chollaball.net

G gave Kenga a big cheer and a hug as she shot out of daycare, after announcing to the world we were heading south.  she knows the truck means a fun weekend.  Even the cop that pulled Beckie near Ajo let us go, said we were the nicest people he’d ever pulled from Scottsdale.

lollypops are as crucial as DVDs for a pleasant journey, but not without consequences

ahh, Mexico…

…getting away from it all

“chollaball is leaving his underpants behind” was the other potential title for this post, but that simply had to suffice as my FB status.

I rode, but it was business-like and uninspired, maintenance miles.  I read an entire book, for the first time in months and months.

so much fun for only $20

we 2 sailors are paddling in our boat. quite the brave little sailor she was

the dismount required tremendous acts of littleGirl Courage

a different kind of dismount

pirates at the Yo Ho Ho House

fly by night away from here, change my life again

later that day we saw the osprey heading towards the nest down the street from our house, with dinner in its talons. the next morning it flew right by the balcony with another meal while a chorus of babies cheered its approach.

me gusto helado, por favor

the beach was empty, but some people and their dog set up about 5 feet from us. Kila asserted her eminent domain.

G swam 5, 8, 10 yards from me to Beckie. last trip she wouldn’t stand to be released. that afternoon, she learned to bob in the tide by herself.

G later went galloping though the rocks while trying to make friends with other kids, not comprehending why they could not keep up.

Alana will not be far behind.  She casually trotted 100 yards away from us chasing her sister. at least Kila was a responsible parent.

such a good bipedalist

The State Dept issued a warning about unofficial roadblocks, that scared away an upcoming rental.  Our management agency sent an explanation from the Chamber of Commerce for Rocky Point describing the roadblock as a traveler census.  The Consulate in Nogales responded that they have information we do not, which they can not reveal, but which they are obligated to act upon if even one American might be at risk.  Byron and I passed the roadblock consecutive weekends just outside Sonoita. It was boring and benign and they did not even ask us to stop.  The Border Patrol checkpoint near Ajo is far more intimidating.  Does the State Department have any accountability for the demonization of an entire town, and the complete destruction of our rental revenue?  Apparently not, as the warning was issued by a civilian who volunteers at the Consulate, and the Consulate later admitted they had no evidence to justify the warning.  Their solution after screwing the town’s Memorial Day revenue and receiving numerous complaints and calls to Senators McCain and Kyl: rescind the warning, and not even buy us dinner.

The only drugs I saw were from a guy in Old Port who sold me a pair of kid’s sunglasses, then tried to sell me some overpriced X.  His pot smelled like a pizza - now that should get a serious government warning.  The Superlay has an entire aisle dedicated to mayonnaise, and another exclusively for hot sauce, but sells not a single jar of horseradish for cocktail sauce - that should get an even sterner warning.  Me riding like a hooligan - definitely deserves a warning. G watching the same Phineas and Ferb dvd for 4 straight days, Alana spilling my beer and pretzels in the sand, Kila dropping a deuce on the beach a quarter mile from the nearest plastic bag, 2.5 cases of beer and a half bottle of tequilla in one long weekend - warning, warning, warning, warning!!

G get less scared of the ocean every time she gets in, coming in with me and just her waterwings for a sunset swim.  Alana gets more and more interesting, showing preferences and opinions, the most significant that she does NOT like being in the ocean.  Weather could not have been better, 3 out of 4 days were nearly calm. And G finally got to buy some ice cream from the ice cream man.

If you are reading this, odds are you were invited and turned me down. whas a wigga gotta do to git some compny?

For about i week i was palpitating to hit the big staircase at Tesoro, channeling my inner Danny MacAskill, vibing into my adventure. I would have to be up hella early after driving the night before, or up hella early with a 1-day hangover on Sunday, or up hella early with a 2-day hangover on Monday. I picked option 1,  and still got cockblocked by the guard at 7am.   Its ok, in 6 months to a year, Tesoro too will be bankrupt, and no longer afford their guards like Cornoa del Sol.

I stalked the nearby streets on that side of the neighborhood in more detail than usual, itching for a new trial, and found what i thought was a For Sale condo complex. While i dithered trying to find the right line down the staircase, the owner came out and told me to get the fuck out. Ooops. Its pretty amusing when you see it in the vid.

The wrong kind of company dejected me, and drove me out the Caborca road so I could spin off my frustration. The colors were amazing, white and purple and orange and completely covering the stench from the dump. When I got to the dirt road into the oyster farms, I realized i had few good pictures from here, and something new would make up for my earlier rejections.

first coyote i’ve seen in RP

unlike me, he had a friend

15 minutes of slogging on a sandy road led me to a hardpack on the edge of a small tidal ledge. I rolled along it til the water retreated from the ledge. Jumping it made the slog worthwhile; i was pumped to hike across the mud of the estuary for 15 minutes rather than ride an hour home. Carrying the Hei Hei is easy, carrying so much lighter than the Heckler, like carrying Alana is easy, carrying so much lighter than Genevieve.

this poor guy was so forlorn her skittered away when i threw him a Caraba bar. He will be coyote food or roadkill soon.

new trials are everywhere, and the more open my eyes become the more i see. Its so cool that 2-3 footers have become routine, what is rideable increases every time i get on the bike. My worst hits of the weekend were riding home from the Superlay with 30lbs of pedialite and can openers and liquor and hitting a jagged uplifted slab in the sidewalk that nearly had me eating shit, and endo’ing through a sandy downhill into a sandier downhill coming down from the overlook by the estuary.

never saw this pedestrian crossing before,  the seniorita and her daughter and the cars at the bottom never saw anyone ride it before

Imagine how cheap liquor would be if not for the bloated union workforce at the Superlay?

I got to fiddling with the new video clips, putting together my first extended riding vid.  Not too bad for a first try.  The timebox of background audio enforces rigorous editing, and i lopped about 50% off what I thought was an already-lean amount of film to make it down to about 3:40.  My camera’s shortcomings are apparent in some of the scenes from the road - the bright colors of the flowers, the abjectness of the shanties, the irony of the condos, and the movements of the 2 coyotes get a little lost.  I could easily have made this about 3x longer if I’d pulled in clips of all the other trials, but I mostly tried to get new things into the film instead of stuff I’ve posted before.  It was very cool to use my tools (Windows Movie Maker, Vdub, and Super) on a sample project - definitely gave me a better feel for the features I want when i finally buy a video editing program.

spooning

i read a book, without rhymes and pictures

xmas gifts: heavy-duty umbrella and cooler with built-in mp3 jack

new sand table brought out our sophisticated side.  Beckie is wearing a hat I got from a stripper at Christie’s during my bachelor party.

if its too cold to swim, play in a hole

lest anyone get all safety-nazi, it should be noted this vid was filmed by a woman walking uphill, through sand, carrying a baby

completely intentional wardrobe choice

The flies descended on Casa V the first temperate evening, ravenous, like wild dogs, like the feral cats who scooped up the turkey organs and innards we left outside for them.  The sluggish economy hurting the animals and insects as well. When the wind picked up enough to keep them away, and keep us inside, most of them were dead already. I could not find a flyswatter at the Superlay, and in my failure i realized my *ahem* ‘locals’ knowledge’ is limited to the tequilla aisle and a fish salesman named Benny who i don’t think screws me too badly.  Staring for 10 minutes at a package of what might-be sour cream and wondering if it was actually cream cheese or yogurt or butter had a profound downer affect on my chillaxin.  When a nice woman from Texas with big hooters pointed me to the next aisle, and I finally saw the familiar ¡Philãdelphia box , i knew i was outmatched.  Time to grab my liquor and head home!  My cable lock blew up and forced me to hack through it for 10 minutes with my multitool while a bunch of local hombres sorta wondered why no one was arresting the gringo and sorta realized the pretty vest and pretty helmet and pretty shoes must go with the pretty bike.   Then I threw out the lock, cause 4 liters of liquor and 2lbs of cream cheese was enough weight.  This ensured I could not stop again, and would resort to killing flies with a magazine, a newspaper, a shop vac, a teva, a beer can, and a diaper.

6 visits ago, Beckie bought this from a vendor named Lupe.

Lupe has since said hi to us every visit.  and Lupe’s partner Margarita had flyswatters.  Beckie ran to the house for money, the ladies commented muy gorda, and were embarrassed i understood.

What can i say? She is a load.

i was kinda shocked at how much Lupe remembered us, but it makes sense when she prolly talked to Beckie for like 20 min selling her dresses.  We hung out and kvelled for 10 minutes just to spend 250 pesos on flyswatters.  Hella good selling too, usually i don’t even look up to say “no thank you” to the beach vendors, usually now i just let G say it for me.  But even dad can’t be a dick to a solicitor when there’s a baby involved.  good selling indeed.

Though Alana will stop being fat soon enough, since she pretty much doesn’t stop moving if she’s awake.  The weekend was perfect for her to slink around on the beach for hours, and slink around on the tile floors for hours more.  Except for crawling into sharp shells, or water, or pelican bones, or broken glass, or sharp gravel, or dead flies.

so tired…

Lupe indeed brought us a very cute very tinyDress for Alana the next day. It was unfortunately too chilly to wear.  I’m wondering what else I can have delivered to me on the beach?

Princess Alana, The Squirmy

teeth

Too cold to swim - np.  There is always something to play with at CasaV.

I was getting ready to CraigsList the boat, but it holds enough air that it should be good for 30 min in calm water.  G is growing into all of Byron’s kids’ hand-me-downs.

ladybug water rescue

over the last month, G had grown increasingly attached to her bike-as-a-tool, carrying it over things and up things and through sand and swinging it about and pushing it up hills just to ride back down them.  The bike and you, on a journey, attached at the hip…I’m so proud of her.   She has a lot less fear of gravity than me, did these hills a couple times each.  I should have made her wear a helmet, and the training wheels are messing with her and making her lean outside on turns.  Come to think of it, these vids are kinda terrifying, except for how much fun she is having.

that kid runs me over on her bike, and all you give me is a turkey neck?

Sand castles followed by a fierce mudball battle.  Then G went for a 10 minute jog with me, running up and down the beach without fatigue, like a kenyan.

these were going on CL too after gathering dust for 4 years.  The conversation went like this:

G: Hey what’s that?
Me: what?
G: those horseshoes
Me: that’s something I’m not selling on CraigsList.

note the kneepads, cause safety is important

look! something I can kick at my sister!

the joys and agonies of a 2-story house

Other than grotesque amounts of tday food each night, these 4 food groups were all I ate most of the weekend.

Short rides every day added up

began Thursday will hill repeats before a trip to the Superlay for liquor and pie filling

this rock does not look like much…

…but its perfectly shaped for lounging

impressive bird action below me

dunno why this had me so sketched, other than the part about alone\wrong bike\wrong shoes\mexican health care

nice houses

be sure to sign the Waiver

quiet times over the estuary

I WILL RIDE THIS! might have to be 6am on a Sunday morning, the new Tesoro resort is busy and beautiful

are you together?

another vacant complex opened its lot, and luckily put all the goods in the back.  Up the staircase, across the lot…

…up the ramp and 25 yards down the hallway…

…down the stairs…

…across the conch…

…down another hallway and exit the small staircase

Vigorous debate concluded that a bumbum is a gender-specific term for the female’s greater nether region, encompassing the areas anterior, medial and badonkadonk.  I held that it was a gender-neutral term which only sounded feminine cause it was cute when used by a littleGirl, but Beckie contended that a woman has unique challenges “down there” specifically when confronted with beach-based particulates, counterpointing further that taintal issues for her are, in fact, non-issues.  I guess that makes sense,  it aint your balls and it aint your ass, so a girl might as well have a bumbum all her own.  G and Alana especially got theirs quite sandy.

The weather on Friday and Saturday was fabulous, a mild breeze blew through the house but left the water almost placid.  Relaxing on the porch and sleeping late was the theme for all of us all weekend, riding at 11am a fear long-forgotten, a memory burned out with the passing summer.

Alana has started eating things that look like actual food, not babypuke or babypoo

First ride, naturally, was to the Superlay to replenish our wetbar.   The Superlay has overly Americanized its workforce - there are cashiers, baggers and cart-assistance on every aisle, and they all wear white blouses with red smocks and goofy berets.  I would have taken a picture, but the 3 greeters and 3 people at the bag-check took my backpack. Like too much of Mexico’s labor market, this must have been a union deal, as there were easily 2x the number of employees as were needed.  But the liquor was cheaper. A new record was set for carrying capacity, all for $38.

hit the g-up at Corona del Mar on the way out of the neighborhood

took a back route through the seedy neighborhoods around the port.  It avoided traffic, but put me firmly in the sights of the meanest junkyard dog ever

Another dog chased me down our street, and stuck with me for a couple blocks til I dropped his ass at 25mph.  Beckie saw it all from the porch window, LOLing.  So I don’t mind too much when Kila in turn barks at the beach vendors, who were thankfully sparse. The beach was empty, and the vendors would walk half a mile between potential buyers. Our rentals have sucked, but at least I’m not trying to feed my kids on it.

The empty beach was great for us.

Alana was particularly motivated to eat sand

G figured out how to anchor her kite, and i taught her how to listen for the wind

proof that Alana crawls, though we have never actually seen it occur

dinner

bed head

Saturday I needed to get a long ride in, so started by taking the Carborca road out past the estuary.  At the risk of sounding racist, this is such a quintessentially Mexican move: dumping all this crap, creating a public health hazard when the town became infested with flies, then wondering how it happened.  The stink on the road was punishing.

Storm damage closed part of Blvd Benito Juarez…

…so I took advantage of sparse traffic and good weather to explore out towards Sandy Beach

glad to see their rentals suck just as bad as ours

trailer park trash

reminds me a little of Vegas - a completely incongruous behemoth jutting up out of the desert

another incongruity.  if I was inclined to stand on a soapbox, the camera would have been elevated enough to capture the shanties just off to the right of this picture

a quick cruise through Old Port.  Someday I am going to get arrested for this.

beer break

I return home to fine one little girl impatient to play, and another impatient to work out.  The front and back doors were open, laps were run on staircases.

Sunday the surf was the complete opposite of the past 2 days.  The Yo Ho Ho House was inaccessible.  I sat next to Alana and jokingly suggested I could grab her if the surf picked up. About 10 minutes later it did, and I did, as it began to sweep her away.

fun was still had.  The day before G came out into the water on a kickboard and gave genuine ocean swimming a try.  She wanted to swim more, but at the same time, was kinda relieved we couldn’t get in any further.

This weekend marked my 29th and 30th rides in Rocky Point over the last 3 years.  I am the foremost authority on riding there, heck even Scott (the most encyclopedic trail guy I know) once asked me for gpx’s of the area.  This isn’t saying much, since I am also the only rider down there…just call me the Outlaw Josey Wales.

not quite alone

The new Homeland Security requirements for passports to Mexico are killing our rentals, and even friends have been unable to come with us. But my posts on RP are among the most trafficked on my blog, so the interest is there. Its kinda cool to be the only one showing Rocky Point’s scenes, and its kept me trawling for new pictures. The weekend did not disappoint as I explored the shipyard, though without a friend I was unable to get pics of riding down the gangplanks!  The vids of the staircases were the best I could manage by myself.

My shiny bike is playing havoc on the camera’s autofocus.  But I also think my new Canon Powershot 1100 is a step back from the Powershot 1000 it replaced - not like I know jack about cameras, just seems to have trouble handling intense brightness and contrast.

All weekend we balanced having fun and avoiding heatstroke.  You couldn’t walk on the sand without shoes, but the water was fantastic and no jelly fish.  I bought a bunch of kites for G, and much fun was had.  We also used the pool at The Village for the first time - the security guard lives in the house across the street from us, owned by the woman who sold us our window coverings.  So a little friendly chatting along with us knowing a few owners and we escaped the heat in their excellent pool each night.  The EZ UP was indispensable.

how is it Beckie spends exactly 14 seconds flying the kite with G and gets the best pic?

Poor Alana got sunburned from barely 10 minutes of exposure even with sunscreen on.  We all were feeling pretty fried by Sunday, so spent the day on the balcony where I *gasp* read a book for the first time in forever.  An osprey flew so close to us we could see the mottled color of his wings and the prey still wriggling in his talons.

osprey nest on the pole centered in this picture, taken without zoom from our balcony

taken from the street right under the nest

Rocky Point - May 28-31

sunset during the drive on Thursday evening

G started calling our Mesa house “the other white house”, or maybe it was the beach house she meant?  For a while she was a little fuzzy on Mexico=beach=beach house, but after 3 trips in 3 months she has a perfectly clear understanding of the different locations and how we travel back and forth, how it takes time, how she gets to watch DVDs in the car.  Hooray - she is as smart as Kila!  and ironically, woke up Friday morning pretending to be a dog.

I spent Friday morning courting danger traversing downtown and back and back again buying cheap booze, silicon sealant and vainly shopping for a kite.  Re-grouting the kitchen sucks ass, Mexican traffic sucks ass, finding an unlimited supply of t-shirts and blankets but not a single kite sucks ass.

The Osprey Talon, however, continues to impress.  As does the view from Whale Hill.  Guess how much for 2 liters of dark tequila and a liter of kahlua?

Every ride now in RP I’m looking for new urban freeride challenges, and once you start opening your mind to what is rideable, everything starts looking pretty interesting.  All the Mexicans surely think to themselves “¡Gringo Loco!”

Rocky Point’s first (and only) log roll.

If you could nail something on one bike, but do not have aforementioned bike, can you say you can clean it? This drop comes at the bottom of a smooth 100-yard ramp winding down from the whale skeleton.  But a little too big, the wrong bike, the wrong pedals, landing in sand, alone, in Mexico = an elaborate excuse for a non-attempt.

After rolling the steps and convincing myself to pass on the jump, I circled back 30 minutes later having hitched up my drawers and ready to try again.  I got a puncture while climbing the steps which took a few hours to fully seal, an omen to leave this one for another time.

The next day I got some validation by cleaning this after 4 tries with different combinations of suspension and gear choice.  No one picture really shows it well, but you drop down about a 30 foot steep hill, build as much speed as possible while the grass steals it back, then wait for just the right moment as you’re stalling out near the top to make 1-2 pedal strokes and get over the hump, across the bridge to a fast escape by boosting 3 steps into the parking lot.

it sure felt vertical as I shot up it and approached the top.  My first 3 miscues were like missing a climb on Slickrock, but without the road rash.  Knowing I’d tumble on grass was very emboldening, kinda like riding in Flag.

aim for the bridge, as fast as you can!

This next one drops in from an unoccupied house’s patio.  It is across the street from our house, tempting me to start each ride with a ride down a 10-stepper, a 20-stepper, another 20-step spiral staircase, then onto this. Hopefully their rentals will continue to suck just like ours.

Other than riding, we all the rest of the weekend at the beach, otherwise never leaving the house or moving the car.  Great fun was had with all my girls.

The first not-horrible picture G has ever taken. She understands using the screen on the camera to set up a shot, but still wants to look through the viewfinder to shoot…I blame outdated cartoons.

ready for the beach!

everyone passed out on me!

not quite everyone

Genevieve 6-24-06.  Almost 4 weeks older, but thinner and with less hair than Alana

back at the house each night G and I played in the buggy.  Byron allegedly had it working for a few days last weekend, then it promptly broke again.  Its all good for G - we still had spirited adventures with all her pals Little Kila, Parroty, and Nene.

As G has gotten more confident around water and the ocean, she enjoyed getting taken out on the raft.  This made Kila very very uncomfortable.

Exiting the water in the surf  made G very very uncomfortable.  But she was pretty optimistic later while I was commiserating with her, saying “I’m going to get bigger.”  I tried to sell her on the idea of becoming a better swimmer.  She is struggling with this - she knows she can’t really swim, but I can sense her disappointment in thinking that she already can.

hurt feelings were mended by the first tentative forays into the world of citrus

Alana about to suffer her own trauma - hurling herself out of her chair and faceplanting in the sand.

no mess no foul