5C's Que Pasa

We crossed into the US about 3:15PM Saturday with no problems, just the usual human and dog food check.  They never even asked where we were going or for how long which surprised us.  We spent that night at the Walmart in Moses Lake.  It was 56F, the warmest first night we have ever had.

We had such a great sleep that I’d like to say we slept through the alarm but I actually made an error setting it so instead of driving at 8:00AM we were just opening our eyes. No worries!  Turned on the generator to heat up the place for the kids and to make coffee for us.  Put the curbside bedroom slide in (don’t usually open the living room slide in a Walmart ) and hit the store button for the jacks.  Back to the kitchen and then back to the front to see if they had stored yet so I could turn on the engine!  I saw a very tiny faint wisp of white smoke and smelt a bit of an odor.  I quickly shut off the generator and the jack pad and called for Colin who was shall we say otherwise occupied in the lavatory.  He came running, called for a fire extihguisher as he headed out the door.  Sure enough there was a four inch flame and white billowing smoke coming out the front of the RV.  He put the fire out as I was preparing to evacuate should it become necessary.  During the next 90 minutes Colin diagnosed the problem as a jack pad fuse that had failed but caught fire.  After a few trips to Walmart he completed the repair including replacing wire, connectors and such.

In the 'heat' of the moment I never got a photo of the fire!

The current problem was that the final jack had not yet retracted completely and when we started the engine an extremely loud high pitched whining noise filled the coach, telling us we had a problem!!  However each time we tried to retract the hydraulic jack we blew a fuse.  Finally we decided to hit the road despite the whine.  It is Sunday and there was nowhere to get any repairs done.  We would deal with the situation eventually.  After an hour we stopped for fuel—-what a relief to our ears and I image the poor girls ears also.  While fueling Colin had an idea which I agreed with but not the method so between us we got the jack retracted and were able to continue down the road in peaceful quiet.

We crossed into Oregon, where we were assulted with lots of rain & heavy winds and just south of Pendleton we experienced our first and hopefully last snow flurry of the season.  Not sure what we will do tonight but likely we won’t be putting the jacks down or slides out.  To our knowledge there is no Camping World until Las Vegas so we hope o find and RV Dealer on Monday and check it all out.  Good thing we left home half a day earlier.  The snow stopped, the wind picked up and we drove through numerous tumbleweeds.  We have never seen so many at once.

Tumbling, tumbling tumbleweeds...

Before I could connect to the internet and post this we ended up in Boise, Idaho “camped” in a parking lot in the rain.  We are at an RV repair shop, that I found in a 2006 Trailer Life Directory.  The book just fell open to that page.  Yeah!! They open at 7:30AM Mountain Time (we are living on 6:30 AM our time) so hopefully we will get some help. As we are parked right in front of their door they can’t ignore us.  I really do want to be able to put the jacks down & open the slides for the rest of the trip.  So tonight we will be very very cozy in our lovely little home.  Thanks to my wonderful guy who stayed calm and handled everything….thanks to whoever’s internet signal I am stealing and thanks to whoever invented wine…time for some of that and dinner…8:45PM Mountain Time..Sunday the 24th.

..is pulling us, enticing us to leave so off we go.  We moved into the RV on Friday afternoon, winterized the house and hit the road Saturday, the 23rd, a full day early. Well half a day anyway (left about noonish). Wonderful. We didn’t even care that it started raining in our two last hours of prep.  We are off……warmer climes and Mexico here we come!

Our friend Otto sent this in…he got it from another friend.

“Just to let you know that the roads are in generally good shape except for a few spots.  The one I have to warn you guys about is just north of Mazatlan.  At about Km marker 50 t0 40 there is a deep dip in the roadway with no warning.  This is the pavement that has sunk about 1 and 1/2 feet deep and about 5 feet across.  I was lucky that a tow truck was picking up the remains of a car that hit it at highway speed.  We could see were many have been launched out of control and hit the dividing wall.  Hopefully it will be fixed as you go through.  If not treat it as the worst Tope ever.”

” And another friend sent this in..

Bonjour les amis,

Nous sommes arrives hier soir à Bucerias sain et sauf.  On a eu aucun problème sur la route.

Les douanniers avaient un peu exagere la surveillance sur les routes mais dans les villes, comme

Reynosa, Monterrey et Guadelajara ils y avaient beaucoup d`armee et de policiers.

On a eu aucune crainte tout le long du trajet mais on suivait les reglements de routes , vitesses etc.

On partait à 7.30 le matin en clarte et on arretait avant la noirceur.

IL n`y avait aucun  poste d`armee pour nous arreter.   A mon avis, je pense que le tout est exagere.

Richard, aurais tu l`amabilite d`envoyer ce message à Michelle et Jocelyn de notre part aussi à Josee,

à Rejeanne, Raymond, et autres.  on a couche au gros Pemex à gauche juste avant le poste de payage

à St Luis de Potosi.  Aucune crainte à y avoir là car il y a un poste de policiers tout près et ils viennent

manger aux 5 au 6 restaurants sur les lieux et il y a aussi un cafe Italien avec Wi Fi.  Le dimanche les

restaurants etaient remplis de familles Mexicaines.   On vous souhaite bonne route et au plaisir de

se revoir bientot.

…quick translation is that they travelled via Reynosa, etc to the Puerto Vallarta area with no problems.  They drove from 7:30AM to just before dark and even spent one nite in a Pemex.

(CNN) — A 6.9-magnitude earthquake struck Mexico’s Gulf of California on Thursday, the U.S. Geological Survey reported.

The quake, which registered at a depth of 6.2 miles (10 kilometers), was centered between southern Baja California and the Mexican state of Sinaloa, about 65 miles from the city of Los Mochis in Sinaloa, the USGS said.

There were no immediate reports of major damage, though residents in the area were shaken up.

Frightened people streamed out of their buildings, local journalist Julio Cesar Martinez told CNN en Español.

Schools in the area let out for the day, he said.

“It was very strong,” Los Mochis fire department Cmdr. Victor Manuel Ledezma said. Weaker earthquakes had been felt in the area in the past few days, he said.

The fire department had not received any calls for emergencies in the immediate aftermath of the quake, he said.

Sent by Warren, today….

“Its a minor problem, nothing to get all worked up over – Just a heads up. At the border crossing at Nogales and up the hill about 2 Km away there are check points. No real problem as far as security – just a few questions like where are you going etc. However there is a physical problem – they have set up zigzag barriers that are difficult to navigate – sharp turns etc. I am sure you will get through but go slow and be diligent. As for the Tops at these 2 locations they are very high and one in particular is like going over a large log – not too wide just abrupt – go slow and try to approach at right angles or the sway may be erratic. At these locations you will be driving slow anyway so no real surprises at high speed. Joyce is still grumbling about loosing her glass pots that fell out of the cupboard and broke in a million pieces with the sway at that one spot.
Have a safe trip”

From another poster..

“They took out those diagonal topes. But the topes are still extreme. I was watching the rig rock near those posts and even though it was not close I still was worried. I went as slow as possible.”

If you go back and read my Oct 18 post there is a suggestion as to how  best get through this maze.