Santa Ana To San Carlos

We rose early (for us) and left Santa Ana by nine. We stopped for breakfast at a small roadside truck stop where Norma had Huevos Rancheros and I had a perfectly done vegetable omelet. We asked for coffee and got two cups of hot water and a jar of instant coffee. There was an automatic coffee maker brewing on the counter but we obviously asked for the wrong thing. Oh well, time to work on the Espanol!

There was a young Mexican family at the next table with two extremely charming children. The dad spoke perfect English so we had a good conversation with our breakfast. The children learned to say "Bye" and repeated it hundreds of times all the way to the door and into the parking lot. I love Mexican children! They were very well behaved and ate everything that was put in front of them without question.

Anna from the Santa Ana RV Park gave us directions for by-passing Hermasillo, the Capital of the State of Sonora, so that saved us a bit of time and frustration. The roads in Mexico, at least the free ones, are very narrow with no shoulders. There is a very severe drop-off at the edge of the pavement and thinking about what would happen if you went off the road keeps your attention centered on what you are doing. The memory of my encounter with a shoulder last year also kept me focused.

We checked into the Totonaka RV Park right across the street from the ocean. We set up, found the StarChoice signal and walked across the road to Charly's Rock for a Margurita and dinner. Norma had crab and I had garlic prawns. They were both just as good as we remembered. After dinner we returned to the motorhome and met our neighbours Bob and Linda from Vernon, BC for a nightcap. He is retired BC Hydro and she a retired teacher. We are now settled down in our little "Casa Mobile" for the night and here in San Carlos, MX, Life Is Good!

Sonoita To Santa Ana

Crossing at Sonoita is very simple! For the first time ever, we got the dreaded "Red Light" at the border. We pulled into the Inspection Lane expecting the rubber glove treatment but the Border guy came over, took a very quick glance at our passports, climbed onto the drivers side step to peek into the interior and told us to go ahead. No problem.

At KM 18 we stopped at Mexico Immigration and had the office to ourselves. We were a little apprehensive because we had been asked for our Marriage License last year and managed to finesse our way out of producing it and had gone and forgotten to bring it again this year. Fortunately they did not ask so after paying the required fees and filing the paperwork, we were on our way.

Highway 2 from Sonoita to Santa Anna was in pretty good shape but there are four detours around bridge construction and one major detour around a small town so we picked up a few hundred pounds of dried mud on the motorhome before we ended up at Edgar and Anna's Punta Vista RV Park in Santa Ana. They are a neat couple, he Mexican and she from Mississippi. Very friendly people and eager to offer advice for Mexican travel. If you have to spend the night in Santa Ana, don't hesitate stopping there.

We got set up and I walked next door to the OXXO for an eight pack of ice cold Pacifico which I took back and we met our neighbours. One couple from Bowen Island in BC and the other couple from Oregon. We had a very early night so we could hit the road in the morning. I also bought some milk which we really did not need so the old milk went into Anna's cat's dish. It was very much appreciated and for six well-milked cats in Santa Ana, Mexico, Life is Good!

Ajo, AZ

We are in the Shadow Ridge RV Park in Ajo ("Ah-Ho", Spanish for garlic) tonight. Ajo is the site of the first Open Pit Copper Mine in Arizona. It operated from 1847 until 1985, longer than that if you consider the years it was used and then abandoned by the local First Nations people. In 1983, Phelps Dodge "laid off" all it's Union Miners and replaced them with scabs. A bitter, sometimes violent strike continued for two years until the declining world copper prices closed the mine. The area is now home to retirees and Border Patrol officers taking advantage of the very affordable housing available.

Tomorrow it is a short forty mile run to Lukeville and the border and then another twenty Kilometers or so to the Immigration Office on the highway. Immigration is located this distance from the border so that visitors only wanting to go a short distance into Mexico are not required to obtain a Visa (FMT). The beach town of Puerto Penasco is within this "Free Zone" and many Arizonans take advantage of this to get some beach time. This weekend however is "Biker Weekend" in Puerto Penasco, also known as "Rocky Point", and the little seaside town will be filled with up to 50,000 partying motorcyclists including our friend Kim from Tucson. We met Kim and Charlette last year in Mexico. Puerto Penasco will be a good place to stay away from this weekend and we shall.

Our goal for tomorrow night is Santa Ana, MX. The last time we were there there was a weak WIFI signal at the RV park from a nearby motel and hopefully it will still be there. The next day we will head South to San Carlos. I will post when I can. The adventure has started!

One Hand Giveth,

While the other hand taketh away! The Initiatives financed by the Mormon Church and other fanatic, right wing, so-called “Religious” groups have taken away the rights of millions of Americans by banning Same Sex Marriage in California, Arizona and Florida. One of the proudest days for the Civil Rights Movement, the day Barack Obama was elected President was also one of the most disappointing. They have turned the most joyous day into one of the saddest days for all of us.

I fail to understand how anyone's “God” could possibly object to the marriage of two people who love each other and want to share their lives. This misguided effort discriminates against all of us. We believe “An injury to one is an injury to all” and millions of people have been injured by this Hate Legislation.

I have been told that Gay Marriage threatens heterosexual marriage. I would sure like to hear a rational (even an irrational) explanation of that! I can assure you, there is no intention to make it mandatory! Don't worry, you are safe!

When they can’t back up that argument, they resort to the equally ridiculous argument that marriage is to create children. Well, someone should tell people beyond child bearing years that it would somehow be “immoral” for them to marry. Same with people who are sterile through birth defect, accident or genetics. What about those who simply chose to not have children? Is that now "immoral" as well?

Another Initiative bans Gay Adoption in Arkansas. Once again, the “Religious Right" imposes their own “morals” on us by insisting a child would be better off in the Foster Care System or on the streets than in a loving home cared for and supported by two parents. No, they say, a child needs both a mother and a father. What then do they propose to do if one parent is killed? If a marriage dissolves? If one parent has no interest in helping to raise a child?

No, there is no rational reason for any of this, it is simply what it is, Hate Legislation, and they have turned this into a very sad day for all of us!

I Am Overwhelmed

I have so much to say about last nights election but I can’s get the words out. I am simply overwhelmed with Obama’s victory. As a Citizen of the World, I know things will be so much better than they were under the last Administration and as a Canadian, I am happy that my American neighbours will soon be able to hold their heads up proudly when they travel and quit pretending to be Canadians!

If someone had told me that in my lifetime I would see a Black Man elected President of the USA, I would have laughed at them. This is a once in a lifetime event and my feelings are similar, I am sure, to what they would have been had Bobby Kennedy lived to become President.

There are tens of thousands of Heroes responsible for this momentous occasion and we should take a minute to remember them. They are the children who braved the menacing crowds to simply walk into their schools, the people who dared to sit at the Zellers lunch counter or to take their seat in the front of the bus. They are the workers who marched peacefully into the fire hoses, police dogs, night sticks of the "authorities" and the bullets of the KKK. They are the white volunteers murdered for helping Blacks to register to vote and they are leaders like Malcolm X, Medgar Evers and Martin Luther King who were murdered for expressing the dream of the possibility of what took place last night. They are the thousands of young people who got their friends, family and neighbours out to vote last night.

Martin Luther King’s Dream is still far from being fulfilled but it is now a bit closer. He has peeked over the Mountaintop and has glimpsed the fulfillment of his Dream but he has much further to go. We all have further to go and more work to do.

Obama won all his constituencies except uneducated white males and seniors. Not much can be done for the first group but I think it is time for us seniors do some serious thinking. As for this senior, I do not want to be lumped in with the first group!

Shopping In Algodones, MX

We walked over the border to Algodones, Mexico to get a few chores done for the year. Norma and I both needed new glasses so the first stop was at Algodones Optical where they took us right in. Norma got some new Progressives for $170 and they were ready in less than two hours. My $240 Progressives were a little more complicated and will take 10 days to order some special glass. They will mail them home when they are done and my old glasses will work fine until we get home in April. Norma's brother in Victoria gave us his prescription and asked us to get two "regular" pair made for him so we did that and his were on sale with the second pair at 50% off so his bill is only $190 for two pair. They will mail them home to him.

Next, Norma's three year old $40,000 Canadian dental implant job had developed three chipped teeth so we went to get an opinion on a repair job. We stopped at Dr. Sandra Ochoa's Dentist Office where we were told they could replace the whole upper plate for $125 or replace the individual teeth for $20 per tooth. She was a little nervous taking the full new plate deal because the manufacturing process would require destroying the old plate to get the parts out of it to reuse so she went for just having the three damaged teeth replaced. An impression was made and a runner took everything to the Lab. We were told to come back in an hour and a half when everything was perfectly done. Cost? $60 with no charge for the impression. No self-important "specialists" huffing and strutting around showing off their Degrees and delays of days or weeks in the Lab. You just walk in off the street, sit right down and the job is done in a couple of hours. No Problema! Welcome to Mexico!

It was an expensive day but if we had these jobs all done in Canada it would have been several thousand dollars instead of several hundred! The savings today will finance a good portion of our winter in Mexico! I have the feeling that we are being ripped off at home. Viva Mexico!

Oil Change Blues

We have to get the oil changed in the motorhome as I am already 1000 miles over the scheduled service. This should be a simple matter, right? Wrong! I called the Ford Dealer here in Yuma and was told they could not fit motorhomes in the shop and would not do it the way I do it by simply crawling under the vehicle and draining the old oil into a pan. No, it was "Sorry, go away and don't bother us."

I called Pep Boys and they will do it without the hoist but they want $120 per hour plus materials. I asked how long the job would take and they said they could "probably" do it in one hour! Sorry, I am not going to pay $150 USA for an oil change! I may have been born on a Sunday, but it wasn't yesterday!

I will drive down to the Ford dealer tomorrow and buy some oil and a filter. There are hundreds of "Taller Mechanico" shops in Mexico that would be happy to take my money at a lot less than $120 USA per hour and I am also sure they will do it in less than an hour! I will let you know.

Old Friends

Tonight we had some old friends over for dinner here in Cocopah RV Resort in Yuma, AZ. Muff McMurphy and I started working together for BC Telephone Company back in the 60's and worked together off and on over the years. Over this time Muff and Val have become very good friends, the kind of friends that whenever you get together (even after two years like now) it feels like you have never been apart.

Cocopah is an RV Park on a golf course that has all the bells and whistles like a pool, hot tubs, library and even a Pub!. It is situated just outside of Yuma on the land of the Cocopah Nation and is one of the most well maintained Parks we have been in.

We had shrimp sandwiches made from BC shrimp with potato salad. Good conversation with good friends.

Gas Prices

Before we left Canada I did a little research into the price of gas here in the USA. At that time the average seemed to be around $3.00 a US Gallon. By the time we got into the USA, these prices had dropped quite a bit and were around $2.65 in Washington and Oregon but California is another story! Depending on which town we were in and even which side of the street, prices ranged from a low of $2.59 to a high of $3.69. We watched for stations at the more reasonable end of this range and filled up. We once got caught on Interstate 5 where all the little towns were sporting the higher prices and I had to buy $50 worth at $3.49 to get us to the next larger town.

 

At Blithe, CA regular gas was $3.49 and three miles down the I-10, across the Arizona State Line, it was only $2.49. I am looking forward to Mexico where prices are Government controlled at about $.70 CAN per litre.

 

We are in Yuma, AZ right now and I have to set up my StarChoice to watch the BC Lions at 2:00 this afternoon. My work is never done!

New Batteries!

When we got the new motorhome back to Canada I checked the 6 Volt RV batteries and found both of them to be very low on water. In fact, it took a full gallon of distilled water between them to fill! I filled and charged them and they seemed to come back up but I never had any real confidence that they were going to be good enough. I priced new batteries in Canada and found some 195 Amp Hour for $100 and some 220 Amp Hour for $140. I was sure I could do better than that in the USA.

We stopped at a Sam’s Club in Sacramento, CA and found some 220 Amp Hour batteries on sale for $71. We immediately joined Sam’s Club and bought two of them. As I was putting them into the cart I noticed a sign stating “Free Installation”. I asked the service guy and he said, no problem, he would be happy to install these 100 pound batteries for me. One hour later we were on our way with the batteries happily charging.

We boondocked that night and it was very noticeable how much better the batteries performed. We used the lights, Norma watched TV and I watched a DVD and when we went to bed the batteries were still sitting at 12.6 volts, where the old ones would have been down to 12 or 12.1 after the same usage. A big difference and I will sleep much easier in Mexico where batteries are much more expensive, if you could find 6 volt batteries at all. Strange because 99% of all North American batteries are made in Mexico...

While we were in Sam's Club waiting for the batteries, we bought two huge lobster tails for under $20! These are going to be delicious with butter and garlic and proves once again that Life Is Good!