3-5-05

I got an early start again after a noisy night. I can sleep right through anything it seems. I went to bed with a truck on each side of me and when I woke up there were two different trucks. This seems to be a major fueling station for the trucks and they were pulling in hitting their Jake brakes and pulling out under full steam. I don’t even hear it after awhile. I was making a cup of tea when this guy pulled up and checked his load before pulling out on the road. I just love these loads they pack. It is hard to say how many carved wooden chairs he has on this.

I  have seen racks almost this big on little Toyota pickups. I caught this guy this afternoon with a fifth wheel on his little pickup and a one ton flat bed trailer. I wonder how it stops.

I stopped in the first big town I came to that I think was Fresnillo and tried to get hooked up to the internet. I finally found a place that was a teaching school for kids and young adults to learn computer. The big room was divided in half and I was the only one in my part. I plugged in and was able to get email but when I tried to upload the road logs it seemed to stop working. I have an idea that there were too many on line at the same time. down loading is fairly fast but uploading can be slow. I let it chew on it for an hour but finally broke off and  hit the road but not before looking around the town. the first thing you notice is this great old church.

I liked the tower on this one with the big pillars.

Looking across the street is some sort of main business building. I just love the big massive walkways. I would imagine that this area gets real busy in the afternoon. There were some already hanging out there.


town was getting busy and I walked around some of the side streets until I found a bakery. Yum, yum, I love these little bakeries. I got a pretty good size sack with maybe five goodies for ninety cents. You don’t get these good prices in the big stores but even they are cheap by US standards. The variety is also something I like. I try new things all the time and so far I haven’t picked out anything bad. I did make a mistake and got one of those flaky things again, but they are just so good, I ate it outside.

As I was wandering around the back streets I made my way to this old church. I thought it was the first one on the square where I had lil red parked. I don’t think they use this one anymore. There was a little sign to the side and I think it was built in 1697. Three hundred years plus ago. After looking around town I see that there  are several churches in town. Why? Maybe they had to keep the guys busy working so they wouldn’t sin too much. That must be why Roger works twelve hour days.

how would you like to chisel that out of a rock?

The doors were a little worn but not  bad for the age.

This photo was taken from the front of the church looking across the street. At one time I would imagine that this was a very busy business section too. I doubt if you get the feeling of the massive and extremely old nature of these places. They have a way of putting you in your busy ‘go fast, do it now’ pace. Time passes slowly in these places. After three hundred years instead of burros bringing firewood down these  twisty little narrow streets not made for cars, there are now LPG trucks. In the little villages I go through I see sticks on burros and lots of times  I see people carrying arm loads home. The streets in this town were much nicer to drive on than the round  cobble streets in most places. They were flat and polished from all the traffic.

The next  town I stopped in was a mining town of some sort named Sombrerete. They had a few old mining cars on the main drag as well as these nice mill stones.

I am pretty sure that they were used for grain grinding rather than ore. I tried to find an internet place were I could plug in the computer but  the only one I found wouldn’t let me do it.
I made it to Durango around four or so and found a big grocery store where I scored a nice half rotisserie chicken with green sauce, a ten count bag of fresh made whole wheat tortillas (I am getting back into flour tortilla country, there was only corn tortillas down south). I was also able to find another container of the dried gator aid powder. I have been using that to flavor my water that I drink and keep my electrolytes up to snuff. I read somewhere that if you get a headache that you should take gator aid and it will stop it. I have tried it and it seems to work for me. Sometimes I have a hard time getting rid of a headache and this may be the answer for me at least. The very best score I made was at the deli counter where I picked up two fried, battered chili rellanos. Oh my God, I ate one not too far down the road and I almost went back and bought a dozen. They must be half pounders, stuffed with a huge wad of cheese and a big fat meaty chili. They are a little greasy fried but I don’t mind a bit. I could founder myself on those. its probably a good  thing I didn’t go back as I would gain a few pounds for sure. The deli display was amazing. I don’t know what all the stuff was but they were doing a great business. They had big pots and trays of stuff and you went around an filled plastic containers with what you wanted. The chili’s cost about sixty cents each. I ate one and it was a small  meal. I am really starting to get into the food now, especially the chicken. I bought a grilled chicken from a street vendor the other day and I got a half chicken, about a half cup of red sauce and maybe ten little potatoes that had been grilled and six or seven corn tortillas for less than three bucks. I wish I were more adventurous when it comes to trying the strange stuff but I still am hesitant to become sick, as it is somewhat dangerous when you are alone. The baked stuff and grilled cooked stuff I guess is ok. I do get into those juice bars in a big way though. Today I had one that had seeds in it too. I have no idea what it was but I think by the seeds it was a cantaloupe. It was really good. The reason I can’t identify what they are is because I have lost my sense of smell. I can taste sweet, sour, bitter and salt but the smell part of taste is mostly gone.

I went by a sports shop and they had these for sale. I don’t remember the name but the kid said they were made in Mexico but not sure of that. It had KTM on the side of the case. It is a nice looking little bike and 125cc.

These scooters are popular around town. They are usually over loaded too.

This is a popular way to gain attention and get people in your store. Got your ears on JOE??? A nice sound system placed outside and turned up loud. There are lots of stores that do this down here and I think it really adds to the flavor of being downtown. With all the food, music and people these towns are lively.

And speaking of food, here is an outfit often seen. It is outside of a butcher shop and I saw this done when I was staying with Jill and Caroline. They butcher a hog and they fill a tub with the pieces of hide and slowly cook them over a fire stirring all the time with a big wooden paddle. They sell big bags of fried pork rinds in the store and sometimes vendors will try to sell them on the street in plastic bags or by the piece. This guy was using a half a 55 gallon barrel and setting it on the other  half that  has a propane burner in it. Oh, and the kids riding double down the one way street the wrong way, no problemo. Bikes squeeze in where ever they want to.

I scored a kilo of really nice fat in the shell peanuts from a vendor just down the steeet from these folks. It turns out that he spent twenty years in the US and is back here now with his own business. He had a butcher shop, and as a side he had a cart outside with peanuts, pumpkin seeds, and several kinds of dried chilies.

Down the road to Durango I stopped at this old church. There was some sort of doings going on so I didn’t go down and go in.

The little sign said something like 1529 but I am not sure if that was when it was built. The flying arches to the side was a nice architectural and structural touch I thought. As you can tell I really like this old rock work. just getting those rocks up there and fitted in place was some sort of immense effort.

I was behind a truck when it came to a stop on the highway and noticed a Big train coming. There was half an X sign on our side and a broken light on the other side of traffic. I probably would have just driven right in front of the train, I am so used to flashing warning lights and gates that come down. This was on a big highway but no warning other  than the train whistle which I didn’t hear until the train was there. About a hundred cars went by when in the middle another two engines blowing smoke came by and then another hundred cars. It was the longest train I have ever seen. I found that hot spot for wifi on the outskirts of Durango as I was passing by that I posted the last two road logs. I passed a walmart and samsclub on the way in, the bastards are everywhere. I am camped not too far north of Durango at a nice little lake that has camping sites along the edge. I made chicken rollups and just as I was thinking what was I going to do with the bones and skin left over, I turned around and this bitch dog packing a back leg came up looking for a hand out. She was rather wary but she wolfed those scraps down in a hurry.

 
It didn’t take long for her little friend that was packing a front foot to show up and look for left-overs.

They have been barking tonight a little bit. I guess they are my guard dogs for tonight.

3-6-05

They were busy little guard dogs last night. They finally settled down and we all got a good nights sleep. I found some old peanuts that had some sort of seasoning on them that I have been eating but not liking, so I gave treats to the guard crew this morning. They are both really nice dogs and wag their tails,  but will not let me touch them.
Looking back at last nights camp.

I just had a blinding flash of realization as I was passing a small pueblo. From a distance it looked like several of those old 60’s trailers painted in the light turquoise green and white motif. As I got closer I could see that they were just old adobe long houses painted that  way. The realization is that I have not seen one mobile home down here. (there were old trailers in Baja) These people are poor and I guess the old cheap mobile homes have not made it down here or there is a law against it. When I go though these old towns quite a few of the old buildings are abandoned and run down, but they just add character to the place sort of like the old cabins and shacks that I love so much about the desert mining towns, The old junk trailers just seem to ruin the ‘old’ or historic character and make them look like a dump.

The county has really opened up and there are few cars on the highway as well as few towns. I have been noticing the differences in how the ranchers treat their land. Here is a prime example of how one guy is overgrazing to the limit and the other has deferred grazing on his part. This is an extreme example as most of the pastures have been grazed but some not as heavily as others. I am seeing quite a few nice calves as I go along that  are definitely good beef stock. I even went by one ranch that had a sign that said they had Registered Charolias (SP?). There is  still  quite a bit of corn being grown and fed out to the livestock. Lots of the corn is still stooked up in the field.

I think these are their grain storage facilities. The big one  is all rock with a vent system along the wall above the door. The tee pee type thing is adobe covered with plaster and I saw one with steps going to the top and a door up there. On that one I guess they took one sack at a time up and dumped it in. this one they may have used a ladder.
 The grass is just now starting to green up here and I would imagine it must be not too far ahead of Montana. The plum trees are in bloom around the houses. 

here is another one for Roger. This was a beautiful aqueduct that was about a quarter of a mile long and maybe eight feet wide. It was in use. The field of oats is just starting to head in this field.
I went thourgh a little town and on the other side I was greeted with a most beautiful sight. These brand new Aero motor windmills were in the front yard of a farm supply store. The sun was shining on them and they just slowly turned in the gentle breeze creating a flashing brilliance of movement.

Gee, the photo of them is so flat. I should have taken a little short video of them and maybe that would have brought them to life. I just didn’t get the ‘flash’ that was their essence.

I made it into Hidalgo Del Parral this afternoon and drove all over town looking  for a hot spot. Today is Sunday and maybe they had their computers shut down, because I could only find one unsecured signal but I could  never seem to hook up to it as it was so weak. I am probably twenty miles past there and found a nice little place by a bridge next to a small river. I can hear the traffic but that wont bother me here.