We are 242 miles closer to home.

We are now in the Smart Gas fenced truck stop in Los Mochis. A LONG 242 mile day. The road from Mazatlan to the third toll booth near Culiacan was pretty good - mostly. From Culiacan it was good in spots and needs a lot of work in other spots. And all the tolls have gone UP. Paid 632 pesos more to come home than to go down. took us 5 hours from start to stop. We had dinner in the Elba Restaurant. Very good. Chicken empanazada, salad and french fries - enough for a today and tomorrow. 

Will look at my pictures and resize some then try to update this later. Internet connection is iffy at best. 

Just before we left at 9:30.

At the ARC O filling the gas tank. 2979 pesos. 

The Guardia National were stopping incoming cars at the railroad tracks. A Carnival thing I think. Just waved us through. 

All town bound cars were stopped. No idea what they were checking for. 

Lots of Guardia National trucks and cars on the highway.

North bound 15D parts getting repaved. Good.  Just before first toll booth. 

I had read that tolls had gone up.  Wow have they ever. 

The old prices are covered so it is a surprise what you will owe. If I remember correctly this one went up around  60 pesos.  Total for both RV and car. 

Lots of paving being done on south bound lanes too. GOOD

Just a pretty pink blooming tree along the way.

 More work being done on the north bound lanes. 

Some of the toll booths had long lines, no idea why. Unless people were upset about new tolls.

Agricultural check point. Just asked if we had any fruit. Said no and waved on. They used to want to spray the vehicles here. In the past we've paid them 100 pesos to NOT spray us. 

Onions or potatoes for sale along the highway.  No one around to take money???

So we are here for the night. When we got here there was not one truck in the lot. But some have shown up since. Nice rumble of truck engines going on. 

Tomorrow will be in San Carlos for few days. 

A major change of plans.

Well we are still in Mazatlan Bill woke up Tuesday morning not feeling well - NOT COVID - stomach very upset. Stomach did not improve so a couple of hours later he made the decision, which I wholly agreed with, to not drive. The car was/is already hooked up. We had almost every thing ready to go, just had to pull in slides and leave.  By evening he was feeling a "little" better. He had a very restless night and come Wednesday morning was still not sure he felt well enough to drive. Again okay. We could stay here up until March 3rd if we want to. So anyway...here we are. A couple of pretty -very - quiet days. Car is still hooked up. 

Yesterday was the first day of Carnival, but the big crowds are expected to arrive starting today. Goody, goody. The government is asking every one driving here to go slow and avoid accidents caused by traffic and bad roads. Bad roads? Really? At least when we do leave we will be going against the traffic. 

Watching the mess going on in Ukraine. Not good.  But enough of that. 

In the last post I mentioned and took pictures of the weird structures that were being built on the beach.  Found out what they are for. From the paper, "You will notice that there are about 10 structures already installed at beach level. Various artifacts, including light and thunder, as well as special effects will be installed on them." For the big fireworks show that will be one night. The hotels are at 100% full for the next week. And Covid protocols will be enforced for the duration of Carnival. To enter the planned events people will need to show vaccination certificate or negative test. Hope that works. 

However - he just got up and says he feels great. So in a little bit we will put the rest of the possible flying objects - away and head north. Tonight in truck stop so probably no Internet. Two nights in San Carlos then on to Amado, AZ for a couple of nights. Will post when we are in San Carlos. Sure hope todays road is better going north than it was coming south. 

On the highway again. Heading home.

Well I'm up at 5:30 and we won't be leaving until about 10! We leave later today because we will be spending the night in a truck stop. No sense getting there early. About 250 miles today and most of it on bad expensive road if the trip down is an accurate indication. I do hope some of the north bound sections have been repaved. Also read the tolls have gone up again. Probably will not have WiFi tonight so no posting from Los Mochis...sometimes I can pick up the parking lots WiFi for a quick post. We will see. Then tomorrow we will head for San Carlos another long drive but mostly on good roads. 

Yesterday we took our last trip to Centro. Things are starting to gear up for Carnival which begins Thursday. Just one of the deliveries of beer we saw.

Building all kinds of stands along the Malecon and in Olas Altas. Usually by now there are bleachers built all along the Malecon for the Parades. But it wasn't decided until three days ago to for sure have Carnival. 

Don't know what these are but there are several of them built on the beach just off the sidewalk. Haven't seen them before.

This one has a cover on it. 

Finally got a half way decent photo of this one. 

Beer stands going up. One thing missing still are all the porta potties along the way. 

I wanted to see the finished mural at the Observatory. It sure is pretty. I wonder if they are going to do something with the newly painted white wall to the left of it. 

So anyway, the watch. We usually manage to pull up into a small driveway right next to the watchmakers shop but there was a taxi cab pulled in there. Didn't want to go to the parking lot a couple of blocks away 'cause we'd only be a couple of minutes. So parked with several cars along the curb around the corner. A little further down the curb was a NO PARKING sign. But there are always cars parked there...Got to the watchmaker and he apologized profusely about not being able to fix the watch. The movement he'd found would not work. So after two years Bill got his watch back just as it went in. Not working. It is over 30 some years old so....

Back to the car. Oh, oh, right in front of it was a policeman on an ATV getting ready to give out parking tickets. We hurried to the Jeep got in and drove away before he got off his ATV. Whew. Just in time. 

So back towards home. Decided to stop at the grocery store to pick up a couple of things. As we turned the corner from the Malecon to the street where the store is the traffic cop on foot at the corner pointed to us and motioned to us to pull over. WHAT? He blew his whistle and continued to point to the curb. So Bill pulled over. We weren't speeding, our turn signal was on, we were wearing seat belts... Policeman came up from behind us to Bill's window. He asked if we were American. Bill said yes. He smiled and told Bill in Spanish he thought our car was Mexican and if it was it needed a front license plate. But he realized some American cars didn't need one. So he smiled and waved us on our way.  The first time in years we'd been pulled over. He was very nice and respectful as was Bill. 

So in and out of grocery store and home.

Had the RV washed and waxed yesterday and gave all of our plants  that were in planters to Rafael the handy man in the park. 

Bill took down all the colored lights and straightened out the outdoor storage areas and I straightened out all the inside cupboards. So this morning we just have to put things away, pull the slides in, hook the car and we'll be ready to go.

Part if me hates to leave, as it will probably we our last time coming here. And part of me can't wait to get home.