The temperature had gone well below freezing overnight Friday night, and Sherman's front windshield was covered in frost... both inside and out!
I started the engine early to warm things up a bit. Just as I did, there was a knock on the door at it was Garth (http://wanderingwserenity.blogspot.com/) and he said that his automatic parking brake was not releasing and of course he wasn't going anywhere until it did.
This is a common problem on some motorhomes and it is well documented online that it's a bad engineering design. Fortunately, it turned out that it was just low on fluid and we were underway at 7:25am.
Our road exiting Rancho San Lorenzo.
Ruth and I had done this drive the opposite way back in 2015. So we knew the road was full of twists and turns and even back then it had taken us almost three hours to do the 130 km (81 mile) distance.
But that was five years ago, and there has been very little done in the way of road maintenance. It was FULL of potholes almost the entire distance.
Just a little rough!
It was slow going and after the first hour we had only done 30 kms (19 miles)!
Scenery along the way.
There were very few places where it would have been possible for 8 rigs to pull off and take a break, but just after 9:00am, and still under the half way point there was a fairly level gravel pit area.
There were a couple of horses there!
View from the gravel pit.
Pulled off for a break.
The rigs in the gravel pit.
We got back on the road after twenty minutes or so and made our way to the town of San Juanito. At the main intersection in that town there was a big police presence. Lots of men, with lots of guns. We didn't take any photos, but there was obviously something going on. Still, they gave us a friendly wave as we passed through.
We are quite a spectacle going through here. Back in the 1990's it used to be a more common thing for RV caravans to come to this area, but with the travel warnings and media fear mongering, that stopped about 15 years ago. Still, some solitary RV's and overland travelers do come... but not very many. It is a safe bet that we are the first RV group through here in a very long time.
Coming into San Juanito.
The San Juanito Municipal Auditorium.
More scenery.
We arrived at Creel and made our way to the Villa Mexicana Hotel and RV Park. Caravans used to come here, as did the RVs that used to be put on the Copper Canyon train. But that all stopped long ago. It actually used to be a KOA, and there are about 80 RV sites.
All of them now empty and in a state of disrepair.
The grass hadn't been cut in ages. Of course, why bother if nobody is coming here?
But, the sites even have 30 amp electricity and it is still working at most of the electric posts. The water lines are all broken and not working. Some sites have a sewer hookup. I negotiated a group price of 200 pesos ($13.75 CAD, $10.35 USD) per rig per night.
After everyone got settled, we walked into town. It's about 1.5 kms from here, so an easy level walk.
We found lunch at a taco place and then showed everyone where the bank and grocery stores were.
There was some kind of photo shoot going on.
The real Tarahumara.
Parked in the long grass.
The hotel did send a guy with a weed whacker to cut the grass around where we were each parked.
Another fiesta!
It was Roy and Sue's 28th anniversary.
Notice the dog in the photo above. There are sooo many stray dogs running around Creel. But, the ones that have attached themselves to us here at the campground are all friendly. It would be so easy to adopt one... but unfortunately that does not suit our lifestyle at the moment.
Here is our route since we left Alpine, TX.
Nice to be back on the internet!
Tomorrow (Sunday) we will go for a hike in the hills overlooking the town.
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How fortunate your group are to have you 2 as their leaders and be able to get off the tourist route. Getting a real feel for an area is by travelling on the lesser used roads.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for those kind words about us. We think that is exactly why these people chose to do the tour with us, so that we could get off the beaten path and see some amazing scenery and local life here in Mexico, plus the benefit of having lots of physical activities included in the trip.
DeleteAre you going to take the group down to Batopilas. It is a very interesting old silver mining town. We spent 2 nights there.
ReplyDeleteWe would really love to go there or to Urique but so much will depend on the weather as it isn't supposed to be nice here at all this week. :-(
DeleteThe city signs must be supplied by the government because they are all similar all over the country. I love the roads less travelled and hope to do some on one of our adventures. Safe Travels
ReplyDeleteYes, we believe that there is a government program that supplies all the towns with these city signs. We have seen them for quite a number of years now, we really like seeing them.
DeleteI hope then that we can entice you and Sue to get out there and see some of these places in the future. :-)
It's a shame that RV travel is so uncommon that many of the parks close or fall into disrepair. Glad you have been able to find places to stay even in these "road less traveled" areas.
ReplyDeleteIt is a shame, especially up in this area where there are very few RV travelers anymore. It used to be a big thing back in the day but the media has really scared people away. There are lots of RV Parks along the Pacific coast though because that is where the majority of RVers go for the winter. Most drive down and then park up for the entire winter. I guess in a way it just makes traveling easier for us this way because we never have to wonder if places will have room for us, lol. :-)
DeleteHappy anniversary to Sue and Roy! You wouldn't want the roads to be in too good of a condition. If so, everyone would be there. Wish we were there.
ReplyDeleteSue and Roy say thank you!
DeleteYou are correct, we don't want everyone traveling up here, lol. :-)