The Longer Way Home

The months flew by and our time in Melaque came to an end. It was time to leave The 375. Our next adventure included a visit with Loretta and John Sutherland who live in La Ribera, located northeast of San José del Cabo.

Leading up to our departure, Linda made arrangements with our landlord, Rosa, to arrange for a taxi to the airport.  We needed to leave at about 5 am and taxis are hard to locate for early pickup. Rosa made the arrangements. She and Linda kept in contact confirming that taxi No. 5 would be there to pick us up on our departure date.

They didn't show up! At 10 after 5 am, Linda texted Rosa saying no one had arrived.  Rosa texted that she was on the way. 

When she arrived, there was a period of unloading her Suburban making room for our bags. The problem was that the back door was broken and the seats were unable to fold down. I had to stuff our luggage and myself into the back seat where I rode to the airport. That's one big suitcase, two carry-on bags and my backpack plus myself in the seat.

Linda rode up front and spent her time wiping fog off the front window so that Rosa and she could see the road. It was still dark outside. The defrost did not work and the two front windows would not open. You could barely see the road.

Rosa drove and talked while Linda wiped and asked questions so that she didn't show how afraid for our lives we were.

I sat stuffed in the back with both windows wide open. The wind battered my face and I could not hear anything.  I wasn't prepared for the cold morning wind so all I could do was hug my backpack and cross my fingers.

On our road run to catch our flight, we hit three topas (speed bumps) so fast that I was flung to the ceiling of the rig. Each time Rosa would say, "Oh, sorry!" and drive on into the foggy dark. 

We have had some wild rides to and from the airport, but this was the worst.

But what could we do and say? Rosa did the best she could, we didn't crash, and we made it in plenty of time. She refused to take any money we offered. We were lucky she turned her phone on when she did this morning. She sure had been wonderful to us all season. Thanks, Rosa!

Our flight to Jose De Cabo went well and we were picked up by a driver arranged by Loretta Sutherland. Jorge, the driver, was very nice and was well-tuned into his phone and electronics. He drove relatively sanely, as drivers in Mexico go. He maybe tailgated a bit much, but we made it to La Rebira in good shape. 

John and Loretta were waiting for us and were happy to see us.  My head was throbbing from the pressure of up and down so I needed to get some rest. We had dinner and were able to go to bed early.

Our stay with John and Loretta was great. We ate lots of food, relaxed, and enjoyed the views from their patio.

On Thursday the winds looked favorable and John said, "Let's go fishing." We loaded the boat and hit the water early. The day was perfect and we had a great time fishing. I caught a 15 lb. dorado that we released back to fight another day. John said that his freezer was stuffed and he didn't need fish, so from the start, we knew we would be releasing anything we caught.  Great day fishing for me!

We enjoyed every meal and had a great stay. It was a nice break before traveling home. The Sutherlands place is beautiful and they have it just the way they want it. Thank you, John and Loretta, for your kindness and hospitality. We had a wonderful time with fantastic friends.

Captain John releases the Dorado.

The morning view from the Sutherland's patio.

Our journey home was not the best. The Sutherlands drove us to the airport and we said our goodbyes.  The check-in line was clogged with people and the luggage carrier had broken down. It took forever to get the bags checked in and our boarding passes.  Then our flight was delayed, something to do with crew issues.  We sat and, finally, we were able to board. The flight left Mexico about an hour late.

Once we landed in Los Angeles, we had to run through customs, which was easy due to our Global Entry clearance. Then we grabbed our luggage and moved it to recheck. The recheck area was closed and locked up tight. The guy there said we wouldn't make the flight, but we said we wanted to at least try. He said he'd do his best. We left our bags with him, hoping for the best, and started running.

TSA went smoothly for Linda, but I got a real power-hungry guy who had to frisk me. That took a bit.  We sprinted to the gate and they were just calling our names. We ran up, they waved us through and we entered the plane as they pulled the door shut behind us.

We made the flight and knew that we would be arriving in Spokane soon. Our luggage would probably not make it, but that was ok with us.

We arrived in Spokane and met our favorite, most wonderful driver, Barbara Crow. We checked the baggage area and sure enough, our luggage had made it to Spokane. We rode home in a warm car happy to be done with the winter travel. We just wish we could have brought the warm weather with us.