March 14, 2005 - Van, TX (Yuma - Mexico)
Our good friends Marc & Claudia (www.itchyhitch.com) have just bought a pad in Yuma, and invited us to park there on our way to Mexico. So we did! And the next day we enjoyed being watched by the guard cat while Marc and Claudia were at work. Marc does inspection stuff for a lumberyard, and Claudia is a real estate agent. See the cat looking to the right? That was because it heard Marc coming home. He only rides sidesaddle after stopping at the mailbox. I hope! We were the first RV'ers to park in their lot with them, and felt privileged. They have full hookups for their guests, including 50A power. The lap of luxury. They're in the process of improving their lot. It was bare and without utilities when they bought it, and eventually they'll have a nice casita and everything. Check out their website (which is currently under repair) to see the progress. Real estate, and particularly these RV/building lots is real active, as the Yuma area is feeling the pressure of the Californians moving in. Claudia is for sure at the right job at the right time.
A shot of the view they enjoy. And then it's off to Mexico we go. We're parked in El Centro, CA, waiting for the caravan to form up. Pulled in here the night before so we'd be all ready to roll at 9:30 AM. The deal is this: We both wanted to go to Mexico, Baja California specifically, but we were reluctant to just up and do it, not knowing where to go or what to expect, and hearing all kinds of stories, both good and bad. So, while we were in Blaine, WA, visiting Henk and Thea, they invited us to go see their new condo in Maple Ridge, B.C. That's British Columbia, not Baja California. On the way up, we stopped for a quick look at an RV show in Abbotsford, and while there Henk and Thea stopped by a booth for the El Dorado Ranch property in Baja. Seems they have a one week (7 nights, 8 days) plan. You get escorted down to the property, about 125 miles south of the border, in a caravan. That means that the police in Mexicalli will be stopping the traffic at all intersections, and getting through town is a breeze. They give you a map and you come home on your own. Sounded like just what we wanted. No obligation except to pay the $150 for the week and take a tour of the property. Free food and some drinks to spice up the deal. We're in! And of course we called the Nelson's and friend John and told them what we were doing. John opted out, as he's been to Mexico and wasn't impressed, but Nelson's said it sounded good to them. Some time later they mentioned it to Jerry & Susan at church, and found out that they had already made reservations to go down at a different time, but could change their appointment and would we mind if Bill and Arlene went along. So, now we have our own little private party of 5 rigs going down. What fun that sounded like! Thanks, Henk and Thea for sharing so much with us!
Bill and Arlene, somebody from New Hampshire that was going down too, Jerry and Susan with their dog Patches, and Bill Nelson with his back to the camera all discussing the "what ifs" of the caravan/tour. At the pre-departure meeting we learned there were 47 rigs (maybe it was 53 - the number seemed to change) going down! Good grief! That's almost twice as many as we'd been expecting. What a mess we'll be making of traffic in Mexicalli! Sure are glad we're being escorted! Nervous? Naw, not much. We were given instructions as to what to say and do at the border and at the military check point we'd be going though, and then given the obligatory little tour sign to put on the windshield. Next effort was to get us all lined up on the street so we could leave in a more-or-less single group.
Well, sometimes things run smoother than other times. And today while Henk was making a turn out of the RV park to get in line, his door flew open and the steps came down and hit the curb. Got bent all out of shape and won't go back up! And here we are, in line and just about ready to go! YIKES!
Barb grabbed the camera and, calm as she is, she managed to get a shot of us all lined up (remember, we're double parked) and then, of course, the park we just left and are parked in front of. That's Henk looking for some tools or something that will bend the steps back into shape so they'll go up enough to drive the rig. At one point, Thea (bless her heart) said that they'd just take care of it and we could leave with the rest of the caravan. And after she and Henk were responsible for the rest of us being here? No way!!
Well, Bill O'Neil had a strap with a ratchet handle, and we tightened it up on the steps and we all left together at the end of the caravan. What a mob we were, too. I kept looking in the rearview mirrors to see if Henks steps stayed up, and they did. And there's our last chance to bail out before crossing the border. Makes my hands sweat just a little sitting here typing about it. I wonder why crossing borders is such a traumatic thing for me. We're totally legal, have passports and the whole thing, and yet my stress level skyrockets every time. Same thing with the Canadian border. Maybe it's because they have guns and I don't. Who knows.
The line up getting back into the States was longer than the line getting into Mexico. That should tell you something. Not sure what, but it should tell you something anyway.
OK, we made it through the border crossing just as planned. No stopping, no interrogation, no full body cavity searches of either ourselves or the rig. Whew! Now all I have to do is concentrate on not hitting the rig in front of us, and still staying close enough to discourage the locals from cutting in. And yeah, the road was dusty and dirty.
Nobody on the caravan seemed to know what was with this "Bbc" sign, or why the three were pushing on it. Just more questions that have no answers. Traffic was heavy, and to our way of thinking, a bit disorganized. We were grateful we'd chosen to come down with a caravan. Not only would it have been easy to get messed up and lost in Mexicalli, but we blew all the stop signs and traffic signals as well. "ALTO" of course, is their way of saying "STOP".
A few of shots of the countryside just outside Mexicalli. Not too inviting, but interesting anyway.
Some of the roadside signs were plenty easy to understand, even with our limited knowledge of Spanish.
The Mexican kids seemed to genuinely enjoy running alongside and waving to us whenever they could. The construction of roadways, utilities, and buildings seemed to us to be in a constant state of activity, whether we could detect any progress or not was another question. And then one of the several policemen who guided us through town.
Not sure some of the locals were really glad we were there. Particularly when there were so many of us. The line had to be over a mile long. And entrepreneurship is universal. Nicest fence we saw, and no graffiti, either.
Ever try riding your bicycle with a pallet on the handlebars? This kid was doing it, and doing it pretty well besides. Amazing. And then I let a gap occur between us and the rig in front of us, and this noisy, beat-up looking dump truck came out of a side street and didn't even slow down. But life is good. It had a working brake light!
The last of the city with it's well cared for cemetery, lots of neat kids, and then into the desert. And about here, I noticed the alternator was putting out 9.8 volts rather than the 13+ I was used to seeing. I knew this because we have a RoadRelay 4 (thanks, friend John) that's built by Cummins. It will tell us everything we ever wanted to know about the rigs running gear. Engine coolant temp, engine oil temp, rpm, transmission oil temp, which gear is selected and which gear we're actually in, the fuel mileage on an instant basis, average fuel mileage (and I set the parameters for that one) percentage of "work" the engine is doing, what speed we're going, what speed the cruise control is set for, the oil pressure in both the transmission and engine, the amount of boost the intake manifold is getting from the turbocharger, and on and on. Lots of trip information available like total fuel consumed, time spent at speed, time spent at idle, and stuff like that. Great gadget, and I highly recommend it for anybody interested in knowing what's going on.
So anyway, I noticed the voltage was low, so I engaged the boost switch that will link the house batteries and the engine batteries, and the voltage went up to 11.3 or so. And then we speeded up a bit but the transmission wouldn't shift up. And then we slowed down and the transmission wouldn't shift down. We were locked in 4th gear. Now, we can go pretty fast in 4th gear, even though we have a 6 speed transmission. The upper two gears are both overdrive. The only thing that bothered me about going fast in 4th gear is that the engine was running much faster than it would have normally, which reduces the fuel mileage. But since we had a full tank of fuel, that was just an annoyance. With the 194 gallons of fuel, we can go about 1400 miles before needing to fill up again, and San Felipe was only 125 miles south of the border and we'd filled the tank the day before. And then the house batteries began to show the strain as well, and the voltage was dropping into the 10's, so I turned on the generator and things went back to normal, more or less. The voltage was back up to 12.2 or so, but we were still locked in 4th gear. Oh, well, enjoy the scenery. Between Henk's steps and our alternator, our little group of 5 rigs was making quite a showing for ourselves. We'd been on the CB radio to alert the tail gunner that we may have to stop. Of course, the lack of a shoulder would have made an emergency stop a real headache and stress accelerator for me!
Through the mountains the line got longer, as we were going almost 55 MPH we all opened up the gaps a bit. No, we didn't stop at the rest area, although we were supposed to have made a stop at an enchilada stand. Only there were too many of us, so we had to make our potty stop alongside the road where there a stretch wide enough to accommodate us. Welcome relief it was, too. And then the sign warning us that we were coming to the military checkpoint. And my stress went up even further. What if I shut down the engine and it won't restart? What if the transmission won't shift after we've stopped? What will I do if.......?????
Well, we survived the military checkpoint just like we did the border crossing. Did have to stop because of the traffic, and when we did, the transmission made a big "clunk" and went into neutral, and before I could react it made another "clunk", shaking the whole coach each time it "clunked", it went into 6th gear (indicated) and shifted just fine like nothing had happened. The "Welcome to San Felipe" sign showed this big cactus that Barb had read about and was anxious to see. Me? I was just anxious, mostly to get in our spot and get set up and relax a bit. I like Mexican beer and was really looking forward to having a margarita besides. And we still had about 60 more miles to go. But with the generator running and the transmission shifting again, I was hopeful.
These huge gateways leading off into the sand were interesting. Sort like somebody had started something big, but then didn't finish it. Turned out, that's exactly what happens down here a lot. To our left we've been enjoying watching the Sea of Cortez, or Gulfo de California (Gulf of California) depending on what you apparently want to call it. Lots of signs advertising RV parks, land for sale, etc. And then a detour just as we were getting close to the El Dorado Ranch.
I was surprised that we didn't kick up any more dust than we did, considering the number of rigs driving through the desert parallel with the highway. The roads we'd been on so far weren't bad at all. Not nearly as bad as we'd believed them to be. Yes, going slow is better than going fast, but they were still pretty easy to drive on. Yeah, a bit rough, but so what?
Ahhhhhh. Home at last. At least it was for a day. They weren't expecting as many rigs as they got, and poor Bill and Carol got caught without any place to park, and we were "stuck" right by the car wash rack with it's noisy flapping blue canvas roof. But we were backed up to the road that went around the RV park by the soon-to-be (yeah, right) golf course. We moved the next day to a spot that was more comfortable and quiet, but didn't have this view. Bill and Carol, in the meantime, were "temporarily" parked up by the office until the next day when things would loosen up a bit and they could move. Except they stayed right where they were. Carol particularly and Bill also to a degree, are very social people, and being right on the walkway to the office gave them the chance to meet everybody that went by. Besides, they had a killer view of the ocean. Better even than the one we just left.
Next day we took our "tour" of the place. They have homes for sale, and building lots for sale, and combination home/RV lots for sale. We were taken around by a very nice young man who had sold his insurance business in the Northeast someplace, and retired to Mexico. He was low-key, and while he pointed things out to us, he mostly wanted to answer our questions. We enjoyed the tour, in other words.
Tom, our tour guide, was quite accommodating and let us wander as we wanted. Most the homes in this area have a great view from their roof, as you can see.
The last of these pictures is of the lot that could take both a stick built home (actually, it's a kind of foam with cement poured into it like a block house) or we could live in the RV. There were only a few of these multi-use lots available, as the management has decided to offer home-only lots from now on out. Dumb decision in our view. Huge lot, over 23,000 square feet, for about $30,000. Would have been interested if it had been in Yuma or Florida City. Sort of an interesting purchase situation. A Mexican bank holds the deed, but treats it as a trust with the owner being the trustee. At least I think that's how it was. Been a day or two since we were on the tour, and it wasn't real clear to me even at the time. What it amounted to was that we'd not have a fee simple title to the land like we do here in the US, but it was a lot better than those leases of the past. Apparently. We took a pass anyway.
Nice view of both ocean and mountains, and for that size and price it could have been attractive to somebody. They've sold a lot of these lots apparently. And then back home, our neighbor is being visited by one of several camp cats.