According to Census data, almost 25 percent of adults aged 40 in America have never married. This is a sharp increase since 1980, when the comparable statistic was 6 percent. What is going on? And, why?
I am certainly no expert on this subject, as I am married and have been so for the past fifty years. My wife Charlie and I come from two very stable families where our parents both celebrated their Golden Anniversaries. Probably not coincidentally, my brother Terry and wife Kay have been married for over 55 years, and Charlie’s sisters Jan and Lynn have both been married for at least that long. In addition, my wedding “best man” in 1974, Pat Freemon, has been married to his wife Sandee for the past half-century. Many of our friends here in Mesquite, a retirement community, have also enjoyed long-term marriages.
So, we Baby Boomers come from a culture where the institution of marriage was strong, and the idea of divorce was repugnant.
It’s a different world now, apparently.
Not only is employment moving toward the “gig” situation, but human relationships are trending in the same direction, with formal unions between loving individuals becoming short-term like car leases. The average marriage in the U.S. now lasts 8.2 years, and 5 percent of married people have taken the “sacred vows” three times.
I suspect that many young folks ask the question, “Why bother to get married?” In today’s society, there is no stigma to being a single adult, nor is there much fuss over two consenting adults “living together”. Such arrangements used to be considered “sinful”, but that was back when most Americans were faithful Bible thumpers. This is not the case now, when most people identifying as Christian don’t attend church regularly, and high percentages of the younger generations are non-religious.
Pew research reveals that 51 percent of individuals aged 18 and over were married in 2020, in comparison to 72 percent of similarly aged folks in 1960. What has changed to drive down marriage rates so dramatically?
Maybe it’s because there is so much uncertainty in modern life. Gone are the days (i.e. those of my parents and their progeny) when a burgeoning American economy provided the prospect of lengthy careers in many occupations. Rapid technological change and the shift toward the global economic model have greatly changed employment prospects for young people. Many jobs that we and our parents enjoyed have been outsourced or simply disappeared through automation. Reliable employment, with decent pay, is harder to come by in the 2020’s.
The old path to success, i.e. get that education, work hard, make yourself valuable to your company, may not cut the mustard in today’s world. A college education is now extremely expensive, and a degree earned is no longer a guarantee of future success. Jobs that require thinking, as opposed to manual labor, are rapidly being replaced by machines that can think and learn (artificial intelligence). How does one plan for the future, i.e. marry and have kids, when the family income stream is sketchy? Inflation has not helped, either. Not surprisingly, households where both spouses work have increased by 50 percent since 1980.
It’s a sign of the times.
Marriage has never been easy. It is a team sport and, just like in the pro leagues, there are many more losers than champions. Making a go of marriage requires a large investment in understanding, compromise, planning, mutual support, tenderness, and compassion. If children are involved, spouses must agree on the rules of the house, discipline, how to impart wisdom, and instilling shared values in the youngsters. A lack of commitment by both spouses to a shared “game plan” is nearly always a recipe for disaster. Children are not dumb and will invariably find ways to test their parents’ resolve, including “whipsawing” (pitting one parent against the other). A united front is the only way that child raising works; failure to work together reaps crummy children and marriages that fail.
Love is the essential ingredient; without copious amount of same, couples are just fooling themselves. And I’m not talking about sex. Sure, young people often have supercharged hormones, which is natural, as they are in their reproductive prime. But, that phase passes, replaced by the stronger purpose of thriving in the group enterprise. Successful couples, married or not, are components of a team which will only achieve goals through mutual support. Knowing that your partner “has your back” and wants you to succeed even more than you do is key. Love does that to people who are well-matched.
That’s the trick, of course… finding one’s soul mate among the billions of people who are also searching.
Charlie and I watch a lot of crime docudramas on TV. Typically, something horrible has happened and the crime detectives are tasked with figuring out why. Quite often, violence occurs between spouses, and the program delves into the history of the union, the nuclear family, and the impact of the “relatives”. After watching hundreds of these dramas, it is hard to deny that most of the problem marriages are unions that should have never occurred in the first place: immature young people who confused “sex”, partying, and the desire to “play house”, with love and commitment. So many of the problems were created by hormonally-charged young women chasing “bad boys” or “Good Time Charlies” who have neither maturity or commitment in their toolkit. These are the young couples who get married, have a bunch of kids, and split up after five years… because they have nothing in common except the memories of those brief good times. Invariably, their divorce turns the couple into mortal enemies, particularly if alimony and child support are involved. And, then, bad things (like murder) happen.
Who’d have thought?!
Maybe because the younger generations are watching these shows or are picking up on the unimpressive marriage statistics that I’ve previously noted, individuals opting for a traditional marriage are not as plentiful as in my day. Maybe that’s a good thing, because marriage is not easy… it’s something that both parties must work on each day. Certainly, choosing the right partner (to marry or simply live with) is vitally important; as the old saying goes, “You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.” If long-term marriage is desired, it is necessary to find a serious partner who just do happens to love the heck out of you.
Finding the lost Ark of the Covenant might be easier.
I got lucky fifty years ago. I wasn’t looking for love when I met Charlie, having just emerged from a four-year stint in the Air Force. I had previously done a lot of dating while in college, really enjoyed every one of the four dozen or so gals that I spent time (and learned things with each one) with but was now focusing on finishing up my degree and starting a career. I ran into Charlie, who was a nurse, while I was working in a hospital as an x-ray tech. On paper, she was not a good prospect: divorced with four young boys. However, she was a hard worker, a good mother, had ambition, and came from a good family. And she was excited to find real love… for the first time. We hooked up and never looked back.
We have been a great team for the past fifty years, focusing on love, respect, and mutual support. We’ve had some challenges like everyone else, but we’ve stuck together and overcome the rough patches when they’ve occurred.
If I were young right now, and looking for love and commitment, I don’t know if I’d opt for marriage. It worked for me, for sure, but times are different in the 2020’s: who knows what’s going to happen with the economy, with politics, and with society? I could see hooking up with a good female friend for companionship but committing to a long-term relationship and/or fathering children would probably not appeal to me given the uncertainty out there.
A better choice, given the situation, might be a canine companion: love, devotion, and companionship… in spades, with no strings attached.
I’ve lived a long and productive life, and I’m happy that I lived when I did.
Many things have changed during my seventy-six years on Earth, some good and some bad. Technological innovation has made life much different, for sure, allowing men to walk on the Moon and equipping every citizen to manage their life with a global communication device in his or her hip pocket.
A significant downside of the Digital Age, in my opinion, has been the creation of “social media”. It, too easily, allows people to share cruel gossip and communicate/pass along misinformation to the extent that no one seems to know what is truthful anymore. Facts should matter, but evidence-free beliefs seem to be the coin of the realm in modern society.
When I was growing up, education was valued, teachers were respected, and scientists were revered. My parents’ generation had survived the pain and hardship of the Great Depression and World War II and imparted to their children a strong work ethic, a “can do” attitude, and a belief in the American Dream. Consequently, we Baby Boomers were primed to take the ball and run with it, to break down barriers, and make the United States the envy of all nations.
I am proud to say that this was largely achieved. Of course, America was working as a team in those days, back when our elected officials spent most of their time working to solve problems rather than blaming people for them. A good example is the Interstate Highway System, which required the cooperation of government at the local, state, and Federal levels. Back then, compromise was an essential component of a politician’s tool kit: give a little to get a lot.
That concept, of elected officials identifying and solving problems for the benefit of all, seems outdated in modern society.
Partisanship (“My way or the highway!” idealism) has replaced the realpolitik model (pragmatism) that guided our generation. Achieving what we can (possible), rather than what we want (often impossible) has been replaced by an attitude that anything proposed by the “other” political party is a non-starter. Consequently, and particularly in the halls of Congress, nothing gets accomplished other than insults being shouted across the aisle.
Modern American society appears to have accepted this model of political behavior, which undermines our democratic system of government. It also defeats the idea of a “united” States of America, as elected officials in some states and regions blatantly oppose the will of most American citizens. Sabotaging the efforts of an elected President has become sport for the “out-of-power” political party.
Call me an old-fashioned skeptic, but I can’t seem to understand how America advances the ball of progress using this incessant tug-of-war approach. As someone once said, “If you’re not advancing, you’re falling behind”. I’m not sure that our country has the luxury of taking a few decades off, resting on our laurels. Other countries will step up: just ask the Romans, who took their eye off the ball.
I am worried that the Gen X’s and Z’s and so forth are squandering what has been given them.
Elections have been proven to be virtually error- and cheat-proof over our Nation’s history at all levels of government. Nevertheless, a large number of American citizens believe the opposite, not because of evidence but, rather, because they read the propaganda about “stolen” elections on social media.
Similarly, vaccines have been proven to be one of civilization’s greatest achievements, saving millions of lives every year. We Baby Boomers were the first generation to benefit from the miracle of vaccination; I can recall visions from my early days of schoolmates who suffered from polio, whooping cough, diphtheria, measles, mumps, smallpox, chicken pox, etc., before vaccinations were required to attend public school.
Amazingly, due in part from crazy skeptics with loud voices, a preposterous “anti-vax” sentiment is alive and well in today’s America.
This peculiarity is part and parcel of a modern political attitude that denigrates science. Half of American citizens believe that “global warming” is a hoax, while 97 percent of the world’s scientists confirm that it is very real. During the Covid-19 pandemic, large numbers of our citizens rebelled at local, State, and Federal measures adopted to curtail the spread of the virus, preferring to believe the advice of non-scientific “experts”, including (amazingly) the then-President of the United States.
The mysterious “They say” has, in the social media age, become more believed by young folks than facts imparted by bonified experts. Teachers are under siege, as well, suspected of imparting their own political views upon students in their care. More and more children are being home-schooled, which means that they are being educated by amateurs and that what they are being taught is colored by the political/religious attitudes of their parents, right or wrong.
Maybe this is the future of education: no qualified teaching, everyone is on their own to determine how things work/how to separate fact from fiction, etc. All I can say is that, when I was young, I needed and appreciated competent instruction from professionals. My parents were smart, good people who imparted what they knew (or believed) to me. My Dad, who was a wonderful father, was a racist because he was brought up when that was the norm in America. Should he have instructed me in race relations? Probably not. But he loved reading and imparted that love in me.
There are political forces at work in America that don’t want our teachers at any level to talk about the dark aspects of our history, like slavery or the treatment of our Native Indian peoples. On the other hand, the same politicians want the Christian religion to be taught in schools, even though religious belief (of any kind) is on the downswing in America, many God-fearing folks in America are not Christian, and our Constitution specifically provides that citizens have the right to believe or not believe in whatever Almighty that they choose.
Is it beneficial for our young kids to be taught at home or at a public school that the Civil War was about honor, States’ Rights, or compromise… rather than slavery? Should the Civil War even be discussed? I think it should, for as the saying goes, “Those who don’t learn history are doomed to repeat it.”
But what do I know… I’m an old fart.
It used to be that our two main political parties stood for something, with platform positions on social issues, taxation, the economy, geopolitics, and so forth. The Republican Party, for example, was all about economic growth, reducing government regulations, lowering taxes, law and order, and opposing undemocratic regimes. I voted Republican in many elections.
The last Republican President (who is again running in 2024) favored punitive tariffs against international trading partners (which effectively punished American consumers), appointed Supreme Court Justices who have taken away women’s rights over their own bodies and allowed citizens to arm themselves with military grade weapons, gave rich Americans a permanent tax break which will be paid for by middle class citizens over the coming decades, and praised dictators of several Communist regimes such as Russia, China, and North Korea. He also badmouthed America’s electoral system, proclaiming that all elections are rigged… except those that he wins.
Candidate Trump is also declaring that immigrants from other countries are “poisoning the blood” of America. This is the Adolph Hitler mantra that was used to justify sending 6 million Jews to the incinerators. Curiously, the Trump wives who carried his children were both immigrants from eastern Europe: Ivana Zelnickova from Czechoslovakia and Melanija Knavs from Slovenia. Trump’s mother, Maryanne Macleod, immigrated to the U.S. from Scotland. Does that make Donald Trump’s and his children’s blood “poisoned”? This whole campaign issue doesn’t make any sense because every human being in the United States of America is descended from immigrants, even our indigenous Indians who came here from Asia. That means that all of us have “poisoned” blood, even the White Nationalists that Mr. Trump is keen to suck up to.
Surprisingly (at least to me), former President Trump is the leading Republican candidate in the 2024 contest.
How is it that a guy who doesn’t really believe in government, democracy, the Rule of Law, or our Constitution can be qualified to be the Chief Executive, particularly considering his poor performance the last time and his support of an attempted coup in January 2021?
Why would Republican voters support a candidate whose main occupation these days is fighting civil and criminal charges in numerous state and Federal courts?
It increasingly appears that the Republican Party faithful are going to vote in November for an authoritarian whose public “platform” features vengeance upon everyone who has had the audacity to criticize him in the past. One of Trump’s lawyers testified in court last week that a President has the authority to assassinate opposition American political leaders, something that the Founding Fathers would have found obscene.
One would think that modern American voters, of all political parties, would uniformly oppose this barbaric threat, as it would give current President Biden the authority to have former President Trump executed, along with other Republican politicians, for badmouthing him. Has the former President considered this?
But, in this new world in which we live, evidently a large swath of the American electorate is okay with this disturbing scenario.
George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Teddy Roosevelt are probably turning over in their graves.
As a four-year veteran of the armed services, and a long career as a public servant, I am appalled that it has come to this: throwing in the towel on American democracy.
It’s the New Normal, I suppose and, fortunately, I won’t be around long enough to endure much of it.
I have been dieting and increasing my activity since December 1st and I’ve lost 14 pounds. Charlie has been dieting too, albeit forced, as she recovers from hiatal hernia surgery. She has lost 18 pounds since November 27th.
My goal is to get down to 180 pounds by the end of January; I’m at 185 now.
The biggest change in my diet is to eat a very sparse lunch. Over the past year, I had got into the habit of eating a lot of Doritos chips and salsa/cheese dips. My new snack lunch consists of maybe 30 cheese puffs, so about 150 calories.
Typically, I eat a light breakfast of an English muffin with peanut butter or a couple of toaster waffles. On most mornings, I walk with my friend Mac for a mile, sometimes with Charlie for another mile, and often I add three or four more miles of walking with the dogs. Thus, I pretty much burn off the breakfast calories before midday.
Our community (Sun City Mesquite) is a great place to walk. There are scores of concrete- or asphalt-paved trails crisscrossing the entire community (of 5,000 homes), the weather is typically great, and the trails offer nice views of Flat Top Mesa on the west and the Virgin Mountains on the east. The dogs love walking the trails, which range from ¼ mile to 4 miles long.
Recently, I’ve done some hiking with the local club (called the Desert Fossils). A neighbor friend of mine named John Kasberg is club President. The group hikes on Mondays and Thursdays. I pick my spots: most of the club’s hikes aren’t that interesting to me, but occasionally they do a hike that I’ve never done before, and I join in.
Yesterday was one of those hikes that attracted me. It took place in the Valley of Fire state park, which is located about halfway between Mesquite and Las Vegas. It’s about an hour’s drive from our neighborhood.
Valley of Fire is a cool place to hike. It reminds me of Arches National Park, with all of the red sandstone cliffs, weird landforms, and occasional arches. There are Bighorn sheep there, too, and areas that have petrified wood just lying around. In addition, the park has RV sites. It can get super-hot in this park during the Summer, so the ideal time to hike there is in the Fall, Winter, and early Spring.
This week’s hike was supposedly a five-mile “loop”, designated “difficult”, with 900’ elevation gain. I’ve hiked many times in this park over the past five years but had never done this particular hike.
There were 12 hikers in the group, led by a guy named Fred. Everyone in the hiking group is a “senior”, i.e. above 60 years old. Most are older than that, like hike leader Fred who is 78 years young. I’ve known him for many years, and he is a hiking beast; we call him the Goat. Everybody on this hike was competent… no crybabies, and about half of the hikers were women. I was impressed at everyone’s gumption.
That was a good thing, as this short hike turned into a real bitch. There were no trails to speak of, lots of very steep sandstone cliffs, and loose rubble which helped to make our ascents and descents dicey. And good ol’ Fred got us lost a few times, which caused us to put in additional steep ascents and descents on the slick rock. We eventually made it out of there in one piece with no injuries.
HipHipHooray!
Charlie has never visited Valley of Fire, so I’m going to have to schedule an outing down the road where she and the dogs can look see from the comfort of our Jeep Cherokee.
Now that I am regularly hiking again, I think its time to see my orthopedic surgeon Dr. Scott Parry. He did both of my hip replacement surgeries a few years ago. Unfortunately, the aftereffects of those surgeries left me with some adhesions in my thigh muscles (quadriceps) which cause my legs to sometimes buckle a bit when I step down or put a lot of weight on a leg. This is not a good thing when doing “difficult” hikes like the one at Valley of Fire. The last thing I want is to fall headfirst into a pile of jagged rocks while out in the boondocks 25 miles from civilization.
I am thinking that perhaps there are some exercises that I can do to counteract the adhesion problem. Dr Parry will know. If I can get that problem resolved, there is no reason that I couldn’t hike another five years or so (into my eighties).
Speaking of hiking, my old adventurous buddy Lloyd (who moved to South Africa) will be visiting us next week for five days. Maybe we can put together a fun trek?
I’m thinking Observation Point in Zion National Park.
Hopefully, Lloyd brought his hiking boots with him.
The system of democratic government that our Founding Fathers created is based on the political principal, first espoused more than 2,000 years ago by the Greek philosopher Aristotle, called the “Rule of Law”.
This principle says that all people and organizations within a country, state, or community are held accountable to the same set of laws. In other words, “no one is above the law”.
This is the dream, of course, as other factors often come into play, such as money (for defense attorneys), bias (discrimination against certain groups within the population), and the politics within the jurisdiction (which might be reflected in the determinations of the judge hearing the matter).
Charlie and I watched a crime docudrama last night about a serial rapist who was operating out of Penn State University. He was a 20-year-old football player, a likeable guy among his male peers, but he had a character flaw… he liked to assault helpless women. He was eventually caught and convicted. The judge who presided over the trial was unduly influenced by the politics of Happy Valley and Penn State football and decided to allow the scumbag to remain free on bail before his sentencing hearing. What a considerate judge!
Except that the convicted rapist, out of bail, went home to New Jersey and proceeded to rape four additional women before getting caught. Between the lenient judges in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, the well-known Penn State football star was given sentences that allowed him to go free in just 14 years. Upon release, he perpetrated an armed robbery and killed an innocent citizen, whereupon a responsible judge sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Absent politics, this psychopath would have spent decades in prison after his first heinous assault on an innocent woman and five additional citizens wouldn’t have had their lives ruined.
This criminal enjoyed a beneficial bias in the system because he was a Penn State football player. Had he been a Black dude, it is highly likely that his punishment would have been swift and severe… because that is what criminal justice statistics show us.
For many years, American citizens have watched the news reports of Donald Trump’s engagement with the justice system in civil and criminal cases. He’s been tried and convicted of fraud on numerous occasions (Trump University, stiffing contractors, cheating financial institutions, etc.), defamation (of a rape victim), and paying hush money to silence an ex-porn star/girlfriend during the 2016 election.
The former President is currently engaged with numerous state and Federal courts, fighting charges of illegally retaining classified documents, attempting to extort Georgia officials to change the 2020 election results, and igniting the January 2021 attack on the Capitol in Washington D.C.
Trump is, without a doubt, a very dishonest person who simultaneously knows the American justice system like few others… because he has spent so much of his life litigating stuff. And, he is a billionaire personality and ex-President (running for President again), so he gets a certain amount of deference from the courts… which , in Trump fashion, he publicly abuses.
The old saying, that “the wheels of justice grind slowly” is a testament to the impact of lawyers who make delay an art form. Incessant motions, excuses, changes in counsel, requests for continuances, slow-walking requirements to produce documents, and so forth produce a drag on court proceedings. Anyone who has gone through a contested divorce knows that the attorneys for both sides tend to play a lot of these games until both parties are about out of money (to pay attorneys). Only then is a settlement miraculously reached.
Attorneys are not cheap, and good ones cost a pretty penny. In the current criminal justice maelstrom that is Donald Trump’s life, tens of millions of dollars are being paid to hundreds of lawyers to delay, obfuscate, and undermine the numerous cases. Lots of effort, by those attorneys and Trump himself, has been directed toward publicly de-legitimizing the justice system and making the case that the ex-President is the target of a “witch hunt” by politically focused judges and prosecutors trying to impact Trump’s 2024 Presidential campaign.
Famous American poet Carl Sandburg once advised, “If the facts are against you, argue the law. If the law is against you, argue the facts. If the law and the facts are against you, pound the table and yell like hell.”
This is what’s going on in Trumpworld right now. Not a day goes by that the ex-President isn’t on TV or social media ranting and raving about the persecution that he believes is aimed at him. His protestations of innocence are accompanied by zero evidentiary facts, which is telling, as he has had many years to produce any “smoking guns” that would exonerate himself. The problem is that the conduct that got him into the justice system crosshairs was based on lies, and now he and his attorneys are forced to develop new lies to turn the tide.
Top notch attorneys have shied away from Trump for this reason, as they are considered “officers of the court” who, if they waste the Court’s on frivolous or demonstrably false claims, can be sanctioned by the presiding judge and, possibly, disbarred from their profession. Consequently, Trump’s current batch of attorneys are generally considered second- or third-string players who appear to be out of their league in high profile matters such as these.
A recent strategy of the Trump legal brain trust has been to assert that the now civilian/candidate has some sort of immunity from prosecution because, as President, he could do “whatever he wanted” as part of his job. He would like to believe that, but the U.S. Constitution doesn’t provide kingly powers like that; in fact, our country rebelled against the tyrannical acts of British King George, and the Founding Fathers went to great lengths (separation of powers in Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches) to deter leaders who thought they were “above the law”.
The Supreme Court will ultimately rule on Trump’s assertions regarding Presidential powers. If the Justices were to rule that the Chief Executive had kingly powers, then there would be nothing to prevent a wannabe dictator like Trump from dissolving Congress and the Supreme Court itself. The rule of law would be a thing of the past, as would elections. So, it would be shocking if the Justices would rule in Trump’s favor on this subject.
The goal of the Team Trump legal team is to delay, delay, and delay all the court cases until after the 2024 election, in the hopes that he will be re-elected. If that were to happen, he could direct the Department of Justice to close the Federal cases against him (insurrection and classified docs) and his position as Chief Executive would render any State cases (fraud and defamation in New York and election-related extortion in Georgia) problematic, because… how to you punish a sitting President?
Our legal system has its problems, but it generally works to protect citizens from the bad guys. The alternative to the Rule of Law, i.e. an authoritarian model of government, will be on offer in November.
If voters elect Trump, our Nation will get what it deserves.
It has been a different December, that’s for sure.
Charlie began her recovery from a hiatal hernia surgery on December 1st. It was a very tough slog for the first week or so: she couldn’t sleep, most of what she ate came back up, and she felt generally weak. Mid-day naps became a daily routine.
My wife’s diet was simplified to basically anything liquid, like Jello, yoghurt, pudding, Ensure, flavored sparkling water, and such. Very little protein being ingested, per doctor’s orders, so Charlie began to lose weight (which is usually a good thing!). By the end of the month, she had slimmed down by about 18 pounds, which made her very happy. However, it was a tough way to lose weight, and she wouldn’t do it again, believe me.
Our son Jeff and wife Carol (and their Stafforshire Terrier “Chongo”) stayed with us for almost all of December. It was helpful in the care that we were giving patient Charlie, and it was very nice hearing about their RV lifestyle/boondocking experiences. Chongo, who is an 80-pound behemoth, gets along well with our three Boston Terriers. He’s the “A” dog in the house when he’s here; Baby gracefully relinquishes her role when he comes to visit.
I have been on a “solidarity” diet with Charlie since she came home from the hospital, skipping my usual Doritos and Dip lunch diet and limiting the carbs somewhat. I’ve also begun putting in some walking/hiking mileage to get myself back in shape. I’ve worked my way up to about five miles per walk, typically with the dogs. In addition, I’ve begun to hike with the local Desert Fossils group, usually once a week. Thus far, I’ve lost about 8 pounds. I’m hopeful that I can whittle myself down another ten pounds by the end of January.
Jeff and Carol left today. They will be staying in Bullhead City, Arizona for a few weeks with Carol’s mom, do a little Yuma, and a drive-by stayover in Quartzite to round out January. When the temperatures heat up a bit in the Midwest, they will make the trek across New Mexico and Texas with the ultimate destination Arkansas, where Carol was born and raised. After that, they will head north up into Minnesota, then go west through Wyoming and Montana. We gave them a week’s stay at Gold Beach, Oregon in the Summer, so they will eventually head west into Washington and then down the Oregon Coast to Gold Beach. They’ve never seen Oregon; I can hardly wait until they comment on it.
The 1997 Damon Daybreak motorhome that they’re living in does the job for them at this point. Their original plan with this very old RV was to break them into RV life and then maybe move up in quality to a permanent rig. However, “what ain’t broke, don’t need fixin’”, so they will probably drive this $17,000 bargain until it drops dead. Every mile that they can get out of the Daybreak is money saved.
My good friend Mac, the guy with the constant dizziness and frequent bouts of vertigo, has finally found some experts out of Salt Lake who have diagnosed his problem (it’s called P.P.P.D.) and have prescribed some medicine and therapy to help reduce the misery by maybe 80 percent. This is welcome news for Mac, who was considering suicide a few months ago.
I used to do a lot of hiking with Mac and my friend Lloyd. Mac can’t hike at all right now due to his PPPD issue, and Lloyd moved to South Africa last Summer. He will be visiting us for a few days in January, something that Charlie and I are looking forward to.
2023 was a weird year, particularly as regards politics. It’s hard to believe that the 2024 Presidential election seems to be headed towards a ballot choice of old Donald Trump and older Joe Biden. Jeez, can’t this country do better?
Inflation is still with us, but the Federal Reserve has just lowered the Prime Rate a tad, signaling that the worst may be over. Everything still costs more, and that is likely to be with us indefinitely.
The past year was the hottest in recorded history, which is not a good sign, as most of the hottest years have occurred in the past decade. The really bad news is that polar ice caps and major glaciers around the world are melting, which is going to create havoc with the ocean currents and raise the sea level. Places like Florida, with a high elevation of 100’, are going to be increasingly punished by tropical storms and flooding. It’s already prohibitive to acquire property insurance in that State, much like it is in foothill and mountain communities in California.
We’re going to keep our heads down in 2024, probably traveling much less in the RV. We will do a few short trips (within 500 miles) and splurge on a 30-day vacation in Oceanside, California beginning on Labor Day.
Our treat to ourselves in 2024 will be an anniversary vacation in Zihuatanejo, Mexico to celebrate 50 years of marital bliss.
The three issues that will probably decide the next Presidential election are (1) Inflation, (2) Wars in the Ukraine and Middle East, and (3) Illegal immigration.
Inflation is not really under the control of the President (rather, it’s the Federal Reserve’s job), but any incumbent President is typically held responsible when inflation spikes. The economy is actually humming along, and the stock market just set its all-time high. However, things cost more, and an incumbent President is usually blamed when that happens.
The enormous cost of America’s financial aid involvement in the Ukraine and Middle East situations is reaching the breaking point. Politically, it is hard to justify so much money being dropped down those ratholes. And both are no-win situations for the Biden Administration: Ukraine is not even an ally of the U.S. (nor is it in NATO) and there are blocs of voters in America who are supportive of Palestinian and Israeli goals. No matter which way Joe Biden leans, he gets criticized.
The biggee, though, is the immigration issue. We have a problem with keeping our borders secure, particularly with Mexico, and the Biden Administration hasn’t done much to stop the flood of illegal immigrants.
Personally, I believe that managed immigration is a good, almost necessary, thing to keep our economy robust. People who come from other countries to seek the American Dream typically bring new ideas and a strong work ethic. Immigrants built the Greatest Nation on Earth: there’s no debate about that.
However, the United States can’t be the repository of everyone who wants to escape political turmoil and poverty in Latin America, the Caribbean, Eastern Europe, Asia, and Africa. We just can’t absorb all of these folks fast enough and within our means.
I don’t agree with Donald Trump that illegal immigrants are “vermin”, “rapists”, “drug dealers”, and “murderers”. Rather, they are human beings trying to better themselves, and they typically blend in and contribute. The truth of the matter is that lots of these hard workers, once they get here, are employed by agribusiness corporations that desperately need cheap, low-skilled workers. They also populate small businesses that provide janitorial, landscaping, construction, home cleaning, food prep, and household “nanny” services.
Presidential candidate Trump has lately been ranting about unwanted immigrants “poisoning the blood” of America. This is unfortunate, because it’s the same language that Hitler used to excite German crowds on his way to establishing the Nazi culture and provide him an excuse to exterminate 6 million Jews. In Trump’s case, he particularly calls out immigrants from Latin America, Africa, and Asia as the bad guys who are “ruining” our country. He likes European immigrants, though, like his Slovenian wife Melania; presumably, she isn’t poisoning the blood in the U.S. (Come to think of it, his previous wife Ivana was an immigrant from Czechoslovakia. Did she poison the blood of her children Ivanka, Donald Jr., and Eric?)
As silly as the Trumpian whistleblowing to his M.A.G.A. cult is, there is some validity that the underlying issue of illegal immigration is a very real problem that is not being adequately addressed. Trump made a lot of noise about it when he was President, built walls and had Federal officers harass would-be immigrants, but the problem continued. Under Biden, that flow of human beings continues unabated.
So, what is the answer?
There aren’t any perfect solutions. Sure, we could station our armed forces along the Mexican border to repel fence jumpers and tunnel diggers, as Trump is proposing. However, most illegal entry occurs at border checkpoints via autos and trucks and by simply flying into the U.S. and overstaying a Visa. The other problem is that our economy needs a continuing supply of cheap labor, doing the tough manual tasks that young American men and women don’t want to do. Unless our politicians come up with a newly-crafted “green card”/”visiting worker” program to satisfy our labor shortfall, draconian measures along the border will have indirect negative consequences on our economy.
As I have noted before, the scourge of illegal immigration would evaporate if the U.S. made employing an illegal immigrant a Federal crime (i.e. a felony punishable by hefty fines and jail time). This will never happen, however, because the same folks who want the impenetrable border walls also want the cheap labor that those Latin immigrants can provide. Our elected officials in Congress just can’t (or won’t) address the issue in a constructive way.
They prefer to kick the can down the road for the next Administration to deal with.
It wasn’t that long ago that a gang of Hamas terrorists from Gaza carried out a surprise attack on the neighboring country of Israel, killing 846 civilians and 416 soldiers and police officers, and kidnapping 240 civilians before they returned to Gaza.
Imagine, for a moment, that an organized platoon of Mexican drug cartel goons crossed the border and killed 1,200 Americans. What do you think our response would be? Let’s face it, negotiating would be out of the question, politically, and the U.S. would rain holy hell down on the perps, even if they were hiding out in Mexico.
The unprovoked attack by Hamas was reciprocated by the State of Israel with a massive aerial bombardment and a coordinated Army ground campaign that continues to this day. The Israelis are committed to rooting out the Hamas terrorists, who have been hiding in underground tunnels for years. The sliver of ground called Gaza has suffered a slow-motion obliteration since October… with no end in sight.
Other than their sucker punch, Hamas’ main offensive weapon has been an international public relations campaign designed to cast the Israelis as aggressors and the Gazan people as innocent bystanders. This effort has borne fruit, as even the United Nations has pleaded for the Israelis to back off. A day doesn’t go by when there are not news stories about innocent Gazan bystanders getting caught up in the ground war. As the saying goes, “War is hell”, and the people of Gaza should be blaming the Hamas thugs, not the Israelis, for their misfortune.
One thing is for sure: Israel will do what is in Israel’s best interest. The last thing that they want is the impression that any terrorist group or neighboring country can wreak havoc on their country without having to pay a very steep price. This latest terrorist attack on Israel is tantamount to that country’s 9/11, and we can all remember how enraged and vengeful America got when that atrocity went down.
This latest Middle Eastern tempest puts the United States in an awkward position, as America is Israel’s strongest defender and supplies that country with billions of dollars of foreign aid annually (mostly for military hardware and technology) to keep its Islamic tormentors at bay. Predictably, Arab Americans are not happy and antisemites within the U.S. are using the conflict to justify their own terror campaign within our country.
Thus, the U.S. is getting a P.R. black eye internationally and domestically while Israel is wiping Gaza clean of the bad guys. The Biden Administration is trying mightily to de-escalate the tensions, but Israel is intent on sending a strong message: “You kill 100 of our people and we will kill 10,000 of yours.”
I can’t blame them, but it sure puts Joe Biden in a tough spot. If he helps Israel, then Arab Americans will resent him as will our home-grown antisemites. If he sides with the clamor to stop the carnage for humanitarian reasons, then the large Jewish voting bloc, which typically votes Democratic, will not support his reelection.
Still, I’m not keen about the United States continuing to backstop the State of Israel. They are a strong country and can defend themselves with high tech weapons systems, the world’s premier intelligence service, and nuclear weapons, if it gets to that. Why should it be our duty to defend them?
There are some 180 countries in the world. Some are huge, some are tiny, and all of them need to defend themselves from bad actors. The idea of America being the “world’s policeman” is an outdated Cold War concept that has only gotten the U.S. in hot water in the past fifty years. Alliances have changed, economic growth has blossomed, and technology has, somewhat, leveled the playing field. America isn’t the superpower it once was, with the ability to throw its weight around willy nilly.
During the last month, another Iranian-supported terrorist organization called the Houthis (in Yemen) have been shooting missiles toward far-off targets in Israel and also shipping in the Red Sea, doing their part to annoy Israel and its international supporters. The objective is probably to suck America deeper into the Middle Eastern morass and make Joe Biden’s job impossible. A coalition of countries including the U.S. has organized a seaborne force to protect shipping in the Red Sea and the Suez Canal from Houthi harassment.
It’s a no win situation for America, just like Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, etc.
Question: Why should the U.S. support thriving nations like Israel, Taiwan, and South Korea? They are vestiges of the aftermath of World War II, which ended over 70 years ago. Why do we need to put them under our protective umbrella? Shouldn’t they succeed or fall under their own steam just like all other countries do?
Why does the U.S. still have combat troops on the ground in the Middle East? The area is anti-democratic and populated, for the most part, by Islamic peoples who hate America and want to do their own thing. Shouldn’t we leave them to their own fate? What gives us the right to tell them how to govern their country? They can plainly see the problems that are inherent in our democracy; heck, we can’t agree on anything over here. If they want to live in a theocracy, who are we to judge?
Why do we need to spend billions to defend European countries? If the U.S. got out of N.A.T.O., it is likely that the other members of the alliance would get more serious about their own defense and kick in more money for military hardware. Basically, at this point, the only threat to these countries is Russia, which is a shadow of its former self and can’t even handle Ukraine.
A problem with all of this is that the leaders of both political parties in America are relics of the Cold War. They grew up worrying about World War III, in particular against those Communist bullies, the U.S.S.R. and China. Realistically, neither one is in a position to attack America directly without catastrophic consequences, and neither Putin or Xi are that stupid.
If the U.S. was to discontinue foreign aid to our erstwhile “allies” and let everyone fend for themselves, hundreds of billions of dollars would be freed up to do worthwhile things within our own country, like feeding the homeless, repairing infrastructure, improving education, and lowering the cost of medical care for needy segments of our society.
We would still have the strongest military in the world and could take care of ourselves if any state actor or terrorist group decided to attack us.
Maybe we should give disengagement a shot, as the current model (protecting a small subset of nations) is destined to bring us into conflict with others.
Charlie and I moved from Murrieta, California to Mesquite, Nevada five years ago to escape the urban drama, high cost, congested roads, and costly state income tax that didn’t fit a retirement lifestyle.
We didn’t know anything about Mesquite except that it was a “border” city with several casinos and a Del Webb community that was under construction, and it got nasty hot in the Summer. Oh, yeah… it was also home to eight golf courses!
Once we got to poking around the area, and making friends in the community, we discovered a couple of very pleasant surprises: (1) The health care in the region is 10+; and (2) the natural environment presents numerous opportunities for world class hiking.
Mesquite itself has a basic hospital for emergencies and simple procedures. One goes there if he is squirting blood or has broken a limb. The regional hospital, a 45-minute drive north on I-15 in the city of St. George, Utah is a very high-level campus with the most modern facilities and equipment combined with excellent doctors and staff. Both Charlie and I have worked at hospitals in previous lives, and we can assert that the medical care provided in St. George is on par with Scripps in San Diego or Cedars of Sinai in Los Angeles. First Class all the way… and they take our insurance! Another benefit: many of the specialist physicians have convenient office hours in Mesquite for consultation!
Over the past five years, I have availed myself of this wonderful medical care by having both of my hip joints replaced with artificial ones and, most recently, having cataract surgery on both eyes. Charlie, who has all manner of medical issues, has found great specialists in St. George to tend to her regular needs. In addition, she found a very sharp podiatrist who resolved her broken foot and a pain specialist who “reinflated” a crushed spinal disk that occurred when she fell from a ladder. In a week, Charlie will be undergoing a hiatal hernia surgery up in St. George, something that she has been looking forward to for many months.
Kudos to the superb medical care in this area!
I was not a big “outdoors” person when I moved to Mesquite. I had done a lot of hiking when I was younger in Yosemite National Park (Yosemite Falls, Half Dome) and the high Sierra (Mount Whitney a couple of times), and had skied quite a bit in Mammoth Mountain, Lake Tahoe, June Lake, Badger Pass, and Dodge Ridge. I did a “down and back” hike into the Grand Canyon and a number of cool hikes at Arches National Park. But all of that was back in my salad years… before age 70, before the artificial hips, etc.
It was not long after we relocated to Mesquite that I met a bunch of old coots like me who enjoyed hiking around the deserts and mountains of this region. There was an organized hiking group, called the Desert Fossils, and an informal group, consisting of my neighbors Mac and Lloyd. The hiking club typically planned two treks per week on established trails, while our informal group usually did one major hike per week… typically “off trail”.
Between the two hiking groups, I have now hiked most of the interesting stuff within a 90-mile radius: Valley of Fire, Lake Mead, Desert National Wildlife Refuge, Beaver Dam Wash National Conservation Area, Pine Valley, Gunlock, Virgin Mountain, Cedar Pocket, the Arizona Strip, Grand Canyon Parashant, and Zion National Park.
I did not know, when we moved to this area, that it is in a complicated geologic setting featuring earthquake faults, volcanoes, “red rocks”, slot canyons, and such. The 45-minute drive north to St. George on I-15 drives through the Virgin River Gorge, which is a “mini” Grand Canyon visual feast that I never tire of. Pine Valley Mountain, which forms the backdrop for the city of St. George, is 10,365 feet tall and is the largest laccolith (a mass of igneous rock that has been intruded between rock strata causing uplift in the shape of a dome) on Earth.
Last week, I joined up with the Desert Fossil hiking club to do the “Yant Flats/Candy Cliffs” hike, one of the few popular ones in the area that I’d never tried. We had to 4×4 drive a Jeep about six miles up a graded road and then trek another mile on foot up a sandy trail to Yant Flats. The “payoff” was the so-called Candy Cliffs, which are sandstone cliffs and petrified sand dunes colored in shades of white, orange and red. Very pretty and unusual.
There were 24 people on the hike. When we arrived at the Candy Cliffs, I followed an experienced guy named Gary… and we almost immediately got separated from the other 22 hikers. Gary seemed to know what he was doing so I tagged along, descending several hundred feet down a sandstone cliff. It was beautiful and dramatic, well worth the effort.
All the while, there was no sign of the bulk of the hiking group. Finally, we hiked up the steep sandstone cliffs with great effort to the original place where we’d last seen the rest of the group. No sign or sound of them, so we looked around until we found footprints in sand and then followed them about a half mile until we came to another sandstone canyon area. There they were, down the slope a bit, having snacks. The group seemed quite pleased with their adventure, so I didn’t let on that they’d missed the most spectacular formations in the “real” Candy Cliffs area.
Ignorance is bliss, I guess.
One of the great things about living where we do is that visitors (friends and family) often want to do some hiking. Zion National Park, which is only a 90-minute drive from Mesquite, is always a Bucket List goal of visitors. However, it has become so crowded in the past few years that I avoid it if possible. Angel’s Landing, one of the most famous hikes in America, now requires a permit, and The Narrows (a slot canyon with 1,000’ cliffs) is only doable at certain times of the year. Anyway, “been there, done that”. Accordingly, I try to direct visitors wanting to hike to places like Valley of Fire, The Vortex, and (now) the Candy Cliffs. Lots of drama with a minimal investment of time and ground-pounding.
I am not sure how much more hiking I will be doing.
I will be 76 years young in a couple of weeks and don’t have the leg strength or stamina that I used to. My informal hiking group (Mac and Lloyd) has dissolved, as Lloyd moved to South Africa and my neighbor Mac has developed a severe medical condition that does not allow hiking or bike riding, things that he loves to do. I could still hike with the Desert Fossils; however, I’m not keen on big hiking groups… they tend to overwhelm the peace and nature that one seeks on a hike into the Southwest desert.
My son Jeff and wife Carol will be visiting us during the holiday season. They will probably want to do a little hiking.
Believe it or not, America is just short of twelve months away from the next Presidential election, potentially the last one ever held in this country.
It looks more and more like the election will pit two old farts against each other… for the second time. President Joe Biden, who turned 81 years old on Monday will apparently be the Democratic Party candidate, while ex-President Donald Trump, a youngster at 77 years old, appears to be a lead pipe cinch to represent the Republican Party. Biden beat Trump by 7 million votes in 2020; however, inflation, the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, and a very leaky Mexican border have resulted in the 2024 race being forecasted to be a very close one.
Incredibly, the disgraced former President could win the contest despite the many legal problems that he is facing at this time.
I shudder to think what would happen to, and within, the U.S.A. should Trump be elected. In his first term, he surrounded himself with fawning idealogues, ignored the advice of experts, ditched the traditions and protocols of the Presidency, and embarrassed our nation on the world stage by undermining our traditional allies and sucking up to dictators. And then, pooh poohed the Covid-19 pandemic and measures taken to combat it, resulting in the worst effort of all industrialized countries… a whopping 1 million deaths from the coronavirus.
This time around, candidate Trump is promising, if elected, to carry out a war of retribution and vengeance against all his “enemies”, which include Democrats, moderate Republicans, Jews, Mexicans, Chinese, journalists, FBI employees, judges and prosecutors, BLM activists, and former Trump Administration employees who had the temerity to rat out his illegal activities and half-baked policy ideas between 2017 and 2021. Trump recently referred to this group of perceived antagonists as “vermin” that needed to be eradicated.
Adolph Hitler used that same wordage to refer to Jews, intellectuals, and his opponents… who were later sent to gas chambers.
I have no doubt that Donald Trump, if elected in 2024, would cobble together some sort of Brown Shirt brigade to wreak havoc on our heretofore democratic country, much like he did (illegally) while in office during the Black Lives Matter protests.
Protesting government decisions would be a risky proposition under Trump II, as autocrats don’t like criticism. Elections would be in jeopardy, as well, because Trump doesn’t trust them and (based upon the Jan 6 Capitol Riot) doesn’t think he has to abide by them.
It is incredible to me that Donald Trump, with all his warts, could be elected next year. This prospect is the clearest evidence to date that the United States is circling the drain, potentially becoming a laughingstock among nations for its bad judgment. The guy has nothing to offer except hate, narcissism, and bad ideas.
Evidently, many Americans are willing to cast aside the Constitution and the rule of law and take their chances on a guy who already failed them once.
Joe Biden is quietly doing the job he was elected to do. He inherited an economy on the brink of a depression, which has been avoided thus far by drastic action from the Federal Reserve. Higher interest rate hikes have affected everything from soup to nuts, producing lots of wailing and gnashing from potential voters. However, the overall economy seems to be weathering the storm.
The biggest issues facing Biden’s re-election plans are (1) his age, and (2) illegal immigration. He can’t do anything about (1) and doesn’t seem to be doing anything at all about (2). Also, the military aid that the U.S. is providing Ukraine and Israel has struck a nerve among a lot of potential voters: wouldn’t that money be better spent here in America, making our country stronger?
I’m old enough to remember democracy working in this country. Up until a half century ago, leaders from both political parties would iron out their differences and create policy that made lives better for most Americans. “Compromise” was the key, and it resulted in the transcontinental railroad, the interstate highway system, putting a man on the moon, and so forth. Nowadays, the entire country is so caught up in partisan positions (Red vs. Blue, Religious vs. non-Religious, Gun Rights vs. Gun Control advocates, Pro-Life vs. Pro-Choice, etc.) that public officials elected to solve problems instead spend all of their time in D.C. blaming the other side and publicly badmouthing each other. These “adults” are engaged in an unending spitwad shooting contest… and seem proud of themselves for doing so.
Our system of government seems to be, in the Digital Age, incapable of functioning in the interest of the majority of Americans. Perhaps voters are ready to throw in the towel on democracy? That could very well be what happens in 2024.
Unfortunately, when a country moves from a democracy to a dictatorship, it is usually a permanent thing. Authoritarian figures don’t want or need input from the average citizen, and they certainly don’t like criticism. Scapegoats (religious, ethnic, racial) are used to deflect attention from the failures of the regime. Nepotism is almost assured. Elections, if they have any, are truly “rigged” to the benefit of the despot, much like the elections in Russia.
We Americans have become very used to free speech, freedom of movement, freedom to worship whatever God we want, freedom to possess firearms, and the Rule of Law. Authoritarian governments are not keen on any of these “rights”.
Therein lies the crux of the matter: discarding the democratic model (because you are frustrated by it) could put Americans in a worse position… and it’s a decision that is almost impossible to reverse short of a civil war.
I don’t know what will happen in 2024. I’ve been lucky to have lived under democracy for my entire life and think it is a viable model if elected officials take their roles seriously and TRY to solve problems. However, if most Americans want to experience something different, where all ideas and solutions emanate from the same narcissist, then so be it.
I won’t be around much longer to endure the consequences; let the Gen Z folks deal with it.
I recently made reservations for Charlie and I to spend our 50th wedding anniversary at a beach resort in Zihuatanejo, Mexico in March, 2024.
We are very comfortable down in ‘Ol Mexico, having traveled there a lot over the decades. My personal history with Mexico involves almost 70 years of travel, recreation, and good times. I can read and speak some Spanish, so I’m pretty at ease with the culture, and the locals are always friendly.
It began back in the 1950’s when my parents built a vacation residence in Baja California just a few clicks north of Ensenada. Our abode was a small travel trailer with an add-on structure so that there was sufficient room for two adults and four children. We had a family ski boat at the time, and it came in handy for skiing, fishing, scuba diving for lobster and abalone, and cruising in the ocean, which was a couple hundred feet from our “house”. My brother Terry and I had a ball there, goofing off around the beach and shooting off any firecrackers that we could find. My Dad’s uncle Les also had a residence there, along with a fishing boat, and I got to go out with the serious anglers from time to time.
The toll highway from Tijuana to Ensenada hadn’t been built back in the Fifties, so the 104-mile drive was made over lousy, narrow roads in dicey areas. We had to climb up over a mountain on the way, typically in the fog at night, as we would usually do the trip down from Los Angeles in the afternoon after my Dad got off from work. Once, we came upon a grisly auto accident on that mountain pass, found some bloody survivors, and we took one of them with us to a hospital in Tijuana.
The Tijuana-Ensenada corridor was pretty seedy then: lots of run-down dwellings, the ever-present odor of sewage, and roads with lots of potholes. Tijuana, back in the Fifties, was kind of an “anything goes” playground for young folks and American soldiers stationed in San Diego and Oceanside. Needless to say, my Dad always got us through Tijuana as quickly as possible to avoid auto accidents and crooked police officers.
The border crossing at San Ysidro was interesting to me, as a kid, because crossing the border going south involved passing a Federale official sitting in a folding chair, usually taking a nap. Coming back north, crossing the border, involved a large traffic jam where Mexican vendors would walk alongside cars hawking souvenirs and U.S. Border Patrol officials would give your car and passengers the once-over with minimal fuss. They were generally looking for contraband like fireworks and illegals hiding in the car trunk. Drugs were not a problem back then.
I think my parents sold that beach house in the late Sixties. The trailer park property was later leveled to make space for the Autonomous University of Baja California and a very nice seaside restaurant (Punta Morro).
In the early years of our marriage, Charlie and I visited Tijuana, Rosarito Beach, and Ensenada on numerous occasions to eat, drink, and shop. We took the boys down to Estero Beach (south of Ensenada) to do some beach camping with my brother Terry and his family. One of the fun things to do when visiting that area was to see “La Bufadora”, which is a famous blowhole located on a rocky point jutting out into the ocean (and where my Dad almost died many years earlier when scuba diving at that spot!).
By that time, the toll highway was in place and made the trip a breeze. I recall a fishing trip down to Ensenada that I made with some buddies one time. We got eaten alive by mosquitoes while sleeping on the beach, caught a lot of yellowtail, and stopped at a bar on the way north which was infested with prostitutes. One of my friends, who got chummy with one of the girls in a restroom, got a very itchy souvenir that day, if you follow me. HaHa.
We’ve visited Rosarito Beach numerous times for shopping (lots of great pottery, furniture, and yard art) and eating. Our favorite restaurant was called El Nido: great food, good service, very interesting décor.
For a while, Charlie and I and friends would make the trip south from Southern California to Puerto Nuevo (just south of Rosarito) to enjoy the famous lobster dinners. Originally (back in the early days with my parents) the place consisted of a couple of restaurants serving nice-sized lobsters. However, as time went on, Puerto Nuevo became overrun by many lobster restaurants and the lobsters got smaller and smaller and the price got more expensive. We finally gave up on the place.
Years later, we discovered a golf resort south of Rosarito Beach called “Bajamar” where we had some great times with some of our neighbor friends from Bear Creek. A portion of the golf course is located along the rocky shoreline, with four spectacular holes that would rival Pebble Beach at a fraction of the cost.
Charlie and I have been to Ensenada many times over the years by car and cruise ship. It has grown into a very large city, it’s a major port, and the downtown area where tourists go has become quite respectable. There are lots of good places to eat and drink. Hussong’s Cantina is a famous dive where you can get an overpriced cerveza. Our favorite restaurant is El Rey Sol, which is an elegant place serving a French cuisine.
The last time I drove the coastal highway south of Tijuana was on a golf trip to Bajamar with some buddies. We had a great time, but the trip was spoiled coming back to the U.S. when a Mexican cop braced us near the border for a $100 bribe, which we paid to get the hell away from him. By that time, the border crossing at San Ysidro had become a massive circus, what with the thousands of cars, thousands of vendors pestering the in-line drivers, and the increased security. The crossing now took at least an hour. So, that was the last time I drove a car south along the toll highway into Baja.
For a time, Charlie and I (and friends) used to do some short vacations down in San Felipe, which is a small fishing town at the northernmost point of the Gulf of California. To get there, one must drive south from Mexicali about 200 miles through a very desolate desert, with military checkpoints every so often to discourage local bandidos. The trek is comparable to driving the length of Death Valley… and then another 60 miles.
San Felipe reminded me of Ensenada back in the Fifties: a few restaurants, several bars, no crowds, cheap prices, and laid-back attitude. Our favorite nightclub was called the “Rockadile”, where they played loud rock and roll music, and the place featured an indoor sand volleyball court where drunken patrons would blow off steam. Another cool place in town was an open-air enclave of taco joints where the lunch special was several street tacos and a Pacifico beer for one dollar, and that included all of the chips and guacamole that one could eat. We would spend a whole afternoon there, eating and listening to Mariachi music. Just down the street, there was a bar with one of those automated bulls that daredevils could attempt to ride. I tried and failed.
On one San Felipe trip, our group of neer-do-wells decided to participate in the annual Pete’s Camp off-road 50K poker run in the desert. We drove in our friend’s Jeep 4×4 and trashed it but had a fabulous time, particularly at the 25K point where there was a giant marlin barbeque, free beer, and a wet tee shirt contest for the thousands of shit-faced participants.
Over the years, I did a lot of fishing down in Baja waters. My brother and I got started with day trips out of San Diego to catch albacore and yellowtail. Then, we graduated to 3-5 day trips to Guadalupe Island, which is probably the Great White Shark capital of the West Coast. The waters around this island are infested with big fish, seals, and big sharks. It was not uncommon to hook a fish, have that grabbed by a seal, and then watch the seal be brutalized by a huge shark. I can recall one time when I was fishing along the rail when a Great White, that had to be fifteen feet long, cruised just under the surface about five feet from me: awesome!
We later upped the fishing ante by taking 8-day trips on the deluxe Excel fishing boat (125’ long, 32’ wide, deluxe cabins, only 28 fishermen) to do stand-up fishing for bluefin, yellowfin, and albacore tuna, yellowtail, dorado, and wahoo. It was expensive but an adventure, fishing the famous Alijos Rocks, volcanic pinnacles which are about 180 miles offshore and 500 miles south of San Diego. My favorite parts were fishing for squid (bait) at night, bottom fishing for huge Yellowtail, and “kite fishing” for large tuna.
My brother Terry, my friend Ken Mohr, and I took a bunch of those trips. On one of them, we were returning home to San Diego when the captain came on the intercom and informed the fishermen that the Twin Towers in New York had just been attacked. On the way into San Diego harbor (a major Navy port) we were boarded and searched by Seals. It was a very sobering moment.
On other trips, my brother and I fished at La Paz (for Dorado; i.e. Mahi Mahi) and at Punta Colorada, which is a fishing camp midway between La Paz and Cabo San Lucas. That part of the Sea of Cortez used to be a world famous fishery, but illegal trawling in the area by the Chinese has decimated the stocks of game fish. We caught a few fish in Punta Colorada, but were not successful in finding many Roosterfish, which are said to abound there. My brother Terry caught a small (100 pound) Marlin by accident.
On another trip, we fished out of Cabo San Lucas for tuna but had little success. I caught a bull Dorado while trolling on the way back to the harbor; it was a monster. The highlight of that Cabo trip was driving ATV’s in the sand dune complex just north of town. Terry and I got to racing through the dunes and desert, going faster and faster, until I flipped my rig and got crushed by it. I was damned lucky to survive that wreck; my pelvis was black and blue for a month. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, right?
Speaking of Cabo San Lucas, I have been there many times, and it has really changed over the years. Initially, it was a sleepy fishing port where American anglers would attempt to land huge Black and Striped Marlin in famous billfishing tournaments. There was a small harbor adjacent to a small, dusty town with several restaurants and bars. I liked it then. Nowadays, there’s a big city, a big harbor, lots of pricey eateries and watering holes, and cruise ships unloading thousands of tourists each week. It’s now as American as San Diego… very touristy.
Years ago, Charlie and I and some friends stayed for a week at Pueblo Bonito Sunset Beach, which is a high-end timeshare resort located on the coast a few miles west of Cabo city. It was gorgeous there; however, it was on a hillside, and it required a golf cart taxi to get around. It also had a signature Jack Nicklaus golf course on the grounds (very pricey and always windy), along with a high-end restaurant which we frequented.
Charlie and I have taken many “Mexican Riviera” cruises on different ships over the decades, and they all stop in Cabo. Probably the most fun one can have there is ATVing the sand dunes and paddling a canoe out to the big arched rock called El Arco. On one cruise, with our grandson Craig, he and I jet skied out of Playa Medano… it was a lot of fun.
I first visited Mazatlan about 40 years ago when I went fishing down there with some friends. It was a much smaller metropolis back then and the touristy attractions were all located in the “Zona Dorada” and adjacent to the Malecon… where the original Senor Frog’s was located. Of course, everyone went there to get drunk, dance on tabletops to loud rock and roll, and act like fools. Lots of fun.
Over the years, Charlie and I took several cruises that stopped in Mazatlan and some other trips where we flew down there for a week on the beach. It was always fun, particularly riding around town in the “pulmonia” open-air taxis. They are modified VW “Thing” vehicles with custom horns that honk out playful sounds like La Cucaracha, Oooogah, Wolf Whistle, and such, and also blare loud rock and roll tunes.
We visited Mazatlan one time with friends who owned a timeshare at Pueblo Bonito Mazatlan near the Zona Dorada. It was very fancy and had a great beach full of walking vendors, parachute rides, and palapas where one could have lunch and drink Margaritas. We liked it and fell for the pitch… that we could shave $100 off our room bill if we attended a timeshare presentation. We fell for it and were driven out to Pueblo Bonito Emerald Bay, a sister resort owned by the same corporation. It was much fancier than P.B. Mazatlan, the facilities were new, and there were plans to build a Greg Norman golf course on the grounds. We fell for the pitch and purchased a “Junior” suite.
From that point on, we vacationed in Mazatlan every year at Emerald Bay, sometimes by ourselves, sometimes with family, and sometimes with our So Cal friends. At some point, two of those couples bought timeshares there and we proceeded to have a lot of good times over the years. We even upgraded our timeshare to a Presidential unit (two sleeping units) for two weeks per year. It was an extravagance, but we were making good money and enjoyed the hell out of our times down there.
One of the best things about Mazatlan is the food. It is a major seaport for commercial fishing and is just down the coast from Guaymas, which is the “shrimp capital” of Mexico. Over the many years that we vacationed in Mazatlan, we discovered many great restaurants. Our favorites are La Costa Marinera, Pancho’s, Panama, and Gus Y Gus (all near the Zona Dorada area) and Topolo and El Presidio Cocina in the historic “centro” area of downtown. Another fun thing to do, when you’re not sunbathing, eating, or drinking, is to rent a motorscooter and tool about throughout the exotic city. I’ve done it numerous times; always fun. Or, you can take a walk along the 13-mile paved Malecon walkway, which is perched on the seaside cliff above the crashing surf, like many locals do in the mornings and evenings.
It was in this area that our pulmonia driver stopped the taxi one evening on the way home from dinner in downtown… to show us hundreds of raccoons that had come up from the riverbed adjacent to the street to beg for foodscraps. They were fairly polite, for raccoons, and patiently waited for the bits of bread leftovers that we had on hand. It was one of the most unusual sights that I’d ever seen.
Puerto Vallarta is typically the southernmost port of call for Mexican Riviera cruise ships out of Los Angeles. We’ve been there quite a few times and its always memorable. While Mazatlan is sub-tropical, “P.V.” is tropical, with all manner of palm trees, parrots, and steep, forested slopes that go up a thousand feet or so from the shoreline. The streets are cobbled and the town center area is chock full of great shops and restaurants. There is also a very beautiful area along the Rio Cuale (in the middle of town) with nice restaurants and views… it’s called the Romantic Zone. The central downtown environment is focused on the large church (with a crown on top) which dominates the space.
My grandson Craig and I, while on a cruise visiting Puerta Vallarta, experienced an excursion called the “Great Adventure”. We hopped on a Zodiac boat at the wharf, drove about 30 minutes across the bay at high speed, disembarked at the tiny, indigenous village of Yelapa, loaded into military-type trucks, drove up the steep mountain into the lush forest, and rode donkeys the rest of the way to the mountaintop. Then, we zip-lined all the way down the mountain (perhaps ten long zip routes), belayed ourselves down a good-sized waterfall and then a 100’ drop from the forest canopy, and finished the trip with a slide down a water-filled chute. Quite the adventure: Craig loved it.
On another cruise (through the Panama Canal), Charlie and I stopped in Acapulco. We explored the town, saw the famous La Quebrada cliff divers, and did some shopping. That night, we enjoyed our 25th wedding anniversary at a spectacular restaurant up on a hill overlooking the bay with all of the twinkling lights of the city. It was magical.
Charlie and I have been lucky to have enjoyed lots of cruises in the Caribbean. We’ve been just about everywhere in that pond, including many stops in Mexico.
In fact, our very first cruise was on Royal Caribbean’s Song of Norway, which was the smallest cruise ship that we ever sailed and probably the classiest. One of our stops was Playa del Carmen, where we went ashore to take a bus tour to the Mayan pyramid in Tulum and, later, to the Xel-Ha lagoon for some snorkeling with fish, stingrays, and turtles.
Many years later, when the area had developed significantly, we spent some time at Tankah Bay (just north of Tulum) with son Jeff and wife Carol. It was a beautiful beach setting with coral reefs to explore, gorgeous sunsets looking out over the turquoise ocean, and numerous places in the village to enjoy the local cuisine.
We have enjoyed Cancun a number of times, as cruise ships often anchor there. It has become a crowded, pretty wild place for young people to party. The nightclub scene is not really our thing, as we tend to like to enjoy cocktails from a seat in a swim-up bar and consider our options for dinner that evening.
Our favorite place in Cancun, by far, is a place downtown called La Habichuela. It doesn’t look like much from the street but, WOW!, when you enter the place your jaw drops from the beauty and classy setting. The food is GREAT. I recommend that joint to anyone who visits Cancun and has the nerve to leave the tourist zone and drive into the downtown area. Maybe the best restaurant that I’ve ever patronized.
We visited Cancun once with my Mom and sisters while on a cruise. Charlie and my sisters decided to “swim with the dolphins” (they had a great time) while my Mom and I did some shopping and I took her out to lunch. It was a special time for us. On the way back to the ship, a severe thunderstorm swept into Cancun, the likes of which I’ve never seen. It rained so hard that you could hardly see through the falling water. After sheltering in a shop, and debating what we should do, it was decided that we would make a run for the ship down the quarter-mile pier. We did that and got drenched to the bone before stepping onto the gangplank. That frantic run was even the more impressive because my Mom was in her Eighties at the time.
During a trip to Cancun once with son Jeff and wife Carol, we drove our rental vehicle the couple of hundred miles west into the Yucatan rainforest to the ancient Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza. We stayed at the Mayaland Hotel, which is located on the national park property, and it was very nice. The next day, we explored the World Heritage Site… it was awesome, one of the coolest places I’ve ever visited.
Later, we visited several of the cenotes (underground water-filled caves) that abound in this part of the Yucatan. Probably the most scenic is the cenote Ik Kil where, I believe, Jeff and Carol swam and dove in the crystal clear water. Overall, the trip to Chichen Itza was a 10+.
Probably the most spectacular trip to Mexico that we ever took was unplanned. We were both working hard and needed to “get away”, but only could spare 5 days. I got a local travel agent to come up with a plan and she suggested Mexico City. I was not amused, as I had heard that it was very smoggy and crowded (20 million people and 20 million VW’s). She talked us into it and off we went. We stayed at the luxury hotel Camino Real located adjacent to Chapultepec Park, which would be Mexico’s version of N.Y.’s Central Park or the National Mall in Washington D.C. It’s a beautiful place populated by museums, walkways, statues and lakes. The most impressive attraction was the Museo Nacional de Antropologia which was every bit as impressive as the Smithsonian in D.C. We loved it.
By accident, we met a taxi driver who was also a licensed tour guide, and we hired him for two days to take us “wherever he wanted” in the sprawling city. He proceeded to do just that while giving us a college-level lecture on the history and culture of Mexico. What a cool guy! We visited the Presidential Palace, the National Pawn Shop, the Floating Gardens of Xochimilco, the Aztec ruins of Tenochtitlan (Templo Mayor), and the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, among other places. And ate at restaurants that he enjoyed: the food was great.
On one of the days, our guide drove us out of the city to the ancient ruins of Teotihuacan. This place is the most impressive ancient city that I’ve ever seen. It is a huge complex of stone structures built by… no one knows!… and flourished from 300 B.C. to 500 A.D. There are two large pyramids that dominate the ruins along with many other sizable structures (possibly religious or governmental) flanking a broad, stone-paved boulevard. The Pyramid of the Sun is the largest pyramid in the world, with four times the volume of the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt. At the time I visited, it was permissible to climb up to the top of the structure, which I did along with hundreds of Mexican locals. It was very steep and difficult to climb; one wouldn’t want to stumble, for sure. The view from the top was magnificent!
On my list of most impressive sites that I’ve visited, Teotihuacan has to rank near the top with Venice (Italy), Toledo (Spain), the Alhambra (Spain), the Vatican (Italy), the Amalfi Coast (Italy), Pompei (Italy), Santorini (Greek Isles), and Yosemite National Park (U.S.).
In conclusion, I have immensely enjoyed my decades of travel in Old Mexico. Lots to beautiful things to see, fun things to do, and wonderful places to eat good food. Probably the best thing about Mexico is the people: they are friendly, helpful, fun, and intelligent. I can’t remember running into any “bad guys” down there in my 70 years of travel… except that gangster motorcycle cop at the San Ysidro border crossing many years ago. He had a family to feed, I guess.
I can hardly wait for our 50th anniversary trip to Zihuatanejo!!
