The Car is fueled up, the boxes and bags are packed, reservations at the way stops are made, the only thing is to get up and beat the traffic through the bay area.
Funny how people up here time all their activities to bypass the traffic situations. Can't leave at 6 in the morning, because that will put you in the commute traffic and you will be crawling at 10 miles an hour.
I don't mind crawling if I am not driving, but hitting the brakes, the accelerator, then the brakes in tandem to the lights in front of you is not a low stress way of traveling.
At least in Mexico everyone just goes like hell, and hardly ever hit the brakes. Unless you are in Guadalajara or DF.
So, timing is everything, we should be pulling into Santa Barbara just about time to think where we might grab a nice Italian dinner. The ethnic food I miss the most, I think is Italian.
Now one of my blogger mates in Patzcuaro has turned me on to a cartel dealing in eggplants and basil, no longer will I chomp at the tortilla to whip up a pizza margarita anymore!
When we were building the house in Patzcuaro we use to make a lot of trips from California to Michoacan. Sometime the trips were made in 3 days. We usually got there and had to sleep for a whole day just to recover from the arduous drive. Then we figured out that the trip was going to be a nice stress less vacation, designed to enjoy, savor, checkout, experience and mostly take it easy.
I can do that very well, except for one thing I still have an issue with.
Cue the Squegeemen................
Now don't get me wrong, I do appreciate their persistence to clean my window, and I dutifully toss into their palm a few shekels for the good job.
What gets me on the way to Mars, is when they jump on the car and do the windshield about 1 kilometer from the last squeegee wash.
Like, Buenos Dias........don't you see my windshield has just be Pedroized?
So, then I have to roll down the window and a shouting match starts as I tell them the finer details of paying attention more and not jumping on the hood less.
I usually win, about half way through the first pass of the rubber wiper.
Sometimes when it is late in the day I just give up!
Whats a couple of pesos, is it going by him some tortillas, or perhaps a cold Pacifico?
I have a tray full of centavos and pesos, plenty to share with the people that have enough energy to work for a living........
Why am I getting all worked up for? After all, do I want to arrive at the emergency hospital suffering a heart attack with a dirty windshield.
Of course not!
And the kilometers keep on ticking...........
8 comments:
Ken,
The squeegeemen bother me too. The way I handle it is to be on the lookout for them and when they get near the car I hold up my index finger palm outward and wag it back and forth vigorously while giving them a stern look. This seems to work very well without having to say anything but then I am big and ugly so maybe that helps too. If one gets by me I turn on the windshield washers and let him have an earful of window washing fluid. Happy motoring!
Ha, I think the squeegeemen radar is universal Bob! I try too, but only succeed about half the time. What's funny is sometimes they keep doing it even while the wipers and washer fluid is squirting all over the windshield.
When my wife is at the wheel, she has some choice words for them, I haven't mastered that Spanish quite as well......
I like those guys when the windshield is dirty. When it´s not, that´s another matter altogether. I´ve never had it fail to turn on the windshield wiper.
It's amazing, some things transcend culture and borders. Squeegeemen are the same whether in NYC or Mexico.
Hope you make it home safely!
Thanks AC, we are about 1/3 the way down so far, we are in Ciudad Obregon, for the night. Squeegeemen in NY? How much do they expect for a moderately streak free windshield?
Ken, there's a new Italian restaurant in Pátzcuaro, "La Dolce Vita", on Calle Ahumada, halfway between Siete Esquinas and La Paz.
I only glimpsed what appears to be an attractive dining room down a few steps.
The menu that we looked at yesterday is short and representative of popular Italian fare in the U.S.
Personally, I'm not too attracted by it, as I can make any of it at home. However, it might be a nice place to go with friends when you don't want to cook.
Prices, IMO, are a bit high. Spaghetti al Pesto, $100 MXP. Berenjena alla Parmigiana, $95. O.k., not expensive by U.S. standards but higher by Pátzcuaro standards.
As the menu was glued to a reading stand outside, I couldn't flip it over and read the drinks and desserts list.
(Wanna bet that they have cheesecake and flan?)
Buen provecho,
Mike
Sadly, that restaurant will flop quickly. Hard to see. No parking. Relatively pricey. It hasn´t got a prayer.
Thanks for the input Michael, and Michael, You know pasta ain't cheap....must be hand made...Yeah.
We are going to have some visitors soon so hopefully we can try it out, but like you Michael, it's too easy to make it good at home, to pay that kind of price.
Maybe if they moved out some of the crappy cell phone stores out of the plaza there would be room for a restaurant to succeed? You think, naaaw probably not.
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