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!