5C's Que Pasa

After the hectic pace and heat of Saturday we took our time Sunday morning.  We weren’t traveling too far so we were able to read, play guitar and just enjoy.  Still very windy and cool.  As we were packing up to leave I realized that we were missing our step stool. the one that was custom painted in Indiana to match the RV!!  Thinking back I remembered getting into the RV at our Dairy Queen stop yesterday afternoon and Colin eagerly reached for his chocolate shake.  In all the excitement of a forbidden treat ( due to the extreme heat ) he just locked the door and off we drove.  Of course it is all my fault I found out, my responsibility to look after my things!!!!!!!!  No worries, we’ll just pick up a cheap plastic one at the next Walmart.  The hills along this area, particularly the Tehachapi are full of wind turbines, all gracefully & seemingly effortlessly making electricity.

By 2:30 we were driving towards the Sequoia National Forest, in particular to visit friends just out of Exeter.  Chuck & Sandy live about 20 miles from the National Park.  Those of you who use to receive my travelogue in past years may remember that we met Chuck online via RV.net and have met them only a few times.  What is amazing is the similarity between us.  We both have the same make RV, a 40′ diesel pusher, both having had custom paint jobs;  we both have an HHR tow car although Chuck also has a Jeep but I’m working on that one;  we each have 2 dogs of which one is named Karma/Carmeh and who are in their 7th year; and are both hunters;  we each have a large bird kite stored in the RV bedroom;  we both love camping by the water and most especially Mexico;  Sandy loves to drink mucho vino blanco as do I while our guys are happy with the very occasional cerveza;  both Colin & Chuck lost our RV footstools this past trip….hmmm;  we both have a set of Cobra ocean kayaks…..enough already.  So you can see we just knew we were going to have a great visit.

They really are the same RV!!

Chuck and Sandy are beach kids from Ventura but somehow ended up owning 5 gorgeous acres in this lovely valley.  So quiet & peaceful that I think it would be difficult to leave here.  One of their son’s & his wife, along with 4 rescue puppies live in the large home while Sandy & Chuck have the perfect cozy cottage with the lovely porch.

A bunch of good friends...

We just chatted and chatted and talked some more...mostly about Mexico.

You know all those great colored plastic bags we sometimes get, well Sandy has been crocheting the bags into 'bigger bags'. Neat, eh!

..there is a new round style but looks like Chuck is getting a new hat!

Dinner was a great Mexican take out meal and all too soon, it was approaching 11:00PM and  bedtime!

Great friends, lovely home and a wonderful visit!

SHOP, SHOP, SHOP….

No not a new merengue dance number but what we have been doing the past few days.

We left Ajo Wed., March 30th headed for a day of shopping in Yuma.  The good news is that we put the jacks down and slides out and they all came back in without difficulty, just a horrendous noise!! The next stop Colin lubricated the jacks and voila all  is once again perfect!!

This fellow must have had a boring winter, seems he just goes around leveling out the gravel from passing vehicles. Do you think we could get him to work at Tres Amigos next winter?

Yuma was mainly just for the usual Walmart purchases and some RV stuff although our main supplier there is going out of business.  Towards the end of the day we found a lovely mall on the Yuma Palms Parkway.  It has every store imaginable, a great place to stop with lots of space for RV’s & trees for shade and grass for the dogs. I just might rethink stopping in Yuma!!  Finally headed north towards Quartzite where we spent two nights in the BLM lands at mile marker 112.  We truly love being here in the desert and so do the girls.

Caeli spends the days resting...so what's new about that?

Carmeh is our hunter!

It's about 94F here, very dry, our noses tend to bleed. I realize why I haven't been sleeping well of late...no ocean sounds!

Colin busy swatting flies, I did finally tell him about the price tag on his new shorts.

Finally headed into the town of Quartzite to use the internet and do some shopping.  Colin made a great find and got a huge 40 foot X 8 foot  piece of sand colored indoor/outdoor carpeting for $100.00.  This will be perfect for our new site on the Isla come November.

One of my favorites...Gem World!

Back to the RV where is was 96F in the shade at 6:00PM.  Our humidity indictor shows that it was -5 % but I think it just doesn’t go any lower.  Had to open more wine and I broke yet another opener – I am now on my 3rd opener in 5 months, I guess they just are making inferior openers these days.  It certainly can’t be from overuse!!!  We finally turned the AC on about 7PM to cool things down.  In the morning the humidity was 18%.

Today, April 1st, is Caeli’s 6th birthday.  Thank goodness for Gramma Katie’s email, she always reminds us.  A short drive to Parker for yet a few more RV essential items, a few groceries, drinking water refill and diesel fuel.  Diesel prices are all over the board from 4.17/GAL to 4.009/GAL here at Super Fuel for a cash purchase.  Stopped at La Paz County RV Park to dump & refill the RV water tank (cost 10.00) and have lunch.  Finally onto Lake Havasu where we picked up 80 pounds of pre ordered dog food from a vet for 1/2 of what we pay in Canada.  Another stop down the road for the special 100% biodegradable RV toilet treatment that we use (TST Orange Power Granular).  Did I mention that it was HOT, as in blast furnace hot.  

Another quick stop at the mall and then onto Libby & Skip’s for dinner.  Libby & I go way back, we graduated from nursing school in Edmonton, Alberta in 1973!  LIbby developed MS and now uses a wheelchair and has a working dog to aid her.  She is fiercely independent and drives home to Edmonton for the summers.  Unfortunately Skip had been hospitalized the day before but in the short 24 hours is doing better and should be home in a few days.  We called our families to let them know we were alright.  My Mom got after me for not posting…like when did I have time, eh!

When we got back into the RV it was over 100F inside, we ran the generator as well as the dash air as we drove to our overnight spot in the old Walmart lot (the new Walmart here does not allow ‘camping’).  Finally cooled down enough to sleep about midnite….a very long day of starts & stops.

We woke up to a gathering of old cars. Colin wouldn't mind towing this one behind the RV, the colors already match.

Saturday, April 2nd had us at the opening door of JC Penneys for a final shopping splurge.  Between the dollar exchange rate and the 50% off deals we just had to do it.  As we left Lake Havasu about noon Colin noticed that the dash AC was not cooling.  We thought we would give it a bit longer but no cold air.  The girls were starting to pant, it was 90F inside so we started to wet them down but it didn’t help.  Thank goodness we are all equipped and have many backup systems.  Colin turned on the generator while I turned on the overhead AC in the living room & turned the vents to face the front and plugged in a large floor fan (all this while driving of course).  We drove this way for about four hours.  Fortunately it was somewhat overcast which helped keep the heat down.  It never got below 88F inside.  The sun came out just as we passed Barstow and so we only drove another hour.  It was too uncomfortable.  We stopped at 4:30PM at a rest area between Boron and North Edwards on Route 58, except because of the sun, Colin drove to the next overpass and turned around to the rest area on the opposite side of the road, out of the sun.  We had been here once before, at least 6 years ago.  It is a perfect spot with a small RV area for overnights.  The wind was blowing and soon it was down to 74F.  We were all happy.  Finally some relaxing time.

A truly restful rest area!!

I am sending this from a ‘borrowed’ internet connection somewhere in the town of Quartzite, Arizona.  We spent yesterday shopping in Yuma and last night & tonight will be on the BLM lands @ Mile 112 on HWY 95.

So to continue my last post, after turning in our Mexican paperwork, we fueled up in Sonoyta and then arrived at the US border about 4:25PM.  There are a few structural changes but nothing significant.  A huge sign directs all RV’s to use Lane #1, which is the one on the extreme right, next to the Customs building.  The other lanes are under construction so at present this is the only one open and there were 2 vehicles ahead of us.  Something seemed to be going on with the pickup truck first in line.

There were four guards checking it out and then another officer brought out a small camera that he inserted into the fuel tank and looked though the other end.  Obviously nothing was hidden as the fellow soon took off.  When it was our turn, after the preliminary questions (where are you from, where are you going, how long have you been gone, how far south did you go) we were asked to pull forward to an exact spot.  We believe they were checking our tow car on a sensor parallel to the guard booth.  A different officer then asked us to pull quite forward to an area he directed us to and asked us to shut the engine.  Then he said “we’ll start with your pets…” and the questions just kept on and on with him writing down certain responses.  He very carefully checked each dogs International Travel Document & their rabies certificates.  Then he asked about meat, poultry, fruit, vegetables, seeds, etc.  He did not ask about eggs,  dog food, alcohol or tobacco or the amount of purchases we had made.  After the questions he advised that he would now be coming aboard to check things!!  I believe that this might be where our friends Susan & Joseph got into a bit of trouble.  If what he finds inside your rig is not what your previous answer was, you might be fined.  So once again Susan & Joseph thanks for heads up.  He only checked the fridge and freezer.  He was very thorough and found an avocado of which I had taken the pit out and put into a plastic bag.  No more avocados, the skins now might carry some disease.  Basically no meat or poultry, fish is still alright;  no fruit of any type;  no vegetables either, except he left me my onions & carrots. He also carefully checked the freezer and had to read the ingredients of my soy products before allowing them to be kept.  We were finally on our way about 20 minutes later.  He was very official and reserved but extremely polite.  I have to say this was the most we have been checked coming out of Mexico.

As we drove towards Ajo, where we would spend the night, I began to notice the number of Border Patrol vehicles traveling south. They seemed to be one after the other so I began to keep track.  Within a 32 mile stretch I counted 34 vehicles, all within a 25 minute period of time!!  Colin & I began to speculate how much this was costing Americans, how it affected their taxes.  Shortly we saw a fenced parking/office area, obviously for the Border Patrol, I hesitate to guess how many more vehicles were there, probably close to 50, perhaps more.  This was just for this area of Arizona, and I’m certain that Nogales, Mexicali, Tijuana, etc. will all have their own ‘stations’. What about the other US states bordering Mexico?  Is Mexico really so dangerous?

We were stopped at a routine Border Patrol check where we were sniffed by a dog.  As we left I asked the fellow why so many vehicles and border agents….he said and this is an exact quote, “To keep our country safe”!

Safe from what?  Am I over reacting??

We slept in!!!!  We only left San Carlos at 8:25AM but the rest of our Tres Amigos friends stopped for fuel & Terri & Mike just kept visiting, so adios amigos!!  We passed the prison on the far side of Hermosillo about 10:00AM where we saw a ?? Transito Policia  take down a ‘surfer van’ plated California.  He was our decoy and we got through sin ticket or ‘attempted’ ticket.  Maybe he had seen our ‘Sindicatura’ signs in the windows! Just outside of Hermosillo the median has been planted with orange trees.

It does beautify the city which has really grown and improved over the past ten years....

...but I see it as a waste....look at the rotting fruit!

At KM 111 (after Hermosillo) we had a brief Military inspection where the only question was “where are you from” and no one came on board.  Be sure to use the left auto lane here.  In fact this entire trip coming & going we were only ‘boarded’ three times.

Just prior to Santa Ana there is about 10KM of single lane traffic which is slow going.  Santa Ana itself has really spruced up in the past 12 months, lots of paint, color and new stores.  Looks great!  The road from here to Sonoyta (Lukeville) now has consecutive KM numbering.  YEAH!!!!!!!  The road is considered an Autopista as far as Altar with a speed of 110KM and just the one toll.  For a 40’RV & toad is was 102 pesos.

Lovely old church in Alter

We hit the road at 5:55AM and took an hour to do the dreaded road from Tres Amigos to Estrella, 60 minutes for a mere 10 miles or so!!  All the concern re the Mazatlan construction seemed a bit overdone.  The work is just north of Pemex #5432 on HWY 15 near the Ley store.  It will be a bonus to all travelers when complete but meanwhile it is a bit of a mess but quickly passed with no worries.

It's all in the merging....but will you check out the workers!!!

As opposed to all the military & police we saw in October, today there were very few in evidence.  All the toll booths in Sonora did have police standing alongside, perhaps a state requirement.  Just past Gusave we saw two men being detained with several machines guns as their truck was searched.  Sadly we saw two terrible accidents, one involving a semi, the other a passenger van….both on a perfect stretch of highway.  A sober reminder to drive safely.

We never knew what we were going to see next along this fast toll road…..

Colin quickly hit the breaks...

It took us a minute to figure out why the policeman was stopping us!! The hearse was followed by mourners on foot.

The girls did really well today considering that they have been free to roam a beach for five months and suddenly they are stuck in an RV for 11 1/2 hours with only a total of 45 minutes stopping time for fuel, food and bano breaks!!

Caeli always travels sitting between Colin's knees while Carmeh is either on me, the dash, or her bed on the stool between our seats. Today she was resting her head on Dad's armrest.

We were boarded once today for an agriculture check, they only were interested in taking oranges, apples and pears, the rest including limes & pineapple were okay to keep. At any other check whether military or agriculture we were simply waived through.  Our fuel tank is 100 gallons so we only needed to stop for diesel the once and I noted that compared to last year this exact same portion of the trip cost an extra 300 pesos in fuel but the exchange rate is better right now so….who cares!!  The trip is worth every peso.

Finally at about 5:35PM we pulled in to the Totonaka RV Park in San Carlos.  The first people we see are Terri & Mike Church who are more than surprised to see us.  They thought we might be another day out.  Then we were surprised to find 2 couples, who had left Tres Amigos RV2 yesterday, had arrived about 10 minutes before us!

Kitty & Mike, Susie & Roger spent last night in Celestino Gasca but Barb & Don drove on to no one knows where!!

By the way will someone let Tim & Cheryl know that they have friends from Colorado waiting here to see them later in the week!!!  So we arrived, paid and parked and then I decided it was time to relax!!  While Colin took the girls for a walk I said a brief hello to the Tres Amigo friends and had a long visit with Terri & Mike…oops, no photos this time…too relaxed!!!  My darling husband let me sit and relax while he set up, fed the girls and came to see if I was ok…we went home where he encouraged me to get this blog done.  So after driving all day he made our dinner and then did the dishes.  I am so lucky to have him, the girls and this great life.  Milles gracias mi amore!

Today we drove (well he really did the driving) 541 miles.

Nest stop, the USA!!!