getting back into the swing of things

We've been here 2 weeks and are settling back into routine at Savage RV Park in Lo de Marcos.

We work on little chores in the mornings or walk into town in the cool of the morning to pick up a few items then go to the beach from 2 to 4 in the afternoons, happy hour 5 to 6. 

Baseball for Vic on Wednesday and Sunday mornings.

We put out 2 hummingbird feeders a few days after we arrived and within an hour 2 different kinds of hummingbirds were coming to feed.  Now there are several varieties of hummingbirds coming to the feeders.  Among them Cinnamon, Rufous, Calliope and Black chinned hummingbirds.

Cinnamon hummingbird

One day the orioles came to visit us.  They checked out the hummingbird feeder on our clothes line behind our motorhome and then sat on the fence about 6 feet from our bedroom window.  We were surprised when  one of the orioles came up the side of our motor home and clung to the rubber gasket around the window, pecking at the window as if to say "put out more food"!  Beautiful birds!

We have also have a small family of painted buntings come to feed in the mornings in front of our motorhome.  The male is quite striking in appearance:

On Dec 2nd about 6:30 pm the manager of our park came to tell us that there was about to be a release of baby sea turtles.  We rushed down to the shore.  A local group called Campamento Tortuguero Lo de Marcos (the Lo de Marcos Sea Turtle Conservation Program) was managing the release.  Unfortunately our camera died after a couple of photos but you can see how tiny these creatures are in the photos we managed to take.

The baby turtles are released just as it turns dark to prevent the birds from capturing them immediately.  As always a wonderful experience!

We've all been busy with Christmas decorations.  The manager on the columns of his house and the group assisting with decorations of the palapa we use for happy hour.

December 8th Vic decorated our site. Solar powered snowflakes across the windshield.  2 strings of lights wound around the base of the palm tree plus our inflatable Snoopy and Santa.

A hand woven straw candy cane and wreath decorate the side of our motorhome.  We purchased these items from natives from the Patzcuaro area (interior Mexico)  that come to the coast to sell their wares each December.

While at the local nursery to pick up some herbs for our garden we purchased a poinsettia for our patio.

Our next door neighbours' decorations are displayed below.  Walter created a folding wooden frame for strings of lights to create a Christmas tree!

San Carlos to Lo de Marcos

We stayed 4 days in San Carlos, a one day drive from Tucson.  On our last day there 12 of us drove up to the beach bar called the Soggy Peso which is located north of town.  The food was great.  Vic and I enjoyed a shrimp quesadilla (large servings so we shared one).  These are a few photos taken from where we were sitting under the palapa there.

Liz, Heather and Pedro

watching one of two parasailers

We left San Carlos on Sunday November 23rd and stayed overnight at the PEMEX 4925 truck stop in the locked compound.  Just tip the guard 50pesos ($4CAD) to watch over you for the night.

The following day we drove to Mazatlan to stay at Las Jaibas RV Park.  We were in a site at the far back of the campground which was much easier to pull through with our 37' motorhome.  We were fortunate to have a pretty little pomegranate tree (maybe?) at our site plus we were able to pick fresh limes from the tree on the site next to us.

1 little pomegranate on small tree about 3 ft tall

We stayed in Mazatlan for 2 nights. We ate out at Roy's for the Monday night special of $50 pesos per meal and $10 pesos for a margarita.  We had 2 margaritas each plus our meals for a total cost of $140 pesos ($11.52 CAD) for the two of us!

We left Mazatlan about 7:45 am and arrived at our final destination of Savage RV Park in Lo de Marcos at 3:15 pm (4:15 pm local time as we cross from Mountain Time into the Central Time Zone as we enter Lo de Marcos).  We moved to a larger site this year which gives us a roomier patio.  It faces the opposite direction from what we are used to the last few years. The move was necessary as the park has installed small bushes between the sites that would have been an inconvenience when accessing the storage compartments on the driver side.

our motorhome between those of our BC friends

The view of the sites across from us with the new bushes.

This is a great little campground with 11 sites in it.  It is inexpensive at $5500 pesos per month (about $450 CAD).   There is a washing machine to do our laundry, a palapa where we enjoy our happy hour each day, free wifi, public washrooms with showers and 4 bungalows (hotel room with kitchen) that we can rent for visiting family members.

The weather is still a bit humid here at the moment -- highs of  30C and overnight low of 17C. 

We are settled in for the winter!

the coast of the Sea of Cortez

We spent 8 days at Mission View RV Resort in Tucson, meeting up with 5 other couples heading to Lo de Marcos.  The resort had lots to offer.  We took advantage of some of their activities and used their indoor swimming pool and hot tub.

The Canadian gang from  Ontario, BC and Calgary all heading to Lo de Marcos for the winter

A cold wave hit Tucson the last 2 days we were there so the day time high was 19C  with overnight low 4C ......brrrr. I know, I know...we have nothing to complain about.

November 19th we left Tucson with 2 other RVs to cross into Mexico at Nogales.  There have been major improvements made on both the American and Mexican sides of the crossing making it much easier for motorhomes to pass through. That is until you get to the Mexican customs area. We were in the Autos lane on the left (trucks and Autobuses on the right) and just about to enter the booth when we were re-directed over to the very right into the Autobus lane. We couldn't make the turn and had to stop and disconnect the car, back up, and then maneuver to to the right lane. What a pain!

We arrived in the late afternoon Totonaka RV Park in San Carlos on the Sea of Cortez.  The weather here is 29C in the daytime with overnight lows of 14C.  Beautiful clear sunny skies.  Here are some of the views from our RV:

Across the road, we spotted a channel marker buoy had drifted to shore.  The gentleman in the photo is fishing.  Another guest here reported they had been catching sierra, trigger fish and skipjack.

We have lots of butterflies flitting by and resting in flowering trees nearby.  Also a large dark coloured hummingbird with a green sheen to it's feathers comes by several times a day to check us out.  It flew to within about a foot of our friend when he was sitting on our patio at happy hour the other day.  The joys of warm weather!

The breeze in the morning is very light so I was able to get the radio controlled airplanes out and go flying while Bev attended to the laundry.

Parked in at Tucson

Monday November 10th, after departing from the Walmart in Pecos TX, we hit high winds driving to Deming NM.  We were driving straight into winds that were 55 kmh gusting to 75 kmh plus we were heading uphill as the terrain was climbing about 3000 ft in altitude.  Despite the highway being posted for 80 mph we had to keep our speed to 55 mph in order to get 5 mpg for our fuel consumption!

The winds were high until evening then calmed right down.  We had tucked in at LOW-HI Ranch RV Park in Deming -- our usual stop for that area.  We use our Passport America membership to get a 50% discount on camping fees.

The next morning we took the RV to Tinley Tee Tires in Deming for an oil change (including new oil filter) and lube job.  All for the cost of $46!!!  They were great people to deal with and they were very busy! It seems the local people think highly of them.

While waiting for the RV to be serviced we visited the St. Clair winery 3 miles east of Deming.  We did some wine sampling and purchased 6 bottles of wine.  

We were finished at Tinley by about 12:40 pm so headed out for Tucson.  We stopped for a DQ in Butterfield for lunch -- anyone who knows Vic understands he loves to have a blizzard at DQ!

passing by the ghost town where we took possession of our motorhome 2 1/2 yrs ago (just inside the New Mexico border from Arizona near Lordsburg NM)

nearing the New Mexico/Arizona border - nice rock formations in the area

We arrived at Mission View RV Park on the west side of Tucson about 4:30 pm,  another park accepting Passport America.  This is our first visit to this particular park in Tucson and we find it quite nice. The camp host informed us it is a popular stopping point for Canadians on their way to Mexico.

beautiful old saguaro cactus at the site across from us in Mission View RV Park

At last we are in shorts and sandals!  The forecast for today is 26C with an overnight low of 14C.  Comfortable!

On the road for our 6th winter in Mexico

We left home November 2nd, later than normal and too late in our books as it was quite cool (wind chill of -8C) and damp while we were packing up the motorhome.  Next year we will have to leave earlier!

We made one change to our usual set up:  we have loaded the bike rack on the RV instead of the tow car.  This allows us easy access to the hatchback of our HHR when we are traveling south. Not that we have lots of space there as Vic brought along 4 radio control airplanes to keep him amused during the winter.

We watch the Gas Buddy website to determine the best places to fill up our motorhome as we travel  plus we have the Pilot Plus card which provides a 4 or 5 cent discount per gallon at Flying J and Pilot Travel Centers.The gas prices have been going down as we travel south this fall, as usual: 

We started out in Canada with $1.11/litre (equivalent to $4.81 USD/US gallon). 
In Michigan we paid $2.76/gallon,
Indiana $2.74/gallon,
Arkansas $2.64/gallon
Caddo Mills, Texas we paid $2.50. 

Even with Canadian dollar down, our costs have gone down too.

Significant savings when we're taking on an average of 60 gallons with fuel consumption of 7 miles per gallon!

Our first stop was in La Porte IN to visit family for a few days and stock up on fresh meat, fruit and vegetables. Vic also installed new brake rotors and pads on the HHR for under US$100. Great rotors too as they are drilled and slotted for higher performance and resistance to "warping".  Vic also installed new hatch back gas lift pistons which makes it much easier to open the back hatch. Next stop was Forest City AR (just west of Memphis) for an overnight at a Walmart and then on to the Dallas/FW area.

Thursday November 6th we arrived in Grand Prairie TX (a suburb located between Dallas and Fort Worth) to stay at the Traders Village RV Park.  We needed to visit Costco for rotation of the tires on the HHR and fix a slow leak in one tire (covered by the Costco tire warranty plan) plus we wanted to visit the Flea Market on Saturday as it featured the Mountain Men Weekend event. 

The Mountain Men event included demonstrations of old pioneer days tools and techniques.

Forging tools

coon skin hats (perfect for our friend Dale!)

stitching leather goods

Camp cook wagon and supplies

other side of the wagon with the cook tending the fire trench

 the trench of hot coals to cook various items including a rabbit on a spit

This guy was showing how to start a fire with flint.

demonstration of the removal of fur from hide with a bone instrument

explaining the construction of the bow from dark pecan wood and the arrows with bone arrow head and fletching created of turkey feathers glued on to the end of the shaft

We wandered around the market as usual seeing lots of the same stuff. We bought only some local Texas honey. It wasn't a bargain but it is good.

Tomorrow (Sunday) we leave and head west to Pecos at our regular campgrounds...the Walmart. No power, no water, no sewage, and no Internet. Bummer but it is $0, easy to get to and easy access to the highway.

Home again

We arrived home on the evening of Monday, April 14th having travelled 7,184 miles since Oct 24th.

Luckily we had winterized our motorhome at our last stop in La Porte IN while the weather was mild.

During our first night at home we had freezing rain and the next morning we awoke to find snow on the ground!

a view from our bedroom window

Now we are back to winter coats, gloves, etc and the motorhome is back at the storage lot.

We miss Mexico already, not only for warm weather but inexpensive fruit and vegetables! 

side trip to Alamos

After we left Mazatlan, we traveled north to Navajoa and took a side road 51 km to the town of Alamos, a "Pueblo Magico".   The town is at an elevation of 1360 ft and has a current population of about 17,000.

Alamos was originally founded in 1685 due to the mining in the area.  Getting into town was a mighty struggle as the only way in was under construction and there were no detour signs. What a mess! Even the hospital and fire department was blocked. We followed the local traffic, bumping and heaving along the shoulder of the road. Then along came a cop on a junky little motorcycle who led us the rest of the way, moving construction barriers as needed. He even held up traffic so we could enter the campground. We stayed at the Dolisa Hotel and RV Park.  A beautiful little spot within easy walking distance to the Main Square.

lyre shapes in metal trim as well as on the ceiling

We walked along the cobbled streets admiring the old buildings.  Most of the old buildings were single story.  The town is in the midst of replacing their cobblestone streets with pavers.

an original wooden door -- unusual design

Many of the original buildings have been bought and restored by Americans and Canadians but you can still find many buildings that are in near ruins. Eventually they will all come back into use after extensive renovations in keeping with the style of the period.

We took a tour through the town museum

an unusual electric spinning wheel

Then found an English tour guide who took us on a 30 minute ride around the town. Juan was very nice and did a good job of showing us the highlights of the town. His english was very good.

Our tour guide was a retired teacher with a unique vehicle

Originally municipal building, this is now a theatre

peeking in the doorway at the theatre as we drove by

Theatre ready for performance tonight

Narrow streets and classic styles typical of Alamos

A very nice hotel.

sample of the narrow streets

This place was in the midst of renovation -- next project, the car!

Vic stopped by later in the day to take a selfie!

Needs a lot of work to return to original condition.

Our guide pointed out the home of  Rip Torn, plus former homes of Carrol O'Connor, Rita Hayworth, Hershey (chocolate) and a few other famous people.

Hershey's Casa de Chocolate

We enjoyed fruit in the campground. There are several small trees that are loaded with miniature oranges. Tasty they were. The locals eat them whole, with out peeling them.

Mini orange

Loaded with fruit.

There was another tree loaded with oranges of regular size but they were very bitter, sour and had little orange flovour. On another tree, we found nice size limes...but they were not limes. When you cut them open they looked like a lime but tasted more like an orange. Unique!

An unusual sight outside our campground...this pickup truck had recently been in a roll-over. The box was missing from the back and the headroom was reduced. The mirrors were hanging off the side. Two guys were driving it around town. It looked fairly new so someone wanted to preserve his investment.