Ajo, Santa Ana, and now San Carlos, Mexico

Nov. 25, 2010
Another family birthday, this day in 1997 our oldest grandchild Holly Lynn Watson was born.  She is “13” and now officially a teenager!  A sweet, funny, theatrical, smart, pretty (need I say more) girl.  Happy birthday Holly!  Hugs and kisses from Gramma and Poppa. 

That’s Holly on the right at the Smither’s fall fair in August.  Her sister Abby is on the left and friend Jill is in the middle.  They are showing you their suction cap tongue piercings!
On to the trip.
We left Ajo on Tuesday morning after waiting out the wind.  We arrived at the check point (17 miles south of the border) where you get your tourist visa and vehicle import papers at about 9:30 as we only had to go 200 miles that day.  The highway to that point is new except for about 5 miles still under construction.    New, but still no shoulder!  Imagine our surprise when there was about 6 couples ahead of us in line.  Usually quiet.  There were four Canadian rigs and a couple of Mexican families heading south.  One really nice Mexican who lives in Seattle (too cold in the winter!)  We waited until almost 11 when it was almost our turn and guess what……they ran out of tourist visa forms!  It is now even slower as they have new tourist visa forms and they fill them out, so it takes twice as long.  Not an improvement .  Unbelievable, even the Mexican from Seattle who was ahead of us was shocked.  So…..they had to drive to the border for more forms.  In the end we didn’t get out of there until 1pm.  After us three more couples showed up to get paperwork done, a busy day.  So off we went.    The highway to Caborca is new but the pavement is like a roller coaster and the bridges are hell!  We fueled up at Caborca, had a quick snack and hit the road.  The semi-new pavement from Caborca to Santa Ana is now beat and on top of that they charge you a toll to drive on it. 
We arrived in Santa Ana at Edgar & Ana’s Punta Vista Park at about 4pm and he had the four Canadian rigs and two others parked.  We got the pull through as they had told him we were a motor home and we were still coming.  We had our usual nice visit with Edgar and Anna and were sorry to hear that group was the first large bunch that had come this season.  They are down 80 rigs or so to this point.  Too sad.
We left Santa Ana about 9:30 and headed to San Carlos.  We had no trouble through Hermisillo which is a bit confusing at a couple of points and the traffic was light.  We stopped for lunch at the Pemex where the road heads to Bahia Kino and there was the usual half starved dogs begging.  It makes me nauseous just looking at them.   The only solution for that is spay and neuter but that will never happen.  The Mexican men would never neuter a male and the female cost too much to spay, so there it is. 
We arrived at the Totonaka park around 2pm and parked at the back.  It took a few tries as the set up here is wonky.  You have to get the rig between the sewer (in the middle of the site) and the two foot high pad.  Most rigs couldn’t get their stairs down as they would be too low.  The power at this site is only 15 amps and the water was leaking at the tap.  Joe is a really nice park owner but he should have his crew clipping a little less grass and doing more repairs!   After setting up Eric had to change our water hose to a yellow rubber one that we carry as the RV water hoses are crap.  Always leaking no matter how many washers you use.  Drives Eric nuts!  After that we couldn’t get any water out of the cold water tap at the sink.  Now what!  Eric was ready for beer, not repairs!  He pulled it apart and we had a geyser even with the outside water turned off.  The tap sprung apart and we then saw the white had sediment stuck in it.  Looks like flakes of tooth enamel.  This in spite of the fact we have screens and a water filter.  After we located all the parts and Eric put it back together we were back in business.  Hopefully that doesn’t happen in the bathroom as Eric has been unable to get the handles off those taps. 
Eric had a nice chat with the guy next door who lives in Midway, B.C. (close to Osoyoos) and they discussed all the crappy construction of RV’s in general, no matter what you pay.  He and his wife are here for a month but usually head farther south.  They had transmission problems with the rig, vehicle problems and also a couple of injuries during last winter and had decided to stay home.  And yet, here they are.  We told them they should come to Las Jaibas where he can swim with his dog.  Maybe they will. 
The bridge coming into San Carlos  is repaired and the stairs to the beach have been completed so that is a good thing.  Eric headed out to the Marina on his bicycle and when he returned said things are being built and painted here so the tourists must still be coming here. 
Eric spoke to the Canadians who were going to leave tomorrow and they have changed their minds so we will head out on our own.  We will stay at the Copper Canyon RV park if we can find it.  We have looked it up on Google Earth and also Streets & Trips so we will give it a try.  We’d rather stay at the Pemex south of Los Mochis but, not by ourselves. 
We are ready to get to Mazatlan and settle down into some kind of routine.  We are also happy to be back in Mexico and it looks just as we left it warm, friendly and without any issues ....so far!  We left home at the end of October and really don’t enjoy the travelling as much as the stopping!  Onward!
P.S.
Happy Gobble, Gobble day to all our American friends and our daughter Krista and husband Jeff and family who live in Pittsburgh, P.A.