From Cuernavaca to Ottawa - Spring 2000
Sunday, April 9th, 2000
We left Cuernavaca at 9:30am as scheduled and headed for Mexico City. Although it was 21C when we left, we got down to 11C at the 3,100 meter saddlepoint. We reached the southern outskirts at 10 and the western Periferico traffic was very light, no stop and start, no bunching up of traffic at all. It pays to leave on a Sunday morning! Exited the northern outskirts on 57 at 10:45, best time ever. The six lane divided highway to Queretero was fast and smooth as usual and in no time we were rounding the Queretero bypass. Unfortunately this four lane divided highway was still under improvement and was only a two lane road, as both directions shared one half while the other half was being upgraded from asphalt to concrete. Then back onto 57 and then soon the San Luis Potosi bypass.
At 2:30pm we reached Nunez, where we decided that, because it was so early, we would pass up the major highway through Matehuala to Saltillo, Monterrey, etc, and instead would try two lane highway 80 east to 101 and then 101 north to Matamoros. The road east on 80 was fast with lots of passing room and only a short session of "mountain road". Turning north on 101 was also fast and easy. The really tough mountain road started only when we got close to Ciudad Victoria. Here passing became difficult, and while we were lucky for a good part, finally we ended up stuck behind some slow trucks for a few miles.
We ended up at Ciudad Victoria at 6:15pm, rather a longer day than we expected, over 800km in a little over 8 hours. We stayed at the same motel as on the way down in November, but ate at the restaurant we couldn't find last time, a seafood restaurant named "El Don Quixote". A 8pm, we were the only ones in the restaurant, but the food was excellent, Carol had a shrimp dish and I had "huachinago con anchoa", pan fried red snapper topped with a layer of crushed anchovies, very salty, very tasty. Would go back just for this dish. (Will also try to duplicate it at home - anyone have a recipe for this?) Then a little CNN, and early to bed.
Other than the 11C between Cuernavaca and Mexico, the rest of the day stayed at between 26 and 28C until we came down to near sea level at Ciudad Victoria, when it zoomed up to 32C.
Monday, April 10th, 2000
We left at a good time, 9am. The road from Ciudad Victoria, 101 again, was a very wide 2 lane, very straight and very flat, allowing us to make excellent time. The orange groves were not laden with fruit as they were in November, but they were selling bags of oranges anyway, perhaps from groves further from the highway. We hit Matamoros a little after noon. We crossed so suddenly, that we had forgotten to cancel our "permission to temporarily import a car" and turned around to recross the old bridge, as opposed to the new bridge we had just crossed, to get to the Mexican Army Bank, to hand in our papers and get a receipt. So we crossed into the US twice, but they accepted us both times. We did have to pay 3 bridge tolls instead of one, but it was our mistake, no one else's. Then gas at $1.50 per gallon (mid range instead of regular) by credit card and some cash at an ATM.
Then north from Brownsville, on 77 on past Corpus Christie and past Beeville Tx., on to El Campo on 59, where we had stayed once before. Both these highways promise to become a new Interstate, I-69, some time in the future, but not yet. El Campo has not much to recommend it except being within easy striking distance of Houston. We did however find a restaurant with lots of local colour called "Pinchers", lots of people shucking fresh boiled crayfish. Carol had blackened catfish and I had a mix of catfish, crayfish, shrimp and crab. We ate early, at 6:30, as in Texas they like to eat supper between 5 and 7 and close before 9. The TV at the motel had over 60 channels, but for some reason Fox was blacked out and so we missed Ally McBeal, so instead a little typing on the laptop and another early to bed.
Most of the day was between 28 and 32C, until, of course we hit the US, when it ranged from 86F down to about 80F at 6pm. Still wearing shorts, even though we are wondering a bit about all the snow in Northern New York, Montreal and Ottawa. The weather channel implies snow for the rest of the week in Ottawa, and also thunderstorms and perhaps even a tornado in Texas or Arkansas! However, nary a drop of rain in sight yet.
Tuesday, April 11th, 2000
We had a leisurely breakfast and left at 9:30am for Houston. Temperature in the low 80s with heavy overcast. We arrived at the Galleria at 10:30 and mailed some letters at the post office and then set out for Banana Republic, Sharper Image, J. Crew, Sack's and Neiman Marcus. We both found things in the "sales" piles that appealed, so we rated this stop a modest success. Then we both went for our respective favorite junk foods in the food court; spicy chinese for me and veggie pizza for Carol. We left the Galleria at 2:30, that comes to 4 hours of shopping, and headed north.
However, on the way out of the city, I spied a Best Buy in the suburbs and we stopped again. I promised Carol I would be no longer than 30 minutes and got caught up in electronic goodies and their features and prices but bought nothing. The big TVs are getting bigger and cheaper (36" for $999), but nothing in the way of "digital TV", "hang-on-the-wall flat screens" or "high definition". Also Best Buy does not carry Apple products so the computer section was a loss.
Off we set again toward Texarkana on 59, but only got as far as Marshall TX, sort of a suburb of Shreveport, LA, at the intersection of I-20 and Texas-59. On the way, around 5:30pm, at Nacogdoches, it got very dark and started to rain in huge drops. The rain was the first we had seen since we left Ottawa in December, so it was a bit of a treat. We also discovered the windshield wipers still worked; they hadn't seen rain since October. The rain got very heavy and steady, which washed off most of the dust of Mexico. We can probably hold off washing the car now until Ottawa.
While the temperatures stayed in the low 80s for most of the day, when the black clouds and rain arrived the temperature dropped drastically from 84 to 63 in about 10 minutes.
Wednesday, April 12th, 2000
Did a little better today, set off at 9:20am in 52 F degree solid overcast with constant drizzle. Stopped for a quick 10 minute oil and filter change, long overdue, and headed for Texarkana, picking up I-30, crossing into Arkansas, "Home of President Bill Clinton" and also, although not advertised, home of Gennifer Flowers and Paula Jones. Soon we passed through the town of Hope, Arkansas, "Birthplace of President Bill Clinton", and some time later we passed through Little Rock, "The First Capitol Bill Clinton Called Home". On the other hand the countryside was lush and green with tall trees, very pretty.
In Little Rock we shifted from I-30 to I-40 and headed on to Memphis. The weather remained in the low 50s all day and the drizzle increased and decreased but never stopped. At 4:30pm, we crossed the mighty Mississip' and entered the state of Tennessee and the city of Memphis to prepare for our visit to Graceland. Of course, Memphis is also known for Beale Street, music other than Elvis' and food, both BBQ ribs and cajun seafood. Just this week Memphis boasts performances by Olivia Newton-John, Joan Baez, Paul Anka, Huey Lewis and the News, Natalie Cole, Jerry Garcia and Roy Clark, to name only the ones I have heard of (that probably classifies me more than Memphis). Johnny Cash and Roy Orbison started here as well, perhaps there was a reason for Elvis to move here from Tupelo, Mississippi.
Definitely! W.C. Handy invented the Blues here at the start of the previous century, 1906, and Blues players have been coming here to get known ever since. Beale Street has names inscribed into the sidewalk just like in front of Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, and other places. Since it was too cold to go for a river cruise on a paddle boat, or in a horse drawn caleche, we browsed Beale Street for history and to check out the music halls and restaurants, then we hiked over to Main Street to see the old fashioned streetcars. Then over to the famous Peabody Hotel.
We decided on drinks in the Peabody lobby, a very classy place, reminiscent of the Peninsula Hotel in Hong Kong, definitely nicer than the Plaza in Manhattan, or the Negresco in Nice, or the Empress in Victoria, BC, or Zoe's in Ottawa. The fountain, carved out of a single block of marble, topped with a spectacular display of fresh cut flowers, mainly yellow and red gladiolae, and featuring twice a day a visit by a number of ducks to play in the fountain. You have to come visit if you want the lore attached to this event, they seem to have made a real business out of it too. We succumbed to the enterprise and bought a souvenir.
When we entered there was a pianist playing for our enjoyment, and the music continued for the duration. As we left, Carol thought we should drop by and show our appreciation for his playing, when we discovered he had left and the piano was one of those electronic player pianos, entertaining us all automatically. We never noticed when the live guy left.
Next, as hunger drove us, we ventured back to Beale Street. After deciding that the B.B. King Cafe did not offer much in the way of either food or music, we settled on the King's Palace Cafe. We ordered their "award winning" gumbo and their crab cakes. I thought their gumbo did not measure up to gumbo we had had in New Orleans, in Baton Rouge or in the panhandle of Florida, however the crab cakes were excellent. This was topped off by a "Derby Pie" with ice cream. Delicious! Carol had wanted to order "fried green tomatoes" that were also on the menu, but after hearing a black waiter tell the couple at the next table, who had ordered them, as he delivered them to them say: "I've never liked fried green tomatoes, but I loved the movie", we decided not to bother.
We were entertained by a live (for the duration) Blues singer accompanying himself on an electronic keyboard. He was very good, very bluesy. Carol was surprised he was white, but I reminded her of one of the plaques we had seen outside in the street which said: "Not white, not black, it's blues!"
A little tip for tiplers of wine: We had some Lovane Valley Pinot Noir, very smoothe, very nice and it sure made Turning Leaf Cabernet Sauvignon taste like plonk!
That's it for today, tomorrow Graceland!
Thursday, April 13th, 2000
We forgot to mention yesterday that we had decided to stay near Graceland, rather than downtown (the Peabody?) and Graceland is near the airport. We had enjoyed the evening on Beale Street and got to bed late. We went immediately to sleep, but at 3:20am we were awakened by jet planes seemingly flying right through our room. My waking dream incorporated a giant earthworm (a la Dune) devouring our room with a thunderous rumble. The planes were coming in or out every minute and a half! My thoughts included an early morning arrival of planes delivering music royalties in bags of quarters directly from jukeboxes all over the US.
More likely, as Memphis is on the Mississippi, halfway between the Pacific and Atlantic coasts, and about halfway between the north and the south, it is probably close to the midpoint of the US. Hence I pictured one of the overnight courrier services flying their planes in from everywhere in the US (and Mexico and Canada) at 3:30am, shuffling all the packages from their origin planes to their destination planes and then sending all the planes back again to where they came from before 4am. We dropped off to sleep again well before 4am, but were then rudely awakened at 5:10am by a loud radio. The previous guest must set the alarm and nobody reset it. We were struck by the total absence of any airplane noises, so perhaps my theory was right. Was it FedEx??
As a result of all this, we slept in this morning and didn't check out until almost 10:00am. Graceland was five minutes from the motel, so we had parked the car and were waiting for the shuttle to take us to the Mansion by 10:15. We were amazed how many people were already there; cars from all over (including Quebec!) were in the parking lot and there were two women from London, England standing behind us in line. They had come all the way to Memphis just to visit Graceland, leaving their husbands to look after their children for the week.
We got tickets for the tour of the house and the car collection. It is all perfectly organized - while you wait in line for the shuttle bus that takes you across the road (Elvis Presley Boulevard, what else!), they give each person a headset and audio cassette which you listen to as you go through the house. In the tour you get to see the living room, the kitchen, his parents' bedroom, the music room, the jungle room (sort of like a family room), It is absolutely amazing and it is difficult to describe the impressions one gets.
Certainly the feeling of the fifties furnishings and decor were obvious, just from remembrances of our various homes during childhood, and even from our house in Mexico.
Some rooms were lovely and looked as if a professional and tasteful decorator had orchestrated the overall effect. Some of the others looked more as if they were a direct expression of Elvis' taste - a little flamboyant, a little hokey and totally fascinating. When you realize that he came from a poor family, had practically nothing and became such an amazing star - all through his own efforts and hard work, it is easier to understand and appreciate how important Graceland, his expensive suits and his cars and planes were to him.
There is a private raquet ball court, where he played with friends and it now houses many of his awards. There is also a separate building where they have put a lot of memorabilia, such as childhood pictures, school work, posters from his movies, etc. and then a long museum-like room where all his gold and platinum records are on display, along with many of the suits which we wore in live performances.
The property is quite extensive and at one time he had fourteen horses! We saw five or six, so I don't know if there are more or not. After his parents died he built the Meditation Garden and now he, his mother, his father and his aunt Minnie are all buried together. His is the only grave marker which has an eternal flame on it. There were several floral arrangements and bunches of flowers around the graves and a sign explained that these are sent from all over the world and are put there until they wilt and are replaced with others. Even plastic or silk flowers are accepted and displayed until they are too damaged from the effects of the weather.
The whole tour was unbelievable and worth every penny. When you see his home (which has to be a reflection of him) you can't help being in awe of him because he really was such an amazing person. In spite of all he had, he also seems to have remained fairly simple and down to earth and he gave away a lot of his money to local charities in Memphis.
We took pictures in several of the rooms and hope they turn out (flashes weren't allowed), so we can have a lasting memory. It was a wonderful experience.
We left Memphis at 2pm and headed east to Nashville on I-40 and then north on I-65 to Bowling Green, Kentucky, where we are spending the night. The weather lightened up a bit and we got high 50s and even low 60s. We even got about 15 minutes of sunshine, but mostly it was overcast with some rain. Sweaters, long pants, waterproof shoes and jackets were necessary today. Sorry, no interesting meals today.
Friday, April 14th, 2000
Friday we got off at 9:15am and headed straight north through Louisville, KY and Cincinatti, OH to Toledo. No major points of interest along the way, we did not stop at Fort Knox. We got into Toledo at 5pm and settled in for a quiet evening, within striking distance of Canada. Time to eat.
Arriving at Croy's Supper Club without a reservation, we found we were relegated to the last available table, which was just fine, not next to the kitchen, not behind a serving table, but right in one of the smaller of 4 dining rooms together with many other guests. This was Friday night and all the tables were full both when we arrived and when we left. We had been a bit nervous, because when we drove in, the parking lot was also near full, but we prevailed.
We were seated at a table with a red leather tablecloth and with comfortable leather chairs with castors. The table also bore a fresh red tulip. Actually all the tables were the same, so we were not singled out for this treatment. A sexy, not too young waitress in a black jumpsuit and with a deep huskey voice told us about the specials. They were a local lake whitefish or fresh tuna ("fresh, never frozen and cut into steaks in our very own kitchen"). As we are not into mercury, we opted for the fresh tuna, which could be had with a lemon dill sauce or cajun style. We both chose cajun and were not disappointed.
I started with the "German Duck Soup" while Carol started with a rocquefort salad (spinach and lettuce) with croutons. We washed it all down with some '98 Carneros Creek Pinot Noir, another Napa Valley Pinot Noir and very good, very smooth, but not as good as the Lovane Valley one in Memphis. To finish off the meal, we tried their "Kentucky Bourbon Pecan Pie", again very good, actually included some real Bourbon. We left happy and patting our stomachs. We were lucky to get in; it seems to be the most popular place for miles around. Their matchbook said "reservations recommended", maybe next time.
Finally, the weather! It was overcast and 60 F when we left in the morning and by noon the sun came out and the temperature zoomed up to 75 for most of the afternoon and zipped up to 78 in Toledo. It seems summer is back. Also, we are seeing the same reverse spring we saw the last two years. In Kentucky the trees were barer and some had newly sprouted small yellow green leaves and some were just budding. Some of the small bushes, "red buds" the locals call them, were a nice mauve with new blossoms, sort of like the colour "morado" of the bougainvilia we see in Cuernavaca. Also saw lots of white blossoms of crab apple trees.
Saturday, April 15th, 2000
We left Toledo at 10:40am, beacuse we did not have far to go to get to Sarnia, and again to enjoy a leisurely breakfast. Soon we got to Detroit and stopped in the suburbs to check out some stores, not to buy anything, but to see what was available. Then on to Port Huron, for a last minute gas fill-up and to buy some nice California wines to take home (the two bottle Canadian customs limit). Then across the bridge to Sarnia.
When we told customs we had been away for 4 months and had 2 bottles of wine and no tobacco products, they were not interested in anything else and waved us through. I guess they also waived us through. We ran around to a few Canadian shops at a mall near Anne's house to check up on renewing our Canadian cellphone service and checked out the "National Post," our favourite Canadian newspaper and tuned in CBC radio to get caught up on Canadian news. We had arrived a little ahead of schedule for our rendezvous with Anne Thorp, who had visited us in Cuernavaca in February.
After settling in to her house to chat, admire the art on her walls (mainly by members of Anne's family, includding Anne who is a proficient portrait painter) and compare notes on recent travel, we went on a drive along Lake Huron visiting Anne's favourite lakeside park and a house of a friend of hers on the lakeshore. Then on to her chosen restaurant, Wagg's, a steak house with good fish too. Ann had Filet Mignon, Carol, salmon and I, a thick cut of roast beef. We finished with another Bourbon Pecan Pie a la mode. These seem to be spreading well north of good Bourbon country! Not as many pecans either, but a good meal. Afterwards we were treated to some Bach and Scarlatti on the piano. The piano was a baby grand with excellent tone, imported by Ann from England 50 years ago.
Tomorrow - Ottawa - home!
Sunday, April 16th, 2000
Left Sarnia at 10am after a good breakfast with Anne. It was a chilly overcast 3 degrees C (38F for you Americans) and only rose to 9C during the day. We kept the overcast and got occasional drizzle along the route. Took 402 to 401 and reached the top end of Toronto at 12:30. Again the advantage of light Sunday traffic took us across the top of Toronto on 401 quickly and soon we were clear of the city and surroundings and on our way east. Turned up onto 416 for a quick return to Ottawa, arriving at 5pm. Nice to arrive home. Turned up the heating and started opening mail from the huge pile and unpacking the luggage. Carol's brother and sister came over shortly after we called them.
Monday, April 17th, 2000
Woke to -1C (about 30F) and set out to do some local chores well bundled up in sweaters and jackets. Visits on foot to bank, other bank, lawyer, three food shops to stock the larder, and then back to warmth to finish opening mail and unpacking. With these temperatures, it becomes clear that we should have stayed in Mexico a little longer, but we are enjoying the change and the old friends.
Hope you have enjoyed our adventure
Postscript
Just some statistics that I am sure you are all very interested in:
We drove 4830 kilometers, that is about 2995 miles. That is from subtracting the odometer reading at the start from the odometer reading at the end of the trip.
We drove that distance in exactly 50 hours and 30 minutes. That is from a clock attached to the ignition switch initialized to zero on our departure and read on arrival. This is "engine on" time, so includes going to dinner in the evenings and waiting at stop lights, just sitting in the car with the engine running to benefit from the airconditioning, etc.
This comes to and average 59.3 mph, or in metric, 95 km/h.
As you know, it took us 8 days to make the trip, so that is about 6 hours and 19 minutes per day and 374 miles per day or 604 kilometers per day.
Hope that helps anyone contemplating a similar trip.
April, 2000
