Central America Trip #43

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

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The motorhome is parked at Thousand Trails Palm Springs RV Resort in Palm Desert, California. I’m scheduled to depart here December 16th.

I’ve stayed here a number of times in the last 20 years and have blogged most everything of interest in this area. Rather than re-blogging those items again…

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…Panama (south-bound) #2…

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…

 

 

In Nata, Panama, I bought a souvenir (bicycle) license plate which now hangs in my current motorhome. My tan is now almost as dark as the local natives…

 

 

We continued on to San Carlos, Panama, where we are once again parked for the night on a beach with the Pacific Ocean about 200 feet away. About 6 PM, the local fishing fleet headed out to fish during the night. It’s now 6 AM and the fishing fleet is returning…

 

 

These fellows were either unemployed or not working that day. They gather to watch their friends returning from a night of fishing…

 

 

The fisherman bring their catch to be weighed before they can be paid…

 

 

This slender fellow is carrying about 100 pounds of fish. There were about a dozen different kinds of fish and the process continued until about 10 AM. It was most interesting to watch…

 

 

Panama is an Indian word meaning “an abundance of fish”…

 

At the end of the Amador Causeway, there are three small islands. In 1913, they were known as Fort Grant and protected the western entry to the Panama Canal. From material dug out of the canal, in 1913, they built this causeway and breakwater from the mainland to the outer island, to protect the ships entering the canal. Today, there was major construction going on building marinas, hotels, casinos, etc…

 

 

We saw these huge turtles among the many exhibits at the Smithsonian Museum Marine Exhibition…

 

 

At the Balboa Yacht Club, we watched boats preparing to transit the Panama Canal…

 

 

The view from the yacht club of the Bridge of the Americas looking east into the canal. According to our guidebook, the Panama Canal is now considered to be the boundary between North and South America, so we are now officially in South America…

 

 

You can read all about Panama by clicking this link…https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama

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

I hope you enjoyed the photos.

 Yesterday was partly sunny and 74 degrees. Forecast for today is partly sunny and 76 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 California. 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 -2015

I’VE BEEN EVERYWHERE, MAN

I received a message from Jerry at http://overthetopcargotrailer.blogspot.com 

about the song I’ve Been Everywhere.

He sent me to a web page where there are parodies and take-offs on that song by  different artists.  I listened to a slew of them.  They were pretty cool.  Click on the links to hear some I got a kick out of.

The first is I’ve Been Everywhere , Texas.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaTJxS_mu8c&feature=related

This link is:  I’ve Been Everywhere, Austrailia
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UAh7ogwAYQ&feature=related

Now we have a Johnny Cash parody:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UAh7ogwAYQ&feature=related

The next one is:  I’ve Been Everywhere, Minnesota. I think. It has some clever, corny stuff like I ate corn dogs at the fair, man, …in my underwear, man.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BynH5WYdX2A&feature=related

After I  identified five to put into this blog , swish, the sneaky electronic Genie has tossed one of them into cyberspace, so I’m hoping that the four I have left  are identified correctly.

When I mentioned the song two days ago,  I was talking about my partner, Jim. And,  just to give you an idea of why it fits,  he has crossed the United States 6 times in his Motor Home. He has been in every state of the union. Plus, he took his rig 17,000 miles across Mexico, through every country in Central America and to the Panama Canal and beyond, (until the road stopped.)  Then, of course, he returned those same, many miles back to the States. He’s traveled all over Canada as well.  (South America is still on the agenda.)

Yesterday was a pick up and move, empty tanks, fill up with water, get gas and propane, find the recycle place,  shop for groceries…that  kind of day. We bought two sets of sheets and replaced the butter-soft thin ones we had. I spotted a Burlington Coat Outlet and got a white jacket to replace my warn one.  We’ve been everywhere, man- in Yuma!

The frig is full and we are parked in a weedy little town at a VFW with a huge membership. The bartender told us they serve around 400 hamburgers on Mondays. Tuesday was women’s dart competition and men’s pool tournament. They are open and busy seven days a week. We had a drink and left early because they allow members to smoke in the bar. Nobody was smoking at the time, but we both came out with our hair and clothing stinking  like old cigarette smoke.

The move put us closer to our destination, the Petroglyphs.

BUD AND JULIE, FUN FRIENDS IN VEGAS

Bud Kuball, a Korean War fighter pilot, and a retired career pilot for TWA, traveled to the Panama Canal and back in his motor home with Jim in 2004. Julie flew back and forth to join them several times during that 343 day trip, but not for lack of an adventurous spirit. Julie had some health problems at the time and couldn’t stay for long periods on the rough roads.
We joined them for cocktails and conversation for an afternoon with other friends of their’s and didn’t even think about taking pictures until just before time to leave. Julie, who weighs 96 pounds, is small and mighty. She likes to direct things. “No, you can’t take the picture THAT way. We have to pose.”

No, Jim, not like that…

Like this:

Bud, at 82, likes to ski and write. He publishes pieces for the TWA magazine about his world adventures, which are many. He sends them to Jim where ever he is on the road.

Their adventures in Panama have been captured in Jim’s book, which is available at: http://www.lulu.com/panamaorbust