2004 El Rosario

On the 10th of December 2004, Tom, Sandy and I headed South to El Rosario, Mexico. The trip had two purposes. 1) To visit the Flying Samaritan's Christmas Clinic in El Rosario and 2) Do a shake down ride for our upcoming trip to South America. This included shaking things up and see if the ruggedized laptop would continue to work. This also applied to the new 276c Garmin GPS. It was also a testing trip for new riding pants, Arai helmets, sleeping bags and mattresses and a new tent. It was also our first ride on the 950 KTM over a thousand miles.

Tom and Sandy, ready to hit the asphalt.
On Friday night we stayed at the Estero Beach Motel, south of Ensenada. This is a place that I first visited as a kid, over 40 years ago.
Ready to head south on Saturday morning.
Following Tom south to El Rosario.
Time to remove the jacket liners and pick up some fuel.
Tom also just purchased a new 950 KTM.
The back side of the old "El Presidente" motel, located in San Quintin.

It was now time to get to the Flying Samaritan's Clinic in El Rosario.

This is the building, which Tom had contributed, enabling the construction of the facility.

This is the front entrance to the clinic.

The doctors see over 100 patients on Saturday.

The friendly "Check-in".

The clinic now has 3 dental chairs.

As we walked into the clinic we found Wally drilling holes into the walls of the clinic.

Coincidently, he was hanging a plaque which honored Tom for his contributions and support.

The plaque.......

	This was the December Christmas clinic. Many children show up for medical support AND a Christmas gift or two.
	Cute kids!
	More cute kids....
	Happy with their new toys....
	They don't get any more adorable then this.
	Checking out her new stash...
	The package was nearly too big for this girl to carry.
	The kids, lining up for their Christmas gifts.

It was now time to wish all the Samaritans a safe flight home.

The Cessna Cardinal, in the background, sure reminded us of our beloved N177DP, before the crash.

Our fully loaded KTM, waiting to haul us south.
All the airplanes take me back to when I was very active in the Flying Samaritans....

This is a memorial dedicated to the Fly Sam's (on the property of Mama Espinosa's Restaurant).

It all started in this village in 1962.

Sandy and I first visited "Mama Espinosa's" over 30 years ago,

when the road was JUST opened up south of the village!

The wall that this memorial is built upon was originally the support for a large fuel tank. Sandy and I used to procure fuel here, which was gavity feed to a glass bowl for measuring the amount of fuel used in the transaction.
This is a picture which was hanging in Mama Espinosa's Restaurant. It is a picture of her first Restaurant from 1936, which was located in El Metate.
As we topped our tanks, to head south from El Rosario, we ran into these 3 gents from Australia. They were just starting a 3 month trip from Los Angeles to the tip of South America. I feel cheated that I only got to ride with them for 60 miles!
I had everything I needed to join them for the next 15,000 miles, except the time off!

This was the first dirt road we took, in an attempt to get to Coco's Corner.

It was a wrong turn....

	We finally found Coco's Corner. If they are paying more than $5.00 per year in property tax, they are paying to much!
	The total square footage of Coco's corner is about 90 square feet.
	Tom was more interested in the motorcycle posters than the "Hanging Apparel".
	There may be a story, but I do not know what it is....