Woah oh...we're more than halfway there!! Woah oh living on a prayer!

These ladies run a little restaurant that is located at the end of a long tunnel in the heart of Old Mazatlan. It was very fun to get here and very delicious as well. There is a popular tourists plaza nearby with many english speaking locals. We asked one of the locals where he eats when he goes "out" for dinner and showed us this place. We were the only ones eating.

A long day of driving takes ingenuity to keep the kids entertained. This photo was one of many taken by Maia.
We visited a very beautiful church in the old part of Mazatlan.
A nice moment on the beach.

We have officially driven 5500 kms now. Phew! We are resting in .... MAZATLAN. We apologise for the lack of communication over the past few days, the availability of wifi, or even internet for that matter is not as evident. There certainly isn't any internet in our entire hotel.
Well, we started out driving in Nogales, as you may remember from Adam's last blog entry.
Adam was little nervous about crossing the border, so he threw away my nice bottle of wine that I had been carrying in my purse all the way from California. It turned out that the border crossing from the U.S INTO Mexico is not that difficult. Apparently the other way is a little harder. They didn't even check our car... I could have been sipping that wine right now.
At any rate, we crossed the border without a hitch and immediately, I mean immediately, saw that it was different country. The Nogales on the U.S side, was ugly, but it looked like any American town. The Nogales, directly on the other side was decidedly less wealthy. It shocked me. I am not sure why except that philosophically, my perception is that imaginary borders shouldn't dictate a person's living condidtions.
We made it that night to a small coastal town called San Carlos. We almost stayed at Gringo Pete's, but it was dank and dark... luckily we found a cute little motel, right downtown, which made me, *Princess Emilie, according to Adam*, feel a whole lot better. Here's the thing, I know there are cockroaches in Mexico, I just wasn't mentally prepared to greet them as soon as I walked into the bathroom.
That night we decided to go for bust...The nearest beach was a ten hour drive away from San Carlos, so we got up at 5:45 in the morning, threw everyone in the van and started driving.
Are we crazy? Perhaps...but the kids were really great the whole day, and we finally made it to Mazatlan by about 4 in the afternoon.
There are three prett distinct zones in Mazatlan, the old town, the north beach and then the Zona Dorada. The Zona Dorada is where all of the mega resorts are located, the north beach is where the Mexican people go on their vacations, and the old town is the original site of Mazatlan tourism boom in the 1950's.
We are staying in the north beach at a hotel where noone speaks English. It has been great for our Spanish, and we are learning a few things about this new country.
First of all, we need to live louder. People definetly live louder here than in North America. Last night we had a soccer team partying on the street outside our window until 4 or 5 in the morning. You get used to the noise. I like the colour and vibrancy.
Secondly, I was a disgusting person when I was a smoker. The beach is littered with old cigarette butts. I am sure that I threw mine into the sand as well, back when I smoked. Yuck!
Lastly, find a kind waiter to direct to where the good Mexican food is. We found a restaurant that was hidden in a tunnel across from the theatre here. It was authentic, fresh and muy delicioso. It was called El Tunnel in fact, for those of you who may be in Mazatlan at some point. There is a picture of the women who cooked and served us a little further on.
Thanks for all of your comments this week. Shannon, I hope that your little family joins the adventure at some point. Let us know if you have any questions. Lana, we can't wait to hear any new that you have. Dad and Lauren we are calling you soon. Anna, we would love to meet for tea, and finally Rox...we will take your advice and ask the older and hopefully wiser women for directions and advice.
We are moving on tomorrow...hope to write again soon.

I don't understand the pregunta?

Nogales is likely an old spanish word for "transition town". As you approach Nogales the destinations signs show distance in metric and the drivers becomes increasingly aggresive. The lonely planet actually recommends increased aggression whilst driving in Mexico. I didn't believe it until we received a serious honking while taking a left turn too slowly. The perpertrator was a little old lady in a rusty oldsmobile. It was the first honk in 4000 kilometers.

Everybody we meet in this border town speaks Spanish and English fluently and they switch back and forth between the languages as if there was no difference at all. I may be the only one in "transition town" that doesn't speak Spanish. I try not to let my nervousness show and I say "Si!" with great enthusiasm at every "pregunta". Maia is teaching me Spanish and I have already learned "me llamo es Maia". I have received some strange looks while venturing bravely past my language limits but how else is one to learn a new language.

Hermosillo is our destination tomorrow. The population of Hermosillo is 600,000 people but it is considered a small "town" by Mexican standards. Driving in Mexico feels like the beginning of a totally new adventure and the we are are vibrating with excitement. I should detail the fact that Maia is always vibrating with excitement and Naomi has found some excitement in a new soother. Tink vibrates pretty well while idling, or accelerating..... and a little while parked at night.

The Heat Helps the Head

Hello from Tucson. It is 90 degrees and we are standing beside a heated pool. It was still very refreshing.

Do we look the same?

How about now?

A couple of things to mention in this blog. To begin, we are in Tucson, Arizona. Whenever I say that name, I sing a little bit of Paul Simon's song "Under African Skies"

-I said take this child, Lord

From Tucson Arizona

Give her the wings to fly through harmony

And she won't bother you no more-

Tucson is a really beautiful city, and very warm. We finally feel like we have come to summer. I will add pictures when the computer lets me. I have been fighting with it for over an hour.

We have been here for a little longer than we had anticipated because we were afraid that we were overheating the engine. Funny story this one, we were so concerned with overheating that we had actually been keeping the engine at way below average running heat by blasting the heat inside the vehicle while we drove. Ha! Ha! the joke is on us I guess.

The bad news in this whole story is that the mechanic has informed us of our much rusted radiator. We thought about getting it changed, but we have put way too much of our savings into this vehicle, so we are going to go ahead with the old girl, just the way she is! Ole Tink has been good to us so far, and we have already been over some pretty steep mountains.

This information about our vehicle did put a little damper on our spirits, but we quickly ate away our bad moods with some ooey gooey goodness in the form of a chocolate brownie and ice-cream covered in fudge and caramel. We used the fact that it was my sister's birthday as an excuse to have this decadent dessert. We sang happy birthday to Lindi with our faces full of yumminess. It was so sweet, that I actually started to feel lightheaded about halfway through.

The last thing I have been noticing lately is that when you travel you want to talk to everyone you meet. When you live somewhere, it is almost like you forget, or don't take the time to really talk with people around you. Living in Edmonton, a complacency came over me with regards to a curiosity about those that I encountered on a daily basis. Now I am finding a neediness in me sometimes. That neediness is a desire to have a deeper contact with people we are meeting along the way. Funny, in a contemplative sort of a way. I wish I had had more curiosity when we lived in Edmonton.

We have met some interesting people, and I expect to meet more as we continue on our travels. The people of Tucson, that we have met thus far, have been very kind and considerate.

To all of you, we miss you and love you and would enjoy a deeper connection with you as well! We're off to Mexico in two days...wish us luck!

The 5:45 to Yuma

We're here...we're tired...we want to eat sweets!



We drove all day from Pismo beach and we didn't make it to Encintas. We tried really hard though. We made some crazy decisions in the heat of the moment whilst driving through traffic jams in Los Angeles. L.A was totally insane. I never want to drive through it again. The girls got tired though and at 8:30 we pulled into the first hotel we could find. It turned out to be San Clemente...home of the high school surfing champions 6 years running.

The next day, we drove a leisurely 45 minutes to Encinitas and went to the meditation gardens of the Self-Realisation Fellowship. Here's a picture of Naomi drinking some blessed milk, under the Saint Francis of Assisi tree.

Encinitas is a great little town. Very beautiful and laid back. We also were able to camp for the first time since we started this journey. Again, there were surfers everywhere and many fellow Westies...

Well, we tried to see Adam's brother David, but we didn't get there on the right day, nor had he received any of our messages, so it didn't work out on Saturday, but we hoped for a Sunday visit. While we waited, we walked around town, Maia had some ice cream...

While she was enjoying her blueberry cheescake all-natural ice-cream on a sugar cone, I spoke with a woman who was organizing a film festival and education day about the 911 conspiracy theory. They were hoping for a big turn-out.

We walked along the beach at sunset and had a campfire at nightfall. Adam and I enjoyed a nice homemade cup of tea (it always tastes better when you make it yourself) while the girls slept and then we went to bed to the soothing sound of the ocean marred slighlty by the jarring sound of the amtrack train as it went by every hour.

This morning, after I ran on the beach, (and it felt glorious) Adam visited with David. Dave was only able to see Adam between 9 am to 10 am and the girls and I were unable to see him. Adam's visit was short but sweet. Maia, Naomi and I will have to wait for next time. It just wasn't meant to be.

We left the beach and drove to the moon. California's south-east is a barren landscape of rocks, boulders and granite. It is a far cry from the lush redwood forests we had just passed through. It was also really hot! It was so hot we stopped in Yuma at the nearest swimming pool and dove right in with all of our clothes on.

Ok, ok, we didn't really have all of our clothes on, but it was pretty close!

Love to you all! Thanks for the advice Zoe, we are really careful with our overheating, and will continue to be. We don't want any engine fires.

San Fran to Pismo Beach

San Francisco is a really fun city. We found a great hotel that was a short bus ride to the famous fisherman's wharf. We walked for three hours along the wharf listening to music, getting free balloons, watching the sea lions on pier 39 and eating ice cream. We met with Sunny, Patricia, Dallas and Linda for dinner and decided on the Cioppio restaurant. It was really great to see our friends, even though it was a short time.

















After updating our AAA membership we starting a leisurly drive to Pismo beach. We quickly decided against the coastal road and drove Hwy 101 all the way. The hills and valleys cause Tink to overheat too quickly. We have to drive with the heater on full on the flat freeway as it is. We stopped at home depot and I bought an allen wrench to tighten the bolts on the drive shaft. (Safety first!!).












We arrived at Pismo beach at 4:30 and we were all itching to get sand stuck in our toes. It's hard to describe the feeling but the the two beach pictures must be worth about 200o words. The Blue dolphin hotel in the background is where we are staying tonight. We all got out feet into the ocean. AMAzinG!








A few words from Naomi.

The Adventure Continues

(...this blog continued from yesterday's installment)

It's Emilie now. Well, in response to those of you who did comment on the last blog; Laurene, I think the universe was playing an April Fool's joke on us, but unfortunately, we weren't playing a joke on all of you. Dad, when you hear the end of the story, you will realise that Hales Grove had no internet either.

Well, last you heard, AAA was sending a truck within 45 minutes. Two hours later, we were still waiting. Janet had told me about her niece's true character, quote "she thinks she's hot champagne in a glass, but she's really cold piss in a cup". She has also taken off her logger socks to chow me her cat wounds. It was a long two hours.

We were getting hungry, so we popped the top and made some dinner while we waited. We had somewhat resigned ourselves to the fact that we may be staying the night in the van. Janet had offered to put us up for the night, but I just couldn't do it. It has to be said that she was a very kind and giving woman, despite all of my odoriferous misgivings.

Finally, after another hour had passed, the tow truck finally arrived. Unfortunately, (yes it just gets better and better) AAA had not informed them that there were 4 people waiting to be picked up and that two of them were children, and they were therefore,not equipped to take all of us back to a town. We would have to wait the night. YIKES!!!

While we sat dejectedly waiting for any other news, we had some good news finally. Richard from the Redwood Towing Service came back. Yes, he came back! He had finally managed to get some radio reception from down at Jimbo's place and he had asked his wife Ginger to come with another car to pick us all up. Honestly, we had quite a bit of luck that night...with Jimbo and Janet being so kind to us and then Richard and Ginger being so wonderfully giving, we just felt cared for and safe. It was a good feeling.

We finally made it back to Garberville (big shout outs to Richard and Ginger) to spend the night at the Best Western. It was a great hotel, with free wine and cheese receptions every night from 5:30 to 7:00. We took advantage of that.
The next day, Richard and Ginger's mechanic took a look at our van and fixed it in an hour. It barely cost us any money, and we got to explore a nice little town in California that we otherwise would never have seen. Here's some of the interesting stuff going on in Garberville and area. One-They have a little food stand called NACHO MAMMAS that serves all organic and delicious Cali-Mex Food.
Two-There's a Reggae festival just north of there every year, which is supposed to be alot of fun!
Phew! What a crazy day!
It has to be said that we did experience some moments of panic, as well as some serious doubts about the longevity of this trip. Tink was pretty close to being sold. BUT...we are in San Francisco now and we made it without a hitch.
Some tips that we have learned about adventuring so far are; to be patient and calm throughout any type of ordeal, It really helps.
I have to say that Adam was truly incredible. He took everything in stride and really sorted everything out. Cheesy but true.
I have included some more pictures so that you can see that it truly did happen. There is also a little video of Naomi that I made while we were waiting in Garberville. Just so you can see how much she is growing.
More about San Fran and the great night we just had in our next blog.
Please keep your fingers crossed for us that Tink keeps on keepin' on!


The above picture shows Richard hooking up the van for a 30 mile tow. We all squeezed into the tow truck until we met up with Ginger.

This is one of Adam's favorite pictures so far. The gentleman in the middle is Jimbo and Walter is standing to the far right. Walter is Janet's nephew.

Maia the princess.

Love Emilie

Hales Grove Adventure

The adventure has really started now. After leaving Eureka on monday morning, we drove for a while and we picked up Larry. Larry was walking down the Highway with an empty gas tank. Larry had lost his money at the casinos and then had run out of gas trying to get home. We gave him a ride to the nearest town, which was 3 miles away, and drove him back to his truck. Larry said that we restored his faith in humanity.

We drove for a few hours and we were headed for hwy 101 along the California coast. What we didn't know was that we had to drive over a very steep and windy road. At the begining of the climb we picked up Janet. She was shopping in Leggett and needed a ride over the mountain to her house in Hales Grove. You won't find Hales Grove on the map because the population is only 8 people. We drove up the windy road at 10 km/hr and we had to stop 4 times as the engine was overheating. Climbing the hill took nearly 1 hour. Going down the hill went a lot better and as we were turning into Janet's the driveway the van jolted and a loud crack was heard. The van was not moving anymore and when we got out to look underneath we saw the large hunk of steel that was apparently the driveshaft, hanging unusually low.

Undaunted but somewhat shaken, we asked Janet if we could use her phone. She told us that there "ain't phone lines in Hales Grove", but she said that Jimbo (her neighbor) had a cellphone and if we could get back to the top of the hill, we might get some reception. After Janet put her groceries in her house, we walked over to Jimbo's house. Jimbo was very friendly and agreed to lend me his cellphone and give me a ride back to the top of the moutain (Elevetion was approx. 500 meters). When we arrived at the top of the mountain, Jimbo jumped out of the truck and told me that I should be able to get reception here. That is when I said, "I don't have a cellphone, don't you?". He replied, " I didn't bring my phone either", in a very matter of fact manner, and he quickly continued in nearly the same breath, "I guess we're going to Leggett".

Meanwhile, back at the van Janet had invited Emilie into her house to choose a pair of homemade beaded earings in thanks for the lift over the mountain. Janet took care of 10 cats and 2 dogs. Let it be said that the home had a certain odor. Emilie and the kids were surving Janet's unique brand of hospitality and was keeping a eye for Me

The only payphone in Leggett is in disrepair and the AAA associate asked me to phone back on a land line as my "cellphone coverage was very poor". I knew as soon as I began to explain to him where I was that there would be problems. The conversation went something like this,

"Where are you sir?"

"I am broke down in Hales Grove, California, I have two..."

"Where?"

"It's on mile marker 96.3 on Hwy 1, we were heading southbound."

"Is it close to anything?"

"I am calling from Leggett, its about 9 miles to the north of where we are."

"I see. Can I call you back at this number?"

"No, this is a payphone.."

"Really?!, you are very crackly, I can barely hear you!. What number can I call you back on?"

"You can't call me back. There are no phones in Hales Grove and cellphones don't work."

(I hear crackly laughter on the other end of the phone.)

"I have two children, there are four of us."

"Ok sir, I will send a truck to Hales Grove. It should be there in about 45 minutes. Try to keep an eye out for the tow truck."

"That's it?"

"That's it."

"Ok....?"

"Have a good day sir."

Well Jimbo and I zoomed back over the hill I quickly told Emilie the news.

To be continued....