Day 8: Catavina to Guerro Negro March 11 Tuesday

I woke up early to hear a few sprinkles and jumped up to get the bikes, the extra power pack, toolbag, and solar panel under the awning. It turned out to be not much and even though the clouds looked threatening, nothing much materialized except a drizzle.  It let up enough for us to bicycle over to the restaurant and sit down for breakfast, an internet update and a call to Mike to ask if he could water our plants next week. I wanted to bring my own coffee but Kasey said we could get some at breakfast. When we sat down and saw the Nescafe jar, I knew we made the wrong choice.
Our cook Matilda made us huevos a la Mexicana which was scrambled eggs and onions with a side of beans. The fresh tortillas were delicious. Hot sauce would have been a good addition. I finished eating by the time she brought the cups of hot water for the Nescafe. Wanting to be sure of what I remembered about Nescafe, I took a couple of sips. But I could not drink anymore than that. I knew my real coffee awaited me in my super insulated cup.
It looked like the rain was really coming and we did not want to bike in the rain so we asked for the bill, well, Kasey did since my Spanish is very minimal. We had no pesos because of the problems we had getting currency exchanged and she wanted 40 dollars to which we protested. Even a 20 dollar bill seemed excessive for what we got but we figured we were making friends.
As we were rushing around to get everything put back together, we lost sight of which way Comet went. Tad and Lincoln were roaming about and she was nowhere in sight. After a few false starts to get the bikes loaded and locked into place, we put the cover on because of the impending rain. That was a learning curve too and not sure it is secured the way it is supposed to be attached but nothing a few bungees can't take care of.

Still no Comet and because she is deaf I felt that I needed.to be sure she was not out of our sphere of influence. So I asked Tad to find his sister which he immediately headed for the arroyo and the vegetation near it. He sniffed in one direction, stopped to smell more deeply, then immediately change to another direction doing this until he zig zagged his way to catch up to her current location. What a good dog. I convinced her to walk my way back to the motorhome. Upon leaving the cover of the vegetation and seeing Kasey by the motorhome she sprinted toward him across the opening until she was safely by his side and ambled back inside.

Catavina is way in the mountains and there are no gas stations for a hundred plus miles. We probably would have been reminded of that if we had our Baja guidebook that is no doubt sitting safely on the counter in Roseburg. We wouldn't want it get it dirty or lose it.
We had a third of a tank of gas which should get us 133 miles and the sign said gas in 198 km which is 123 miles. Not much room for error but we live on the edge and decided that we could make it.
Take it slow, don't over accelerate or hard break if possible. I read to Kasey along the drizzly drive. When we were under a quarter of a tank we started wondering how far now to the gas station. Again, that guidebook might have been useful since we had no cell reception for days and across all of those miles.

We came upon the road that we labeled the road de Caca. There were actually workers repairing portions of it and sometimes we had to wait. Other slowdowns included a checkpoint where some nice young men in military fatigues and carrying a rifle said they wanted to take a look inside. I opened the door and he was greeted by Tad which made him smile and declare perrito, which Kasey said meant puppy. That was all he needed to see. Away we went.
We were getting close to Guerro Negro by the minute and hoped there was gas before then because we were now down to one eighth a tank.  50 miles of fuel.  No shoulder if we needed to pull off and trucks claiming their entire lane plus mirror width.

There are not too many more towns on the basic Google map that I could follow along on the phone.
The low fuel warning comes on and we are starting to be a wee bit concerned when in the distance is the little blue sign with the universal symbol for gasoline. We roll into the gas station and our day is saved. That won't happen again.  We clocked 423 miles on that tank of gas. About 23 miles more than we usually get.
One more stop before Guerrero Negro is a toll road. I mentioned not having any Mexican currency and when the toll collector asked for 50 pesos, Kasey startes counting out the coins that we still had from last year. 10, 20, 30, 40, and he just could not come up with another 10 and so while the cars started to pile up behind us, the toll collector waived his hand with that's fine when Kasey dropped another 5 pesos in his hand. Get outa here, he seemed to indicate.
The first goal in Guerrero Negro was to exchange some dollars, then go to the camping spot near Mario's and have dinner. But most of all, Kasey wanted that Margherita. We have internet so we caught up on messages and called to check in with Diana. Last year she was with us when we stopped in this same campground.