Anyone interested in caravaning or meeting us somewhere along the way, contact me before 1/1/07

12/13/06
OK, it's official, this year we will have a tag-a-long. Thury O'Connor will be following along with his new RV for most of the trip.
If anybody has the time or inclination Thury could use a co-pilot to help him along.

12/31/06 - Happy New Year
We plan to leave Cleveland on 1/2 and arrive in Houston on 1/3. We will be visiting with Rich Priem and his family before heading south.

Our bags are packed we're ready to go

Dreaming of the nice places

And beautiful sunsets

1/05/07 - Left 6 AM on Tuesday for Houston. Traffic was light. Stopped overnight in Jackson, TN Wal-Mart and got to Priem's about 7:30 PM. Sunny and dry all the way. Our RV electric step decided to keep opening and closing as we drove. I had to disconnect the power to it. Manufacturer says door switch is acting up, so is sending a new one by air express.
We had dinner with Keel Hauler Bob Boyce who spends half his time in Houston and the other half in Akron with his family.
Awaiting Thury's arrival on Saturday and expect to be heading south on Sunday morning.

1/07/07 - Left early from Priem's and arrived in Harlingen, TX in the early afternoon giving Peggy lots of time to shop and me enough time to change some dollars into Pesos at the local Wal-Mart where we stayed for the night. We left Monday morning at 7:30 AM for the border crossing at Los Indos. A great place, no trucks and very little traffic, however when we got there we found out that the Customs does not open until 9 AM even though the border opens at 6 AM. So we had to wait but got our new 10 yr vehicle permit and Visa for the trip with no problems. We had a fairly easy drive to the Country Express Hotel just before Tampico. We stayed behind the hotel with 5 others campers and 5 trucks and had dinner in their nice restaurant.

1/09/07 - Drove to Quinta Alicia campground on the Emerald Coast arriving by 2 PM however the roads on this stretch were very rough and we almost missed the new turnpike bypass around Poza Rica. We had good weather; temperatures had warmed to the low 70's with no rain. Took a few walks on the beach and found a nearby ATM to get more Pesos.

1/11/07 - Since the weather was dry we decided to head for the beautiful Lake Catemaco in the Mexican highlands south of Vera Cruz. The last time we were there it was very rainy and we wanted to see what it would be like in dry weather. We got to Playa Azul Resort by 2 PM after stocking up at a big Soriana super mart in S.A. Tuxtla. By 3 PM I had my kayak out on the lake for a 4 mi paddle around the islands with monkeys. I saw lots of birds but no monkeys.

Country Express Hotel	Howler Monkey
Overfed Monkey on Island	Young Monkey	Thury trying out my Kayak

In the morning we were awakened to the sound of Howler Monkeys. One large one was right above our camper high in the trees, I got one picture. The next afternoon I went kayaking agaim and found a small island with lots of monkeys. All the tourists feed them from boats so they were a little on the fat side. If you get too close they want to jump down on your boat. One big monkey grabbed the grab loop of my kayak. The weather has been beautiful as I hoped for. The last time it rained all day so we didn't get to do much. Today it is sunny and low 70's.

1/14/07 - We stayed two days at Playa Azul Hotel on Lake Catemaco and then moved over to Hotel Tepetapan which had better facilities including sewer hookups and you could walk into town from the campground. Sunday morning we left early to head due south to the west coast. Yes, look at the map, Mexico bends and from this point Huatulco is South of here and is on the west coast.

1/15/07 - There go the best laid plans. We got an early start and had mostly good roads to the West coast. We both hit a large unmarked Tope (speed bump) at too high a speed. We had some things moved around a bit but Thury lost 20 bottles of Snapple that luckily he carried in his bath tub. We go to the campground at 2:30 PM and found that they had turned it into a construction site and there were no campgrounds in Huatulco. This was a really nice place to camp. On the beach, next to a golf course with lots of tropical birds. After some driving around we found that we could overnight in a parking lot for Playa Chahue, a small beach near town. So we are spending the day around the little town of La Crucecita. Thury needs Pesos and Peggy needs to get her shopping fix. They have lots of Internet places here we will try to camp here again tonight. But tomorrow (Tue) he will head to Puerto Angel which is only 30 mi away.