Logbook and Photos

Update 5 - November 14, 2003 - US/Canada Road Trip

This is a reprint of our Fall Update 2003 sent by e-mail to friends and family.

Friday, November 14, 2003

Hello again everyone and time for a quick fall update. We hope all is well in with your family and friends. We don't know where the time has gone. It seemed just the other day we were heading out on a four-month inland tour of the USA and Canada in our recently acquired motor home, and now we are working our butts off trying to get our RV unloaded and the contents back onto the boat, currently in San Carlos, Sonora, Mexico. In our last update, we had recently experienced the majesty of Arizona's Grand Canyon, hiked among the hoodoos of Utah's Bryce Canyon, explored the Mormon sights of Salt Lake City, swam in the lakes of Wyoming's Grand Tetons and marveled at wonders of Yellowstone National Park. After Yellowstone, we covered ground fairly fast and crossed uneventfully into Canada at a quiet Waterton / Glacier border crossing.

We spent about 6 weeks in Alberta, initially in our hometown of Calgary, then up to visit Sheila's family in the Breton / Drayton Valley area. A quick visit to Edmonton to visit Chris's sister and family and a number of friends there, and we were back in Calgary for some last minute items. Then it was out to the BC west coast to visit Chris's parents in Victoria. Without recounting all the events of the warm and sunny summer, it is suffice to say we all had a really great time visiting so many of our friends and family. Joel and Gerrit got to see all their aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents, as well as many friends. Our stops were all too short to spend as much time as we would have liked, but we did get to catch up with lots of people.

On September 11th, we crossed into the US again and began a 5-week trip back to Mexico, down through Washington, the Oregon Coast, the California Redwoods, San Francisco, Yosemite National Park, the Giant Sequoias, Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, Las Vegas and then back to Tucson, Arizona for some last minute provisioning. It was a great trip and, once again, time passed much too quickly. As a side note, around September 22nd, a major hurricane (Marty) decimated La Paz, Mexico then continued north up the Sea to graze the marina where we had left Tioga. Unlike La Paz where many boats sank, most of the damage to boats in San Carlos was cosmetic. Tioga remained firmly tied to her dock, and the dock didn't break apart, unlike a number of the other piers. A couple of new gouges now grace her recently painted starboard side.

We re-entered Mexico on October 14th loaded with supplies for the next cruising season. After a brief stop at the boat to unload the RV, we headed inland into Mexico for a couple of weeks. Our principal destination was the Copper Canyon; apparently five times the size of the Grand Canyon. To get to Creel, an old lumber mill town that is reinventing itself as the tourist gateway to the Copper Canyon, we left the RV in a RV park and took a train for eight hours through some absolutely magnificent mountain scenery and over 80 tunnels. When we arrived in Creel in the state of Chihuahua, we stayed at a youth-hostel-type hotel and met many travelers from all corners of the world. It reminded us of the days when we both traveled Europe together.

We arrived back at the boat in San Carlos just in time for Halloween, something that kids in northern Mexico like to take part in as much as our kids. The kids got dressed up and off we all went with some other cruising families.

It's now been about 3 weeks since arriving back in the San Carlos area. We have spent the time doing boat projects, bottom paint, getting the RV cleaned up and ready for sale in Tucson, and getting the boat reprovisioned with all the supplies we purchased in the US and Canada. Shortly, we will set sail on the next leg of our big adventure. This season, the plan is to immediately head south to Zihuatanejo, Mexico, for Christmas. Early in the New Year, we'll then move quickly into Central America where we will tackle El Salvador, Costa Rica, transit the Panama Canal, and then turn north again for the northwest Caribbean countries of Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, the Yucatan Peninsula and Cuba, before arriving in Florida next June. It's Aztec and Mayan ruins, barrier reefs, howler monkeys, and tropical rainforests. As always, you can follow along with our adventure at www.TiogaAdventures.com.

All the best from our family to yours,

Chris, Sheila, Joel & Gerrit Richards

San Carlos, Sonora, Mexico

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