Saturday April 2, 2011
We left Santa Ana around 8:30 am on Thursday March 31 and hit the highway to the border. It had been a typically noisy night at Edgar and Anna’s but that is what we expected. Eric says it is definitely the noisiest place we have ever stayed! Trucks gearing down coming down the hill out front, barking dogs everywhere and traffic. Ah Mexico! When we arrived Anna was out front but no Edgar. Unusual. Turns out he had fallen and twisted his good leg backing a “woman” in a few days ago and was resting in the house. Back luck since he can hardly walk as it is. We did see him the next morning as Anna had told him Eric had a picture of Blue for him. He was thrilled. As most people know, it was a motorcycle accident (no helmet) that caused Edgar’s injuries.
Edgar and Eric.
Their business has been poor this year as lots of people who used to stop are now convoying with others and travelling longer days entering and leaving Mexico. They had six rigs in the night we were there and four including us were travelling on our own.
Edgar’s old truck.
Parked at Edgar and Anna’s.
No problems on the highway to the border from Santa Ana although the puentes (bridges) are extremely rough and make for a bouncy ride. We pulled into the check point where you turn in you stickers (San Emirito) before lunch and pulled up right in front of the booth. They had blocked off the opposing lane and were forcing all traffic through the check point. The trucks had blocked the south bound lane quite far back and cars were trying to go around them to get to the other lane through the check point. A real schmozzle as the trucks heading north have just come down a long hill and are trying to maintain speed to get up the other side. A recipe for disaster! It is a very poorly designed immigration stop with no thought for channeling traffic safely.
We turned in the stickers for the truck and motorcycle but kept the sticker for the rig as it’s good for ten years. We got a receipt for the stickers turned in but nothing to show that the rig left Mexico. As we need to turn something into ICBC to get a rebate we’re not sure how that is going to work. When we turned in our tourist visas we thought we might get a receipt for that but didn’t. It seems they just do whatever they feel like at the time. Frustrating.
Our stop at US customs was uneventful and they didn’t take anything away from us or check the rig. We declared some beer and a bottle of tequila and nothing else and they didn’t ask. I was unsure what food I could bring in after Sam and Rita had a big inspection at the Nogales crossing so I just ignored it and decided they could take whatever they wanted to. By the time we hit the Hickiwan RV park in Why the temperature was around 34C and we were both feeling a bit sick from the heat. A bit of a shock to the system. It sure would have been nice to have that heat when we were on the beach in Mazatlan wanting to swim.
Friday morning (April 1st) we went into Ajo to do a bit of grocery shopping and picked them up at the IGA right across from the park we stayed at coming south. A nice market with decent prices. When we got back it was really too hot to do much of anything and we stayed inside with the AC running. This is the first time we have had to use AC for any length of time since we bought the rig. We thought we might go for a ride on Blue but it was too hot. 101F.
Saturday the wind really kicked up as a storm from the southwest was moving through so another day doing nothing. It is supposed to get worse tomorrow and hopefully we will be able to move. Wind is the enemy of a big rig. So, a little internet in the wind tunnel where you have to sit to get the signal and then back to the rig for happy hour in the wind. At least it’s warm!
Pretty empty in the Hickiwan RV park.
Happy hour in the shade. The self timer on the new camera works great!
We will leave here tomorrow (Sunday) for the Phoenix area and will likely stay in the Happy Days RV park in Apache Junction. It is a bit smaller than the gigantic ones closer in and we visited it a couple of years ago so we have seen it. We talked to our buddy Ken Klippert who lives in the park where we stayed two years ago and he thought we might be able to stay there again but probably not. They aren’t really set up for weekly visitors unless you stay close to the main road which is way too noisy for us. No problem. It will be good to see Ken again as we didn’t go into Mesa last year and haven’t seen him for two years.
So, it is extremely hot and we are hiding inside with the A.C. running (set at about 76F) with the wind screaming outside. The weather says it’s going to get cold now for a few days and then get hot again. You just can’t win.
The nights have been spent listening to the screams of the burros as they move into the park over night. Sleeping, socializing and crapping on the empty pads. Go home burros!
I tried to get some pictures of the burros but they come when it’s getting dark. Very sneaky! Heehaw!
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