Trouble (or Maybe Just Lucky) in Paradise

After our renovations, we made a bee-line to Baja, Mexico hoping to catch the last of the wind and waves at our favorite place, Punta San Carlos.

As we headed out of Ann Arbor, Michigan we couldn't possibly just drive past Marshall (only an hour down the road) without stopping at Dark Horse Brewery. It was a little sad that we celebrated the end of all our work without my parents, who were instrumental in our success. We sent text messages and pictures while we were celebrating, so that it felt like they were with us.

This is how we celebrate

We managed to survive the painfully boring drive through Illinois, Iowa, and Nebraska. The fun started when we made a pit-stop in Denver to visit our long-lost friends Dave and Melissa. It's always fun to catch up with them because despite our very different lifestyles, we have a lot in common. We know them from Portland and their lives follow an adventurous and active path. Melissa gave us a good ass-kicking on a trail run in the mile-high city.

Old friends can't be beat! I've known Melissa for 17 years - oh the times we've had.

Further along the road in Colorado, we visited our fellow overlanding friends (Todd, Shonah, and Chip) at Copper Mountain, where they treated us to condo living (thanks Aunt Lou!), complete with a fancy dinner and Jacuzzi afterwards. We feel like we could endlessly chat with them.

Boys with their toys

We battled the heat of southern Arizona and finally made it to Punta San Carlos, Baja.

Cool stuff in  Arizona that we normally would've stopped for if not in such a rush to get to Baja

We had plans to stay on the beach at Punta San Carlos (PSC) for a month. The drive-in takes about 4 hours on rough roads, so we had to wrap our minds around how much food and water to bring for such a long time. I told my Dad that I would take a picture of our fresh food, since he was curious about how much we could/would possibly bring for a month. The dried goods where too much to capture!

Fresh food goes FAST. Potatoes, onions, peppers, tomatoes, carrots, squash, cabbage, fruit, avocados.
Only a few things will last beyond 2+ weeks.

We made it to our happy place

We had an incredible week of kiteboarding and surfing before things took a turn for the worse. Our fridge died. I mean, it really died. Scott had been nursing it along for a couple of years. Without getting into any boring detail, the compressor died - the heart and soul of the fridge.

Scott was so happy to be surfing again

We made the tough decision to drive back 300 miles to San Diego to get a new fridge. It would only take a few days to get to the USA, order the fridge, pick it up, do some errands, and then get back to our happy place in PSC. As soon as we got internet, we started searching. The place we bought our original fridge from, quoted a six week wait! Very fortunately, we found a place in San Diego that had only one remaining in stock--no shipping and no waiting! GO INTERNET!

Heading out of the desert with a warm fridge

While we were back in California, finding some secluded camping in the Cleveland National Forest, we pushed El Tigre a little hard. One of the front sway-bar linkages broke. So, in the midst of replacing our fridge, Scott also managed to procure and replace the broken linkage in the parking lot of a laundromat. How convenient for the other most pressing chore on our list - CLEAN CLOTHES!!!!

MacGyver at work

It's not hard to tell where the new part is

With our new fridge, clean clothes, more food/water, we head back to PSC, viviendo la vida suerte (living the lucky life)...

Planny Plan Part III

What's next for us? I wish I could share an exciting grand plan's planny plan for our next adventure, but I cannot. We have some near-term plans and some long term ideas that I won't share, because things will most certainly change.

I guess you could say we are taking a deep breath after 6 years of traveling outside the USA. We missed some things that we can find right here, closer to home, where we won't spend so much energy and time navigating and traveling. While our aging bodies can handle it, we would like to focus a little more on physical pursuits (kiting, surfing, biking, hiking, paddleboarding, snowboarding, etc.) rather than world travel. To be fair, all of those thing could/should involve world travel...

We are currently on our way to Baja where we will spend 2.5 months (Oct, Nov, Dec) kiteboarding, surfing, eating lots of cheap avocados, and drinking our favorite "working man's" tequilla, Jimador.

After that, we'll visit family over the holidays for the first time in 7 years.

Family and friends on the Matthews side have had to replace us with cardboard during xmas time

As soon as we're ready to leave the chilly, flat midwest sometime in January, we will hit the road towards the western mountains for some backcountry snowboarding. We have a far-flung notion that we might find a house rental somewhere for a few months. We're thinking British Columbia, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, etc. First we need to see what the El Nino weather pattern will bring. We also have vague, more far-flung plans to buy an old Subaru or Toyota Matrix for a daily winter driver. In the end, I could imagine those plans falling through and just chasing snow in El Tigre for the winter - at least we have insulation now!

Spring 2016 may have us back down to Baja and then up to Alaska for the summer. In between all of this, we will make as many stops as possible to our favorite region -- the Pacific Northwest!

Aaaaand, that's it. We aren't even thinking beyond that. Things can change quickly and we are more than open to what the future brings. We're excited about the possibilities.