I ended up spending a couple weeks at the Flores RV Park. In part because I had driven 4,000 miles in 2 months and needed a break from driving, and there was some work for me to do there and although I’m retired, I like to keep my skills sharpened. I already told you about installing the two new 30 amp services for RV spaces. In addition I worked on the owners computer.
One day, he, the owner of the RV park, David, and I went down to the local computer shop where his computer had been sitting for several weeks, not repaired, and the tech told David that the mother board was bad, that the memory sticks were bad, and that he’d tested everything, couldn’t get it to work and recommended a new computer.
I looked at the open cased computer while they were talking and decided, although it looked a little rough, with corrosion (we’re right on the coast), it didn’t look that bad and I could have a go at trying to get it working again. So instead of buying a new computer from the shop, we took it back to the park and I took it apart and cleaned all the corrosion off of terminals and the edges of plug-in cards. After about 30 minutes fired it up with just the motherboard, memory, and the video card plugged it. The screen just flickered so I shut it down and removed the video card, and then plugged the video cable into the on-board SVGA connector. Bingo! The computer came back to life and worked from then on. I did eventually have to remove one memory stick from a bad memory socket but the motherboard is a type that will work with just one so that wasn’t a big problem. So basically, all that was wrong was that the video card was bad and one memory socket on the motherboard couldn’t be used. All the other features and plug-in boards worked fine. If that other tech actually worked on the computer, I couldn’t tell.
Then David and I worked on getting the satellite dish turned and adjusted to the satellite for local stations that David had been paying extra for, for months. I’m no satellite expert but we moved the dish back and forth trying to get a signal from the 119 satellite or something. Eventually, we gave up and David called the local satellite guy and he ran out and installed a second satellite dish and had a signal up and running a couple hours after he came. The receiver wasn’t setup correctly or something so, although we were getting the right satellite, no stations were coming in. Too late for the game we had set it up for so I retired to my RV and watched the game in Spanish on local TV while listening to the English play-by-play, which was a minute out of sync. I left before the satellite problem was resolved but I expect it only took a phone call to the satellite TV company and a reprogramming of the receiver to get it running.
Here are some of my favorite photos of the area and a really nice sunset that seemed to last for hours:
This look is up the coast to the north:
The caretaker at the RV park found this guy hiding in the wood pile. It’s over 6 foot long and got it’s head in the wrong place because it was crushed when it was found. We looked for the type of snake it was on the internet and found it’s a hugger. Must eat rats and stuff. I was told it’s over 1,000 miles from where it usually hangs out, must have hitchhiked:
it looks like a boa to me. perhaps someone lost a pet, or released it to the area. too bad it was squashed. they make very good pest controllers.
my favourite picture is the one of the pelican taking off. that’s a beauty.
Yeh, we were thinking that it would have made a good pest deterent after we figured out it wasn’t one of the local poisonous snakes in the area with very similar diamond patterns on their backs…and the help had two little girls running around. If it hadn’t been dead to begin with, Jesus would have killed it to be on the safe side. Can’t blame him for that what with his kids around.
I tried to sneak up on the pelican but s/he was having none of that, kept moving off as I approached. I did get within 6 feet but didn’t get a shot.
Hola: Sounds like the Bounder is performing well for you this year. The east coast of mexico has interesting sites to see but perhaps travelling on the west coast is easier and has more RV park availability. In that regard my impression was you enjoyed your jaunt to Maz last winter.
Anyway I am curious as to your mileage and fuel costs over that initial 4000 miles as that will be aprox what I will have to travel going to PV(return) from Canada.
I worked it out @ 7MPG and was a little shocked at the number.
Paul..
Paul,
The Bounder is performing much better now that I’ve learned to keep the air pressure up in the tires, doesn’t feel as mushy as it use too, and then I added Bilstein shocks all around for $300 and now there is much less porpoising or wallowing or rut tracking and it simply rides better. And on the horrible roads down here that’s pretty important. And even though it hits potholes pretty hard now, I feel safer with the front tires up over 100 PSI, and the rears up to 95 PSI.
I just did an accurate check of my mileage and I got 10.25 MPG. That’s based on 3,852 miles. The number of gallons used is 375.74, and cost was $744 for an average price of $1.98 per gallon, that’s $5.7 pesos per liter. That includes the station that cheated me by 14 liters.
The east coast of Mexico is actually easier to travel then the west because of the general flatness of the areas along the coast. Sure there are some hills, but nothing like the area between PV and beginning 100 miles south or so of Mazatlan. That part was awful to drive through because of the two lane roads up and over hills up the coast from Flores de Las Penas all the way into Alcapulco, then to PV. A lot of people turn inland at Maz to avoid that area. I now know why, and taking it slow in that area helps make it a safer trip, I also stopped and rested pretty regularly.
Wow you’re doing quite good on the price of fuel as it relates to what we pay in Canada. At our current exchange rate we are paying about $7.3 pesos a litre. ($1.00 CDN= 9 pesos regular fuel =.85c CDN per litre).
I rechecked my math on fuel costs and it wasn’t as bad as what I thought. Another good reason to travel in Mexico.
Good luck on your next leg of the trip.
Paul.
Hello, I found your blog through a site called rvthereyet.cc. This site has posted a long list of RV blogs, including yours and mine as well. I’ve clicked on a few of the links there and have enjoyed reading some of your recent posts.
I wonder if you would be interested in trading links with me? My site details the camping adventures I have with my wife and two small boys. The site is caled The Camping Machine and you can see it at http://www.thecampingmachine.com. Thanks very much for your time and your very nice website.
Yeah, I’d be happy to…soon as I figure out how to do it but that shouldn’t take long. I read some of your blog about your visit with the SIL and BIL and enjoyed it very much. Keep up the good wordsmithing.