April 11 -- to Phoenix & San Felipe

It was a long day. We got up at 4am (normal for me but 4 hours early for Sandy) ... got organized and then went to the airport. Since we were staying at the Sheraton Four Points by the airport, that part was not too onerous. We are leaving the car there, so we simply took the shuttle.

By the time we got checked in, paying our extra dues ($80) for transporting the bike box, through security and had coffee it was around 6 a.m. -- one hour before flight time. We picked up a snack for the flight and boarded on time. The man next to me very kindly swapped his middle seat for Sandy's aisle seat so that we could sit together. The flight was uneventful and arrived about 15 minutes late.

George Cederholm was down at baggage claim to meet us -- everything arrived fairly quickly, including the bike box -- so we loaded it all up in his car and then went to get our rental. George had arranged to meet us because we were not sure whether the bike box would fit in the rental car. We followed the Garmin Navigation System (hereinafter referred to as the NAV) to his house without issue -- except that I had left the windwhield mount for it in on of the bags so Sandy had to hold the thing up to the window the entire way.

We had a short visit & lunch with George & Geri and their pups -- Merlin finally stopped giving me a hard time when I gave him a treat from the table -- unpacked and assembled the bike (actually, predictably, I did this first -- my key concern being that the bike arrived in the same number of pieces as I packed it) -- then embarked for San Felipe around 12:30 local time. Of course, local time is now 3:30 Eastern, so the day is getting on.

The NAV is great -- down to Calexico CA -- very windy, especially through the sand dunes west of Yuma -- multiple stops in Calexico for gas, snack for me and Sandy and some degreaser for the bike -- and then we crossed the border.

By this time, of course, it's 4:45 local time, 7:45 Eastern time, and I'm getting tired. We followed Arlene's instructions too literally and kept "bearing right" taking us off the "freeway" and for a tour of Mexicali. Even though it did not feel right to me, we kept seeing signs for San Felipe, which reassured me that perhaps the road was going to join up with highway 5 -- which we could see on the NAV -- off to the east of us. Unfortunately we eventually ran out of road, turned around and went back to the border, got onto 5 and headed south. We probably lost about 45 minutes and gained an appreciation for Mexicali ... hmmm.

The drive down 5 is very pretty, once you are through Mexicali -- mountains and flats, very low areas that clearly were flooded in some periods of global warming/cooling -- all the way down to the Sea of Cortez and San Felipe. We arrived just as it was getting dark, this is now around 7:30 local time and waaayyy past my bedtime, so we didn't follow the instructions closely and had to double back, check the mileage at the gas station landmark so that we could find the correct dirt road heading down to Arlene's place.

We had Easter dinner again !! -- ham and scalloped potatoes -- always a treat -- Arlene, the kids & dogs were happy to see us and I finally turned in sometime after 9 or 9:30. Notice that I say that I turned in -- I have no idea when Sandy came to bed. Carrie had fallen asleep on the couch; the boys were playing, Arlene and Sandy were talking -- and I crashed, sleeping like the dead until just before 4 a.m.

The day went very well -- I make it sound like we were tired and irritable, but actually the only time that we got a little "testy" was in Mexicali -- I knew where I had to be and did not want to stop at a gas station and try and get directions to San Felipe, which of course would have been in Spanish. Quite frankly, I was more comfortable going back the way that we had come to the border and getting on 5 that way -- I did not want to get lost in city streets followiing directions that I would never remember, to get over to 5. The good news was that we could see 5 on the NAV the entire time, so you always had a perspective on where you were. Mexicali is a zoo -- the main streets are very wide -- probably 4 cars wide both directions, with no lane markings, millions of all-way stops -- but actually the drivers are all fairly courteous, waiting their turn at said intersections -- and it was full daylight when we were in Mexicali. As Arlene had told me -- this is not a drive to do in the dark.

Onward Ho !