February 6th, we traveled to Portland to see family, then began our month-long road trip to Mexico. We drove our Ford Explorer, mainly due to wanting to bring Coco, our 2-year-old black lab and sidekick.
The first night was in Boise ID where we caught up with Brandon Prescott. Next stops included Salt Lake City UT and the fun Boulder City, NV where we toured around Hoover Dam. The fourth night was in Casa Grande, AZ where we picked the lowest of low-end motels (for an exorbitant amount of money) due to the timing of our visit with the Phoenix Open Golf Championship and the Super Bowl on the same day.
Fifth night was in Tucson, AZ and we met up and had lunch with Brad Van Cleve, old friend from Allan’s Boeing/Portland General days. We stayed the night with the amazing Dave and Jackie Lamb and had a phenomenal time. Seriously gracious hosts and friends.
We passed through the MX/USA border and drove 7+ hours to San Carlos, MX and checked in to our rented house for the next month. Great views from the Caracol Peninsula across to Tetakawi.
In San Carlos we fished with friend Al Alexanderson and his friend Mike, played tennis and pickleball, ate great food, watched and photographed birds, beachcombed, hung out, watched the parades for Mardi Gras in Guaymas, and had so much fun. Coco loves the beach and running for miles in the sand and rocks.
We began our trip home March 11th through some of the greatest national parks (using my lifetime pass of course) and seeing more friends from PGE. We visited with Pamela and Mike Morgan at their gorgeous home in Tubac, AZ and then made it to Buckeye, AZ to a marvelous stay with Kate and Joe Davis. Both stops were great and we got to explore Saguaro National Park.
We drove up to snowy Flagstaff, AZ and the next day we explored the Grand Canyon, Cassie’s first visit to this amazing venue.
I accidentally removed the under-car protection plates when I parked into a snow-covered spot and oops, I lost my keys. We visited Bryce Canyon, I think, but the weather did not cooperate and the visibility was less than 100 yards. Kept going up to Page, AZ where we stayed and found a cool brewpub. We carried on to Ely, NV and that was a lovely and desolate drive called ‘the loneliest road in the US’. Once that was past us, we bedded down in a tiny knotty-pine covered motel room in Burns, OR. Great dinner there and we drove all the way back to Cashmere the next day. We travelled 5,100 miles and loved every bit of our adventure south and back.