Hello from San Carlos, Sonora, Mexico

 We arrived in San Carlos, Guaymas, Sonora, Mexico on November 11, 2011 after crossing the border at Nogales, Mexico.  We spent some time at the border getting our papers in order and paid for.  Included are our visitor visas, and our vehicle registration stickers.  I won't go into details because it can be complicated to explain, but we finally got on the road about noon and arrived four and a half hours later in the seaside town of San Carlos.  San Carlos is located on the Sea of California, across from the Baja on the mainland of Mexico.  It is a popular stop for touristos/as on their way south to Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta and beyond.
There was a detour that was clearly marked with orange signs pointing the way around construction in  Hermisillo for those travellers going to Guaymas.  San Carlos is next door, so to speak.  The detour only took about half an hour and was very easy to follow.

We are staying at Totanaka RV park again.  We were here in March 2010 and 2011.  We had supper at a restaurant across the road from the park where I tasted my very first margarita.  Yes, my first!   I am not normally an imbiber of alcoholic spirits but tonight there were three grande margaritas on the table for four poeple and I shared one with hubby.  Tequila itself not so nice but I can see why folks can get really drunk on margaritas.  Tastes like sody pop.  lol.  

Saturday morning we did the usual; breakfast, then hubby and I took a drive around San Carlos; which didn't take very long.  We came back to the rig and had some lunch then went out again.

Hubby and I and our 'winter friends, Bev and Vic', wanted to visit the Delfinario so off we went.  First up was the sea lion show.  I was chosen to be the 'girlfriend' to the elder sea lion.  I am up for some fun today so into the (sea) lions' den I walked. 

Mavey entering the Lions den

Thank goodness the trainers both spoke English so I could understand what they wanted of me.  I got to touch this big guy and I even got a kiss.  I was told I could kiss him on the lips but declined (and not very politely either), lol.  It was a real treat to do this and I was pleasantly surprised at how nice he felt.  He's not slimy at all.  This show was great.  Just don't stand too close to the pool.  You might just get wet!! (Like I did).

Mavey getting a smooch 

After this half hour show we were escorted over to the dolphin pool.  There were six dolphins in this pool and they put on a great show.  Below are some photos.

Waiting for a treat before the trick

walking backwards

 balancing act 

Taking their trainer for a ride.

Relaxing after the show; what a beauty

All in all this was a delightful show and I'd go back in the blink of an eye.

Tomorrow we are on our way again.  We will likely get to Los Mochis and stop for the night.  Later...

From Quartzsite to Tucson - a week has gone by so fast

On Saturday, Oct 29 we packed up Dos and Dolly and headed east to the Phoenix, Mesa area with an overnight stop at Saddle Mountain RV resort in the dusty little hamlet of Tonopah, AZ.  It was a very nice park with very friendly folks.  A large park with lots of open spaces but I'm sure they'll fill up pretty quick now that November is here.  I wondered why the buildings on the property looked a little derelict and empty and met a lady cleaning up the laundry room and asked her about them.  Apparently the motel like structures were built there after the RV park.  The rooms were like dorms and housed workers building the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station that is not too far away from Tonopah.  After the station was built the buildings were kept there for the maintenance crews who come in to do maintenance work on the power station.

lots of room at the inn

this saguaro is very old and needs a little support just like we do sometimes.

I have only one concern about the RV parks we've been staying at; no shade or very little shade for our rigs.  Otherwise most of the parks have been very clean and full of friendly folk.  I just don't know why northerners want to plant themselves out in the middle of nowhere in the desert with the dust and wind blowing.  Give me the ocean anytime. 

The next day we moved on to Mesa and found the Palm Gardens RV resort at 2929 E. Main Street in Mesa. 

The entrance is very small and easy to miss.

This is a well established resort with lots of park models and mobile homes that are kept in very nice condition.  There are quite a few owners who live there all year round.  Between the permanent homes spaces are left for the snowbird travellers who have not yet found their winter homes and we were one such family.  I had a laundry room and bathrooms right across the street from our site.  It was so nice not to have to travel a hundred yards or more to find the washroom facilities.   We stayed here two night, Oct 30 and 31st. 

We were invited to the Hallowe'en party on Oct. 31 in the community hall so we decided to get a free meal.  The hall was just one row behind us but we had to go around to get to it but when we got there we just laughed.  The room had tables set up all around the perimeter and most of the seats were taken by folk who obviously knew each other or they wouldn't have been all dressed up in the costumes they wore.  Wouldn't you know I didn't bring the camera.    We sat down and at once folks around us were asking where we were from and if we were staying the winter.  The dinner was chili, cornbread and cream puffs for dessert.  The chili was really good and spicy and although I'm not a cornbread fan, this cornbread was spicy and sweet at the same time.  Yummy.  The cream puffs are superstore variety.  After dinner they started to play games.  I felt a little silly watching them, so we left not long after dinner.

This was another very friendly park.  The managers went out of  their way to make us feel comfortable and even moved us to the site next to the one assigned to us so that our rig wouldn't be scratched up by the nice shady trees along the edge of the next lot.

While we were in Mesa we did a lot of running around.  We found a fuel filter (after much running around) for Dos and would have bought two of them, but they were $60.  a piece for a filter that is not very big.  We'll buy one when we come back through on our way home. 

I found a Joann Fabric and crafts store almost right behind a great Chinese buffet.  I picked up about three yards of very nice material to make little heart shaped pillows for breast cancer patients to put under their arms to keep the weight off their incisions.  More on that when I start making them.  I'll get the pillow batting in Mexico.

We started to use our water filter we picked up at Camping World in Henderson.  The water in Arizona is awwwwful; the filter takes a lot of the taste out. 

On November 1, 2011  11-1-11  we packed up and got outta town.  Our next stop was the Sunscape RV Resort east of Casa Grande, AZ.  It took about an hour to get there from Mesa.   It is another one of those stops in the desert.  Across the highway is a golf (?) course.  We drove over there to see it.  It is more a green tee box and green on each hole with desert in between the two.  We set up Dos and hopped into the car and drove into Casa Grande (about 16 miles west).  We passed lots of fields of cotton.  Now that is a dirty dusty job working in the cotton fields; and they have modern machinery making all  the dust.  Doesn't help that it is so dry out there.   It seems to me that they are planting their crops so that they are growing some, harvesting some, planting some, and having the land lay fallow.  I can understand the dust storms being created out here. 

We looked for Food City supermarket and found one on Florence Blvd.  It was full of all kinds of interesting foods.  There were a lot of Mexican/American shoppers and the produce and foodstuffs indicated that they were the main customers.  If you are south this way and looking for good prices on produce shop Food City markets.  They are much cheaper than the Fry's or Albertsons, etc.

I'll be back soon with some photos and more info on the trip from Casa Grande area to Tucson.  Later my friends.

Quartzsite, AZ

We arrived in Quartzsite on Thurs. Oct. 27, 2011 after driving only 75 miles or so.  We stopped at a lookout on the way to Parker where I took these pictures.  The rig is Dos and the toad is Dolly.  The view is of the Bill Williams wilderness wildlife refuge.  South and not in the photo is Havasu Springs Resort.  Lots of mobiles here and a nice looking golf course called Emerald Canyon Golf course.  The golf course is about 10 miles north of Parker, AZ.

We parked in the same spot we had last trip.  It's nice and sunny here so I can see why this little place swells with humans during the winter months. 

There is no large supermarket here so folks either bring their own supplies or go to Blythe, California  to the west; Parker, AZ north of here or Yuma, south of here to shop. 
Hubby quickly got the rig set up and the awning and lawn chair out.  The day was beautiful with a moderately warm day  (high 70's-sorry I don't do metric conversions very easily).  A nice breeze kept our rig cool but left a lot of dust on the window sills that I cleaned up before I went to bed.
Hubby took me round to two bead stores; Hardie's Beads and Jewellry, and Gem World.  He drove me home and I went back; of course I went back; are you crazy?  I didn't find exactly what I wanted; seems briolettes and awarness charms are in short supply here, but I did find some beads that will substitute for the briolettes.
I did three loads of laundry here.  It was time.  A person can only wear a shirt for so many days at a time before it has to be thrown in the laundry basket.
Hubby had purchased a really good looking chuck roast at Safeway in Lake Havasu and he decided to make a stew out of it.  You had to be here!  It turned out sooo good!  His slow cooker recipes; not anyone else's; are just getting better and better.  It was also one of the best chuck roasts I've ever seen.  Well marbled but not too much.  Very little extaneous fat on the edges.  I must say I like the meat down here better than at home.  The butchers cut their meats differently here.  To make this story short; the stew was delicious.  Thanks Chuck.
I cleaned up the dishes and went over to the Hall to watch the baseball game and work on the puzzle of the week.
It got very cold last night.  I don't know what the temperature was but I know I spent a lot of time trying to keep warm.  I was too lazy to reach over my head and pull down an extra blanket.
Today, October 28 is Friday and I'm in the club house wondering why all the chairs are not placed with any tables.  Here are the tables and you can see why.
The kids are coming.  The schools in Quartzsite (school?) take school buses full of little trick and treaters, escorted by the police, around to the various rv parks who are prepared for them and hand out little bags of candy.  This park was prepared for 200 children but there seemed to be over a hundred little bags left.   I guess there is a rule of some sort that you don't give any candy to the adults, although quite a few adults had little ones with them who had a little sac or bucket for candy and some did two bags.   I'm having trouble uploading photos in the same space.  Seems the second photo knocks out the first photo's position.  Still a big learning curve here, lol.  I'm retired, I should know it all by now; NOT.  The story goes that the children do not go house to house here on Halloween night.  This is their time for trick or treating.  Good idea I'd say.

The handsome pirate is a volunteer fireman from Quartzsite Fire Department.  He asked me to mention it.  He's escorting the buses and I guess a costume, this one in particular, keeps him cool and hip looking, lol.  Great job Quartzsite police, firemen and school district.

Laughlin and Lake Havasu

Sunday, Oct 24th we spent in Vegas at Sam's Town RV park.  We had a site that had a tree in front of us so we were shaded a little from the tree.
I found a brochure advertising a large bead store but our drive was fruitless.  There didn't seem to be any physical address that matched the one on the brochure so we gave up and drove out to Henderson and Camping World.  We did some shopping and ordered two fantastic vent covers to be installed on Monday morning.

On Monday morning we arrive for our appointment to find out that we can only have one installed because the solar panels are too close to the fan to have the cover installed.  We saved some money on that one and the gift certificate we have still has a bit of money in it.

We were able to start our journey south at 11:45 am and we headed south to Laughlin.  It wasn't a very long drive and we boondocked at the Riverside Casino overnight.  It was very warm in Laughlin and there were no trees to shade us from the sun. 

  I slept good but hubby had a bit of trouble.  He heard a/c fans running and that kept him awake.  Once I'm asleep I'm asleep.

Tuesday we left Riverside at 9:15 am heading south.    We didn't go far-only to Lake Havasu-where we are now parked.   Campbell Cove RV Park is listed in the Passport America book.  We purchase a p.a. card so that we can find rv parks that have a reasonable rate.  P.A. rate is 50% off the regular rate.  We got our son and his partner using it and they swear by it.  Check out their blog "The Youngest Snowbirds".  Not one photo of Campbell Cove did I take except for this one and Hobo is enjoying the view of Lake Havasu from our rig.

South of Vegas we saw fields of something that was being harvested.  On closer inspection we found that it was cotton being harvested.  I know they grow cotton further south of here so I guess it shouldn't have been a surprise to see it when we did. I wasn't quick enough to pick  up the camera and take a photo.

A good stiff breeze came up Tuesday afternoon.  We opened all the windows and soon had the rig cooled down to a living temperature.

I just wanted to let folks know that not all rv parks have wifi. Some have free wifi. Some charge for wifi. Some charge more than other parks. Those that charge ususally have a daily, weekly or monthly rate. Campbell Cove charges $2.50 a day. Idon't remember their weekly and monthly rates. We bought it. We needed our internet fix. I wanted to keep my blog up to date.
Today is October 26, 2011.  It would have been  my mom's birthday today.
 
We are here in the Campbell Cove RV Resort in Lake Havasu for another day.  The winds are expected to gain in strength as the cold front rolls through.  The lake is roiling with white caps.  The sun is shining though and the temperature in the rig right now is 77 F.  Hubby put up our solar blankets in front of the curtains on the front windows and they are helping keep the temperature down.

 I could be out doing laundry but it costs 2.50 for a load of laundry here and we do have enough underwear to last another day or so, so...

We took a drive yesterday to see "London Bridge".  The bridge was moved from London England to Lake Havasu and reset up brick by brick.  It's quite impressive actually.

The bridge joins the mainland to an island that has beaches, parks, RV parks, homes and lots of land for sale.






We've been seeing rigs pulling trailers with boats and cars and motorcycles.  Here are two examples for our viewers if you're thinking of pulling a car, boat etc.

Double decker trailer holds boat and car pulled behind diesel rig.

trailer holding bike and car pulled by gas rig

Sat. Oct. 22nd Lost Wages here we come

It was a very brisk morning today when we got up in Jackpot.  Hubby had a shower but I was too cold to walk all the way to the restrooms (read that 'lazy').  I dressed in layers.  Fleece pants, short sleeve pullover, sweatshirt, my favourite purple hoodie and lastly, my garage sale found jacket with a lining and rain repellent outer layer.  It took me a long time to warm up.

Driving south to Wells there was a dusting of snow on the mountain ridges.  It took an hour to drive to Wells from Jackpot.  Two more hours to reach Ely.  We've stopped a few times at the Prospector RV park when we've had the rig.  It is very basic but it has clean washrooms inside the hotel.  Dusting of snow on the mountain tops here too.

We stopped in Ely to gas up and grab coffee.  Didn't have breakfast today either.  Met a lady in the store who was from Vernon, heading to Yuma to park their trailer and then drive on down to Rincon de Guayabitos and renting a condo there for the winter.  Small world that's for sure.  This was another very hot, long day driving and we finally got to Las Vegas about 3:30 pm.

We are staying at the Hitchin' Post RV park tonight.  Sandy and Mike from Westbank stay here when they drive down to Mexico.

It is ok here.  It is out of the way of the casinos and it has lovely washroom and shower facilities and a nice pool that hubby and I took advantage of before he made supper.  We unhitched the car and drove down to Fremont street for a couple of hours after supper; lost money in the casinos; watched the light show (Jim Morrison), dodged the crazies that filled the street (Hallowe'en isn't until next week I thought) and were back at the rig by 9:30.  I wish now that I had taken the camera with me to town.  I'm catching up on my blog and I do have a picture to add:

Hobo wanted everyone to see that we are here.
Buenos tardes mis amigos

Oct. 21st third day out already

I need to keep this up or I'll get so far behind I'll just want to quit posting altogether.

Today we changed our minds about how far we wanted to drive.  I had thought Boise, ID might be a good place to stop, but when we added up the miles we realized that we could keep on driving all the way to Jackpot, Nevada.

On our way between Le Grande and Baker City, Oregon, we drove across the 45th Parallel.  The 45th is half way between the Equator and the North Pole.  This bit of trivia is for those who actually look for this kind of information on highway signs.

I would like to say that Washington didn't have many, read very few, rest stops on the route we took on Wed. and Thursday.  Once we got into Oregon they appeared more regularly and were very well kept.  The Weatherby, Oregon rest stop was very clean and well kept inside the washrooms, it was easy to get the rig and toad into a parking space and out again onto the highway.  Thank you Oregon rest stop workers.  You do a great job.

We hit a time zone change from Pacific Time to Mountain Time just south of Huntington, Oregon.  Just a comment about Huntington.  There is a campground down off the highway that is on the river.  We stopped there in the spring of 2010 on our way home from Mexico.  Only thing I remember about this site was that hubby met a fellow from Princeton there on his way back from the south.

The other change we came across was the speed limit when we passed into Idaho.  Cars max was 75 mph and trucks 65 mph.

Between Boise and Mountain Home Idaho there was road construction.  Here is a picture.

  This new road is cement and it goes on for miles.  Just thought I'd throw it in for those of you interested in road construction.

We've been through Twin Falls, Idaho a few times on our travels south and this last spring driving home we came home via I-30 instead of into T.F.  We took I-30 through the Thousand Springs Scenic tour.  We missed T.F. and didn't have quite as many hills to climb.  The route drives through and across the Snake River.  The roads are only two lane but they are well maintained.  This route goes through a farming area and small towns.  I was commenting to hubby that the corn is still not harvested and the stalks don't look as big as the corn we grow at home.

We came out south of T.F. onto I-93 and got to Jackpot about 4 pm Mtn time.  We parked at Cactus Pete's RV park, set up the electric (water turned off for winter) and headed for the casino.  I would like to point out that the washrooms in the RV park are nice and warm when it is cold out.

I had a good luck patch so I treated us to supper.  The area we camped in filled up with snowbirds, and guess who we ran into in the dining room.  Yes, the golfers from our golf club.  We beat them to Jackpot because we were up at 7am and on our way without having breakfast.  We stopped on our way and ate leftovers.  This was also another long day.  We don't usually drive so far, but we wanted to get to Lost Wages while the sun shone.

In the morning, after a very chilly night we said goodbye to Cactus Pete's.  Many of the snowbirds had already left and we didn't hear anyone leaving.  We got away about 7:30 our time.

Oct. 20, 2011 second day out

I put in a little bit of our second day in yesterday's blog so I won't make any more comments about that.
As we drove south we had to decide how far we would go.  We decided to drive as far as Pendleton, Oregon.  The weather was perfect for driving, not too cool and didn't warm up too much.

We passed a golf course and rv park about 15 minutes south of Moses Lake.  It is called Sage Hills Golf and RV Park.  It may be one of our stops in future trips.

I wasn't sure where we would park for the night, but hubby just drove through Pendleton and turned into the Wildhorse Casino.  We registered with Security and boondocked for the night.

Here is Hobo getting a good look at the hotel.  He is very shy so what the heck.  I'll take the picture anyway.

Hubby went for a walk down to the RV park that is part of this large Casino complex.  He tells me there is also a golf course.  Can't see the RV park or the golf course from this parking lot, but it is there.  I believe he said it cost 21.00 a night.  On his walk he ran into a fellow golfer from our home golf club.  He is on his way to Casa Grande, AZ and another couple who live at our home club's RV park were also there.  They are on their way to Yuma for the winter.

It wasn't too bad a night boondocking.  Friday is another day.