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).
No comments:
Post a Comment