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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And into Mexico…

Posted on March 4, 2024 by Jim@HiTek

Left Tucson heading to Mexico in late February…

and first stopped at the TSD station for a diesel fill up. And couldn’t get the pump to start pumping! Tried every trick I knew about pump islands with remote pumps on the opposite side but nothing worked. Dammit! I needed fuel! So I drove around the fueling station (these are business type sites…no humans anywhere around) and tried a different pump, and it worked. Cost me nearly 45 minutes of screwing around to find they have defective equipment but no sign. Wasn’t until I was 10 minutes away that I realized I could have put a note on the pump myself. Doh!

Anyway, I did make it out of Tucson onto the west bound I-8 freeway.

One of the dune buggy havens that dot this area. There’s a huge meeting over those dunes a couple times a year. I’ve passed it in the past but never stopped.

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Welcome to 2024…

Posted on February 16, 2024 by Jim@HiTek

Having survived 2023, it’s time to enjoy some lo-jinks in 2024.

Not much had happened after I arrived in Tucson, John, my host, and I got back into our old-guy routine of sitting in the sun in front of his garage every afternoon enjoying the weather (normally sunshine even on coolish days) and tossing stories back and forth. We strictly avoid politics. But we’re both atheists so we do complain about the latest religious outrage on occasion.

I do enjoy the sunsets here…

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2023 – October thru December…

Posted on January 25, 2024 by Jim@HiTek

November 1st, 2023 was a travel day heading south towards Winnemucca.

First have to climb the very steep hill on I-84 outside of Pendleton. Known as Deadman’s Pass. Can be really dangerous in the winter so I always try to time my travel through here when it’s safe. There are several Webcams showing conditions. Usually, even after a snow event the roads melt the snow so by 10 AM it’s safe. Of course in the summer, overheated vehicles can end up stuck on the side apron. Coming down is as dangerous if you don’t downshift or have an exhaust brake and overuse your regular brakes.

Several hours later, the Winnemucca valley.

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More from 2023…

Posted on January 17, 2024 by Jim@HiTek

————————Sept. 2023——————————–

I have created some of my own recipes over the years, and this cottage cheese salad is one of them. Diced onion, peppers (red and green), diced tomatoes, salt and pepper to taste, and the cottage cheese. Very refreshing and an excellent foil to the spicy, garlic heavy spaghetti sauce I make. Cleans the palate.

I don’t eat pasta unless it’s angel hair pasta in soup so I just make a pot of spaghetti sauce and eat it from a bowl along with the salad and some garlic bread.

And of course, the meal isn’t complete without French Vanilla and Orange Sherbet ice cream swimming in ginger ale.

On rare occasions, if I have a bottle of Burgundy, I’ll have a glass to go along with the meal.

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Two months later…

Posted on January 16, 2024 by Jim@HiTek

Yes, I’m still around, still RV’ing. Nothing terrible to report about my absence, just run-of-the-mill laziness.

Anyway, I’m back to posting and this post will cover from the end of July after I returned from my visit to Troutdale, through December to finish out the year. In a few days, I’ll post from 2024.

—————–July 2023—————-Brunch with the family in Walla Walla——————-

So my sister Teri and Gary invited us over for brunch. Daughter Mush came with me but my son James decided to skip. I’ve always enjoyed their back yard. But I’m beyond enjoying yardwork.

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Back Home Again…

Posted on November 13, 2023 by Jim@HiTek

After that 4 day visit with my Troutdale friends, headed back east along I-84 that travels alongside the Columbia. Which is now just a series of lakes as the backup from each dam reaches within a mile or three of the base of the next upstream dam.

Cruising along the divided highway, drivers pass through this nice long tunnel. Just past this tunnel heading east is the Eagle Creek Trail, one of the most popular and spectacular trails in the entire USA. Gets around 3,000,000 hikers per year. Well worth the hike. I’ve been several times. You really only need to get around 3 miles up the trail and most of the day hikers have turned back.

And then further on, is the Bridge of the Gods. And nestled practically underneath is my favorite restaurant in the gorge…the Bridgeside Inn. I’ve been coming here when I wanted to get away from the Portland/Gresham/Troutdale area since the early ’70’s. Often for breakfast or lunch, and just as often just to sit and take in the grandeur.

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Visit to Troutdale…

Posted on October 15, 2023 by Jim@HiTek

Eventually decided I’d finally go visit my friends over in the Portland area. It’s been 7 years since I’ve seen them but I do keep in touch with Facebook. With my newer travel route putting me here in the Walla Walla valley for both convenience and savings, I’ve slacked off heading to the Troutdale area. I used to spend most of the summers over there.

I found a used Dell 15″ laptop for sale on FB Marketplace that is one of Dell’s prime, top-of-the-line devices. Or it was back in 2006 when it was made. Still quite useful and had very few hours on it. The owners paid around $999 for it back then and it just sort of sat on a shelf most of the intervening years. Or so the seller said. I paid the seller $125 for it. Dell still makes that model, updated of course. This one has all the goodies, touch screen with very thin screen surround (more screen, less plastic case), multiple cores for seamless video watching, Bluetooth and Wifi, tough metal case in a slim design, all designed for heavy use. I plan on using it when traveling.

I don’t know if my readers remember but last time I mentioned how some guy sat next to me on the plane on the flight back from Costa Rica with a 15″ screen watching movies on the onboard Wifi and my little 10.5″ screen just didn’t compare. I was jealous. So that’s why I bought this Dell. It’s lightweight and has a much larger keyboard then my 10.5″ unit. Which I just sent to my friend over in Iowa so she’d have something to use since her’s broke. But the Dell is fine for travel, and if it gets stolen, or dropped in the ocean or something, I’m not out much. I do keep my receipts when I travel and enter them into a spreadsheet and this bigger keyboard will be very handy.

Anyway, here we go on the way to Troutdale from Milton Freewater taking the Walla Walla River road that connects to I-5 a few miles just past Irrigon, Oregon. I only took this route because it’s scenic and I get tired of freeways. If I’d headed due south instead I would have gotten onto I-5 just outside of Pendelton, Oregon. Here I’m heading west towards the Columbia at Wallula Junction.

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