Life since our last road trip + a bonus 2500 mile road trip. Why fly when you can have alllll those looong miles in the car together?

I notice I am taking fewer photos these days, yet I found a ton when creating a folder for this post.  I probably should have done 2 postings but we ended up being on the road a LOT for our second vaccinations and that ate up a lot of time and *all* of my energy.  But let's not get ahead of ourselves.  Let's start with the joy of Blanca being healthy and happy and finally living life as a playful puppy, something I don't think she ever got to experience before.

Our thoughtful and wonderful friend Susan heard that Blanca was starting to get frisky and playful and, in her typical thoughtful + generous way, showed up the next day with toys galore for our girl.

Chuy continues to find rattlers large and small.  I'm thinking the compost may need to go and Toby needs to up his rodent patrol.

In the meantime, we've been clearing a LOT of brush and making sure we can see snakes before they see us. Which has led to more landscape attention.  Here are some plants that I dug up from the desert and dragged back and planted over 20 years ago.  We are psyched to have some draught tolerant pretty vegetation.  

These little pepper-like fruits (we call them chilitos) look so cute growing out of tiny cactuses.  Max snagged this one before I got to it.  

We did decide to get a couple of palms.  We are led to believe these are relatively drought tolerant and they are one of my faves.

They were incredibly heavy to get into the truck and lucky for us, Chuy had boards to build a little rail system for rolling them out on some dowels and a platform.

Then it was nap-on-the-porch time!

Though this bird, and 3 others like it, were very upset as they have made their nests all along the porch edge and don't want us too close by.

Todos Santos has an impressive variety of great restaurants and I look forward to trying more of them once I am feeling braver. I love that so much of life is outdoors here and so it is easy to dine al fresco. This evening we were just looking for something quick before it got late and Luca quite liked his particularly crunchy tacos de pescado.

Does this image look strangely familiar?  As if I copy + pasted it from my last post.  You know, the one where we drove 2200 miles to get our first shots?  Well, as luck would have it, our planning was a hot, frenzied mess and we ended up not flying, and instead driving -even farther than last time!  In a lot of heat.  

And in this brutal heat, we spotted this family frantically trying to flag down help.  They had gone to pull off the highway and didn't see that there was a drop off and got stuck.  In 111 degree heat.  With small children.  And said they'd been waving to traffic for hours but no one had stopped.  Fortunately, Max had a tow strap with us and managed to pull them clear in less than 15 minutes.  I was pretty proud of my guy.  

As I got out to offer seltzers to the family, this friendly little dude fell out of my floor area onto the running board.  I was generally hysterical.  I felt bad it had gotten squished, though.  But when I asked LZ to get a stick and flick it off as we left, the sucker got up and started running around the sand.  I returned to my general hysteria.

Let's backtrack to where I am pretty sure the 8 legged hitchhiker stowed away on the journey.  This place is phenomenally beautiful!  Huge thanks to our friend Marie for suggesting this oasis of yurts on the river in San Ignacio as a stop along our harried path.  As you will see, the accomodations were fantastic.  But I am convinced that all the water and lushness brought not only beauty but super creepy bugs  into our lives.

Here is Luca jumping onto an Outschool class the moment we pulled in. Maintaining a school schedule has been really hard while traveling and I am super proud of him for keeping up with his historical fiction writing workshop, among others.

I adore this goofy face as he models our super-over-stuffed-must-be-cinched-closed fridge.

And here, he dramatically showcases the king bed.

As well as his queen bed.

And now, for your viewing pleasure, yurt shower dramatic re-enacting!

And finally, the lovely river flowing by.   There were kayaks and floats for the borrowing, but we didn't have enough time to really explore.  

At dinner that night we were surprised to see a girl come out of a shop carrying a raccoon like a baby.  She'd let him play a while, then pick him up and cuddle, and then place him back down.  

Many, many hours into the next day, we needed to stop and stretch our legs and this pumice covered beach was a fun place to explore.  Many of the rocks were as light as fluff and made a clinking glass sound as you walked on them.

Some had holes the size of a pin prick and others with bubble scars over an inch wide.

It started getting late in the day and we finally had to leave to cross the border, but it was a magical place to have stopped for a while.

Luca had to pop out and say hi to as many dogs and cats as he could, often carrying pockets of food to give to any who looked hungry.

So, somehow on the last drive north Luca saw this long trench paralleling the road up close to the border.  I had wondered why he had packed his military re-enacting gear to go get shots, and it suddenly became clear to me as he asked to stop and get out and explore.  I think it had dropped down to 105 by this point so why not add layers and gear and climb down into a sandy trench?

Gotta admire this kid's passion.

I am glad he made it back up and out because, as much as I dearly love him, I was pretty sure he'd have to live down there forever if it came to me having to sweatily slide down the burning hot sand to rescue him.

So then we made it to the States and Max gave in to my Covid anxiety and took apart the hotel AC so we could switch it to only pulling outdoor air and also spray the filters with a disinfectant.  I get twitchy.  We've all accepted it. 

Luca was impressed by all the Pride flags and support around San Diego.  It was a fun city to walk around + we can't believe how lucky we were to have our friend Marie's condo as a gorgeous and cozy home base while we got our shots.  ...and to also be able to return there for a second stay when we were denied entry at the border for an expired tag on the truck. The few days we'd planned to explore the mining town of Santa Rosalia in southern Baja were quickly and sadly exchanged for a few days of getting our documentation up to date in San Diego. 

The drive down was mostly uneventful. I was hit hard by exhaustion and was grateful Max could drive while I slept.  Which is saying a lot since normally I can barely blink for watching the road so carefully.  As we got close to home we got behind the Guardia Nacional with their lights flashing. Traffic was always pulling over to let them by and we'd merrily follow behind as if they were our special escorts.  It was one of the best hours of the drive.  

It was quite lovely to be back home with this guy. We are so grateful to have amazing pet sitters when we go, but I think Toby missed all the love and attention we normally give him.  I am thrilled that he and Blanca are getting ever more comfy with each other!

I will leave you with a few of my favorite sunset pics from the past 2 weeks.  I have spent so many years missing sunset here that I savor it as often as I can now.

I hope that you and your loved ones are keeping safe, enjoying school graduations, splashing in pools, basking in sunshine, eating at BBQs, and watching plants grow. Much love from each of us and thanks for sharing another drive north + back with us.  I promise no more long road trips in the near future!  

PS Happy father's day to all you magnificent Dads out there!  And may your Juneteenth be a meaningful one.