Petroglyphs -- schmetroglyphs

Ray & Jeannette wanted to do something fun for their day off. They thought a trip to see the petroglyphs would be a nice break from the monotony of work. And they were half-right.

The trip started out normal, but the summer rains had really bogged down the roads in some spots. We found one particularly hungry spot that ate the front-end of Ray’s mini-van, creating the rarely seen mini-van glyph.

We tried all sorts of things to get the car unstuck. It’s surprising how hard it is to dig with your bare hands, digging with a old spoon would have been faster. Oh why didn’t we have an old spoon?! The goop we were suck in was powerful. I even tried jacking up the front-end to get something solid under the tires but it would sink faster than I could work.

So we called the rescue team: Scott & Liz. While we waited for them to arrive, we washed off in the ocean and looked at the petroglyphs. When we returned to the car we found we’d created a traffic jam. Two Mexicans and I went about trying to free the mini-van glyph so they could get by in their car. All of our digging, rocking, pushing, shoving didn’t work. So they sent a kid off on a bicycle to find a guy with a 4x4 truck.

The truck arrived along with Scott and Liz. And Scott and Liz brought a backpacking shovel, which is basically a large spoon. After some more digging with the spoon, we made an attempt with the truck. Bam! The old rope broke. We doubled up the rope. Bzzzzz! The truck tires started spinning. After a few more attempts with the truck, we called in the heavy guns and tied the mini-van glyph to the Jeep. A little more digging here and there, then POP! Out came our monument leaving a massive trench scarring the road.

We waited until the other car passed through the muck successfully, then had a round of beer, killed 10,000 mosquitoes and hit the road back home – tired, muddy and hungry.

Maybe they should have just gone into the office? Maybe their idea of fun is a little wacked...?

Got to admit it's getting better

Sherrell’s been doing so much better now the doctor expects her to be healed in about a week. Our friends Scott & Liz have just returned to their boat ‘Ocean Lady’ after a 2 month long drive through the U.S. visiting family.  With Sherrell feeling tons better, and their return, I should be getting some surfing in pretty soon – Woo hoo!

 

Today, we are driving about 1 hour North of Mazatlan with Sherrell’s dad and stepmom to see some petroglyphs.  They were carved into boulders leading down into the ocean thousands of years ago.  We have to time it for low tide to be able to see them all.  It’s also a beautiful drive along the coast, so we’re really looking forward to it.

New Google Map to Blog tool

I wrote a new PHP script to process our blog text and search for LAT and LONG data in the following format:

{GMST}23|16.265|N|106|27.255|W|Waiting out the hurricanes!|Marina Mazatlan{GEND}

The tool will pull out the information, then post it to the map on the blog site.  This will allow us to post to our blog, with our current position while underway by just sending that simple text string.  The tool will read all the blog messages on this page and create points on the MAP with a hyperlink to each point.

 

Adopt me! And me and me and me and ...

I'm "Negrita" (Blacky) and I'm full of energy because I'm only 8 months old. I'd like a good home because the people who rescued me have a mean old cat that doesn't like me much. I just want to play and stay a long ways from that Vet who spayed me -- that was a bad time.

I have the longest tail on the planet and did I mention I need a home? Contact me through the website because I can travel the world.



Phew, I just gave birth to a healthy batch of 5 kitties -- and they all look like me! I was getting ready to hide somewhere when these crazy people grabbed me and hauled me off. Now instead of having my babies in the wild and fulfilling my dream of populating the planet, I fear they are going to spay me too. Any chance I could move in with you? I'm a little tired from taking care of the kids, but I'm super friendly and I love a good scratch behind the ears!


Finally we can see! The world looks a little blurry, but we're all feeling pretty good considering we're only about 2 weeks old.

We enjoy sleeping most of the time and a little snack every half hour is nice.

Any chance you could help spring us? Momma says we might get spayed or neutered, so we're all hoping to find a way out soon!

(Don't tell them but they're all going to get fixed! And they need homes!)