Friday, Day 4, February 16, 2007

Today was the day. Train day. But first, we spent the night in Mennonite country. Now this is apple country. Along the road we saw these strange tepee type "things" and found out later what they were used for. This area has a lot of spring storms and to protect the apples from HAIL they cover them with this netting. Most of the fields have these tied up nets.

This is our Wagon masters coach being the first loaded onto the rail cars. We took about 3 hours to load 22 coach's onto 22 flatcars. Driving the rigs onto each flatcar is by ramps between the cars and they are not secured all that well. There is a "train person" that guides you as you cross the ramps and keeps you extremely close to the left side so that you will have room enough to exit your coach on the passenger side, where the rail is.

There were three lines of flatcars that we loaded one by one. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words so don't forget to visit our web album at www.picasaweb.google.com/mimmexico/MexicoCaravan.

Just click on the above link and it will take you there where you can enjoy our journey.

Thursday, Day 3

This morning we went by bus to downtown Chihuahua City and the home of Poncho Villa, the state capital building and the home of the Governor. We were impressed with how clean the city was and all the little parks located throughout the city. We went in a couple of shops but did little shopping. Most of the homes here have stone or concrete walls around them but behind the walls and in the middle of their homes they have beautiful courtyards, some with fruit trees.

Chihuahua means sandy and dry. And yes, the little dogs of the same name are named after the city. In fact, they have a parade and dress the dogs up. They also have many little statues that are decorated around the main square in town.

After traveling about 65 miles we are camped in a RV Park in a Mennonite community. They had dinner for us and entertainment and the park owner gave us a brief history of his people and community. Now we are all busy getting our rigs ready to be loaded onto the trains in the morning. We are also expecting freezing weather tonight so we are preparing for that too.

Wednesday evening, still Day 2

After getting set up at our campground we went by bus to a Mexican restaurant in town where they were expecting us. We were greeted with margaritas. There was entertainment of dancers with their history and culture.

Each group of dancers represented a different culture.

Wednesday, Day 2

We left camp at 6:20am to cross the border into Mexico. The crossing was totally uneventful due to the pre-planning and registering of our rigs and selves by our wagonmasters and tailgunners. We paid our $50 import fee and we were on our way.

Juarez, Mexico was still just coming to life and most of the traffic was in the other direction and all of the shops were still closed. But as we drove through some of the smaller towns the food vendors were all hoping that we would pull in for lunch.

Lunch was a 30 minute break at a rest stop along the highway, after which we got the rest of our directions to our evening campground

The houses in Chihuahua were very colorful. Maybe this makes up for the closeness of the homes.

We'll be going out to dinner and then a show tonight and then there is a tour in the morning.

Tuesday, March 13 2007

A day trip to New Mexico to visit the War Eagles Air Museum by some of the group this morning was very interesting. This museum is stored in an old hanger at an active airport just out of El Paso, Texas in Santa Teresa, New Mexico. All of the planes and automobiles are is flying/driving condition and have been restored to perfection. Many man hours by volunteers was evident.

We even climbed aboard an old passenger prop airplane from the 50's and were able to sit in the seats. (The men could tell you what type of plane this was, in fact, John Ham used to fly one just like it for charter for a private company.)

After returning to camp we all were busy readying our rigs for travel in the morning after we had our briefing meeting and pesos exchange.

So the main trip begins in the morning, see you along the road. Don't forget to visit our Web Photo Album to view more pictures of the group and airplanes.

http://picasaweb.google.com/mimmexico/MexicoCaravan

Monday, February 12

We started off the day by sharing coffee and donuts for breakfast at the club house. We all met a few more couples that we'll be traveling with. Those with cars signed up to be chauffeurs for the evening dinner to be able to drive those with out transportation. A number of our caravaners have left cars in Arizona to be picked up after the caravan where they will then continue west. Others of us are leaving our cars here at the campground until we return to pick them up on our way east.

Dinner was at Indian Cliffs Ranch Cattleman's Steakhouse and was fantastic. This is a working cattle ranch that even gives tours of the ranch on Sundays. As this was Monday we missed out. We had a room to ourselves and filled two long tables. Outside our window was a beautiful view of a desert garden filled with birds and wild life, including peacocks and quail.

Tomorrow will be a tour of War Eagles Museum in Santa Tersesa, New Mexico.

First Social

Tonight some of us got together for a Happy Hour Social and a chance to get acquainted with the people we will be living with for the next 20 days or so. This was a time to find out where people were from and also brake the ice and learn a little bit about one another.

Our next gathering will be in the moring for coffee and doughnuts and a bit of planning of who will ride with whom when we go in the evening to the Cattleman's Steak House for dinner. Some will spend the day getting their rigs ready for travel and others will venture out on small tours of either Juarez, Mexico or downtown El Paso.

Don't forget to visit our Web Photo Album to view more pictures of the evenings events. The link is just to the right under Mexico Caravan Photo Album. We will be loading everyones pictures there so visit often to see what we are up to.

Here are our Wagonmasters and Tailgunners. Mike and Joan Fisher on the left and Leo and Myrtle Woolard on the right. As you can see, we will be traveling under Tracks To Adventure guidance. You could even track our itinerary on their web site, www.trackstoadventure.com. Go under Copper Canyon 17 day tour, they are all the same.