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.
I stopped at a Pemex in Tecate and used up the $2100 in pesos I had ($6.25/gallon USD), and washed the windows. The approach to the border at Tecate from the south is really simple, routed on wide roads, plenty of signs and the GPS routes you correctly. There are two turns that lead to this approach road that avoids getting trapped by the cement road barriers and if you follow GPS, not a problem. This is the line to the border crossing but it moves fast.
And the sign said use the left lane which really seems dumb as the right lane is pretty much a straight shot to the outbound road, but the left lane has a tight turn. It’s like they either don’t care if you damage your RV or their facilities, or they’re just not very smart. The sign could be flip-able easily enough redirecting RVs to the right lane when appropriate.
But, soon was over the border…they didn’t inspect inside my RV, just asked a couple questions at the booth and looked at my passport. Then I had to worm my way through a tight right, followed by an almost immediate left on the narrow egress road. Then more snaking around the narrow curvy road to the main street on the US side. Really a piss poor setup. When they are inspecting RVs, it’s a bit easier as you just drive straight into the inspection area. But I understand it’s not open very often. Which is the benefit to using smaller border crossings. No sniffing dogs, no inspection, just hand your passport at the kiosk, answer a couple questions and off you go.
Lots of rocks in this part of the country. Heading east towards Yuma.
After around 4 hours of driving, arrived at the Shady Hollow RV park just outside of Los Algodones. There’s not many trees but since I planned on being there a month, drove around until I found a nice spot with morning and afternoon shade, such as it was.
Next day, drove the 1 mile over to the huge parking lot, paid my $6 (cash only, no coins allowed) and walked the 200 yards into Mexico. And the town’s main street was set up for a celebration of some kind. Sat and enjoyed some really good music for a while.
Walked the several blocks to my favorite dentists office and made an appointment for a cleaning and eval. During that, they found a couple cavities AND the grey facial tooth I had had become infected and needed a root canal to save. Needed two root canals it turned out. Made my appointment and went in a couple days later for the first root canal, and a week later for the 2nd. Surely could have had both teeth extracted and be done with them, but it’s so economical in Mexico, had them repaired instead. The office is staffed with women, but they bring in a specialist for the root canals. He does an excellent job as I had work done by him a couple years ago. Cost was $560 for 2 root canals, a cavity fill, and a replacement bridge as the cavity was under the old bridge. I’d gotten a quote at a dentist in Milton Freewater and it came to $1800 (did not include a quote for the facial tooth root canal). I knew I’d need work when I went to Mexico, but luckily, there wasn’t chronic pain. Saved quite a bit by waiting until I got to Los Algodones.
Hung out in Sleepy Hollow park, went to the nearby casino for dinner on occasion, went back to downtown Los Algodones a few times and generally had a great time. Pina Colas are yummy. Weather was great except for the occasional winds. Here’s some shots of downtown…that’s not the dentist I use though. I did usually walk across the border but drove across a couple times too. Crossing back over into the US walking or driving takes up to 45 minutes. Really depends on the day of the week and the number of US car caravans that cross over. Seems as though the local Yuma RV parks encourage that ‘flocking’ type behavior. It’s safe in this town and the cartels haven’t made any inroads here so groups traveling over for safety isn’t really necessary and jambs up the roads and border crossing. Then again, there are thousands that lined up to go into Mexico starting on Friday afternoon. Mexicans going home for the weekend most likely.
And here’s my favorite bar in Los Alodones…el Paraiso. Food is great, they often have a singer performing on the stage, and the bartender is friendly. Just a block off the main street and lots of tourists know how good the food is so it’s often crowded. But since it’s open air, what could be noisy is not annoying at all.
He makes a killer pina colada too.
And back at the Sleep Hollow RV park for a look around. Ms. Kitty enjoying being outside though it’s so raw, there’s not much hunting to be done around here, she relaxes in the chair most of the time.
One of the few spaces in the park with decent trees and I grabbed it.
Looking down the road towards the office and exit/entrance. Right next to the exit is the entrance to the big parking lot so it’s within walk-able distance but I’ve never walked that 1.5 miles I think it ends up being. Lots of people park their cars beyond (north of) this RV park and do walk it just to save $6.
It started to get really hot during the day, and the nearly new basement air I’d installed last summer was getting a workout…but it kept up with the heat so it was comfortable inside. Since it’s the desert here, evenings were pretty cool, but the mornings and evenings are very comfortable outside.
It got hot enough that I wanted to leave and head north to Pahrump which was averaging in the low 80’s while it was mid 90’s here at Sleepy Hollow so I paid the electric of $226 after $450/month rental I’d paid when I arrived and left 2 days early. Unsure if they gave me a refund on those 2 days I left on the table with a reduced electric charge…I doubt it. Staff is kinda quiet and not very forthcoming about things like that. But she probably thought I was trying to scam them or something.
The last morning I was there, woke up at sunrise and got this shot looking east…
It’s a 6 hour slog from that RV park to Pahrump, and the GPS right near the beginning of the trip routed me onto a gawd awful side road right freakin’ next to the freeway, named Frontage Road, that slowed me down to 15 MPH some places. Looks like it hadn’t been resurfaced in decades, all broken up and rough. Dammit! The next freakin’ freeway exit would have put me right were I needed to be to turn north. And then the routing on this travel plan took me through miles and miles of farm country and turn after turn on country roads. Not terrible but again, annoying. It is the shortest route to Pahrump from where I was though.
After making it through the southern area of Las Vegas, and over the mountains, I was in Pahrump after 7 hours of driving. Got there pretty close to sunset but had time to make camp first.
Stayed there at Preferred RV for 3 weeks doing nothing. But my nearly new heat pump started misbehaving. The outdoor fan motor wouldn’t start sometimes. In fact I’d have to set the thermostat for cooling during the hot part of day, run outside, crawl under the RV, poke a screw driver up into the vanes of the squirrel cage fan and spin it to get it started. It has a 3 year warranty but damn, less than a year old and cost $4000! That worked for several days near the end of my three weeks and then the park told everyone in row 100 (I was in 118) that it was going to be closed so we’d have to move somewhere else in the park. By then the weather had gotten marginally better up north at my home town of Milton Freewater so I cut short my stay and headed north.
And if you remember, mid-April 2024 was when the PNW and the northern reaches of the eastern travel valley from Pahrump to M-F had fierce winds. In the mid 20 MPH range with gusting to the 45 MPH range. It’s a 14 hour drive so I always break it up into two days. The day I left was calm and I was watching and checking on the winds along the route. It got nastier so I decided to stop in Tonopah to wait it out a couple days. And the park I usually stay at was full when I arrived. I had been driving along heading north and noticed a pile up of several vehicles behind me so being a good driver, I pulled over and let them pass. Two giant Class A rigs passed me and they took the last two spots at Tonopah station casino. Grr.
Anyway, checked my phone for other parks and they were all pretty expensive for a short stopover except for the Joyland RV Park. I headed there just north of town, and the owner said I was welcome but there was only 30 amp. And it was freezing at night still so had to watch the water. Well, I’d topped my tank before leaving Pahrump, didn’t need to dump, I could survive on 30 amp, and the $20/night was attractive compared to the other RV parks nearby so I stayed 3 nights…just to avoid driving in those winds. The owner refused $20 for the last night because he said, he didn’t have the 50 amp my RV needed. Very nice of him.
You can see from the flags how fierce the winds got to be the day after I arrived. And they stayed that way for most of the 3 days I stayed there. The forth day they had slacked off so I felt safe heading north again. Did not want to have my RV blown over and end up in a ditch on the side of the road.
I enjoyed my visit at that park and gave the owner some pointers about dealing with the local electric utility company that demanded he pay $15/month for every electric meter that was active. I pointed out that he could just buy his own meters and avoid that charge. They’re not that expensive. One of the reasons he gave me that 3rd night free I suppose.
Next travel day takes me back into the mountains and hey, got to see snow! First part of the journey is in the desert valleys and the wind was more gentle but it was there rocking the RV on occasion.
After climbing a thousand or two feet, here’s a shot of Austin, Nevada. I really want to stop and spend a week there some day but so far, it hasn’t worked out.
After crossing through Austin and dropping back into the valleys, still lots of snows on the hills.
The weather prediction was for the winds to pick up late in the afternoon, so I also stopped in Winnemucca at the Model T RV Park & Casino. It’s economical but has an annoying requirement that they copy your RV vehicle registration, DL, and car registration. AND the RV check in building isn’t manned so you have to walk way over to the casino, and back if you forgot your documents. It’s an okay park with 50 amp. Stayed there for 2 nites while the winds quieted further.
Time to head for John Day as the weather got better and better. It’s a 6.5 hour journey from Winnemucca though some of the most interesting topology in the country. I’ve driven around the east and down and back from Florida and the growth on both sides and between the freeway lanes doesn’t give you much of a view. One time I was heading north from Florida and the GPS put me on a bypass road. I hadn’t looked at it for an hour or more but off in the distance I saw some giant buildings. Glancing at my GPS, I see that it’s Atlanta, GA. I would have completely missed it because of all the trees in the way of the view if it hadn’t been for those tall buildings. Give me the open spaces of the west any day.
After passing through the sparsely populated eastern Oregon scrub lands, passed through Burns, Oregon and back up into the hills.
Arrived at John Day, Oregon and the Grant County RV park at $35/night. By now the winds had died, I arrive early, set up and headed straight for the Outback restaurant and bar where I enjoyed their delicious meatloaf. Always get two meals out of one order. Sometimes 3.
Next day was very nice weather wise and headed on north. It’s just May 8th at this point and there’s still snow to be found along the highway. Very volcanic around this route.
Lots of nice trees though. And on the 9th, arrived at Meadowbrook RV park in Milton Freewater and settled in for several months.
I really stretched out the trip this time merely to dodge the high winds and freezing temps, stopping for multiple days where often I would just pass through. If Preferred RV park hadn’t needed to close the row I was in I probably would have stayed there longer, BUT, the AC broken down and the heat in Pahrump kinda forced my hand. The trip north wasn’t that uncomfortable but the wind was an annoyance.
It’s still very nice here in M-F and I’m happy about that as it means I can take my time to get to fixing the heatpump. Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed the journey.
👍🏻
Welcome home!
Thank you, Joel. It’s good to be back.