The camping trip was fun. It was just the six of us, in two trucks. We left SD at 5am. Fueled up and got insurance at the Chevron station [San
Ysidro]. Stopped at El Rosario for fuel and rum. Passed Catavina a little past 11 and were in LA Bay by 2:30pm.
We camped the first night in LA Bay at one of the "organized" camp sites ... in a couple of palapas (we were all tired of driving and didn't know what
lay down the dirt road). The camp site was nice. We even went out to dinner and had hot showers in the morning. There was plenty of gas available
for starting off on the dirt roads the next morning.
We drove to the south end of LA Bay to see how things look. Very developed since we were there 20 years ago. Kendall [our 16 year old Neice] got
her first driving lesson on some of the hard mud flats. Miles even let her pull some donuts! We headed towards Animas Bay and got there by the mid
afternoon. All the good spots to camp on the north end were taken ... and we couldn't get to the south end. We camped where the beach is really
shallow. It was mud most of the time ... but we had fun watching the water pour in during the morning hours. We had a bit of rain that night with
lightening and thunder.
The next morning was warm ... but overcast. We got a bit more rain with lightening and thunder. It was pleasant though ... it was comfortable being
wet. Trinity [my sister's 3 year old] daughter just hung out in her swim suit the whole time.
We took off in the late morning and headed south. We explored a bunch of little beaches and random roads and ended up stopping at a beach marked "San
Rafael" on the map. It was just lovely. However ... we got the Armada BURIED in deep sand. We spent the whole afternoon trying to get the truck out
... and didn't get to enjoy the fabulous weather (sunny and warm) or the great camp site. Finally after a beautiful sunset, we called it quits and
had a yummy steak dinner for Thanksgiving. The night was nice.
We got up the next morning and started working on the truck again. It took a couple hours of work ... but we finally got the truck out. We then
enjoyed the camp spot for a few hours. The beach was wonderful ... the water was crystal clear ... about 74 degrees ... and fish jumping everywhere!
I want to go back. We then packed up and headed back for LA Bay. The roads are really good ... there is just no traffic on them. During our whole
trip, we only saw one group of motorcycle riders and one vehicle. It was totally deserted!
We camped up the paved road ... off the turn off for Calamuway (sp?). We had Federales come up to us after dark, but they left us alone once they saw
the kids. We drove home on Saturday and experienced one of the worst border crossings I have ever seen ... 2 hours 24 minutes. We were stopped way
back on the fence line road. Ugh! We didn't get home until 8:30pm. |
. But, here is the report from my sister (The same
one, you'll remember, who got the 3 flats on her Armada this last summer)
