Chaos Leaves Town

I arranged, with the RV park owners help, a taxi to take me out to the train station. It’s about 3-4 miles from El Fuerte. Had an overnight bag all ready since I planned on spending the night (or three) up there. Had a couple leads on hotels and the one I’d chosen lists WiFi, had a nice view and a restaurant. But it was kind of spendy. So I was going to be looking around when I arrived at Divisadero. The ticket was purchased on the train, amounted to around $60USD and takes ~6 hours. Here’s an on-line map that shows the trip and the gained elevation: Copper Canyon Train.

At the station, checking out the map.

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The last few days in Mazatlan, I spent doing internet searches for info about the Copper Canyon train trip. For the curious, this was in late March, 2013. Yeah, I’m a little behind in posting.

Naturally, I avoid ‘tours’ as those offers are always much, much more then if you just travel by yourself. A guided Copper Canyon trip is a minimum of $895. That doesn’t pay for most of your other expenses, like an RV space. I can see the need of some people to have their hands held on trips like this because you can make some bone headed mistakes and end up in a ‘situation’ but I’ve been pretty successful avoiding problems by myself on trips like this. I do a lot of internet searching, read blogs of people who’ve done the trip and things like that. I also have a pretty good idea of places to stay, internet access, cash needed, etc. The Copper Canyon train is something I’d wanted to do for several years and after a couple days of research, I thought I had a good handle on it all.

Not many of us left here at California Trailer Park.

Just me and Tom.

My plan was to head north up the coast to Los Mochis, spend the night at the RV park there that bills itself as the Gateway to Copper Canyon, then up to a nice RV park in El Fuerte where I can catch the train and avoid a long boring section of the trip.

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After spending a few days getting reacquainted with Mazatlan, I called the shop that did my painting last year on the RV. Don’t remember if I’d told you guys, but while they were prep’ing the RV in March of 2012, I asked Juan 4 separate times if they were going to use plastic primer on the plastic surrounds so the paint would stick properly. Four times he answered, ‘Si, senor’. But I’d also told Juan that I was planning on selling the RV and upgrading that year. Apparently, he felt he could go ahead and skip a step in the process and NOT use any plastic primer. Damn it. Three weeks after I left Mexico last year, I spotted some paint chipping off the plastic wheel surrounds. Months later, big sections had lost their paint cover. Didn’t look toooo bad, but not what I’d asked for.

Peeling paint on the plastic wheel surround.

So, when I called their shop this year, I didn’t mention that it was a free work (they have a one year warranty), just said I had some painting and body work that needed to be done. Made an appointment, and was sure I was there the full day. They didn’t show up. Made another appointment the following week. They didn’t show for that one either. The name of their company, so you can avoid them, is Body Shop Painting, Taller Selene. Juan Jr. Salazar G.

Getting a little frustrated here. Wasn’t sure that they’d have the time to do all the work that was needed. Plus the paint repair. I had some body damage from the truck bumper I’d scratched the body and rumpled the back edge cap a few months earlier so when a different crew was in the park painting someone else’s rig, I invited them to quote mine. Tired of waiting for Juan and party. Yeah, I know, I could have pressed the issue and saved some money…but, really, I also was thinking, what the hell, it’s not that expensive anyway, and I’d be happy to help the local economy.

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After a couple days of meeting and greeting the few RV’ers at California Trailer Park in Mazatlan, shopping a bit, and enjoying a delicious dinner at my favorite quick Taco Loco, I wandered into the Golden Zone to have a look around. The RV park is at the Southern end of the GZ less then a block from the ocean. I didn’t know what was going on. The San Carlos RV park was packed, but Maz seemed to be nearly empty of tourists. What had I missed in the news? Asked around, but no one knew where all the tourists were this year. But, it has been getting worse and worse every year. Fewer and fewer tourists. Sad. So many jobs gone. Lots of closed businesses.

Seems deserted.

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After returning to Rosamond, I noticed when I drove up and parked in the street in front of my brother’s house, that his RV was there but I didn’t see his car. Damn. I’d have to try and park the RV without help since I think he’s not home. It’s so steep that it’s nearly impossible for me to do it alone. Someone has to jamb the chocks under the tires so the beast doesn’t roll down the road. But, there was an alternative. I snuggled up next to the sidewalk, crammed the front passenger side tire right up snug, threw it into park, and then sweating bullets, released my hold on the brakes. Slipped a little, but held. Then carefully and cautiously tiptoed to the door, grabbed the chocks sitting right there next to it and ran back to the back and jammed one under the passenger side rear. Then to the drivers side. Whew. I could relax.  Then, surprise, Dan comes out from the back yard. Helps me get her all settled with four chocks and the tire off the curb.

With that finished, ask him where his car is. He mumbles something about it being in the shop. Over the next few hours, I get the story on his nearly brand new car. What happened was he had left before I left to Hawaii to join his son to drive his RV to Phoenix to see a Ducks football game. They had a fine time, stayed several days, but as they were headed back, he’d forgotten to put his car (which is towed behind his RV while traveling) into Neutral. That of course, if not discovered quickly enough, will ruin both the engine and the transmission.  Seems he was driving along at 65MPH and someone pulled up alongside pointing back to the car frantically. When he stopped, smoke was pouring out from under the hood and other mysterious places. After returning it to neutral and arriving at their stop for the night, when he checked it, it obviously had a problem. Towed it back to California, took it to Honda dealer and they gave him the news that the engine was toast. And they wouldn’t know about the tranni as they’d wait for a new engine to test it after doing the best servicing they could do.

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Allison and Leo took off on their honeymoon, I think they were flying to Maui. I was invited to the airport to wave goodbye but I begged off as it didn’t sound all that much fun. Oh, I’m happy for them and all, but it’s a hassle these days going to airports to see someone off. Use to be you’d be able to join them all the way up to the boarding gate. Now, not so easy.

With 3 days left here in Kona, and with a rental car, I had a great time exploring the town and outskirts. Since I’d already circumnavigated the island, stayed pretty close to town. Did visit several malls, Walmart, and some autoparts stores looking for paint to touch up the scrape on the front of the rental car. I was stressing about that a little as I’d not paid for any insurances offered, carrying only the collision coverage that I have when I use my VISA card. True, that saved me lots of money, but now I was worrying that it was going to cost me $3-400 to repair. Yikes. Finally, it hit me, my brother has to fly all the time for his job, and uses rental cars all the time. He’ll know what to do. So I give him a call, and he says just not worry about it. Drive it in, don’t say anything about it, and let them inspect it. If they care, they’ll note it. If not, I’m off the hook.

Scrapes and scratches on the cowl.

See those scrapes? That’s what I was worried about. Continue reading →

I just had enough time to get familiar with my condo and settle in with a little WiFi email checking when Allison called and let me know they had finished the reception, cake cutting, toasts, clothes changing, etc., and were headed to the bar. Met up with A&L again and was talking to her father before we left for Humpy’s Big Island Alehouse about his day. He’s been out body surfing on what passes for a beach in Kona and got flipped over then pulled under the water by the strong undertow and bashed his head/neck area. Someone was there to quickly pull him out or he would have drowned. He was dazed and wasn’t in charge of his facilities just after it happened. Later, he was talking to a guy at the rental shop I think? And the guy told him that they have a couple tourists a year have almost the same thing happen to them but they end up paralyzed due to a broken neck or back, or worse yet, dead. Yikes! That could have been a very bad ending to a very happy event.

After getting everyone all ready, we wandered down to the bar for a few. It was within walking distance from their condo. Humpy’s Big Island Alehouse. Huge place. Lots of TVs big seating area and a bandstand. Just a DJ that night but, everyone got up to dance and celebrate the wedding. We didn’t get out of there until 4AM. And I headed home nice and toasty.

Allison kibitzing.

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So the next day was the wedding…I dressed in my Sunday best, designed for Hawaii; a Hawaiian shirt (not the flashy kind that tourists wear though), pressed Dockers, and nice sandals with socks. Stopped off at the store and got myself some nice local Hawaiian beer. Arrived at the venue (the beach) a couple hours early I thought. Turned out I ended up being 4 hours early. So had bunches of time to kill. The wedding party was having trouble organizing all those people and arranging last minute details I suppose. Or Allison just told me the wrong time to get there. Yeah, that’s it, the bride was goofy and told me wrong. Job one is assigning blame, and I’m good at it.

I had a good time wandering around the ancient Hawaiian ruins again and contemplating what it must have been like to live there.  When I remembered about the museum, it was only a few minutes from the expected arrival time of the wedding party so I skipped walking the 1/4 mile uphill to visit. But like I said, they arrived 2 hours after that so I could have made it there and back in plenty of time. But the time I wandered off during my daughters wedding, I almost missed the entire ceremony. I wasn’t about to let that happen again.

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Later in the day, Allison invites me to go visit where they’re getting married. Of course I’m thinking it’s going to be a church or meeting hall or some such. No, she says, we’re getting married on the beach. At a State Park, named the Kekaha Kai State Park. Oh, cool, sure, I’d love to come. They wanted to do some sunbathing and some swimming and since I knew from experience how ghastly Hawaiian beaches can be on leeward side (the side that gets less wind then the windward side), causing high concentrations of sea salt in the water, and then the fact that there’s so much volcanic rock on, in, near the beaches, I didn’t bother to get my swim suit. I’d forgotten it anyway. Didn’t plan on buying one either.

So we three drive on over to the park, which is really an old yacht club that was built next to an ancient Hawaiian ruins. When the natives finally got some respect, they were able to make it a SP and stop development that would have spelled the end of the ruins.

Allison and Leo heading for the beach.

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My friend Allison had invited me to her wedding. Over in Hawaii. On the big island. Spent hours and hours trying to find places to stay, things to do, places to go. I found a condo that looked pretty good and had a nice low price. Set the link aside for a few days while I researched other places, trying to find one closer to where the wedding was going to be. No luck. And their price was the best. So, went back and started to reserve the place, and my computer belched. Took 3 days to get it up and running again. When I went back to reserve the condo, 2 of the 7 days I wanted were reserved by someone else. Damnit! So, reserved 5 nights there and then reserved 2 nights at a hotel. Advantage of that hotel was that it was very close to where Allison’s family was staying. But kind of rich for my blood. Hadn’t been able to find anyone in the wedding party to share expenses with or to split condo expenses where her family was staying.

So I had already reserved my flight out of LAX (excellent RT price!) and found through intensive internet searching, a bus that left Rosamond about 3 miles from my brothers house (where my RV was parked) and dropped me off at a transfer station in Lancaster, from which I would take a taxi to the shuttle, that would take me to LAX. My brother was going to be gone on the day of my departure so I couldn’t bum a ride from him, and there’s no taxi in Rosamond. Palmdale, Lancaster, and Rosamond are in a string starting around 50 miles from LA and going to 80 miles away in Rosamond. But, I didn’t like the looks of all those bus transfers and the taxi ride I’d have to take to the shuttle station. And I’d have to walk with my luggage down to the Rosamond bus pickup, about 3 miles. Too much trouble, with the potential of a screw up and missed connection somewhere along the way. However, the shuttle station in Palmdale had a very large long term fenced parking lot…for just $5/day. So I planned to drive my RV down there, park it, then jump on the shuttle to LAX. Looked like a great idea on paper.

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