KEELHAULER KA-NEWS APRIL, 2007 you note for our contribution. This group takes care of Next club meeting is Tuesday, the G R Watershed. April 10th at 7:30 PM at the 7. Rob Hammond reported on activities related to American Red Cross. He is hoping for joint ventures, Middleburg Hts Community Center, flyers, and activities with ARC this year. We have a link to ARC on our website. 16000 East Bagley Road 8. Pat Guzowski reported for Library. He is open to Map to Meeting suggestions reacquisitions; he and others favor Program: To be announced. Doors open at 7PM, Instructional Videos. auction starts at about 8:30 PM, after a short 9. Chuck Singer reported re Safety. Suggestions: in business meeting. spring, dress for water, not air, temperature. CPR session is scheduled for 3/27 @ $39. Instructor will All meetings are open to guests. be our member, Ms. Debbie Avellone. 10. Old Business- member survey was accomplished; May meeting is likely to be on east side; we are talking to MConnell's Mill State Park in PA re Keith Clarke Keelhauler Meeting Minutes memorial bench; put-in at the mill on the Slip is being resolved with the Park Supt. and looks good (=user- th March 13 , 2007 friendly!). 1. Meeting opened on quite late, at 8.07 pm, due to room 11. New Business & Other- no new business; see website conflict. Large crowd at MH Rec Center and our room for trips; Ed C recommends Southern trip for was not ready. interested parties. Always contact trip leader , don't 2. Guests were introduced by themselves (n=8 approx.) just show up. and were welcomed. Ed C. has names and contact Adjourned at 8.37 pm for auction (conducted by master information. auctionner, Chuck S.) 3. Rob Hammond, Treasurer, reported a balance of approx. $3300 with CDs at approx. $6000. Cash flow Respectfully submitted and balance will fluctuate soon due to Vermillion race Andy Gross, Secretary, Keelhaulers expense and income. 4. Rob Hammond also reported on Vermillion race, ************************************************* scheduled for 3/25. Hoping for good weather and good volunteer turnout. Cleanup date is previous Sunday, 3/18. Members please pass out and post posters. 5. Dr. Trish Voss was introduced. She will be Program Please consider writing an article for your Chair/Coordinator for recreational, family outings club newsletter. You can write about your (flatwater or mild Class 1+), Already some trips are upcoming trip, a past trip, or informational scheduled with 1st one on May 12th. See material that other members may find of use. announcements. Send articles to [email protected]. 6. Mary Modesitt reported on Conservation. Grand River Partners sent flyers, stickers and postcards as thank Mexico 2007 Early on, after we reached the West coast we had some difficulty in finding campsites since several By John Kobak campgrounds had closed. In general we felt that more RV’rs are heading to Mexico, but about 90% of them We hate the Cleveland winter weather, so we decided are from Canada. The US press does not depict Mexico to head back to Mexico again for the winter of ’07. We as a safe place to travel. While in fact the opposite is invited Thury O’Connor to follow along with us in the RV true. The people are warm and friendly and if you ever he purchased last fall. had mechanical problems of any sort it is much easier to have things repaired in Mexico rather than in the States. They know how to fix, not just replace, things. Part 2 - More Pictures On our way Click for Map of our Trip We did what I call our taste of Mexican beaches. We started down the East coast of Mexico and just East of Vera Cruz at the beautiful mountain lake of Catemaco we headed due south and ended up on the West coast Crocodile waiting to eat the birds close to the Guatemala border. We then very slowly worked our way up the West coast exploring many It’s a bird watcher’s paradise, of course in some places beautiful beach towns. We finally ran out of time when the crocs ate several birds each night right behind our we got just North of Puerto Vallarta and then headed campsite. back East through Guadalajara and back to Texas. Part 1 - More Pictures Maruata - Our new Favorite place Zipolite Beach, Oaxaca Part 3 - More Pictures I took my kayak along and when the shore break was not Sometimes our accommodations were first class like too large, I got a chance to get a little exercise by this beautiful hotel, restaurant and campground on paddling around the bays and doing some surfing. Melaque’s beach near Barra de Navidad. Laguna de Tule Part 4 - More Pictures While other times we roughed it camping next to a Mexican family’s little one room hut. Into the waves Part 5 - More Pictures & Links It was a great trip, but I’m glad that there are not that many people heading to Mexico every winter. There really are not enough campgrounds to go around and some nice sites are being bought up by hotel companies building small hotels on every beautiful beach. We drove 3600 mi. in the US, averaging 600 mi/day while in Mexico we drove 3000 mi. and averaged only about 175 mi/day between camps. Other than their turnpikes the roads are not built for speed. We drove about 5 hours/day in Mexico. Gasoline was about $2.45/gal, about the same price as in the states. We only use bottled water which we buy in 5 gal jugs. They are available everywhere for about $1 each. I don’t believe that we spent over $40 for the entire two month trip and we use this water for everything except Chacala showers, We used their campground showers or our sun Of course they all were right on some of the most showers when boondocking. beautiful beaches that you have ever seen. This year we never got stopped by one military road We did a lot of beach walking early in the day while the block which searches for drugs or by one Mexican temperature was still in the low 70’s. However, not only policeman looking to cite us for a minor traffic did we have no rain on the entire trip but there was a infraction. cool spell which kept the highs in the mid 80’s, with low 60’s at night which was great for sleeping. There was no If you are interested in doing a trip like this, let us need for A/C ever due to the ocean breeze and our RV know, we can give you some pointers. Here is a link to roof top solar arrays ensured that we had plenty of some of our older Mexican trip reports. power even when we were just boondocking with no More reports on my Mexican trips. hookups of any kind. ******************************* Surfer's Ear Sucks: episode #1 - balked from the job. 'You don't have one bone blocking the ear canal, it's like the whole thing has grown shut' "Only hating when it rains" ... and he points out the thickening bones in my ear March 8, 2007, By Clay Wright canal ... they are the thickest bones in my whole scull What a winter! according to the scan. He worries drilling with no ear If you ever wanted to become a pill-poppin couch potato drum visible means possibly missing the canal (going into who complains like an old lady when it rains? Let me the brain). He worries a Chisel strike could cause a suggest twisting your knee and getting a wicked ear fracture running through the facial nerve (causing infection right before Green Race. getting to permanant facial paralysis). I'm freaked out, and start limp around on crutches whacked on oxycodone and in Googling to find old Shaun Baker articles, Bob near silence at the event, then finding out you need Gedekoh's AW writings, lots of horror stories, but find knee AND ear surgery before you will be able to paddle one website dedicated to my condition: again. My only consolation: I think the Rain Gods http://www.santacruzmedical.org/surfersear.html miss me, as there's barely been an inch since. Knee ACL and accompanying article. replacement breezes by, but after months and months <http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/archive/2005/May/ of ENT/Specialist visits, rounds of antibiotics, oceans 23/local/stories/02local.htm> of drops, and weeks spent in Lortab-land my Ear has me I e-mail the website and Dr. Hetzler writes back the on the Vacation to Hell. I can't hear but 50%, the pain next day with tons of info. When I ask him about is occasionally intense, I've got goo coming out some number of surgeries performed, facial nerve paralysis weeks, and I can't hear even straight hydrogen and time off the water after he's got all the right peroxide drops till they ooze down, burning and answers: 350 ears, no facial nerve or scull fractures, bubbling into my brain. My latest doctor finally admits and 2-weeks to 1 month usual healing time (as opposed 'till you get those bones removed there is just not much to 2 months after the drill). Then I ask about coming we can do'. out for the surgery and he's already got files made History: up with airport distances, hotels, drive times, and what I've paddled since I was 7, full time winters here at to expect.