As you are likely aware, I have been a bit preoccupied traveling and fighting poor internet connections for a while, but I’m now settled in Mazatlan Mexico with relatively fast and reliable internet so I’ll be able to get my posts up to date.
It had been a very expensive year with all the travel and RV’ing expenses in 2019. And then there were the deferred maintenance issues with the chassis. I averaged $134 per DAY over the entire year of 2019 but that will drop now that pretty much everything I wanted to do or had to do to the RV has been accomplished. The long term average of $40/day over the last 16 years is still pretty good and I expect to settle back into that amount for the daily in the coming year, eventually. I hope. Those figures include every expense I have. Food, rent, bills, entertainment, etc., etc..
Some of the capital outlays in ’19 came from the unexpected chassis repair of the AC compressor which locked up and broke the serpentine belt so while in there fixing that, replaced several other items just for maintenance. Then there was the standard stuff that I repaired and refurbished like the heat pump, also replaced the awful A&E Awning with a nice Colorado, put on 4 new tires in the back, replaced the crumpled basement door from the accident in ’18, replaced the toilet with new just for cosmetic reasons, replaced both cracked front windows where my deductible was $1,000, and several other items. Sure, many of those items could have been deferred but with time going by and with the help of insurance payments, it just seemed like the best year to take care of it all.
With all those maintenance items and repairs taken care of last year, looking forward to an uneventful and less expensive year in 2020. I’m already down here in Mexico in January and planning on a train trip over to New York around April for a look around. Leave my RV in Pahrump, catch the train in Las Vegas. Never been to NY except to pass by on a bus once and landed at the airport once before taking off on another flight. Maybe I’ll tour Washington DC and look at all the monuments. Never done that either though I’ve driven right by the city a couple times.
Well, enough of that speculation for now. In this post, I’ll try to catch up to where I am now so I’ll just touch on the highlights. After I left Parker Dam where I stayed at the River Lodge RV Park (spent a month there), I headed south to Quartzsite. This year I planned on visiting for a while…I’ve been here before of course but that was back in ’06-’08. Just not a lot to draw me there as I found the things I could find there I could find online and usually at a lower price. And the crowds! They say the population blossoms from 3500 to 500,000 overnight. I got there in mid December because I was aware the biggest crowds show up in January.
Quartzsite is only a short drive from the Parker Dam so I took my time. Stopped for diesel in Parker. When I got to the outskirts of town, I already had my sites set on one of the BLM encampments. Free dry parking for 14 days. Pulled in there, signed in (yes, they have a host), chose a spot ‘anywhere’ as the host said, and settled in. Here’s 3 shots of what exactly BLM free parking on public lands looks like. There are many many RVs in this area hidden behind bushes or over on the other side of the wash.
You can see it’s not much, just a dry patch of ground where you can park for free for 14 days. And use your generator for a couple hours per day for regular living. No services, no wifi from down the road. But you do have cell phone coverage so you can make your phone a hot spot if you want.
An hour after parking there, I was bored so unhooked the car and drove the couple miles into town. And soon found a RV park I wanted to stay at. So instead of staying at the free dry camp, I paid $125 for a week at a park with all the services. Drove back, hooked up the car, and drove the RV and car back to the RV park. Same day I arrived so didn’t even spend the night at the free spot. But here at this park the wifi sucked big time. The nose of the RV was right behind me when I took this shot. Hassler’s is right on the main drag in town. You’d expect there to be an outside wifi antenna on this building but that doesn’t seem to be the case. It’s way down this lane I think.
One of the interesting things about Hassler’s are all these metal sculptures, just a few that you can see in those pictures. Kinda interesting. Across the street from Hassler’s was another big RV park and I could pick up their wifi signal sometimes when the Hassler’s signal would fade out so after a couple days of fighting the bad wifi here, drove over there and asked for their passwords. They gave them freely, and for the rest of the week, I could switch between the sources and had FB and email type wifi.
During that first week, I visited some of the tents with all the sundries and tools and minerals, and items for RVs that Quartzsite is famous for. All I found that I wanted or needed was a package of 6 nicely made socks. For $6. Not bad at all. But first, I spotted this ol’ timey one lunger engine puk puk’ing along. It’s used to make home made Ice Cream!! Cannot pass that up now can I? Cost $7.50 for a Graham type cone full and it was like 3 normal sized scoops. Really too much, but wasn’t going to toss it on the ground or give it to a stray so ate it all. Didn’t need much dinner that night, only had a salad around 9pm.
And here’s the concourse. It’s still not January so no crowds yet, but everything is open. I come here either before it gets packed or after people start to leave. But I don’t visit very often either. Think this is my 4th trip in 16 years. Not enough reason to come…
Across the street is another HUGE tool tent. They have so much hardware that if you need some nuts or bolts or some tool to carry with you in your RV, that’s the place to go. The family has been coming to Quartzsite since it became a thing.
Wandered around Quartzsite several times, visited the VFW and had a burger dinner (not very good), tried the donuts at Sweet Mary’s (very good) and finally, found the best pizza in the world at Silly Al’s pizza and bar. Wow was it good.
And as the end of the week approached, I heard that Hassler’s was going to raise their rates to the January ‘in-season’ crowd rates and it just wasn’t good enough wifi for me to be interested in paying that higher rate. So I moved to the B10 RV Park just up the road. Not as nice as the Hassler’s as far as the space went and no sewer at the sites, but the wifi was great! I could stream movies. The other downside was their prices. Even tho I arrived during the off season, it bounded the off and on season rates so it was hugely expensive for what it is, services wise. But, WTH, I wanted to stay another week so paid the $282 they were asking (YIKES!) for one week. Well, they can get away with that because of the huge crowds that show up mid-January. I guess. Her park was pretty empty when I left at the end of the week on the 6th of January. She’s gouging…but does have good wifi. Ex: 14.7Mbps download speed. Enough for HD 7 times over.
I didn’t bother taking any pictures of B10 for some reason. It’s just a big gravel parking lot with a few scattered RVs.
So that stay at the B10 brought me into January 2020. And because of that, I’m going to stop this article here, and come back in a day or two and start the year 2020 with new adventures. Thank you all very much for reading my musings and following along on my adventures. It’s been fun to meet a few of you along the way, thanks for your insight too.
Happy 2020!!!
Hola Jim!
Glad that you made it to Mexico okay. Just wish Mazatlan was easier to reach from San Felipe. I guess you went through the vehicle deposit thing and all. Was that fairly pain free or big hassle?
Are you set up in a park there…how long? I wonder what the prices are there, as that $283 a week park near Quartsite seems crazy!
My friends back home tell me to travel with the RV more..see the baja. But they don’t realize that I consider myself lucky to be able to afford getting here…to my lot…and it only costs about $70 a month. It gets me out of winter, and although this area is soon explored and getting a bit boring…it suits my budget. 🙂
Thanks for all your posts…keep in touch…stay safe…and have fun!
Best, Dawn
Yes, I did get both vehicles registered. As you probably know, you get a window sticker for your RV that’s good for 10 years, than for your car, you get a 1 year sticker and have to give them a CC and they charge it $325 (depends on age of car) and hold that money until you cross back over the border, then they refund it. If you forget you loose that money and that car is banned for life or something. It cost under $100 for the two vehicles and my visa. Insurance though, that was another $500 for 90 days coverage. Not like going to San Felipe and risking it or just buying 5 days of insurance.
I’m staying at the Las Jaibas Trailer Park in Mazatlan and first paid $170 US per week for the first week, which gave me time to go around trying to find another RV park in town with open spaces but didn’t find anything I wanted to move to. I’ll just put up having to drive so much. Anyway, I went ahead and paid for a full month here, $480 US. Likely will stay two months. For February, that comes out to $16.55/day.
All the parks in Quartzsite charge far too much starting in January because they have the traffic to support it. Those high prices are what keeps me away for a decade at a time but I regret not being able to get a Silly Al’s pizza on a regular basis.
Thanks for the kind words and you enjoy your Baja adventure this year. See ya!
Hassler’s could use those metal cacti for wifi antennas. Like 5G signal posts in cities?
It seems you’re always fighting for good wifi.
If/when I get out West BLM seems a good place to camp. And enjoy starry skies at night. Or am I dreaming? 2-1/2 acres 12 miles from Holbrook, Az. Got to go visit it.
Safe travels to you!
I am always fighting for low cost high speed wifi and slowly but surely it’s all coming together. Back in ’04, I paid $1400 for satellite wifi equipment and another $70/month for the service. But over the years, RV parks kept getting better and better and now, here I am in Mazatan Mexico and streaming SD TV. Pretty cool.
Thanks, and safe travels to you and yours too.
I bought a 94′ Bounder pusher – intending to tow a vehicle – just discovered the factory warning max 3500 pounds – I am a bit shocked as my desired towed vehicle weighs 5,000. Can you provide any insight on this matter? Am I screwed?
Take it to a trailer shop…they are experts. And see if your RV frame can support a 7500 lb tow rack. They might only offer 5K and 10K though. Then have your old tow rack removed and replaced with the 5K or 7.5K if you can get it or the 10K if not. If it’s not feasible to do that, they will tell you why. They will also recommend a max rack size for your chassis.
Let’s assume you’re able to get a heavy duty rack installed. Now you have to worry about the engine and brakes. Have the brakes checked at a brake shop and have them do maintenance on them. Maybe beef up the pads by going to an industrial (trucker’s) type. Also make sure you have a working P-B! That can be used in an emergency without damaging anything as it’s a brake shoe that surrounds the drive shaft. Doesn’t do anything bad to the tranni when applied. So you could apply it going 60 MPH, during an emergency.
And finally, the engine. What HP is yours? Mine was only 190 HP and I worried about pulling a toad up a steep grade because there had been situations where I’d had my foot in it but was only going 15 MPH up hill. Towing another 5K toad might have stopped me altogether…but I don’t know that as I never towed a car because I couldn’t find one light weight enough to tow by the Bounder.
If you have a 220 HP, you’ll still slow a lot, but you’ll make it over hills towing 5K. You will need to upgrade your engine maintenance schedule to tow of course. Do oil changes much more often, have the Trubo checked out, make sure your lash adjustment has been done for the mileage you have on it, replace those broken manifold bolts, add a secondary fuel filter, and just generally service the engine like it’s never been serviced properly.
See, it’s not such an easy thing to do to try to skirt the manufacturers ratings. Have you thought of buying a motorcycle and towing that on a mini trailer instead?
Seriously though, there are lots of people who tow more than the manufacturers rating. It’s just it becomes your liability if you’re ever in a crash and they claim you are overloaded.
Good luck whatever you decide…
It’s 190HP and we will be crossing the Rockies twice a year.
Going over the high passes, we will ALWAYS detach the towed vehicle and drive it up and over. It is going in to a real diesel truck shop for a complete service before the maiden voyage. But with only 50k miles on the clock, new brakes and a former owner who is the proprietor of a highly regarded diesel repair shop – I don’t expect any surprises.
Thanks MUCH for the reply.
Headed to our Punta Mita condo for a 10 day visit Sunday – we become snowbirds before next winter and will be residing there most of the year.
Ahh, good. Detaching is excellent for steep hills. BTW, I got 10 MPG with my 190 HP. Sure saved a bunch over those RVs that were only getting 7.5 MPG. I’m getting 8.2 MPG in my 330 HP Cat.
50K miles is a bit low for that old of an RV. It should have 78K minimum but diesels are somewhat immune to the lack of use problems gas engines have. But like you say, it was owned by a diesel shop owner so maybe the maintenance he did on it will make up for that. Have fun in Mexico. I’m in Maz right now.
After considering your input, the 4000 vehicle is consigned to a dealer for sale & we are purchasing something no heavier than 3000 pounds – which vehicle will also be detached and driven over the more challenging mountain passes. I may never know the horsepower output to a certainty, but based on my driving around this area – I suspect it may be over 190HP.
Thanks a ton for your pointers.
You are very welcome. Hope your travels are filled with excellent roads with no hills more than 8% grade.
I got lucky when I was searching for a towed. Found a Saturn (comes from the factory ready to tow except for the tow bracket – see the Towing section of my blog for details on towing) with just 68,000 miles on it back in ’16. It still only has 78K. I did have to repair a bunch of stuff on the engine though…but that was kinda fun. Anyway, it only weighs 2200 lbs so I think you should be able to find a nice sedan that’s under 3000 lbs for sure. Craigs list is where I found mine up in Portland OR.