Acsuncion to San Rocque

Spent most of today fishing, here in Acsuncion and then north 10 miles outside a small pueblo called San Rocque. Beautiful beach, swimming all day and a couple of small halibut brought home for dinner. Yesterday I was throwing them back because they were so easy to catch.....then I lost the blue crocidile spoon. Tragedy. It fell of of my hat and into the surf....poof....gone.

Ahhhhh. That was not good.

Now using sand crabs scrapped out of the ground and sticking them onto a big treble. Caught a corbina on this early in the day; pretty tasty. Will go again tomorrow to confirm my title as the halibut king of Baja, and then head south sunday morning.

No surf around here, some potential, but nothing to speak of. Did some body surfing in the shore break this afternoon just to fill the void.

Halloween! Last times I was here, the kids never really celebrated it, but they sure do now. The truck was surrounded by 20 ghoul ans ghoulettes just after dark and the louder the kids screamed the more the dog barked and the louder she barker the more the little ghoulettes shrieked.... haha, we had nothing to give them until Alyssa remembered, "THE SESAME SNAPS!!!!", so the kids got those and some stickers. Next time we'll be better prepared! Then we went up to a couple's house from Creston and learned how to NOT play the acordion. We tried pretty hard but were very, very terrible.

Hablamos pronto amigos!

Baja

We made it. First day out of San Diego, drove like maniacs until we reached San Quentin and stayed at a RV park beside the beach. Doesn't quite seem like the baja I remember because of the satellite radio and the air-con, but the roads are just as crazy narrow and the fish tacos just as tasty. All the bullshit circulating about how crazy it is down here has been overblown. Is as tranquillo as I remember it. I may be regretting the dirty little roadside taco stand we hit after the border. Flush toilet and a shower is pretty nice though. Yesterday morning up at 8 and a full 10 hours until we reached Bahia Ascuncion. 2 hours from Guerro Negro along some fantastic blacktop....until we hit washboard from hell. Snails pace for over an hour. Once we reached the pueblo though....back to ashphalt.

Where I promptly got the camper roof tangled in the telephone wires. Oh for fu*k sakes. That took a bit of time to pull off and the telephone pole is a bit tipped over down the road, but had some help from the first guy who came out of his in the pitch dark. Carlos just happens to be the buisness partner of Juan and Shari at the fishing camp we are staying at. Couldn't have worked out any better. Dad, Carlos got your giant package of fishhooks as a thank you gift. He was pretty pumped.

Today a well deserved rest day, hang out here for a few days before heading south to Abreojoes.

Santa Cruz

Spent the last two days in Napa Valley sampling a few different wineries and now at the beach in Santa Cruz. Lucy a big hit at the last winery we went to... Clos du Val maybe was the name?? Not sure, but one of the wine makers was a big Cattledog fan and invited us to his ranch on the way back to BC in dec. He has 9 Heelers at his place? Must be a complete zoo! Blew through San Fran pretty quick to get down to highway 1 along the coast, stopped briefly for coffees at Peet's (everybody comments on the dog). Stayed last night at Halfmoon Bay. So nice.

Today a slow day, a run along the beach, blueberry pancakes, and a shower. Alyssa said I was getting a bit ripe so I guess we came along this place at the right time. Haha.

Anyways, we are keeping track of hurricane Rick, looks like it went well south of where we are headed so no worries there. Try to get some phots up next stop. Taking the 101 from here south to LA and then the I5 until we reach San Diego tomorrow.

California

Spent day two traversing Oregon along the Columbia River and then south along the coastline to Cannon Beach. Very hilly country, is going to be very tough to cycle next spring; thank god for tandem bikes (you hear me Lundine??? Dodsworth is mine!!). Spent the night at Cannon Beach and breakfast at Indian Head overlooking Haystack rock




On to Tillamook (Cheese Factory). Winner of the Carmichael/Wilson taste test? #1 Sharp Cheddar followed by the Habenero Chedder. Delicious!




Boiler Bay near Depoe Bay Wilson got her first ever Whale sighting and damn near jumped out of the truck. Got clagged in with fog as we made our way through Dune City; couldn't see a thing.




Got the email about Hurricane Rick. Thanks Trev and Dad. Looks to be a big one, will check into it before we head across the border. Latest updates on Baja Nomad have it hitting just the tip of the penninsula and then heading west. http://forums.bajanomad.com/viewthread.php?tid=41946&page=5





Yesterday big day driving. Lots of swell on the coast, north of the Rogue River near Gold Beach were lots of points that had empty waves. Was unreal, peak after peak. From there, Port Oxford, across the Cali border through the Redwoods. Massive, holy shit, absolutely huge. You can't imagine how big those trees are..... Would be a massive chainsaw effort to fall one of those. But fun. Humboldt undercut on a stump versus Humboldt County and giant trees? Any connection? It would seem so....





Pushed on through to Ukiah to a small brew house. Terrible beer, don't stop there, tasted like old socks and burnt toenails. This morning at Sonoma County, headed to Napa Valley for some vino. Weather warm, shorts and T's.

....day 1...

We missed the ferry. As unbelievable as it sounds, we missed it to Port Angeles, and spent the better part of Friday snoozing and walking around Victoria's inner harbour. Spent the night at Wallys and are now driving thru Olympia. Will make it to Tillamook today and then make some miles tomorrow. Lessons learned so far:

1) Don't touch anything in the camper that you aren't 100% sure how it works.
2) Wine is cheaper than doggie bones in Washington State.
3) It really, really rains here. Gumboots would have been quite a clever idea.
4) The almighty loonie is on it's way to crushing the greenback..... Love it!

Kettle Valley

Dog deer! Thats what these two little bucks were, both probably 2 years old. Will make for some tasty chops in my freezer. Nice to get out with Bryan for the weekend to a hunting spot that my family has been goin to for the last 45 years. We've got the area pretty dialled so we got both of these on the second day. A couple of does walked so close to where I was sitting that I could have almost touched them. The first whitetail buck was racing along through some trees chasing a few does and popped out right in front of me. The second deer was later that day way up on a hillside, I'd gone to look at a couple of muley does in a cut block when BOOM I heard Bryan shoot from behind me. 2 deer dressed out and hanging by dark, head back to the island next morning.

Lake Fishing

Calgary for a quick 50th birthday visit with Al and Angie, Steve and Naomi, Bryan, Mum and Dad; loss of the Apollo rocket in a Farmers field before we quickly boarded the plane back to Kelowna. We loaded as much gear as possible into the Jetta and ripped up to the Bonaparte Plateau (Sunday to Wednesday) for some canoeing and fishing while we waited to hear about the California fire deployment. Bad news, season was over everywhere, and upon waking up to snow on wednesday, quickly changed plans to exit Canada for Baja asap. In Salmon Arm tonight, off to go deer hunting with Bryan for the weekend. Bowron will have to wait until next summer.