Desert Diamond Casino, AZ to Playa de Cortez, Guaymas MX

We were up early today at 6:30 am as we have a long day ahead of us.  Over 300 miles on roads filled with lots of construction in Mexico. 

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Eric went out to check our tires and discovered one that looked suspicious.  It was domed on the top and tread that seemed to be pulling apart.  Anyone who reads my blog knows that we have an ongoing problem with tires and it’s not over yet and probably never will be.  Eric jacked up the rig and put the new spare on. 

The ramp south at Desert Diamond is under construction so we had to go south on the old Nogales highway to another on ramp.  Frank and Sandi have already come south and had alerted us to this little glitch.

Heading through Sahuarita and it’s wide paved streets and boulevards full of beautiful trees.  Possibly nut trees as they didn’t look like citrus leaves.

We stopped for fuel just before we crossed the border and headed onward.  There was quite a bit of traffic but most of it was gone by the time we reached the border.  We have only gone south through Nogales once and that was last year following Frank and Sandi.  When we got to the American side of the border it was a problem.  The RV and truck lane was not open and was blocked by cones.  I should have gotten out and removed them.  We went through the car lane and Eric had to back up in the middle because the turn was too tight and he had to realign. 

On the Mexican side no one was around and we weren’t stopped at all.  Wierd!  The only stop on the Mexican side was to pay a toll. 

When we passed the area were we got our tourist visas and import papers last year there were lots of rigs stopped there.  A lot busier than last year when we went south, again on a Sunday.

In to Mexico and there is dust up ahead.

They are sweeping the new concrete and we are driving on the northbound lane.

One of the few areas between Nogales and Santa Ana where we had two lanes to ourselves.

Most of the way we had a single lane south and it was on old pavement.

It will be great if and when it is ever completed.  The road gets better but the drive is harder for Eric.  The constant switching from one side to another slowed us down and Eric had to keep his eyes glued to the road.  Narrow lanes and no shoulders with huge drop offs.

Hmmm!   I wonder what happened here.  They are jackhammering up a long stretch of brand new concrete.  Eric said he didn’t see any rebar in it….perhaps someone forgot to put it in.  If so, he probably isn’t working on the project anymore.

So….Nogales to Santa Ana.  Well, Lukeville to Santa Ana couldn’t have been much worse. 

South of Santa Ana and the road isn’t too bad here.  For many miles the slow lane had been beat and we’d driven in the fast lane. 

We stopped for fuel and lunch at km 69 and discovered that the price for diesel is now over 17 pesos a litre.  Yikes!  In our money that’s about $1.20 a litre.  Not cheap, especially when we are always shorted a few litres.  Today 7 litres short according to our truck computer.   At the Pilot in Nogales, AZ  it was exactly right.

So how was Hermosillo.  Well, about the same as usual with lots of lousy pavement.

South of Hermosillo and more construction.

The good news was that as we switched from side to side and had a single lane it was concrete.  This means that you can actually get some speed up and that the lane is wide enough.

Construction continued all the way to the turn off to San Carlos.  We stayed left and headed into Guaymas and the Playa de Cortez. 

We arrived around 2:30 pm and were quickly set up.  There was one other rig parked and one that is stored.  Back in 2011 I did a post about the Playa de Cortez hotel and at that time there was a row of beautiful trees down the center.

This is the last sad tree in the row and it won’t last much longer.

There is healthy growth at the bottom and it appears to be a ficus of some sort.  Perhaps they have a life span?  At home these are grown as indoor plants and if I remember they spent all their time dropping leaves. 

So here is lonely us.  Well….we actually like being lonely so it’s okay. 

Today is Tuesday and we think we will head out tomorrow.  Yesterday we went into Guaymas and had the separating domed tire removed and another one we were carrying put on.  When we blew a tire in Oregon on the way down we replaced two tires with new Sailun tires and one was still okay.  We’ll run the spare and keep this one for a spare.  If we make it home next spring without any more blow outs we’ll replace the other four 10 ply tires with Sailun 14 ply tires which have steel in the side walls.   Will it help….who knows.  We do know people who have had 14 ply tires blow as well.

We also reactivated our little Iphone 4s by changing it’s SIM card to the TelCel one.  Our number is still good and we even have 600mb of data.  Our AT&T phone from our daughter and son-in-law in Pittsburgh is working as well and has unlimited data.  How great is that.  The wifi here is also working and we are getting NetFlix on the smart TV in the trailer and my new tablet.  Usually we can’t even hook up to it.

Today we’ll run into San Carlos and try to find Eric some Pacifico Clara in cans.  The beer store guy said he can only get it in bottles.  At least the cans are recycled.  Eric had to drink my Pacifico lite last nite and he wasn’t happy.  Said it tasted like water.  I drink it very cold.