Author: keelhauler

We have had a spell of cool weather, But it has been dry & sunny.

On Wed. the place next to us that has a little bar was being used by a crew of 80 persons making a Corona Beer Commercial.

They took over the little bar, extended the deck toward the beach and rearranged the inside.

The real star of the commercial is the beer bottles.
The prop guy has specially made bottles which he fills and adds foam on top. He coats the bottle with something that make them shine.

The bottles were put in a Coleman cooler filled with ice and the actors hands took the bottles out one at a time until the cooler was  empty and then slammed shut.

Then the cooler was refilled with ice and a few more bottles and limes were put back in the cooler.

I’m not sure how this all fits in, if at all, to the next story.

Then I spotted this actress getting ready for her job as bartender.

She is filmed passing out a few bottles to the patrons, more actors.

Including these two guys who after they get their bottles.

They turn and kick their shoes off as they step off of the new deck to walk down the beach to the waiting chairs.

But guess who is in their way, why it’s Peggy & John looking for a free beer.

But now the weather got really cloudy so they stopped filming outside for a while.

I think they are going to be filming here on Saturday unless the weather clears.
So Peggy got into the swing of things at the La Playa Beach Club at our campground.

Here is one of the commercials that they released in March.

http://www.ispot.tv/ad/7gso/corona-extra-shoes

I guess we really “Found Our Beach”

Two year’s ago the did this setup for their commercial at Al Cielo Hotel down the beach a ways.
They used a NY City cab and built their own bar right on the beach. See the Actual Video

It was a fun weekend watching all the sailboats get ready for their biggest race of the season.

On Thursday night a new camper arrived pulling some sailboats. By Friday morning our beach was full of Hobie 16 catamarans and one Laser. Something was going on. They all spoke Spanish so it took us a while to find someone who could tell us that it was a small part of the COPA RIVIERA MAYA 2014.

The sailboat race was being run out of Puerto Aventuras and included some of the best sailors in Mexico and guests from abroad. They expected about 180 sailboats to be entered and there was not enough room at Puerto to launch the Catamaran class. The other race categories were Bic Techno, RS: X, Optimist, Laser and 420 as well as the 14 Hobie 16’s on our beach. Most of the small Dories in the race were piloted by young kids and all three days were very windy.

They got all their sails up and ready to drag them into the water.

The surf was up on all three days as the 14 boats in this class launched from our beautiful white sand beach

One had a little bad luck on launch but quickly got it back upright from the shallow water. We watched all the boats launch and try to avoid the coral reefs which guard our beach. One boat had a real problem figuring out how to sail out without hitting the reef. We could tell they were very new at this and we picked them for finishing last. We were right. The rules are that there 6 races per class over the 3 days, you get to throw out your worse finish using your best 5 races to determine the winner. These guys only finished 2 of the races in the allotted time.

I think this couple finished in the top 3. When we watched from our beach we could see hundreds of sail boats and sail boards stretched out for miles from Puerto Aventuras all the way to our bay.

Not much else has been happening here, which is why I haven’t been blogging. So it was fun watching all the action in the rough seas. I saw a lot of small sailboats flip out there but there were plenty of safety boats to help get them get upright. Most wore wet suits and all wore PFD’s.

If you have a Facebook account you can probably get this short video about the race. Copa Riviera Video

Sunday Night was our annual Super Bowl party. This year we watched it on a USA TV station using Gerry’s satellite dish. Ann & Gerry provided a pot luck dinner for a few of the campers.

Got my beer, got my food, here comes the kickoff, followed by a safety. A bad start for the Broncos, followed by a whole lot more of a bad night for Denver as they lose their fifth Super Bowl, setting a record for most lost. We gave up after the half time show. The final score was Seahawks 43, Denver 8.

Xcacel is a environmentally protected turtle beach located about 13 miles south of Xpu-Ha and about 12 miles north of Tulum. It is actually right across the road from Chemuyil where we go out for pizza and is the beach that people could camp on years ago. There used to be a sign at the road but it was gone so I’m glad we knew where the entrance was located. There is a guard who explains the rules and asks for a fee, we gave him 33 pesos/person but we heard that 20p is enough.

There are two bays and a small Cenote that you can visit. We got there early and it was empty.

Looking North                                            Looking South

The beach was not as nice to walk as Xpu-Ha’s because there was a sand wall that you had to walk above to stay out of the water, and it was very soft sand.

The next bay was rocky in places and there were empty turtle nests everywhere. The turtles lay their eggs starting in May and hatches go on until November.

And through the magic of Photoshop, all of us are on that log.

After our beach walk we stopped to see our friends, Glen & Maureen from Alberta, at Tanka Bay. They own 3 lots at the end of the road and stay in their 5th wheel but may build a new home next year. Since we were so close to Tulum, Robb suggested that we have a lunch at El Camello which is right on the highway on the south side of town. I didn’t take any pictures of the restaurant or my food, because I was too busy enjoying the great Veracruzan style fish fillet. A great tomato, pepper and onion spiced sauce. One of the best that I’ve had. I did take a picture of their sign.

Why do we come to Mexico and stay so long? Have you seen the snow back home in Ohio. Where is my driveway?

Or the snow at our cabin in West Virginia.

I’m not sure when we will come back to the USA. But, we do miss our family back home, so in a few weeks we may start moving north.

I haven’t blogged for a while since how many doing nothing and how many hanging out on the beach pictures can you take? There is one interesting thing. There is a couple from Playa del Carmen that drive down to Xpu-Ha, a couple of days per week and make these wonderful sand sculptures, right in front of our camp.

Above is a Dragon. Below is a Scorpion.

We have seen grasshoppers, Iguanas, Corona Beer bottle, Palm Tree and lots of other cool pieces of art that last for only a day or so.

This is the only art that Peggy & I produce.

A few nights ago we went out to eat and a real nice restaurant right on the highway called Oscar & Lalo’s. We met the daughter of the owners, who may be retired by now.

A young guy from Switzerland showed up in this 35 year old troop carrier that he converted into a camper. He is planning on driving it to Panama. His sister did the art work on the sides.

It’s 6 wheel drive 80 HP diesel, I think he can camp anywhere with out getting stuck.

Our last  sunrise, we leave tomorrow morning. 3/5 at 6 AM. Here are our trip plans back to the border; Trip Plan 8

Heading back to the states and eventually back home.

We decided to go with our Coastal Trip Plan A. Everyone says not to go that way, but we have always gone that way, it’s shorter and I have not heard of any problems this year. I like the Los Indios crossing as there is almost never a line of cars at USA customs.

So I’ll give a summary of our long days and a little bit about road conditions. There was plenty of traffic, police and military on all sections of these highways and I never felt that anyone would ever attempt to hijack or bother us in any way. I would not feel any different even driving alone.

Day 1 – We left our campground at Xpu-Ha at 6 AM followed by our friends Claude & Mags from Ontario. We decided that to be able to make it back to TX in three days we needed to drive from sunrise to sunset. We made our planned stop on the West side of Villahermosa at a campground and Balneario (swimming park). We got there at 5:30PM, with plenty of daylight. It’s a little ways off the highway to it was very quiet. Cost was 250 pesos, which included 15 amp electric but no ground. I always bring a copper ground stake so we could get power to run fans, but no A/C or microwave.

Day 2 – Another 6 AM start, but it was dark since we had travelled west. Traffic was light and most of the day our drive was on quotas (Turnpikes), so we made pretty good time. The roads were rough near Alamo which goes through the orange growing region where there were lots of big trucks. We made it to our goal Condado Auto Hotel near Cerro Azul. We arrived at 5:30 PM. It is a no-tell motel on one side and a small grassy campground on the opposite side. They had a couple of 15 amp outlets with 139 volts, too high for my rig. Camp fee was only 150 pesos. It was a little close to the road but I slept soundly.

At Christmas I got a dashboard camera for the RV. I’ve been recording parts of the trip and trying out its features. It records a HD 1920 x 1080 picture and looks great. It records onto a micro SD card and writes a  movie file every 3 minutes. It takes still pictures when you press a button. Here is what the campground at Cerro Azul looked like. It also has a GPS so that it records vehicle speed and location. It fills a 32GB card in about 4 hours, then rewrites old files with new. I’ll try to put together a little sample of Mexico roads and traffic when I get time.

Day 3 – Another 6 AM start but now it was really dark. I had to go slowly until it got light so that I wouldn’t hit the tope’s (speed bumps) or large chuck holes, it was a bad stretch of highway. After we fueled up, the sun rose and the day went well until Tampico. I always go right through town and have never been stopped, Claude has always taken the long, bumpy truck bypass. I told him to follow me and about 10 blocks into the city the police pulled us both over. I tell my story to one cop. I told him that I’m taking Peggy to the airport which is in the city and Claude doesn’t know the way so he is following me. He says OK and I pull forward but the other cop is talking to Claude and he is more persistent, and doesn’t want to let Claude go without a bribe. A Hispanic women from Canada stops and offered to talk to the police after I told her my story. She tells the police to let Claude go, so they relent without getting their bite and we drive on our way, we only lost about 10 minutes. We decided to take MX180 through Soto la Marina, but we found 18 miles of highway construction so we lost another 30 minutes. The next time I would take the new freeway MX80 all the way to North of Ciudad Victoria and then take MX101 back to Los Indios. It is about 20 miles longer but a much better road. If they ever finish MX180 it would then be the best way to go but they have been widening it for the past 10 years, a few miles at a time. But even with all the stops we got to the USA border at 4:00 PM. Our RV had to be X-rayed this year but Claude’s did not. That is because he lost almost an hour at the Mexican customs, returning his vehicle permits, and by the time he got there the x-ray machine was busy and he looked like a nice guy, which he is. So they waved him through.

We stopped at my favorite Bar-B-Que place for dinner and got to the Wal-Mart, for shopping and overnight camping right at dark.

We left Harlingen, TX on Saturday afternoon after filling our Propane tank and Peggy filling her shopping fantasy. We were headed to Houston to visit my cousin Rich’s family for a few days. But when it got dark we stopped about an hour short and got there the next morning after the time change for DST.

Had a nice visit, a couple of bike rides and we left Houston on Thursday morning to go to the Kisatchie National Forest in Louisiana and their class A campground on Kincaid Lake. We were pleasantly surprised. It had water & 30 amp power and cost only $7.50/night with our Golden Eagle Pass.

It was a little early for swimming but they have great hiking trails along the lake.

The fisherman are fishing for Bass.

Turtles are watching out for alligators.

This is the swimming area but it does not open until May.

But they opened the day-use area on Saturday and had all sorts of free activities for the local people. Kayaking, Stand-On-Top Paddling, Mountain Biking, Yoga, Science displays and ranger guided hikes to see the big Bald Eagle nest, where we caught sight of one of the eagles sitting next to the nest.

We even spotted a friendly bear.

One thing I saw, but I had no idea that they were this far North was Leaf Cutter Ants. They were walking hundreds of feet and up a tree that was just budding out near our camper. Millions of ants were heading up the tall tree and bringing back leaves and blossoms that they took underground to ferment so that they could eventually feed their young from the fungus that grows on the fermented leaves.

We ended up enjoying the park and using one of the other campers wireless signals to post this blog and get our e-mails. If you are heading toward the Natchez Trace which runs from Natchez, MS to Nashville, TN this park is right on your way. It’s 150 miles NE of Houston and 90 miles west of Natchez.

We left Kincaid Lake on Sunday and headed for Natchez. I like the Natchez Trace National Park for a very relaxing drive North. It is a limited access parkway with no commercial traffic and no stop signs or cross roads for 444 miles from Natchez, MS to near Nashville, TN. There are three free campgrounds along the way, no power or showers. There is also full service state parks.

The trace was pre civil war trail that started out as a mail route. There are parts of the old trace that you can hike on. The parkway is 2 lane road with no soft shoulders and has a 50 mph speed limit but very light traffic at this time of year. It’s actually 60 mi. shorter taking the Trace vs. taking interstates but without any stress, trucks or traffic.

Peggy taking a hike on the old trace near Rocky Springs Campground.

We were planning on camping on Monday night at Meriwether Lewis, another free campground. But when I got on the internet at the visitor center in Tupelo I saw the weather up North would be rainy on Wednesday, so we decide to try to get home late Tuesday. We passed our camp and cut across to I-65 through Columbia, TN. We made it up to Bowling Green, KY and stopped to overnight at Camping World’s parking lot. We even found an electrical hookup.

Tuesday was cool but bright and sunny all day. It was a fast drive back home to Westlake, OH. There was still a little snow on the ground in my driveway that had been there since early January. It was sure better weather in Mexico than it was near Cleveland this past winter. Today is the first stay of Spring and they are predicting another week of cold weather.

This will be my last blog for a while, I hope you enjoyed reading about our fun in Mexico. Also remember my post about the Corona Commercial they were filming in late January? They just released the commercial.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WV7ZXpkeJMs

   Click the picture to see my blog about making the commercial on our beach.

We have been planning and packing for the last two weeks. I had a few medical issues taken care of and I now see that the really cold weather is ready to hit our home by Wednesday 11/12/14.

Everything in our fairly new RV seems to be working OK, and today is mild and sunny for final packing.

I’m taking my WW kayak as usual as I hope to be able to do some river paddling in the Huasteca region of Mexico in the state of San Luis Potosi, near Ciudad Valles.

The rivers down there are worth the visit even though you don’t paddle. They are Turquoise and all have spectacular waterfalls.

There are many tour companies that conduct hiking, rafting, swimming & touring trips.

We hope to meet up with a friend from the Washington DC area who runs kayak trips in the area, Tom McEwan. I hope to paddle with him or his guides for a couple of days while Peggy just enjoys some reading, walking and warm weather.

Our eventual destination is Xpu-Ha 20 mi south of Playa del Carmen in the state of Quintana Roo. After enjoying the paddling we will visit Tepetapan RV park in Catemaco, Vera Cruz. Gene Gaudi the campground owner, originally from Chicago, puts on a pot luck Thanksgiving dinner for the campers. He supplies the Turkey.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Yesterday was our annual early Thanksgiving dinner with my family and grandkids. Three of the older kids are away at college while the oldest is in the navy stationed in Bahrain. So we invited three of the kid’s friends to fill in to help eat up all that Turkey.

Peggy and the rest of our family getting ready to dig in.

Our first night we will only get as far as Cincinnati since we plan to stop in Dayton to visit my cousin Kathy Priem who moved down here to be closer to her kids after her husband died last Spring. In Cincinnati we will visit with her daughter Betsy who recently retired from her job at Procter & Gamble. We have been close to the Priem’s for years. I worked at NASA with Kathy’s husband, Dick and our families got into canoeing and kayaking almost 45 years ago. Our families travelled a lot together and had lots of fun. After our visit here, as usual, we will head to Houston to visit with Rich Priem and his family. He always calls me his uncle but I guess he is really my second cousin.

Day 1 to 3 – Travel Plans & Map

Or should I say a Priem start. We left as the forecast storm was approaching. It was not snowing but it was cold.

We drove to Dayton, OH to see my cousin Kathy Priem and her son Jeff. We stayed for a few hours and then left for Cincinnati to Visit Betsy Priem Chisholm and her husband Jim.

We had a nice visit and went out to a folk music bar for dinner.

By then we were tired from our drive and headed to our RV for a good nights sleep before hitting the road at 7 AM. It sure got cold, the low hit 18^oF, the furnace got a workout but I set it too low for Peggy’s taste.

We had originally planned to take the Natchez Trace south from Nashville but it was so cold we decided to go the fastest way to Houston through Memphis and Texarkana. We made it past Memphis to Forrest City and parked at Wal-Mart for the night. I set the thermostat much warmer and we had a good sleep. No complaints from Peggy.

We got this picture of the snow from my daughter Joan that hit home the day we left. We just got out in time. The weather was cold but sunny. However, I guess they were not taking and chances. Every freeway we drove on they were spraying brine on the roads. It was saltier than the beach at Xpu-Ha.

We got to Rich and Tracey Priem’s in Houston on Saturday at 4 PM. Saturday is a good day to drive through Houston the roads were fast and there were no crazy drivers. We had a wonderful dinner that Tracey made and enjoyed the company of Tracey’s parents who live nearby.

We will stay here until Tuesday morning. We will then head to the Mexican border and overnight in Harlingen, TX.