figured out that the tag from the car wash is interfering with the tag for the gate. The IT guy asks us to drive back over to the HOA office and he will ask about a new tag for us. We offer him a ride but he refuses and walks back. Between the gate and the HOA office we decide that we don’t need the car wash tag as we never go to that car wash so we should just take it off. Once we park at the office we tell them our decision, he asks if we are sure before offering to get a razor blade to help with the removal of the tag.
It is a joint effort and takes longer than it should because it is so far down on the inside of the windshield one can barely get their hand down there. Once that tag is off, we are asked to circle back through the gates to make sure that was the cause of our problems. Once again we drive, IT guy walks. Exit gate opens, Entry gate opens. Woo hoo. We thank him and ask if he is coming to our condo to check on our phone issue. He says yes and Tracey thanks him by name, Fernando.
We return to our condo and decide after the two beers at lunch we are ready for a nap. But wait we can’t nap as Fernando will be here to look at the phone any minute. I check in on messages, Tracey takes his shoes off and gets comfy in preparation for his oncoming nap.
It isn’t long and there is a knock on the door. Fernando comes in and it is a quick couple of minutes and a few tries and our phone is once again operating correctly! It is a good day all around.
We lay down to take our nap with Tracey’s last words being something about he doesn’t want to sleep long since it is so late, because he won’t be able to sleep tonight. I am sure he fell asleep to me laughing hysterically at the thought of him not being able to sleep!
Even I dozed off for a bit, then laid quietly playing a game while Tracey slept. By the time the 4th snapchat arrived from our daughter in law, I reached over and woke him up, reminding him of his comment he didn’t want to sleep long and it had already been almost an hour and a half.
I am not sure what the attraction of snapchat is but the younger generation just loves it. It makes me angry that I get a few quick seconds to see the cutest picture ever and then it is gone never to be seen again! ERRRRRRRRR. Hence the reason I woke Tracey before clicking on the 4 snaps from Rachel. I knew they were probably of our adorable granddaughters and I didn’t want him to miss them. And I was correct. I gave him time to wake up and adjust to the light and focus and then we enjoyed 4 super cute quick videos of Lilah.
Once up and about we spend some time watching a Navy ship and a yacht cruise by. I snap a few pics and spend some time writing. Tracey ventures out on the patio and strikes up conversation with the renters next door. When he doesn’t come back I grab a jacket and my drink and walk out where they are all sitting. He has made friends with Nancy, Carol, and Bill from Mesa. By the time I got out there Carol had already gone back inside to cook dinner. I have some brief conversation when Nancy excuses herself to help Carol. We enjoy more chatter with Bill before he is summoned for dinner. It is always nice to meet new people and hear their stories.
I think tonight will be a quiet night at home listening to the waves.
Well it is time to head home. Again I am not sure one is ever ready to go home. At least I am not. I have yet to stay down here long enough to feel ready to go home, maybe one day. We get up, showered, dressed, have some breakfast, pack up, straighten up the few things we had out, turn things off, unplug things, make sure all doors are secured and set AC units to 80, leaving ceiling fans on. We hope to be back soon.
We have an uneventful drive to the border. A little traffic but not too bad. A short wait at the border as only one lane was open when we arrive. It isn’t long and a second lane opens which helps ease the wait. Making in across the border was easy but we didn’t get far. Just not more than 50 yards into the US we are stopped again. Usually you only have to stop here if you are flagged for a secondary check of your vehicle. Today everyone was stopped. There are two border agents and a dog, we are the third vehicle from them. One agent and the dog are circling the first vehicle, then take off running away and down the line stopped going into Mexico and turn and run back towards the front of our line. Tracey said the dog must have smelled something and was antsy so the agent let him run it out. Either way once back, the circle the first vehicle and then we are all moving through the line and on our way. We both need a restroom by now but the line is so backed up getting into Mexico we can’t cross over to the gas station. I am kind of glad and their restrooms are always nasty. So we decide to wait until we reach Why. Now there is more traffic. Not enough going the same way we are to really bother us, but so much headed the opposite way that there are no opportunities to pass safely. That in turn sure makes the 27 miles to Why seem like 100! Good thing there was no line at the restrooms in Why when we arrive, that is all I have to say!
When I exit the restroom, I notice a minivan with the hood up and a guy looking pretty perplexed. Once Tracey comes out I ask if he thinks they need help. Tracey must have chatted with them already or at least overheard a conversation as he tells me they have a dead battery but no jumper cables. By this point they have already asked several people and no one has cables. I go to check in our truck and no idea why not, but we don’t have any either. We are not much help. The guy’s wife goes back into the store saying they have some. I was I guess assuming she meant they had some she could borrow, but when she returns she had bought some. They guy has no idea how to remove the air intake that is located over his battery, so Tracey takes it off. The guy hooks up the jumper cables to his battery and hands the other end to Tracey. Not the brightest guy as he hands the cables almost touching. Tracey quickly reaches out and separates the black and red and hands them to me to hold, apart. Tracey gets our truck and moves it in next to the minivan, gets out hooks up the cables to one of our batteries, and signals the guy to start the van. It starts right away and Tracey disconnects the cables from our truck. Since ours puts out way more power than the van needs we don’t want to cause any more damage.
We give them directions to a couple of places in Rocky Point where they can get a battery, but highly suggest they go the opposite way into Ajo and get a battery. They thank us for helping them out and we are on our way.
We make a stop in Gila Bend to grab some lunch and fuel. Tracey is waiting at the counter for our food at McDonalds while I grab a table. I hear someone say something and look up across at the next table are Nancy and Carol, the renters for the condo next to ours in Rocky Point. We are getting a good laugh, funny meeting you here laugh, as Tracey approaches our table telling me he just saw Bill at the counter. He follows my eyes and laughs as he realizes I am chatting with the ladies.
After we eat, we get diesel and head on home. Can’t wait to see Miss C after school today and get started on our crazy busy weekend!