Wednesday, December 21, 2016

back in Lo de Marcos

We were at Lemon Tree RV Inn in Mission TX from Nov 10th to Dec 7th.  We enjoy our stays there with all the great people and numerous activities.  The cost was $310 plus 80+ for utilities for our stay.  If we stayed the entire winter it would be $255 USD + utilities. Very affordable.

Lemon Tree RV Inn is only 10 minutes from the Anzalduas International Bridge where we cross with our motorhome into Mexico, making it very convenient when coming and going.

We used the heated swimming pool most days, played shuffleboard twice a week, euchre nights, movie nights, etc.  All these activities for the grey hair crowd. Too bad this park doesn't have an RC car track or shooting range like some others in the area but their costs are higher or the location too close to the major highway.

Mission is a convenient area to shop, with all the major stores nearby. We also order online and get delivery to the door. We replaced the bike carrier with a much sturdier one from Walmart Online. They really ARE competing against Amazon! Vic's tablet died (touch screen wouldn't touch) so a new one was ordered from Adorama Camera in New York. New batteries for our phones were also bought online. Vic got some awesomely bright LED daytime running lights and control module. Everything was cheaper as shipping cost was very low or included in the price. If shipped to Canada, the shipping cost sky-rockets.

The Veteran's Day dinner raised money for the organization that trains service dogs for disable veterans. This is the same charity as last year and comes complete with a tear-jerker movie about the great doggie program.

There were over 100 people for our American Thanksgiving dinner. Don't you love it when you get two Thanksgivings a year? Turkeys were supplied by the campground while veggies and desserts were pot luck. We had prepared turnip at home and froze it just for this occasion. Bev peeled and cooked and then Vic mashed and finished off with butter, salt and brown sugar. We got a few positive comments from people that seldom get any and miss it, and some that never had it before. Two thumbs up!

Pancake Thursdays started before we left.  Bev won a free pancake dinner for our return to Lemon Tree in the spring.

Vic was the winner for the highest score at Euchre night -- if we were home we would have gone out to buy a lottery ticket!

While staying in Mission we had custom awnings made for the windows of the slideout on the driver's side of our motorhome plus replace the slide covers for both our slides.  The covers were 10 yrs old and thanks to sitting in the sun in Arizona (previous owners) and in Mexico, the stitching was rotted and the material was starting to fray.  The vendor Top Hat was able to make the awnings and covers with the same color and quality of material that came with the motorhome.  We were very pleased with their work.


 A few days before we were to leave Mission a guy from Sherbrooke came into the campground and ask if any Canadians were travelling to Mexico. S now instead of Mike and us, we are now three rigs in convoy. Martin turned out to be a very nice and helpful guy and spoke English and Spanish as well as his native French.

The morning of Wednesday Dec 7th we were set to leave at 7:30 am to travel in  a small caravan of 3 motorhomes into Mexico.  Unfortunately we were delayed 1 1/2 hrs as our friend Mike's levellers on his motorhome would not retract.  Much discussion and perusing of manuals went on until we learned how to manually retract the one leveller. Later on in Lo de Marcos, we would eventually find that a wire had pulled out of a connector from the tresses of travel and it was an easy fix.

The crossing at the bridge was faster this year as we were not required to drive our vehicles through the x-ray machine and wait for the results from Mexico City.  Instead an officer walked through our rig for a quick check and then passed us to proceed.

Unluckily about an hour later we blew a tire on our tow car and had to stop to put on the spare.  We never found a convenient place to get a replacement until getting to Lo de Marcos. Vic found a temporary replace in very good condition for $400...pesos that is...about Cdn$35. That will do until we get back to Costco in Texas in the spring.

We traveled Hwy 40D south through Monterrey to Saltillo and then turned southwest on Hwy 54 towards Zacatecas. We stopped for the night 30 minutes south of Concepcion del Oro at PEMEX 6712 where we paid 100 pesos (about $7) to stay in the gated courtyard of the motel.  The next morning we continued our drive on 54D to Zacatecas where we turned southeast on Hwy 45D to drive to Aguacalientes.  We skirted most of the city using the truck route but had to go slow as the "Perifico" was rough -- the roughest stretch of road we encountered on our trip!  South of Aguacalientes we turned onto 80D which goes south to Guadalajara where we connect to Hwy 15D.  We used the North Perifico to travel through the outskirts of Guadalajara. (a much easier route than the South Perifico.  Martin had decided to stay in the  Guadalajara area so we split up at his point with him heading south. We stopped for the night at the PEMEX gas station at the Magdelena exit for the night.  This station has a large lot for trucks and RVs to stay at no cost.  It is not gated but the station is open 24 hours so a safe place to stay.

Friday December 9th we started the last leg of our journey to Lo de Marcos.  We traveled on 15D to Jala then exited to travel on the 15 Libra through the valley to Hwy 68D. and then joined Hwy 200 at Compestela.

Unfortunately we had been having trouble with our electric steps coming in and out unexpectedly as we traveled and they got damaged when they hit a thick weeds growing close to the edge of the road in a town just a few miles before our destination. A few days later Vic was able to get them straightened out enough to operate well enough for our return.

We reached Lo de Marcos before noon and started settling in. There are 6 rigs at Savage RV park with 3 others arriving before Christmas.  What a change from past years when there was only three of use all year. It's good to be back to the warm ocean (81F), warm weather and all our winter friends.

We had traveled 827 miles from Lemon Tree in Mission to Lo de Marcos and spent 3549 pesos (about $237 CAD) on the toll roads (all hwys with D after the number).

Thursday, November 17, 2016

Beginning our 8th trip south for the winter!

We left our home about 8 pm on Oct 31st to spend the night at the Flying J in London, ON. (A truck stop so no electrical hookup to run the furnace) It was cold that night -- to the extent that the alarm went off on our fridge at 12:14 am saying it couldn't get any propane. Bev got up and shut the fridge off since the weather was cold enough to keep the food properly.  With no furnace running, we just close the door to our bedroom, snuggle under the blankets and cover our head so only our nose is out in the cold!  We need to start leaving earlier in October!

From London we drove to stay with our family in Indiana.  We visited and shopped for a few days. While there we saw 3 deer cross the lawn -- what a sight -- 2 females plus a male who had 4 point antlers!

Our next stop was Effingham, in southern Illinois, to shop for our favourite whole wheat pancake mix and a few other items at the Hodgson Mill Retail store.  We parked overnight at the Walmart nearby and disconnected the car to drive to Il Forno, an Italian restaurant with delicious entrees.  We had a glass of wine, soup and entree each for a total of $35!!

From Effingham we drove to Memphis and continued on Hwy I-55 south to Enid Lake.  We stayed overnight at the Corps of Engineer campground there.  The site had sewage, electric and water hookups.  The regular price is $18 with seniors over 62 paying $9 per night.  The photos below shows how roomy the sites are.


This year we decided to address one more item on our bucket list with a visit to New Orleans.  We found a campground in Pontchartrain for $44/night thanks to our 50% discount through Passport America. The campground offered a shuttle into the French Quarter for $6 for the day.  The weather was rainy but the first day we managed to do an airboat swamp tour at Jean Lafitte and a visit to the WWII Musuem.

That day we drove our car in to the French Quarter and paid $20 to park for 5 hours while we were on the airboat tour.  Luckily we had driven into town as we had to drive back out to the campground after the swamp tour -- we got soaking wet from a heavy downpour towards the end of the tour! Yikes!
after this photo was taken of Vic in his wet clothing, he purchased a new t-shirt to wear something dry!


The airboat tour was great -- our guide was very knowledgeable and shared much information.  We saw about 6 alligators which he said was unusual as the older gators were already digging themselves into the mud for the winter thanks to a cold snap the week before we arrived.
Our guide
ear protection -- the engine was loud!!!
starting up the side channel

Spanish moss on the trees

gator about to snap up the marshmallow
The guide stopped in one channel to visit a "crack head" gator -- one that will come close to the boat to be fed marshmallows! They are so addicted to eating marshmallows, just as if it was crack. This one swam a 100 metres toward to boat to get a treat.

A stop to discuss the vegetation surrounding us
a bald eagle's next







We spent time in the afternoon at the WWII Museum. When it closed at 5 pm we were once again greeted but a heavy downfall of rain so were stuck in the building for a while. Lucky for us it was Happy Hour and the bar just happened to be just inside the museum door. The rain subsided enough for us to dash 2 blocks to our car.  We tried to go out to dinner that evening but we couldn't find a parking spot due to flooding of the streets. We even spotted a man-hole cover dancing and bobbing over its hole while the water squirted out from beneath.

The second day we took the shuttle into town for the day.  We visited the Aquarium first. Not as impressive as the one in Toronto or the one in Atlanta Georgia.
up close to a penguin
there were many tanks with sea horses


From the Aquarium we took a trolley car (for the cost of 40 cents for seniors) to the west side of the French Quarter to visit the Mardi Gras World where the floats are built.  It was a great place to visit!  The characters were sculptured out of layers of foam, then covered in paper mache and painted
a jesting Victor!
trying on costumes
an owl in the making


painting in progress

CNC machine can sculpt giant piece of

A bare float ready for decorating








a photo of a tiger for our granddaughter Megan

A dragon chomping on Papa



Giant blocks of foam for the CNC machine




Hey! There's the Cat in the Hat.
Note the scorpion is circled in the drawing and the gal below is gluing the tail pieces together




Next we took the trolley car to the east side of the French Quarter to meander through the French Market (dodging raindrops from time to time).  We stopped for an afternoon break at Cafe du Monde to try their Beignets. Sorta French donuts covered in powdered sugar. Delicious! Here are a few photos from our meandering around the French Quarter:
typical building in the French Quarter
Canal Street boulevard lined in palm trees.

The Steamboat "Natchez" docking after a luncheon cruise.
Yes Warren...the paddle wheel is in reverse.

The shuttle was due to pick us up at 8 pm so we had an early dinner at Oceana in the French Quarter.  The food was delicious.  We had an appetizer of gator bites!! Interesting. Could be described as a cross between chicken and calamari.

From New Orleans we headed west on Hwy I-10. We stopped at Wharton TX (south of Houston) at a Walmart. We arrived at Lemon Tree RV Inn in Mission on November 10th where we plan to stay for almost a month.

FYI - The price of gas when we topped up our tank as we travelled south:

Oct 31st - $1.05/litre at home, $0.95/litre in Woodstock and London, ON -- CAD $
Nov 1st - $2.03 USD/gallon in Port Huron, MI
Nov 4th - $1.88 USD/gallon in Gilman, IL
Nov 5th - $1.90 USD/gallon in Marston, MO
Nov 6th - $1.89 USD/gallon in Hazelhurst MS
Nov 9th - $1.84 USD/gallon in Iowa, LA
Nov 10th $1.86 USD/gallon in Wharton, TX