Central America Trip #75

Mary is no longer available for RV traveling, but we remain good friends.
Because we have 4,000+ postings, I’ve invited her to continue posting entries on this blog.

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The motorhome is parked at Shady Acres Mobile Home and RV Park in Yuma, Arizona. I expect depart here February 25th.

Recently I’ve been running blogs about my 2004 Central America trip. While here, I’m intending to continue those postings while also alternating with Yuma area blogs.

Today, I’m taking you back to my…

2004 Central America trip…

This trip ended up being 343 days and 16,000+ miles through the back-country of Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. 11 rigs started the trip, within a week we broke into three smaller groups for ease of traveling. Only myself and one other rig went the full, pre-planned route. All the others dropped out for various reasons. All returned safely to the United States. I’m planning to show these photos, more or less, 10 a day, whenever I’m not doing something else deserving a blog entry. FINALLY, it must be remembered these photos are prior to my switching to digital in 2006. The films were developed during our trip and the lack of quality control sometimes is plainly evident.

 

Today…Guatemala (north-bound) #14…

 

The motorhomes are parked in Quetzaltenango aka Xela. During a day trip with the Bronco after visiting with Maximon ( see previous post), we drove to the Indian village of Cantel, we we visited the Copavic Glass Factory. We watched the workers making all kinds of glass objects from recycled glass aka broken bottles. The piles of broken glass stock can be seen in the first photo below…

 

As always you may left click upon an image to see an enlarged view and then click once again to see an even larger view…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is a common sight in Central America…

 

 

Unfortunately, this is an all too common sight in Central America. It’s not hard to understand why someone would resort to drunkeness, with a high percent of unemployment and a very large percent of the population(s) living in abjunct poverty with little hope for life to improve…

 

 

Next…back into Mexico…

 

 

Here’s my trip website link…http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/panamaorbust

I hope you enjoyed the photos.

 Yesterday was sunny and 78 degrees. Forecast for today is sunny and 79 degrees.

Enjoying nice weather is another joy in the life of a full-time RVer!

The red dot on the below map shows my approximate location in the State of Arizona. You may double left-click the map to make it larger…

Enjoying 65-75 degree temperatures with low humidity most of the year is a primary joy in the RVing lifestyle!

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving”…Albert Einstein

My current travel rig is a 2006 Fleetwood 26′ Class A Motorhome and a towed 1986 Ford Bronco II, Eddie Bauer Model. This photo was taken in the desert at Slab City near Niland, California…

On October 27, 2012, I created a two-minute video titled America The Beautiful. The music America The Beautiful is by Christopher W. French. The photos, which I randomly selected, are from the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Tennessee, Washington and West Virginia (not shown in that order)…are mine. Yup, That’s me standing in front of the Post Office in Luckenbach, Texas…Y’all!

Click this link to start the video. Make sure you have your speakers turned on and go to full screen asap.
http://youtu.be/FfZUzEB4rM8

If you would like to see my YouTube videos, click this link… http://www.youtube.com/user/JimJ1579/videos

There are more than 600 photo albums in my Picasa Web Albums File. To gain access, you simply have to click this link… https://picasaweb.google.com/jimjrver

If you have not checked out my Ramblin Man’s Photos Blog, you can do so by clicking this link…http://ramblinmanphotos.wordpress.com/

For more information about my books, click this link:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/panamaorbust

All original works copyrighted – Jim Jaillet -2016

Whaaack!!!

It sounded much like a very loud crack of a bullwhip. It happened a week ago today while I was on my way to Slab City. I purposely took the shortest route…California Highway 115 through the middle of the lettuce fields. Nice long straight paved roads with little to no traffic. When it happen I could see for several miles ahead, there were no other vehicles in sight except for a farm truck passing me headed in the opposite direction. That’s when it happened!

I knew immediately the windshield had taken a hit…but where? I pulled over to the side of the road to look. Glancing around…I finally saw it. On the driver’s side…eye level and about 15 inches to the left of my direct line of sight…

Here’s a little closer view…

And a really closer view…

When I arrived at Slab City I took this photo of the outside of the window…

This really nasty rock chip is about 1.25 inches long. Fortunately our insurance company paid the $65 to have it repaired. Safelite Glass did the repair. They are located in El Centro…about 35 miles south of Slab City. With poor cell phone service at Slab City, I felt it would be difficult at best for the repairman to find me. So, I decided to postpone the repair until I arrived at El Centro yesterday since I had already had plans to come here for a Costco food stop. The next Costco we will come across is more than 300 miles and we will not be there until about two weeks from now.

The glass repairman came yesterday and all appears well once again. He did a good job and the repair is barely visible to the eye. I tried to take a photo of the repair but it refuses to be seen by the camera.

I spent the night in the Moose Lodge #1033 parking lot.

Today I’ll head back towards Yuma, Arizona to meet Mary who will arrive on a flight tomorrow afternoon.

All original material Copyright – Jim Jaillet 2012
For more information about my three books, click this link:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/panamaorbust

STONEHENGE AND MARYHILL

Who would have thought a Stonehenge was located in Washington? Samuel Hill, the man who promoted and built the wonderful Highway 30, also built this replica of Stonehenge. Remember to keep the Sams straight. Samuel Lancaster was the architect and designer, it was his dream and vision for the many looped highway through the Columbia Gorge. It was his builder, Samuel Hill who performed the task.  As a business man, he claimed good roads “..are my religion.”

Hill was a pacifist Quaker; he saw Stonehenge in England where it was thought, at the time, to be a place of pagan ritual and human sacrifice. He remarked,”…the flower of humanity is still being sacrificed on the field of battle.” He thereupon chose to build a replica of the “sacrificial altar” as a memorial to the soldiers from Klickitat County, WA. who died in WWI. He is buried close by.

It sits atop a windy hillside two miles from where he built a home, Maryhill, named for his daughter. Placed with beautiful views of the Columbia River, he owned over 5,000 acres for a Quaker agricultural colony he started. He never lived in the mansion  and instead made it into a museum at the prodding of a famous actress/dancer  friend of his, Loie Fuller who is well represented at this fabulous museum. Wikipedia has a load of information about this dynamic man at the following link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Hill .

While the museum is slightly remote, it attracts a great following and support.  Permanent collections and temporary exhibits, a yearly high tea with a hat and accessories auction, educational lectures, workshops and exhibits make this a must see for any art lover.  It is undergoing expansion because Maryhill is bursting at the seams.

One room is devoted to the furnishings of the Royal Palace of Romania. Queen Marie was a special friend of his and she helped found the museum and came for the grand opening. A replica of her crown is here, pictures and other grand treasures as well.

So perfect was this bronze sculpture of a young man that Rodin was accused of plastering the body of the live model. He was eventually exonerated.  One Eve sculpture, Rodin complained that he couldn’t get the stomach right, he kept having to change it every time the model posed. It turned out she was pregnant.

There is much here, glass…

ceramics,

a sculpture garden,

a huge collection of Indian artifacts of astounding quality. Beadwork,

exquisite basketry.

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It was so thorough, I believe every western Indian tribe was represented in this huge collection.  But for me, the real stars of Maryhill are those unusual things you see nowhere else.

Theatre La Mode, a collection of miniature French designer mannequins is staged against wire backdrops of famous Paris icons.

This display is from 1946 and the art and craft of building them is no longer done.

The faces are made of wax and hair is made from real hair, string and other fibers.

A second collection, chess pieces and boards, was unusual. It’s common to find a chess or game board in a painting or a set belonging to some famous person. Here are multiple sets of unusual variety.

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An unusual contemporary set of pieces unlike anything I’ve ever seen.

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If chess is your game, don’t miss a collection such as this one with over 30 different sets.  I took way too many pictures. I’ll organize them in segments for later blogs.  Maryhill-such a find!