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

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