The Long Road....

It has been a long time since we returned to Ashland in Southern Oregon and smoke from the many fires that surrounded the valley. As I write this we are saddened by the loss of life in the terrible fires in California, and am particularly concerned about friends who retired to the town of Paradise in Northern California  We know they are safe, but do not know if their house survived.  Wishing them the best.
We spent August and two weeks of September, going through all of our possessions to decide what to keep and what to leave for the estate sale. Sorting through much memorabilia was a really difficult task, especially for Diane, who still had a lot of belongings from her parents to sort through and decide what she couldn't part with. It didn't help that we couldn't venture outside very often because of the dense smoke making for unhealthy air to breathe.

We had a storage unit where we accumulated all of the items we wanted to keep.  The remaining contents were left at the house for the estate agent and her team to organize and price, ready for a three day sale. Since the agent and her team needed a week for all this to be arranged, we left and drove to Seattle to visit family. It was a very strange feeling to realize that many of the possessions that had been with us for a large part of our lives, would soon be GONE.
After a few days with family, we decided to wend our way back to Ashland along the Oregon Coast.  We made a first stop in Astoria,  and took a few photos, before continuing on the short drive to Seaside where we had booked one night.

We had to stop and visit the column since it is quite a landmark, and the spiral frieze around the column is quite amazing. It depicts many of the historic events of early days in Oregon, including the Lewis and Clark expedition, which concluded at a nearby location.

Sunset from our hotel in Seaside.

We made several stops along the coast and were reminded just how beautiful this part of the world is.

We stopped at the Tillamook Creamery and Cheese Factory as we drove south. We did not realize what a large operation this is and enjoyed walking around the visitor center and taking part in the cheese tasting.

The packaging conveyor line.

Another view of the factory floor.

We then returned to Ashland and the challenge of packing the car. We spent two days making sure the house was clean, and all the nail holes from hanging art were patched and painted. We felt fortunate that all the remnant debris from the estate sale had been cleared away and everything was left tidy.  The photo above is all that we had decided to keep and, hopefully, take to Mexico.  The next challenge, how much will fit in the Prius and on the roof rack!

The car, empty and trying to make sure that every nook and cranny was utilized. It is quite amazing just what can be tucked under the front seats!

Just a few more things to be squeezed into the roof-top carrier, while at the same time worrying that maybe we had overloaded the car!

We did decide to keep a small 5 X 5 storage unit for items that would not fit in the car and that we would "deal with" on our next visit to Ashland.

Packed and ready to roll.........
Our plan was to drive to Ajijic, Mexico by way of Carlsbad, CA and Scottsdale, AZ to visit friends and break the journey a little. The drive from Ashland to Ajijic is about 2,500 miles, and so we set off with some concerns over how potentially overloaded the car might be.

We were to see many more scenes like this as we made our way south.

We hit a major downpour as we approached Scottsdale, which made me a little concerned that the roof rack "bag" was waterproof, as advertised, it was.  After spending two nights with friends in Scottsdale, we  stayed at a Best Western on the Nogales side of the border, ready to make an early start through the inspections. etc. at the border.
We made it in good time and after some cursory looks at what was in the car, a customs officer peered into tightly packed boxes, and was finally convinced that all we had in the car was for our "casa", we were waved on.

We had a lot of concern as to just where the immigration station was located, it is NOT at the border where you might think it should be! It is at km 21. Fortunately for us we had a lot of help in locating this stop from our friend Norman McKeithan, who walked me through the approach using Google Earth. It was just as well, as the signage to this important stop is all but non-existent, and the "off-ramp" is into a gravel parking lot. We received the important immigration forms, as well as the temporary import permit for the car, quite easily with minimal wait times.

Mexico is making major upgrades to Hwy 15, which did make for a great drive most of the time. We would come upon "diversions" quite quickly where we were directed to the other carriageway which was now a two lane highway, so we needed to stay alert.
We had planned and booked hotels in Guaymas, Culiacan and Tepic, giving us approximately seven hours driving between each stop. We had good experiences and most times were able to find the hotel location, with a lot of help from our trusty Garmin GPS.

There were a lot of trucks to be aware of, but we only had one long back-up that you can see here. The cause we believe was a bus that had crashed up ahead.

On this approach to the toll booth, there were trucks everywhere and we were getting directed into booths that were on the opposite side of the highway. There were many toll booth stops, occasionally ones not operating officially.  Barriers were up and  there were workers standing at the booth with a coffee can where you were expected to deposit the normal toll amount. We never quite understood what this was all about?

Some parts we passed through, notably between Tepic and Guadalajara, reminded us a lot of France or Britain, with rolling green hills all around.

A typical wayside stall selling food and fruit, this on what is described as a toll road, not a "freeway", though it looks pretty much like one, only with additions such as these!

A toll booth entry, you just have to be prepared with money to hand the attendant, or the random bucket, if the toll barrier is raised.

On our arrival back at our condo, we were greeted by "welcome home" gifts from our dear friends Janie and Norman. They had kept an eye on our place while we were back in Oregon preparing for this move.

Even more thoughtful were some food supplies so that we did not have to go grocery shopping the moment we arrived.

Even the fridge was stocked with the essentials, milk, orange juice and beer!

Lake Chapala is at it's highest level in years, it had risen six feet while we were away.  For a lake 50 miles long and 10 miles wide, that is a lot of water. It has continued to rise since we have been back.

The egrets love it, there are a lot of fish in the lake and occasionally you see the egrets catch mouthfuls. The pelicans are now arriving, so we will be entertained when we walk the lakeside boardwalk.

More later, stay tuned.

Fiestas and Photos

This post covers some of our continued stay in Ajijic in June and July, so I apologize for it only appearing now. With that said, we experienced another  large fiesta that was very well attended and took place over two days. Every year in early July the 16th century wooden relic of the virgin is brought to Chapala from it's resting place in the Basilica of Our Lady of Zapopan. This results in a popular parade with many marching bands, drum corps and native dancers. You can get another view of this event through our friend, Dane Strom's blog here.

One of the first sights that greet you as you get to the center of the town of Chapala is this decorated path which it soon becomes apparent,  is the path that the parade will follow.

The decorations are quite beautiful and many of the panels are quite intricate. They appear to be made from colored wood chips or some other organic matter.

The parade begins with a number of marching bands, all quite loud and a lot of fun.

It is a religious parade, though scene's like this were in the minority.

I am not sure what all of the flag bearers were representing, but it is obviously a big deal to be in this parade.

Lots of indigenous people from the area around Zapopan which is on the outskirts of Guadalajara.

Aztec dancers were a big attraction, with VERY loud pounding drums.

The priest riding on the float carrying the small statue of the virgin.

There is the small statue of the Virgin of Zapopan, who In 1734, was proclaimed Patroness against storms and lightning and visits Lake Chapala each year to keep the area safe from such storms that occur during the rainy season.

All dancers were in colorful and sometimes mysterious costumes.

All of the colored wood chips and sawdust was all cleared away as the parade made it's way to the lakefront.

As you can see, large crowd for this special event.

OK just one more dancer and her feathered headdress.

The film Coco, must have ramped up the desire for white guitars!

We made another trip to our favorite goat farm, Gallo de Allende.

The owners and a reluctant baby!

 I made a few outings with fellow photographers and you can always find ferocious guard dogs down any street.

Old boats, and....

Herons.

We were invited to Lori's, in red, birthday party which was a very special event.

We attended a dinner at the opening of a new French restaurant, aptly scheduled for Bastille Day.

We signed a long term lease on a two bed, two bath condo, which is just around the corner  you can see from this photo of the entry driveway.

The condo does not come with it's own garden, but we are looking forward to enjoying the common space with the other 4 dwellings in this little gated community in a lovely mixed neighborhood.

We have an excellent restaurant just a few yards, or should I say metres from our entry gate, serving dishes with an Argentinian twist.

On July 31 we flew back to the US with a stop in Seattle to visit family and then drove back to Ashland.

This was the first view of the smoke from one of the fires that surround the Rouge Valley.

It looks like fog, but it certainly does not smell like it.

We are now in a "down sizing" mode again and are busy with the very difficult task of deciding what to keep and what to relinquish,  the hardest part is trying to decide which of the many mementos to keep.
Hopefully by the time I am able to post again, we will be looking back on all of those efforts.
¡Hasta luego!

Just one other note, my son David and his family began their on year trip around the world in mid July. This is the culmination of much planning and saving that will provide the twins with an unbeatable year of school.
David has a blog of their travels and if you have any interest and you can check it out at The Lea's RTW 2018 
At this moment they are in a camper van on the south island of New Zealand.
Dylan also has a vlog going, so if you want to see a 12 year old's take on travel, you can check it out here,  Dylan's VLOG  Enjoy.