Tampico to Poza Rica

shortly after 8:00AM were on the road to Poza Rica (Rich Pool) an oil rich area full of wells and I think a refinery.

Another 100 kilometers of terrible road--we will never go this way again. Again, this highway does not have the base to support the truck traffic, and all they do to "maintain" it is to rip 2" of the damaged asphalt up and repave it. We saw many areas of new pavement which still didn't have the centre line painted on but had patches already!!! Sections of this were being redone, which meant many delays, until finally we reached the bit that had been done, and made better time for most of the rest of the trip. Until we caught up to a parade of junkers!

There were dozens of slow vehicles, some filled with belongings, most towing other vehicles, some of which were towing yet another! The most impressive was a cube van with a car inside, the front wheels of the cube van being up on the deck of a flat bed truck! It must have taken us 20 or thirty kilometres to get past them all. We even saw a couple of policemen watching them all go by.

The last bit of "freeway" into Poza Rica was still being constructed, so again we detoured through villages and the outskirts of the city.

It was about here that Art realised that the engine temperature gauge was reading 0 degrees! We carried on to the the Poza Rica Inn Resort arriving at 1:PM, where we are now ensconsed in what now appears to be the staff parking lot. There is water and electricity, but the AC is not wired properly (no ground) and unfortunately, the power management system in this rig won't pass on the power if it isn't just right. (ie grounded and in phase).

Art crawled under the rig to see if he could see anything shaken loose, but accomplished nothing other that a divot in the back of his hand. After we cleaned up and walked the dogs we were off to the restaurant for lunch.

What a pleasant surprise. We had an excellent buffet, great salad bar, carrot soup, chicken, beef, veg, potatoes, pasta, and T-bone steak, grilled to your order as you watched(if you wished)--we passed on the steak, same on the dessert, (maybe next time!) Two beer each, 900.00 pesos. ($86.00 Canadian) And the food was excellent.

The hotel has pool, tennis court, hot showers available near the pool, wireless internet, and a "zoo". Camping fee? 180 pesos per night. ($17.00 Canadian)

The hotel appears to cater to, or at least attract, the oil patch crowd, lots of orange or white coveralls in the restaurant. We met a few Americans, from Dallas/Fort Worth, a Canadian from Edmonton, and another from Calgary, who spends 6 months here every year. He is about to buy a small condo in Veracruz.

Next morning before breakfast Art went into the lobby to try to find a diesel mechanic. As the bell boy and a manager poured through the yellow pages (not much used here--only one listed, and that one didn't answer the phone) and the news papers, one of the receptionists jumped into the conversation. "Diesel Mechanico? si!" and proceeded to dial without looking up the number.

"Be here when he finishes the job he is on", about an hour. Later that afternoon, two mechanics showed up, one of them the receptionist's brother! Art explained about the road conditions, and his theory that something had shaken loose. They crawled around under the rig (the ONLY access to the engine!) for quite a while, came in and started it up, looked at all the gauges, shut it off and climbed back under. A while later they emerged, and together they and Art unscrewed the console to access the back of the instrument panel. The gauge was removed and inspected, and after much discussion, decided they might be able to get one locally from the Mercedes dealer--Freightliner and Mercedes being one and the same in Mexico--part of Daimler-Benz apparently. Of course by now it was after 2PM and all the parts place would be closed until 4; They would let me know.

About 6PM another receptionist came by to say that they had had no luck, and would try again in the morning, about 10. As they hadn't arrived or called by noon, and our holding tanks were approaching "Critical Mass" we pulled in the slides, retracted the jacks, fired up and drove down into another parking lot, in front of some of the rooms, where the sewer dump was located!!! This is primarily for the use of the tour buses. Art left the engine running while dumping, returned to the "Camping" area when done and got parked again. Before switching off, he plugged in the temperature gauge and PRESTO we had a "normal" reading!

He "dashed" (ha!--picture it!) back to reception, and told "Sandra" to call her brother, and tell him not to order the part, and to come by and we would pay them for their time. Later this afternoon he came around, and after some thought, asked for 600 pesos ($57.00 Canadian) Probably a bit too much, but he paid without argument.

So here we sit, everything working EXCEPT the electric. Art has mentioned it every day, every day he is told they asked maintenance to get on it. OK. We have a good battery charger which works on the shaky power, we are doing OK and have not had to resort to the generator.

We should mention that when we arrived there was another rig here, with French plates. On a Landcruiser frame, it was a specially built motorhome, somewhere between a class C and a van. He does various projects for the World Wild Life Federation, and is just finishing his world tour. Africa previously, this year South America, Far East, Alaska, BC, Canada, Mexico then Central America, the USA then home. Neat guy. His girlfriend just flew from Rumania to meet him and spend a couple of months.