Some photos for your information and your viewing pleasure. A mixture of tech and nature.

Due to shade of the trees and the building behind us I had to take the panel in the foreground off its mounting bracket and turn it 90 degrees. The two in the middle are 80 Watts each, the end ones 130Watts each.  They are a bit distorted by the camera lens. 

The solar supplies all our12 volt need, lights, fridge control board, water pump etc. Also when the power goes off (frequently due to too low voltage during the day and too high (over 132V) during the evening and night, keeps the batteries up so that we can run the 120 volt stuff from the inverter. We resort to the battery charger part of the inverter (Xantrex Prosine 2.0 ) perhaps once a week to give the batteries a good high voltage (14.8v) charge. 

17 November Pátzcuaro to Zihuatanejo

Sunday About five hours today, no stops until Zihua so we made sure the dogs got a good stroll, the snack pack had the requisite apples, water bottles were full and we set off at 10:20

We know this area quite well so rather than return to the toll road directly by backtracking or going through (or around) Pátzcuaro to the toll road we proceeded north through the lakeside part of the town on the libre to Uruapan for roughly 20 kilometers then joined the toll road. This part of the libre is very pleasant and quite a pretty drive. Then there is a steep climb to the highway and many Looooong steep downhills.

God forbid a truck loose its brakes here, it is usually several kilometers between runaway lanes. The last one actually leads trucks through a toll booth! Our rig clears the booth with about 5 inches clearance for each mirror, I can't imagine a runaway doing 100 Km/H or more getting through!

Forty five minutes after leaving El Pozo we were on the 37D towards Lázaro Cardenas. About an hour and a half of mostly downhill though not nearly so steep. Fuel use should be better than average! The highway was in surprisingly good shape considering the about of flood damage done to the area during hurricane Manuel. The worst bits were some of the expansion joints on the bridges.

The road had had some emergency repaving done and some of the bridge approaches had washed out.  It will need a proper repair job soon but they did a remarkable job to get the road open. It had been closed for almost a week. 

At 1:35 we paid the last toll at the exit to Zihuatanejo and we were southbound on the 200, about an hour from the town.

There had been a lot of road damage here too, especially the bridges and culverts but repairs were well under way and almost complete.

For the last couple of years there has been a push on the widen and straighten this section of the 200 but of course much of the work has been delayed due to the hurricane.

This bit still needs a little work:

Then we were back on the completed part and arrived in Zihuatanejo a little after 430. We intentionally overshot- our turn by a block in order to fill up with diesel. We just managed to get into the pumps leaving the back end of the jeep on the sidewalk and hopefully enough room to make a U turn back onto the highway.

Traffic was light so we were able to turn into the north bound left lane and easily get over to make the left around the roundabout. At 3:05 we arrived at El Manglar RV Park where the restaurant staff came out to welcome us home.

Odometer: 100641Km,  5,882 Kilometers since leaving three weeks ago to the day. Time flies when you're having fun!     (About 3,675 miles for the metrically challenged.)


Much more to come but that will take another post or two. Just to say we've been here since November 17th!

Saturday, 16 November, Queretaro to Patzcuaro through Morelia.

 Our route today. Queretaro (green pointer top right) south at Salamanca (blue pointer top center) over bridge (red pointer center) to Patzcuaro (green pointer almost off the map).

Quite a nice day again when we woke this morning, about four hours to Patzcuaro.  Since we are already at a Pemex it made sense to fuel up before we left and were on the road at 9:45.

Since we were on the wrong side of a divided highway we had no option but to head north for a bit. There was a returno in the left lane but it was pretty tight and there was a lot of southbound traffic we would have to find a hole in so we trusted ourselves to Mr Garmin and followed the GPS directions to exit to a small town. This led to a roundabout which took us under the highway then a left had us heading south past our last night's stop.

Our route took us through the city watching carefully for signs for the 45D to Salamanca. The GPS and the signs were in agreement once again, we reached the toll booth at 10:45, maybe an hour to our turn south on the 43D to Morelia.

Right on time we left the 45D and paid another toll. Five minutes later on the 43D another toll booth. No payment here, you take a card and pay when you exit. There was a little shop here so we stopped for a pee break for the dogs and Art bought a coffee to keep him awake on the nice straight (mostly) highway.

Then we got behind a group of work trucks, rolling along at some 60 Km/H. They were well over giving an indication that we could pass but we though we'd wait until there was no more oncoming traffic!

 We paid the toll ticket (375 pesos) then were soon on the "new" bridge across Laguna Cuitzeo. The first time we crossed this lake many years ago, before the toll road was built, we had to drive though the old village of Cuitzeo which was not fun! The tightest corners on the narrowest of streets. Would have been impassible with our current rig.

This floating bridge is 6 kilometers long. We just missed getting the sign in the photo.

 Soon we were approaching the city of Morelia, the highway much improved over the years. We recognised most but not all of it. Morelia has a periferico (ring road) that we were supposed to take, starting at the green pointer, top right, and 11 or 12 kilometers counter clockwise around to the blue pointer.

The GPS seemed to be on track, indicating a left turn several kilometers ahead. Since the right lane was full of vehicles and buses leaving and joining the highway we kept to the second of the three lanes Then we realised that we were in the second of four lanes and noted a sign in passing indicating that Trafico Pesado (heavy vehicles) had to turn right and we were not in the right lane. Then the traffic light ahead turned red the right lane was packed full... we had no option. Mr Garmin still said that our right turn was 2. something kilometers ahead. We were at the green pointer above.

Light turned green so we carried straight on hoping that no Transitos (Traffic Police) would notice us! Our right turn came up, we made the turn, traffic was quite heavy but not too bad. The Garmin then indicated a left turn coming up (red pointer):

Several more kilometer in traffic as seen above and below we  finally found ourselves joining a familiar street, the road leading to Patzcuaro. (Blue pointer on the map.) Almost exactly where the perferico exit would have put us.

Whew!

At 2:00 PM we arrived at El Pozo RV Park on the edge of town. There was a wedding party having their photo shoot here when we arrived and we later realised that the reception and party was going on across the street. As Mexican parties go, the music wasn't too loud, at least in comparison the the trains that passed the front gate regularly!

One more day to go!



Odometer: 100340

Saltillo to Matehuala Nov 14, to Queretaro Nov 15

Thursday, November 14, an easy drive some 250 kilometers to the south on what should be good and mostly flat roads. I have no idea what time we woke, but we had lots of time for breakfast, watching the news and walking the dogs before we left the gates behind us at 11:10.

Only one toll on the 57D, 80 pesos for the motorhome and 55 pesos for the jeep towed behind.  Part way along we went through a check point that seemed to be only interested in northbound trucks. This line stretched for well over a kilometer. Glad we were southbound!

We had put the coordinates for the RV Park into the GPS but as we approached we noticed that it wanted us to stay on the main highway which bypassed the city. Knowing better we kept to the right on the nice double laned highway into town. Note to other travellers. The road is pretty good but is has a low speed limit. I don't remember if it was 60 or 40 but there were lots of signs.

Three hours after setting off we stopped just into Matehuala for fuel. Two or three kilometers later we had arrived at Las Palmas Midway Inn

This hotel, really a motel, has a pool, very nice restaurant many small rooms set out like a motel, but only four or five in a row then another group--there are several rows. the property is quite large and spacious, and at the back on oiled gravel is the RV parking area with separate bathroom and showers with hot water. There is also a mile long cycling and walking trail which unfortunately this year showed signs of a lot of dog activity.

Since large rigs can't get through the entrance Art parked the rig in the large forecourt outside the gates and waited for Gillian to register and to get someone to open the gate at the far end.

By 2:35 we had worked our way through the motel units, guided by the gate keeper in a bicycle, and were parked and level. We took on some water here and dumped the holding tanks but didn't bother with electric hook ups. 2 of the three within reach of the extension cord we miss wired. Batteries were fully charged so we would be fine.

Even as we turned in the GPS wanted us to turn round and go back to the bypass! We didn't bother looking to see where it wanted us to go. We suspect (but hadn't checked) the the GPS coordinates were taken at the RV Park area rather than from the entrance and it was trying to get us there via the back roads.   Our SPOT shows where we were. Click on the link and select Satellite (top right) then zoom in as much as you need or wish.

With an earlier start we could have gone straight through to Queretaro, about another five hours, but there was no rush and we were trying to keep Art's headaches to a minimum.

We're not even cooking dinner tonight, not with such a nice restaurant a few minutes walk away.  As last year, the guests in the restaurant appeared to be business people, perhaps business people traveling between Mexico City and Saltillo or Monterrey, or even the US border at Laredo.

The food was quite nice but not as good as we had remembered, but still fine, no complaints.

Odometer: 99701


Friday, 15 November,

We left the park at 9:35, no problem getting across the two north bound lanes to turn south even though there was no traffic light.

  Through town we passed this truck with two enormous pieces of cut stone

then we were soon on the road towards San Luis Potosi and on to Queretaro.  Good road, flat and straight for the most part.

About half way there was our once again one and only toll for the day, only 105 pesos for both vehicles. This time we were charges as a 4 axle truck! Just past the toll booth there was a wide parking area so we took almost an hour for a leisurely lunch and dog stroll.

Note to RVers heading for the trailer park at the Pemex and the Juriquilla Inn:

The exit is very poorly marked and the exit sign cannot be seen until you have actually started the turn! Also the fact that you need to get onto the lateral isn't well marked. So. It's best to stay in the right lane once you cut off from the bypass. You will note many signs for commercial trucks bound for Mexico to take the bypass. You still have several kilometers to go but this stretch can get busy so stay in the right lane.  As you get closer keep an eye out for the Pemex on the other side of the highway.

A soon as you see it take the lateral on your right, this is a two lane one way lateral.

 (IF you miss it  there is another exit, again not very well marked, just ahead that you can take to get on the lateral. The problem is that you need to get right across into the right lane. Don't feel bad if this happens to you. It happened to us last year . . . and again this year!) 

    Ahead you will see two overpasses. The first is a pedestrian overpass, the second is for traffic. You need to slow and turn right IMMEDIATELY you go under the road overpass. The sign is very hard to see. This takes you into a 270 degree turn back over the highway then another right exit and 270 degree turn that puts you northbound on the 57 and the hotel and Pemex is just ahead on the right.  Pull into the parking lot in front and register at the motel office behind you and to your right.

I'd suggest that you walk in and scout out where you want to park before you drive in. Some of the grass is very soft at times:     Scroll down to Queretaro on this blog page

3:30, we had arrived without incident and a pleasant drive though traffic for the last three kilometers had slowed to a crawl due to road works on the centre barrier.  We opted to NOT park on the nice grassy area as we did last time (see link above if you must) and parked in the far back lot. Neither green nor level but nice and firm.

Art's headaches kept recurring, seemingly made worse by driving so we decided to pass on San Juan de Teotihuacan and the Teotihuacan Ruins this time and do it perhaps on the way home in the spring or on the way down again next year. We have visited the ruins twice in the past but never by RV.

First day in Mexico

Wednesday, 13 November.

I thought I had better date all these entries since they are way behind the posting date!

Art dragged himself out of bed at 6:30, Gillian following soon after. A "quick" breakfast, feed and walk the dogs and we were good to go at 8:00 AM. I should point out that feeding Trekker involves re-hydrating his  dried special liver problem diet.

The Garmin RV GPS didn't seem to think that there was a crossing here suitable to large rigs. It wanted us head northwest to Eagle Pass! A BIG detour! We had made this crossing so knew which way to go and what to expect along the way. We thought.

Our Exit was, according to the sign, 8B, to the Columbia Bridge. There was no 8 A, B etc, just exit 8, signed World Trade Bridge to Mexico. We can't use that one, it's too narrow and congested. However we took the exit to see what we could see as we got higher on the overpass. Then ahead we saw the sign for Solidarity Bridge, which is at the Columbia crossing. Whew! Soon we were back on familiar territory, the Bridge approaches having been changed--and much improved except for the lack of signage.

Over the next 30 kilometers or so Mr Garmin directed us at every opportunity to turn around and proceed to Eagle Pass. Fortunately we long ago realised that voice directions could become very annoying and a real distraction, we had long since muted the voice function.

At 8:30 we arrived at the Solidarity bridge for the Columbia Crossing of the Rio Grande, paid our toll of $7.00 US dollars and at 8:35 we had arrived at Immigration and Vehicle Import.

Even though there was no one in front of us (one couple were leaving as we arrived) it still took 40 minutes to get our 180 day tourist permits, copies of them, pay for them and get and pay for the temporary import permit for the Jeep. The motorhome doesn't need a permit, it has a 10 year permit good until November 2018.

A few minutes after ten we stopped at an OXXO (a chain corner store like the 7-ll) to purchase time on our Mexican sim cards and to fill up Art's travel mug with fresh hot coffee.  He had to wait for a fresh pot to be brewed.  Not a bad thing!

10:20 we are on the road and 2 kilometers later we had to stop at the final check point where customs pulled us aside for a look see.  Painless. No questions about what we were bringing in, our basil, thyme and rosemary plants growing in pots on the dashboard getting only a passing glance. The official, a pleasant young lady, opened a few cupboard doors which of course caused a few thing to fall out to her embarrassment, and we were on the road at 10:35.  Next stop Saltillo.

The highway was in pretty good shape, nice driving weather under mostly high cloud, the temperature rising though the morning to the low 20's. Very pleasant.

An hour later we came to the first toll booth when we joined the 85 D to Monterrey; 270 pesos for the motorhome and 205 for the car. Approaching the city we could see the cloud layer dropping. Not looking too good!

Then the periferico around the city; another toll booth at 253 and 130 pesos. As we climbed, the clouds became fog and we had to slowdown, not so much for the grade as for the lack of visibility. Happily all the vehicles had lights on and the 4 way flashers going and were well spaced. NOT the usual tailgating that is so common. Last year the day after we came though here there was a bad multi vehicle accident due to heave fog.

One last toll-- a cheap one, 80 pesos for both vehicles-- put us onto the 40D into Saltillo. Almost there.  We knew that there was a main street that would cut a large corner off and much of the heavy traffic an left turn coming up, but of course we missed it! As it turned out it was a good thing because it joined up with the ring road from the right very close where we had to make a left. It would have meant trying to cross 4 lanes of heavy traffic in about a block!

The GPS seemed to know were we were and we were going but having been to this hotel last year we were not worried. We saw our left exit in lots of time and were able to end up in the right lane after our turn just in time to take the exit to the lateral a few blocks from Hotel La Fuente. Last year we saw the hotel and took the next exit which joins the lateral just past the hotel and we had to make a couple of 'retornos". The GPS wanted us to take that exit (#3) but we knew better and got off at #2.

Art parked on the street for about 5 minutes while Gillian booked us in and made arrangements for someone to open the gate to the vacant lot we were parking on for the night.

This is a very busy and fortunately wide (three lane) lateral as we had to make a wide turn to clear the high curb and to line up for the narrow entrance. When Gillian and a hotel employee showed up a head of him Art got ready to go. He had to wait for a break in the traffic--there was a traffic light a block back--before moving  into the middle lane to make his turn.

As he started his turn from the middle lane two cars came up behind quickly, having just turned onto the road from an alley. One, sensibly moved to the left lane while the other ignored Art's right turn signal and Gillain's frantic waving, began to pass in the right lane. Too bad the motorhome air horns has stopped working but as Art slammed on the brakes the car braked too, swung to the left and passed as he should have and all was well.

We were parked and level by 2:45 Time for lunch! Hotel La Fuente is very nice, well groomed gardens, pool, tennis court etc. RV parking is on a large empty fenced lot often used for truck parking. There are no services, although we believe that there may be low power electric available at one of the lamp standards. Between our solar panels, the generator and the inverter we had no need for electric and our holding tanks were full or empty as appropriate.

We called Jesus and Marta only to find that Jesus was in Torreon some 260 kilometers to the west. Marta however was happy to meet us for dinner later that evening. we went to a small but well known hole-n-the-wall restaurant that specialised in enchiladas. Mmmmmmm good! Marta said that  frequently people are lined up into the street waiting for tables.

Laredo, last day in the USA

Tuesday, 12 November 2013

More than two weeks behind posting blog updates. Oh well, I'll get there eventually.


We were up and about at a reasonable hour, checkout time, noon and it's just a short run to Laredo. where we would spend the night at a Flying J truck stop, a few kilometers from our turnoff to the Columbia Bridge over the Rio Grande.

The morning was taken up with a leisurely breakfast, walking the dogs, emptying the waste tanks and topping up the fresh water. Once taking on Mexican water we would turn off the ice maker and the filtered drinking water at the sink we would be on bottled water for drinking.

We departed Braunig Lake RV Resort at 11:49 Eleven minutes before Check Out time  and turned north for a few miles into San Antonio where we connected via the 410 with the I-35 to Laredo. For the most part we had a more or less following wind, gusty but not too bad, quite a pleasant drive.

Less than 3 hours later we arrive at the Flying J to top up the fuel tanks. It took just a little over 15 gallons, not a lot, but we like to make sure we don't run too low, especially in Mexico. With any luck, we would only need two more fuel stops before Zihuatanejo.

By 2:45 we were parked for the night between a bunch of trucks. The entry to the lot was signed No Commercial Vehicles.  No Bob Tails. (Semi trucks without trailers attached.) One of the bobtails  beside us had his loud engine running all night. At least it kept us from being disturbed by the noise of other trucks coming and going!

 One trailer made us smile. Perhaps this explains a lot about Truck Stop Coffee! To be truthful, the coffee at Flying J is quite all right.

Not a lot to do here, we walked the dogs around the perimeter grass a few times, put the satellite dish up and watched the news from home and a program or two had dinner and to bed. Early start in the morning.

Odometer 99079.  4,320 kilometers since leaving home.

Well so much for being up to date; the last post was weeks ago!

San Antonio

So San Antonio for the weekend plus. No big problem, we're in a nice park in a nice city. We had been here before, no great urge to see the Alamo again and since we'd have Monday afternoon to find something to do while the rig was in the shop we decided to just hang around here and relax for the weekend. And do a load or two of laundry.

Friday, 8th November, as I said, a slow day. Gillian drove into town for a bit of shopping while Art and the dogs stayed home. Art's headache was mostly gone and there was no more nausea so we hoped the concussion would be done with before we hit Mexico. And maybe he could have a drink soon!

The volunteer residents put on a dinner on Friday nights and breakfasts Saturday and Sunday morning. So Friday night it was burgers and fries (or else Art would have had to cook).

Saturday breakfast was bacon or ham and eggs, toast, juice, and coffee or ice tea.

Sunday breakfast was all you could eat waffles, again with juice, coffee etc.

Somehow this weekend Art found time to wash the bugs from the windshield.

Monday morning was taken up with getting ready to set off for the day in San Antonio and possibly a hotel stop overnight.

Art went round to the nearby Valero station for diesel at 3.579 a gallon while Gillian and the dogs went in the Jeep.

We left the rig with Cummins a bit before our 1:00 PM appointment, the service desk sounding confident that they would find and fix the problem today. That is certainly good news. 

Now. Where for lunch? We knew of and had visited the River Walk, with the Rivercenter Mall at the end of it, last year and knew there would be lots of choices there as well as adequate parking at the Mall. Found it listed in the GPS Shopping listings, set it to GO and we went. Only once around the block when we got there as road construction got us and the Garmin a bit confused and when we were along side the parking entrance we were on the wrong side of a three lane one-way street!

We abandoned the poor hard put upon dogs in the Jeep and headed to the River Walk via the mall. We soon found an Italian restaurant and shared a very nice pizza while watching the birds and the wildlife. Of various types: A grackle was busy at a table two down dining on a crust of bread it had picked up from the floor and taken to the table top! Next to us a pigeon sat on the rail with it's eye on the bread basket. When it landed on the table the man dining there didn't seem to welcome the company and waved it away. 

We took great amusement at a sign on all the River Walk tables, particularly this one. Please Do Not Feed the Ducks Pigeons and Other Animals. Our photo might not be particularly politically correct perhaps, but amusing all the same.

Now to kill some time and do a little sightseeing. We had done the walk before, at least most of it, but thought this time we would do it the easy way, a guided tour on one of the many boats. It was quite interesting and learned some new things: Part of the Riverwalk was originally built as a flood control measure. The loop down to the Rivercenter Mall is all artificial; the fountains part of the water filtration system. The ducks seem to know just how close they can come to the tour boats, but a few have to paddle madly out of the way!

One of the hotels (below) along the Riverwalk was built in 7 months! All the rooms were prefabricated off site, including all electric, plumbing and ventilation systems and were put into place by two large cranes. According to the guide even the beds were already made up and bathrooms stocked! 

Here are a few more pics of the River Walk. City streets cross the River Walk in several places.

While on the boat Art's cell phone rang. It was the shop! It was too noisy to hear (Art's phone has an audio problem) so when we returned to “land” we found a lest noisy area and Art used Gillian's phone to return the call. They had located the fault, cost estimate about $500.00. Art said go ahead and asked if it would be done tonight. Happy! Happy! Happy!

As we stepped out of the elevator in the Car Park we saw Trekker's face staring out the windshield of the Jeep, directly at the elevator door! We wondered if he had been there the entire time! He usually naps while we are away.

En-route back to the shop the phone rang again. Still unable to hear anything, we just carried on. We arrived to find the motorhome was almost ready!

Gillian and the dogs went shopping for groceries while Art waited for the rig. Shortly it was time for him to take it for a test drive a mile or two up the highway and back to the shop. All was well. They said it would take fifteen minutes or so for the paper work so Art climbed into the rig for a liedown. A knock on the door soon got him up and back into the shop, credit card in hand. The problem had been a faulty engine position sensor. Art wondered why it would need such a thing; it was doubtful the engine would wander off on it's own.

Back to Braunig Lake where Art checked in for our last night in San Antonio. We could have the same space if we were out by Noon. Art agreed and was quickly set up and Gillian and the dogs arrived back soon after.

Odometer: 98841 kilometers.

Albuquerque to San Antonio

Tuesday, November 5th.

During the night we were wakened by an unusual sound. At long last re recognised it: Rain pattering, no, drumming on the roof. It continued on and off till morning.

During one of these awakening moments Gillian remembered that we hadn't made the photocopies of the documents we would need for the Mexican officials: Our passports, the registration for the Jeep and Gillian's driver's licence (we think—but better safe than sorry).

Art got up just a little before 7:00 AM, had a bit of breakfast, a cup or two of tea, and put away last night's dinner dishes. All while watching the Morning News on Global BC of course.

When Gillian surfaced about an hour later Art set off in the Jeep for a nearby (according to Mr Garmin) Office Depot. When he arrived at the designated area there was no sign of Home Depot. There was a Sam's club and a Walmart and several other shops but no Office Depot.

Art went into Walmart which was fortunately open, and asked a clerk about Office Depot. It had closed some time ago. She wasn't sure where another one was but she was able to give explicit directions to a nearby OfficeMax. The GPS agreed; 10 minutes later the copies were done and it was time to return to the RV Park which was not in the GPS. Happily, a street that ran along side this mall intersected with Juan Tabo Blvd, which Art remembered led over the freeway to the street the park was on. Another 10 minutes he was home. It should be noted that Art's sense of direction isn't always what it should be which is why Gillian is the navigator.

The overnight rain had gone and most of the clouds were disappearing to the west. Which would be our direction of travel for at least the first part of the morning.

A stop at the office to top up the propane, hook up the Jeep and we were on our way at 9:55 AM

Today would be a long boring drive for the most of it. As Gillian's father would have said, “Miles and miles of Bloody Nuthin”. A good sign was a following wind along the I 40, but of course that turned into a near broadside wind when we turned south on the 285. Sailors would refer to it as being “abaft the beam”. This was with us almost all the rest of the way, making for a little wandering in the gusts. At least the clouds streaming by kept us entertained with their many and ever changing shapes and one a passing freight train was close enough for a good look.

We stopped at a wide gravel space on the side of the highway for lunch and a bit of a rest, Art making himself a large coffee to keep him going. A mile or so further on was a nice wide paved pullout and a few miles after that a proper picnic area!

3:15 PM we stopped in Carlsbad for fuel, at 3.879 per US gallon, and of course as we carried on through town we found several a bit more expensive and a couple a lot cheaper; at 3.759. One dollar a liter! At several places we saw regular gas well under three dollars a gallon.

3:50 we arrived at Carlsbad RV Park and finally got settled in out spot about 20 minutes later. We would have liked to have been able to carry on down the road another hour or so but there is a dearth of RV Parks or even Rest Areas south of here. As it turned out this was probably just as well.

Many sites including the one we were given are being renovated. We had nice clean new gravel to park on, new electric posts, new water connection and new sewer pipe. BUT the patio tiles are all stacked up ready to be installed on the dirt where we have to walk and or sit. Fortunately it is dry! A couple of rubber door mats should keep the worst of the dirt out of the rig.

So for this evening: relax, watch the news, have dinner and work on the blog. When we first arrived we logged onto the wifi internet with no problem but when Art tried to log on later there was no internet available in spite of a strong wifi connection.

Just as Art finished typing this on the word processor, the internet came alive!

Tomorrow we will aim for some point roughly halfway to Laredo. When Art set the GPS for a route through to Laredo the estimated driving time was nine hours. We don't do this unless we really have to. The town of Sanderson is roughly half way and we had noted previously that it looked as if it might have possibilities.

We did see on Facebook that friends of ours are in San Antonio today. They too are going to Mexico and will be staying at El Manglar, where we first met them a few years ago. Not sure if we will meet up on the way down.

Tried to post it: managed to connect to the internet but it is soooooo slooooooowwww. My blog page wouldn't open. I remember having this problem here last year. There are a lot of permanent or long term residents here who I suppose will keep it busy until bed time.

Wednesday  morning. Tia had blood in her urine this morning--another bladder infection it would seem. Almost same place and time as last year. 

We'll take her to a vet who hopefully with her history will just give us a prescription for antibiotics, though he may insist on a lab report. 

The internet is a bit better this morning, everyone is off to work and/or school I guess. 

More later.

Well, it's later all right; a day and a bit later.  To continue with Wednesday:

After breakfast and getting the above posted, Gillian and the dogs went to see the vet.

 Meanwhile Art had been getting the rig buttoned up ready to go. Art decided that since our site was dirt except in the parking area he would dump the holding tanks at their sani-station rather than at our site.

As he arrived at the dump station Gillian returned to the park Gillian and the dogs returned, Tia with a prescription for more antibiotics.

All done Art started the rig in order to turn around before hooking up. The motorhome, like all diesels, are equipped with a warning light to WAIT to start. Depending on temperature this may take several seconds to go out. This allows the computer to come up to speed and for any pre-heat system to get up to temperature. Art MAY, again May have not waited to start and it when it started it was  running very rough. He switched off, waited a moment or two, started again , this time being sure to wait for the light to go out, which was only a second as it had been driven from our site.

It started fine, ran fine, so he set of to turn around. Then the CHECK ENGINE light came on. This is usually not good. As he turned around the light went off. This in better. Then it came on again, and went out again. Hmmmmmmm. Or words to that effect.

So we hooked up the Jeep and started the engine again. Check Engine light on. And stayed on. While Gillian went into the office to see if they knew of a mechanic Art set off driving the rig around perimeter of the park, perhaps 500 meters. Two thirds of the way around the light went out. Along the way Art noted that the tachometer needle was bouncing down to zero then back up. He couldn't hear or feel any difference in engine running or speed.

Fortunately, a diesel mechanic lived in the park! They gave him a call and about 10 minutes late he arrived to lead us to the shop where he worked, several kilometers up the road. He was involved on another vehicle but soon another mechanic came to take a look.  We had laughed that we were on the road at the crack of noon, but just to the shop!

The diagnostic computer didn't show anything specific except one instance of a short to ground. Now it was beginning to look like an electrical fault, possible a connector or faulty cable. This is not an easy or quick thing to diagnose in a motorhome. Full access involves removing the mattress, the stuff stored under it, lifting the wooden base, and removing dozens of screws to remove the steel firewall above the engine!

They couldn't do anything for some time but recommended that we get it looked at fairly soon.

We finally hit the road at 1:50, heading south to see what if anything would happen.

How far we would get today depended upon a couple of things; how the rig ran, and how tired was the driver, where were the Rest Areas. We knew of one campground from last year which we would avoid at almost any cost.

We didn't need a lunch break—we had made BST sandwiches (Bacon, Spinach, Tomato) while the mechanic worked. I think he smelled the bacon cooking, he had looked hopeful!

Soon we left the Mountain Time Zone and were now on Central Time and in Texas, the final state in the USA until northbound in the spring. Now Art would finally have to dig into the computer documents to find the manual for his wrist watch. At least this would last until we're north of Puerto Vallarta in March.

At 5:15 MST we turned left onto the I-10, Eastbound for San Antonio. Though the rig was running fine, we thought we should head that way, towards the big shops. Art proposed that if the rig continued without a re-occurrence we would proceed to Laredo and if still OK, we would cross the border on Friday or Saturday. Gillian wasn't convinced that would be such a good idea.

We pushed east on the 10 to a Rest Area where at 6:PM, some three hours since leaving the shop we stopped to exercise and feed the dogs and have a bit of a break for ourselves. There was another Rest Area. about an hour and a half further east so we carried on into the dark. The rig started and ran flawlessly. Art was still hoping for the Columbia Crossing Friday morning, Gillian still not so sure.

Five minutes past eight we stopped for the night in a nice Rest Area. There were a couple of other RVs and a few trucks in and out during the night, but a nice sleep. Especially since there was no T.V. In the dark Art hadn't noticed large tree overhead! No loss, nothing on TV Wednesday night anyway, except the news and we weren't bothered about missing that.

Thursday 

We had been tired! We woke up at 8:15! Somehow we weren't on the road until 9:45 and the decision as to carry on past San Antonio if the rig continued to run well was made for us: As we left the Rest Area, still on the entrance road to the freeway, the tach began to bounce down to Zero and back, the engine was losing power and the CHECK ENGINE light came on. Just for a few seconds, but it was enough. Slowly the rig gained speed and the light went out.

At 11:40 we pulled into a picnic area to phone around for a shop. Fortunately, the Freightliner book and the Cummins book that were included with rig when new (2002) were still there when we purchased it about 5 years ago. Not only that, but the companies listed we still valid as were the phone numbers.

The Freightliner shop was too busy but recommended their Laredo shop, which turned out to only be able to get us in on Monday. We really weren't excited about spending 3 or 4 or more days in Laredo, especially if some of those days we might not be able to stay in the motorhome. We tried Cummins in San Antonio, but got the voice mail.

Half an hour later we gave up waiting for a call back and hit the road again. A bit later we came to a  Rest Area so we pulled off and phoned again. After a lot of fighting with the phone (Art HATES his “smart phone”) we finally talked to a live service person at Cummins who booked us in for Monday.....AFTER NOON! Art expected it might be an all day job unless we got lucky, but now we may be there overnight. At least we have the option of staying in the rig overnight parked outside their lot. We'll see how it looks when we get there.

We had been out of the flat plains for quite a while, since later yesterday in fact and were now what is known as the Hill Country, though the hills that we came through were hardly worth the name. I doubt the transmission downshifted once.

 Now one more phone call to make: Braunig Lake RV Resort at the south end of San Antonio. They have room! And for our four nights: $94.00! Carlbad was $42 for one night and this is a much nicer park with excellent staff AND an active group of volunteers who are full time residents in the park.

We arrived at 2:00 PM, only 2 minutes later than the Garmin RV GPS had estimated back at the Rest Area.

Art got the rig set up while Gillian took the dogs on their badly needed walk. Trekker was bit upset since during the drive the freezer door had opened and crashed plastic containers all over the floor behind him. He needed to get out for a while!

When they returned they were put out on their lines to watch the world go by. Happy dogs. Trekker of course wanted in first, while Tia, when asked if she wanted to come in turned her head and looked away. She couldn't have been clearer. This is her usual response.

Inside, Gillian and Trekker settled in for a nap, while unusually, Art stayed up taking advantage of a working internet. After a while he realised that he too was ready for a nap but first went to check on Tia. No sign of her! Not on the grass outside, she had crawled under the motorhome and was curled up snoozing on the other side. She gave a little wag as Art went over to her but when asked “inside?” He got the head turn away.

Happy where she was, Art went back in and settled on the couch. Some undetermined time later as the three of us wakened there was one quick bark at the door: Tia saying “I want in now”. Funnily enough neither dog will bark to go out, though Trekker will sometimes stand at the door and sound a very low grumbling growl. Tia will bark to come in, but not Trekker. He'll just stand out there looking sad!

We watched the 5 o'clock news from home at 7:00 PM, while Art did a bit on the blog, or tried to, but people were home from work and kids were home from school, it ran slower and slower until he couldn't connect any longer. We had dinner, and about 10:00 PM discovered that the internet was up and running so decided to post what had been written to date, then it was time to call it a night. Except that while Art managed to upload this post, we somehow got involved in an episode of Father Brown, which carried on until nearly eleven!

Hey! We're up to date!

Utah to Alburquerque, New Mexico

Thursday, October  31

We did better today than yesterday, on the freeway about 10:15

Once on the I 15 we had to decide how we were going to get to the I 70 which ran eastwards towards Utah. We had several options: Route 6 which essentially ran the hypotenuse of the triangle but ran about 140 miles through the mountains. Option 2 was highway 28 along a wide valley, about 50 miles, but a lot further down the I 15 or Highway 50 even further south which was only 30 miles long but ran  up quite high--we ran into a little snow up there last year. Still, this route missed 50 miles of the I 15 and 50 of the I 70.

We decided on the 28 which turned out to be a good choice. The road was mostly flat and the weather cleared as we drove along.

Soon we were eastbound on the I 70, much colder here.

Though the weather was good when we got to Green River, where the 6 joins the I 70, only 25 miles or so from the Moab exit. Perhaps the 6 would have been better, perhaps not. The route we took was longer but more reliable.

Here is a map that shows our route and options.

Early stop tonight in Moab, though Bluff is only some 170 kilometers further on we'd need groceries before we got there. Also, the Portal RV Park in Moab has a nice dog park.

We were stopped and done at 4:40 on |Hallowe'en. We weren't sure if we would have any trick-or-treaters but we were prepared with a couple of large bags of candies. The kids old and young along the way will be happy with us.

There were no fireworks for which the dogs were grateful, Trekker enjoying his swim in the dog pond which in previous years was the fishing pond. Trekker liked the upgrade!

Odometer: 96,883 kilometers


Friday, November 1st

This is usually the day we cross the border into Mexico. It will likely be another week give or take a day this year.

Since is would be a short run to Bluff we weren't in any great rush to set off. Art went out to clean a few bugs from the front of the motorhome and found quite an unusual one. Must have been the time of year.

We left a few minutes before noon, checking out time. In Blanding we stopped for a while to do some Grocery shopping. It took a little longer than normal since Gillian's cold was getting her down Art was the Designated Shopper. He didn't do to badly and only forgot a couple of things. Yes, he had a list, but no pen to check the items off. Ah well. . . .  . Nothing too important.

About 2:30 we arrived in Bluff which has been a native settlement long before the Mormons arrived via a backbreaking route in 1880. Population according to the 2000 Census was 320.

We stopped at the Twin Rocks Cafe for lunch before moving on the half mile or so the RV park. For such a tiny town the restaurant is excellent. Even real turkey, sliced from a real bird, in the club house sandwich. And a nice craft brewed IPA to wash it down. The trading post too has a nice selection of native art work, crafts and clothing

The scenery here is the typical spectacular landscapes of southeast Utah, one of our favourite places. We have visited most of the accessable areas and last year did a little off roading with two couples we met in the RV park.

We were settled into Cadillac Ranch RV Park by 3:30, the dogs enjoying a walk, Gillian working on recovering from her cold and Art taking a nap just because.

We though we might spent another day here and take a trip to either Glen Canyon or perhaps just another drive around Valley of the Gods which we have done before. Glen Canyon would be an all day trip. We'll decide in the morning.

Odometer: 97,049 kilometers

Saturday

After we had risen and were having breakfast Gillian said "Let's just move on today". Her cold wasn't any better even though it was beginning to look like she was sharing it with Art.

The weather was still clear and cold. We now know what the Jeep would look like with a white top. The black one was covered in frost.

10:25 we left the park and stopped up the road for fuel, finally on the road again at 10:45

We're heading for Albuquerque, New Mexico, all being well. We again had a choice of routes.

Last year we visited Canyon de Chelly in Arizona which was only a slight detour and well worth it, though it cost us an overnight in a Wallmart parking lot on the way to Albuquerque.

This time it would be more direct, but we still had a three options. Once eastbound on the 64, we could turn south on the 491 at Shiprock, or turn south at Farmington on the 371, both of which join the I 40, or we could go a little further east on the 64 to Bloomfield and take the 550 south east to the I 25 then south to Alburquerque.  (On the map below, Bluff is just off the page top left--green pointer, and our destination near bottom right, the other green pointer)

Gillian favoured the 550 which we had taken before but Art didn't remember it at all, though most of it is marked as a scenic route, and he thought it would take longer. Gillian also thought south from Farmington was a good option.

Well, when we came to ask the new Garmin GPS ( for RVs) it sided with Art so that is the way we went. :)


The town of Shiprock is named from a rock formation of the same name. Our photo of it below was taken from the 491 due east of the rock at a distance off about 10 miles.

Fortunately for Art and the GPS, Highway 491 proved to be in excellent condition and mostly flat and straight. The occasional striking chunk of rock appearing here and there. We thought this one resembled a ruined medieval castle.

Fuel along this stretch was very cheap. We saw regular gas at 3.29 a gallon and diesel as low as 3.69. Our diesel in Bluff was 4.05.

Onto the I 40, we turned east again, 140 some miles to go. At exit 39 we pulled into a truck stop and parked off the the side to walk the dogs and have our lunch and a rest, on the road again at 3:20 and at 5:45 arrived at the Albuquerque Central KOA. We stayed here last year, it's handy to the freeway--almost too close--the traffic is going by only a few hundred feet away but there is an effective noise barrier.

We don't usually frequent the KOAs, they tend to be a bit pricy but this one we knew from last year, and though not exactly central it has good access to the city. They have a nice dog park with an agility course set out and good laundry facilities as well as having propane available which we will take advantage of. This link should show you where we are.

We are booked in for three nights, our last main shopping before the Mexican border in a few days.

Late Sunday morning we put a couple of loads of laundry in and got it out just in time to meet our friends for lunch at an excellent New Mexican restaurant, El Pinto where we spent a very pleasant few hours. Cathy and Ken visited us in Victoria this summer, we met them years ago in Mexico and try to keep in touch. After lunch it was off an off leash dog park.

Tia went in with Art and had a good time, including putting a rambunctious 7 month old Great Dane in his place. The owners said Thank You to Tia, saying that is just what he needs! Art replied, why do you think we called her Tia?--she likes puppies but knows how to handle them!

Trekker however was just too full of it to put him in the very busy (Sunday afternoon) park so walked on leash on the paths around the park, joined by Cathy and her new dog who is fearful of other dogs and somewhat of people. Gillian and Cathy did a little work on that and when Tia returned continued on with a few seconds of sniffing and moved them apart. It was nice to see that just before we left Cathy's dog wanted to go see Tia again and was only allowed a very quick sniff then put in the car. Progress.

We stopped at a pet food place for a final bag of dog food for Trekker, hopefully we will have enough for Mexico then home to the rig. The laundry hadn't been completely dry so Gillian took it back for another spin in the dryer them we all took time for a nap.

Monday was catching up on the blog day, getting Tia's nails clipped (not a fun thing) and shopping. Gillian found a bottle of Trader Joe's Blended Scotch Whisky at ten dollars, Art said "Sure why not give it a try. We have lots of Canada Dry Ginger Ale if necessary!"

Which brings us up to date. I might post a photo or two more this evening, but no promises. And who knows when we will have internet access again.


We'll be out of here in the morning for points south, likely Carlsbad. We won't be doing the caverns again--if you haven's seen them, do so. This is an overnight stop only. Wednesday we will be near Larado and we'll cross the border Thursday morning for Saltillo.

Odometer: 97,570 kilometers.

Here is our planned route from there which I will edit--add to or modify as we progress.

Overnight stops in bold

Saltillo.
Matehuala or possible through to 
Queretaro
then further south to see if we can find San Juan Teotihuacan to visit the ruins. This will be the closest we have driven to Mexico City.

From there to Patzcuaro via Morelia

And finally Zihuatanejo.