This is primarily a travel blog in which I write about traveling in our motorhome. Our travels have

Nacogdoches, TX, United States
I began this blog as a vehicle for reporting on a 47-day trip made by my wife and me in our motorhome down to the Yucatan Peninsula and back. I continued writing about our post-Yucatan travels and gradually began including non-travel related topics. I often rant about things that piss me off, such as gun violence, fracking, healthcare, education, and anything else that pushes my button. I have a photography gallery on my Smugmug site (http://rbmartiniv.smugmug.com).

Saturday, March 29, 2014

He's ALIVE!

I am delighted to report that contrary to what I said in my previous blog, Leon Russell IS NOT DEAD! I know I must have read somewhere that he was, but he only LOOKS dead. Yes, he is alive and well because I listened to him play and sing tonight (See pix in right hand column under “Abilene”). The top acts today were Leon Russell, Tommy Alverson, Ray Wylie Hubbard, with Robert Earl Keene closing the show. I didn’t stay for Robert Earl because I saw him at a show a few months ago in Crocket, TX, plus I had been sitting out there from 2:00 PM until almost 10:00 PM. It was a long day but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Today was Vietnam Veterans Day, but I think the only people that knew that were Vietnam Vets. However, I did have four young men come up to me today at the music fest and thank me for my service (I was wearing a Vietnam Veteran ball cap). I have never had more than one, possibly two, people do that in one day before. One of the four was a disabled veteran. As I walked by him he shouted, “HEY!” at me. When I turned around he got up from his chair, took my hand in both of his, shook it and thanked me for my service. He, a disabled veteran, was thanking ME! I was at a loss for words and we just stood there hand in hand for a few seconds that seemed like minutes. There was an unspoken understanding between us and I felt a surge of emotions and thought I was going to start crying. I was finally able to say, “Welcome home, brother.” If you weren’t there, you probably wouldn’t understand. It was an unpopular war and we weren’t welcomed home like the veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan. When I got home I went back to work at the same job I had when I was drafted. Nobody really acknowledged where I had been.  I may as well have been on vacation. I didn’t talk about it and tried to put it all behind me but for the past few years I have been trying to remember as much of it as I can. Didn’t mean to get maudlin but I got a little side-tracked.

We will head back home tomorrow.

Thursday, March 27, 2014

Abilene

Carol Ann and I are in Abilene, TX tonight. Abilene is 386 miles from our home in Nacogdoches (in east Texas), but is still not actually considered to be in west Texas. El Paso is another 450 miles west on I-20. We will be “dry camping” (no electric, water, or sewer) in our motorhome for the next four nights. It’s not exactly roughing it. We have our own generator, water tank, and waste tanks. We are here to attend the “Legends and Outlaws Music Fest,” three days of Texas music in an outdoor venue consisting of a large stage, plenty of open space for the audience, and RV parking in a lot behind the audience. There are a lot of trees, cottonwoods I believe, but there isn’t one leaf between all of them so they won’t be offering any shade. Shade would be good as it will be sunny with temps in the low 80’s. Fortunately the humidity is not high. It hasn’t rained an appreciable amount out here in years due to the extended drought.
There were a lot of little problems that seemed to plague us today. Before leaving this morning we were chasing cats around the house and in the backyard. We had planned to take three of our five cats with us but finally decided to make do with only one, Goblin. She is a bit overweight, tends to waddle when trying to run, and wasn’t fast enough to escape. The house sitter will have the other four plus our dog for company.
It was gray and overcast morning with a temperature of about 55 degrees when we finally got on the road. It soon began misting and then the rain poured down hard for a while. However, by the time we reached Dallas, the sky was clear and sunny with the temperature heading for the 80’s. West of Fort Worth the wind picked up as it often does out on the plains.  It wasn’t long before my neck and shoulders were aching from working so hard with the steering wheel to stay in my lane.
We stopped to top off our fuel and propane tanks when we were about 90 miles from Abilene. I wanted to make sure we had plenty of diesel for the generator and enough propane for the fridge, hot water heater, and heat if needed. Diesel fuel was no problem but the Flying J did not have the right kind of adapter to fit my propane tank’s fill valve so our propane tank is only about a third full.  That should be enough if we don’t need heat, and it doesn’t look like we will.
After we drove up the dirt road and across the red dirt RV parking lot our midnight blue tow car was completely red. The RV parking is in a field with very little vegetation but with a lot of red dirt. It was windy today so everything is coated with a fine, red dust. We disconnected the car only to find that it would not start.  Three guys helped me push it out of the way and after we got the motorhome parked and setup I got some help jumping the car off. 
If we need anything in the way of supplies we have to make sure we get them before 2PM tomorrow. That’s when the music starts and there will be no pass outs, which means we are locked in until Sunday morning. If the car doesn’t start in the morning I won’t be able to bet to the beer store!
Unless you are familiar with Texas music you probably wouldn’t recognize the names of many of the artists that will be performing over the next three days. I suppose the biggest name is Leon Russell. Unfortunately, he died a few months ago so will not be performing as scheduled. It’s unfortunate because Leon was a prolific songwriter, writing songs for the likes of Joe Cocker, Elton John, Tom Petty, J.J. Cale, Phoebe Snow, Ray Charles, Dusty Springfield, Whitney Houston, Willie Nelson, Christina Aguilera, and Michael Buble. Leon was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2011.

This is Leon doing one of my favorites, Delta Lady.
The others include:
·      Robert Earl Keene (this blog is named after one of his songs, The Road Goes On Forever)
·      Gary P. Nunn (he talks about one he wrote, Redneck Mother, and sings it at Up Against the Wall)
·      Ray Wylie Hubbard (one of his best is Screw You, We're From Texas)
·      Billy Joe Shaver (a good one is Live Forever)
·      Jason Boland (meet Jason and the band here, The Texas Music Scene)
·      Tommy Alverson (listen to Una Mas Cerveza)

The other dozen or more performers I have never heard of but am planning on enjoying them all. I’ll be sure and let you know all about it.

Post Script:  I have added a photo page (see right hand column) where I will be posting some of the picutres I take at the music fest.

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Lipstick on an Alligator, The Sequel

Since my last post, Lipstick on an Alligator, March 2, 2014, I have been accused of editorializing, distorting facts, and “Baja Bashing.” I was also told that it was not my place to write about someone else’s accident and, to add insult to injury, I seem to have distressed someone in Mexico because negative accounts such as mine are hurting Mexico’s tourist industry.

I have no desire to misrepresent any facts and I did offer to correct any inaccuracies that may have been in my last post. However, the individual making those accusations would rather not provide me with any corrections to the story of Hugo’s accident. He feels that it is not his place to write about someone else’s accident and I respect that.

I do apologize to Hugo for any errors that may have been made in my retelling the story of his accident. Yes, it was an accident. I thought that was made clear in recounting the story. There was no crime involved.

I checked the latest State Department travel warnings for Mexico and there are none for Baja California Sur (the southern half of the peninsula). However, tourists in the northern half are urged to exercise caution, particularly at night. It is true that a majority of the crime is near the border, particularly in and around Tijuana, as mentioned in my previous post. I will stand by the crime rates quoted in that post. Once you run the gauntlet through the border area you should be in the clear.

As far as the brief summary of unpleasant things experienced a couple of years ago while on an RV caravan to the Yucatan and back, that all happened, just as I wrote. I was there.

Perhaps I should have divided the post into two separate posts. One to tell the story of Hugo’s accident and the other to discuss Baja’s crime rate and how a very successful public relations program has helped shift people’s perceptions of the Baja from major crime to the art and food scene.

But please, don’t let me stop anyone from going on a road trip to Baja just because I am too much of a wimp to ever go to Mexico again. Make your own decision.

Sunday, March 2, 2014

Lipstick On An Alligator

Some of you began reading my blog a couple of years ago when I started writing about our experiences on a 47-day, 18-RV Caravan my wife and I took to Mexico. We went down Mexico’s Gulf coast to the Yucatan Peninsula and back to the US through central Mexico. It was the trip from Hell but it produced some great blog material. We experienced armed bandits with AK-47s, customs agents searching our RVs for weapons at a border crossing, waiting for hours to cross the border, then being turned away from a border crossing because we were not cars or trucks and they didn’t know what to do with RVs. We had Federal Police attempting to extort us on false traffic violations, men masquerading as road workers flagging us down and asking for money, RV wrecks, car wrecks (and a $4000 charge to have the car towed 1200 miles back to US border from a Merida body shop), downed utility lines, an air conditioning unit knocked from the top of an RV by a low entrance to a Walmart, a broken wrist, several broken shocks and springs, cracked batteries, substandard electrical hookups (low voltage, high voltage, or no voltage), a snake in a swimming pool, a drive along Mexico’s “murder highway” and through the “murder capital” of Mexico, an untold number of dings, dents, and scratches on the RV’s, flat tires, narrow gates, narrow roads with no shoulders, potholes the size of automobiles, narrow bridges, temporary bridges, speed bump after speed bump, wrong turns and getting lost, bad water, and numerous other problems that tormented us on the trip.  We all swore we would never, ever, return to Mexico again! 

All of the aforementioned bad experiences aside, it was a great trip because we made some good friends. It was on that Yucatan trip that we met Richard and Helen. The next year we joined them on another RV caravan, but in the opposite direction of Mexico. It was a 47-day trip through the Canadian Maritime provinces, which produced very little exciting blog-worthy material, except for the $10,000 it cost me to have the fuel injection system replaced on my rear-end diesel.

It was on the Canadian trip that I began to doubt Rich and Helen’s sanity. Apparently they learned very little from the Yucatan trip, as they informed us of their decision to go on another RV caravan to Mexico. But some people tend to forget their unpleasant experiences faster than others. This time it would be a 37-day excursion to the Baja peninsula, which Rich and Helen said was the “safest” area in Mexico (once you manage to make it through Tijuana). You could also say of the lakes in Louisiana, the lake with the fewest alligators is the “safest” lake in Louisiana. I’m still not going swimming in it.

The Baja is a peninsula with only one “real” highway that stretches the length of the peninsula, from Tijuana to Cabo San Lucas, a distance of approximately 1045 miles. Most of the highway is narrow two-lane blacktop with little or no shoulder. If a wheel slips off the edge of the pavement there is an excellent chance of ending up in the ditch.

Over the past few days I have received emails from Richard and Helen reporting on the progress of their trip. They related to me a horrible account of a fellow traveler named Hugo and some exceptionally rotten luck he was experiencing. Richard asked if I would retell the story in my blog just in case any of you are considering a trip to the Baja. The events are true as told to me, however I have taken some literary liberties in the retelling.

Hugo was driving his motorhome with his car towed behind it when one or more of the motorhome’s passenger-side wheels dropped off the edge of the pavement where there was no shoulder. Hugo managed to wrestle the motorhome back onto the pavement but he was not quite as lucky with the car he was towing. Still attached to the motorhome by its tow bar, the car rolled over three times, causing Hugo to lose control of the motorhome, which skidded across the highway and took out a utility pole and a power line. When the dust cleared, live, sparking wires were laying across the roof of the motorhome. Amazingly, no one was injured in the accident. 

In Mexico, one cannot move a vehicle from an accident scene until the police have given permission, which usually will not happen until after the insurance adjusters have arrived and documented the damages to the involved vehicle(s)/property. In this case there was more than the motorhome and tow car for the adjuster to evaluate. The amount of damage to the utility pole and power line would also be included. Once the adjuster had arrived and inspected the scene he agreed with the police that Hugo was liable for the damages, not only to his own motorhome and car, but also to the federal government’s utility pole and power line. Until payment was made for the damage to federal property it would be necessary for Hugo to be incarcerated. 

Hugo was taken to the police station in Guerro Negro and placed in a small, dirty cell. The lighting was bad and the plumbing worse. The bed was bad and the food intolerable. In other words, a typical Mexican jail cell. Visiting hours, or perhaps I should say “visiting minutes,” were five minutes twice a day. The jailer was afraid of his superiors so no favors could be expected from him. Any attempt to complain was countered by threats of false accusations that could only make matters worse. No cameras were allowed in the jail so no photos are available, but the description of the jail sounds like something out of the movie “Midnight Express.” Hugo decided not to eat or drink anything while in jail so he would, hopefully, not need to use the broken plumbing. I have no information on how that worked out.       

Hugo’s driver’s license, passport, and visa were confiscated and his motorhome and car were impounded. He was asked to sign papers written in Spanish even though no interpreter was available to translate the documents for him, nor was there a copy machine on which to make copies of the documents. It seems that one of the documents was in effect a promissory note to the local Magistrate for $4,000 in damages. Hugo would remain in jail until payment was made. Payment was required in cash or by wire transfer. No credit cards and checks would be accepted. Calls were placed to the US Consulate in Cabo San Lucas in hopes that they might be able to keep Hugo from being kept locked up in the “slammer.” There was no response from the consulate so the group was on their own.

Two days later an attorney, sent by Hugo’s travel insurance company, rode into town on a bus from La Paz, a distance of about 500 miles. The damages were paid and Hugo was released from jail after spending two days and nights in the filthy hole.

Hugo’s car and motorhome were released from the police impound but neither one is drivable. The car was a total loss, for which Hugo will receive an insurance settlement. The motorhome will be placed on a flatbed truck and transported about 500 miles to San Diego for repairs. Hugo and his wife will continue the trip by riding along with other members of the caravan and staying in hotels at night.

The members of the caravan were very upset with the way in which the Mexican police treated Hugo. One of the group members is reported to have given the local RV park owner an earful until he was finally convinced to offer what little help he could. The caravan members were quite vocal in accusing the police and Mexican government doing everything they could to drive tourists away rather than assisting in solving their problem. Several members of the caravan are planning on filing complaints the Mexican Ministry of Tourism, writing their US congressmen, and contacting other influential persons. They have all agreed that they would never, ever, return to Mexico (I’ve heard that before).

The group realized a degree of immediate success a day or so later while the caravan was in the small east coast tourist town of Bahia de Los Angeles. The wagon master (caravan leader and tour guide) received a visit from the Governor of Baja California Norte who was accompanied by his director of tourism in an effort to salvage as any remaining, if any, good will.

Everyone seems to agree that Baja is the safest part of Mexico in which to travel. According to Mexico’s crime statistics this is true. However, that does not mean there are no alligators in Baja. The peninsula is composed of two Mexican states. These are Baja California Norte, the northern half, and Baja California Sur, the southern half of the peninsula. Tijuana is on the Mexico–US border, in Baja California Norte, and accounts for the majority of crimes committed in that state. If you can safely run the gauntlet through Tijuana the remainder of the drive down to Cabo is relatively safe (except for the occasional alligator). But you should also know that the US Consulate in Tijuana does warn travelers to exercise caution throughout all of Baja California. 

The Consulate receives numerous reports of extortion by supposed police officers, and sometimes criminals using fake police uniforms and credentials. The latest crime craze is “virtual kidnappings.” The extortionist calls the prospective victim on the telephone, often posing as law enforcement officials, and demands payment in return for the release of an arrested family member, or to supposedly forestall a kidnapping. Prison inmates using smuggled cell phones often make these calls. These criminals have extorted thousands of dollars from their victims, all done by wire transfer.

It is interesting to take a look at the 2013 crime rates per 100,000 population (provided by RRS y Asociados S.C. at www.prominix.com) for all 31 of the Mexican states (plus one federal district). 

Combining the two Baja states as one, they would rank:

House burglary............... #1
Business burglary............#1
Car theft...........................#1
Assault.............................#1
Rape................................#1
Extortion..........................#2
Robbery...........................#3
Homicide.........................#12

So why does everyone seem to have the perception that it is perfectly safe to travel about the Baja peninsula? It’s because of a very good Public Relations (PR) campaign. The state of Baja California spent $500,000 on public relations in 2009 and then hired Allison + Partners, a public relations firm, in 2010 to “reactivate” American tourism in the region. The state of Baja California will not disclose the price tag for their new image.

The program has been so successful that in 2012 it won a Bernays Bronze Award for “outstanding public relations tactics.” In February of last year, at a pay-per-plate event – formally titled “How PR Shaped Baja California’s Resurgence” – the Public Relations Society of America paid tribute to the ongoing PR campaign. The campaign has been enormously successful, increasing tourism by 75% in Baja California. Before the PR campaign began, Baja California was on the US State Department’s “defer non-essential travel” list. As a result of the ongoing PR campaign, it is no longer on that list. The campaign has succeeded in combating the negative image of being best known for dismembered bodies to generating positive stories and hailing Baja California as a culinary epicenter with a vibrant art and music scene.

How has Allison + Partners managed to turn Baja’s image around? With what the PR industry calls “fam trips” (familiarity trips). These are paid junkets to Baja, normally reserved for people in the travel industry, for journalists and celebrities. They are wined and dined and listen to targeted pitches on Baja’s cuisine and travel attractions. There seems to be an implicit understanding that the journalists will write positive reviews of Baja and the celebrities will publicize what a great time they had in Baja and how safe it is. Journalists from the New York Times and the New Yorker have been on these “fam trips,” after which they wrote positive stories about the art and food scene.

Movie celebrities who have been on the “fam trips” include Sylvester Stallone, Emily Watson, and Robert Redford. Celebrity chefs, such as Anthony Bourdain of the Travel Chanel’s No Reservations, and noted food writers, such as Erin Jackson of San Diego’s DiningOut Magazine and www.ejeats.com, have also been on these Baja “fam trips.” Bourdain included the Baja in one of his show’s 2012 season. Bourdain said that he knew very little about Baja, but that he “helped shift the focus tremendously from murder to food and wine.” 

While searching the Internet I discovered a two-page Allison + Partners’ document titled “Bi-weekly Campaign Update,” dated August 10 – August 24 (year not given), which contains a great many bullet-points under the headings of media relations, coverage, upcoming coverage, media leads, writing, social media & website (including Twitter and Facebook), and admin/counsel.

A survey of 600 Southern Californians was conducted in December of 2012 to judge peoples’ perceptions of Baja’s reputation. Respondents “who perceived Baja as unsafe” decreased by 16% from the previous year and those “who would not visit Baja because of the perceived danger, crime, or drugs” decreased by 44%. I believe that these results most likely reflect the perceptions of the general population. So travel Baja at your own risk and watch out for the occasional alligator.

Someone may have put a lot of lipstick on an alligator, but it’s still an alligator.