Chaos Leaves Town

Nice town, Flagstaff…I spent some time driving around town in my rental car and visited a few places here and there. Couldn’t get too interested in the touristy thing since I was worried about my RV and whether or not the shop was going to try to claim it was something I’d done to the rig that caused it to fail again. Another week passed as NAD worked on it. I’d go over and visit now and again and volunteer my computer expertize but there wasn’t much they needed along those lines. (Lots of pictures follow…)

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So, my rig is in the shop and I’m at a motel where I couldn’t get WiFi. The next day, I moved to another motel and was offered a weeks stay for a nice low price (amount of which I can’t remember now). Anyway, since I no longer had my kitchen, I had to eat out. There were two bars within walking distance but neither had food, then there were several fast food joints and a couple restaurants. I tried out the Long John Silvers and damn, fish was soooo salty I had to gag it down. Terrible. So terrible I emailed the company a complaint.

Anyway, I also found a car rental place down the street. Get this, $8.95/day. For an older but well maintained car. I’d checked with my RV insurance and they didn’t cover insurance for a rental and I totally forgot my Visa Platinum card did so I paid another $12.95/day for insurance. I called NAD a couple times per day and they were working on the quote but didn’t tell me that it was going to cost $6500 until the 3rd day. I winced. Told them to hold off while I tired to find that much money.

I was under the mistaken understanding that I couldn’t pull that much out of my 401k for some reason so I finally called them (I’d just been reading the rules on their web site) and learned that I’d gotten it wrong. I could pull out as much as I wanted, at any time. Huh. Well, that cleared things up.  So, I got that ball rolling and called NAD and told them to go ahead and start on the engine. Went into the shop and they showed me the burned piston with the broken valve imbedded in the top of it later that day so I knew it was bad. They also insisted I needed a new turbo. So, without much for me to do, I asked the shop owner if there was anything I could do with their computers to pass the time. Scott let me work on their shop computer which had gotten clogged with a bunch of useless sh1t that didn’t belong on it. Took me around 3 hours of work. Since it is out in the shop it was filthy too. Cleaned the outside too. Handed him an invoice for the amount of the work and he kindly took that into consideration on the final bill.

Sitting in the parking lot, ready for the techs.

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We headed out of San Tan Valley, AZ around 10am and skirted Phoenix. Headed up into the mountains on highway 87. It was kind of cool and there were dark clouds here and there but I’d checked the weather the night before so I knew it wouldn’t be too bad of a trip. This route was a short cut to Winslow. And since we planned on heading east a bit then north, in order to visit some ancient Indian ruins, it would cut over 40 miles off the planned trip. As we headed up into the mountains, it got colder and colder until it was very close to freezing outside. The RV was running fine. Shortly before we got to the summit, it started sleeting, then snowing so I was going pretty slow. Probably averaging 35-45. Right after the summit, I began to hear a weird noise from the engine. Opened the drivers window and poked my head out to hear better. Crap, something was seriously wrong. So, I pulled into a ranger station hoping there might be someone there. Left the engine running while I checked it out. Really sounded bad. Clattering valve or something. Walked over to the ranger station to see if anyone was a motor head but the place was all closed up for the season.  By now I knew my engine was having serious problems and we were 60 miles or so from Winslow. But, it did start up again. Didn’t run fine, but at least it started. I already knew I’d lost power so I couldn’t go much more then 45MPH on the straights. And I might do even more damage to the engine trying to run it. But, we had scaled the summit and were on the downhill side. Crossing my fingers, we set off coasting much of the time so maybe, I thought, I’d be able to make it to Winslow.

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Since Stacy was visiting her aunt, and it wasn’t convenient to park my RV outside her aunt’s house for any length of time, I was staying in the Indian Skies RV park in Coolridge, Arizona. My spot was back in the transient area so my space, although nice and flat, was on gravel rather then a nice blacktop pad. But I had a piece of cardboard so I climbed under the rig and checked out the parking brake, filled the transaxle, and checked it over. Didn’t look to bad under there.

A couple days after I got there, the weather changed for the worse and the wind picked up very suddenly. Before I knew what was happening, my awning sprung loose and wrapped itself up inside it’s cover. Unfortunately, it also rolled the pull cord up inside it’s cover. No way to pull it out. In fact, I could barely see it poking out of the awning. I let the wind die down over the next several hours while I debated what to do about it. The next day was nice and calm with the occasional gust out of nowhere but it was quiet enough that I went over to one of my neighbors and asked to use his ladder. He came over to help after I explained the situation and it was very helpful to have him there. I had to climb up to the roof line and did my best to unroll the awning…finally it gave enough that I could worry the pull rope out of there. Took about an hour of working on it to get it out.

There were a couple wind storms that happened when I was there, including a wall of dust that swept through the area a time or two.  The kind of wall of dust you see off in the distance that look like the pictures of the Dust Bowl during the 1930’s.

After staying at Indian Skies for 3-4 days, I headed over to join Stacy and her family for dinner at their place and on the way, one of those wind storms picked up and blew dust over the road so thick that I couldn’t see well enough to pull off the road. Yikes. So, with my headlights on, I crawled along the road only being able to see around 12′ ahead. The section I was on was a two lane road without much of a shoulder so I just stayed on it going perhaps 15MPH. I thought at the time that I should get my air filter checked soon as I could but, I quickly forgot. Plus, had a schedule to keep. Had to get Stacy up to Coeur d’Alene by a certain date and all. After dinner I headed back to the RV park and since that storm had already passed though, didn’t have to fight with any dust.

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After a couple weeks in PV, Stacy finds a friend with a truck, picks up her and her friends stuff from her apartment and brings it to my RV. We load it all up in the bathtub. It’s piled 3 feet high in there.

Off we head for Mazatlan with the plan of staying there a couple days then off to the US. This time I decided I’d stay in the newer RV park named Punta Cerritos. It’s a few miles north of the Golden Zone…the tourist area of Maz. The old downtown area is a few miles south of the GZ. So this park is way north of old downtown. Usually I stay at the California RV Park right on the south edge of the Golden Zone but I wanted to try this park. Got to the park after a nice drive from PV in fine weather around 2-3pm. It’s a little pricy but it’s in a pretty nice location, very near a popular beach with large restaurant and bar. The park itself borders a strip mall of several newer business. Small tourist shops, a sports bar, store, and a couple of older seafood restaurants. I’ve taken the bus here many times and other years, when I stayed at the Las Jabias RV park 2-3 miles south, I use to ride my bike up there. The beach nearby usually has a bunch of fishing boats on the beach as the fishermen generally go out very early in the morning and fish till around noon.

All settled in…

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A few days later, Stacy comes over to visit around 10am. Around 11ish she gets hungry. There’s a nice restaurant just 2-3 blocks away so we stroll over there for brunch. I’d already eaten breakfast so when the waiter came over, I ordered fruit juice…fresh squeezed. Three times he asked me what I wanted to order and three times I told him nothing but the fruit juice.

Twenty minutes later he shows up with TWO meals. And tries to drop this horrible spaghetti and shrimp dinner plate in front of me. I really don’t care for pasta (really, hate the taste actually) so when he tries to insist that I ordered it, I got pissed. There is no way in hell I’d order something with pasta in it. I also know this is an old trick by restaurant staff to increase the days take from tourists that aren’t fluent in the language. Usually they will meekly accept the food they didn’t order as they assume they made the mistake. Bull. This con has been going on all over the world for centuries. And I knew that.

So I start by telling him, “I told you 3 times I only wanted the fruit juice, so take this back, I’m not paying for it!”. He starts arguing with me, insisting I did order it, which is a big tip off that it was a scam. Anyway, Stacy gets nervous and jumps in and says that she’ll take it for herself. I couldn’t convince her that it was a scam (and I felt that she was frightened that we’d get in trouble somehow) so, eventually, I let it slide. She brought the meal back to my RV and it sat there until it spoiled. Since there was no way in hell I’d eat it, and since she’d paid for it, didn’t bother me much.

After that little unpleasantness, we head to downtown PV and the malecon to wander around.

Art!

Love this stuff.

The PV malecon stretches off into the distance.

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It’s an older RV park here in PV, but with WiFi only in the office I wander over there the next morning to check my email. The gate at what I thought was the office was open so I just walk in and make myself comfortable in the main, open air court. Nice. It was past it’s glory days but you could tell how nice it had been. Big comfy couches, nice coffee tables, big kitchen, etc. The WiFi was a little weak but I came in there twice a day for 3 days before the owner mentioned that I’d been wandering into their living room! I thought it was a common area for RV’ers but no, the owners live there. That explained why their bedrooms were right off the common area. Huh. Sorry! From then on, I used the buzzer and asked to come in for the WiFi instead of just walking in like I owned the place. There were always people in there when I walked in but no one had said anything. Finally, they started locking the gate. That was the tip off. They’re nice people though and didn’t seem to upset about my lack of manners.

All settled into my space.

The RV park, Puerto Vallarta Trailer Park, on Francia, is on the north side of town so it’s in a newer part…but it’s been here for 30 years. Old town is a short bus ride away, the coast the same. With Stacy off checking out her apartment, I had the chance to wander around this area of town and enjoy the flavor and culture by myself. There’s a near by Walmart too. Never went there because I prefer to shop in Mexican stores.

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So, after Stacy and I hung around Mazatlan for a couple weeks, she sweet talked me into taking her back to Puerto Vallarta, so she could grab all her stuff that was still there. She’d paid for the apartment for the month and there were still a couple weeks left on it.

Back on the road…heading to Puerto Vallarta.

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Sunset from Olas Atlas, Mazatlan, Mx.

I visited my friend Stacy at her hotel on Olas Atlas several times. We’d wander around and enjoy ourselves with this and that. She’s an artist so we’d often wander into art galleries to check out the art. Looking doesn’t cost much but there were a couple pieces I’d have loved to have had…if I had a sticks & bricks home instead of a small RV. Nowhere to put anything. This particular evening, there was a sidewalk festival going on with a comedy act, food, music from several areas and plenty to see and do.

Stacy enjoying the music.

We eventually wandered to the heart of old downtown and had an absolutely perfect steak dinner. Incredible. And, before dinner, we ordered some coffee drinks with brandy and the guy poured the burning brandy into our cups from a height above our heads. Very cool. But…the coffee was so strong, couldn’t get to sleep that night until very late. Watched movies until around 3am. Wasn’t till next morning we figured out the reason.

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So, the next morning I went out and about to see how Mazatlan was doing. Take a look at the empty streets. It’s looking like a ghost town. But the city administration isn’t helping because they haven’t made it very attractive for cruise ships to keep coming here. I don’t remember the details but a story I read in the local English newspaper really blasted their hard-assed attempt to wring too much money out of the cruise lines, and they simply stopped coming as often. Really cuts the crowds down. Which is good for me because it was a bitch jostling with the crowds here six years ago. Now, I could browse without getting pushed along with the crowds. And of course there is a lot of tourists that are just deciding to go somewhere that there isn’t a drug gang war.

Nearly empty beach.

Breakfast...for $4US.

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