Hanging around in Mexico in 2025…

Posted on January 13, 2025 by Jim@HiTek

Last time, I’d arrived in San Felipe, Baja with the intent of avoiding the swearing in of the dictator wanna be that somehow got the Whitehouse. A convicted rapist, felon, a guy who robbed a children’s cancer donation fund, a 5 times bankrupt casino jackass who wouldn’t know how to run a business if it bit him, a 5 times draft dodger who likes his hero of the VN war to have not been caught, who dissed the Gold Star families, who mocked a differently abled reporter. A white supremacist, misogynistic nihilist bully. Anyway, I wanted to be away from all that and the initial damage he’ll do, “I’ll only be a dictator for one day” said by the guy who had 30,000 verified lies his first time in office.

Apparently, Americans WANT to destroy the democratic republic they’ve built up over 277 years.

So, on to more fun type things. Down here I do not get US TV or Mexican TV for that matter, so I’m not following the daily issues up there. I do know about the major fires in LA and the massive cold front hurting the mid-west and east but that’s about it. I have a good streaming setup so I watch hours of Netflix and Hulu and some of the free channels. Since the Seahawks are out of it this year, no football to look forward too either. I’ve got a pretty good wifi signal and since I’m the only RV here most times, it’s fairly reliable. Does drop out occasionally but that’s not the parks fault, that’s the local system.

But first, I wanted to show you guys the nifty little vacuum I picked up at the Goodwill. I often snack or eat meals at my computer desk and the crumbs end up on the table cover there. I have it right next to my desk plugged into a USB power adapter and when needed, just whip out this tiny vacuum, suck up all the crumbs, and deposit the debris in the nearby trash can. Sooo handy. Cost $3 as I recall. A handy little tool that I just stumbled upon while browsing. Didn’t even know they made tiny vacuums. No more brushing off the table cover into my hand, often dropping it in my lap.

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Late Nov. ’24 thru Dec. ’24…

Posted on December 28, 2024 by Jim@HiTek

Had a warm and quiet 3 weeks in Pahrump. Not much to report about it other then my sports bar had someone try to drive through the parking lot facing outer wall. When I went to visit a few days before the first in Pahrump Seahawks game, it was closed, no notice on the door, just 2-3 sheets of plywood covering the hole. A couple hours searching for info on the web showed that the old owner had been leasing the space, and abandoned the bar after the accident. If it was an accident. So here it was November and I had nowhere comfortable to watch the Seahawks games. One thing I liked about the Bounty Hunter bar was that I could bring a six pack of my favorite beer and they’d store it in the cooler for me, selling them back to me over the game period. I’d have 2 or 3, and leave the rest for the next game. And than I could have a typical bar food dinner…they did have a high quality pizza they’d bake up in their air oven. That was well worth having. But the thing about it was even with all that over a 4-5 hour game period, it rarely cost me more than $24. With them being closed, I had to go over to the casino, score a bar stool in the right place and get them to turn the game on. Then play the damn poker machine (or pretend to do so) to get free drinks. Rarely left that place even than without spending $40 or so. In less than comfortable circumstances since the bar stools aren’t designed for human butts.  And there would be few Seahawks fans around, unlike that bar were 90% came there just to support the ‘Hawks. I had years ago tried to find a comfortable sports bar before I found the Seahawks bar and really, none of them did it for me like the now ruined one. Dammit. I did sign up for NFL+ streaming service and watched one of their games 10 minutes after the game ended so that worked fine but there’s nothing like watching it live or nearly live surrounded by other fans. Here’s the front door, the damage was over to the right from this picture.

I came over again a week later and the hole had been patched so it looked like the rest of the stucco wall and there was someone inside working on it. Had a Porsche in the parking lot. Anyway I rattled the door and he came out and in answer to my questions explained that the lease $$ had gone up and the old lease holder had refused to spring for the repairs himself so the owners where doing it. They were thinking of some other type business like a retail dress shop would be better suited for the building. Wanted to know if I wanted to lease it. I said no.

Well, anyway, it’s no longer my hang out for the Seahawks games. Sigh.

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Oct. to late Nov. 2024

Posted on November 18, 2024 by Jim@HiTek

October was a bit boring…I used the newest heat pump extensively to good effect with both heating and cooling working fine. Made sure the venting that exits the output tunnel and heads up the rear than inside of the RV was well sealed without any air leaks. Then I hired some handymen to help move the two salvage heat pumps onto a pallet on the cement pad directly behind my RV. Got permission from the park manager to leave them there until spring when I should be able to part them out and sell the parts online. Winter is when most RVers ‘park’ their RVs at home for the season so I’d not expect to get any buyers. I didn’t do much of anything this month but stay home and watch the start up of the football season.

I did get a potential buyer that saw my ad on Facebook Marketplace and it turned out he only lived a couple blocks from me. Turned out he had a 6537 model, which is an odd duck but he couldn’t buy my 6535 (same as a 46515 model that the salvage units are) because it won’t fit. He did hire me to help get it working properly, which I did and made a bit of pocket money.

November became a travel month…Since I had the heat pump working, installed and buttoned up, had the salvage heat pumps put to bed with a nice blue tarp covering them, it was time to think about heading south for the winter. But first, Ms. Kitty…we had a wind storm come through around 2 weeks before I was planning on heading out and to protect my LR slide awning…which was flapping way too much…I pulled in the LR slide. This is often a warning to Ms. Kitty that we’re going to be traveling. She hates travel in the RV. Or car. So she hid in the BR and didn’t come out until the next day when the weather was sunny and warm. I left the door open for her like I do and she heard that and came zooming out of the BR like a shot and zipped out of the door. She did NOT return for 26 hours! I feared she was gone forever but did the normal posting to social media about her with a picture. Here she is lounging in the BR…when she senses we’re going to be driving, she hides under the bedspread on the floor and then acts freaky whenever I stop, trying her damnedest to escape out of the door when I open it, or sitting in the stairwell yowling at the closed door. Very often on the route I can let her out, but other times, it’s just not allowed or appropriate.

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Work in M-F…

Posted on October 3, 2024 by Jim@HiTek

Today is Oct. 3rd 2024, and yesterday I was finally able to fire up the heat pump and get air-conditioning. And this morning get heating from the finally installed heat pump. A project I’ve been working on for months now. The heat pump had been installed less than a year when it failed in late May ’24. 

If you remember last time I showed pictures of the shipping damaged heat pump delivered by FedEx. Than around 3 weeks after receiving that damaged one, AirXcel delivered another one, again by FedEx, but without shipping damage this time…except it was obvious that somewhere either the pallet was dropped, or a fork from a forklift caught a cross member on the pallet, or something heavy was placed on top, or the truck had hit a swale in the the road that caused a compression event. Which caused the heat pump to push down on the pallet, breaking a cross piece. So it was on a 10° tilt on the pallet when it arrived. Made the shipping guy stand there while I peeled back the wrapping and inspected. Eventually determined that it was likely just the compression event and there was zero damage to the heat pump as far as I could determine. So I signed.

Then it sat there on the pallet while I tried to arrange for muscle to move it. Two weeks passed and finally had a couple guys hired and they moved it to the platform next to the RV and it’s basement compartment. Opened the top, replaced the oil type pillow block bushings with pillow block ball bearings, rerouted and dressed the poor wiring in the control section, and than tested it. And it tested within spec. Both compressors came on, all the currents measured within specs.  Pretty happy about that. I also found that the factory worker who put the top on had stripped out 3 or more screw holes that hold the cover in place, grrr. So it rattles a little bit when either compressor switches on. But it seems it settled down as I haven’t heard it since the first time I turned it on.

So here it is installed. I won’t say much about the difficulty with installing this in the rack and frame of the RV but I will say that the tolerances were measured and this new heat pump is the same dimensions as the original, but it does take some finagling to get it in the compartment. The main problem is getting it squished up against the foam seal from the return air plastic vent that drops down from the bedframe. Getting it to go that last inch to under that lip is a bitch. Once it’s mostly under the lip, then have to quickly start ratcheting the bolts to raise the tray. Took over an hour to get it positioned just right and under the lip, and the tray lifted without damaging the frame of the heat pump by prying too much with a crow bar and a flat bar.

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Still in M-F…

Posted on September 2, 2024 by Jim@HiTek

Yeah, it’s been a long time. I’m having a bit of a problem getting my get-up-and-go going so basically, I’m just staying home and not doing much of anything other than visiting the iRV2.com RV forum and the Winnebago forum, and Facebook, and Nextdoor and Tribel. Vast waste of time. I did make it to the Edgar Allen Poe live show at the Gesa Theater with cocktails served during all four breaks and that was fun. But even with my hearing aids, sadly I couldn’t hear much of what the actors were saying. But I’m familiar with Poe’s works so I was able to follow along.

Some other things going on, 2 years ago here at this RV park there was a small tree next to my LR slide out with stout branches. I wanted the shade and tried to position the RV just right as I backed into the site but then when in position, I stupidly failed to notice that the S end of the LR slide would catch on one of those branches and when I extended it picked up my slide, bent the support extension, and that bent support extension put such strain on the toppers front top seam it tore the slide topper fabric. It’s a ShadePro topper so it’s thick fabric but even it couldn’t handle that extra strain. I’ve been trying to find awning repair while I travel and finally found a sewing shop way out in the boonies that was able to sew in a patch for me. Just $25. Then had a couple guys install it.

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Just hanging around in Milton…

Posted on July 4, 2024 by Jim@HiTek

Really not a lot going on here in Milton Freewater since I arrived on May 8th. Visited with the kids of course, my sister finally answered my email about my arrival, today, over a month later. Then there is the RV park management, Pacific Star Management out of California, who bought this property last year or the year before. I sent them an email about my arrival 2 days after arriving. A week later, no response so I called their number and left a voice mail. No response. Then I contacted the onsite managers who were supposed to bring or email the rental agreement to me. I asked them for it 3 times. Nothing. So I’ve been staying here free for nearly two months until 2 days ago when they finally sent me the documents, I e-signed them and sent them back, they showed what I owned (no late fee because my tardiness was all on them), but their web site was broken and wouldn’t send me a password change page, didn’t work until today. Just this AM, I finally paid them the $1400 I owed. Damn. I was hoping they’d forget all about me parking here.

The other thing of note is the heat pump…it was less than a year old back in April when it went bonkers and I am dealing with Airxcel on it. They are nice enough, even allowing me to become an authorized Airxcel repair guy which allows me to bill them for my labor too. I did have to dig out my EIN which is my old business taxing number. They are sending me some parts I need free eventually but they’re 3 weeks late at this point. So the heat pump is sitting outside of it’s compartment while I wait. I have to have those parts in order to run tests on the compressors again because right now, it appears that the #2 compressor isn’t cooling…like they forgot to put Freon in it, or it’s leaked away. Here’s a link to that story…it’s for my Coleman Mach, Airxcel 46515-611 heat pump that cost me $4,000 in May of ’23. I did find the problem right off, it was the cheap shaft pillow block bearing on the outdoor blower motor. It wasn’t lubed by anyone like it’s supposed to be and it overheated, then seized up. I’ve replaced it with a ball bearing type. Here’s the link to the story: 3: Heat Pump… 

So now, with this weekend showing projected temps over 100℉ I’ll have to rely on the two interim window ACs I bought a few weeks back to tide me over. I was able to buy a nearly new Toshiba 12,000 BTU AC that a guy had listed at $250 (half the new price) after I talked him down to $170. He’d bought it for his tiny office where a 6,000 BTU AC would have been sufficient. Stuck the Toshiba into my LR window and it’s purring along. Does a pretty good job keeping the main living area cool even in 105℉ temps. And I got a 6,000 BTU for the bedroom too. Both of them have an ECO setting that makes the AC run weird so I leave those off. Power loss resets them to ECO On so it’s kinda annoying, but workable.

One of the things that happened here was one morning Ms. Kitty was taking a sun bath on the rug inside the open door of my RV when the neighbors kid let his dog out of the car as he arrived, the dog saw my cat and made a mad dash to get her. I heard the ruckus while I was in the back taking a leak and when I came out, the kid had just grabbed his dog by the neck fur and was dragging him out of my RV! Ms. Kitty had dodged the dog behind the drivers seat and when she could made a bee line for the back of the RV. I yelled at the kid, “Where’s that dog’s leash!” He never visited again without that dog on a leash. Anyway, when I collared Ms. Kitty, I couldn’t find a mark on her, but she’d been slimed with dog spit. No missing fur, no puncture wounds, no sore spots on her. Huh. So that cooled my anger. I wiped her down and kept the door closed for a few hours while the kid was visiting his dad/uncle/grandpa. They kept that dog inside their trailer from then on too.

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Back to the US…

Posted on June 1, 2024 by Jim@HiTek

After the visit to Mexico, I decided to spend a month hanging around Yuma to take advantage of the warm weather, before heading even further north.

This year, March 2024, the weather has been a bit less predictable then in previous years. The cold weather fronts kept rolling in one after the other and I soon decided to ignore that and head north when I usually did, mid-May.

Anyway, when the rent was due at the RV park near Guadalupe, instead of staying over, I wanted to get up to Yuma because I had a tooth that had begun to bother me and I wanted to get any dental work done in Los Algodones, Mexico, just across the boarder from Yuma. So on March 19th, headed north via the same route I’d taken to get to Guadalupe, via Tecate (that’s where the Tecate brewery and brand started). Noticed my window was a bit crowded with bugs and streaks but I wasn’t keen on stopping to wash it off so not as many travel pictures. This next picture is an example of why I rejected posting most of them. This valley is around 15 miles from Tecate.

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More from Mexico…

Posted on April 16, 2024 by Jim@HiTek

Wasn’t much happening around the RV park, other then giving Walter a hand with his full on off-grid solar setup. I was giving advice, such as it was, about the install and the problems he’d run into on occasion. He had a good grasp of the system already so I just mostly agreed with his assessment of how to do things. One problem he ran into was when he’d installed two 24V to 12V converters. When he rotated the switch, it arc’ed and popped. I agreed they were most likely defective as his wiring was top notch. He sent them back and got replacements and those both worked.

But, on with my tours around the area…decided to head back into Ensenada one day just for a look see. I did stop at two RV parks and one I’d read the reviews on still hadn’t rebuilt the main office. So there’s an entire RV row that lost power during a fire that had been mentioned in a review a year prior…still not rebuilt. None of the wifi extenders worked either so wifi was only near the office where they had jury rigged that setup so it worked, somewhat. And I stopped in at Corona Beach RV and that’s a nice one. So I was thinking to heading there after leaving Guadalupe RV park. Turned out I just headed back to the US instead but that’s for later. Here I’m heading back to that massive shipping area and over on the right are some new homes for sale. Since at that time my brother and cousin were considering moving down here, decided to stop by and take a look on the way back from downtown.

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Visit to Guadalupe…

Posted on April 5, 2024 by Jim@HiTek

Since I’m staying near to the village of Guadalupe, a picture essay of the town and nearby environs is warranted, so here ya are…

If you click on that map link above, you can see how small it is. The main MX-3 highway is how I’d get to Ensenada. If I went straight instead of following the curve, I would be where this first picture shows. Note this is very typical of the smaller Mexican towns I’ve stayed at over the last 20 years. This is my first visit to the west coast of Baja and I sort of expected less green, thinking it was mostly desert. It was a surprise to find all this vegetation, vineyards, olive orchards, etc. Pleasant surprise really.

Here’s the first corner entering the village. Over on the left are 3 small food kiosks. The Pemex parking lot is like many in these small towns off of the main highway MX-3, filled with small and huge potholes. I was considering filling up my RV here when I moved again but the nasty potholes kind of squelched that idea for the time being. I did explore their access to the diesel pumps a couple times but decided because of the potholes to fuel up back in the US since I had just under 1/2 tank left.

Here’s just a bit further up the road, a mix of homes and small one room businesses…on either side. This main road had it’s share of potholes too but doesn’t take long to figure out how to navigate the area. Did all my shopping at the Oxxo, the Liz store, and a couple other stores. One was a Costco type store with bulk items in stock, another was a basement convenience store alongside the road. Past this area is the main part of town with lots of businesses. There are a couple of mini-malls too.

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Visit to Ensenada…

Posted on March 29, 2024 by Jim@HiTek

Last time the article was about arriving at the Guadalupe RV park around 15 miles outside of Ensenada in the wine valley. Today, I explore Ensenada…

First a few pictures of the travel, by car, heading south west from Guadalupe…

Visit to Ensenada…

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