Happy Holidays

Windy

So, to refresh your memory of where I am,  I'm in Alpine, California.  I'm parked near this beautiful old oak tree.  I have 2 neighbors, both small trailers,  and they have their own old oak trees.

Monday morning the wind started to blow, not to much, just a bit windy.  I spent most of monday running errands around El Cajon and Santee area and the weather down there was beautiful with no wind.  I didn't really think about it.  My daughter and I went out for Thai food for dinner.  Here are two pictures of our appetizers, I forgot to take pictures of our maid dishes.

Yummy spring rolls

Yummy satay chicken

When I got home the wind was really blowing.  By the time I went to bed it was gusting to 71 mph and the rv was really moving around.  At 2am I got up and put the kitties in their carriers and got some blankets and we moved into the car.  I positioned the car so it was heading into the wind.  The rv was also headed into the wind.  Needless to say none of us got a wink of sleep.  Every time I started to drift off to sleep we'd get hit with another huge gust of wind and I'd open my eyes to make sure we were still upright.  It was awful, blowing dust and tumbleweeds, little sticks and small stones.  I was hoping we wouldn't end up with a broken window.  At daybreak I was feeling optimistic and moved us back into the rv, just long enough for me to fix myself a cup of coffee and the kitties to have breakfast and a drink.  The rv was still really moving around and the noise.....  I packed us back up and back into the car we went.

Where I am, but when the wind started blowing I moved the rv forward a bit

 to get away from the tree, in case it fell.

Weather update

My closest neighbor.  The front of his trailer fell off it's front leg 

and the two stabilizer jacks at the front corners splayed out, 

he wasn't home at the time.

After getting back into the car we went down the road to McDonalds for a bite of breakfast.  When we got back about 30 minutes later this is what we saw.

By now the wind was gusting at 90mph.  Holy wind batman!!!

The neighbor on the other side of the upside down trailer.

Their beautiful old oak tree split apart.

But luckily it didn't hit their trailer.

It's now 1pm and the winds have died down a bit and once again we are inside the rv.  You know, we probably would have been alright staying in the rv but I've seen many pictures of rv's blown over by wind and I say that if anything makes you feel uncomfortable than don't do it.  Living on the road I've learned to trust my gut so I might be a wimp but that's ok.  Yes, that little trailer was parked cross wind and trailers aren't fast and easy to hook up and move like my rv is.  And my rv probably weighs more and I was headed into the wind.  I do what make me feel comfortable.

So hopefully this wind event is passing and tomorrow I can head east to my favorite boondocking spot near Yuma and see all my boondocking friends for Christmas.

Until next time.

North of the Border

I left Baja Seasons RV Park at 6:45 am saturday morning heading for the border.  It was an easy drive, even though I missed a turn and had to make a returno (u turn) to get going in the right direction.  I had reviewed the route and drive last night but still managed to miss a turn, and I can't blame it on Miss Google either because she said to turn I just didn't believe her.  

The app BWT, Border Wait Times, said the wait at the Tecate border crossing was 25 minutes but after sitting still for 10 minutes I decided the app was wrong.  Yup took an hour to get through the Tecate border crossing.  All in all not too bad.  Yes, I forgot to through away my eggs so left those with the inspector kid.

Look at all these stickers on a pole, with the border fence behind it, on the Mexico side.

Look closely at the picture of the man.  That's President Kennedy.

I'm back in the states for about a month to have a few things repaired on the rv.  Since March the gas gage hasn't worked in the rv and before I do much more driving around Baja I need to get that fixed.  Also the bathroom sink has a leak that needs fixing. Just a few little things.  

I'll be meeting up with friends around the Yuma area but right now I'm in San Diego county visiting my daughter for a few days.  Then I'll be heading east to the desert.

Hotspot Follow Up

I need to do a short follow up on the Tep hotspot.  It didn't work for me.  I thought I had read all the information about this device and plans they offered, but I missed the super fine print about only 1gb a day, which is not enough to watch tv or surf the internet.  Live and learn.

Closing this post with a picture of the stormy ocean out the window of the restaurant where I had breakfast Friday morning.  It's been raining and windy and last night we had thunder and lightning.  Very exciting.  And it's cold, good thing I have a heater.

Let's Talk Internet While Traveling

Part 1, WIFI

Since arriving in Mexico, in August, I've been using my iPhone for my internet needs.  But I didn't have enough data to watch the one tv show I like to watch or some other things as well.  So I started looking around for a solution.  When in the states I have a Verizon jetpack that gives me that extra boost in data every month but I can't use it down here. You might wonder why I didn't get a hotspot here in Mexico, the reason is I'm not a permanent resident and it gets a bit complicated getting a hotspot and setting up billing for the thing.  So researching I went.  I found that there are several companies that offer world wide WIFI hotspots for travelers and after reading much fine print on several websites I settled on this one.  I had it sent to a friend in California and she dropped it off yesterday on her way south to Baja Sur, southern baja.

After a bit of chatting with the Tep teckies we got it working this morning.

This is what I bought.

It comes in this nice little case.

What's in the case?  A black world wide electrical plug that

will adapt to any countries electrical system. 

 Instruction booklet, and little straps.

Also in this picture is my homemade paper clip tool used for another project.

And this is Teppy.

It seems to be working fine and I will try it out tonight while watching some tv.  

Since I've been here I haven't been able to use my indoor security camera or my temperature monitoring system because both those things need a stationary wifi hotspot.  Now both those things are up and running.  I can spy on the kitties while I"m not here and see how warm it is in the rv.  To review, this is the camera I use SENS8 and this is the temperature sensor unit I use SensorPush

Part 2 VPN

Some of you, well maybe most of you won't know what a VPN is?  I'll let Wikipedia tell you.

Virtual private network

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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VPN connectivity overview

A virtual private network (VPN) extends a private network across a public network, and enables users to send and receive data across shared or public networks as if their computing devices were directly connected to the private network. Applications running on a computing device, e.g., a laptop, desktop, smartphone, across a VPN may therefore benefit from the functionality, security, and management of the private network. Encryption is a common, though not an inherent, part of a VPN connection.^[1]

So let me put this into Evelyn speak.  A VPN will protect me and my electronic devices from unseen bad guys on the internet.  It will mask where I am, so that the websites I go to will think I'm in the US not in Mexico.  No more having to deal with sites coming up in spanish.  And now Microsoft won't have to worry that my email is being hacked from Mexico.  I have no idea how secure the networks are in Mexico but now I don't need to worry.  I went with the VPN that is popular in Mexico, Express VPN.  And after chatting with their teckie today we got that dialed in as well.  It's been a technical kind of day.

I'd been putting both of these things off and it was time to get them taken care of.

Now for a weather report.  It rained here last week.  I've seen reports from locals in the area that we got 2.5 inches.  And as I"m writing this it is starting to rain again and the reports are that it will be a big storm.  I'm safe here in the rv park ad it will be fun to watch the waves on the beach.

Be back soon.

Fire

This story starts Thursday afternoon October 24, 2019.  Some of what you read here today was written over the last few days, and I will put that in Italic and if you've read it before just skip that part and look at pictures.

First, here are three screen shots of the NASA Firms website tracking fires.  I'll include a link at the end so you can go play around with it, it's very interesting.

Fires are red areas.  On Wednesday Oct. 23, 2019 there were a few small brush fires, not forest fires because there aren't trees,  just brush.  Weather conditions were near perfect.

Thursday a rather large fire started in the Guadaloupe Valley, which is wine country here.  And the Santa Ana winds started blowing.  You can see how big the fire got in a short time.

Let's back up just a bit.  On Wednesday a couple, in their rv, came into the rv park and parked two spaces up from me.  Although our row is full of RV's we are the only people here, the other rv's are parked here all year and their owners come and go, they're not here all the time.  Ok so, Neil and Victoria are two sites up from me and we have become friends, plus their dog, Zappa.  

So by Thursday afternoon we could see smoke blowing over the mountains toward us.  I thought it would be a good time to go fill the gas tank in the Honda, as there's a ARCO station about 1 mile north of the rv park, I also unhooked the RV and went and filled its gas tank as well.  You might remember that the gas gage in the RV isn't working, better to be safe that sorry.  When I got back to the RV park I filled my water tanks in the RV as well.  I hadn't done that before because I didn't want to put Mexican water in my tanks but I'll go into that another time.  So now I have gas and water and my solar system.

Thursday night when I went to bed the wind was blowing and smoke was coming over the mountain towards us but I wasn't so worried because the fire was about 10 miles away.  At some point in the night I got up and looked out the window and saw our mountains, right here by us, glowing red from fire on their back side.  The winds had pushed the fire through the canyons and up the hills.  I went running outside, in t shirt and underwear, to get a better look. OMG it's coming over the mountain.  I ran to my neighbors and banged on their door to wake them up, and ran back home to get dressed.  By now the few of us in the rv park are standing by the office watching the fire and by now the electricity is out.  The wind is blowing so hard we can hardly stand up.  It was very scary.  One of the rvers got in his rv and left, but Neil, Victoria and I weren't ready to run away.  Then we noticed that there wasn't any traffic on the highway, the roads were closed.

I have to say here, that social media, ie Facebook, is how everyone in this area was keeping up with what was going on.  Information was flying all around Facebook about road closures and areas burning.  As you can see on the map it wasn't just our fire but Tijuana, Rosarito, Tecate and Ensenada all were dealing with fires, and I belong to all those groups.

Picture taken from internet.

Ok, now for copies of what I wrote on my Facebook page.

"It's 3:45am Friday morning and I'm fine, right now. When you get up in the morning you might see on the news that most of northern baja from south of Ensenada to the California border is burning. Santa Ana winds are really bad and Baja Seasons rvpark is surrounded by fire, too late to leave and no where to go. The little town of La Misión is gone I think as the fire is coming over the hill from there. The cats are in their carriers just in case, I've unhooked the rv from the hook ups and am turned around and am ready to leave if I need to. Tense times."

As it turns out only parts of the community of La Misión burned.

At 2pm Friday I posted this.

"Ok, here's an update, short and sweet because my eyes hurt from the blowing sand, dirt and smoke.  
My neighbors, here in the rv park, and I sheltered in place. Around dawn today the winds, the Santa Ana's, picked up really bad and blew for about 6 hours. The winds blew the fire across the highway in several places but not right where we are. It's like we had a little bubble around us, lots of blowing sand and dirt but very little smoke compared to the areas north and south of us. About 3 miles south the fire burned several big homes on a big golf course, and 3 miles north it jumped the road and burned some things up there that are still burning so I don't know about that area. About an hour ago, 12:30pm Friday, the wind stopped blowing. It is so quiet and calm, what a relief. So now the fires aren't being driven by the wind and are burning themselves out. Just not enough man power to fight them and who can fight a 40 mph wind. Our electricity is back on although not our water. But with air conditioning all things are almost bearable.
I think the worst is over for us in this area although the fire is still raging in other areas. A typical wild land fire like so many of us have had to deal with in the past. My heart goes out to anyone who ever has to go through something like this. Peace and love to all my friends and family. Ev"

Note: Today the blogger program is having a hard time doing what I want it to do and unfortunately it has won the fight.  Formatting errors are the result of the blogger, by Google, program.

By dawns early light we see what's going on.  

Those are just dirt roads, 

there is no firefighting activity going on here.

That arrow is showing where the road into La Misión is. In this picture the fire is on the back side of hill but to the right, into the town of La Misión, it burned right down to the road.  It went around the little cafe and chiropractors office area leaving them untouched.

Friday afternoon we, Neil ,Victoria and I, went for a drive to check things out.  Here you can see some smoldering area near the road by La Fonda restaurant.  One structure was burned here but I don't know which one.

Friday evening.

"Saturday morning UPDATE: The crisis has passed. In some places the fire just burned itself out for lack of fuel. Sometime yesterday afternoon the Santa Ana winds stopped and that made a big difference in the fire, not fanning the flames. Our rv park was safe although a bit scary at times. Soon after the winds died the power came back on. The Santa Ana winds are HOT, yesterday about 95º, so with air conditioning running my neighbors and I piled into my car, they don't have a car just a class C, and went to see the damage. It wasn't as bad as we thought, around our area. There was a lot of damage in this fire but just not around where we are. I read last night that over 100 homes burned and 2 people died, today those totals will probably be higher now that the smoke is clearing. Last night it was quiet and dark, no glowing mountains and not much smoke. It's over for us right here but there are still fires burning in this area of Baja and still some smoke in the air. This was my first time experiencing the Santa Ana winds. Holy shit. I hope to never go through that again. My skin is pealing off my arms, it was like standing in a sand blasting booth. I have a bruise on my head where I got hit by flying debris. YUCK. But I'm fine, no damage to rv or kitties. All is good."

I'm going to post a link to Wikipedia's explanation of the Santa Ana Winds.

Here is the link to the NASA Fire Map.  You can change the dates and move around the country to see what has or is going on.  But no updates on the weekends.

Ok, enough of this.  I'm fine and will stay here until December then I will move on down the road.  More on that later.

Paragliding Lessons in my Backyard

Last week I moved the rv.  Now I'm parked right by the office, cafe, pool and old tennis courts.

I'm just to the right out of the picture.

Taken from office.

There I am, too the far left.

View from my door.

This weekend a group of paragliders came to stay in 
the motel rooms here at the rv park.

Yesterday was lessons on the tennis courts day. 
Yellow was instructing red.

Look closely there are about 5 paragliders over by the mountain,

 they look like birds.

These two never got off the ground, it was just practicing 

getting the kite up and keeping it up.

In this picture you can see the backpack-harness she's wearing also

helmet and goggles,  also a nice shot of the rigging.

A friend coming in for a landing.
She is just starting to pack up, 

taking her pack-harness off.

Almost all packed up, it rolled up like
a sleeping bag and into its carrier it went.

This hotdog came screaming in and did
 a spiral down to the beach 

pulling off a perfect stand-up landing.

What fun it was to see this going on.  In my old spot I would have never known this was going on, for all I know this happens every weekend.

Until next time.

Yes, I'm Still in Baja and Doing Well

This is a picture, not taken by me, of the highway between where I am near La Salina and Ensenada.  It's a beautiful drive into Ensenada which is about 30 minutes south.  Yes that's fog off in the distance.

This is the construction area, which washed out Dec. 2013.

Photo from internet. 

 Good thing the old road is more inland and wasn't damaged.

This fishing boat came pretty close to shore the other day.

A butterfly like this one, whose picture I got off the internet, 

flew by the other day.  

Lucky for the butterfly Missie didn't see him until he was passed.

Patterns in the sand.

The weather has been perfect, into the high 70'sº during the day and low 60'sº at night, with no fog or wind.  Can't get much better than that.  I'm paying rent by the month, which is $480 US dollars, includes water, sewer and all the electricity you want.  

There's a small cafe and bar here at the rv park and this is my beverage of choice, limonada mineral.  Which is fresh squeezed limes and bottled fizzy mineral water.  Some times they sweeten it and sometimes not.  Either way it's yummy.

Until next time.