Over the border an on to Navojoa.

 

Too tired for a blog last night but we arrived in Navojoa around 4pm.  Met up with Larry and Christine from Las Jaibas by fluke getting our paperwork at km21. They decided to follow along with us.  Today the lousy highways of Sinaloa and then Mazatlan.  Another 560km to go!  Blog later.

Mesa to Nogales,AZ

 

We had a really nice time with Frank and Sandi and we sure hope to see them in Mazatlan in January.  We've been good friends since November 2009 when we met in a Pemex Fuel stop in Los Mochis, Sinaloa.

We didn't leave until 10am as today was a short day.

We're getting tired and another new route today didn't help.  As we all know Google maps isn't fool proof!😁  Nothing catastrophic though.

We stopped in Green Valley and I bought sandwiches for the next two days.

No big amount of pictures today.  We arrived at the Hotel Americana in Nogales,AZ around 3pm after a short 200 mile drive.

We like it here...nice big room and a great free breakfast.  Tomorrow Navojoa, Sonora.  First stop will be KM 21 where we'll get our tourist visas and import the vehicles.  Wish us luck😉

A couple of quiet days in Mesa with Frank and Sandi.

 

We've spent a few days visiting and catching up with our good friends.  Frank and Sando have bought a winter vacation home in a complex in Mesa.  Single homes and attached homes with three golf courses and a large club house.

Front of the house.

The colors and furniture are lovely.

Kitchen...note the case of Pacifico beer!

Eric in relax mode.  The house came completely equipped with all furnishing, linens, kitchen dishes etc. so it was an easy move in.

Happy hour.

Last night Kimberly, Frank and Sandi's daughter came for dinner.  She's lived, worked and raised her family in Phoenix over the last 30 years. She and her sister Michelle both grew up in Panora, Iowa, Frank and Sandi's home town.  A really nice woman.  We had a tasty home made spaghetti dinner.  Nice evening.😊

Looking out to the golf course.  Very quiet here but lots and lots of rules..we're not sure how Sandi will make out😁

Today Frank and I were off on a reasonably challenging hike.

We left about 8:45 and it took about 20 minutes to get to the trail head.  The hike is noted as easy but I guess that depends who you are!  We didn't see any other old people😉

Up ahead the Superstition Mountains.

The trail head.

The climb is gentle but the footing is rough. We climbed about 500 feet in elevations.

Lovely views.

Nice and smooth here.

 

Really rough here and getting hot.

Right here getting close to the last 3/10ths of a mile it was all rock and they called this part challenging. I was tired and decided the footing was too rough.  I have osteo and I really don't want to fall.  It would have been nice to see the petroglyphs but...maybe another time.  We headed down to the car to head home.  Sweaty and tired but we had a good time.

Tomorrow is Tuesday and we're off to Nogales and the Hotel Americana.  Wednesday over the border and on to Navojoa for the night.

Yuma to Frank and Sandi's in Mesa

Thursday and Friday in Yuma we got a truck oil change, did a bit of shopping and relaxed.  The motel was really quiet, much more than usual.  Easy stay with two restaurants close by and a good complimentary breakfast.  Also a very reasonable price for three days.

Friday night was another curry dinner and then off to bed.  

We didn't need an early start yesterday with only 205 miles to go.

Leaving Yuma.  

Heading east.

Out in the middle of no where and fields of hay.

Starting to head up and...

....the Saguaro start to appear.

This was our route yesterday and the first part of it was pretty easy until we hit I 10 north.  Six lanes of traffic..maybe more..huge traffic and everyone bobbing back and forth.

We were going to get of at exit 154 to I 60 east but when we got close there were about three exit lanes to different areas and we missed it!  Now we were heading to the airport 😁 Eric said ...I need some help here!  Google said turn left on University at the light, left again and we were back on I 10 going south.  Got the right exit this time and we arrived at Frank and Sandi's just after 1pm.  We hadn't eaten lunch as there was no where to stop.  We unpacked, ate and Frank led Eric to the storage lot as you can't park a vehicle on the street in this complex!  Their motorhome aka "The Palace" is in the shop so their spot was open.

A few beer, a lot of chat and dinner out before bed.  Their new house is very, very nice and I'll post pictures tomorrow.

We'll stay Monday as well and head to Nogales, AZ on Tuesday for the night. Wednesday in Navojoa and Mazatlan on Thursday.  It's been a long haul but so nice to see friends.

Ridgecrest CA to Yuma AZ

 We were up extra early yesterday as we had to go back to standard time in Arizona and we lost an hour.  It's 11:45 here and 12::45 at home.  Arizona doesn't change and neither does Mexico so we're good to go.  We stayed at the Day's Inn.

Pretty quiet at this time in the morning.  

Not pretty country here in this part of California.  

Just a whole lot of creosote bush.  

The observatory.  We see them all over the United States as we ttravel.Maybe they're  looking for aliens..😁

On the connector before we hit I 40.

A few mountains in the distance to break up the monotonous drive.  Huge amount of truck traffic.

We head east to I 40.

In Needles Ca we had to top up the tank to make it Parker Az.  Almost $7 dollars a gallon for crappy highways. 

South on 95 to Vidal Junction.  The Christmas ribbon candy highway.  Some of the dips are so deep the cars disappear!

Straight as an arrow. 

Vidal Junction. Coming from Arizona you get stopped in an agricultural inspection. We ate lunch and headed east to Parker. 

The road sign to everywhere. 

The bridge over the Colorado River coming into Parker.

In Arizona $3.68.  We did pay almost $5.00 a gallon in Washington.

Between Parker and Quartzite we had an interesting experience.  A police car was coming down the middle of the road with it's siren on, lights flashing and weaving back and forth so we moved over a bit.  Right behind it another police type vehicle doing the same thing.  What the hell!  We thought there was a huge accident with bodies all over the road but no.....a huge over sized piece of machinery on a truck.  What a fiasco.  All they had to do was have a pilot car out front saying " over sized load" and maybe a vehicle with flashing lights before it and everyone would know what was happening.  Hugely unsafe. 

Quartzite...the boondocking area.  We stayed for 10 days back in March of 2009 and once was enough for us.

See all those RV's out there.  Also a lot of really poor people in all sorts of rigs and even cars camp here. 

South to Yuma and the desert is green.  Even the ocotillo bushes are green but not flowering yet. 

Coming into Yuma and the cotton is being baled. So much agriculture here.  Vegetables, hay and even cotton. You can see the big piles that look like cement but they are actually cotton. 

Lots of bales. 

Hay crop. 

I think that's Kale.   Not on our list of vegetables!

Palm trees that look like truffula trees....from the "Lorax."

Beautiful soil and the rows are set with a laser so they are perfectly straight.

We rolled into the Ramada in Yuma around 3:30 and we were both pretty much done.  Three long days and now a couple of days rest before we head to Frank and Sandi's in Mesa for a visit.

Too tired to go to the restaurant that is in house so I ordered mango chicken curry with rice and naan and we split it for dinner.  Plenty for two and delicious.