We got here to Mountain View RV Ranch yesterday afternoon.
It is a Passport America park for two nights, has good wifi and good 30 amp electric, water and sewer. Most spots are pull through. Nice laundry room and a small store. Also cable TV. It got really cold, for us, here last night. The furnace was running all night and we both got up and put on long pants, Bill a long shirt and me a heavy t-shirt. As soon as it warmed up a little we headed for Green Valley to go to Denny's for breakfast. I got my favorite Everyday value slam $4.99. A perfect breakfast for me, just enough and not too much. Bill had an avocado chicken salad without the avocado. Both of us happily fed. Then on to WalMart. My favorite shoes - Earth Spirit sandals - were in. Got three pair, one in each color. White, beige and black [first year they've had black in a long time.] Bill managed to find two golf type shirts with pockets for 7.88 each. Then on home where Bill changed the license plate on the Jeep. We always put an old expired plate on the car when we go to Mexico. Then if it somehow falls off we haven't lost our real plate.
Had planned on leaving here tomorrow morning but checked the weather reports and Thursday the day we'd be getting home there is 70% chance of rain in Vegas and winds up to 38mph. No thank you, not driving in that. So we will probably be leaving here, Amado, on Thursday if it isn't raining here. We could possibly be home by Saturday. We'll see. Tomorrow we are talking about going to Tucson to the Best Buy there to see about replacing our Garmin GPS - IF they have one with Mexico on it. It doesn't seem as cold tonight as it was last night.
We are in Amado, AZ. About 20 miles north of Nogales. This is our go to campground. Mountain View RV Ranch. We stop here on the way down and on the way home. Not sure how long we'll be here. Today we did 286 miles from campground to campground. We got started at 6:30, but stopped to fill tank so really started drive at 7:00 and got to Amado around 2:30. [7 1/2 hours - and that is a part of the reason this was a strange day/drive.] Got set up and went across the highway to the Cow Palace for a late lunch.
This morning's sunrise in San Carlos.
Lots of construction going on around the gas station at the San Carlos turn off of the 15. Looks like there will be off and on ramps to the redone highway. Hope so. Now it is a pain to get in and out of.
Forgot to get the park's wifi password so am using my Verizon MiFi. It is fast and we haven't used any of our GBs this month. We've hooked up to the parks cable TV - but right now the TV is turned off. Just listening to peace and quiet. Bill is "reading" his book in the back. Went through three toll booths today around US 26 dollars. The road was good up to Santa Ana. From there it was iffy. Part was really good and part was really bad. Construction continues from Santa Ana to just before Km 21 on road to Nogales. When we got to Km21 to turn in the papers for the car, we had a little wait for the RV in front of us to get things straightened out. In fact, he had miss the booth and had to turn around and come back and he made it there just in front of us.
Our turn came and zip, zip. All done. About a mile north of there we ran into a traffic JAM. Trucks backed up as far as we could see, in both lanes. While we inched along we saw some incredible moves by other vehicles. One was a motorcycle coming towards us down between the two rows of trucks??? We also saw a few trucks try to make a third lane on the far right side of the trucks in line. That caused a few problems when they ran out of pavement and wanted back in line. Don't think so. But the best was...we were in left lane next to the center divider when suddenly up comes a truck on the south bound lanes, just lickity split heading north. A few minutes later three trucks were roaring up the wrong lane into on coming traffic. I guess they all made it to somewhere 'cause we didn't see any wrecks. It took us 1 and 1/4 hours to get to the area where cars, buses and RVs could split off just before the northbound Mexican check point. 1 and 1/4 hours!!! Once we got to the split we zipped through the check point, just slowing down enough to squeeze through the tight aisles.
I should add that where you can see the backs of a couple of trucks in the front, that area of the way out is rough ragged dirt with lots of truck traffic. There was a solder there but he didn't seem to be doing too much to help.
Then the last toll booth, a line up to get through it too. No problem getting into the left lane to go to the bus lane at the US border. The vendors are always happy to help direct traffic. The 40 motorhome towing a 20 foot trailer had a harder time getting into that lane. He had to back up a little to make the curve. Again the vendors were holding up traffic and directing him. You can see the back of his trailer.
From stopping at the border booth until we were on our way again took 20 minutes.
Then we stopped for gas at the Pilot in Rio Rico. Over a dollar cheaper per gallon then in Mexico. So we got there with a mostly empty tank. A longer, in hours, than necessary day so I'm glad we got an early start.
We are still in San Carlos with the furnace running. It will start to warm up here the day after we leave. Figures. Remember the big caravan that came into Mazatlan just before we left? Then they were going to El Fuerte so we didn't go there. Well they got to Huatabampito the day we left, just missed them. And yesterday they pull here into Totanaka RV. We will be leaving for the U.S. tomorrow, Monday, they will not leave until Tuesday thank goodness. What a mess at the border that would be. I made banana nut muffins yesterday morning to help warm it up in here. They all came out perfect. The tile in the oven really works great. Thank everyone for the suggestion.
We did almost nothing yesterday as it was so cool and overcast. Did go to check out another RV park at a hotel in Guaymas. It looks good but the road in has lots of big topes, plus you have to drive through part of Guaymas. We'll decided if/when we come back next year. And of course we made a WalMart run. Then last night we went out to dinner with our friends who live here. Nice evening. But back to Huatabampito. Here is another drone video Bill took over the El Mirador RV and Hotel.
Thought I'd take some pictures of the set up here in El Mirador RV. This is the restaurant building from the front as you drive in. It also has the restrooms.
Looking out towards the campground. 30amps, water, sewer and good WiFi.
Our favorite spot. Almost right on the beach. The beach is long and not very busy. You can drive quite a ways in both directions on it. But stay out of the soft sand. Bill pulled out one person who got stuck while we were there. The side door into the restaurant and the open air patio part of the restaurant. Good food. Mostly sea food. Just open for lunch and dinner.
The open air patio. Usually there is nice not real loud music playing.
A new bar has been added to the open air patio. Also there is an entirely new prep kitchen inside.
The inside eating area. A new check in counter. Also new and remodeled bathrooms.
Looking north outside. Enrique, the owner is going to be making a lot of changes in the next few years. The RV park will be moved to this side - planning on 60 spaces. Some will be available for long term lease. If leased you will be able to build palapas. Loads of dirt is already being brought in to level the area. On the south side where the RV park is now he is planning on building more hotel rooms.
Looking north I saw this and went to investigate. It is just a shell of a small building. Interesting to find out in the middle of no where. The south facing side.
The north facing side. I hope who ever did this is using his talent. The seagulls - see the piece of roll in the air. One of the birds coming up caught it and took off.
One of those birds has a big piece of bread and the others are trying to get it away from him. Lots of squawking going on.
Just some pictures from around the area. Resting under the tree.
Taking his horses for a walk.
The whole wall around one of the schools had different signs, ads, slogans on it. This is something about how to prevent catching a disease.
Bill washing the horrid caked on smelly stuff from the drive we took on the beach. If he parked the Jeep in front of the open RV door we could smell it UGH. The attendant watching him.
And the next morning we left. I still have to finish posting about Yavaros. Will work on it a little today.
Just went by the San Carlos sign and they are taking it down! What the heck?
This was the restaurant Charlie's Rock in November
Sane restaurant today. Why?
And we went from the white coach an Alfa to our present coach.
no it isn't ours just one like it.
Things keep changing. Next post will be from Arizona.
