The Sad News

 We were watching tv on April 1st when I got a text from Neal, Glenn's younger son - it said "Have dad call me ASAP".  I knew right away something was wrong.  Glenn's older son, Todd, had been found dead in his apartment.  Devastating news..... news a parent never wants to hear....we as parents are supposed to go before our children.

There wasn't a lot of news - just that an autopsy would be done - and cremation would take place after that.  We were in shock  - feeling quite helpless as we were 2000 miles away.

We made the decision that night to just pack up and head home - we were still 2 weeks away from the end of our rental date but decided it just wasn't worth it to fly back home and then back to Mexico again.

Friday was "pack all day" day - Glenn took care of the outside stuff and I started on the inside - you would think it would be pretty easy to just pack your stuff away - but we keep 2 large tubs of items down there  (stored in the boat which is stored in a garage with the ATV) so each item of ours I picked up, had to be decided whether it was staying down there or going home with us!  And believe me, I bring a LOT of kitchen stuff down!

Friends stopped by all day to offer their sympathy and our close friends helped us pack.  It was a long, long day of sorting things out and it was hard to just concentrate on what I was even doing.

At 6:00am the next morning I said my goodbyes to the beach until next year and we headed out, knowing that we would be driving on one of the worst possible weekends of the year, Easter weekend which is the Mexicans biggest holiday!

The sun was just peeking through the clouds as we rounded the corner in Los Barriles.

The first day drive on the Baja wasn't bad at all - traffic was slow so we made good time on the highway and enjoyed seeing the beautiful beaches as we drove by.

Outside of one of the larger towns, Glenn asked me to drive - I did not make good time as was climbing up high with lots of switchbacks and curves - and then finally got on the straight away.  I was driving UNDER the speed limit and even slowed down some as a pickup had been behind me for a while and I assumed he wanted to pass - nope - it was the police and soon the flashing lights came on. REALLY??  The guy was very nice - spoke no English - we spoke no Spanish - and he talked for a couple of minutes.  We heard the word "speeding" and we both shook our heads and he finally said "Adios" and walked back to the truck and turned around and went back up the mountain.  WHEW!  Only drove about 10 miles and the cop stops me - I gave the wheel back to Glenn as I was kind of shook up!

We stopped at the yurts that we love for the night - they make a wonderful Pina Colada at their outside bar and we both needed a drink!!  Dinner was served outside there and Paul and Bonnie warned us there was an empty lot across the street that the younger crowd partied at over Easter.  Before dinner was even over, the music started with that loud bass  - and I mean LOUD!

Even though it was 55 degrees, we shut the windows, turned on the a/c and the sound machine and tried to sleep - I know eventually I slept but it sure wasn't a restful sleep - the music was still going at 6:30am when we got up......At breakfast Paul told us he had called the police to break it up but they refused to do anything due to the sheer number of people partying.  NOTE TO SELF - NEVER STAY AT THE YURTS OVER EASTER WEEKEND!  IN FACT:  DON'T EVEN DRIVE!

The final day on the Baja was filled with a lot of traffic, waits to get gas, an hour wait at a federalies stop, and many, many people parked on the shoulder of the road and walking down to the beaches.  It was kind of a night mare!!  Luckily, we found the border entrance and got in the correct lane (our usual border we go through shuts down at 2:00pm due to COVID so couldn't go through that border) with only a 20 minute wait to cross into the USA.  It's always a great feeling to cross that line!

Check out the temps as we drove - yup, 101 degrees at times!

It was extremely confusing on the times.  The night we spent at the yurts was daylight savings time for the lower 1/2 of Mexico - then we crossed over to the upper region which is a different time, then into CA and finally to AZ who doesn't recognize DST.  At one point, the clock in the car said one time, my phone said another time, and Glenn's phone said a 3rd time!

We spent the night in Yuma and then drove to Albuquerque for the second night.  It was wonderful to get home about 2:00pm to our house.  But then reality sets in and you remember the real reason you came home early - and then it didn't feel quite as good!