Only a few days to go before departure

Here we are only a few days before leaving heading southbound. Most of our list of to-dos have been cleared and today we are going north of Newmarket to bring the motorhome back home. Then I have to trek out to the vehicle licensing office to get stickers for the motorhome, Lincoln Town Car, and two Spitfires. There goes another $300.00.

We can then start loading summer clothes and the food stock into the MH. I can also install the LED lighting that I have been working on the last few weeks. These will replace the units that I purchased on eBay last year that didn't work out. The light from those wasn't bright enough and the LEDs were failing rapidly. I am not sure it was due to heat or over-voltage. The new units are made from 3-watt LEDs and include a driver circuit that optimizes the current flow for consistent light output. I have two LED's mounted on a heat sync for each lamp. That should increase the light output and the heat sync should keep the LED's in a good operating range. I have even built a dimmer circuit for a couple of them. Works great too. I'll try to post a picture of the set-up later on.

On Sunday, we will start up the refrigerator and add some water to the tank. Monday morning will see us joining the traffic. Oh joy!

After all this lead-up, we still haven't decided on our final destination. We really want to enjoy the warmer weather and ocean activities in Mexico. Mike and Mavis from BC, who were our next-door neighbours in Lo de Marcos last season will be heading across the border into Mexico within the next few days. They will be reporting their observations and reviews of the campgrounds they stay at along the route down the west coast of Mexico. Based on their experiences, we will follow if all is well.

Getting ready to head south again

Here it is October 20th and we are getting set for another adventure southward. A few repairs/upgrades left outstanding from our return have been taken care of, most notably replacing the review camera and monitor that died, and replacing the spring base of the sofa bed (uncomfortable to sleep on). We have started to stock up on the food items we like to have on-board, like pancake mix, syrup, cereal, canned salmon, tuna, mmm butter, tonic water, etc., as these are unattainable in Mexico or not to our taste preferences.

We are planning a different route this year due to the reports Mexican violence along the northern border. The plan is to head to southern Arizona, do a little site-seeing, then maybe head south to Lo de Marcos. We will be monitoring reports of people traveling this route and make a final decision in mid November to stay in Arizona or make the run south. While Arizona has a couple of destinations on our bucket list, we really enjoyed Lo de Marcos and the beach and prefer to return there. We hope to get to the Grand Canyon  and Hoover Dam either on the way south or on the return, since we will be in the general area. We might even take in the Copper Canyon in Mexico too!

One report we viewed stated that they had no problems, and saw an increased presence of military and police patrols. However, they also found the campgrounds empty (mostly due to early in the season), with one campground where the entire front row (prime spots) had canceled their reservations.

We should be off and running on November 1st, heading to brother Don's in Indiana for a couple of days. The route south then takes us through Chicago, St. Louis, Oklahoma City, Amarillo, and Tucson. This segment is about 2200 miles. The segment to Lo de Marcos is another 1035 miles.