Last night in Brownsville

Earlier today, with the aid of google earth and street view, we decided on which of the two mediocre Pemex choices we have for overnighting tomorrow by Cuidad Victoria.  The second night Pemex is a secure, logical stop.  We will lose a rig the following day, as they split off to Aguascalietes, to visit with friends.  I had not been able to contact the third night stop at Parque Acuático Kikapu in Lagos de Moreno; despite trying eight different number combinations, I could not reach them by telephone.
I am not a dullard, this is the flow chart of which number combination to use when using a telephone in Mexico: (you can click on photos to see a larger version)

Luckily, a facebook message to our concierge at La Peñita resulted in he reaching them, and confirming that they had room for us Friday night.  The following night should see us in Roca Azul, in Jocotepec, Jalisco.  While we are in good wifi, I used street view to have a good look at puzzling intersections along the route.  We are spoiled in Canada, in that when two major roads intersect, you can, of course, turn left or right from any direction.  On Mexican roads, especially toll roads, quite often your choice is limited in that you can only turn one direction, and you may have to continue in that direction for 20 or more kilometres before you can hit a retorno and finally reverse to the direction originally desired.  Or, you may not be able to get there from here.

We had a caravan meeting tonight with the three couples accompanying us down the road into Mexico.  Among topics discussed and agreed on were route, travel speeds (95 Km), radio standards (LP1,2,3 &4) start times (8:30), pee breaks (as needed), lunch stops (maybe), gas stops (one rig has a shorter range than the rest), making sure the guy behind you sees which way you go at a corner, and all the other minutiae that either makes for a good caravan, or has you grinding your teeth and muttering all day long.  Three of the four couples have significant Mexican caravan experience, and the fourth has driven extensively in Mexico, albeit without an RV, so hopefully it will be a relatively drama free journey.  We are travelling relatively short days, which is a good thing as we find it difficult to average more than about 70 Km./hr even when travelling on cuota's (toll roads).

We're gassed up (sweet, cheap american gas - $2.15/gal.), hooked up (faithful CRV), fresh water full, grey and black tanks empty, and off we go for the 20 minute drive to the border, come morning.

October 28 & 29 - Joining up with friends

 Today our friends arrived after having already put on 4000 km of U.S. touring.  We were very glad to see them and will travel together into Mexico in a few days.

Yesterday was another day of leisure so Kirk and I took more photos.

Flowering Aloe Vera plants

October 27

Another day of down time.  Although I did wash the CRV and Kirk and I put on some kilometres checking out the neighbourhood flora.

In mid afternoon, we had a weather front move through and the wind was intense.

Brownsville - Day 4

We had yet another enterpreneurial Latino knock at our door this morning, offering his RV wash & wax service; our filthy little CRV draws them for miles.  In partial response, Nancy cleaned the Brave’s windshield and lower front.   

Our task today was to find a pair of folding chairs; our faithful, once blue folders had seen better days.  Checked out Walmart online.  Wow! Plenty to choose from.  Off we went to the local Los Fresnos Walmart.  Hmm, it was more like a Mexican Aurora Bodega, not much of anything there.  OK, off we go 20 minutes down the road to a larger Walmart.  Bagged folders only.  It seems even Walmart is quickly moving to an online world, after all, you can order it into the store in a jiffy.  Off to a huge sports store, surely they’ll have a wide selection.  Uh, nope.  The few they did have were shoddily built, and flexed noticeably when you sat down.  We left disappointed.  A morning wasted in the city (we started late), quest unfulfilled.  

Ah well, a snooze, a beverage, and a swim in the pool under the palms averaged things out.

Port Isabel/South Padre Island

We hopped in the CRV this morning, and went for a cruise over to Port Isabel and South Padre Island

It's a long, long causeway between Port Isabel on the mainland and South Padre Island

We went to the South Padre Island Birding and Nature Center so Nancy could check out the birds.

Gator

Long-billed Curlew

Black-Bellied Tree Ducks

On our return to Port Isabel, we stopped for lunch at Joe's Oyster Bar our favourite seafood stop.  I had great grilled fish and shrimp, fries and coleslaw, for not much more than lunch at Whattaburger!

Brownsville - Day 2

I'm pleased to say we drove the Brave no miles today.  We did have Tejas Truck and Trailer Repair out to our site to have a closer look at the rear brakes and bearings.  Our mechanic was uni-lingual Spanish, so between our not used in six months proto-Spanish, Google translate, and his boss Art on the telephone, we worked our way through things.  He pronounced us good to go.
On the other hand, we've found that the police training school at Hotel Hacienda Escondida in Cuidad Victoria has expanded to the point that they no longer have room for we campers.  This, thanks to a phone call on our behalf by our La Peñita español maestro, Ivan, after I got wind of the difficulties on iOverlander.com.  Short of adopting a new route route south via a Laredo border crossing, this likely means an extra overnight at a Pemex rest area.  Bummer.  On the other hand, we anticipate stopping at a new to us RV Park at Lagos de Moreno, Parque Acuático de Kikapu, so it all evens out.
So it's pretty much been a recovery day, although Nancy did make a resupply run to Walmart.  My "useful" activities were limited to a swim and snooze in the sun.  We got the three day Passport America discount here at Palmdale RV, so until Thursday, we're paying $21.50/night.  Nice pool (90F/32C!), passable wifi.
 The A&E RV Wash and Wax (Al and Ed) guy was by; the ever entrepreneurial Latinos trolling the RV Parks for filthy, newly migrated northern rigs.  $125 for a hand wash and wax for the RV and towd.  The poor CRV is muy sucia after the long drag south.  It's a deal, except we still have 1200 Km to go, and Martin will do it in La Peñita much cheaper.

Brownsville, TX

We drove through some areas where buildings and trees were damaged by the hurricane.  

Damaged Shell station

Then on into the flats and palms outside Brownsville.  

Happy Cam in the pool.

Most of the snowbirds have not yet returned to this park so we got a good spot right by the pool which remained empty most of the day.

334 Km.

Victoria, TX

A lovely and uneventful drive from Alvarado to Victoria Texas.  We are staying in a nice little park called Southbound RV park.  We drove hilly country and are now in the flatter plains.  There were lots of Oak trees along the way.  Trying to identify them is challenging.  In the fall, most oak trees, such as the red oak, pin oak, scarlet oak, Shumard oak and post oak change colors to red or yellow. However, some forms of oaks, such as the live oak tree, do not. Texas also has white oak, gobbler sawtooth oak, overcup oak, Chinkapin oak, bur oak, water oak, etc.  In fact there are somewhere around 50 varieties of oak in Texas.  Ok so I give up.  In Manitoba we have Bur Oak.  There are 13 species in Canada.  

434 Km.

Alvarado, Texas

It was a long day driving the freeway through both Oklahoma City and Fort Worth.  Fort Worth is still under construction although we went through at an optimum time and the delays were minimal.  Cam drives along with ease while I have an adrenalin rush.  Going through heavy traffic at high speeds through the construction slalom is not on my A list.  We got to our evening stop - Alvarado Texas and discovered our right back wheel hub was a little hot and smelly.  No noise though.  After checking into our camp spot we called Good Sam and were directed to Alvarado Truck Services.  We drove down there and they were incredibly helpful even though it was obvious they were beyond busy.  They looked it over and told us they don't usually fix disc brakes but they agreed to check it out as much as they could without pulling it all apart.  They tested what they could and said the brakes seemed to be fine and it didn't seem that hot (although we had been sitting for sometime already).  He said he could pull it apart if we wanted but if he needed parts we would be stuck until Monday with our RV in the shop.  After much discussion we decided we would continue on and keep an eye on it.  If it happens again we will have to get it looked at again.  He didn't charge us anything.  Since we had taken up a half hour of his time and that of one of his staff we did insist on giving him something.  They had 2 huge Rottweiler dogs wandering around (Hound of the Baskervilles stand-ins) but they were friendly enough.  Kirk stayed in the RV.

452 Km.

Perry, Oklahoma

Today, we finished off Nebraska, crossed Kansas, and are into Oklahoma.  It's interesting to drive south at this time of year and watch the calendar unwind.  Nebraska looked like the middle of September back home, whereas southern Kansas/Oklahoma look more like late August, with the long grasses cured, but the tree leaves are all still green.  Short grasses are green as the middle of summer.

Travelling south yesterday in Nebraska, we saw our first opossum road kill.  Today in southern Kansas, we saw our first oil pump and armadillo road kill, a sure sign of the south.   Southern headwinds again today, making three out of four days travel with a headwind; a small price to pay for the warm weather that has accompanied us.

Camped for the night in Perry Lake RV Park, Perry, OK

451 Km.

Hebron, Nebraska

We were exhausted after all of our wallet-thinning activities yesterday (I have a condition inherited from my frugal father; spending money takes a lot out of you...), so we were up and on the road this morning at the crack of nine.  Clear day, 23C, little wind, all in all, a perfect day for travelling.  

We crossed the Platte River west of Columbus, Nebraska

It was moving day for a set of three wind generator blades, quite huge, moving down the road at just over the legal limit.

We stopped at the nice little town park in Stromsburg, where we have stayed before, for a late lunch, but  decided to move another hour down the road before we spudded in for the night, in Hebron, Nebraska.  After all the excitement yesterday, we enjoyed a nice, uneventful day on the road.

The Asian beetle infestation is not limited to Manitoba.  At every stop along the way so far, including tonight in Hebron, Nancy has waged a continual battle against the swarming hordes of Asian beetles invading the Brave.  On the bright side, it's so warm that I had to change into shorts tonight.

474 Km

Sioux Falls, South Dakota

Well, that was interesting.  

Nancy had a great night in the casino, coming home with $322 more than she went in with!  That was the end of the good news.  

First thing in the morning, I went to the CRV to run it up to pressurize the transmission for the day's tow.  That's when we discovered that two of the three sets of keys remained back in Manitoba.  Somehow.  Since one set of keys has to remain in the ignition during towing, and it likes to spontaneously lock itself, this had potential for problems.  Then I started the Brave, only to hear a bad rattle (is there ever a good rattle?) from the front of the engine.  Despite opening the hood and peering at the rads intensely, the rattle persisted.  Hmmm.  Good Sam recommended Boyer Trucks, in Sioux Falls, so down the road we went.  After a couple of hours of tense watching-the-gauges-every-30-seconds driving we arrived at Boyer.  They soon put the rig in their bay and checked it out, only to find the A/C compressor bearing was calved to the point of falling right out. Well, at least that explained all the problems with the dash controls yesterday. They spent an hour searching for the right compressor (discontinued by Ford, of course), brought one in, in the early afternoon, nope, wrong one.  Order another one in, more money, but at least it's the right one.   While we were waiting, we headed over to the Honda dealer, and had a couple of CRV door keys cut, at $10 a piece.  Full-on ignition keys were quoted at $183 each, and it would take a hour and one half of the CRV in the shop time, so we made do with the door keys.  Back to Boyer, hoping they would be able to finish it tonight (they gave no guarantees), checking out pet-friendly hotels, just in case.  They installed the correct compressor, it worked, but the old compressor had taken out a relay or two when it died, so the mechanic set about tracing those.  Success!!  We thanked them, happily paid our bill, and headed  over to good old Jellystone Park in Brandon, SD, where we have camped previously.

 On the bright side, it's been an absolutely gorgeous day for sitting about waiting for repairs...

280 Km.

October 16th - On the road again

Got away at 8:30 am, feeling guilt-ridden at abandoning our old cat to winter (and a terrible look she had on her face; she knew we were leaving)  Good thing our house-sitting Niece takes such good care of her.  We tried taking Old Cat on the road once, to see if she was up to the trip south.  Nope.  Just north of Winnipeg, coincidentally, my Uncle pulled up along-side, snapping photos.  Should he forward one to our email, we will include a rare, external-while-underway shot.

The US border crossing took 8 minutes, including a boarding and cursory inspection for green onions, lamb in the dog food, and house plants, by a nice young officer.  It has been a lovely warm, sunny day for travelling, albeit with a 40 mile per hour south wind (bad for mileage) backing into a 90 degree cross west wind (bad for mileage and a handful to stampede the RV down the road).  The dash heating control (select defrost/dash/footwell/AC/Max AC) seems to be mis-functioning, hopefully just a vacuum leak, since the dash AC will be necessary once further south.  We will get it looked at once we are at a larger city down south.

El Valiente is also infested with Asian beetles, the evil twin of the nice little lady bug.  We spent the drive picking, swatting, getting bitten by the foul-smelling vermin, and otherwise doing combat the whole day south.  Dakota Magic Casino is under renovation, so we just parked up in the car parking lot.

517 Km.

October 13th - That was quick

Well, the geese are migrating, so it's nearly time to hit the road again.  The summer went by in a flash.  We did a couple of short trips with the Brave, including one to Hecla Grindstone Provincial Park.

The campground was great, private sites, good facilities, and well maintained.

Nancy and Kirk hiked around quite a bit, including the village of Hecla.  I spent some time trying to figure out where Great Auntie Malvina's house used to be, having memories of an early childhood visit.  Her husband captained a freighter on the lake, and her son captained many vessels, including the former island ferry (now there's a bridge) and one of the riverboats out of Winnipeg.  It's a beautiful place, reminding me of the south shore of Nova Scotia.

Kirk, thrilled with being posed up on the old wooden boat

Nancy did some fishing off the wharf one calm morning.

While I read and Kirk harassed a squirrel.

I was amazed to find a rare home-built Bolger AS-39 on the hard at the harbour.  While unconventional in appearance, it is capable of ocean crossings.  My father, brother, and I have built several of Bolger's smaller craft, so it was an interesting find.

Nancy talked to several American's who were smitten with the island, and couldn't believe that such a beautiful place was not packed with people.  

Next trip was to Bird's Hill Provincial Park, for a family camp.

Bird's Hill is only 20 minutes from Winnipeg, but manages to provide a great camping experience, with many trails, a beach, and private sites.  This site was a little tight for the Brave, which required much cryptic hand waving and backing directions from Nancy, which were all the more urgent due to the sudden downpour. 

 

Everyone had a good time hiking about and swimming

It was excellent having early risers in the group, meaning that when we got up, the fire was burning, the coffee was built, and the cinnamon buns were on the fire.  Thanks, you two!  Around the campfire, world problems were solved, future plans discussed, and many s'mores consumed.  A new variant was invented, Cinni-s'mores, which involved replacing the graham wafers with a strip of unrolled cinnamon bun.  Unlikely, but delicious!  It's not often we get the clan together these days, so it was wonderful to spend some time together.