Saltillo

Friday February 15…11:40pm

Woke up this morning feeling great! Stomach better, and slept like a baby. Well, except for the truckers coming and going. But even they were not bad considering it was a busy truck stop and it was open 24 hours. Anyhow, bottom line is that I feel fine!

We had to drive through the tri-city area of Lerdo, Gomez Palacio, and Torreon this morning, so I wanted to make sure we left after the morning rush hour. And good thing we did! What a mess it was driving through there. We didn’t get lost or anything, but the roads there are in really bad condition. They were surprisingly well marked though. But if Sherman’s suspension doesn’t need work when we get back to the U.S., I’ll be surprised. He’s really been put to the test down here.

Their system here of making people slow down in cities and towns consists of using “Topes” …these are speed bumps…in all shapes and sizes. Some marked, some not. Some huge, some small. Sometimes they put a sign up saying there’s a “topes” coming up…and then there is no bump at all. We figure it’s all a game. Most topes are marked with a yellow paint. But most are also very faded and some are faded so bad you’d never know they were ever yellow. So you have to keep your eyes open for topes. Both of you. Well we missed a topes yesterday and it was a big one. I hit the brakes hard, which you don’t want to do in a motorhome because EVERYTHING goes flying. We still hit the bump hard though, and there sure was a lot of noise. The suspension seems surprisingly fine. I can see where the springs bottomed out on the rubber stoppers, and the mattress in the rear moved considerably and drawers opened. And Ruth’s closet clothes rack screws pulled out from the downforce, but we thought afterwards that those 3 little screws were probably overloaded anyhow! This system of topes works so well I can’t believe it’s not used more in Canada. But of course, the city would probably get sued for damaging peoples vehicles who drove too fast! Funny world we live in.

So, we made it through the Torreon area and headed for Saltillo. Again, we took the free road instead of the toll road, although we still may have been better off on the toll road given that it was smoother and faster. But the free road wasn’t bad either. But there is nothing to see in this area. It’s totally desolate.

A typical little village near Saltillo

A typical little village near Saltillo (notice the satellite dish on the house)

Typical village restaurant and tire repair place 

Lee, our friend in Mazatlan, had given us a map of Saltillo that showed where there is a hotel, The Imperial, that has an RV parking area. Lee had stayed there a few years ago. It’s a fairly busy city to manouver around, and Ruth did really well directing us to where we needed to go. The hotel is on a busy street and the boulevard runs in both directions, but there’s a median. It’s close to the centre of the city. We made it there before rush hour started. Saltillo is fairly big…about 600,000 people. We pulled into the RV area, and we were the only ones there. As we were getting set up, another RV pulled in and it was an older German couple who had been down near Puerto Vallarta and were now heading back to the States. As I write this, there have been 2 more small vans pull into our parking area..so we’ll see where they are from in the morning. It’s a little expensive here…$25 a night, but will get us recharged again before heading to the border.

Total Nights Sleeping in the RV… 122…

February Fuel $ 200.00

February Grocery $ 111.62

February Overnight Costs $ 25.00