Friday's Fun & Farewells at the Retreat

Another glittering, gorgeous day blossoms for us. In brisk mornin' air we weave our way to the "Yoga Rocks", as we've renamed them, to do our yoga. The sun warms us as we stretch and shortly we are back to the cabin, to feast on Izzy's (freshly made Apple-Pecan Turnovers with Steamy Coffee).

Tis' our last morn to dig into delightful creative time together. We indulge in traveling thru everyone's creations during the previous days ~ and are in wonder at the amount and variety and quality! It's almost sacred paging thru these images that flood us all with the memories of our hours in merriment.

The final process we have invented is explained as I hand out the hand-made accordion books I've crafted for each individual. On the front we will use the stamp we carved previously to denote it being "our" book. Then we pass the books around to everyone who's mission is to invent a page in the book for the specific individual to whom the book belongs.

It's mesmerizing . . . hours pass with laughter, wows and purrrrrrs of delight. We became so involved that even our Izzy (who'd pulled herself away from the kitchen to participant) had to remind us of lunch.

Lunch is special too ~ it's our first "Alumni Lunch"! A previous participant from last year's retreat was coming to visit and it was rich with news and getting-to-know conversations. We actually got a photo with ALL of us in the image (well, save for me with the camera)! We convinced our Alum to get a shot of all the riotous participants from this year before the retreat closes just after lunch. The silliness continued as you can see!

After lunch we all (save for one - who needs to return home that evening) return to finish up our accordion book page entries. Just before sunset Jean and I have to scurry the artists out of the "creative" cabin, so that we may put away all the art supplies, books and tables. With the retreat over, we want tomorrow completely free for all of us to do just as we want.

Our
evening is spent reveling in our treasured journals and savoring new ideas hoping to tuck them in our minds for later.

Our Izzy prepares us a yummy re-heated leftover dinner - and I manage to sneak outside for a quick and chilly shot of the surreal night sky and parking lot. There's an air of melancholy as we all realize our days dwindle that will be spent here in the company of our new-found friends and the rejuvenating mountain surroundings.

Leaving Los Mochias and Clumsily into San Carlos

I won't share with you any lovely visuals of our drive to, arrival nor the stay in the Los Mochias Sam's/Walmart parking lot. I did experience a slight level of discomfort as we'd as the security guards about the appropriateness of staying over night in their lot . . . them with no English and us with . . . well, less that proficient Spanish.

Then, added to that, Roland was out side the RV and a fellow walks up. Now Roland is amiable as the fellow inquires about polishing up the front RV light plexiglass covers (part of our problem with the dim driving lights, remember?). With some bargaining, Ro get him down to a reasonable price and in conversation, finds out he was exported from the US because the attempted killing someone. Swell, the fellow even knows the death row inmate who'd moved into Buddhist beliefs and whose book we'd been reading ("Finding Freedom", by Jarvis Mathews). I'm not excited about attracting ex-prison friends . . . but "we're all the same inside", right, I'm thinking. Anyway, we make it thru the night and are up early to head out. But, in the inner valleys, the winter mornings offer fog to feel your way thru.

Once the fog lifts, the burst thru sunny and clear. The countyside, as I've mentioned, now that we are in the State of Sonora, has little agriculture and we begin seeing more and more cattle. Some who are herded right along the highway . . . hopefully with well behaved and obedient animals. We wind thru some mountains and veer back over towards the coast for our next evenings lodging.

We have had good recommendations and yearnings too, to try out staying at Guaymas, just a little down from San Carlos, where we'd stayed on the Sea of Cortez on our way down. One of our friends had suggested this great old hotel on the beach, quiet and romantic she'd said. That was our aim . . . but unfortunately, our internet connection for specific directions hadn't gotten to her in time so, we were sort of aimlessly wandering past the sparkling juts of land on the coast. But we got to the city of Guaymas, finding it much larger and more sophisticated (lots of references with Native motifs) than we'd expected.

Since, once again, we are now 45 feet long and don't want to chance getting stuck in small beach navigation, we opt to continue driving up the coast and return to San Carlos. We weren't disappointed, sliding into the RV space we knew we could just quietly slither out at early hours without disturbing all the others still sleeping. I was dedicated to getting a blog post up and cleaning the RV some (between the Cody fir, the road dust and the sand now added - I just had to vaccuum and sweep - and most of you know how much I love cleaning!!). So that's what I did while Ro and Cody went for a dip.

Following dinner, we all took a relaxing walk way down into town where we'd not ventured before. We noticed the early fog, turning pink and sneaking in along the peninsula and savored a pair of pelicans taking turns diving for dinner. Loud "Creedence Clearwater Revival" music was blaring out of the local bar/eatery, "Froggy's" and we walked in pace to the beat. Very nice homes/condos lined the arterial road we followed, again, many for sale or rent. Once we'd turned around and headed back to the RV campsites, we were reminded of the beautiful, glowing full moon watching our moves.

I'm resistant to head in to go to bed for our early rising . . . it's so warm and lovely out. But soon, logic swallows up my romancing and we all nest in for the night. Early travel is more palatable with the alluring motivation that - - tomorrow we will cross over the Border, finally back in the US!!!