Mileage: 74,359

Campo #5 La Bufadora, Mexico

It was very cold last night.  When we got up, the outside faucet and the hose were frozen!!  Time to go south!

We are really and truly in Mexico.  After weeks and months of preparation and research and planning, we crossed the border at Tecate this morning.  The border crossing was fairly smooth and so much easier than I had imagined! 

We traveled through town.

Route 3 is a fairly good road that winds its way through wine country and across to the west coast of Baja Norte at Ensenada. 

Our guidebook suggested a campground on the beach just 6 miles south of town but when we arrived at the Estero Beach Resort, we were told that they no longer had a campground.  Tim looked through the book and chose a place in La Bufadora.  A camping spot on the mountainside with spectacular views of the beach and water below.  It was 150 pesos or $9.00 for a dry campsite. 

We took the Jeep for a ride on a dirt road.

This is an agave.  As it blooms it begins to die.  The weight of the flowers will eventually pull the plant out of the ground.  The blossoms will become new plants.

We went into town but this afternoon the busses from the cruise ships were parked and the whole vendor area was swarming with tourists.

We spent the afternoon watching the water, reading, and napping.  After 4pm we could see many of the busses leaving.  We headed out again to see the town.  It was nearing 5pm and the restaurants and shops were all closing.  We were able to walk to La Bufadora Blow Hole.  This is the second largest marine geyser in the world.

The sun was setting as we headed out.  There was one last restaurant on the outskirts of town.  We toasted to our new adventure!  We had a good meal with 2 beers, 1 margarita, chicken enchiladas, and fish tacos for 25.70 USD or about 500 pesos.

There was a cat in the restaurant…

What a great day and a great way to begin this new adventure!!!

Mileage: 74,259

Lake Morena County Park Campo, California

We haven’t just been preparing in Yuma…we have also been waiting. My mother has a tumor in her parotid gland. We have been waiting for biopsy results before we traveled even further from home.

We took a walk in the campground while we waited. We heard from her at lunchtime. The second biopsy results are negative. She is still facing a surgery to remove the mass sometime in the near future.

We decided that we would travel to Mexico as planned. We visited R L Jones Insurance company in Yuma and got our Mexican travel insurance. Back at the RV, we applied for and printed our FMM visitor cards. We wanted to travel closer to our border crossing in Tecate. We fueled up the RV and drove into southern California. The drive was initially all farmland. The air smelled like cabbage and broccoli and pesticides and fertilizer.

We passed Ocotillo and the landscape changed dramatically. Windmills and great mountains of crumbled rock comprised our scenery as we climbed to 4,000 feet.

We arrived in Campo in late afternoon. We camped at Lake Moreno County Park. We took a nice walk as the sun fell behind the mountains. We saw a flock of more than 40 wild turkeys. They were skittish when we got too close and so I had lots of pictures of turkeys backsides…these are the best pics.

The park is quite pretty…though the lake is very small.

Tomorrow we begin another grand adventure and we are very excited!! We know that many of you will be worried if you don’t see our blog up every day but we already know that we will NOT always have service…so be patient, and we will post as soon as we can! If we know ahead that we will be out of service…we will try to warn you! We also plan to be in touch with our family every day that we can.

Day 3 Arizona West RV Park Yuma, Arizona

Taxes have been mailed to the accountant, groceries have been procured, and we are nearly ready!!

Tomorrow we will get our FMM tourist visitor cards and our Mexican travel insurance.

We had sushi for dinner…not sure if we can get that south of the border!

Day 2 Arizona West RV Park Yuma, Arizona

Yuma is our staging area. We are spending these couple of days gathering supplies and groceries, making repairs, cleaning and organizing, doing laundry and other chores and collating our tax packet for the accountant, all in preparation for our trip to Mexico.

We did enjoy dinner at Prison Hill Brewing in downtown Yuma.

Mileage: 74,121

Arizona West RV Park Yuma, Arizona

We left Tucson early. It was crisp and cool. We decided to take a break from the interstate and instead we traveled on 86 toward Yuma. It was a great decision. I finally felt relaxed and I also felt like I was back in “real” Arizona.

We spotted a hot air balloon drifting across the sky. What a beautiful morning to be floating high above the earth! A hot air balloon ride is definitely on my bucket list!

Saguaro cacti dotted the landscape as we passed through Saguaro National Park.

A band of coyotes crossed the road.

The landscape is so pretty…I love it here!!

I know these a copper mine tailings but I do think even so that they are lovely…

We stopped in the town of Ajo where we had remembered the Desert Rain Cafe. Unfortunately because it was Sunday, they were closed. We walked around the town square to get some air and move a little and see if we could find another lunch spot. We bought homemade biscuits and sausage gravy from a woman with a small street stand. Not the healthiest choice…but really tasty!!

We arrived in Yuma late in the afternoon. We settled in at our campsite and ate a light dinner. We headed to Harkins Yuma Palms 14, a movie theater. We were eager to see the movie Just Mercy. We have a family member involved in this film who has also been involved with the Equal Justice Initiative for many years. Knowing his story and hearing him speak about EJ has been inspiring, but to watch this film and see the amazing work that Bryan Stevenson has accomplished was very moving and emotional…and Tim does not often use those descriptors for a movie! If you have the opportunity to see this film…go…keep an open mind and an open heart…

Mileage: 73,832

A Bar A Campground Marana, Arizona

We stopped at a small campground near Oro Valley so the we could visit with Lee and Claudia. We had brought crabcakes from home to share for dinner. Lee made a delicious smoked salmon spread as an appetizer. I made a salad and Lee grilled the steaks. Claudia made her mother’s apple cake and I had dipped strawberries in dark chocolate. We chatted and feasted. We are always grateful for a warm welcome when we pass through Tucson. Thanks Lee and Claudia for a wonderful evening!

Mileage: 73,765

Quarter Horse Motel and RV Park Benson, Arizona

Another 40 miles on 20W then 10W still through Texas for another 179 miles. It was cloudy and chillier today. The pictures were neat though because of the clouds.

Soon after we entered New Mexico, I had an opportunity for some driving practice. It was flat and straight and there was very little traffic. It was windy so I had to learn to compensate for that. When the tractor trailers pass they kind of pull the RV but I got accustomed to having them drive by. I drove for almost 2 hours. I hope that it gave Tim a break but I doubt that he can relax much when I am at the wheel!

We tucked into a small campground in Benson, Arizona in late afternoon. Soup and salad for an easy dinner…no fuss…no muss!

Mileage: 73,285

Tra-Park RV Resort Pecos, Texas

I am always sad to leave people that I love, but we are headed west and we have lots of miles to cover. As soon as it was daylight, we were pulling away.

We traveled on 20W all day. We are still in Texas Texas is about 800 miles wide here ans it takes us days to cross. We stopped for the evening at a small RV park not far from the highway. It was warm enough to sit outside a little while. We made scrambled eggs with venison breakfast sausage (from Dana and John) for our dinner. The sausage was lean and delicious! After dinner, we took a walk as the sun set.

Mileage: 72,910

We arrived at my brother’s house in Fort Worth before lunchtime. John was working and Dana was volunteering so we spent several hours getting groceries, cleaning the RV, and accomplishing other tasks. When Dana arrived in the afternoon we had a great visit while we prepared dinner and then took the dog for a walk. When John got home, Dana grilled fresh tuna and asparagus. We had it with papaya and a delicious quinoa salad. Of course, there was wine! My brother and Dana are such gracious hosts and we enjoyed our visit.

Their driveway is the perfect spot to park the RV.

This…

Mileage: 72,758

Tyler State Park Tyler, Texas

We continued on 20W, traversing the rest of Mississippi, across the Mississippi River, into Louisiana, and then to Texas. As we grew tired, we looked for a place to camp. Tim spotted Tyler State Park not far from the interstate. We exited and found ourselves in front of Bodacious BBQ. We actually got BBQ here last August on our way through and we stayed at Tyler Sate Park! We remembered then that the BBQ was very good. We stopped and got some pulled pork and pinto beans. We settled into the campground and enjoyed a delicious meal by a campfire. It felt really nice to be in the woods and really camping.