A four-day road trip includes a visit to a volcano

COLIMA, State of Colima, Mexico - After weeks of having fun with amigos from the U.S. - and me hacking Arroyo Seco dust balls up like a cat in need of shots - the Admiral convinced me to go on a road trip to the cities of Colima and Comala, accompanied by our New York amigos Mike and Karen Schamel. Mike and Karen were ending up a three-week stay in La Manzanilla while they escaped the freezing temperatures of central upstate New York.

Except for the confusion generated by having two people named Michael in such close proximity, the road trip was, as we used to say, a blast.

On our last day in Comala, we drove up to a tiny town and had lunch in a restaurant that had a great view of an active volcano. Yup, the volcano is considered active. We told a few Pompeii stories while we dined, watching the volcano occasionally belch out some steam.

We did quite a bit of belching ourselves from the great ribs and margaritas.


Volcano lets out with a little toot


The intrepid volcano explorers

Comala turned out to be a more interesting place for us than the much larger city of Colima. The small town is a warren of smallish houses and stores, mixed with very interesting bed and breakfast places. On the big town square, restaurants serve you free food - provided you keep ordering margaritas.

We had plenty of food one afternoon and enough beverages that Admiral Fox was moved to leave the restaurant table and check out the violin being played by one of the wandering musicians. The Admiral's Celtic tunes clashed a little bit with the banda music around the square, but the people were fascinated to see a blonde gringa playing the fiddle.


Sylvia introduces some new tunes in Comala

That night, we came back to the square just in time to see another violinist perform as he accompanied a great singer. The town square restaurants shut down their margarita machines before sunset but most of the town seemed to turn out to hear the concert.


Singer at festival



Our time in Colima was very short - just a quick overnight at the Hotel Ceballos, but the day we left I did have a nice conversation with a team of dancers from the city who were raising money for their practices and for costumes for some upcoming competition.

At least that was what they told me.

In perfectly accented English, they asked me if I could spare them any cash - anything to help their efforts.

I agreed, but with the caveat that I could get my photo taken with them.

I didn't have to ask twice.


The Captain with the dance team in Colima

They invited me to attend their practice that afternoon in Colima, but, alas, I had to make my way up the mountains to Comala where the volcano awaited.

Sigh.



As luck would have it, our night in Colima at the hotel also coincided with the arrival of 150 Harley-Davidson motorcycles (and their drivers and passengers, of course), part of a rally from Mexico City that drew headlines in all the local newspapers.

They were very well-behaved bikers - perhaps better behaved than us. But Admiral Fox was able to persuade one amigo to let her check out his bike, though she didn't have quite the right outfit for highway travel.


Get your motor running...

Seneca Lake winemaker, Dave Bagley dies of heart attack

VALOIS, New York, USA - Cousin Ruth Bills passed along some incredibly sad news just moments ago. The owner-operator of Poplar Ridge Winery has died of a heart attack - at 57!

It was only a few months ago that I was sitting on the deck of the winery, right next to Dave Bagley, sharing a bottle of his wine that he absolutely refused to let me pay for. I was a new friend, he said, and he hoped to see me - and the Admiral at his winery more.


Dave Bagley with his trademark smile

This past summer the Admiral and I got in the habit of going to his winery Sunday afternoons for a glass or four of wine and to listen to Cousin Brett Beardslee belt out tunes. Dave's winery was almost within walking distance of our Seneca Lake house.

And at the winery, Dave was a fixture on his own barstools, though sometimes he was likely to have a beer in front of him and not a glass of his excellent vino.

I didn't know him well, but he was well-loved in the community and was planning on marrying his girlfriend soon when he was felled by the heart attack. He was on a trip to Buffalo, New York to pick up wine bottles.

Rest in peace, Dave Bagley, and make sure the beer is cold and the wine appropriately chilled for when the rest of us catch up with you.

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Dave Bagley's obituary from the Elmira Star-Gazette

VALOIS -- Dave Bagley, the owner and winemaker at the Poplar Ridge Vineyards and Winery on the east side of Seneca Lake in Schuyler County, died Thursday while picking up an order of bottles in Buffalo.

Mr. Bagley, who was 57, used the slogan "Wine Without Bull" on his winery Web site. He said he did not like the "snobbery and pretentiousness that pervades the wine business."

"Have you ever noticed that the more pretentious and snobbish a winery is, the more uncomfortable you feel," he wrote on the Web site. "I fail to understand how this can be conceived as a viable marketing concept. We at Poplar Ridge strive to produce wines that are pleasant and fun to drink. We believe in good wines at reasonable prices. Over the years I have made thousands of friends with this simple and fun approach to wine."

Jodie Pulkinen, the tasting room manager for the last four years at Poplar Ridge, remembered Mr. Bagley Thursday as "bigger than life."

"He helped other winemakers and wineries get started. He was generous to a fault," she said. "Friends and family members are all gathering at the winery and we are having a glass of Bagley Brut."

Bagley Brut was Mr. Bagley's signature sparkling wine.

Mr. Bagley was an accomplished woodworker. He and his brother, George, made a 30-foot-long bar in 1993 with redwood tanks they purchased from Taylor Wine Co.

Wildlife also was another big part of Mr. Bagley's life. He contracted with local artist Norman Wells to create several wildlife designs for his wine bottles.

Star-Gazette wine columnist Jeff Richards interviewed Mr. Bagley for one of his weekly wine columns in the fall of 2002.

"Dave was quite a man," Richards said Thursday. "No pretense; what you saw is what you got. He loved the Finger Lakes and the customers who came through his door.

"And he will always be remembered for making a darn good bottle of bubbly."

A quick drive to New York & New Jersey for family visits

HEWLETT, New York, USA - We highballed down the highway Friday to visit with my brother Tony and his family and my sister Anne and her clan.

Tony lives in Shrewsbury, New Jersey, Anne in Hewlett, NY, only a little over an hour apart, except for traffic.

And traffic there was.


New York on a good day

But Friday we arrived at Tony and Marion's in time for lunch (thanks to a new GPS, more on that another time). We had a great visit with a lot of their family, shooting a little bit of video of my nephew Michael's children bounding into the pool at the beach club where the family congregates during summer.

That night Michael cooked up a fantastic dinner - Mexican food, of course - which was great and shared by several of his brothers and their families. The evening reminded me of Mexico, too, with the temperature just comfortable and the smell of ocean air. No tequila, no Cuba libres, but plenty of beer and wine, too.

Saturday, after one of those lo-cal, eggs, potatoes, sausage and toast breakfasts at a seaside restaurant, we battled with a few thousand (maybe more than a few thousand) people headed out to Long Island and the beaches. It's likely the torrential rainstorms kept a few people off the road, but it also made driving hazardous.

New York doesn't have the best roadway drains.

At Anne's we had a visit with nieces Jeanne and Anne Jr. followed by dinner at a local seafood restaurant where we were waited on by Anne and Bill's granddaughter who gave such good service, the other tables were starting to complain. Personally, I think they were jealous of the great lobster dinner that Bill inhaled, er, ate.

Now, back at Seneca Lake, it's countdown to Sasha Fox time. Cami is due to deliver the baby in Puerto Vallarta at the end of the month and Admiral Fox is frantically trying to get everything ready to fly down for the birth in case the August 30 date gets moved up - a likelihood the doctor has started to mention.

We had a little betting pool going on this, which if I am right, the Admiral will leave in just a few days.

Below is a short bit of video (with a couple of stills) from our muy rapido motoring adventure.

Dancing under the stars to Steve Southworth

LODI, New York, USA - It was the first dry day we have had in more than a week and everyone took advantage with lawn mowing and cleanup from days and days of deluges.

I took out the chain saw (my least favorite power tool) and whacked down a few small trees at the end of property that were blocking our view of the woods. The acre or so behind the house is actually owned by neighbor Mary Crouch, but we get to view the woods and watch the deer romp around.

Very nice.

As a reward for the hard work (and to celebrate actually seeing the sun), we went out for dinner at the Stone Cat Cafe in Hector with the Admiral's brother David, and his amigos (now our amigos, too). At the Stone Cat, four of us ordered, not surprisingly, catfish.

Gawd, it was delicious.

And then it was time for a quick trip to Wagner's Vineyards where we danced for an hour or so to Steve Southworth & the Rockabilly Rays, the same group that didn't play earlier this summer because Steve was in a car accident on the way to play.

Last night, he made it fine and it was a rockin' good time.

The neighborhood rabbits are going wild

VALOIS, New York, USA - I discovered a few days ago that those cute little rabbits who have taken up residence in and around the yard like cilantro. No, make that love cilantro.

The same cilantro I have growing in a pot outside the front door.

So now I am on full rabbit alert to protect the young zucchini and yellow squash that has just sprouted, as well as the tomato plants and broccoli. I suppose I will have to purchase some chicken wire to cage everything.

Last night, coming home from our evening stroll down the road, we spotted the bunnies below doing some kind of mating dance.

And they didn't seem to care that we were there watching at all.

Family and guests have left, the natives are all returning

VALOIS, New York, USA - All of our family and guests have left, leaving the Admiral and I alone here at Casa Louise for the balance of the summer with a list of to-do projects that's quite impressive.

But since most of the humanoids left, the natives - squirrels, rabbits, chipmunks and deer have come back to reclaim the property.

One doe is so tame it comes down the hill each morning as I burn the trash out back, looking to see if I throw anything green on the compost pile. A big cottontail rabbit has also taken up residence and started munching my flowers. He no doubt will take out after my vegetables soon.


Looking for breakfast


Squirrel and rabbit looking for chow

The rabbits are something of a novelty here at the house.

Last summer there were a few very tiny rabbits at the bottom of the hill, quite shy critters. This year they have grown up. And, as rabbits are wont to do, have multiplied like, well, rabbits, so that wherever we walk around the neighborhood, we are likely to spot one or two munching clover or in people's gardens.

This is serious gun country, and so I think the crack of rifle fire I hear occasionally might be the dispatching of a rabbit, though it makes me sad to think so.

Of course, they haven't started snacking on my tomato plants yet.

There are also raccoons in the neighborhood, though we haven't seen one yet this summer. Those little bastardos will get into your garbage cans and make one helluva mess. Several years ago one chewed his way through the screen on the front porch to get at a plastic bag of trash. And he didn't want to leave when the Admiral discovered him awash in the rotting vegetables he spread on the floor.

The Admiral eventually prevailed and he left - no surprise there - though the raccoon lurked around the house for the balance of the summer, hoping for a treat.

In my reading about upstate New York mammals (trying to see if there are otters in Seneca Lake) it seems that there are still a few moose on the loose in the state, though I'm not sure I would want to meet up with one of them wandering down our hillside while I burn newspapers in the morning.


Don't mess with Moose

The only moose I want to meet up with is Bullwinkle.


Bullwinkle J. Moose