Heading back home…

Covid-19 was becoming a big issue…the idiot in the WH was repeatedly misleading the public about it but if you watched something other than his statements of idiocracy and avoided Faux News (80% wrong or misleading reports), you were well aware that he was wrong wrongity wrong about most everything that spilled out of his mouth. But he did say one thing that was worrisome…he talked about closing the border with Mexico. At the time, that was ridiculous and everyone knew it and he soon backed off from that but, hey, with that looney in the WH you just never know. So the worry was, am I to be trapped in Mexico for months in the heat of the summer? I do love Mexico, and I could adapt if I stayed, but hey, that heat! Not my thing any more. And of course, running the AC 24/7 wouldn’t be much good for it either, though my maintenance on it more than a year before made it sound nice and smooth.

About March 20th, I had an idea. Maybe head over to San Felipe on the Baja eastern coast. It’s only 2 hours from El Centro, California so I could make a dash for it if it got squirrely. At that time, there were no cases of the virus being reported in most of Mexico. Turned out that was because despite the recommendations of WHO, the Mexican government decided to pretend it wasn’t there, stuck their heads in the ground, and made it almost impossible for there to be any testing for the virus. Which explains the low numbers. But I digress. At the time, with scant information, staying in town didn’t seem to bad. There’s a half way decent RV park right on the edge of town on main street. That was my thinking, but that’s before it became evident that they were under reporting the virus’ spread in Mexico. And being so close to California, which had an explosion of the number of cases, eventually it didn’t ring true. So contacted a friend who lives on a remote property 8 miles north of San Felipe. Was mislead into thinking I’d be able to stay there for a month or two so I left Maz 10 days early. And there’s no refund of the payment I’d made to the Jaibas RV park to take me to April 2nd there. So ended up I left $144 on the table as the owner wouldn’t roll it over to this fall either. Got to San Carlos, that’s when I learned I couldn’t stay on the property more then a couple days. Fuk, pissed. So just headed to Nogales instead, after staying a couple days in San Carlos. Turned in my TIP at KM21 outside Nogales, than crossed the border easily without losing any of my foods to the border guards confiscating them. I had prepared so I didn’t have any fruits, vegis or raw meats, tho I was a bit worried about the frozen pizza and turkey dogs I had. But they didn’t confiscate anything. I take that as lucky.

Here’s a few pictures of the trip from Mazatlan to San Carlos…

Here’s the bypass around Guasave I think. Or maybe around Los Mochis. This is a typical ‘new’ toll booth. The older ones don’t have this much room to pass through. Every toll taker I saw in the manned toll booths I went through, and there are a lot, was wearing a face mask, and most wore gloves. And then I have a bottle of home made hand sanitizer that I squirt on my hands after passing money back and forth. It’s a new bypass, check out the nice roadway. Some of the toll booths are empty as they are not collecting as they move the booths periodically to a new area and they leave the gates open but the structures are still there. That’s where all the beggars hang out. I heard back in January that they’re part of those in that migrant horde of a few months ago, but I don’t believe that that’s still true. Pretty sure most of those people are gone and now it’s just the locals trying for a handout. And also now it’s mostly men, of working age, and they’re getting a bit aggressive. I only donated once to a young lady holding a money can and she had a badge on designating some charity. Can’t hardly believe that either but, why not just this once, only $10 peso. The rest of the times they were trying to block my RV and I didn’t like their attitudes so I’d just drive on by.

Happened to pass this giant sculpture dedicated to the local indigenous people. Pretty impressive but couldn’t get a good close up shot of it from my side of the highway.

And after 8 hours of driving, I arrive at San Carlos. Have 1/4 tank of diesel left, and I’m exhausted. Pulled into the park, and claimed my discount that I had from when I stayed here back in January and they charged me for a 50 amp space but I couldn’t use it, voltage too high and they couldn’t lower it, so I stayed in the same spot, but connected my umbilical into the 30 amp nearby. But that was then, this time, showed the manager the documents and he gave me an allowance. So I got a nice discount for one nights stay. This picture is taken from the drivers window as I’m traveling along that long approach road into San Carlos. Across that section of ocean are some hills, and behind them is Guaymas. A very large city, and San Carlos is a bedroom community nearby further north of probably 15,000 during tourist season.

I only planned on staying one night so they parked me on one of the interior roads, within connection distance of a 30 amp outlet and water spigot. Got online using their wifi and when it went south I’d connect to my data from my phone’s data plan. And soon found out the deal to go to San Felipe was a bust. A waste of time. Wasted effort. Lost $144 on that deal by jumping the gun. But I was tired after an 8 hour travel day so to hell with it, I’ll stay here in San Carlos 2 more days and plan the trip to Nogales instead.

And here’s my space at the Totonaka RV Park after I move out of the driveway. Like many Mexican parks, the owner is a tightwad and hasn’t used any of the income to improve the property in decades. It’s always the same here and I hate staying here. Cable TV is spotty, Wifi is dropping out all the time, power is way too high or too low, and the water isn’t much good. Sometimes there’s no pressure at all. It’s just dammed convenient to stop here when traveling to or from Maz. And there isn’t another RV park around. There use to be a newer one nearby but the original owners and builders died in a plane crash and it slowly went downhill after that. Then they went bust and just closed the place. It’s been closed for years now. So it’s only Totonaka dammit. And because of the virus, I didn’t go anywhere, just stayed in the park. And worked on getting my foods ready to cross. Cooked all my porkchops, and all the chicken breasts too. Made a delicious chicken soup out of the carcass of the roasted chicken I’d gotten at Walmart in Mazatlan. Sooooo gooood, it was amazing.

Many empty spaces as the snow birds starting leaving and the virus became more of a worry for many. During my stay there, the Canadian government started warning their citizens that they needed to get home soon. Something about their insurance being shut off for some reason. Did not make sense of that, but that’s what they were saying. But I heard it second hand too, either from Canadians in the park or those on Facebook.

After 3 uncomfortable days at Totonaka, headed off to Nogales. Guaymas is off in the distance in this picture. After getting over to Mex15D, stopped at a fuel station and boy, wind was howling, and it was cold! Had to wear a long sleeved shirt. Got a fill up. Lots of diesel. Somewhere around 76 gallons.

A couple hours later, started running into these fence posts. These are cement posts, with barbed wire notches molded into the posts. Pretty slick. You’d think that would be all they’d need, but no, I kept seeing miles of fencing where they had these wooden stakes between the cement posts. Then saw miles where they were right next to, behind a few feet, or had thousands of them laying on the ground near the used posts. Really curious. Not sure what’s going on with those fences. It might be that some older farmers didn’t trust them as much as they trust their own ol’ timey wooden posts.

And here is the bypass around Hermosillo. This one was really needed because it was a nightmare getting through Herm. Lots of street lights, traffic, construction to dodge. Really happy to use this bypass instead. Cost $330 pesos but trims 45 minutes of the trip.

Most of the road is in pretty good condition from San Carlos to Nogales, except for a 5 mile section between two improved road areas around 60 miles from Nogales. That part is a mess. The southbound part of that road is fine, but the northbound is devastation. Adds at least 10 minutes to the trip.

Anyway, when I got to KM21, again, I almost missed it! Just like when heading into Mexico. But this time, I had my GPS set to their driveway so I’d know and at the last moment noticed I was there and slammed on the brakes. The short multi-lane driveway to the TIP office was all potholed. Once I negotiated all the potholes, got behind another RV and when he left pulled my car up so the nose of the car was even with the building like the other guy had been instructed. Eventually, the official came over to me after helping people in cars in the other lane, and I gave him my paperwork. I’d kept it all together. He checks the VIN, takes pictures of it even, checks the VIN on the door label take pics of the car front and back, and finally, scrapes off the sticker from the window, gives me a receipt and all my papers back. So that’s how you are suppose to get your TIP money back. It’s $325 or so that they charged to my CC when I entered. The money is to guarantee that I won’t abandon or sell the car in Mexico. It’s incentive to return it to the border. Just checked, they recently deposited $234.09 back to my CC account. Pretty sure they charged me $325. So I guess they have a $91 import fee. That’s annoying.

After KM21, drove on up towards Nogales, and there’s no obvious sign for the road for trucks and RVs that’s NOT right through town. I’ve entered Mexico through Nogales and it’s not too bad, but a bit tight. The truck route is the preferred route. I screech to a stop where the road ‘Y’s trying to decipher the signs and a Mexican trucker drives by honking…and pointing for me to take the road he’s on. So I do. And he was right that is the road for RVs. The sign said it was to the Nogales airport, didn’t mention it’s the truck route to the border. As soon as I followed him  a mile I recognized the road and than later there’s a big sign that says ‘RV’s’ and marks the lane. The traffic was really light and there were hardly any people waiting to cross.

The first stop just had some guards there standing around, no gates or anything. There was a very pretty gal US guard all bundled up like it was Alaska, and she told me to stay in the right hand lane. I asked her how she liked the weather and she loudly goes, “I’m freezing!!” Ha, funny. When I got to the border, saw the guard in my lane and at least 5 other border guards there pass me going in the direction down the roadway where the other office was and I asked one were everyone was going and he told me, ‘Lunch’. OK, around 2 pm, lunch is good. I sat waiting for 10 minutes before anyone showed up again to open that giant gate in this picture. And it was a new group. So lunch and shift change I guess.

Fairly light traffic. I’ve never seen any border crossing with this little traffic. Nobody wants to go to the US it seems. I did miss the vendors that used to come by your RV because I just love those round caramel nut cluster things and one of them always had them. Usually buy at least 10 of them. But there wasn’t a single vendor at the crossing this time, selling anything. Strange.

Drove on for 30 miles until I got to the Mountain View RV Ranch and stopped there. Saw a few signs on the door. Oh oh, what’s this. I could see RVs in their lot when I drove up, but the office was CLOSED according to one of the messages on the door. And just as I’m about to turn away, the handyman, with a mask and gloves, opens the door. A young teenage boy was there too with no mask and no gloves. And with a ‘you old farts are dumb’ attitude. Well, he kept out of the way while the handyman and I discussed my stay, and that I wanted shade maybe? And 50 amp. So he takes my info and tells me that they will email me my bill and I’ll pay online. Cool. I follow him out and find a parking spot. As you can see, it has some shade. Not much, but mornings are nice. Afternoons are going to get brutal though as the nose of the RV is facing due west.

And that’s where I am now. In the small town of Amado, AZ. Many miles from the border and even further from the virus hot spots of Tucson, Yuma, Phoenix, etc. etc.. This town is in the Arizona county with the fewest cases in all of the state. Happy to be here, and have paid for a months stay.

Thanks for reading! See ya soon, and stay safe. Next time we’ll visit the Amado area.