On the Road Again

To my delight, the Seri sisters [from whom I bought the basket] are at the Pemex station with their children when we stop to gas up. Waving, all smiles, blowing kisses, we say farewell to Kino; it’s been a fabulous stay. With a full month, it’s felt good to form a few relationship deeper than surface. Matilde and her husband; and Waldo, too, were there saying good-bye on our last day in Bahia Kino. I’ll miss them all and the continuity and connection of not being a stranger, secured by living in one place for awhile.

A few kilometers out of Kino Philomena starts bucking. “We’re experiencing a little turbulence,” advises Will, who is riding jump. “Fasten your seatbelts and we’ll try to sort it out. And our adventure continues… “Maybe we should put a little STP in,” says Dave. Hum, I think, perhaps I should have picked up a case of that while at Target in Tucson.

Jostling down the pot-holed secondary road by-passing Hermosilla, the engine seems to work out its own problems [an idea of self-correction only the most non-mechanical embrace!] A young boy on horseback moves a herd of cattle along the roadside while Dave skillfully passes a stinky truck loaded three-tier high with pigs presumably on their way to slaughter. The brown desert sparkles in sunshine, dotted with pipe organ and saguaro cactus. We approach the Sierra Madre Occidental Mountains, piercing skyward, stubbled with brush. In a domestic compound, a woman scrubs laundry on a washboard, hanging it to dry on the surrounding stick and wire fencing. Trash burns, littered with bottles and cans. We are in Mexico. Kim and I listen to the audio book “Of Mice and Men” passing the time.

Forever the teacher [aka - pain in the b---; “irregular” Mom], I jot on a small portable white board the Spanish translation of road signs and local commerce [hardware store, grocery, pharmacy, etc.] that we pass in dusty little towns. Sun beats down and by mid-day we are cooking. [Did I mention the 1984 VW has no AC?] Keeping tempers cool requires effort. We stop for a nice lunch [I order a beer!] at an artsy book store café recommended by Perry, a friend from Kino. It’s our first time ordering from a menu in Spanish and my main problem was that I left my glasses in the van. [Why does the print keep getting smaller and smaller?] Admiring the cleanliness of their restrooms, Kim wisely uses them twice! You never know when you’ll find one!