Chaos Leaves Town

So it was quite comfortable in Gila Bend, and since the Holt’s Shell is a Passport America park, the cost was only $13/night. And initially, I paid for 3 nights. But the WiFi was good enough that I kept extending my stay. Meanwhile, I figured since I had so much room at my site, I could finally work on my car’s tranni which if you recall had issues. Usually a ‘thump’ when it up shifted from 2nd to 3rd and rarely from 3rd to 4th. Since I’d been having trouble with the tranni since just a month after I bought it in August of ’16, and was using a work around to keep driving, I felt that this was a good place and time to work on the issue.

First though, to give an idea of where I’d parked and the work space I had, a few pics:

There was enough space to work on the car on either side, or right in front. What I did was move around to the passengers side closer to my tools. But in any case, here’s a shot of the desert where you can walk your dog if you have one… Weather was really nice and mild. I’m like 40 miles from Phoenix here.

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It had been enjoyable in San Felipe, but now it was time to head back north as the weather changed. It was averaging mid 70’s in SF and though still comfortable, I wanted to take a meandering trip north to stay in the moderate temp zone. I also really wanted to get the car’s transmission issues taken care of and wanted more nearby resources. Either I was going to work on it or I wanted to find a shop where they spoke English. There’s lots of great mechanics in Mexico but I wanted to take a more hands on approach with nearby parts or easily available parts via eBay or Amazon, and hiring a mechanic I could direct on the work was a backup plan. BTW, San Felipe has a newer Autozone store and they can get practically anything.

My friend Dawn was having a bit of trouble with the people she’d hired to watch her B&B for her up in Vermont so she’d planned on leaving SF on March 27th and sort of asked if we could caravan because she’d never traveled that route alone before. That date suited me fine and since we were heading the same direction, seemed like a good idea. The last couple days I was in SF I was busy with the various necessary preparations, and had a visit by a couple of blog readers, as detailed in my last post, but eventually the day came.

Did get an early start, but before I even left the RV park, at 6:30 AM, I had to stop and spray lubricant on one of the front jacks to get it to retract all the way. Usually a sticky jack will eventually get to the stored position due to vibrations caused by the engine but this time it hadn’t budged by the time I reached the exit so I had to stop and work on it. After I sprayed and levered it to the top of its travel, that silences the alarm and I can drive on in peace.

Many of you readers probably haven’t driven in a Mexican town, but if you do you’ll find that many streets are narrow, potholed, unsigned, so leaving early in the morning in my big RV towing a car was a bit of an anxiety reducer for me. Though nearly all Mexicans are tolerant of RVs on their roads, still, I like to be polite by getting out of town quickly. The light traffic of early morning helped.

Fifteen minutes later and I’m parked along the road opposite her hacienda waiting for her to join me. Weather was very nice. The trip up to the border takes about 2 hours. We’d decided, after considering 3 other crossings, that the best one for us would be at Mexicali East. It’s a straight shot from here, and the route bypasses most of the Mexicali downtown area. And there were mechanical things to consider on Dawn’s rig and she wanted to cross the border as quickly as possible for the available RV services in the US if needed.

She was late. I saw some movement of an RV over that direction and took this telephoto shot trying to catch a picture of her rig, but missed it. 

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After nearly 3 months in San Felipe, is was getting close to time to head north and cooler weather. It was still comfortable most of the day and night here, but there were portions of the day when it was uncomfortably hot. So I was feeling it was getting to be time to head on north into the mountains for a while to cool off. Maybe wear some long pants for a bit.

Oh, here’s the cocktail guy. Comes around every afternoon. Makes pineapple drinks.

Because the wind is rather fickle this time of year, I pull out my awning early in the morning, around 8, and then retract it in the afternoon when the wind is getting blustery, around 2. Kind of a hassle, but not as bad as having a ruined awning would be.

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I bet you’re wondering, “How good could a blues festival in Mexico be”? Of course you are. I wondered the same thing. And I’ll tell you right off the bat that although it wasn’t great, it wasn’t bad either. What was great about it was the venue…right in front of the El Dorado restaurant on a large grassy area that fronts the place and is between the restaurant and the golf course. The golf course is by necessity a dry desert course with the only grass being on the tees and the greens. Cacti here and there dotting the landscape. Because of the fancy restaurant, clubhouse, and large bar being right there, the food booths were supplied and staffed by the restaurant so they were eclectic and original. In addition there were two full service bars in tents on the grass, and regular bathrooms over in the restaurant. Nice.

What wasn’t so great was the talent. About a 6 on a 1-10 scale with 10 being the best. Ya gotta expect that clear down here in San Felipe though. Pretty sure the organizers didn’t have the funds for any spectacular bands. And it is a fundraiser after all. The other thing that wasn’t that great was the blistering sun. We had a hell of a time trying to find shade. Eventually ended up scrunched up behind a VIP tent which afforded some shade. Didn’t find out for sure until we got there that you can bring your own umbrella. Someone at the RV park had told me they don’t allow bringing your own, but that was probably in past years. This year there was an area specifically for folks with umbrellas. I think they were previously outlawed to sell more space in the VIP tents, with their higher priced tickets and such. Along with shade…those tents had their own waiters or waitresses. Probably other goodies I’m not aware of too. Also, the walk from the parking lot to the venue was rather long if you’re carrying a large lounge chair. I was. And that’s basically all that was wrong. Now, on with the event…

But first some shots of the flora while I was waiting for Dawn to pick me up a few miles from the venue.

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Plenty to do in San Felipe…and to see for that matter. There’s always something going on it seems. But there’s also lots of spare time to just hang out with the neighbors and chill. This posting will just mush together a bunch of stuff that happened the last few weeks I was in San Felipe.

I had added V-Spoilers to the Winnebago (will be doing a write up for my blog’s RV section shortly) and wanted to do a road test with them so invited my new friend, and San Felipe resident, Dawn along. Unfortunately, the wind died soon after leaving SF, and we didn’t pass a single semi, bus, or RV going either direction along the route so the test was a bust, I needed to get a large wind blast from one of those types of vehicles. We drove around 45 miles north, turned around and headed back. Dawn was suppose to listen and observe for me during the test because of her superior hearing and her ability to move around as the passenger. But like I said, weather and traffic conditions didn’t work out for much of a test.

And here I am driving. I’m definitely getting fat. Must do something about that…soon. It looked like it was going to be a great day for the test, but like I said, the wind died soon after leaving SF and strong winds are needed for at least part of the testing.

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With plenty of time on my hands, it was fun just wandering around visiting shops along the malecon and then sitting with a popsicle watching the ocean and enjoying the sites. And only a couple days after that big storm I mentioned in last post. When I heard the day it happened that the refurbished and remodeled baseball park was ready to open, I hightailed it down there for the festivities…

All the local teams are here, and a couple visiting teams too. Men’s and women’s teams, boy’s and girl’s teams. Softball and hardball. There is a league for everyone here.

I was here for a game or two last year and the stadium and park needed rust removal, new paint, groundskeeping, and new safety screens. The remodel did all that plus put in all new fake grass over the entire field.The politicians and donors and baseball officials all spoke. Gah! If I’d known they’d take an hour and a half for all that, I would have gotten here an hour late at least. Boring stuff.

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For those that follow my RV repair posts, I’ve added several more posts over the last couple weeks…check them out:

Replacing Jack Springs…

Mud Flap…

Refer LP mis-operation…

Roof items…

I’ve been busy.