Without warning a cross-country bus roared past us. He continued on trying to pass the stake-bed truck full of pigs that was in front of us. Up over the crest of the hill came an enormous truck and trailer on a collision course with the passing bus. “Look out for that truck,” I yelled as I sucked in my breath and grabbed for Gil. Both of my feet slammed on non-existent breaks. Gil shrieked and his plate went flying. “Jesus Christ” and “Shit” came from the back where Randy and John Mc were laying on the bed reading. They were now sitting straight up eyes riveted on the truck. Paul and John sitting behind me took one look out the front window and dove under the table.
“All of you just quiet down and let me drive,” from The Driver.
He managed to slow us down without loosing control of the trailer and at the last second the bus gave up and whipped in between us and the pig truck in front. The on-coming truck never even slowed down. He just kept coming. He was the BIGGEST!
It was almost like a game to see if they could make it.
Next we got stuck behind an old rickety blue pick-up truck hauling tomatoes. His tires were bald and the cases of tomatoes piled high were held in with ropes. He was only going a little over 10 miles an hour. Bill couldn’t get up enough speed to pass him. After a few miles of the steep grade and slow pace we overheated and stalled. There were no shoulders or pullouts so we were half on half off the road and going nowhere fast. Cars, buses and trucks whizzed past just missing us. Every time something big whooshed by the motorhome would rock. This greatly added to my feeling of safety and security. Finally we were running again; we went less than ½ mile and vapor locked right in the middle of the road, between two curves.
This was one of our lucky days.
John Mc and Randy got out and stood in the middle of the highway, one in front, one in back, waving red shirts at on-coming traffic hoping to direct it around us. John and Paul stuck their heads out the driver's window watching. This was better than watching racing on TV! Gil got mad because he couldn’t go out on the road and wave a shirt so he sat in the bathroom pouting. I wished I were back in good old LA on the 101 during rush hour.
Bill rummaged around the trailer until he found a garden hose. He brought it inside and connected it to the faucet on the kitchen sink. He ran it over the counter and down under the engine compartment to the radiator. Then he hosed the engine to cool it down. INSPIRATION! He left one end of the hose attached to the faucet and to make cool water trickle out over the engine he plugged the open end and poked holes along the last couple of feet of hose. Hopefully this would keep the engine cool and running. It worked so well; it became our engine cooling system for the rest of the trip. One person was always in charge of turning on the faucet if we started to heat up.
“Think of everything the kids will learn.”
When we finally arrived in Tepic, we found a great KOA campground. It was very spacious, lots of trees and grass and surrounded by sugar cane and banana plantations. The boys couldn’t believe their luck, sugar cane to chew on and bananas for the picking. And as an extra added bonus, all kinds of bugs in the banana stalk. The park had about 200 spaces and only four other motorhomes were there at the time. Nice clean showers that always had hot water, Gringo toilets (that means you could put the paper in them instead of in a basket next to them), a coin-operated laundry room, a play area with swings and slides and a nice pool. The recreation room had a ping-pong table and the ever-present futbol table.
Checking first to see if there were any Jejenes, there weren’t, Randy and John Mc decided to sleep outside, as the weather was pleasant. A couple of the “essentials” we brought with us from home were two rope hammocks. This was the ideal time and place to try them. So, they hung them up between two trees. The same two trees. One hammock above the other. The top one, Randy’s was suspended about five feet above the ground. John’s on the bottom just cleared the ground when he wasn’t in it.
When Randy got ready to go to bed for the first time I happened to be looking out the back window. Thought it might be interesting to watch Randy climb into his bag as John Mc was already blissfully sleeping, unaware of the calamity that was about to befall him. Randy threw his mummy bag up then jumped and made it up onto the hammock; he started to wiggle into his mummy bag. The hammock began to sway. Then swing. Then tip. Randy landed kerplop right on top of John Mc. who came up with a roar! Both ended up in a heap, in their sleeping bags, on the ground. John offered several suggestions to Randy about where and how to sleep the rest of the night.
Getting into the hammock proved to be much harder than getting out. To get out he just tipped over and fell, John Mc usually being under him to break the fall. The next day John Mc found two more trees.
Miguel, a young man who was a friend of the owner of the campground, offered to take a day off from his job in the cigarette factory and drive all of us into town. The seven of us piled into the back of his beat up yellow and green Chevy pickup and away we went. Before dropping us off he gave us a grand tour of Tepic. We drew a lot of curious looks as he drove us around. He stopped several times to introduced friends to the Americanos from California.
Tepic was a very picturesque city of over 100,000. The main streets were wide and paved but the side streets were typically narrow and cobblestone. The homes were mostly brightly painted, one-story stucco with flat roofs, most had TV antennas. There were no sidewalks, front doors opened right into the street.
After showing us where the "supermercado" was and telling us when and where to meet him, Miguel let us out at the main square. At one end was an impressive Catholic Church that was built around 1750, during the Spanish occupation. Its two huge bell towers had three bells in each tower. In places, the stucco had chipped off and underneath the original gray building stones were visible.
We strolled along the main street checking out the small businesses: a bridal store, a furniture store, a coffin store …what? A coffin store? Sure enough, a whole store selling just coffins. All kinds, from plain wood to very ornate. Some were stacked one on the other, some were on pedestals and others leaned up against the walls.
“Wow, look at those!” Paul yanked on my arm, stopped and starred. The two men inside appropriately dressed in black suits, waved, smiled and beckoned us to come in. Of course Paul wanted to go in, I hauled him back and caught up with the others.
As we continued walking and gawking we came to the City Hall. Its massive carved wooden doors were open and it looked cool and inviting so we went inside to look around. The first thing you noticed in the main rotunda was the floor. It was made of beautiful geometric patterns of multi-colored mosaics. Then you looked up at the high domed ceiling with its round stained glass window. Breath taking. It was a very beautiful building. But, it wasn’t much cooler inside than out so we continued our walk.
Around the next corner was the "supermercado". We needed to buy the staples of life: Sugar Pops, Fruit Loops, and wieners. Hurray, for the first time since leaving home, we actually found wieners. They were kind of a yellow-pink with a plastic like skin on them. I didn’t know if we should peel the skin off or eat it with the wiener. We ended up eating it with the wiener, strange but okay. The milk we bought tasted a little sweeter than we were used to and the catsup was more salsa than catsup. But what the heck at least we found it. The rest of the customers watched and discussed us probably because we bought so much food at one time. Liters of milk, dozens of eggs and kilos of meat. In Mexico people shopped for one meal at a time. I guess because of lack of refrigeration and also because it gave the women an excuse to go out and socialize. Miguel was waiting for us when we left the market, we piled everything and everyone back into the pickup and back to the campground we went. Tepic was a great place for a vacation. The Airstreams hadn’t found it yet. We also had a chance to get everything cleaned up and all the laundry done.
“All of you just quiet down and let me drive,” from The Driver.
He managed to slow us down without loosing control of the trailer and at the last second the bus gave up and whipped in between us and the pig truck in front. The on-coming truck never even slowed down. He just kept coming. He was the BIGGEST!
It was almost like a game to see if they could make it.
Next we got stuck behind an old rickety blue pick-up truck hauling tomatoes. His tires were bald and the cases of tomatoes piled high were held in with ropes. He was only going a little over 10 miles an hour. Bill couldn’t get up enough speed to pass him. After a few miles of the steep grade and slow pace we overheated and stalled. There were no shoulders or pullouts so we were half on half off the road and going nowhere fast. Cars, buses and trucks whizzed past just missing us. Every time something big whooshed by the motorhome would rock. This greatly added to my feeling of safety and security. Finally we were running again; we went less than ½ mile and vapor locked right in the middle of the road, between two curves.
This was one of our lucky days.
John Mc and Randy got out and stood in the middle of the highway, one in front, one in back, waving red shirts at on-coming traffic hoping to direct it around us. John and Paul stuck their heads out the driver's window watching. This was better than watching racing on TV! Gil got mad because he couldn’t go out on the road and wave a shirt so he sat in the bathroom pouting. I wished I were back in good old LA on the 101 during rush hour.
Bill rummaged around the trailer until he found a garden hose. He brought it inside and connected it to the faucet on the kitchen sink. He ran it over the counter and down under the engine compartment to the radiator. Then he hosed the engine to cool it down. INSPIRATION! He left one end of the hose attached to the faucet and to make cool water trickle out over the engine he plugged the open end and poked holes along the last couple of feet of hose. Hopefully this would keep the engine cool and running. It worked so well; it became our engine cooling system for the rest of the trip. One person was always in charge of turning on the faucet if we started to heat up.
“Think of everything the kids will learn.”
When we finally arrived in Tepic, we found a great KOA campground. It was very spacious, lots of trees and grass and surrounded by sugar cane and banana plantations. The boys couldn’t believe their luck, sugar cane to chew on and bananas for the picking. And as an extra added bonus, all kinds of bugs in the banana stalk. The park had about 200 spaces and only four other motorhomes were there at the time. Nice clean showers that always had hot water, Gringo toilets (that means you could put the paper in them instead of in a basket next to them), a coin-operated laundry room, a play area with swings and slides and a nice pool. The recreation room had a ping-pong table and the ever-present futbol table.
Checking first to see if there were any Jejenes, there weren’t, Randy and John Mc decided to sleep outside, as the weather was pleasant. A couple of the “essentials” we brought with us from home were two rope hammocks. This was the ideal time and place to try them. So, they hung them up between two trees. The same two trees. One hammock above the other. The top one, Randy’s was suspended about five feet above the ground. John’s on the bottom just cleared the ground when he wasn’t in it.
When Randy got ready to go to bed for the first time I happened to be looking out the back window. Thought it might be interesting to watch Randy climb into his bag as John Mc was already blissfully sleeping, unaware of the calamity that was about to befall him. Randy threw his mummy bag up then jumped and made it up onto the hammock; he started to wiggle into his mummy bag. The hammock began to sway. Then swing. Then tip. Randy landed kerplop right on top of John Mc. who came up with a roar! Both ended up in a heap, in their sleeping bags, on the ground. John offered several suggestions to Randy about where and how to sleep the rest of the night.
Getting into the hammock proved to be much harder than getting out. To get out he just tipped over and fell, John Mc usually being under him to break the fall. The next day John Mc found two more trees.
Miguel, a young man who was a friend of the owner of the campground, offered to take a day off from his job in the cigarette factory and drive all of us into town. The seven of us piled into the back of his beat up yellow and green Chevy pickup and away we went. Before dropping us off he gave us a grand tour of Tepic. We drew a lot of curious looks as he drove us around. He stopped several times to introduced friends to the Americanos from California.
Tepic was a very picturesque city of over 100,000. The main streets were wide and paved but the side streets were typically narrow and cobblestone. The homes were mostly brightly painted, one-story stucco with flat roofs, most had TV antennas. There were no sidewalks, front doors opened right into the street.
After showing us where the "supermercado" was and telling us when and where to meet him, Miguel let us out at the main square. At one end was an impressive Catholic Church that was built around 1750, during the Spanish occupation. Its two huge bell towers had three bells in each tower. In places, the stucco had chipped off and underneath the original gray building stones were visible.
We strolled along the main street checking out the small businesses: a bridal store, a furniture store, a coffin store …what? A coffin store? Sure enough, a whole store selling just coffins. All kinds, from plain wood to very ornate. Some were stacked one on the other, some were on pedestals and others leaned up against the walls.
“Wow, look at those!” Paul yanked on my arm, stopped and starred. The two men inside appropriately dressed in black suits, waved, smiled and beckoned us to come in. Of course Paul wanted to go in, I hauled him back and caught up with the others.
As we continued walking and gawking we came to the City Hall. Its massive carved wooden doors were open and it looked cool and inviting so we went inside to look around. The first thing you noticed in the main rotunda was the floor. It was made of beautiful geometric patterns of multi-colored mosaics. Then you looked up at the high domed ceiling with its round stained glass window. Breath taking. It was a very beautiful building. But, it wasn’t much cooler inside than out so we continued our walk.
Around the next corner was the "supermercado". We needed to buy the staples of life: Sugar Pops, Fruit Loops, and wieners. Hurray, for the first time since leaving home, we actually found wieners. They were kind of a yellow-pink with a plastic like skin on them. I didn’t know if we should peel the skin off or eat it with the wiener. We ended up eating it with the wiener, strange but okay. The milk we bought tasted a little sweeter than we were used to and the catsup was more salsa than catsup. But what the heck at least we found it. The rest of the customers watched and discussed us probably because we bought so much food at one time. Liters of milk, dozens of eggs and kilos of meat. In Mexico people shopped for one meal at a time. I guess because of lack of refrigeration and also because it gave the women an excuse to go out and socialize. Miguel was waiting for us when we left the market, we piled everything and everyone back into the pickup and back to the campground we went. Tepic was a great place for a vacation. The Airstreams hadn’t found it yet. We also had a chance to get everything cleaned up and all the laundry done.
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