Blowhole at the waterfront of Xcaret Park near Playa del Carmen, Mexico.
Where are Kevin and Ruth now? Playa del Carmen, Mexico.

Where are Kevin and Ruth going next? Toluca on December 24th!

Monday, November 11, 2019

We are moving along quickly

For several reasons.

We need to be at Alpine, TX to meet up with this year's Mexico RV Caravan group by Friday after lunch. That is actually the latest possible that we would need to be there. We actually had visions of showing up there on Wednesday just to give ourselves some relax time.

But, Sherman needs to get a couple of minor maintenance issues looked after.

And, there is a very windy cold front coming through southern Texas Monday afternoon and evening. Remember what I said about Texas weather?

So I figured we were better off to put on some miles and get to our destination earlier.

Still, we managed to get in a nice bike ride before we left Garner State Park. Once again, we love our new to us bicycles that we bought last year and we have missed them.

The Rio Frio (Cold River) at Concan, Texas.

Ruth noticed these purple flower bushes growing at the side of the road.

We stopped to top up the gas tank again at Uvalde, TX (thanks for the heads up Bob!) where the price of gas was $2.12 USD per gallon ($0.74 CAD per liter).

We continued driving to Del Rio where we stopped at the last Walmart we would see along our route before crossing the border to finish stocking up. What are we stocking up on?
  • Wine in 5 Liter boxes is a lot cheaper here than in Mexico.
  • Cheddar Cheese is hard to find in Mexico, and expensive. 
  • Some gluten free porridge oats cannot be found in Mexico.
  • Chocolate Chips so that Ruth can make her famous chocolate chip cookies.
  • Soft brown sugar.
  • Kidney beans.
All of these things can be found in Mexico, but it's not always easy, and they are usually more expensive. So we stock up.

I also bought oil change supplies for Sherman.

And then we were back on the road. I had a destination in mind... there is an overlook at the Pecos River right where it empties into the Rio Grande. It's a beautiful quiet spot, especially on a Sunday night with a full moon!

Where we parked up for the night.

The view from where we are parked.

More accurately, this is the view. 
But you get the idea!

Even had a bit of a sunset!

But, today is going to turn cold!

They are calling for the high temperature of the day to be reached this morning, with things taking a hard turn for the worse. At Alpine, TX (where we plan to be by lunchtime), it is at 4,500' altitude and the temperature is supposed to drop like a rock down to 23F (-5C) overnight! Yikes!

Fortunately, we hope to be plugged into electric by that time! Fingers crossed that all goes according to plan.

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14 comments:

  1. Wow that’s a huge change in temperature but we experienced similar back in 2014 in that area. Your park for the night reminds me of that trip great spot. Here in Alberta our temperature was 60C different from home in Brisbane unbelievable.

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    1. It is a big change in temperatures but luckily the cold won't last too long!

      Yes, I bet the temperatures in Alberta are a lot different than in Brisbane at this time of year. We are sorry that we didn't have enough time in Australia this past summer, in order to make it up to Brisbane. Guess that will have wait for another trip. :-)

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  2. Wow...that's cold. We tent camped and woke up to 25 degree temperatures with frost on the ground and on our tent & car. We didn't freeze. We were nice and toasty in our warm sleeping bags & slept well. We got use to cold after a day or two of camping. Love your cover photo.

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    Replies
    1. Chilly for Texas but not really cold by our standards. We were used to seeing the temperatures going down to -20°C or -25°C (-4 to -13°F) during our winters, mind you we wouldn't be camping in those temperatures. And yesterday they got 20cm (8 inches) of snow already in Ottawa, I think we left just in time.

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  3. I noticed the weather in the Citizen that a cold front is going through!

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    1. And it did come through! It is slowly starting to warm back up today, I think we are just over the freezing mark now and it is almost 2pm.

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  4. I am sure you can buy almost anything in Mexico these days but how far and wide do you have to go to find them...not something you can do easily with a Caravan.

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    Replies
    1. Very true and if you can find some of the harder to find items you will also most likely pay more for them.

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  5. Ruth,

    Do you just swap out gluten free flour for regular flour for your chocolate chip cookies or is there more to the recipe?

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    Replies
    1. On some recipes I swap out the regular flour for the gluten free flour mix that I make but sometimes I have to make some small adjustments. In this case it is totally a gluten free chocolate chip cookie recipe. We had a blog post with the recipe in it from quite a long time ago but here it is again. www.travelwithkevinandruth.com/2012/11/a-post-from-ruth.html

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    2. Thank you for the information and posting the link to the recipe. My husband has recently been diagnosed with Celiac and it has been a really difficult transition for us.

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    3. You are welcome. It is a definitely a bit of a learning curve but I now make and eat food like I did before, except that I have found ways to make it gluten free without too much of a difference in taste and in work. I hope that you can make it work too. There are so many recipes available on the internet now and also so much helpful information.

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  6. Purple flowers. Isn't that wild sage? Great sky picture and of course you couldn't pick a better overnight spot! Are you passing through Marfa or Marathon? Marathon library has good wifi and you can overnight right in front.

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    1. Yes, I believe it is Texas purple sage and it looks beautiful when it is in bloom. I never realized that sage bloomed before.

      We loved that overnight spot, it was very quiet at night and the view couldn't be beat. We went through Marathon, where we stopped for a break and a hot drink and then carried on. We were trying to beat the weather and we knew it was going to be windy and chilly so we wanted to be in Alpine at the RV park where we could have electric and be nice and toasty warm and off the highway before the storm hit.

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