After we left Indigo in April, I did a blog detailing the tasks we performed before storing her… a mighty extensive list, some might say… exhaaauusting. This time I’ll detail how we get the boat back in the water. It’s a little easier, because we have already cleaned lines, sails, canvas, etc. But aside from reinstalling such items, there are extra maintenance matters we’ll need to attend to before we “splash”.

Day 1:
Storage yard to work yard. The San Carlos Marina Seca storage yard is a gated, no-work-allowed lot. We must have the boat moved to the adjacent work yard to do anything. So the day we arrived, we made a moving appointment for 1pm the following day…and by 1:30pm, Monday Oct 10th, we were on the boat in the HOT, DUSTY, WINDY yard.

Cursory inspection. After 6  months of storage, here’s what we found:

1. The cheap, blue tarp we used to cover the cockpit from sun was ripped to shreds after hurricane Newton (not surprised).
2. Inside, I found a giant cricket on the floor…after I heard the crunch under my foot. He was already way dead. Thank goodness I had on shoes! Otherwise, no bugs. (You’ve NO idea how happy that makes me.)
3. We had removed batteries from everything (numerous flashlights, etc.) sequestering them in their own bin. Now we know why this is recommended practice…we found a couple corroded and leaking battery acid.
4. In our giant explode-proof tub, we had thrown as many leak- or melt-prone items as we could fit. I found a can of Raid sitting partway inside a melted, gooey citronella candle. And the top of our boat soap bottle cracked from heat but didn’t spill out. That’s it.
5. One floor rug backing had dried up in the severe heat and was crumbling.
6. The sun damage on our already-hazed, corner dodger window got worse. Despite being folded up inside, under a 3 ft layer of pillows, bizarre red specks lined the edges… like window cancer. This was one we did not replace last year.
7. A couple tiny water spots under the windows, but nothing looked like it got wet underneath. Can’t tell whether there was minor leakage or if it’s just boat sweat. A few bits of really minor mildew on the walls. No water in the bilge. Our caretaker said some water had blown in through the louvered companionway door from Newton’s rain downpour, but he had mopped that up.
8. Oh yeah, I also found a lizard on deck, sundried to a crisp.

That’s it? Yeah. We were supremely lucky. Already we have spoken to two boat owners regarding damage from Hurricane Newton. One sustained a bad gouge in the hull, splintered cap rail, severely bent stanchions and ladder after it toppled over onto another boat; another boats’ mast split in two. This guy purchased a second similar boat with severe termite damage just to get the mast, and had that “new-used” mast shipped from Puerto Vallarta to install in San Carlos on his boat. Ah, the lengths boaters must go through to get a thing so specialized as a mast in Mexico. We were blessed to not have any issues.

Day 2: Work!
Every 2-3 years, we must attend to our bottom. Indigo’s bottom, that is. This year, it’s our #1 project. So today, we start by applying blue tape just above our red boot-stripe. Why above? We had already decreased the red stripe thickness by half, 2 years ago. But Indigo is still so loaded down with stuff that the waterline continues to ride up on the red paint, causing too many barnacles to attach themselves along that region. Repeated scraping of said barnacles off that stripe is ruining the paint.

So today, Brian starts by sanding the red stripe with an orbital sander and I follow along touching up the line by hand sanding. Except every minute I sanded with my hands above my head, neck craned back, I felt like I was dying. Sand one minute, rest one minute. It was only 10am and 95 degrees and HUMID! I couldn’t even finish one side of the boat before I had to stop and rest or pass out.

Next step, sand bottom. The black paint underneath Indigo is called ‘bottom paint’. Each time we clean the bottom (@ once a month) we get rid of critters AND paint, so every 2-3 years we need to reapply. Sanding the boat to death isn’t necessary, just a light, even sanding all over to make sure the barnacles are banished and any paint flaking is halted. So Brian gets in his cute little white suit & respiratory mask, looking like a CDC inspector. The entire sanding job takes a little over 4 hours. But in this heat and in that stifling get-up, it simply sucks.

While Brian is sanding, I start removing the white fabric we used as a sunblock covering the teak caprail, hand rails, and multiple plastic or metal thingamajigs. This takes forever because Brian is unfortunately a super-genius at knot-tying. Good thing he is in the middle of sanding and can’t hear my teeth-gnashing… a hurricane can’t untie these knots and neither can I! I use a laundry marker to indicate where each cloth piece was used and will eventually wash, store and reuse them next year. This fabric worked great, protecting our newly varnish teak from sun-damage while providing airflow. Thanks to S/V Cuba Libre for the idea and showing me where to buy the cloth!

Clean prop. Barnacles also love to attach themselves to the metal propeller. Cleaning a prop under water isn’t very doable since there are so many nooks and crannies in which to hide. Sanding the blades down smooth again and scraping crevice-sheltered critters with a screwdriver before Indigo goes back in the water is necessary for proper operation.

Replace zincs. Boats are subject to electrolysis (electricity in the water reacting to certain metals causing corrosion). Metal oxidization on boats is not only expensive, it can cause life threatening circumstances. When your $3000 prop falls apart due to corrosion, you’ve got problems. Therefore, all boats use various-sized pieces of zinc attached to underwater metal parts. The sacrificial zincs corrode first, in effect sacrificing themselves for the good of our other important bits.

Day 3:
Wash boat. We aren’t going for super-clean, but we need to rinse down the nasty topsides to avoid tracking dust into the boat. We waited to do this until after Brian was done sanding, because we also need to spray down the hull to remove the black paint dust Brian generated yesterday. Hopefully, that will help our bottom paint adhere better. Since the boat is wet and we created a huge mud puddle underneath, we retire back to the hotel to wait until it dries.

Why don’t we live in the yard? While we are allowed to live in the boat in the workyard (there is power hookups and even shower facilities), we choose not to for several reasons: it’s hot; it’s dusty; since a boat has no grey water tank, washing dishes or hands or teeth must take place outside the boat at the ground spigot… after climbing down a precarious 15ft ladder; going to the restroom at night holds the same issue; most importantly, our boat is a severe mess – everything we needed to store inside (sails, canvas, cushions, ropes, wind generator blades, explosion-proof bin, dinghy) is littering the floor and v-berth. Nothing is where it is supposed to be - I couldn’t live in this chaos without going berserk. So at $27/day for a week, the economy hotel is worth it for the air conditioning, our own clean bathroom and not having to live amongst the disorder. Once we get Indigo in the water, we can start re-installing and rearranging.

Primer. Later on in the day, we return to tape and paint the old, red bootstripe with primer to let it dry overnight.

Day 4:
Bottom Paint. A partial day of frustration… Our $250 can of bottom paint is not cooperating. Brian uses a drill & paint mixer bit, but the solids have sunk to the bottom and created a thick, gooey mess... so dense we weren’t sure it would ever fuse. Finally, after a HALF HOUR of mixing, it started looking like paint instead of muck. Then Brian starts painting. We only have one roller. It’s taking a lot longer than he thought because the paint is drying super-fast in the heat, on the boat and in the pan. Then the roller handle breaks. Sigh.

I go to the marine store (2 minutes away) and buy two rollers and 4 sleeves, for a whopping $26. Big mistake. I get back and we both start painting to save time. Within one minute, both roller handles BREAK! We continue to awkwardly paint without handles, but it’s not going well. The paint is drying on the brush. And now my new roller brushes are disintegrating, leaving tons of small mohairs stuck to my bottom. No one wants a hairy bottom!!!

After painting nearly 2/3rds of one side, we’ve already used a quarter of the paint. We normally are able to do TWO coats with one can. We’ve broken all our rollers, all our sleeves have disintegrated and now I have a hairy bottom! We quit. We’ll try again tomorrow, early… when it’s not 100 degrees.

Hammertime…Off to Hammerheads for our daily ritual of $1.30 fish tacos and 5 glasses of iced tea. Each.  Then back to Star Marine to return two un-used, overpriced, useless, f-ing hair-emitting, roller sleeves. Then to Sherwin Williams store to get better rollers and better sleeves and some paint thinner, for much less money. Then back to the boat to try and get something else done in the baking heat. We finished removing fabric protection, re-installed 4 solar panels, started cleaning storage compartments, dug through our massive pile of stuff to find prop goop & varnish for tomorrow. After another 2 hours in the hot sun, we are more than done.

Day 5:
Bottom – 95% done! Our new paint rollers and sleeves worked flawlessly today! No more hairy bottom! Well, at least not on the other side. Adding paint thinner (spelled the same, but pronounced “teen-aire” here) eased the flow sufficiently. Gotta get up early to beat the heat, so we arrived at 6:45am and by 9:30am we were finished. Except for the squares. We must wait a bit for it to dry, then get a yard guy to move the boat stands about a foot. Then, early tomorrow, we can finish painting the blank spots.

Blue Tape Exercise. Our next project is to add two coats of varnish to our caprail. We need to protect that 7-day varnish job we had paid for in Mazatlan this past February. We’d rather NOT do this upkeep in the sweltering, grimy yard. But in Marina San Carlos, major sanding is not allowed in the water, with significant fines if caught.

Before we do anything, we must line the lengths of teak with blue painters tape to avoid getting varnish on the gelcoat. I FORGOT how long this takes. I figured 2 hours, tops. But after 3 hours in 100 degrees, we STILL weren’t done. On top of this, I’ve realized just how unfit I’ve become as a temporary landlubber.

My legs were jelly after a stairclimbing funfest: Climb ladder, tape 3ft 3 times (under caprail, above rubrail and under rubrail), climb down ladder, climb other side, apply 3 more feet of tape three times, descend ladder, lift and move ladder 5ft, repeat. Do this along 34ft and again for the other side. Meanwhile Brian is taping around every stupid piece of metal touching the teak. How can there BE so many little metal thingies! Finished with the sides, I hop on deck and begin the eyebrows and handrails. Located just 1ft above deck level, their height ensures numerous leg squats: squat, tape up, tape down, stand, shuffle… squat, tape up, tape down, stand, shuffle… By 3pm, I’d HAD it. I’m OUT! Done! Finito! Termino! No mas!

Driving in Mexico Rant. Meeting Cuba Libre and Bella Luna for dinner, we drive into Guaymas, a large city of about 200k people with essentially one main route down the middle of town. Driving in Mexico makes me highly anxious, but Brian is getting used to constant near-sideswipes. Except it’s not an easy weekday. It’s Friday. And it’s 5:30pm. And the entire city is driving down this chokepoint. We end up taking the wrong turn, getting stuck in traffic, playing Frogger avoiding the clueless mopeds & bicycle carts & everything else trying to kill us, and then maneuvering back onto the right road only to drive amid a damn parade which took up the right lane while everybody is still driving normally in the left lane like it’s no biggie. Eh, just another parade.

After dinner the road is just as bad. Several emergency vehicles are up ahead blaring sirens. Except wait, there IS NO emergency… they were part of the parade…yet they continue to pretend there still IS a parade going on, driving slowly with shrieking sirens back to the opposite end of town, holding up traffic, waving to their buddies, just because they can. Meanwhile, the 5 lane road becomes a free-for-all. Non-tailgaters are losers. If you don’t tailgate you WILL get cut off. Apparently, it’s appropriate to use the left turn lane as a passing lane, just to get one car length ahead. Oh, and make sure to use those “all-is-forgiven” hazard lights when doing so, that MUST make it legal. See, hazard lights allow you to do damn near anything: drive into oncoming traffic, stop in the middle of the road, double-park anywhere you want for as long as you want… go ahead and go grocery shopping while double parked, no it’s OK, really.

Oh, and watch out for those metal 20km/hr signs sticking up in the MIDDLE of the left turn lane. Yup, why wouldn’t you plant a big signpost in the pavement of a left turn lane. Duh. Several cars didn’t notice these signs while hurtling in and out, so they just swerved into oncoming traffic to avoid the signs. Sure. Why not? We saw two cars side mirrors pass over/under each other they were so close. Finally, we figured out what the holdup was: the 2 lanes out of town went down to one lane. But do you think there would be ANY sign of this happening? Nope. Bam…all of a sudden the lane ends at a fluorescent orange construction barrel blocking the lane in front of torn up pavement. Arrow light? No way, too expensive. OK, I’ll give you that. But... how about some cones narrowing the lane? Cones are cheap! (But easily stolen.) OK. Merge signs? Lane closure signs? Bah humbug. That’s just cotton-pickin’ toooo helpful. Just stick a giant barrel in front of it and call it good. Why should we care about traffic flow? Or safety? Or logic?

Day 6:
Saturday. Moving right along, we finish the blue taping and apply one coat of varnish to everything. Looks great. Happy day.

Day 7:
3 hours of varnishing on a Sunday morning. It’s the perfect time to do the last coat of varnish - no one is supposed to be working today, or so I thought. Instead, it was a Sunday circus. Yard tractors and pickups keep driving around kicking up dust, a boat across from us is doing messy fiberglass work, and while it has been dead calm every morning, it’s windy today. Sigh.

Movie in the afternoon = Inferno with Tom Hanks. Good movie. Why did we really go? Air conditioning.

Back to the boat at 4pm to finish the caprail. I stayed in front of Brian wiping debris before he painted. Except one time I wiped a spot he had just done. With my blue shop towel. Adding bits of blue threads to our growing collection of dust and fiberglass hairs. Oh, the look of death I got. Could it get worse? Yes. Apparently Sunday was garbage day. And we are two boats down from the garbage bin. Thank goodness the wind was blowing the debris parallel to our boat. Mostly. Still, what else can happen?

Day 8:
DEW! Dust is only one nemesis of varnish; dew is its evil twin brother. What a big mistake, varnishing our final coat late in the afternoon. This morning, our caprail was wet with dew (the one and only morning we’ve had dew over the past week). Our beautiful, glossy topcoat is now cloudy and dull. Arrrgh. More accurately, cloudy and dull filled with bits of fiberglass and dust. Soooo pretty. Fortunately, it’s only on the top and forward half of the rail; we’ll just have to fix it later. It’s better than a hole in the hull.

This morning, I finished the last coat of varnish on our handrails while Brian changed out our engine impeller. This took him two hours, all the while cussing out Yanmar for making our impeller impossible to reach, impossible to change out in an emergency, impossible period. I call this: Rage Against the Yanmar Machine. It finally came out, except for a 1” x ¼” portion of the rubber gear sheared off. He can’t find it anywhere; he thinks it was sucked into the heat exchanger. Bad news.

I felt like I had the beginnings of the crud, so I rested in the cockpit for an hour. Last night, riotous laughter from revelers in the hotel courtyard kept us awake all night long. Plus, we’d been going, going, going… getting up at 6:30 and working in the hot sun for 4-5 hours every morning, and then again for a couple more hours in the afternoon. Climbing up and down the ladder, crouching, stretching, walking… baking in 95-100 degrees…it was getting to me.

Sounds of the Yard. Resting in the cockpit while Brian ranted below, I zoned out to the cacophony of noise…the squeal of a grinder rang out in the distance, the whir of our neighbors’ circular saw on plywood, the buzz of an orbital sander smoothing bottom paint, the tinking of someone banging on a metal mast, the water gushing as another owner washes yard grime off their boat in vain. There’s a constant crunch of cars and trucks, zooming in, dropping off supplies and leaving a cloud of dust in their wake, accompanied by the screech of metal track gates opening and closing. The boat tractor trailer must have hauled a dozen boats past us today… rigging rattling, mast swaying, fiberglass hull flexing & creaking along…rolling from the storage yard into the workyard, from the workyard back into storage, from the workyard out to the marina and reverse. We are situated about 15ft up in the air, so feet shuffling can be heard below on the ground, as well as chattering employees, cruisers yapping about boat projects and the fiberglasser singing along to his portable radio. The tractor’s slow backup warning ‘beeep, beeep, beeep’ underlies all this clatter… as is a rapid and urgent “beep, beep, beep, beep…pause” every five seconds of a battery monitor alarm from the boat next door. I am amazed at the racket. But I am so tired, I actually fall asleep, just for a little bit. Then I get around to washing fenders so we can swap out our nasty, shredded fender covers with brand new (experimental) ones made from sweatshirt material.

Check your slip. We check into the marina office one final time to verify our launch tomorrow. When possible, we always physically check our slip to make sure no one is in it…or storing their dinghy there… so there are no surprises mid-docking. Which, we have had more times than we care for.  Then we go pay our yard bill.

Final job: grease prop. This is usually an easy job. But the grease gun won’t attach right, then the gun won’t squeeze, then the grease itself won’t come out of our old tube, so we open up a brand new one, then as soon as we have aaaalmost given up the gun to being broke… it finally works. Errrrr.

Final, final job: more sanding. Crap. We forgot about sanding the hatch boards. So we get out the sander, sand down one side of each of 4 boards and put the sander back in the truck. We get out the plywood board that Brian pre-cut in Atlanta & brought back down to be our temporary hatchboard while varnishing for 5 days. Except when he inserts it into the slot, it’s too high and a touch too thick, almost getting stuck. Back to the truck for the sander (again), round out the edges, cut off the top with a handsaw and it now fits. Are we done yet? Please? Tomorrow, Brian assures me, after we put in the boat, we can rest for the remainder of the day. Promise? Pinky swear?

Day 9: Tuesday, Oct. 18th - Go For Launch
8am Launch. At 8am, Indigo is literally pushed down the road, shoved into the water and we are in our slip by 8:30am. Brian performs a flawless landing with the help of pre-positioned line-handling-friends on the dock. Big sigh of relief. Happy to be in the water at last, we fiddle with lines, chat with other boaters, generally dawdling. Just before we leave to go relax on our day off, Brian checks the bilge… Remember that pinky swear about no work today? Out the window. There’s water in the bilge.

Slow Leaks
Brian finds slow leaks in two places: the shaft seal (where the prop shaft enters the boat) and cockpit through hull (if water gets in the cockpit it drains out this hole into the ocean, except this hole is below the water line and now saltwater is leaking up into the engine room – not good). Brian is able to tighten the shaft seal which solves half of our slow-as-molasses sinking ship. Then he removes part of the plastic through hull. It’s not broken; it just needs tightening and more goop. But Brian would prefer a bronze one (bullet-proof). So we take it to Star Marine on the off-chance they’d have it…they didn’t. It is interesting to note though…the parts desk guy was incredulous as to why on earth we’d try to replace it when it wasn’t even broke! Different mentality. Tomorrow’s task is re-gooping the original. So as promised…at 2:30pm I get a partial work reprieve to regroup and recoup. In an air conditioned hotel room. Because we aren’t even close to being able to sail away…

The One-Day Launchers
I cannot fathom launching our boat after 6 months in storage and leaving the following day. Even in two days. It just boggles the mind. But we see others do it…often. I used to envy their speed, but now I’m convinced this so-called “speed” isn’t based so much on preparation but on minimal effort expended. I’m sure all food was left on board, sails still on (OK, maybe you took the jib down), bimini left up, solar panels up, no need to go up the mast, don’t bother washing the boat (OK, maybe a quickie-rinse), testing any equipment or performing any maintenance. Just fire up the fridge, add water & stow your gear. Engine starts? Sweet. Get gas and go.
    
20 Days of Boat Prep – Yard to Sea
That kind of frenzy is impossible for us… We have more of a slow boat to China approach…
We left Atlanta on Oct. 3rd, messing about in Tucson for 3 days. Then we entered Mexico on the 9th. Got the boat in the workyard on the 10th. Worked for 8 days. Launched the boat on the 18th. Then we started the long process of arranging and rearranging the boat back to normal, from Oct. 19th to the 29th. This is 11 more days on top of the 9 already detailed… so 20 days of boat prep. We plan to leave San Carlos and cross the Sea on Sunday the 30th, darn near one month after leaving Atlanta. Why so long? Once in-water, we could leave in a week, if pushed. But in THIS heat? We weren’t pushing.

It is HOT. Stinking hot. Almost stupid hot, but not quite (save that for summer). But even though it’s already October, it’s 100 degrees by midday, so whatever we don’t get done by 11am, doesn’t happen. Accordingly, we read or internet during the hottest part of the day, or nap, or go to Hammerhead’s for iced tea and some blessed air conditioning. We take our time and get things done, little by little.

Our 11-day task list is extensive but here’s the gist…

• Fix leaks so boat stops sinking!
• Wash boat thoroughly. Put up dodger and bimini (ahhhh…shade). Put up solar panels. Reinstall wind generator blades. Start fridge. Fill stove fuel. Fill water tanks.
• Restock food. I started out with a near-empty pantry except for spices and a few hardy staples, so I had to re-buy EVERYTHING. We bought some specialty items at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base Commissary and Trader Joes in Tucson. Once we moved back onto the boat, we made multiple Walmart and Ley’s grocery trips. Good thing we have the truck. For every hour I spend shopping, I spend 2-3x that stowing it away and logging it in my spreadsheet (so I avoid the whole try, yet ultimately fail to remember what food I put in which locker debacle).
  
• Go up the mast 3 times. Re-run all rigging lines. Measure and order new topping lift that broke. Put up sails. Drill hole in mast for L-bracket to stop banging of electrical wires.
• Buy gasoline for dinghy motor & generator. Test generator. Fill diesel jerry cans. Find distilled water for batteries, fill.
• Buy fishing license. Don’t forget to do the bills. Blog. Laundry twice.
• Engine work: Change coolant. Search in heat exchanger for missing impeller tab lost when replacing the impeller in the yard. Found it!  Adjust packing gland.
• Varnish hatchboards – 45 minutes every morning for 5 days.
• Store truck: gradually remove items we brought down and stow in boat. Vice-versa… put unessential items back in the truck that we are tired of kicking around the boat. Prep for truck storage on the last day.
• “The best part of wakin’ up…” is knowing we’d be going out to dinner every night with Bella Luna and Cuba Libre, sometimes Liahona, Starshine or Shannon Spirit would join us. We also got to eat lunch and catch up with Sea Dancer and Leaway. These outings were the highlight of our days! See you in the spring! Stay regular, my friends.
  

Setting Sail for our 3rd Season in the Sea
On Oct. 30th, we will set sail on an overnight crossing for Punta Pulpito, 90-miles away and across the Sea of Cortez. Over the next 3 weeks, we’ll make our way down to La Paz again, hoping to explore some new anchorages in between. Sometime around Thanksgiving (as always, dependent upon weather), we’ll be meeting up with our friends on Lorelei who are currently sailing to La Paz from San Diego on the Baja Ha Ha, just as we did exactly 2 years ago!
Until La Paz…!

Crossing the border into Mexico can be anxiety-inducing. For our first check-in at Cabo San Lucas in 2014 via boat, I had overly-hyped up the difficulty in my mind. One imagines frowny-faced immigration officials babbling irritably at you in Spanish, barking dogs sniffing your vehicle (or boat) for contraband, ultimately denying you entry for some miniscule mistake. Since that initial arrival by sea, we’ve entered overland by car or bus four times in two years. We have always dealt with courteous agents and translation is relatively smooth. So, I thought I’d detail our most recent trip across the Nogales border… for anyone thinking of driving across and for those who travel with us vicariously.

Be prepared. Bring the following:

• Your valid passport and driver’s license,
• Current car registration. We see multitudes of cars down here without ANY plates…yeah, not just expired plates…no plates AT ALL. So to us, this seems illogical. Why should anyone care about OUR currentness if they aren’t enforcing their own? But our colorful American license plates scream “pick me”, so you’re better off with a current sticker.
• Proof of ownership: I have a copy of our title in the truck & keep the original at home. You need this to obtain a TIP/Temporary Import Permit if you plan on driving any farther than Guaymas. If you have a car loan, you need a letter from the lienholder giving permission to take the vehicle into Mexico.
• Mexican liability insurance is non-negotiable. We get ours here: Vagabundos Del Mar.  We retain bare minimum insurance from our U.S. carrier in order to keep state registration legal.
• Check out online what you can and cannot transport. It’s different for cars vs. boats vs. bus vs. air. Some illegal items may surprise you…sea turtle boots, for instance. What? What foul person HAS boots made from those adorable sea turtles? We are often asked if we bring a gun for protection. The answer is emphatically, NO - because transporting guns, bullets or even empty cartridges are an instant “Go Directly to Jail” card and a Mexican prison is #1 on our list to avoid. Just watch the movie “Get the Gringo” with Mel Gibson - it’s a great deterrence.
• Keep receipts for any new items you are bringing down with you….groceries, boat parts, etc. Anything over your allotted limit is subject to a 16% VAT tax. Alcohol VAT taxes are amazingly high and vary; beverages with less than 14% alcohol are charged a 78% duty, so you may want to rethink importing that special $200 bottle of wine and drink more Dos Equis instead!
• Bring your patience & willingness to wait in line, if necessary.
• Above all… be courteous. No one likes a haughty American… or Canadian for that matter; no country’s citizen is immune to bad manners.

​
Getting There:
1. Highway 19. The city of Nogales, Arizona is adjacent to its twin…Nogales, Mexico. The first time we traveled Highway 19, a one-hour stretch from Tucson to Nogales, we were surprised to see mileage signs in kilometers. At this point, you are still in the US, but just barely.

2. Take Exit 4. This is known as the truck exit, built outside of town to facilitate cross-border truck traffic. Since you are bypassing town, the remote truck crossing promotes stress-free access with no traffic & decent signage. Plus, the initial road south after crossing is an updated highway. Piece of cake. While you CAN get tourist visas by going through the city center gate (we have done so via bus), there is no need to navigate downtown Nogales by car.

3. Stop at the Shell station on the right as soon as you get off at Exit 4. Gas is much more expensive in Mexico, so "fill up" or "lleno" here. While this is still technically the US (you can see the border from here), don’t expect the cashier to speak English. We can make it to San Carlos from Nogales in 5 hours and on one tank of gas.

4. Go through the border checkpoint, following signs for Hermosillo, not Nogales. (Following signs to Nogales will take you back to the city center and you don’t want that.) We traversed through a series of sharp turns around empty government buildings and suddenly we're on the highway going south. We were not stopped – there wasn’t a soul to be seen.

5. A few miles south is the red light/green light customs checkpoint. There’s a small traffic light at each lane: stop for questioning/trunk & baggage search if you get the random red light and go through if you get a green light. We got neither. Maybe it’s because it was a Sunday, but apparently nobody was around to turn on the lights. Good deal for us. Another time we got in the wrong lane, someone came running up to the fence, we raised our hands up like “what do we do” and they just shook their head and waived us through.

Research the dollar limits online for importing items before you go. Decide whether you have "nothing to declare"/“nada que declarar". I believe it’s a measly $75 per person by land. I’m not going to tell you whether or not to declare purchases. Either way, I keep my receipts in the glovebox just in case we get a red light and are questioned. Check out www.bajainsider.com or www.mexperience.com for good info on rules and regs.
​
6. Tolls. A few miles down the road is the first toll station - we paid 52 pesos here. I don't know if they take dollars so I keep a bunch of small bills or coin pesos in the truck for this purpose. There is a 2nd toll station at the town of Magdalena south of the immigration checkpoint - 25 pesos here. The 3rd and final toll is just north of Hermosillo for a whopping 65 pesos. Total tolls: 142 pesos or $7.50. I always keep several hundred pesos on hand when heading back to the US so that when we return, we have enough to pay for tolls, gas, lunch or snacks on the way down. You CAN get pesos at the Kilometer 21/immigration stop, but this way I am not forced into an unknown exchange rate.

7. Kilometer 21. After your first toll payment, next stop is immigration at KM21, so-named for being situated exactly 21 kilometers inside the country. Don't ask me why they can't do immigration at the actual border (like at Tijuana)…or at least at the customs checkpoint…or before the first toll. Don’t ask such logical questions…they just don’t, OK? For more info, google "Kilometer 21 Nogales". It seems like a cobbled bunch of buildings along the right side of the road, but look for signs that say “obligatory stop” or “migracion” or “temporary import permits”. There’s also an insane amount of speedbumps. Park in the big parking lot on the right hand side. 

8. Enter the building that says "permiso de turista". Stand in line, and then show your passports when called. The agent will give you a 2-part tourist card written in both Spanish and English. Step out of line and fill out both top and bottom of the form as you'll get the bottom to keep with your passport at all times. Take your time and read the English. We witnessed one tourist make a mistake, nonchalantly tear it up and ask for a new card; don’t do this – all cards must be accounted for and now that clueless tourist just created a real hassle for the clerk. Once you’re done scribbling, wait your turn again. Then the agent will take your filled out card and passport and ask you where you are going in Mexico and how many days you will be there. We say "seis meses" or 6 months, which is the maximum time frame…even if we won't be there that long, you just never know...stuff happens. Verify that your agent writes "180 dias" on the form.  

9. Banjercito. Since the government doesn't trust their people not to pilfer cash, you must pay for your tourist card in a separate location, the government bank. Fortunately, it’s right here. Go out the door in back of you, turn left and head past the copy man to the banjercito/bank. Wait in line again, and when called give the banker your new tourist card. He'll ask if you want to pay with cash "ejectivo" or credit card "tarjeta de credito". If you don't catch the number of pesos ("setacientosochenta" sounds like a mouthful if you aren't used to hearing it) he'll write it on a piece of paper. We paid 780 pesos total for two people. Currently, that is $41 equivalent. Your bank agent will give you a 8-1/2”x11" paper receipt. Keep this receipt with you as you travel and make a copy or at least take a picture of it with your phone.

A note about keeping visa receipts…I was once asked for my receipt for an expired visa by an agent while trying to obtain a new visa. I hadn’t removed the old (expired) visas from inside our passports (big mistake) and he focused like a laser, asking me if I’d paid for them. He wasn’t a jerk about it but was rather insistent. I understood he was looking for proof, but I had my proof back at the boat - 10 hrs away by bus. (What did it matter? They are expired!) So I just kept saying “si” and managed to deflect by repeating that I had already paid for them and I need new ones. After that incident, I keep my receipts with our passports. We also just learned to return our visas at Km21, IF we are planning on leaving and returning to renew another 6 months before that visa expires.

10. Receipt in hand, go back to the tourist card building for the final stamping process. Stand in the same line, again. (Remember, patience is key…you’re almost done.) After you are called, give them your bank receipt, your passport and the filled out tourist card. The agent will stamp the tourist card and your passport. Make sure you see them stamp both. (That same agent I speak of above, while he stamped our new visas, forgot to stamp our passports… but we were rushing, trying to get back on the bus since everyone else was waiting for us. Lesson learned.) The agent will give you half of the tourist card to keep in your passport at all times and give you back your receipt. Keep that receipt with your passport.

11. Get your vehicle TIP here if you plan on driving any farther than Guaymas. A TIP is a Temporary Import Permit. While a boat TIP is good for 10 years, a car TIP is only good for 6 months… but it’s only necessary when driving into certain parts of the country. We do not need to register our vehicle since we are only driving in Sonora as far as Guaymas; but past Guaymas, it’s required. Since I'm no expert in TIPs, check online for up to date car TIP info.

You're done! Back on the road! We think going across on a Sunday morning is the best time. We arrived before 8am and sailed right through with no waiting at immigration or the bank. Just remember, the border isn’t 24/7. There are hours of operation with regards to immigration offices, so don’t try to cross here between 10pm and 6am.  Not to mention, we avoid traveling at night for numerous safety related reasons.

Online visas:
You CAN obtain a tourist visa online. When arriving via boat, I went this route for peace of mind even though my only proof was the computer receipt. I felt better having at least started the process, but we still needed to get that stamp and an actual visa card, in Cabo. But I don’t see the benefit when crossing via land. You still need to stop at KM21 and get your stamp. So while it takes a few minutes longer, I’d rather just get it all done in one spot. (By the way, I've used the word "visa" interchangeably with "tourist card", but technically, your tourist card is not a visa.)

 After-Immigration…
The Headlight Cleaner Man
New visas in hand, we’re anxious to get underway and get down to the boat. But as we walked back to the parking lot, there's an old guy near our car babbling at us in Spanish as we walk up. Crap, he had just wiped one headlight with some kind of wax…and looks like he wants money to do the other. Dammit.

This is one of those cultural things I really hate. I don't begrudge the guy trying to make a living, but ASK me before touching my car! I require the option of saying yes or no. Oh, but you're so mean! The guy is just trying to make a living. Who amongst you likes it when someone grabs your butt without asking? Exactly. My car is an extension of my person. It's appropriate that the Spanish translation of "don't touch" is "no moleste".

Normally, I'd just tell him to go away. “No lo quiero limpiar.” Or something like that. Don’t judge my stilted Spanish. But now we've got ourselves a dilemma... the headlight now looks brand new! We just spent hours washing and waxing the truck, prepping it for storage, knowing it would bake in the sun for several months. And one of the things we couldn't fix was the ugly, yellowed headlights. Though annoyed, I refused to buy a special product. And so they remained suspended in their 11-yr-old state, severely clouded and sorely sun damaged. So while my immediate reaction was: "Dammit that guy touched our truck without asking" ...it quickly turned to..."Damn, that headlight looks brand new!" Huh. Now what?

"I do the other for $10", he tells us. Sigh. So instead of saying no, I bargain and say $5. He says $7. I say $6. He smiles and sticks to his guns at $7. "You help an old man with mental issues" (I'm paraphrasing). Ok, dammit. He IS a nice guy. And he IS old. Really old. Mental issues? I doubt it. $7 is way too much for 2 minutes of work but I let him do it because it really does look amazing. Let's put this in perspective: minimum wage in Mexico is $5 PER DAY. Per DAY. Fine, $7 and a photo, I tell him. (I could have bought that special product for $7!)

I take a picture as we watch him rub his bare hand, no cloth, over the Plexiglas and poof… it's perfect once again. He tells us "good for 2 years". Cynics that we are, our immediate reaction is that he probably used some caustic solvent that should never be applied to plastics and will corrode right through it tomorrow.  Or, since I never actually saw him spray his hand, it could have just been spit! Oh well, it looks amazing.

Now, I dislike encouraging these guys to do things to vehicles without asking, and I will get reprimanded by a certain good friend of ours who will read this and say “What did you just DO!” because he simply will not tolerate this form of inappropriate car “molestation”. I agree. Window washing while stopped at a light is common on the mainland; I’ve even seen someone starting to wash our friend’s car without asking, expecting a big tip. Simply not cool. But I've never seen this on the Baja side, one of many reasons we like that side better. But, you know what...he's happy with his exorbitant tip, we're happy with our fresh lights… so I guess that's what matters.

As we are getting in the car, this weathered, octogenarian asks what I'm going to do with the photo. Before I could answer, he giggles and makes another remark that I swear sounded like "put it up in your bedroom?" What? Did he really just say that? Dirty old man!
​
As always, I just smile graciously and say… “Si!”

~~~~~~
​Some good references:
https://www.bajabound.com/before/permits/customs.php
https://www.cbp.gov/travel/us-citizens/cbp-reqs-mexico 
 http://www.bajainsider.com/article/mexicos-import-duties-and-exceptions ​

Where can you walk amongst wenches & wizards, lords & ladies, pirates & peasants? Engage in a real-life Dungeons & Dragons atmosphere? The Michigan Renaissance Festival! It’s like a tiny Disneyland for lovers of the medieval age and fantasy characters of all kinds.

The Michigan Renaissance Festival in Holly, Michigan is a non-stop visual extravaganza…a head-swiveling, eye-popping, show-stopping, people-pageant. Since its beginnings circa 1979, the Festival has grown to over 250,000 visitors each year. This 17-acre renaissance replica village is replete with craftsman shops, imitation castles, crowded pubs, entertainment stages and a gargantuan number of gussied-up villagers. On a rainy weekend like today, it feels even more Renaissancy as we tip-toed around the muddy “town” streets, aiming for strewn straw, just as fair maidens did back in the day. Who amongst you wilt gallantly lay down thy cape for me to walk across that puddle... Anyone? Anyone? Nay.

Themed Weekends
From August to the first weekend in October, the festivities are sustained for 7 consecutive weekends. Themes accompany each weekend ranging from “Highland Fling” (with Scottish Games, pipers and legions of kilt-wearers)…to “Royal Pet and AleFest” (drink and be merry alongside your furry friend…preferably costumed in 16th century doggy-duds). The day we attended was “Wonders of the World” weekend, noted for its Steampunk Invasion cocktail party and costume contest reflecting gadgetry, gears and goggles of the futuristic Victorian era fantasy genre.

So, what’s so cool about this RenFest? Well…

The Shopping:
For the Renaissance enthusiast, it’s a dream. Where else can you find this kind of stuff all in one place: custom fitted elf ears (yup, not kidding); Renaissance costumes (kilts, capes, hoop skirts & poufy shirts-like Seinfeld’s “Puffy Shirt” episode); unique potions (herbal extracts); fairy gardens; swashbuckling gear (swords and staffs, pirate outfits and armor.) But you can find unique Christmas gifts too: local honey, artisan teas, carved wooden & stone beer steins, interesting incense holders, handmade leather goods, rare stones and crystals. Got one of those hard-to-buy-for persons on your list? RenFest can help. Who doesn’t want a poufy shirt for Christmas?

The Entertainment:
Of course, you got your requisite jousting tournaments and your medieval castle dinners. In addition, 17 themed stages showcase a variety of performances: lilting and mournful Gaelic music, rock bag-pipers (so cool!), raunchy comedians, peculiar feats of strength (like balancing a wooden bench on your nose – hmmm, reminds me of Mexico) or feats of folly (like flame-throwing). Filtered throughout, you got your Taro card readers, palm readers, metalwork demonstrators, young maidens dancing around the maypole, roving musicians and bawdy bards. There’s even a daily Royal procession where us commoners can get a glimpse of the Queen and her court, along with hundreds of other costumed villagers flaunting their duds.

The Costumes:
Attendees are encouraged to dress up in their finest fantasy frocks. This is actually the best part, because at least half of attendees are in costume, and most are incredibly dressed to the nines. Wizards in flowing robes, buxom wenches in tight corsets (breast reduction?... no, breath-reduction), dainty winged faeries, elves with those custom fitted ears, fancy schmancy noblemen, Friar Tucks, flower-haired fair maidens, armor-bedazzled knights of the realm, sword-sporting Musketeers, cutlass-bearing buccaneers, badly singing bards, wandering minstrels, kilted Scottish knaves, drunken Irishmen…you name it…they all gather together in this spot to have fun being someone else for a day. Think Game of Thrones meets Lord of the Rings. (Where’s my John Snow?)

Some outfits seem a little incongruous…like fat belly-dancers (nobody wants to see that) or Deadpool (I mean, this isn’t ComiCon); others just downright don’t make sense. I saw one disaster of a homemade red butterfly/bee costume; and another guy was only half-dressed wearing a kilt, tennis shoes and plain red t-shirt…total costume slacker. But for the most part, these folks go ALL OUT. And to go all out ain’t cheap. A lace-up bodice alone can go for $200, a red riding hood cape $120, wooden staff $80-$120…it all depends on how authentic you want to look.

While I loved some of the over-the-top costumes, one wraithlike princess in ghost-white makeup with black haunting eyes and a flowing white dress caught my eye as she mysteriously stalked about town…really eerie and movie-worthy. My second fav was Gandolf. Now, you’d think everyone would want to be Gandolf, but I only saw one. Because this guy IS Gandolf… with his stately presence, deliberate stride and thousand yard stare. Anyone who tried to top THIS Gandolf impersonation would fail miserably (and probably be struck down by lightning… or orcs).

The Food:
Come for the costumes and people-watching, but stay for the food. Get here early to try a Scotch Egg for breakfast – a hard-boiled egg coated in sausage and breading then deep fried. OMG this is the best thing ever. Of course there are donuts and cider, soup in a bread bowl, hot spiced walnuts, chocolate covered bacon (‘cause bacon and chocolate solve world crises), and of course, giant smoked turkey legs. Because where else can you get a smoked turkey leg? Plus, there’s beer tasting and mead tasting and wine tasting, all three of which promote general happiness and well-being.

Those Frikin’ Pickle People:
Our first encounter inside the castle walls was with The Pickle Man. Hawking obscenely large pickles on a stick, The Pickle Man managed to bleat out the word “pickle” in such a booming voice, enunciating the PICK so sharply, it scared the bejesus out of me every time. “Piiiiiickle!... PICKle!”  These pickle vendors have their wiles, often making naughty or snarky references to unsuspecting passersby. “Those elf ears are UUUGLY”.

At the other end of the festival, The Pickle Woman lies in wait. She must have overheard one of us saying the name Josh in conversation while passing by. Not skipping a beat, PickleWoman shouted out “Hey Josh!” and hugged him like they were best friends, subsequently proceeding to place a pickle into the hands of his wife. “She wants a pickle, Josh!” OK, you pulled a fast one, very funny… “What, she took it!” He good-naturedly pays for the pickle. Funny gag, right? I take a picture of the incident and in doing so PickleWoman turns and says “Hey, look at your mom!!” Mom? WTF???!!! My eyes go wide and my face turns beet red, mad as hell. Seriously? She sees my horrified face and backpedals: “What, people have kids young these days.” Yeah, I would have been 16. It’s just one more reminder I am getting old. I even put on makeup today and everything!  Ugh…depressing. PickleWoman, NO MORE pickles from you!

An Entertaining Day of Escapism, then Back to the Real World:
Aside from The Pickle Incident, escaping the distressed world we live in for an imaginary realm, even for just one day was a nice reprieve (never mind that life was much worse back in medieval times!) But it is time to get back to the real world. We are headed down to the boat right now to survey the fallout of Hurricane Newton in San Carlos, Mexico and to start getting Indigo shipshape for a 3rd season of cruising!

The Sunrise Side
After we split up from my parents, Brian and I drove back through Mackinaw City, crossing to the Lake Huron side of the mitten. The “Sunrise” side. You see, Lake Michigan, being on the western shore, gets the sunsets… and all the money. Those who live on Lake Huron (on the eastern shore) see the sunrises over the lake. In other words: Sunsets + sand = tourism; Sunrise + trees = normal. But that’s kind of WHY it’s cool here on the sunrise side. It’s frozen in time. The towns are more home-towny, a little run down but still plugging away; the trees are a little more scrabbly, the beaches more wild & rocky, the shoreline marshy in many areas (bad for swimming, great for kayaking); driving down the back roads you see… just… a lot of trees, and not many homes and zero traffic. You get the feeling this is how it was up here 100 years ago. You FEEL really far away from EVERYTHING.

Ocqueoc Falls
We spent the night at the 14-site, state forest campground next to Ocqueoc Falls (Ok-we-ok), the only waterfall in lower Michigan. This spot is in the middle of pretty much nowhere, miles from any town. So we were surprised to find a full parking lot, with an overwhelming number of families picnicking and swimming in the river. A series of shallow falls with a rocky, walkable river is begging to be frolicked in by kids and adults alike. We spotted locals lounging in lawn chairs set directly in the shallow pools. A great way to cool off in the summer heat!

Alpena
We spent a rainy day just messing about in the big town of Alpena (pop. over 10k, the largest town in the area). We watched a movie at the local theater, went to the brand new Meijer store (woohoo!), sampled a local coffeehouse, perused a musty antique store and had ice cream at Culver’s. Alpena is mainly an industrial town: cement is big business here, as is limestone (one of the largest quarries in the world). So we were surprised to find a college, a thriving downtown and a busy business district - pretty much everything you need is right here. Plus, Alpena is set on Thunder Bay, its marshy wetlands threaded with acres of water trails, ideal for kayaking. Except it’s raining. Maybe next time.

Thunder Bay Marine Sanctuary
Our drizzly day was a perfect time to visit the Thunder Bay Marine Sanctuary in Alpena. NOAA and the State of Michigan jointly operate this unique sanctuary whose purview combines salvage and display of local marine artifacts in a museum, as well as in-water preservation of the amazing number of shipwrecks in Thunder Bay.

Also known as “Shipwreck Alley”, this 4300-sq-mile area of Lake Huron, now an underwater preserve, was a standard route for freighters and sailing ships plying the Great Lakes. Over 200 ships have foundered in this bay, notorious for severe storms and rocky shoals, many of which are lying in such shallow waters as to be accessible by kayakers, divers and snorkelers. The museum offers glass-bottom-boat tours of several shipwrecks close to shore. This would have been a cool side trip, but the boats weren’t operating that day - too yucky outside. You don’t want your shipwreck tour to become a shipwreck itself!

Museum
The museum displays hundreds of interesting artifacts. My favorite were the ships logs detailing things like watch changes, ship speeds, storm conditions, one even had a cross-section sketch of the freighter hold and its contents: trade goods like iron ore, fish, copper, bricks. We learned about typical maritime shipping lanes through the Erie Canal into the Great Lakes; Brian operated a digital, simulated underwater rover; we read about the various types of schooners and brigs up to modern day freighters and why they foundered… storms, groundings, engine fires, ice, fog, even head on collisions with other boats. Back then, it was not uncommon for shipping barons to force the sail of boats into November, the notoriously worst weather month of the year here, to get one last shipment in before the lakes are overwhelmed with ice. Lives lost unnecessarily as a result.

That Damn Erie Canal
On a lighter note, the least desirable thing about this museum is their music. In one section, the repeated playing of old Erie Canal song, known as “Low Bridge” covered by (I think) Bruce Springsteen, was… (I’ll try to be nice here) excessive. OK, I wanted to pull my hair out. This very short song was repeated over the overly loud speakers, again and again and again… back-to-back. Maybe they don’t WANT you to stay in this section and read everything because I could barely concentrate due to Bruce’s broken record. I couldn’t get that damn song out of my head for DAYS after we left:
I've got an old mule and her name is Sal, Fifteen miles on the Erie Canal
She's a good old worker and a good old pal, Fifteen miles on the Erie Canal…
Low bridge, everybody down
Low bridge cause we're coming to a town…
And now YOU have it in YOUR head.  J You can hate me later.

To be honest, part of my irritation was attributed to a set of very obnoxious grandparents guiding their obviously uncaring grandchild through our same section. Grandma loudly proclaimed her interest at each display trying in vain to entice the kid, “Oooh Johnny, look at this cool ship replica”. Then she would read the text to him. At full volume. ‘Cause Johnny wasn’t right next to her looking at the ship;  Johnny was running all over the tight corridor, completely distracted and not listening anyway. Seriously Grandma? Anyway, except for Grandma (hopefully she’s not a regular) and Bruce (unfortunately, he IS), for those interested in maritime history, this museum is a must-see.

Oscoda
The Au Sable River runs nearly 140 miles across the upper portion of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula, dispersing into Lake Huron at the small town of Oscoda. Due to its sandy bottom and easily navigable waters, the Au Sable is an ideal canoeing and kayaking river. In fact, we’d just missed the yearly Au Sable River Canoe Marathon. Running 120 miles of this river, pro canoeists paddle throughout the night and into the following day. Sounds fun!

River Running
We decided on a half-day canoe trip from Oscoda Canoe Rental, gliding along this beautiful river under threat of thunderstorm which thankfully never transpired. The current was just strong enough to do most of the work - we really only needed to steer. The first half of our 4-hour trip meandered slowly through the undeveloped Manistee National Forest. No houses, no people…just us and the clear, clean water and the wild woods. Perfect. Then we got to the second half.

Drunken Tubers
As we rounded a corner, we heard people (ugh) and knew it must be OUR halfway point because suddenly dozens of tubers and canoers and kayakers were putting in their floatation devices for their 2-hour tour. From here on out it was summer mayhem as we were accompanied by drunken tubers and shrieking teens. One troupe of giggling, teenage cheerleaders traveling in over 20 canoes stopped at a sandy beach to swim and splash and squeal, performing cheerleading flips & playing chicken on each other shoulders in the water. Ummm, yeah, it was quite the spectacle.

​Another group’s member was drunkenly singing that “Hole in the Bottom of the Sea” song. You know the one: “Theeeeere's aaaaaa….wart on the frog, on the bump on the log, in the hole at the bottom of the seaaaaaa.” Mr. Opera was actually pretty funny the first few verses…singing with a deep vibrato, conducting crazily with his arms, trying unsuccessfully to coax his drunk friends into joining him. Eventually, after WAY too many verses, well, it just wasn’t funny anymore. Come on buddy, move along…

Lumberman’s Monument
Just 20 miles west of Oscoda, is an interesting memorial to the under-appreciated Lumberjack. Michigan led the lumber industry in the late 1800’s. And the wide Au Sable River was used as a watery highway to float millions of pine logs to Lake Huron for processing and ship transport. This Federal park honors the men who plied this river, cutting trees, shaving branches, rolling them from a clifftop down into the water, poling them down river, breaking up log jams and delivering the product to sawmills. Educational signs in the park describe the grueling work and living conditions. I talked about trees earlier…upper Michigan has no shortage of trees. Now. But what I didn’t know… most of those trees are new, 60-90 years old. The harvest of millions of pine trees, fires and flooding devastated the tree population in the late 1800’s. But during the Depression, the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) made a gargantuan effort to replenish the forest, planting over a HALF A BILLION pine trees!

Tawas City
This time we stayed at Tawas State Park. With one calmer, bayside beach in Tawas Bay and a second, wider beach on Lake Huron, plus another lighthouse on site protecting the peninsula, this was a busy, yet pleasant campground. The beaches are sandy here, as opposed to rockier farther north. So sandy in fact, the Tawas Point lighthouse had to be replaced due to shifting peninsula sands, closing the original off from Lake Huron an entire mile from shore in less than 30 years, rendering it useless.

After a delicious breakfast at the Whitetail Café, a local diner in downtown East Tawas, we walked out to the marina. Of course. I think we’ve walked the marinas of darn near every town along the entire northern coast. Ludington, Manistee, Leland, Northport, Suttons Bay, Charlevoix, Petoskey, Cheboygan, Rogers City and now Tawas. Are we weird or what?

Pinconning. Cheese. Please.
Next we stopped in Pinconning for cheese. Duh. Pinconning is a town AND a type of cheese. These are several cheeseries here, so when you go through Pinconning, it’s a like a requirement to buy Pinconning cheese, or you get fined, or something. I don’t know, but that’s what I told Brian and he seemed to buy it. Or maybe he wasn’t listening. Either way, I win. Cheese for me.

Also in Pinconning is the Northwoods Wholesale Outlet. Basically, this is like going to Bass Pro Shop… except it’s bargain-basement-time. Housed in a cluttered warehouse, this place has great discount prices for camping, boating, hiking, fishing and hunting gear. It’s so big, we strolled around for over an hour and didn’t go down every aisle. From kayaks to deer blinds to fishing gear to cheap jeans to RV accessories to grilling tools, this bargain outdoorsman extravaganza has it all.

Bay City
We really got our money’s worth out of that $11 Michigan State Park sticker. Bay City State Park is the 14th Michigan State Park that we have either stayed at or visited (lunched, hiked or just drove through to check it out) in the last 3 weeks. Whew. Bay City State Park is an overlooked campground situated on Lake Huron and only a few miles from the city. We did not make a reservation. So when we arrived, I asked for the list of open sites so we could go in and take our pick. She handed me a list of over 100 open sites! Really? It’s prime camping season and all the other State Campgrounds are nearly full, if not fully full. What’s the deal here? The sites are big, flat, not too buggy, and the bathrooms were the cleanest we’d ever seen! Close to town, yet still secluded, it was within walking distance from the beach and hiking trails with the most wildlife I’d seen all summer. Go here.

USS Edson
One of the few things to do in Bay City is visit the USS Edson, a Vietnam-era Naval destroyer. Launched in 1958, it is one of only a few Navy ships named after a U.S. Marine. Can I have a Woot! Woot! The cool thing about this 418ft-long, 45ft-beamed, 22ft-drafted destroyer is that the depths are open for inspection. We rooted around in the bowels of the boat for 2 hours, traipsing on metal catwalks, poking around the steam turbines, torpedo bays, crews quarters and top secret comms room so old school they had typewriters! On deck, we saw the big gun turrets, mess hall, captain’s quarters, the darkened electronics room and control bridge. After our visit, we talked with the guy responsible for this floating treasure. Working long hours, he keeps this museum open & coordinates volunteers to upkeep the ever-deteriorating ship, relentlessly attacked by the elements. If you get a chance, please go support this piece of history.

The End of the Road
From here, we ended our trip as we began, by visiting family members. Another ½ hour south is Saginaw, where we stayed with my relatives. We had a very nice evening reconnecting and seeing some of the sights in nearby Midland. At this point, we’d been travelling for 3 weeks were pretty much tired. While we were extremely happy with our van, V-Ger, and its voyaging capabilities, we looked forward to vegging out. Our job for the next week was to babysit my niece-cats. Yep, that’s right, we were charged with housesitting (but mainly cat-sitting) for my brother and his wife while they went on vacation. Excited to pretend we lived in a real house by ourselves… with reliable internet (and Playstation for Brian)… for a whole week? You betcha!