Wow...what a place!

Nice short drive of only 58 miles (93 kms) yesterday morning as we made our way from the eastern outskirts of Zion National Park up in altitude to Bryce Canyon National Park at 7,500 ft.

Yesterday's drive, 58 miles (93 kms).

Now *this* is a great campsite!

It was 10:30am yesterday by the time we got on the road out of Las Vegas. Not sure why it's taking us so long to get going because we were up by 7:00am.

The late start was probably better in the long run though because we drove through Zion National Park and it was a Sunday, and it is free entrance week in all of the national parks. So going through the park later in the day might mean less traffic.

Apparently Sherman is too old!

We left the Home Depot in Barstow at about 9:30am...a little later than we wanted to. Then, we put in some gas...enough to get us to Las Vegas where it's quite a bit cheaper, and then we'll put in just enough to get us to Utah where it is cheaper still. We'll try and arrive there close to empty, and then fill it right up.

Then, we stopped at a Food 4 Less grocery store and bought a few things. The food is not that much for less, but still, the prices were not bad.

But after doing all of this, it was close to 10:30am by the time we hit the road!

Back to our normal RV'ing lifestyle

We really enjoyed our time in southern California. Especially San Diego and area. I can see us returning there some day.

Yesterday morning, we dropped off our rental Beetle. What a great deal, at $205 USD ($266 CAD) for two full weeks. Taxes included. Then, it was time to get on the road.

Starting a two week holiday.

Yesterday was our last day with Helen and Tony. Two weeks sure goes by quickly when you're having fun.

We had to leave to take them to LAX airport at 3:00pm, so we decided to just hang around the campground in the morning. Went for a short walk on one of the trails.

Here's what $3,000,000 can buy you...

We decided to take a drive on the coast, with no real plans other than to stop where we felt like it along the way, and try and avoid traffic. We are only about 20 miles from the coast, so we left at about 10:00am, with plans to get back home around 4:00pm.

We started off at Dana Point, where I had found free parking near the big marina there. We had fun looking at all of the boats and seeing how the rich people live!

Beverly Hills. Movie stars, and fancy cars...

It's about 60 miles (100 kms) from where we are camped at O'Neill Regional Park to get to downtown Los Angeles. We could have got a closer spot in an "RV Park", but this place offers some green space and large sites with no close neighbours. And, it's only $20 USD ($26 CAD) per night.

We figured this would be close enough to go into downtown LA and explore, and commute back here for two days. But we learned yesterday that Los Angeles traffic makes that somewhat difficult to do.

Moving north towards Los Angeles

Yesterday was a travel day for us as we moved from Lakeside (San Diego) area to Los Angeles area. I say "area", because we're still about an hour's drive from downtown.

But before we left Lakeside, we had to go out for on last breakfast with the group. Man, I think we have eaten out more this year than all our other years put together!

Travel in Turkey – the Land of Beautiful Structures

Turkey is one of the most crowded and beautiful tourist destinations in the world. Turkey’s location is of great geostrategic importance as it is situated at the crossroads of Asia and Europe. Although Istanbul is considered to be the capital of Turkey, Ankara was declared as the capital of Turkey in 1923 after the war of independence.

A wonderful morning with Tioga George

It had rained a lot Saturday night and into Sunday morning, and the forecast was a mixed bag. But, we had some indoor activities planned in case of more rain in the San Diego area, so that was okay.

First up on the agenda was a visit with another blogger! We had made arrangements to meet with Tioga George. First, at his apartment to see his garden, and then for breakfast.

Rollercoaster fun!

What a fun day we had yesterday. Our friends Stan, Colleen, John, and Janice in one car, and me, Ruth, Tony, and Helen in the other and we took off to explore San Diego area. Not much California sunshine, but at least we didn't get rained on. Still, the temperature was nice.

First stop was Mission Beach.

Visiting with some of our Mexico RV Caravan group!

Another travel day for us yesterday as we made our way from Borrego Springs to Lakeside, which is a suburb of San Diego.  Only a distance of about 72 miles (115 kms), so we had time for a hike first!

We drove to the trailhead for the Palm Canyon hike and paid the $8 USD ($10.50 CAD) day use fee. A little pricey, but at least there were four of us.

Borrego Springs is kind of an odd place

Odd, but worth a visit. Apparently they say that Borrego Springs was slotted in to become the next Palm Springs, but it's never realy taken off the same way.

We had decided to stay at Peg Leg Smith Monument another night just so that we could explore the town and area.

March Expenses

A bit of an expensive month but nothing that was entirely unexpected, so that was the bright side. A big chunk of it was fuel costs to get from the centre of Mexico up to the U.S. border, but we also had some dental bills.

And, I bought a couple of things on Amazon. Otherwise, it was a pretty standard month. We spent a total of $2,150 CAD ($1,650 USD). The following amounts are in Canadian dollars, so for USD equivalent you can subtract about 25%.

Not according to plan, but still a good day.

Well, yesterday didn't quite go as planned, but it was still a good day. Nice to be able to show Helen and Tony that things don't always go the way you'd like them to with our lifestyle, but you just roll with it and tomorrow is another day.

We decided that we had seen everything we wanted to in the general area near Jumbo Rocks Campground in Joshua Tree National Park and that we would head for the southern campground called Cottonwood.

Another great day in Joshua Tree National Park

Written Wednesday morning, April 6th.

Around 8:30am yesterday morning, I saw a park ranger walk by with some paperwork in his hand. I went out and flagged him down to ask about their "campground full" signs.

He says "I've only found three vacant this morning."

And I replied "Yeah, but yesterday when we arrived just before noon the sign said campground full, yet we found  at least a dozen empty sites".

Campground full? Not really...

Written Tuesday morning, April 5th.

We were headed up to Joshua Tree National Park yesterday morning, and we wanted to get a fairly early start to be able to snag one of the first come, first serve camping sites at Jumbo Rocks Campground. So at 8:00am, Ruth took Helen and Tony back to Walmart for a few last minute items in case we ended up staying up there for three nights.

Meanwhile, I got Sherman all packed up and ready to go.

Overlooking Palm Springs

We set off at 9:00am yesterday morning to do part of the hike up the mountain in behind the RV park. Almost too late, because things warm up quite quickly here in the desert and they were calling for a high of 92F (33C).

But, we had our Tilley hats with us, and lots of water.

Surprise visitors!

We didn't have much planned for yesterday, but we needed to stock up on a few things. So we hopped in the Beetle and drove 4 miles (6.5 kms) to the nearest Walmart. It's always interesting to check out prices and produce in a different country, so Helen and Tony (visiting us from England) enjoyed that part of the outing.

Nice to see my favorite Mexican beer at a great price in Walmart. 24 bottles of Pacifico for $21.97 USD ($28.60 CAD). Might have to go pick up another box before we leave here since Tony likes it as well.

Arrived in Palm Springs!

First order of business yesterday morning was to pick up our rental car. I had it booked at an Enterprise location about 3 miles (5 kms) away, but I had made a slight error and booked it for 12 noon. It was booked at a fantastic rate, and I tried to change the pickup time the day after I booked it but we would lose the great rate. So I left it booked for noon.

I called them to see if we could pick up early, and they said no...it wouldn't be ready until noon.

A nightmare of cars, buses, and taxis

Up early yesterday morning, and out for another hike just after 9:00am. A little shorter than the one the day before, but still a good workout before noon!

Lots of fun staying with Tamara and Mike, but you better be prepared to get some exercise! We've now hiked 18 miles (29 kms) over two days! Sure feels good to get back into it.

Los Angeles area is full of contrasts

What we learned yesterday is that the greater Los Angeles area is full of contrasts. They say that the area contains about 18.5 million people, and they must all own cars. And it seems that everybody is driving them all at the same time. There certainly is lots of traffic.

But while the traffic is hard to get away from, there are a lot of places in the greater metro area where you really do seem to be away from it even though it's always very close by.

We made it!

We were up yesterday morning at 6:00am, and got on the road right away. They were still calling for winds, but when we got up it was fairly calm. So we got a solid two hour drive in before we stopped for breakfast just outside of Palm Springs.

This was the last of our long driving days. We've now done 1,800 miles (3,000 kms) over the last two weeks since we left central Mexico.

Back to boondocking!

Not a very fun drive yesterday. We don't enjoy traveling on the Interstate highways to begin with, and that whole route from Phoenix area to the California border on the I-10 is quite simply...boring.

Add to that a strong crosswind that got worse as the day progressed. But still, we made it to our planned destination for the night.

No Mexico for us next year!

Woke up yesterday morning, and moved the motorhome to a nearby Safeway grocery store parking lot. We had been parked in a church lot, but of course Easter Sunday means that most churches would be busy.

Then, we went in to do some grocery shopping. Yikes!

What a perfect day we had

Slept just fine in the church parking lot. Grace came over and picked us up around 10:00am. We were parked only a couple of miles from her and Steve's house.

It was nice to have a rest day without any driving. We've been missing out on getting some regular exercise, so we had a hike planned for the afternoon. But first, Ruth had a job to do...

Almost got ripped off

Twice, in a span of about 10 minutes!

First, it was a gas station attendant trying to rip us off.

We were leaving Hermosillo at about 8:30am yesterday morning. We were on the eastern ring road that avoids most of the city, but it's still a fairly busy industrial area.

I thought I had enough gas to get us to the border. The goal of course was to arrive at Nogales, Arizona with an empty tank so that we could then fill up with some cheap American fuel.

Almost to the border!

I don't envy those who have to do this drive every winter to get to their favorite sun destination in Mexico. What a terrible drive.

But, in all of our Mexico travels we had never done the route between Mazatlan and Hermosillo. And we'll probably never do it again.

Wandering around Alamos, Mexico

Alamos, Mexico was a colonial silver mining town from 1685 until it's gradual decline in the early 1900's. At one point, there were 30,000 people living here, and in the 1920's there were only several hundred left.

Many of the mansions and haciendas from the colonial period were left vacant and in disrepair until the 1940's when wealthy people from Canada and the U.S. began buying up property and restoring these old buildings, a process which continues today. Now, there are about 24,000 people living here.

It wouldn't be like us to take the easy route.

A long driving day for us yesterday.

Made even longer, by a decision I chose to make towards the end of the drive! Of course there was some logic to that decision, it simply didn't work out quite as well as we would have liked. Oh well. It wouldn't be like us to take the easy route, would it?

Still...I told Ruth when we got married that she would never be bored!

Sometimes, it makes sense to take the toll road!

Another good day. And, another good overnight spot.

With 323 kms (200 miles) ahead of us we were on the road by 8:30am in keeping with our goal of arriving at our destination before 2:00pm. Again, for this journey up the west coast we're staying off the toll roads unless it makes sense to do otherwise. The tolls are quite expensive for Sherman!

Not one of our better decisions...

Yesterday, the original plan was to ride the bikes the 10 kms (6 miles) into the town of Teacapan. But speaking to the manager here at Color Marino Hotel and Trailer Park made us change our minds. He said that the road is busy on a Sunday, and there are no shoulders so to be very careful. So we asked about taking the bus. Yes, we could walk the 2 kms to the main road and flag the bus when it comes along.

In typical Kevin and Ruth fashion, we decided to walk all the way to Teacapan along the beach, and then take the bus back. We only made one mistake.

You take the toll road, and I'll take the free road

Or something like that. Or is it the high road and the low road? Anyhow, they both get you to the same place.

Some people suggest that you always travel on the toll roads while in Mexico. But we've learned that's often not the best idea. I guess people have some kind of misguided notion that the toll roads are somehow "safer", although we don't really subscribe to that.

No charge, and with a smile too!

We had a good day yesterday, just relaxing and going for a bike ride. We even slept in! Didn't wake up until almost 7:30am. Man, that doesn't happen very often!

In the morning, Larry came over because his Telcel cellular data plan ran out on his iPad, and we tried to get it recharged again. Turns out that it's not easy for an iPad to do SMS messaging through the installed SIM card, and so we decided to go into town.

Not a bad place to spend a couple of days...

We've been in Mexico since October 19th of last year. Five full months, other than our six week jaunt to Colombia. And this is the first time we've been to the beach!

Most people come to Mexico specifically for it's beaches and warmth. And if we were on a one or two week vacation to get out of the cold, that's probably what we would do too.

Well that was a fun five hours!

One of the fun things here at Rancho Altarose RV Park is that Garry runs an ATV tour business. Yesterday, he asked if we wanted to come along as he was taking a group up to an out of the way hot springs pool at Aguas Termales Nuevo Ixtlán.

Sure...let's go!

Next time, we'll do this in a week instead of a day!

We did a long, slow, and beautiful drive yesterday on a secondary two lane road through the mountains. We've done this route before, but never all in one day!

And what we realized was that we could easily spend a week or more doing this route, and just finding places to park the motorhome overnight and explore along the way.

Another good day in Mexico

Just a nice day. That's what we had today!

Got all our internet stuff done before 11:00am thanks to the fast wifi here at Delia's Trailer Park in Etzatlan. And more...I even downloaded some old TV shows for watching later. Boy, when you don't have decent internet for a while it sure is nice to have that good connection.

Back on the road. A terrible road...

We were on the road by 9:30am yesterday morning. Only 195 kms (121 miles), but that can be a four hour drive in the motorhome in Mexico. As always, the goal is to be parked up at our next location by 2:00pm. That gives us lots of daylight hours to fix a problem, should we happen to have one.

Fortunately, we didn't have any problems. Other than one bad road!

We're hitting the road...

Yesterday was market day, and then I had my final dentist appointment at 1:00pm. I wanted to have some lunch before my appointment, and of course brush my teeth before going, so that meant two trips into town. But we haven't had much exercise this week, so two trips walking into town was fine with us.

We left around 10:15am on the first trip. It's about two kms (1.3 miles) each way.

Something didn't look quite right...

We had invited our friends over for dinner, and so Ruth spent much of the day getting ready. Me? Not so much. Unfortunately the kitchen in the motorhome is kind of a one person operation. Better that way anyhow. Ruth is a much better cook than me!

However, I did manage to keep busy.

You win some, and you lose some...

If all goes according to plan, there's only two more sleeps and we're outta here. Scheduled to have my final dentist appointment Saturday at 1:00pm, and then Sunday morning we'll be up early and headed to Etzatlan.

Much of Mexico has been unseasonably cold the last couple of days. Apparently they had snow in the mountains behind us, and even the normally mild San Miguel de Allende had only the third recorded snowfall in recent history.

The smell of fresh baked bread in the RV!

There is nothing quite like the smell of fresh baked bread in the motorhome. Especially when it's a blustery, rainy, cold, windy day in Mexico.

It had rained a lot of the night before, and the wind was so strong it shook the motorhome. It continued throughout yesterday morning.

Eating out...again!

Man, the entertainment budget is taking a hit this year. But, at least we're being entertained!

We include all meals out in the "entertainment" category, although we should really include a
separate category for meals out. Maybe I'll go back into the budget and separate things.

I think we have eaten out more this winter season than ever before.